Retrieval of incidental stimulus-response associations as a source of negative priming

Priming effects of ignored distractor words were investigated in a task-switching situation that allowed an orthogonal variation of priming and response compatibility between prime and probe. Across 3 experiments, the authors obtained a disordinal interaction of priming and response relation. Responding was delayed in the ignored repetition condition if different responses were required for identical stimuli in the prime and probe (negative priming). Repeating the prime distractor in the probe facilitated responding if the same response was required in the prime and in the probe (positive priming). The same pattern of results was replicated in a letter-matching task without task switching (Experiment 4). Findings lend support to a new model that explains negative priming in terms of an automatic retrieval of incidental stimulus-response associations.     

Associative learning of likes and dislikes: Some current controversies and possible ways forward

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is one of the terms that is used to refer to associatively induced changes in liking. Many controversies have arisen in the literature on EC. Do associatively induced changes in liking actually exist? Does EC depend on awareness of the fact that stimuli are associated? Is EC resistant to extinction? Does attention help or hinder EC? As an introduction to this special issue, we will discuss the extent to which the papers that are published in this issue help to resolve some of the controversies that surround EC. We also speculate about possible boundary conditions of EC and attempt to reconcile conflicting results on the functional properties of EC.     

Beyond evaluative conditioning? Searching for associative transfer of nonevaluative stimulus properties

Evaluative conditioning refers to the changes in liking of an evaluatively neutral stimulus (the conditional stimulus or CS) as a result of merely pairing it with another, already liked or disliked stimulus (the unconditional stimulus or US). We examined whether other, non-evaluative stimulus properties of a US can also be associatively transferred to a CS. In a series of experiments, we tried to transfer perceptions of the gender of children and the gender of first names. We found evidence for the associative transfer of these properties but only when participants were aware of the contingencies.     

Remembering a location makes the eyes curve away

Working memory is a system that keeps limited information on-line for immediate access by cognitive processes. This type of active maintenance is important for everyday life activities. The present study shows that maintaining a location in spatial working memory affects the trajectories of saccadic eye movements toward visual targets, as the eyes deviate away from the remembered location. This finding provides direct evidence for a strong overlap between spatial working memory and the eye movement system. We argue that curvature is the result of the need to inhibit memory-based eye movement activity in the superior colliculus, in order to allow an accurate saccade to the visual target. Whereas previous research has shown that the eyes may deviate away from visually presented stimuli that need to be ignored, we show that the eyes also curve away from remembered stimuli.     

A Practical Account of Autonomy: Why Genetic Counseling is Especially Well Suited to the Facilitation of Informed Autonomous Decision Making

In genetic counseling, facilitation of autonomous decision-making is seen as a primary aim and respect for autonomy is used to justify a nondirective counseling approach whereby clients are free to make their own choices after being given all necessary information. However in the genetic counseling literature, autonomy as a concept appears to be interpreted variably and often narrowly. We offer a practical account of autonomy that is coherent, consistent and philosophically defensible for the genetic counseling setting. At the same time we demonstrate how nondirective counseling may serve to frustrate rather than facilitate client autonomy. We suggest that promoting purposeful dialogue rather than counseling that is nondirective is more conducive to client autonomy.     

A comparison of forward blocking and reduced overshadowing in human causal learning

In this study, we directly compared forward blocking with reduced overshadowing in a human causal learning study using an A+, B- (first learning stage), AX+, BY+, KL+ (second learning stage) design. The results showed that reduced overshadowing was significantly stronger than forward blocking. These results are problematic for at least some associative learning models but were predicted on the basis of higher order reasoning accounts of cue competition in human causal learning.     

Sleep enhances explicit recollection in recognition memory

Recognition memory is considered to be supported by two different memory processes, i.e., the explicit recollection of information about a previous event and an implicit process of recognition based on an acontextual sense of familiarity. Both types of memory supposedly rely on distinct memory systems. Sleep is known to enhance the consolidation of memories, with the different sleep stages affecting different types of memory. In the present study, we used the process-dissociation procedure to compare the effects of sleep on estimates of explicit (recollection) and implicit (familiarity) memory formation on a word-list discrimination task. Subjects studied two lists of words before a 3-h retention interval of sleep or wakefulness, and recognition was tested afterward. The retention intervals were positioned either in the early night when sleep is dominated by slow-wave sleep (SWS), or in the late night, when sleep is dominated by REM sleep. Sleep enhanced explicit recognition memory, as compared with wakefulness (P < 0.05), whereas familiarity was not affected by sleep. Moreover, explicit recognition was particularly enhanced after sleep in the early-night retention interval, and especially when the words were presented with the same contextual features as during learning, i.e., in the same font (P < 0.05). The data indicate that in a task that allows separating the contribution of explicit and implicit memory, sleep particularly supports explicit memory formation. The mechanism of this effect appears to be linked to SWS.     

Is World Poverty a Moral Problem for the Wealthy?

This article discusses the question of poverty and wealth in light of several theses put forward by Larry Temkin. The claim that there is a sort of cosmic injustice involved when great disparities of ability or of wealth are found. He is concerned especially about disparities that are undeserved. It is agreed that this is unfortunate, but not agreed that they are unjust in a sense that supports the imposition of rectification on anyone else. Nor is poverty typically undeserved in the only really relevant sense: the poor simply do not produce enough to earn them high incomes, and probably correct incomes they derive are indeed what such efforts are worth in the circumstances. That persons with very low incomes may merit our sympathy is accepted, but sympathy leads to charity, rather than to the involuntary exploitation of the better off. The essay concludes with further observations about the relevance of free markets, and points to the iniquities of the restrictions on commerce that are the most potent source of perpetuated poverty today.     

Magnifying effects on visual word recognition: a dynamic display for internet-based experiments

A visual presentation procedure is introduced that presents target words followed by a dynamic mask until recognition. This form of stimulus degradation prolongs the word recognition process. Differences in word recognition latencies—which are usually quite small—are magnified, and thus can be more easily observed. The results of two experiments on the Internet with a total of 141 participants establish the task’s ability to magnify differences in word recognition latencies stemming from word familiarity (Experiment 1) and word prototypicality (Experiment 2). Both factors interact with stimulus degradation, but at different presentation intervals; these results are discussed as evidence for comparing models of word recognition. The new procedure can be used for assessing individual differences, such as implicit motives and self-focused attention. Further applications are discussed.     

MICROANALYSIS OF CONCRETE REASONING II.

Groups of five-year-old subjects were given some items involving elementary combinations of addition and subtraction of one unit. Predictions from the following two hypotheses were tested and confirmed. (1) Difficulty is directly related to the number of transformations involved. (2) Difficulty is directly related to the number of non-redundant elements involved. Some variations in the exact phrasing of the questions were shown to have no appreciable effects.