Identity but not expression memory for unfamiliar faces is affected by ageing

We examined age‐related differences in memory for identity and emotional expression of unfamiliar faces. Younger and older adults were presented with happy and angry faces and were later asked to recognise the same faces displaying a neutral expression. When a face was recognised, they also had to remember what the initial expression of the face had been. In addition, states of awareness associated with both identity and expression memory were assessed with the remember/know/guess paradigm. Older adults showed less recollective experience than younger adults for identity but not for emotional expressions of the faces. This evidence indicates that age‐related differences in memory may depend on the nature of the to‐be‐remembered information, with emotional/social information being remembered as well in older as in younger adults.     

Directed forgetting in working memory: Age‐related differences

This study explored the effects of ageing on working memory by means of the directed forgetting procedure designed by Reed (1970). Memory for a letter trigram was compared in conditions where it was either presented alone (single‐item), or followed by a second trigram to be recalled (interference), or followed by a second trigram to be forgotten (directed forgetting). The results clearly indicated that elderly participants inhibited the no‐longer‐relevant information less efficiently (recall in the single‐item condition – recall in the directed forgetting condition), as predicted by the model of Hasher and Zacks (1988). However, the results also demonstrated that sensitivity to interference (recall in the single‐item condition – recall in the interference condition) increased in the condition in which no inhibition was directly required.     

The effect of ageing on the recollection of emotional and neutral pictures

This study investigated age-related differences in recognition memory for emotional and neutral pictures. Younger and older participants were asked to rate pictures according to their emotional valence, arousal, and visual complexity. Two weeks later they had to recognise these pictures and the states of awareness associated with memory were assessed with the “remember/know/guess” paradigm. We found that, although the influence of emotion on recognition accuracy (as assessed by d′) was similar in both age groups, the tendency for positive and negative pictures to create a rich recollective experience was weaker in older adults. In addition, “remember” responses were more often based on a recollection of emotional reactions in older than in younger participants. We suggest that the elderly tend to focus on their feelings when confronted with emotional pictures, which could have impaired their memory for the contextual information associated with these stimuli.     

Autobiographical memory in middle childhood: Recollections of the recent and distant past

To address the question of whether memories from early childhood survive into later childhood, participants visited the laboratory at age 3 and again at 7, 8, or 9. At age 3, each talked with a parent about six events; at the later age each child talked with a researcher about four of these distant events as well as two more recent events. School-aged children recalled fewer than half of the distant events introduced. Further, the proportion of distant events recalled was negatively correlated with age. Those distant events that were recalled, however, were recounted in an accurate, detailed manner. Importantly, reports of distant events did not reflect the full extent of children's narrative ability. Reports of recent events were more coherent and included twice the detail. Implications for existing interpretations of autobiographical memory and childhood amnesia are discussed, and the need for further research employing innovative methods is emphasised.     

Self-defining future projections: Exploring the identity function of thinking about the future

The act of projecting oneself into meaningful future events may significantly contribute to a person's sense of self and identity. Yet if the role of memories, in particular self-defining memories (SDMs), in grounding the self is now well established, the identity function of anticipated future events has received comparatively little attention. This article introduces the construct of self-defining future projection (SDFP) to address this issue. Two studies show that people can readily identify significant future events that they frequently think about and that convey core information about who they are as individuals. Furthermore, a person's particular style of constructing SDMs is similarly manifested in SDFPs, suggesting that both types of events can be used to ground the self. Notably, people who display a stronger tendency to extract meaning from their past experiences also reflect more about the potential implications of imagined future events. The results further demonstrate that SDMs and SDFPs both give rise to a strong sense of personal continuity over time and are meaningfully related to self-esteem. Together these findings lend support to the idea that a person's sense of self and identity is in part nourished by the anticipation of significant future events.     

Performing well in an evaluative situation: The roles of perceived competence and task-irrelevant interfering thoughts

Abstract

This research expands on previous research by arguing and demonstrating that high perceived competence buffers the detrimental effects of an evaluative situation. In Study 1 (n=75, 38.7% male), the situation (evaluative vs. non-evaluative) and perceived competence (high vs. low) were manipulated, whereas in Study 2 (n=42, 33.3% male), perceived competence relied on naturally occurring differences in perceived competence. The results of Study 1 indicate that people may underachieve in an evaluative situation. More importantly, in Study 2 it was demonstrated that such an evaluative situation had only a negative effect on test performance among individuals low in perceived competence. The occurrence of task-irrelevant interfering thoughts during task completion accounted for this inimical effect of an evaluative situation on test performance among these individuals.     

