Unpacking the cognitive map: the parallel map theory of hippocampal function

In the parallel map theory, the hippocampus encodes space with 2 mapping systems. The bearing map is constructed primarily in the dentate gyrus from directional cues such as stimulus gradients. The sketch map is constructed within the hippocampus proper from positional cues. The integrated map emerges when data from the bearing and sketch maps are combined. Because the component maps work in parallel, the impairment of one can reveal residual learning by the other. Such parallel function may explain paradoxes of spatial learning, such as learning after partial hippocampal lesions, taxonomic and sex differences in spatial learning, and the function of hippocampal neurogenesis. By integrating evidence from physiology to phylogeny, the parallel map theory offers a unified explanation for hippocampal function.     

Toward ecologically realistic theories in visual short-term memory research

Recent evidence from neuroimaging and psychophysics suggests common neural and representational substrates for visual perception and visual short-term memory (VSTM). Visual perception is adapted to a rich set of statistical regularities present in the natural visual environment. Common neural and representational substrates for visual perception and VSTM suggest that VSTM is adapted to these same statistical regularities too. This article discusses how the study of VSTM can be extended to stimuli that are ecologically more realistic than those commonly used in standard VSTM experiments and what the implications of such an extension could be for our current view of VSTM. We advocate for the development of unified models of visual perception and VSTM—probabilistic and hierarchical in nature—incorporating prior knowledge of natural scene statistics.     

Michael Polanyi, Tacit Cognitive Relativist

Celebrated as a theorist of science, and a source of stimulating ideas for theologians and philosophers of religion, Michael Polanyi explicitly denied cognitive relativism. Yet cognitive relativism, this paper suggests, is implied by Polanyi's account of conceptual frameworks and intellectual controversies.
In ' The Stability of Beliefs ' (1952) Polanyi understands conceptual frameworks (science, psychoanalysis, Azande witchcraft, Marxism) as embedded in, and as expressed in the use of, their own languages. The language-with-theory limits the range of discussable subjects, interprets relevant facts in its own terms, permits only certain questions to be asked, with answers to these questions serving to confirm the framework.
In Polanyi's masterwork, Personal Knowledge (1958), these ideas inform his discussion of controversies over scientific frameworks and frameworks vying to become part of science. In each controversy, frameworks are logically disconnected, Polanyi foreshadowing the incommensurability thesis
I argue that Polanyi's ideas satisfy recognised criteria of cognitive relativism. Perception is undetermined by objects and conditioned by language. Empirical propositions, in Polanyi's view, are accepted as true only within a conceptual framework. Polanyi regards supporters of logically disconnected frameworks as thinking differently, living in different worlds, speaking different languages and as experiencing communication failure. There is no framework-independent argument or evidence to distinguish any framework as the best available approximation to the truth. Frameworks are logically disconnected and incommensurable.     

Investigating the Efficacy of CoMeT,a New Mediation Model for High-Conflict Separating Parents

Although mediation has been effective for a large number of separating couples, it does not share the same effectiveness for highly conflicted couples, estimated to represent approximately twenty per cent of all separating couples. Twenty-three highly conflicted separating couples were recruited to investigate the impact of a new model that combines mediation with therapy (CoMeT). Comparing pre- and post-intervention scores, significant improvements were found in parent well-being and reductions in parent conflict, acrimony, and attachment. No gender differences were found. Results support this new, gender-neutral CoMeT model which significantly enhances the mediation process for high-conflict separating parents.     

Planning and Problem Solving Skills Following Focal Frontal Brain Lesions in Childhood: Analysis Using the Tower of London

Problem solving skills were investigated in children with focal lesions using the Tower of London test (TOL; Shallice, 1982). The scoring procedure was elaborated from previous studies to delineate separate processes contributing to overall performance in children. Thirty-one children with focal frontal pathology, 18 children with focal pathology in other brain regions (extra-frontal), 17 children with generalized pathology and 38 healthy children participated in the study. Results suggest a distributed network for problem solving skills, particularly cognitive flexibility and goal setting skills. Within the frontal group, children with lesions involving the right pre-frontal cortex had greatest problems with self-regulation, with rule breaks most common among this group. As these skills develop relatively early in comparison to other aspects of executive function, right pre-frontal regions may play a particularly important role in the development of executive skills in childhood, with damage to these regions rendering children vulnerable to a range of cognitive and social deficits.     

