Age differences in memory performance and memory ratings as measured in a sample survey

Age differences in memory performance were studied in a probability sample of a cross-section of 1,491 adults living in the Detroit metropolitan area, with an oversample of those age 60 and older. Both a recall and a recognition measure were adapted to the survey context by querying respondents about the nature of the questions asked in an immediately preceding interview. Subjective memory assessment was also measured, using global memory ratings performed by the respondent, his or her spouse, and the interviewer. A clear, age-related decline in memory performance was found in this population sample. Subjective memory assessment also declined across age groups, but the relation was weaker. On the basis of multiple regression analyses of the recognition measure and the respondent's self-rated memory, which were judged to have the best measurement qualities, a substantial part of these age differences can be accounted for by differences in sociodemographic composition between age groups, by cognitive functioning and physical health.     

Verbal and visuospatial recall by younger and older subjects: use of matched tasks

In this study, 18 older (over age 65, M = 75.61 years) and 18 younger (below age 40 and over age 17, M = 26.44 years) healthy volunteers were tested on verbal and visuospatial recall. Tasks were matched on discriminating power. Older Ss performed worse than younger Ss on both tasks. The older Ss also showed a larger deficit in visuospatial than in verbal recall, relative to the younger Ss. These results are consistent with the theory of aging according to which verbal tasks are more resistant to deterioration than are nonverbal tasks. A psychological explanation based on lifetime experience with verbal material is preferred over the physiological explanation advocating faster aging of the right hemisphere.     

A perceived control intervention for at-risk older adults

Models of event causation and affective processes were used to design an experimental intervention for older adults. Ss were 2 at-risk populations, recently disabled and recently bereaved, each with matched nonrisk controls. Ss were randomly assigned to a placebo-contact group, a no-contact control group, or a 4-session, 10-week intervention focused on enhancing perceived control. Dependent variables assessed were personal mastery, psychological well-being and distress, positive and negative affect, and measures of daily events and activities. The intervention was nested within a 16-month longitudinal assessment of stress and adaptation processes in a large sample of community residents. The intervention had mixed effects on reports of personal mastery, but it significantly increased engagement in desirable activities and significantly decreased psychological distress and negative affect. Effects tended to be short-lived, however. Effects of the intervention tended to be particularly significant for the disabled group.     

Responding to Student or Teacher Death: Preplanning Crisis Intervention

Crisis caused by the sudden death of a student or teacher can be averted or diminished via a preplanned team intervention approach. The guidelines and strategies of a field-proven intervention program are described.     

Age, exercise, and coding performance

We investigated the effects of exercise on the coding performance of young and older subjects. Hypotheses were tested that exercise either facilitates spatial localization or reduces susceptibility to distraction in older subjects. In a balanced design, we administered Digit Symbol and Symbol Digit coding tasks to exercisers and nonexercisers at two age levels under conditions of low or high within-task interference. The findings showed higher performance by the exercisers than by the nonexercisers only at the older age level and only with the Symbol Digit task. These findings support the hypothesis that exercise compensates for a loss of spatial localization skills with age. We found no evidence that susceptibility to distraction either increased with age or was affected by chronic exercise.     

Frontal lobe dysfunction and memory impairment in patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis

Deficits in semantic encoding have been described in patients with frontal lobe disease who also show memory impairments. As a group, patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) exhibit memory impairment, fail to make effective use of semantic encoding to aid memory, and perform poorly on verbal fluency and concept formation tests which are sensitive to frontal lobe damage. In the present study the semantic encoding capacity of MS patients was measured using a modification of Wicken's release from proactive interference (PI) paradigm. Individual patients varied considerably in the severity of their impairments on verbal fluency, verbal recognition memory and on Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, but even patients who evidenced both memory impairment and signs of frontal lobe dysfunction showed normal release from PI after a categorical shift. Memory disturbances in MS are unlikely to result from an incapacity for semantic encoding, which seems preserved in MS, but may arise instead from deficits in processing information rapidly.     

Mental health expert witnesses: Of science and crystal balls

This article reviews the history of and basis for mental health testimony. It surveys the roles of such experts in the legal system and the concomitant problems with current approaches. Finally, it suggests specific reforms that may improve the use of mental health experts in legal proceedings.     

Principles in judgment/decision making research pertinent to legal proceedings

Principles in the judgment/decision making literature relevant to the legal community are reviewed. These principles are divided into four areas: the decision process itself, communicating a judgment to others, evaluating a decision, and possible ways of “debiasing.” Several influences on the decision process are enumerated, among them being insufficient consideration of base rates, selective memory for relevant material, the framing of the decision in either the domain of losses or the domain of gains, and consideration of the “cues to causation.” Particular attention is paid to suboptimal consideration of covariation information. In communicating the decision to others the two most prominent findings are overconfidence in expressing one's decision and the inability to describe accurately the bases of one's decision. Evaluating a decision is plagued by two biases. The first is the hindsight bias. After an event has occurred we tend to exaggerate how easily we could have predicted the event beforehand. The second is the outcome bias. We tend to base our evaluation of the decision upon the evaluation of the outcome. Among the debiasing techniques mentioned are the admonition to “consider the opposite” of the preferred option, the reduction of reliance on memory, and the use of decision aids.     

Central-place foraging by Rattus norvegicus on a radial maze

We studied central-place foraging in rats (Rattus norvegicus) by placing food items that varied in size and weight at the ends of a 4-arm radial maze. In Experiments 1-3, rats increasingly tended to carry food to the center of the maze as the size of those items increased. Very large food items often were hoarded in the center. Rats consumed food faster on the arms than in the center, and rats traveled faster when carrying food than when not. Blocking arm entrances increased travel time between the center and the arms and decreased food carrying at every item weight except the largest. In Experiments 4-6, important conditions that influence the degree of food-carrying behavior were discovered; these were the intersection of maze arms, the presence of a conspecific, and the use of open vs. closed maze arms.     

Song frequency as a cue for recognition of species and individuals in the field sparrow (Spizella pusilla)

Estimate the amount of frequency variation that affected individual and species recognition by song in territorial male field sparrows with field playbacks of neighbors' songs lowered in frequency in 6 increments between 324 and 1296 Hz. Males gave strong responses to neighbors' songs that had been lowered by about 400 Hz, which is about 11% of the mean midfrequency in field sparrow song. Territorial responses were eliminated when neighbors' songs were lowered by more than about 900 Hz. Thus, there is a fairly narrow range of frequencies within which field sparrow songs can vary while functioning in communication. Ss' responses appear to be constrained by the normal range of song frequency variation within the species, but the range of variability within songs of individuals did not influence the degree of frequency shift required to render neighbors' songs unfamiliar.