Context effects in visual word recognition: Lexical relatedness and syntactic context

In three experiments, we investigated how associative word-word priming effects in German depend on different types of syntactic context in which the related words are embedded. The associative relation always concerned a verb as prime and a noun as target. Prime word and target word were embedded in visually presented strings of words that formed either a correct sentence, a scrambled list of words, or a sentence in which the target noun and the preceding definite article disagreed in syntactic gender. In contrast to previous studies (O’Seaghdha, 1989; Simpson, Peterson, Casteel, & Burgess, 1989), associative priming effects were not only obtained in correct sentences but also in scrambled word lists. Associative priming, however, was not obtained when the definite article and the target noun disagreed in syntactic gender. The latter finding suggests that a rather local violation of syntactic coherence reduces or eliminates word-word priming effects. The results are discussed in the context of related work on the effect of gender dis-/agreement between a syntactic context and a target noun.     

More evidence for a relational shift in the development of analogy: Children's performance on a causal-mapping task

Gentner (1988) has proposed a relational shift whereby children interpret analogy and metaphor first in terms of object similarity and then in terms of relational similarity. Goswami (1996) argues against the relational shift hypothesis, citing as evidence a study performed by Goswami and Brown (1989) in which 3-, 4-, and 6-year-old children were able to correctly complete pictorial A:B::C:? analogies based on familiar causal relations, and, contrary to the predictions of the relational shift hypothesis, made very few object-similarity errors despite the presence of an object-similarity choice. In the present experiment we obtained similarity ratings of Goswami and Brown's stimuli and found that the materials did not contain a true object similarity choice and therefore that study was not an adequate test of the relational shift hypothesis. After appropriate modifications to their methodology, we found that 4- and 5-year-old children's performance was consistent with the relational shift hypothesis: First, object-similarity errors were highly frequent initially and decreased with age; second, the rate of relational (correct) responding increased with age; and third, performance on the analogues was positively related to children's knowledge about the participating causal relations. We conclude by proposing an explanation for the relational shift based on an alignment view of similarity comparison and, further, suggest a new role for object similarity in children's analogical development.     

Learning to Teach: The Acquisition and Maintenance of Teaching Skills

We reviewed 49 studies which used direct observation procedures to provide data on the effects of pre-service and inservice training in practical classroom teaching behaviors and skills. We found stronger effects for training packages which included classroom practice with performance feedback. The research provided conflicting evidence regarding the value of modeling, role-play, cueing systems, and contingency management components in practical skills training. The weakest training effects were those produced by microteaching, Minicourse, and protocol training packages. Twenty of the evaluations also provided follow-up data but the design of these studies did not permit any conclusions to be drawn regarding the training conditions which are necessary for the maintenance of newly acquired classroom teaching skills. We concluded that identification of the training conditions which are necessary for the maintenance of new teaching skills will require more thoughtful conceptualizations of maintenance and its measurement, and more carefully designed component analyses of those factors suggested by basic research as being necessary for maintenance.     

Two critical periods of protein and glycoprotein synthesis in memory consolidation for visual categorization learning in chicks

A protein synthesis inhibitor, anisomycin (ANI), and an inhibitor of glycoprotein synthesis, 2-deoxygalactose (2-D-gal), were used to investigate memory consolidation following visual categorization training in 2-day-old chicks. ANI (0.6 micromole/chick) and 2-D-gal (40 micromoles/chick) were injected intracerebrally at different time intervals from 1 hr before to 23 hr after the training. Retention was tested 24 hr post-training. Both ANI and 2-D-gal injections revealed two periods of memory sensitivity to pharmacological intervention. ANI impaired retention when injected from 5 min before to 30 min after the training or from 4 hr to 5 hr post-training, thus demonstrating that consolidation of long-term memory in this task requires two periods of protein synthesis. 2-D-Gal first produced an amnesia when it was injected in the interval from 5 min before to 5 min after the training. Injections made between 5 min and 5 hr post-training were without effect on the retention. The second period of memory impairment by 2-D-gal started at 5 hr post-training and lasted until 21 hr after the training. Administration of 2-D-gal made 23 hr after the training did not influence retention in the test at either 24 hr or 26 hr. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that two waves of protein and glycoprotein synthesis are necessary for the formation of long-term memory. The prolonged duration of performance impairment by 2-D-gal in the present task might reflect an extended memory consolidation period for a categorization form of learning.     

Judgments of differences and ratios of numerals

Each subject performed two tasks, dividing a line segment so that either (a) theratio of subjective lengths corresponded to the ratio of the magnitudes of two numerals or (b) thedifference in length was proportional to the numerical difference. Had subjects actually performed two operations on the same scale, the responses would have been nonmonotonically related. Instead, data for the two tasks were nearly identical and ordinally compatible with either a ratio or a subtractive model. The ratio model implied scale values for numerals that were a positively accelerated function of numerical value, inconsistent with previous results. With a nonlinear response function for graphic length, the subtractive model fit well, yielding scale values that were a negatively accelerated function of numerical value and a linear function of previously obtained scales. These results, together with other recent findings, suggest that subjects may perform the same operation in spite of instructions to judge “ratios” or “differences” and that this operation can be best represented by a subtractive model.     

Mnemic neglect: Selective amnesia of one’s faults

The mnemic neglect model predicts and accounts for selective memory for social feedback as a function of various feedback properties. At the heart of the model is the mnemic neglect effect (MNE), defined as inferior recall for self-threatening feedback compared to other kinds of feedback. The effect emerges both in mundane realism and minimal feedback settings. The effect is presumed to occur in the service of self-protection motivation. Mnemic neglect is pronounced when the feedback poses high levels of self-threat (i.e., can detect accurately one’s weakness), but is lost when self-threat is averted via a self-affirmation manipulation. Mnemic neglect is caused by self-threatening feedback being processed shallowly and in ways that separate it from stored (positive) self-knowledge. The emergence of mnemic neglect is qualified by situational moderators (extent to which one considers their self-conceptions modifiable, receives feedback from a close source, or is primed with improvement-related constructs) and individual differences moderators (anxiety, dysphoria, or defensive pessimism). Finally, the MNE is present in recall, but absent in recognition. Output interference cannot explain this disparity in results, but an inhibitory repression account (e.g., experiential avoidance) can: Repressors show enhanced mnemic neglect. The findings advance research on memory, motivation, and the self.