Regional cerebral blood flow and verbal memory after chronic exposure to organic solvents

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF; 133Xe-inhalation method) was investigated in 32 industrial workers (age: 51 +/- 9 years) who had been exposed to organic solvents during an average of 24.5 years. The measurements were made at rest and during learning of associated word pairs. The resting flow level was 17% lower than expected for normal subjects of similar age and the activation-induced changes of rCBF during the test lacked the frontal activation normally seen. Significant correlations between age, length of exposure, and rCBF level were found. In order to control for the age factor, results were also calculated from two subgroups of similar age but with very different levels of exposure (13 and 31 years of average exposure). The two groups differed only slightly in resting rCBF. A marked difference was, however, seen during activation, with significant post-central flow increases recorded in the lower-exposed group only. The results indicate the potential of the rCBF method for elucidating functional cortical changes related to neurotoxic effects of organic solvents.     

Regional blood flow changes in the left cerebral hemisphere during word pair learning and recall

Regional cerebral blood flow measurements were made in the left hemisphere of 11 young healthy volunteers during learning and during recalling of word pair associates. Compared to the resting baseline, both tasks caused significant increases of average hemispheric flow, indicating an elevated neuronal activity level. Regionally both tasks were accompanied by considerable activation of parietal and occipital regions. The main difference between learning and recalling was that only the former task activated the prefrontal regions.     

Modulation of additive and interactive effects by trial history revisited

Masson and Kliegl (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 898–914, 2013) reported evidence that the nature of the target stimulus on the previous trial of a lexical decision task modulates the effects of independent variables on the current trial, including additive versus interactive effects of word frequency and stimulus quality. In contrast, recent reanalyses of previously published data from experiments that, unlike the Masson and Kliegl experiments, did not include semantic priming as a factor, found no evidence for modulation of additive effects of frequency and stimulus quality by trial history (Balota, Aschenbrenner, & Yap, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 1563–1571, 2013; O’Malley & Besner, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34, 1400–1411, 2013). We report two experiments that included semantic priming as a factor and that attempted to replicate the modulatory effects found by Masson and Kliegl. In neither experiment was additivity of frequency and stimulus quality modulated by trial history, converging with the findings reported by Balota et al. and O’Malley and Besner. Other modulatory influences of trial history, however, were replicated in the new experiments and reflect potential trial-by-trial alterations in decision processes.     

Emotion and working memory: evidence for domain-specific processes for affective maintenance

Working memory is comprised of separable subsystems for visual and verbal information, but what if the information is affective? Does the maintenance of affective information rely on the same processes that maintain nonaffective information? The authors address this question using a novel delayed-response task developed to investigate the short-term maintenance of affective memoranda. Using selective interference methods the authors find that a secondary emotion-regulation task impaired affect intensity maintenance, whereas secondary cognitive tasks disrupted brightness intensity maintenance, but facilitated affect maintenance. Additionally, performance on the affect maintenance task depends on the valence of the maintained feeling, further supporting the domain-specific nature of the task. The importance of affect maintenance per se is further supported by demonstrating that the observed valence effects depend on a memory delay and are not evident with simultaneous presentation of stimuli. These findings suggest that the working memory system may include domain-specific components that are specialized for the maintenance of affective memoranda.     

Clinical Ethics Consultation in the Transition Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

Science and Engineering Ethics - Since 1989, clinical ethics consultation in form of hospital ethics committees (HECs) was established in most of the transition countries of Central and Eastern...     

Possibilities of objective assessment of the course of activation in ideomotor training

An active exploration of movement tasks is accompanied with central nervous activation. Its systematical examination needs a teamwork of scientists of various branches of knowledge (i.e. physiology, psychology, sport sciences). Mental training (motor imagination - MI) was chosen as a model for such examinations. In connection with the execution of MI there are characteristic chances of the mean alpha frequency of the EEG, heart rate, respiration rate and skin conductance. The time course of these parameters depends on the number, the duration and the sequence of MI. A graduated submaximal load on ergometer has no influence on the course of the examined parameters. Our investigation allows the conclusion that different activation processes go on within different subsystems during the execution of MI. From a physiological point of view it seems to be necessary that a concrete paradigm of MI must be examined concerning the course of the parameters and, thus, to guarantee the effort of MI.     

Gender differences in causal attributions by college students of performance on course examinations

Gender differences in causal attributions and emotions for imagined success and failure on examinations were investigated. Males made stronger ability attributions for success than females, whereas females emphasized the importance of studying and paying attention. Males more than females attributed failure to a lack of studying and low interest, but females were more likely than males to blame an F on a lack of ability. Females experienced stronger emotions than did males; they felt happier than males did after success but felt more like a failure than did males after imagining receiving an F on an examination. Some of the gender differences in causal attributions, especially for ability attributions, depended on the gender-type of the subject matter of the examinations. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Cognitive processes mediating behavioral change.

The present experiment was designed to test the theory that psychological procedures achieve changes in behavior by altering the level and strength of self-efficacy. In this formulation, perceived self-efficacy. In this formulation, perceived self-efficacy influences level of performance by enhancing intensity and persistence of effort. Adult phobics were administered treatments based upon either performance mastery experiences, vicarious experiences., or they received no treatment. Their efficacy expectations and approach behavior toward threats differing on a similarity dimension were measured before and after treatment. In accord with our prediction, the mastery-based treatment produced higher, stronger, and more generalized expectations of personal efficacy than did the treatment relying solely upon vicarious experiences. Results of a microanalysis further confirm the hypothesized relationship between self-efficacy and behavioral change. Self-efficacy was a uniformly accurate predictor of performance on tasks of varying difficulty with different threats regardless of whether the changes in self-efficacy were produced through enactive mastery or by vicarious experience alone.