Directed forgetting in the list method affects recognition memory for source

The effects of list-method directed forgetting on recognition memory were explored. In Experiment 1 (N = 40), observers were instructed to remember words and their type-cases; in Experiment 2 (N = 80), the instruction was to remember words and their colours. Two lists of 10 words were presented; after the first list, half of the observers (forget) were instructed to forget that list, and the other half (remember) were not given the forget instruction. Recognition of items (words) as well as source (encoding list + case/colour) was measured for forget and remember observers. The forget instruction affected case/colour memory more consistently than item and list memory; a multinomial analysis indicated that source information was affected by the forget instructions. The results indicated that recognition of source information may be a more sensitive indicator of forgetting than recognition of items.     

Modal Correspondence for Models

This paper considers the correspondence theory from modal logic and obtains correspondence results for models as opposed to frames. The key ideas are to consider infinitary modal logic, to phrase correspondence results in terms of substitution instances of a given modal formula, and to identify bisimilar model-world pairs.     

Student recognition of and response to suicidal peers

ABSTRACT: A survey of 1,131 university freshmen revealed that they were able to recognize suicidal behavior in their peers, but were unsure of a helpful response to make to them. A model of self-efficacy, emotional comfort, knowledge of a helpful response, and knowledge of suicidal behavior predicted a student's intention to ask a suicidal peer directly, “Are you thinking about killing yourself?” (R² = .38). Results of the study suggest that suicide prevention programs for adolescents should include educational experiences such as modeling, skill training, and role playing to increase self-efficacy and emotional comfort in affect-laden situations.     

Orientation tuning of shapefrom shading

Four experiments were performed to assess the effect of different orientations and direction of lighting on the visual processing of shaded or bipartite disks. In the first two experiments, observers were presented with nine different shading orientations from 0° to 180°. Targets were detected in a rapid and parallel fashion for shaded disks when the orientation of the shading gradient was not horizontal (90°) or oriented at 67.5°. Search asymmetries favoring the detection of “pock” targets over “ball” targets were found for all orientations. The search rates for bipartite disks were similar to the shaded disks at 0°, 22.5°, and 90° but not for intermediate orientations, and no search asymmetries were found. These differences suggest that shaded displays and bipartite displays are processed by different underlying mechanisms. The third experiment showed that the direction of the light source (left or right) had no influence on search asymmetries around the 90° point. Shading gradient orientation affected magnitude estimates of depth in the fourth experiment. These experiments show that the visual system’s “as-sumption” of overhead lighting is broadly tuned.