Review of Patriotic Education in a Global Age by Randall Curren and Charles Dorn

Studies in Philosophy and Education -     

Neuropsychological Interventions for Decision-Making in Addiction: a Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - Decision-making deficits are strong predictors of poor clinical outcomes in addiction treatment. However, research on interventions that address decision-making deficits...     

Training method dramatically affects the acquisition of a place response in rats with neurotoxic lesions of the hippocampus.

A considerable number of studies have demonstrated that hippocampal damage impairs the acquisition of a place response in rats. In Experiment 1, using a four-arm plus-shaped maze, we replicated this finding. Experiment 2 showed, however, that hippocampally damaged rats can learn a place response just as well as control rats when, during the training, a salient intramaze landmark indicates the position of the goal (the west arm). After reaching criterion, the hippocampal and control groups performed the task with the same degree of mastery during a transfer test in which the intramaze signal used during the acquisition was removed. In Experiment 3, the intramaze cue was substituted by an egocentric cue. The results revealed that both control and lesioned subjects learned the spatial problem well. However, a transfer test showed that control rats learned the task using a place response strategy but hippocampally lesioned animals used a rigid, hyperspecific strategy. Taken together, these results suggest that special training procedures which encourage variability in response versus perseveration make it possible to overcome the acquisition deficit normally observed in hippocampal rats.     

Effects of callosal lesions in a model of letter perception

During cognitive tasks, the cerebral hemispheres cooperate, compete, and in general, interact via the corpus callosum. Although behavioral studies in normal and split-brain subjects have revealed a great deal about the transcallosal exchange of information, a fundamental question remains unanswered and controversial: Are transcallosal interhemispheric influences primarily excitatory or inhibitory? In this context, we examined the effects of simulating sectioning of the corpus callosum in a computational model of visual letter recognition. Differences were found, following simulated callosal sectioning, in the performance of each individual hemisphere, in the mean activation levels of hemispheres, and in the specific patterns of activity, depending on the nature of the callosal influences. Together with other recent computational modeling results, the findings are most consistent with the hypothesis that transcallosal influences are predominantly excitatory, and they suggest measures that could be examined in future experimental studies to help resolve this issue.     

The Palm IAT: A portable version of the implicit association task

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) uses reaction times to measure implicit linkages among concepts or between concepts and attributes. The Palm IAT is a simplified version of the IAT that runs on Palm Pilot or Handspring Visor personal digital assistant devices. The Palm IAT is portable, provides precise measurement, and allows for efficient data collection inside or outside the laboratory. Three studies were conducted to assess its practical usefulness. Study 1 (N = 12) replicated a previous demonstration of more favorable implicit associations for flowers than for insects. Study 2 (N = 9) found individual differences in linking the self-concept to characteristics of agency and communion. Study 3 (N = 23) found individual differences in linking the self-concept to characteristics of boldness and friendliness. Reliability of the Palm IAT is similar to reliability of the original desktop computer version. Using the Palm IAT, one can study hard-to-reach populations in unusual settings.     

Language disorders as a window on universal grammar: an abstract theory of agreement for IP, DP, and V-PP

A new concept of Agreement (AGR) has been represented as a Formal Feature that can appear in a wide range of different configurations (Chomsky, 1998). A case study from language disorders supports and extends this abstract concept. The child shows no agreement in Inflectional Phrase me can and Determiner Phrase them eyes. We then extend the notion of AGR to include verb-Prepositional Phrase relations, where the child also systematically avoids certain prepositions (go beach). The analysis is supported by intuitional data from compounds (sweep with broom --> broom-swept). We also define a systematic notion of Possible deficit as a premature fixation of functional items which normally require additional Phi-features. The notion of Maximization of Formal Features then emerges as a significant feature of learnability from both a normal and disordered perspective.     

Shared leadership development and team performance: A new look at the dynamics of shared leadership

The present study offers new theoretical insights into the dynamics of shared leadership. Integrating arguments from shared leadership and team development theory, we examine how shared leadership changes over the course of a project team's life cycle and how this pattern of change relates to team performance. Guided by shared leadership theory and project team literature, we also explore team‐level factors, which may alter the pattern of shared leadership development. In particular, we propose that in project teams shared leadership develops in a nonuniform way, approximating an inverted U‐shaped pattern, increasing early in the team's life cycle, peaking around the midpoint, and then decreasing in the later phase. In turn, this development pattern relates positively to team performance. We also extend theory by explaining how specific team characteristics influence the pattern of shared leadership development. Using a three‐study approach, we empirically examine the hypothesized relationships and conclude with a general discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.     

You are Cruel Even If He Did It: Behavior and Face Processing in Spontaneous Trait Inference and Transference

Spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) occur when people infer, without intention or awareness, personality traits from other people’s behaviors. Spontaneous trait transferences (STTs) occur when the trait inferred from the behavior of an actor is erroneously transferred to a person who is not the actor of the behavior. Here, we show that STIs and STTs are similar in the activation of the trait from the behavior and they differ in the link that is established between the inferred trait and the person, with stronger link being created in the STIs than in STTs.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">StimulStat</Emphasis>: A lexical database for Russian

In this article, we present StimulStat – a lexical database for the Russian language in the form of a web application. The database contains more than 52,000 of the most frequent Russian lemmas and more than 1.7 million word forms derived from them. These lemmas and forms are characterized according to more than 70 properties that were demonstrated to be relevant for psycholinguistic research, including frequency, length, phonological and grammatical properties, orthographic and phonological neighborhood frequency and size, grammatical ambiguity, homonymy and polysemy. Some properties were retrieved from various dictionaries and are presented collectively in a searchable form for the first time, the others were computed specifically for the database. The database can be accessed freely at http://stimul.cognitivestudies.ru.     

Planning and self-efficacy interventions encouraging replacing energy-dense foods intake with fruit and vegetable: A longitudinal experimental study

Objective: This longitudinal experimental study compared effects of self-efficacy, planning and education-based conditions, encouraging adolescents to eat fruit and vegetable in place of energy-dense foods.

Design: Data were collected among 506 adolescents (13–18 years old) who were randomly assigned to control (n = 181), planning (n = 153) or self-efficacy (n = 172) conditions. Measurements were taken at baseline (T1), at a 2-month follow-up (T2), and at a 14-month follow-up (T3). Interventions/control group procedures were delivered at T1 and T2.

Outcome measures: Self-reports of fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) and energy-dense foods intake were collected at three times. Cognitive mediators (self-efficacy and planning) were assessed at T1 and T2. Body weight and height were objectively measured at T1 and T3.

Results and conclusions: Similar significant increases of FVI were found for planning and self-efficacy interventions (T3). The planning intervention did not influence energy-dense food intake (T3), but the self-efficacy intervention tended to result in stabilising intake (compared to an increase found in the control group). There were no effects on body weight. Similar patterns were found for the total sample and for a subsample of adolescents with overweight/obesity. The effects of interventions on FVI were mediated by respective cognitions.