Visual associations to retrieve episodic memory across healthy elderly,mild cognitive impairment,and patients with Alzheimer’s disease

Episodic memory tests need to determine the degree to which patients with moderate to severe memory deficits can still benefit from retrieval support. Especially in the case of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), this may support health care to be more closely aligned with patients’ memory capacities. We investigated whether the different measures of episodic memory of the Visual Association Test-Extended (VAT-E) can provide a more detailed and informative assessment on memory disturbances across a broad range of cognitive decline, from normal to severe impairment as seen in AD, by examining differences in floor effects. The VAT-E consists of 24 pairs of black-and-white line drawings. In a within-group design, we compared score distributions of VAT-E subtests in healthy elderly controls, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD (n = 144), as well as in relation to global cognitive impairment. Paired associate recall showed a floor effect in 41% of MCI patients and 62% of AD patients. Free recall showed a floor effect in 73% of MCI patients and 84% of AD patients. Multiple-choice cued recognition did not show a floor effect in either of the patient groups. We conclude that the VAT-E covers a broad range of episodic memory decline in patients. As expected, paired associate recall was of intermediate difficulty, free recall was most difficult, and multiple-choice cued recognition was least difficult for patients. These varying levels of difficulty enable a more accurate determination of the level of retrieval support that can still benefit patients across a broad range of cognitive decline.     

Searching for the structure of coping: a review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping

From analyzing 100 assessments of coping, the authors critiqued strategies and identified best practices for constructing category systems. From current systems, a list of 400 ways of coping was compiled. For constructing lower order categories, the authors concluded that confirmatory factor analysis should replace the 2 most common strategies (exploratory factor analysis and rational sorting). For higher order categories, they recommend that the 3 most common distinctions (problem- vs. emotion-focused, approach vs. avoidance, and cognitive vs. behavioral) no longer be used. Instead, the authors recommend hierarchical systems of action types (e.g., proximity seeking, accommodation). From analysis of 6 such systems, 13 potential core families of coping were identified. Future steps involve deciding how to organize these families, using their functional homogeneity and distinctiveness, and especially their links to adaptive processes.     

The undershoot bias: learning to act optimally under uncertainty

Abstract - Learning in stochastic environments is increasingly viewed as an important psychological ability. To extend these results from a perceptual to a motor domain, we tested whether participants could learn to solve a stochastic minimal-time task using exploratory learning. The task involved moving a cursor on a computer screen to a target. We systematically varied the degree of random error in movement in three different conditions; each condition had a distinct time-optimal solution. We found that participants approximated the optimal solutions with practice. The results show that adults are sensitive to the stochastic structure of a task and naturally adjust the magnitude of an undershoot bias to the particular movement error of a task.     

The effect of signaling in dependence on the extraneous cognitive load in learning environments

Text-based learning media are often used in primary, secondary and university education. Therefore, text designers can support the learner by highlighting the most relevant information by using visual cues. Despite this signaling effect’s broad empirical basis, the extent to which the effectiveness of educational signals is dependent on moderator variables, like the design and layout of the text has not been investigated to date. In the current experiment, 138 university students learned about the formation of tsunamis from an instructional text. The text was manipulated in terms of signaling (color cues vs. no color cues) and induced learning-irrelevant extraneous cognitive load (fluent text font vs. disfluent text font). The results revealed that learners who had received the signaled text outperformed those who received the non-signaled text in terms of transfer performance. These results are explained by cognitive load, which was reduced in the signaling condition. The text font had no influence on the learning outcomes. Extraneous load induction further led to higher metacognitive accuracy and invested effort, while cognitive load and frustration were also increased. Interaction effects only occurred in terms of testing time, ease of learning and navigation. Results indicate that signaling is beneficial for transfer performance, independent of the font design of text.

     

Correction to: The effect of signaling in dependence on the extraneous cognitive load in learning environments

Cognitive Processing -     

Witnesses’ memory for events and faces under elevated levels of intoxication

Research on alcohol and witness memory has burgeoned over the last decade. However, most studies have tested participants at relatively low breath alcohol concentration (BAC) levels, unrepresentative of those encountered by officers in the field. To examine how higher intoxication levels might impair witness memory for events and faces, the current research tested participants’ ability to recall a mock crime at elevated BAC levels (>.08%). The BAC levels of bar patrons (N?=?138) were recorded before witnessing a video-taped mock crime. Participants were then interviewed using free recall and cued questions and shown a six-person target-present or target-absent lineup. Results show that alcohol negatively affected both the quantity and quality of recall. Regardless of question format, alcohol also reduced the percentage of accurate information elicited from witnesses; however, only cued questions increased the percentage of inaccurate information reported. Intoxication had no effect on identification accuracy. These findings suggest that the encoding and storage systems for faces and events may be impacted differently by alcohol. Our results also highlight the importance of including higher BAC levels when examining the effects of alcohol on witness memory.     

Identifying learning patterns of children at risk for Specific Reading Disability

Differences in learning patterns of vocabulary acquisition in children at risk (+SRD) and not at risk (?SRD) for Specific Reading Disability (SRD) were examined using a microdevelopmental paradigm applied to the multi‐trial Foreign Language Learning Task (FLLT; Baddeley et al., 1995). The FLLT was administered to 905 children from rural Chitonga‐speaking Zambia. A multi‐group Latent Growth Curve Model (LGCM) was implemented to study interindividual differences in intraindividual change across trials. Results showed that the +SRD group recalled fewer words correctly in the first trial, learned at a slower rate during the subsequent trials, and demonstrated a more linear learning pattern compared to the ?SRD group. This study illustrates the promise of LGCM applied to multi‐trial learning tasks, by isolating three components of the learning process (initial recall, rate of learning, and functional pattern of learning). Implications of this microdevelopmental approach to SRD research in low‐to‐middle income countries are discussed.     

Scanning the "Fringe" of consciousness: what is felt and what is not felt in intuitions about semantic coherence

In intuitions concerning semantic coherence participants are able to discriminate above chance whether a word triad has a common remote associate (coherent triad) or not (incoherent triad). These intuitions are driven by increased fluency in processing coherent triads compared to incoherent triads, which in turn triggers a brief and short positive affect. The present work investigates which of these internal cues, fluency or positive affect, is the actual cue underlying coherence intuitions. In Experiment 1, participants liked coherent word triads more than incoherent triads, but did not rate them as being more fluent in processing. In Experiment 2, participants could intuitively detect coherence when they misattributed fluency to an external source, but lost this intuitive ability when they misattributed affect. It is concluded that the coherence-induced fluency by itself is not consciously experienced and not used in the coherence intuitions, but the fluency-triggered affective consequences.