Establishing a trait anxiety threshold that signals likelihood of anxiety disorders

Abstract

Evidence suggests that the State Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA) may be a more pure measure of anxiety than other commonly used scales. Further, the STICSA has excellent psychometric properties in both clinical and nonclinical samples. The present study aimed to extend the utility of the STICSA – Trait version by identifying a cut-off score that could differentiate a group of clinically diagnosed anxiety disorder patients (n=398) from a group of student controls (n =439). Two receiver operating characteristic curve analyses indicated cut-off scores of 43 (sensitivity=.73, specificity=.74, classification accuracy=.74) and 40 (sensitivity=.80, specificity=.67, classification accuracy=.73), respectively. In a large community sample (n =6685), a score of 43 identified 11.5% of individuals as probable cases of clinical anxiety, while a score of 40 identified 17.0% of individuals as probable cases of clinical anxiety. As a result of differences in sensitivity and specificity, the present findings suggest a cut-off score of 43 is optimal to identify probable cases of clinical anxiety, while a cut-off score of 40 is optimal to screen for the possible presence of anxiety disorders.     

An Experimental Test of Whether Informants can Report About Child and Family Behavior Based on Settings of Behavioral Expression

Researchers and practitioners conduct multi-informant assessments of child and family behavior under the assumption that informants have unique perspectives on these behaviors. These unique perspectives stem, in part, from differences among informants in the settings in which they observe behaviors (e.g., home, school, peer interactions). These differences are assumed to contribute to the discrepancies commonly observed in the outcomes of multi-informant assessments. Although assessments often prompt informants to think about setting-specific behaviors when providing reports about child and family behavior, the notion that differences in setting-based behavioral observations contribute to discrepant reports has yet to be experimentally tested. We trained informants to use setting information as the basis for providing behavioral reports, with a focus on parental knowledge of children’s whereabouts and activities. Using a within-subjects controlled design, we randomly assigned 16 mothers and adolescents to the order in which they received a program that trains informants to use setting information when providing parental knowledge reports (Setting-Sensitive Assessment), and a control program involving no training on how to provide reports. Relative to the control program, the Setting-Sensitive Assessment training increased the differences between mother and adolescent reports of parental knowledge, suggesting that mothers and adolescents observe parental knowledge behaviors in different settings. This study provides the first experimental evidence to support the assumption that discrepancies arise because informants incorporate unique setting information into their reports.     

On the Explanation of the Hostile Attributional Bias: Traumatic Experiences,Schemas, and Migrant Status

Aggressive individuals often exhibit a hostile attributional bias (HAB). To examine why some people exhibit the HAB to a higher degree than others, we tested the hypothesis put forth by Dodge (2006). Dodge hypothesized HAB results from traumatic experiences and this relation is mediated by schemas. This hypothesis was tested among 135 Dutch and migrant participants. Among Dutch participants, traumatic experiences were not related to the HAB but were related to schemas. However, among migrants, traumatic experiences were related both to the HAB and schemas, but schemas were not related to the HAB. Therefore, traumatic experiences are related to a HAB only in migrants. Furthermore, in both groups, schemas do not mediate the relation between traumatic experiences and the HAB.     

Two spatial maps for perceived visual space: Evidence from relative mislocalizations

When observers are asked to localize the peripheral position of a target with respect to the midposition of a spatially extended comparison stimulus, they tend to mislocalize the target as being more outer than the midposition of the comparison stimulus (cf. Müsseler, Van der Heijden, Mahmud, Deubel, & Ertsey, 1999). For explaining this finding, we examined a model that postulates that in the calculation of perceived positions two sources are involved, a sensory map and a motor map. The sensory map provides vision and the motor map contains information for saccadic eye movements. The model predicts that errors in location judgements will be observed when the motor map has to provide the information for the judgements. In four experiments we examined, and found evidence for, this prediction. Localization errors were found in all conditions in which the motor map had to be used but not in conditions in which the sensory map could be used.