The effect of repeated experience on children's suggestibility across two question types

There is a discrepancy in the literature regarding the effect of repeated experience on children's suggestibility. Some researchers have concluded that repeated experience increases children's suggestibility for variable details whereas others have reported no detrimental effect. This study demonstrated that the type of question used to test memory (cued‐recall versus yes/no questions) could account for the different reported conclusions. Children aged 5–6 years took part in an event either once or four times. Three or 21 days later, they were given a suggestive interview about the single/final occurrence of the event during which half of the event details were inaccurately described. When later asked yes/no questions, the children with repeated experience agreed with more of the suggestions than did those in the single‐experience condition, especially at the longer delay. In relation to cued‐recall questions, however, experience did not mediate the number of times that false suggestions from the biasing interview were reported. This latter finding was revealed irrespective of the retention interval. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sequential effects of foreperiod duration and conditional probability of the signal in a choice reaction time task

The aim of the present study was to determine whether the negative relationship usually found between reaction time and foreperiod duration in the variable foreperiod paradigm is entirely due to sequential foreperiod effects. It has been shown that when a particular foreperiod has been preceded by a longer one on the previous trial, reaction time is longer than when the preceding foreperiod was equal or shorter. This may be sufficient to explain the increase in reaction time observed for short foreperiods in variable foreperiod conditions.The present results show that, when sequential effects were controlled by the elimination of all trials where the foreperiod was shorter than the preceding one, the negative slope of the reaction time-foreperiod function diminished but did not disappear. The results suggest an interpretation of the role of conditional probability of stimulus arrival in terms of variation in the tendency to reprepare when the moment initially chosen for preparation appears to fall short of the moment at which the stimulus is actually presented.     

Does impaired socioemotional functioning account for behavioral dysexecutive disorders? Evidence from a transnosological study

Behavioral dysexecutive disorders are highly prevalent in patients with neurological diseases but cannot be explained by cognitive dysexecutive impairments. In fact, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Given that socioemotional functioning underlies appropriate behavior, socioemotional impairments may contribute to the appearance of behavioral disorders. To investigate this issue, we performed a transnosological study.

Seventy-five patients suffering from various neurological diseases (Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and stroke) were included in the study. The patients were comprehensively assessed in terms of cognitive and behavioral dysexecutive disorders and socioemotional processes (facial emotion recognition and theory of mind). As was seen for cognitive and behavioral dysexecutive impairments, the prevalence of socioemotional impairments varied according to the diagnosis. Stepwise logistic regressions showed that (i) only cognitive executive indices predicted hypoactivity with apathy/abulia, (ii) theory of mind impairments predicted hyperactivity–distractibility–impulsivity and stereotyped/perseverative behaviors, and (iii) impaired facial emotion recognition predicted social behavior disorders. Several dysexecutive behavioral disorders are associated with an underlying impairment in socioemotional processes but not with cognitive indices of executive functioning (except for apathy). These results strongly suggest that some dysexecutive behavioral disorders are the outward signs of an underlying impairment in socioemotional processes.     

Early and deep: two independent paradigms?

Did Winnicott replace or transform Freud's metapsychology? The author's aim is to explore more deeply the views developed in a previous paper based solely on Winnicott. Here the author draws on other studies to respond to two questions recently posed by Fulgencio concerning the meaning of the term metapsychology and the existence of a new topography in Winnicott's work. For many authors, Winnicott does not reject Freudian metapsychology and says nothing new in this field; in the field of paediatric anthropology, however, he focuses on dependence, and in the field of the living embodiment of the drives on being and self as different from ego. But Green notes the existence of a third topography, that of self/object, and also examines the vicissitudes of being by isolating the concept in Winnicott's work. For the author, however, being seems in continuity with his whole anthropological and ontological perspective; and when Winnicott introduces environmental factors of which the infant is unaware, he also introduces a heuristic distinction between early and deep: there is thus neither a rejection nor a reformulatation of the metapsychological theorization, but rather a coexistence of two paradigms.     