Understanding sustainability

Proposed solutions to sustainability often bring different economic sectors into conflict; when a sustainable solution for one sector is non-sustainable for another it creates what we call the dilemma of sustainability. A recent example took place in the Columbia Basin of the Pacific Northwest, involving competing notions of sustainability by fisheries and the energy industry. Taking up some ideas of Eger and Lyotard, we criticize the constructivist approach which treats large ecosystems as constructions and the process of resolving conflicts of sustainability as one solely consisting of negotiations involving the trading off of interests. We propose instead to treat such conflict resolution via a Gadamerian-inspired hermeneutics that sees different economic sectors as having different interpretations of sustainability and that aims at common understanding.     

Colavita dominance effect revisited: the effect of semantic congruity

To investigate the effect of semantic congruity on audiovisual target responses, participants detected a semantic concept that was embedded in a series of rapidly presented stimuli. The target concept appeared as a picture, an environmental sound, or both; and in bimodal trials, the audiovisual events were either consistent or inconsistent in their representation of a semantic concept. The results showed faster detection latencies to bimodal than to unimodal targets and a higher rate of missed targets when visual distractors were presented together with auditory targets, in comparison to auditory targets presented alone. The findings of Experiment 2 showed a cross-modal asymmetry, such that visual distractors were found to interfere with the accuracy of auditory target detection, but auditory distractors had no effect on either the speed or the accuracy of visual target detection. The biased-competition theory of attention (Desimone & Duncan Annual Review of Neuroscience 18: 1995; Duncan, Humphreys, & Ward Current Opinion in Neurobiology 7: 255–261 1997) was used to explain the findings because, when the saliency of the visual stimuli was reduced by the addition of a noise filter in Experiment 4, visual interference on auditory target detection was diminished. Additionally, the results showed faster and more accurate target detection when semantic concepts were represented in a visual rather than an auditory format.     

Weibull analysis of the biaxial fracture strength of a cast p-type LAST-T thermoelectric material

This is the first study applying Weibull statistics to the strength distribution of a thermoelectric (TE) material and to determine the fracture strength of a member of the LAST-T (lead–antimony–silver–tellurium–tin) family of high-temperature TE compounds. The p-type TE material Ag_0.9Pb₉Sn₉Sb_0.6Te₂₀ was cast from the melt and specimens cut from the resulting ingot were fractured in a ball-on-ring biaxial fracture test. The Weibull parameters (characteristic strength and Weibull modulus) were obtained from the fracture data. Implications of the Weibull analysis on the fabrication of TE devices are discussed.     

Extreme thinking in clinically depressed adolescents: Results from the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS)

The purpose of this report is to examine relations between extreme thinking, as measured by the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, and the maintenance of gains among adolescents who participated in the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). We examine extreme thinking among 327 adolescents (mean age = 14.56, 57% female, 75% White) who received cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), fluoxetine (FLX), or a combination of CBT and FLX (COMB). Among those who met remission status on the Children’s Depression Rating Scale - Revised (CDRS-R ≤ 28; 56 at week 12, 79 at week 18) extreme thinking did not predict failure to maintain remission. This is in contrast to findings with depressed adults. Treatment influenced level of extreme thinking, and this appeared to be driven by greater endorsement of positively valenced beliefs as opposed to a decrease in negatively valenced beliefs. Developmental or investigation characteristics may account for the discrepancy in findings.     

O-Cam: A new paradigm for investigating the effects of ostracism

A new ostracism paradigm—O-Cam—was designed to combine the best qualities of both social ostracism (i.e., face-to-face interaction between the target and sources of ostracism) and cyber ostracism (i.e., confederatefree, highly controlled designs) paradigms. O-Cam consists of a simulated Web conference during which participants are either ostracized or included by 2 other participants whose actions, unbeknownst to the participants, are actually pretaped. The findings of preliminary studies indicate that O-Cam provides a powerful ostracism experience that yields psychological and behavioral responses that are consistent with those in other ostracism paradigms (e.g., Cyberball; Williams, 2007). Moreover, unlike in many previous ostracism paradigms, O-Cam provides researchers with the flexibility to manipulate the physical appearance and the verbal/nonbehavior of the sources of ostracism without the need for confederates.