Effect of task length on remembered and predicted duration

Vierordt’s (1868) law states that when estimating the duration of a previous task, people overestimate short durations and underestimate long ones. We examine whether this same pattern holds for remembered and predicted duration for tasks lasting between 1 and 15 min. In support of Vierordt’s law and its extension to future duration estimates, task duration tended to be overestimated for short tasks (less than 2 min) and underestimated for long tasks for both remembered and predicted duration.     

Long-term effects of prior cocaine exposure on Morris water maze performance

Cocaine addiction is associated with long-term cognitive alterations including deficits on tests of declarative/spatial learning and memory. To determine the extent to which cocaine exposure plays a causative role in these deficits, adult male Long-Evans rats were given daily injections of cocaine (30 mg/kg/day x 14 days) or saline vehicle. Three months later, rats were trained for 6 sessions on a Morris water maze protocol adapted from Gallagher, Burwell, and Burchinal [Gallagher, M., Burwell, R., & Burchinal, M. (1993). Severity of spatial learning impairment in aging: development of a learning index for performance in the Morris water maze. Behavioral Neuroscience, 107, 618-626]. Rats given prior cocaine exposure performed similarly to controls on training trials, but searched farther from the platform location on probe trials interpolated throughout the training sessions and showed increased thigmotaxis. The results demonstrate that a regimen of cocaine exposure can impair Morris water maze performance as long as 3 months after exposure. Although the impairments were not consistent with major deficits in spatial learning and memory, they may have resulted from cocaine-induced increases in stress responsiveness and/or anxiety. Increased stress and anxiety would be expected to increase thigmotaxis as well as cause impairments in searching for the platform location, possibly through actions on ventral striatal dopamine signaling.     

Moral Injury,Chaplaincy and Mental Health Provider Approaches to Treatment: A Scoping Review

Journal of Religion and Health - The aim of this research was to describe the evidence examining the approaches taken by mental health providers (MHPs) and chaplains to address symptoms related to...     

Psychometric intelligence dissociates implicit and explicit learning

The hypothesis that performance on implicit learning tasks is unrelated to psychometric intelligence was examined in a sample of 605 German pupils. Performance in artificial grammar learning, process control, and serial learning did not correlate with various measures of intelligence when participants were given standard implicit instructions. Under an explicit rule discovery instruction, however, a significant relationship between performance on the learning tasks and intelligence appeared. This finding provides support for Reber's hypothesis that implicit learning, in contrast to explicit learning, is independent of intelligence, and confirms thereby the distinction between the 2 modes of learning. However, because there were virtually no correlations among the 3 learning tasks, the assumption of a unitary ability of implicit learning was not supported.     

Adjustment problems in the family and school contexts, attitude towards authority, and violent behavior at school in adolescence

This study analyzed the role of different but interrelated variables in the family and school contexts in relation to problems of violent behavior at school during adolescence. Participants were 1,068 students aged 11 to 16 (47% male) drawn from secondary schools in the Valencian Community (Spain). Statistical analyses were carried out using structural equation modeling. The model accounted for 32% of the variance in school violence. Results showed a direct association between quality of communication with father and teacher's expectations of the student with the adolescent's involvement in violent behavior at school. Moreover, findings showed indirect paths by which adolescents' self-concept (family and school domains), acceptance by peers, and attitude toward authority, seemed to be influenced by the quality of interactions with parent and teachers, and also were closely associated with violent behavior at school. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research on adolescent psychosocial adjustment and behavioral problems at school.     

Performance,cardiovascular, and health behavior effects of an inhibitory strength training intervention

Female undergraduates were assigned to one of three groups, two involving regulatory training and one not. Training participants performed for 2 weeks tasks that required strong behavioral restraint (Strong Training) or weak behavioral restraint (Weak Training). Later, they took part in (1) a laboratory session in which they performed tasks with inhibitory components, and (2) a follow-up week in which they provided health behavior reports and used designated dental supplies. No Training participants took part only in the session and follow-up week. As expected, laboratory performance was improved for Strong- relative to No Training participants, with performance for Weak Training participants falling in between. Also as expected, Strong Training participants used more floss in the follow-up week than did the No Training participants, with floss for Weak Training participants falling between. Contrary to expectation, Strong Training participants used less toothpaste and reported having brushed less than the No Training participants. In addition, Strong Training participants evinced exaggerated—rather than diminished—cardiovascular responses during the laboratory tasks. The performance and floss use data support the suggestion that inhibitory system strength can be increased through use. The brushing and cardiovascular findings may be interpretable in inhibitory strength terms.