Experimental Evaluation of Near‐ and Far‐Transfer Effects of an Adaptive Multicomponent Working Memory Training

An important question in cognitive science today is whether working memory training leads to transfer effects. Training studies reported no transfer as well as far transfer to untrained abilities (e.g., reasoning), but different methodological problems have not allowed reliable conclusions to be drawn. Furthermore, most samples have consisted of young adults, whereas older adults have rarely been included. This study attempted to address these limitations. Ninety‐one older adults were randomly assigned to a training group or an active or passive control group. Short‐term memory, speed, and reasoning were assessed as far‐transfer criteria. In addition, transfer to everyday life was investigated using an ambulatory assessment method. Although there were significant training effects, no transfer effects were found. Instead, the active control group showed the same increase in the near‐transfer tasks (i.e., working memory) as the experimental group indicating that unspecific factors explain the training gains of older adults. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performing a secondary executive task with affective stimuli interferes with decision making under risk conditions

Previous studies demonstrated that executive functions are crucial for advantageous decision making under risk and that therefore decision making is disrupted when working memory capacity is demanded while working on a decision task. While some studies also showed that emotions can affect decision making under risk, it is unclear how affective processing and executive functions predict decision-making performance in interaction. The current experimental study used a between-subjects design to examine whether affective pictures (positive and negative pictures compared to neutral pictures), included in a parallel executive task (working memory 2-back task), have an impact on decision making under risk as assessed by the Game of Dice Task (GDT). Moreover, the performance GDT plus 2-back task was compared to the performance in the GDT without any additional task (GDT solely). The results show that the performance in the GDT differed between groups (positive, negative, neutral, and GDT solely). The groups with affective pictures, especially those with positive pictures in the 2-back task, showed more disadvantageous decisions in the GDT than the groups with neutral pictures and the group performing the GDT without any additional task. However, executive functions moderated the effect of the affective pictures. Regardless of affective influence, subjects with good executive functions performed advantageously in the GDT. These findings support the assumption that executive functions and emotional processing interact in predicting decision making under risk.     

Persönlichkeitsstörung und Intelligenzminderung

There have previously been only few objective investigations on the combined occurrence of intellectual disability and personality disorder. Despite this difficulty, from the current clinical viewpoint there is no doubt that at least people with mild intellectual disability can also develop personality disorders. In slight degrees of intellectual disability it is possible to psychopathologically describe the typical symptoms objectively. For the disorder symptomatic of combined personality disorder in people with an intellectual disability, there are no confirmed facts, publications or diagnostic rules. The diagnostic assignment of behavioral abnormalites as combined personality disorder with dependent and infantile components in people with intellectual diasabilities still does not seem to be justified. In people with medium to severe mental disorders only the comprehensive term “behavioral abnormalities” should be applied.     

The eyes grasp,the hands see: Metric category knowledge transfers between vision and touch

Categorization of seen objects is often determined by the shapes of objects. However, shape is not exclusive to the visual modality: The haptic system also is expert at identifying shapes. Hence, an important question for understanding shape processing is whether humans store separate modality-dependent shape representations, or whether information is integrated into one multisensory representation. To answer this question, we created a metric space of computer-generated novel objects varying in shape. These objects were then printed using a 3-D printer, to generate tangible stimuli. In a categorization experiment, participants first explored the objects visually and haptically. We found that both modalities led to highly similar categorization behavior. Next, participants were trained either visually or haptically on shape categories within the metric space. As expected, visual training increased visual performance, and haptic training increased haptic performance. Importantly, however, we found that visual training also improved haptic performance, and vice versa. Two additional experiments showed that the location of the categorical boundary in the metric space also transferred across modalities, as did heightened discriminability of objects adjacent to the boundary. This observed transfer of metric category knowledge across modalities indicates that visual and haptic forms of shape information are integrated into a shared multisensory representation.     

Epistemic justification in the context of pursuit: a coherentist approach

The aim of this paper is to offer an account of epistemic justification suitable for the context of theory pursuit, that is, for the context in which new scientific ideas, possibly incompatible with the already established theories, emerge and are pursued by scientists. We will frame our account paradigmatically on the basis of one of the influential systems of epistemic justification: Laurence Bonjour’s coherence theory of justification. The idea underlying our approach is to develop a set of criteria which indicate that the pursued system is promising of contributing to the epistemic goal of robustness of scientific knowledge and of developing into a candidate for acceptance. In order to realize this we will (a) adjust the scope of Bonjour’s standards—consistency, inferential density, and explanatory power, and (b) complement them by the requirement of a programmatic character. In this way we allow for the evaluation of the “potential coherence” of the given epistemic system.     

Homo Virtualis: Body,Mind, and Soul in a Virtual World

The virtual reality that stands in the center of the digital revolution is changing the bases of our lives today. This new reality is both a product of the basic human ability of imagination and an essential element of analytical psychology. The close relationship between the activity of imagination and its influence on the body is shown in research results from the oldest known prehistoric figures, dating back between 40,000–30,000 b.c.e., and the experiences derived from the work with robots at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Additionally, how this virtual, body-transforming power is reflected in the current ideas of the transhumanists is examined. In this perspective, the extension of physical abilities via technical skills is a necessary step in human evolution: to transfer the human mind onto a machine as a means of circumventing inherent physical limitations.

The psychodynamics of deep psychological needs, frustrations, and fears are discussed as the motors of technical development. An interpretation of this development, based on the mythological biography of the ancient god Hephaistos, is discussed as showing astonishing parallels to the characteristics of the digital revolution and the transhumanist ideas. Thus, Hephaistos can be understood as an archetypal manifestation of those impulses from the collective unconscious that are significantly affecting our present time. The potentialities as well as the dark sides that are hidden behind such “hephaistic” solutions to deep inner psychological and spiritual conflicts are explored.     

Impairment of Cognitive Function in Different Domains Early After Lung Transplantation

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - In this prospective observational pilot study patients with the diagnosis of end-stage lung disease and listed for lung transplantation...     

Verbal descriptions of spatial information can interfere with picture processing

Two studies are reported that tested the assumption that learning is improved by presenting text and pictures compared to text only when the text conveys non-spatial rather than spatial information. In Experiment 1, 59 students learned with text containing either visual or spatial contents, both accompanied by the same pictures. The results confirmed the expected interference between the processing of spatial text contents and pictures: Learners who received text containing spatial information showed worse text and picture recall than learners who received text containing visual information. In Experiment 2, 85 students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, which resulted from a 2×2 between-participants design, with picture presentation (with vs without) and text contents (visual vs spatial) as between-participants factors. Again the results confirmed the expected interference between processing of spatial text information and pictures, because beneficial effects of adding pictures to text were observed only when the texts conveyed visual information. Importantly, when no pictures were present no differences were observed between learners with either visual or spatial texts contents, indicating that the observed effects are not caused by absolute differences between the two texts such as their difficulty. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Electrophysiological evidence of altered memory processing in children experiencing early deprivation

Associations between early deprivation and memory functioning were examined in 9- to 11-year-old children. Children who had experienced prolonged institutional care prior to adoption were compared to children who were adopted early from foster care and children reared in birth families. Measures included the Paired Associates Learning task from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test and Automated Battery (CANTAB) and a continuous recognition memory task during which ERPs were also recorded. Children who experienced prolonged institutionalization showed deficits in both behavioral memory measures as well as an attenuated P300 parietal memory effect. Results implicate memory function as one of the domains that may be negatively influenced by early deprivation in the form of institutional care.