Children's kinematic false memories

ABSTRACT

Individuals misrecognise as seen the never-presented natural continuation of an action. These false memories derive from the running of kinematic mental models of the actions seen, which rest on motor inferences from implicit knowledge. We verified an implied prediction: kinematic false memories should be detectable even in children. The participants in our experiments first observed photos in which actors were about to perform actions on objects. At recognition they were presented with the original photos, plus (a) distractors representing the unseen natural continuation of the original actions, (b) distractors representing the beginning of other actions on the same objects and (c) distractors representing completed different actions on the same objects. In contrast to the original studies in which participants expressed their confidence in recognition, in our experiments the participants catgorirzed the action as seen or not seen. After replicating the original results with the dichotomous recognition task (Experiment 1), we detected spontaneous false memories also in children (Experiment 2).     

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Returning Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans: Implications for Assessment and Diagnosis

Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are considered the “signature injuries” of combat soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Both disorders can greatly affect the functioning of soldiers, yet the disorders often go undetected or are misdiagnosed by both military and civilian health care providers. This article provides information about MTBI and PTSD in returning combat soldiers along with implications for assessment and diagnosis.     

Attentional capture is contingent on scene region: Using surface guidance framework to explore attentional mechanisms during search

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Studies have established that scene context guides attention during visual search, but it is not yet clear how. In this study, we examined how attention is...     

Tailored interventions for motivating smoking cessation: using placebo tailoring to examine the influence of expectancies and personalization.

The present study examined mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of tailored interventions for motivating smoking cessation. The study used a placebo-tailoring design to test whether the efficacy of tailoring was due, in part, to personalized features in addition to the theoretically based content. Two hundred forty adult smokers were randomized to 1 of 3 conditions: standard booklet, minimally personalized booklet, or extensively personalized booklet. The interventions varied in their degree of ostensible tailoring, yet the actual smoking-related content of the booklets was identical. A dose-response relationship was hypothesized, with the greatest apparent tailoring producing the most positive outcomes. This pattern was found for evaluation of the booklets, with trends for readiness to change and self-efficacy increases. Moreover, as hypothesized, the effect of the interventions on readiness was moderated by participants' expectancies about tailoring.     

Is Veteran Status and Suicide Risk Assessed in Community Long‐Term Care? A Review of the States' Assessment Instruments

Given recent policy initiatives to address suicide risk among older persons and veterans, community‐based elder serving agencies may serve an important role in identifying and referring individuals at risk for suicide. A review of state‐level long‐term assessment instruments was conducted to determine whether veteran status and suicide are assessed. Data from forty‐three state's Units on Aging instruments were content analyzed. Results indicate that over two thirds of the states in this review included questions about suicide and veterans in their assessments, 69.8% and 67.4% respectively. Suicide risk among elders and veterans must be addressed at local, state, and federal levels so that concerted attention and oversight can be provided for matching elders to the services they need.     

The representation of depth in children's drawings of a table

Willats (1977) analysed developments in the drawing of a table in terms of the projection system in which the table top was represented, and concluded that representation of depth in drawing goes through a series of discrete stages, each of which can be identified with a projection system. A partial replication of Willats' study is presented here, using a much larger sample. The relationship between age and use of projection system found by Willats was in general supported. Not all the “stages” were found to be discrete, however, and an examination of the way in which the table tops were drawn shows that whilst the majority of older children appeared to use perspective, they did not use it correctly. A method is given by which tables that are drawn as if from a central viewpoint can be formally classified. It is concluded that development in the understanding of the representation of depth is not very closely linked to development in the use of projection systems.