Working memory and error detection in texts: what are the roles of the central executive and the phonological loop?

Subjects performed a text error detection task, either alone or in conjunction with a secondary task aimed at specifically hindering the functioning of either the central executive in working memory or of the phonological loop. We focused on the decline in detection performance as a function of the type of error to be detected (typographical, orthographic, or semantic/syntactic) and the processing span required for detection (one word, several words within the same clause, or several clauses). The results showed that the central executive in working memory is involved in detecting semantic/syntactic errors and in detecting orthographic ones, but not in detecting typographical errors. Moreover, the degree of involvement increases with the processing span. The phonological loop is involved in detection whenever processing above the word level is required. As observed in many studies, these results suggest that the difficulty subjects have detecting semantic errors as compared to other types of errors is due to the heavier working memory load: maintenance of the phonological representation and greater involvement of the central executive. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A qualitative study of forensic patients' perceptions of quasi-coercive offers of biological treatment

At various points in the trajectory through the criminal justice system, a person may be encouraged by the hope of legal benefit to consent to medical treatment. This benefit may consist of diversion from prosecution, a favorable sentence, or parole. This form of legal encouragement has been referred to as legal leverage, quasi-coercive, or quasi-compulsory treatment. In this article, we analyze interviews with 15 men convicted of sexual offenses to explore their reactions to two hypothetical scenarios involving men consenting to a range of treatments intended to reduce risk of recidivism. In particular, we explore their reactions to quasi-coercive treatment using both real and hypothetical forms of biological therapy (e.g., drugs, brain stimulation, surgery), as opposed to psychological counselling. Here, we consider the extent to which these individuals perceive the situation to be coercive, the factors affecting these perceptions, and the ways in which physicians may mitigate perceived coercion. We found there is usually some degree of coercion identified when treatment consent is given in exchange for potential legal benefit, although this fact alone did not necessarily render the practice unacceptable. The degree of concern expressed over this potential coercion was related to the invasiveness and/or permanence of the treatment, and all participants highlighted the necessity of obtaining fully informed consent in the context of legally motivated treatment offers.     

Juggling Through Hoops: Implementing Ethics Policies in Applied Language Studies

This article reports on a collective effort to position ethics policies within the context of a specific discipline – Applied Language Studies (ALS). Through a discussion of challenges to ALS-specific pedagogical and research practices, this article highlights (1) the need for consistency across institutional Research Ethics Boards in the application of general principles of ethics review, and (2) the recognition of local considerations that are informed by disciplinary approaches not envisioned in current ethics policies. Ethics policies that are driven by substantive ethical intent will recognize pedagogical practices, research methodologies, and epistemological values and traditions that mark a discipline.     

No two cues are alike: Depth of learning during infancy is dependent on what orients attention

Human infants develop a variety of attentional mechanisms that allow them to extract relevant information from a cluttered multimodal world. We know that both social and nonsocial cues shift infants’ attention, but not how these cues differentially affect learning of multimodal events. Experiment 1 used social cues to direct 8- and 4-month-olds’ attention to two audiovisual events (i.e., animations of a cat or dog accompanied by particular sounds) while identical distractor events played in another location. Experiment 2 directed 8-month-olds’ attention with colorful flashes to the same events. Experiment 3 measured baseline learning without attention cues both with the familiarization and test trials (no cue condition) and with only the test trials (test control condition). The 8-month-olds exposed to social cues showed specific learning of audiovisual events. The 4-month-olds displayed only general spatial learning from social cues, suggesting that specific learning of audiovisual events from social cues may be a function of experience. Infants cued with the colorful flashes looked indiscriminately to both cued locations during test (similar to the 4-month-olds learning from social cues) despite attending for equal duration to the training trials as the 8-month-olds with the social cues. Results from Experiment 3 indicated that the learning effects in Experiments 1 and 2 resulted from exposure to the different cues and multimodal events. We discuss these findings in terms of the perceptual differences and relevance of the cues.     

Helping children apply their knowledge to their behavior on a dimension-switching task

To investigate why 3-year-olds have difficulty in switching sorting dimensions, children of 3 and 4 years were tested in one of four conditions on Zelazo's card sort task: standard, sleeve, label and face-up. In the standard condition, children were required to sort blue-truck and red-star cards under either a blue-star or red-truck model card, first by color or shape, and then by the other dimension. Here 3-year-olds sorted correctly until the dimension changed; they continue to sort by the initial dimension. The sleeve condition (placing the sorting cards in an envelope prior to sorting) had little effect. In the label condition, the child labeled the relevant sorting dimension on each trial. Most 3-year-olds succeeded; evidently their labeling helped them refocus their attention, overcoming ‘attentional inertia’ (the pull to continue attending to the previously relevant dimension). In the face-up condition, attentional inertia was strengthened because sorted cards were left face-up; 4-year-olds performed worse than in the standard condition. We posit that attentional inertia is the core problem for preschoolers on the card sort task.