Schema anticipation in recall: memory process or report strategy?

Summary This article reports an experimental investigation testing the hypothesis that recall reports are systematically biased by the recaller's knowledge about who is to receive the recall report, while that bias is absent from a recognition test. Subjects listened to one of two versions of a story recounting John's visit to the doctor. After the story was read, subjects were asked to recall the story either with standard-recall instructions or with instructions to recall for peers, for Martians, or for a contest. In a fifth condition, subjects performed a filler activity, viz., the recall of a personal experience. After the recall test subjects were administered a recognition test. Between the groups no systematic differences in memory performance were observed in the recognition test. Recall for peers appeared to be poorer than recall in the other conditions. Subjects in the recall for a contest condition scored higher than the subjects in the other groups. Not only did groups differ with respect to bias, but there were also systematic differences in the memory or discrimination scores. The findings are discussed within the framework of schema theory.     

Semantic operations deficits in sentence comprehension

Summary The ability of aphasic patients to comprehend sentences involving the combination of two linguistic operations was tested in a sentence/picture matching task. Sentences included affirmative, negative, uncompared and comparative types. Aphasic patients had significantly greater difficulty in understanding negative-comparative constructions than sentence types involving only a single operation. Comparison of the responses of the aphasic patients with data obtained in a perceptual comparison task revealed that a subgroup of patients had marked difficulty in integrating information in both tasks. The results are interpreted as an indication that some aphasic patients are especially disturbed in their ability to combine several operations in the construction of semantic representations for sentences. It is further argued that this deficit may extend to an inability to integrate information in the perceptual/spatial domain, as suggested by Luria in his discussion of the syndrome of semantic aphasia.The research reported here was supported by NIH research grant 14099 to The Johns Hopkins University. We would like to thank Dr. Annamaria Basili, Chief, Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, Fort Howard Veterans Administration Medical Center, for permission to test the patients. We are indebted to the entire staff of that department for their continued cooperation, and for their many useful comments on the research reported. We also thank Michael Giordano, Conrad Selnick, and Susan Baisley for their assistance in data analysis. A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of B.A.B.B.L.E., Niagara Falls, Canada, March, 1979     

Performance of Faller and Nonfaller Older Adults on a Motor–Motor Interference Task

Typically, falls in older adults occur when 2 tasks are performed simultaneously, due to the increased motor demand required to maintain stability and attention to perform the other task. The authors' purpose was to investigate walking while grasping, transporting, and placing a dowel on a predetermined target while manipulating difficulty levels of the manual task. Faller and nonfaller older adults performed a walking block (manual tasks combined with gait) and a stationary block (upright stance combined with manual tasks). The manual task involved grasping, transporting, and placing the dowel over a target. The results showed that fallers underperformed when compared with nonfallers in the task of placing the dowel over the target. The main difference observed between the groups was found in the condition that required allocation of attention between tasks and greater accuracy in the final placement of the object. Fallers showed gait stability similar to the nonfallers, but fallers were less accurate than nonfallers in the object placement task, especially for the highest level of difficulty. Thus, fallers seem to use a stability-first strategy. Fallers had problems in executing the manual tasks, which suggests a more global change in motor behavior rather than specific changes to balance control.     

Decent Work and Work Motivation in Knowledge Workers: the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital

This article aimed to investigate the role of Decent Work as a predictor of different types of Work Motivation and to explore the possible role of Psychological Capital in mediating this relationship. The Decent Work Questionnaire, the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale, and the Psychological Capital Questionnaire were administered to 3004 knowledge workers, in Portugal and Brazil. Results from Structural Equation Modeling analyses support the hypothesized model, showing the predictor role of Decent Work and complete and partial mediation effects of PsyCap in different relationships between DW and Work motivation variables. The results also support the idea that a decent work context predicts more autonomous work motivations again with the mediation of PsyCap. In sum, the results suggest that decent work plays an important role in promoting a positive approach to work, and that Psychological Capital is an important mediating variable in the promotion of autonomous Work motivation. Limitations and practical implications conclude the article.     

Capuchin monkeys are not prosocial in an instrumental helping task

Comparative research can shed light on the evolutionary roots and cognitive underpinnings of prosocial behavior by revealing not only positive instances of prosocial motivations in other species, but also the boundary conditions of these motivations. To explore factors that may constrain prosocial behavior, we examined whether brown capuchins (Cebus apella), which demonstrate regard for the welfare of conspecifics in other contexts, would behave prosocially in a minimal-cost instrumental helping task. We observed that when given the opportunity to share tokens that allow a conspecific to obtain food from an apparatus, capuchins showed no regard for another individual's welfare. Subjects transferred tokens to an adjacent chamber when the apparatus was present, but did so just as often when the chamber was empty as when there was a recipient present to obtain food. While capuchins are sensitive to others' welfare in some contexts, the current results suggest that they do not spontaneously produce goal-specific helping actions on behalf of a conspecific. The lack of regard for others exhibited in this context provides insights into the factors that may constrain prosocial behavior in capuchins and other primate species.     

Prevalence and associated factors with body image dissatisfaction among adults in southern Brazil: A population-based study

We investigated the prevalence of body image dissatisfaction (BID) and associated factors in Florianopolis, Brazil. BID was analyzed in a sample (N = 1720) of adults through the Figure Rating Scale. The independent variables were sociodemographic factors, health behaviors, and morbidities. A multinomial logistic regression analysis was used. More men (14.2%) than women (6.1%) presented BID by being lighter than ideal (LI). Conversely, more women (66.6%) than men (46.3%) showed BID by being heavier than ideal (HI). BID by being HI was higher among older women, those with high BMI and those with a partner. In men, lower BMI and the presence of common mental disorders were associated with BID due to being LI. Advanced ages, alcohol abuse, physical inactivity, and obesity were associated with BID due to being HI. We must consider different public health interventions for men and women to reduce BID in Brazilian adults.     

Well-Being Indicators and Convergence Across Italian Regions

This article studies convergence across Italian regions by means of two composite indicators of socio-economic progress reflecting the multidimensional nature of human well-being. The first composite indicator includes, other than household disposable income in Italy, two sub-indicators regarding health and education; the second composite indicator considers, in addition to those considered by the former, three further sub-indicators relating to the quality of the socio-institutional context, age and gender disparities in the labor market and regional competitiveness. The data base of the 17 variables or indexes used to construct the six abovementioned sub-indicators cover the period from 1998 to 2008. We assess the existence of both σ and γ- convergence; the latter computed by means of Kendall′s index. Consistent with the findings in other European countries that also use composite economic and quality of life indicators we find evidence of regional σ-convergence in well-being, but do not observe significant processes of intra-distributional mobility. In other words, while dispersion across Italian regions in terms of well-being levels declined in the period, the regional ranking remained substantially unchanged.     

Narrow-band 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, and 96 cycles/360 degrees angular frequency filters

We measured human frequency response functions for eleven angular frequency filters using a forced-choice procedure in a supra-threshold summation paradigm. Each of the eleven functions of 17 experimental conditions was measured 4-9 times among 12 observers. Results show that, for the arbitrarily selected filter phases, maximum summation effect occurred at test frequency for all filters. These results lead to the conclusion that there are narrow-band angular frequency filters operating in human visual system mostly through summation surrounded by inhibition at the specific test frequency ranges. Our previous suggestion (Simas and Santos, 2002), arguing that summation for the higher angular frequency filters should occur if background angular frequency contrast were set to a maximum of 5 times the test frequency threshold, was supported.