Rapid eye-fixation training without eyetracking

Maintenance of stable central eye fixation is crucial for a variety of behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging experiments. Naive observers in these experiments are not typically accustomed to fixating, either requiring the use of cumbersome and costly eyetracking or producing confounds in results. We devised a flicker display that produced an easily detectable visual phenomenon whenever the eyes moved. A few minutes of training using this display dramatically improved the accuracy of eye fixation while observers performed a demanding spatial attention cuing task. The same amount of training using control displays did not produce significant fixation improvements, and some observers consistently made eye movements to the peripheral attention cue, contaminating the cuing effect. Our results indicate that (1) eye fixation can be rapidly improved in naive observers by providing real-time feedback about eye movements, and (2) our simple flicker technique provides an easy and effective method for providing this feedback. S. Suzuki, satoru@northwestern.edu     

The differential outcomes effect (DOE) in spatial localization: An investigation with adults

We investigated whether search accuracy of adult humans could be enhanced using differential reward contingencies in landmark-based spatial tasks conducted on a computer screen. We found that search accuracy was significantly enhanced by differential outcomes in a conditional spatial search task, in which the landmark-to-goal relationship depended on a previously presented sample object (Experiment 4). In contrast, no significant differential outcomes effect (DOE) was seen in several other variations of spatial search tasks. We interpret the pattern of significant and non-significant results in terms of the information value of outcome expectancies. To our knowledge this is the first report of a DOE in a landmark-based spatial localization task and is one of only a few demonstrations that differential outcomes can enhance memory performance in normal functioning adults.     

Source monitoring and suggestibility to misinformation: adult age‐related differences

We compared young and older adults' source monitoring performance on an explicit source identification test using the misinformation paradigm. Several age‐related differences in source memory were demonstrated: (a) older adults were more likely than were young adults to say that they saw information that was actually only suggested to them; (b) older adults were more confident in their false memories than were young adults; (c) older adults were less confident in their accurate memory for the source of information than were young adults. Together, the data suggest that older adults either lacked or failed to use helpful diagnostic source information (e.g. perceptual details or temporal information), and that their confidence in their false memories reflected an over‐weighting of semantic information. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Treating family relational trauma: a recursive process using a decision dialogue

This article describes a therapeutic process that combines individual and family sessions to maximize therapeutic opportunities to bring forward, understand, validate, and empower children's experience as equal participants in family therapy. The aim is to strengthen relational bonds within the family. Drawing from earlier work with families where incest had occurred, the authors present a recursive process that utilizes a "decision dialogue" to link individual and family sessions. Clinical examples are provided.     

Introduction to the special section on integrative approaches to source memory

Source memory involves recognizing or recalling particular features that cause us to think of a mental experience as representing a particular past event. Research directed at understanding source memory comes from many domains, including cognitive-behavioral psychology, neuroscience, lifespan psychology, clinical psychology, and psychiatry. The authors believe that integrating multiple approaches to investigating source memory--most notably here, cognitive-behavioral and cognitive neuroscience--provides productive cross-fertilization of theory, methods, and analyses that in turn will yield unique constraints to our understanding of human memory. The investigations in this special section demonstrate the promise of such an integrative approach for advancing theories of source memory.     

Effects of Group Training in Problem‐Solving Style on Future Problem‐Solving Performance

Seventy‐five participants from one suburban high school formed 21 teams with 3–4 members each for the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI). Students were selected to participate in either the regular FPSPI or an enhanced FPSPI, where multiple group training activities grounded in problem‐solving style were incorporated into a 9‐week treatment period. An ANCOVA procedure was used to examine the difference in team responses to a creative problem‐solving scenario for members of each group, after accounting for initial differences in creative problem‐solving performance, years of experience in FPSPI, and creative thinking related to fluency, flexibility, and originality. The ANCOVA resulted in a significant difference in problem‐solving performance in favor of students in the treatment group (F(1, 57) = 8.21, p = .006, partial eta squared = .126, medium), while there were no significant differences in years of experience or creativity scores. This result led researchers to conclude that students in both groups had equivalent creative ability and that participation in the group activities emphasizing problem‐solving style significantly contributed to creative performance.     

