The corrective effects of warning on false memories in the DRM paradigm are limited to full attention conditions

Effects of attention control and forewarning on the activation and monitoring of experimentally induced false memories in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm were investigated in a young adult sample (N=77). We found that reducing the degree of attention during encoding led to a decrease in veridical recall and an increase in non-presented critical lure intrusions. This effect could not be counteracted by a forewarning instruction. However, these findings did not emerge in a (retrieval supportive) recognition task. It seems that divided attention increases false recall when attention control and forewarning have to compete for limited cognitive resources in a generative free recall as opposed to a retrieval supportive recognition task. Forewarning instructions do not always protect young adults against experimentally induced false memories.     

Effects of the Interaction Between Reaction Component of Personal Need for Structure and Role Perceptions on Employee Attitudes in Long‐Term Care for Elderly People1

This study examined the interaction of reaction component of personal need for structure (reaction to lack of structure, RLS) and role perceptions in predicting job satisfaction, job involvement, affective commitment, and occupational identity among employees working in long‐term care for elderly people. High‐RLS employees experienced more role conflict, had less job satisfaction, and experienced lower levels of occupational identity than did low‐RLS employees. We found individual differences in how problems in roles affected employees' job attitudes. High‐RLS employees experienced lower levels of job satisfaction, job involvement, and affective commitment, irrespective of role‐conflict levels. Low‐RLS employees experienced detrimental job attitudes only if role‐conflict levels were high. Our results suggest that high‐RLS people benefit less from low levels of experienced role conflicts.     

A cognitive map of Slovenia: Perceptions of the regions

Cognitive maps present an important theoretical concept and methodological tool for the acquirement of insight into the mental image of the environment. Part of the study, conducted in 1999–2000 on a representative sample of the inhabitants of Slovenia (N = 1291), is presented in this paper, namely the part devoted to the perception of regions. Participants were questioned about different aspects of their image of Slovenia, including their preferences for residence in different parts of Slovenia, partition of the country into regions, travelling patterns, environmental problems and solutions, possibilities of development, etc. Cognitive maps appeared as highly selective, with certain general similarities, but also with individual idiosyncrasies, depending on the place of living and other demographic characteristics. Though respondents were not highly devoted to the formation of regions, a rather clear mental image of them appeared. Main findings are discussed and applicability of the cognitive map for planning purposes are substantiated.     

Adulthood EAS-temperament and carotid artery intima-media thickness: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study

We examined the association between adulthood emotionality-activity-sociability temperament scale and preclinical atherosclerosis and, whether this association is mediated by cardiovascular risk factors (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and body-mass index (BMI)). The participants were a nationally representative sample of 537 men and 811 women from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study aged 15-30 years at the baseline in 1992 and aged 24-39 years at the follow-up in 2001. Carotid atherosclerosis was assessed by ultrasound scans of the common carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD). In men, there was an association between the temperament dimension activity and IMT (β = 0.08, p = 0.036) which was partially mediated by BMI (β decreased from 0.08 to 0.05; p-value of Sobel test = 0.002). However, after correction for multiple comparisons the association between IMT and the temperament dimension activity in men was only of borderline significance. In women, there were no associations between temperament and IMT or FMD. These results suggest that a highly active temperament may contribute to early signs of atherosclerosis in men and that body mass may mediate this association.     

Parceling Cannot Reduce Factor Indeterminacy in Factor Analysis: A Research Note

Parceling—using composites of observed variables as indicators for a common factor—strengthens loadings, but reduces the number of indicators. Factor indeterminacy is reduced when there are many observed variables per factor, and when loadings and factor correlations are strong. It is proven that parceling cannot reduce factor indeterminacy. In special cases where the ratio of loading to residual variance is the same for all items included in each parcel, factor indeterminacy is unaffected by parceling. Otherwise, parceling worsens factor indeterminacy. While factor indeterminacy does not affect the parameter estimates, standard errors, or fit indices associated with a factor model, it does create uncertainty, which endangers valid inference.