Daily patterns of communication and contact between Italian early adolescents and their friends

The goal of the present study was to explore patterns of communication between adolescents and their friends across both "online" and "in-person" contexts. The participants were adolescents (n?=?727) aged 11-16 years attending middle schools in urban and rural areas of Italy. Participants completed daily logs of their in-person and online contacts with friends for 20 consecutive school days. Girls reported more total contacts with their friends than did boys as well as friendships that were closer and more intimate. However, boys indicated more contact than girls via electronic communication and online. Contacts with peers in general were less frequent among the older participants, perhaps because of increasing academic demands. Participants who complemented in-person contact with friends with electronic contact were less lonely than their counterparts who were less versatile in accessing different modalities of making contact with friends.     

Does the olfactory cue activate the same brain network during aging in the rat after taste potentiated odor aversion retrieval?

Depending on the brain networks involved, aging is not accompanied by a general decrease in learning and memory capabilities. We demonstrated previously that learning and retrieval of taste potentiated odor aversion (TPOA) is preserved, and even slightly improved, in senescent rats showing some memory deficiencies in cognitive tasks (Dardou, Datiche, & Cattarelli, 2008). TPOA is a particular behavior in which the simultaneous presentation of odor and taste cues followed by a delayed visceral illness leads to a robust aversion towards both conditioned stimuli, which permits diet selection and animal survival. The present experiment was performed in order to investigate the stability or the evolution of the brain network underlying TPOA retrieval during aging. By using immunocytochemical detection of Fos and Egr1 proteins we mapped the cerebral activation induced by TPOA retrieval elicited by the odor presentation in the young, the adult and the senescent rats. The pattern of brain activation changed and the number of activated areas decreased with age. Nevertheless, the piriform cortex and the basolateral amygdala nucleus were always activated and seemed essential for TPOA retrieval. The hippocampus and the neocortical areas could have different implications in TPOA memory in relation to age. The patterns of expression of Fos and Egr1 were different, suggesting their differential involvement in TPOA retrieval. Data are discussed according to the possible roles of the brain areas studied and a model of schematic brain network subtending TPOA retrieval induced by the odor cue is proposed.     

Paraconsistent Metatheory: New Proofs with Old Tools

Journal of Philosophical Logic - This paper is a step toward showing what is achievable using non-classical metatheory—particularly, a substructural paraconsistent framework. What standard...     

Paranoid delusions and threatening hallucinations: a prospective study of sleep paralysis experiences

Previously we reported a three-factor structure for hallucinations accompanying sleep paralysis (SP). These earlier analyses were, however, based on retrospective accounts. In a prospective study, 383 individuals reported individual episodes online providing further evidence for the three-factor structure as well as clearer conceptually meaningful relations among factors than retrospective studies. In addition, reports of individual episodes permitted a more fine-grained analysis of the internal structure of factors to assess predictions based on the hypothesis that a sensed or felt presence (FP) is a core experience affecting other SP hallucinations. Results were generally consistent with this hypothesis. In particular, associations among, and temporal stability of, sensory hallucinations were largely explained by their common association with FP. The findings are consistent with REM initiation of a threat activated vigilance system with pervasive effects on the SP experience and suggest a potential model for the thematic organization of nightmares and dreams more generally.     

The nature and varieties of felt presence experiences: A reply to Nielsen

Nielsen [Nielsen, T. (2007). Felt presence: Paranoid delusion or hallucinatory social imagery? Consciousness and Cognition, 16(4), 975–983.] raises a number of issues and presents several provocative arguments worthy of discussion regarding the experience of the felt presence (FP) during sleep paralysis (SP). We consider these issues beginning with the nature of FP and its relation to affective-motivational systems and provide an alternative to Nielsen’s reduction of FP to a purely spatial hallucination. We then consider implications of the “normal social imagery” model. We can find only one specific empirical hypothesis articulated within this framework and it turns out to be one that we explicitly addressed in our original paper. We also review our position regarding the possible relation of FP during SP to a number of related anomalous experiences and contrast FP to anomalous vestibular-motor (V-M) phenomena. We review our position that the neuromatrix concept, in the light of available evidence, is more appropriately applied to V-M experiences than FP. Finally, we pursue speculations, raised in Nielsen’s commentary, on the wider implications of FP.