Suboptimal choice and initial‐link requirement

Pigeons (n = 14) were trained in a concurrent‐chains suboptimal choice procedure that tested the effect of an increased ratio requirement in the initial links. Fixed‐ratio 1 and 25 conditions were manipulated within subjects in a counterbalanced order. In all conditions, distinct terminal‐link stimuli on a suboptimal alternative signaled either primary reinforcement (20% of the time) or extinction (80% of the time). On an optimal alternative, two distinct terminal‐link stimuli each signaled a 50% chance of primary reinforcement. Preference for the suboptimal alternative was significantly attenuated, and in some birds completely reversed, by the larger response requirement irrespective of condition order. This larger response requirement also generated a notable increase in between‐subject variability. A measure of cumulative choice responding is introduced to mitigate the problems associated with traditional session averages. Ordinal predictions of some current theories of suboptimal choice are also considered in light of the results.     

Coordinating between Graphs and Science Concepts: Density and Buoyancy

Graphs illustrating complex scientific relationships require students to integrate multiple concepts and visual features into a coherent understanding. We investigate ways to support students in integrating their understanding of density concepts through a graph that is linked to a simulation depicting the relationship between mass, volume, and density. We randomly assigned 325 8^th-grade students to 1 of 2 graphing activities. In the analyze condition, students plotted a set of data points selected to help clarify the relationship between mass, volume, and buoyancy, and then interacted with a guided simulation to improve their plotting accuracy. In the generate condition, students chose their own data points, and then interacted with a guided simulation to test and revise their choices. We found that, although analyze participants were more likely to construct accurate graphs, generate participants were more likely to develop a coherent understanding of density and buoyancy. Analyses of process data and interviews suggest that generate participants grappled with the mass-volume ratio by deliberately testing points and identifying patterns as they updated their understanding of science concepts. In contrast, analyze participants displayed less deliberate exploration of the graph space. We discuss how activities that integrate graph interpretation and concept refinement can deepen science learning.     

Growing in circles: rearing environment alters spatial navigation in fish

ABSTRACT— Animals of many species use the geometric shape of an enclosed rectangular environment to reorient, even in the presence of a more informative featural cue. Manipulating the rearing environment affects performance on spatial tasks, but its effect on the use of geometric versus featural navigational cues is unknown. Our study varied the geometric information available in the rearing environment (circular vs. rectangular rearing tanks) of convict cichlids ( Archocentrus nigrofasciatus ) and tested their use of navigational cues. All the fish used geometric information to navigate when no features were present. When features were present, the fish used geometric and featural information separately. If cues were in conflict, fish raised in a circular tank showed significantly less use of geometric information than fish raised in a rectangular tank. Thus, the ability to use geometry to navigate does not require exposure to angular geometric cues during rearing, though rearing environment affects the dominance of featural and geometric cues.     

The Effects of Fading a Strategic Self-Monitoring Intervention on Students’ Academic Engagement,Accuracy, and Productivity

In this study, using a single-case multiple-treatment reversal (A-B-A-B-C) research design, we replicated and extended previous strategic self-monitoring research by teaching five students, with and without disabilities, to use ACT-REACT to increase their academic engagement, productivity, and accuracy across new and previously learned math material. Then, we gradually faded the students’ use of the strategic self-monitoring recording sheet until they were no longer using it. When the ACT-REACT self-monitoring recording sheet was in place the students’ engagement and academic productivity increased; however, when it was faded, the results varied. During fading, the students’ performance generally exceeded baseline conditions and compared adequately to intervention effects. Overall, the results of this study support the advantages of strategic self-monitoring and also point to the mixed benefits of fading these procedures in inclusive environments.