     

Observation and analysis of large-scale human motion

Many team sports include complex human movement, which can be observed at different levels of detail. Some aspects of the athlete's motion can be studied in detail using commercially available high-speed, high-accuracy biomechanical measurement systems. However, due to their limitations, these devices are not appropriate for studying large-scale motion during a game (for example, the motion of a player running across the entire playing field). We describe an alternative approach to studying such large-scale motion, and present a video-based, computer-aided system, developed specifically for the purpose of acquiring large-scale motion data. The baseline of our approach consists of sacrificing much of the spatial accuracy and temporal resolution of widely used biomechanical measurement systems, to obtain data on human movement that span large areas and long intervals of time. Data can be obtained for each of the observed athletes with reasonable amount of operator work. The system was developed using the recordings of a handball match. Several field tests were performed to assess measurement error, including comparison to one of the widely available biomechanical measurement systems. With the help of the system presented, we could obtain position data for all 14 handball players on a 40 x 20 m large court with RMS error better than 0.6 m, covering 1 h of action. Several results, obtained during the handball match study are presented, in order to highlight the importance of large-scale motion acquisition.     

Authorship in a small medical journal: A study of contributorship statements by corresponding authors

The authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) are widely accepted in biomedical journals, but many studies in large and prestigious journals show that a considerable proportion of authors do not fulfill these criteria. We investigated authorship contributions in a small medical journal outside the scientific mainstream, to see if poor adherence to authorship criteria is common in biomedical journals. We analyzed statements on research contribution, as checked by the corresponding author, for individual authors of 114 research articles, representing 475 authors, submitted to the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ) from 1999 to 2000. Only 40% of authors fulfilled the ICMJE authorship criteria. The authors listed first on the by-line were more likely to fulfill the authorship criteria than all other authors on the by-line. The percentage of authors fulfilling the ICMJE criteria of authorship decreased with the increase in the number of authors listed on the by-line. These results indicate that poor adherence to ICMJE authorship criteria is poor across biomedical journals, regardless of the size of the scientific community. Authorship and contributorship in biomedical journals, as well as editorial ethical responsibilities towards authorship criteria need critical redefinition and education of both editors and authors.     

Human Costs of Organizational Downsizing: Comparing Health Trends Between Leavers and Stayers

We studied health-related selection and consequences of an organizational downsizing among 886 municipal employees. Measurements of health indicators were conducted before any rumor of the downsizing and immediately after the downsizing 3 years later. Results of predownsizing health showed that those who did not find employment after the staff reductions were older employees with high preexisting morbidity. Those getting a new job elsewhere were younger and had better health already before the downsizing than the stayers. After the downsizing, deterioration of health was most likely in the stayers working in groups of major staff reductions and among the nonemployed leavers. In the reemployed leavers, the risk of increased health problems was lower than in others including employees working in no or minor downsizing groups.     

The cherry effect or the issue behind well-being

Cognitive Processing - Humans define well-being on predefined assumptions, based on inner and outer criteria as references. As illustrated, these criteria are subject to constant change, even in a...     

Development of allocentric spatial recall from new viewpoints in virtual reality

Using landmarks and other scene features to recall locations from new viewpoints is a critical skill in spatial cognition. In an immersive virtual reality task, we asked children 3.5–4.5 years old to remember the location of a target using various cues. On some trials they could use information from their own self‐motion. On some trials they could use a view match. In the very hardest kind of trial, they were ‘teleported’ to a new viewpoint and could only use an allocentric spatial representation. This approach provides a strict test for allocentric coding (without either a matching viewpoint or self‐motion information) while avoiding additional task demands in previous studies (it does not require them to deal with a small table‐top environment or to manage stronger cue conflicts). Both the younger and older groups were able to point back at the target location better than chance when they could use view matching and/or self‐motion, but allocentric recall was only seen in the older group (4.0–4.5). In addition, we only obtained evidence for a specific kind of allocentric recall in the older group: they tracked one major axis of the space significantly above chance, r(158) = .28, but not the other, r(158) = ?.01. We conclude that there is a major qualitative change in coding for spatial recall around the fourth birthday, potentially followed by further development towards fully flexible recall from new viewpoints.