No aging bias favoring memory for positive material: evidence from a heterogeneity-homogeneity list paradigm using emotionally toned words

Some authors argue for a memory advantage of older adults for positively toned material. To investigate the contribution of selective processing to a positivity effect, the authors investigated young (n = 72, aged 18 to 31) and older (n = 72, aged 64 to 75) adults' memory for emotionally toned words using a multitrial paradigm that compares performance for heterogeneous (mixed valence) and homogeneous (single valence) lists. Regarding the age comparison, there was no evidence for an aging bias favoring positive material. Moreover, older adults' memory was less affected by emotion-based processing prioritization. Although there was no support for age-specific processing biases in memory for emotionally toned words, the findings are consistent with proposals that negative information receives processing priority in some contexts. Possible limits to the generalizability of the present findings (e.g., to nonverbal material) are discussed.     

Psychometric properties of the Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination

Criterion-referenced (Livingston) and norm-referenced (Gilmer-Feldt) techniques were used to measure the internal consistency reliability of Folstein's Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) on a large sample (N = 418) of elderly medical patients. Two administration and scoring variants of the MMSE Attention and Calculation section (Serial 7s only and WORLD only) were investigated. Livingston reliability coefficients (rs) were calculated for a wide range of cutoff scores. As necessary for the calculation of the Gilmer-Feldt r, a factor analysis showed that the MMSE measures three cognitive domains. Livingston's r for the most widely used MMSE cutoff score of 24 was .803 for Serial 7s and .795 for WORLD. The Gilmer-Feldt internal consistency reliability coefficient was .764 for Serial 7s and .747 for WORLD. Item analysis showed that nearly all of the MMSE items were good discriminators, but 12 were too easy. True score confidence intervals should be applied when interpreting MMSE test scores.     

Differential induction of c-Jun and Fos-like proteins in rat hippocampus and dorsal striatum after training in two water maze tasks

Research examining the neuroanatomical bases of memory in mammals suggests that the hippocampus and dorsal striatum are parts of independent memory systems that mediate "cognitive" and stimulus-response "habit" memory, respectively. At the molecular level, increasing evidence indicates a role for immediate early gene (IEG) expression in memory formation. The present experiment examined whether acquisition of cognitive and habit memory result in differential patterns of IEG protein product expression in these two brain structures. Adult male Long-Evans rats were trained in either a hippocampal-dependent spatial water maze task, or a dorsal striatal-dependent cued water maze task. Ninety minutes after task acquisition, brains were removed and processed for immunocytochemical procedures, and the number of cells expressing Fos-like immunoreactivity (Fos-like-IR) and c-Jun-IR in sections from the dorsal hippocampus and the dorsal striatum were counted. In the dorsal hippocampus of rats trained in the spatial task, there were significantly more c-Jun-IR pyramidal cells in the CA1 and CA3 regions, relative to rats that had acquired the cued task, yoked controls (free-swim), or na?ve (home cage) rats. Relative to rats receiving cued task training and control conditions, increases in Fos-like IR were also observed in the CA1 region of rats trained in the spatial task. In rats that had acquired the cued task, patches of c-Jun-IR were observed in the posteroventral striatum; no such patches were evident in rats trained in the spatial task, yoked-control rats, or na?ve rats. The results demonstrate that IEG protein product expression is up-regulated in a task-dependent and brain structure-specific manner shortly after acquisition of cognitive and habit memory tasks.     

Liberalism and the Privatised Family: The Legacy of Rousseau

This article argues that the intellectual legacy of Rousseau is at the root of the failure of 20th century egalitarian theorists such as Rawls and Dworkin to engage intellectually with feminist theorists working within the liberal tradition. Through an extended critique of Rousseau’s delineation of the relationship between liberal citizenship and the private family, it argues that the failure of such liberal theorists to take gender hierarchy seriously is a consequence of their attempt to place the private family outside the sphere not only of politics, but also of justice.     

Toddlers recognize verbs in novel situations and sentences

Toddlers' (MA=22 and 27 months) ability to extend newly taught verbs to new situational and sentential contexts was investigated. Children were interactively taught two novel verbs, presented in only the transitive frame (e.g. You're lorping the ball), in a playroom setting. They then viewed the verb actions presented on side-by-side monitors and were asked to distinguish the verbs in three test frames (transitive, intransitive, neutral (e.g. lorping)). Both groups demonstrated learning of the verbs in the new situation and generalized the verbs to the intransitive sentence frame, but neither generalized reliably to the neutral frame. We conclude that even 22-month-olds demonstrate considerable context independence in their verb representations.     

Toward a taxonomy of attention shifting: Individual differences in fMRI during multiple shift types

Although task switching is often considered one of the fundamental abilities underlying executive functioning and general intelligence, there is little evidence that switching is a unitary construct and little evidence regarding the relationship between brain activity and switching performance. We examined individual differences in multiple types of attention shifting in order to determine whether behavioral performance and fMRI activity are correlated across different types of shifting. The participants (n=39) switched between objects and attributes both when stimuli were perceptually available (external) and when stimuli were stored in memory (internal). We found that there were more switchrelated activations in many regions associated with executive control—including the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal and parietal cortices—when behavioral switch costs were higher (poor performance). Conversely, activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and the rostral anterior cingulate was consistently correlated with good performance, suggesting a general role for these areas in efficient attention shifting. We discuss these findings in terms of a model of cognitive-emotional interaction in attention shifting, in which reward-related signals in the VMPFC guide efficient selection of tasks in the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices.     

A national survey of health care administrators' views on the importance of various chaplain roles

A random sample of hospital administrators throughout the United States was surveyed about their views on the importance of eleven chaplain roles and functions. The 494 respondents fell into three categories: (1) directors of pastoral care departments (N = 132); (2) administrators of hospitals that have a pastoral care department (N = 180); and (3) administrators of hospitals that do not have a pastoral care department (N = 182). All three groups considered all eleven roles to be relatively important, although administrators of hospitals that do not have a pastoral care department gave lower ratings, overall. Meeting the emotional needs of patients and relatives were seen as chaplains most important roles, whereas performing religious rituals and conducting religious services were seen as least important by all three groups. In all but a few instances, the level of importance that administrators assigned to the various roles were positively related to their ratings of their own religiousness and spirituality (r's = .11 to .26, p < .05).