How implicitly activated and explicitly acquired knowledge contribute to the effectiveness of retrieval cues

The extralist cued recall task simulates everyday reminding because a memory is encoded on the fly and retrieved later by an unexpected cue. Target words are studied individually, and recall is cued by associatively related words having preexisting forward links to them. In Experiments 1 and 2, forward cue-to-target and backward target-to-cue strengths were varied over an extended range in order to determine how these two sources of strength are related and which source has a greater effect. Forward and backward strengths had additive effects on recall, with forward strength having a consistently larger effect. The PIER2 model accurately predicted these findings, but a plausible generation-recognition version of the model, called PIER.GR, could not. In Experiment 3, forward and backward strengths, level of processing, and study time were varied in order to determine how preexisting lexical knowledge is related to knowledge acquired during the study episode. The main finding indicates that preexisting knowledge and episodic knowledge have additive effects on extralist cued recall. PIER2 can explain these findings because it assumes that these sources of strength contribute independently to recall, whereas the eSAM model cannot explain the findings because it assumes that the sources of strength are multiplicatively related.     

Are Motor Inhibition and Cognitive Flexibility Dead Ends in ADHD?

Executive dysfunction has been postulated as the core deficit in ADHD, although many deficits in lower order cognitive processes have also been identified. By obtaining an appropriate baseline of lower order cognitive functioning light may be shed on as to whether executive deficits result from problems in lower order and/or higher order cognitive processes. We examined motor inhibition and cognitive flexibility in relation to a baseline measure in 816 children from ADHD and control families. Multiple children in a family were tested in order to examine the familiality of the measures. No evidence was found for deficits in motor inhibition or cognitive flexibility in children with ADHD or their nonaffected siblings: Compared to their baseline speed and accuracy of responding, children with ADHD and their (non)affected siblings were not disproportionally slower or inaccurate when demands for motor inhibition or cognitive flexibility were added to the task. However, children with ADHD and their (non)affected siblings were overall less accurate than controls, which could not be attributed to differences in response speed. This suggests that inaccuracy of responding is characteristic of children having (a familial risk for) ADHD. Motor inhibition and cognitive flexibility as operationalized with mean reaction time were found to be familial. It is concluded that poorer performance on executive tasks in children with ADHD and their (non)affected siblings may result from deficiencies in lower order cognitive processes and not (only) from higher order cognitive processes/executive functions.     

Personality traits and the development of nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug disorders: prospective links from adolescence to young adulthood

The personality traits constraint (CN) and negative emotionality (NE) have been more (CN) or less (NE) consistently associated with alcoholism. The authors examined the association of personality at age 17 with timing of onset and with prospective prediction of nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug disorders 3 years later in a twin sample (569 females; 432 males). Earlier onset of alcohol and drug disorders (by age 17) was related to significantly lower CN compared with later onsets (by age 20); high NE was related to either onset. NE, as well as CN, uniquely predicted new onsets of all 3 types of substance use disorders by follow-up, with preexisting substance disorders taken into account. Personality traits confer generalized risk for developing any substance disorder, though some traits are more strongly linked with some substance disorders than with others.     

Recursive reminding: Effects of repetition, printed frequency, connectivity, and set size on recognition and judgments of frequency

In the present experiments, predictions of common path and recursive-reminding models of recognition (RG) and judgments of frequency (JOFs) were contrasted. The results indicated that each task is affected by study frequency, printed frequency, and associative connectivity. However, effect size analyses indicated that study frequency and item attributes show a double dissociation over tasks. Study frequency has a greater effect on JOFs than on RG, whereas printed frequency and associative connectivity have greater effects on RG than on JOFs. The recursive-reminding model predicts differential effects of study frequency, because it assumes that although both tasks are influenced by familiarity, JOF is more likely to be affected by recollective reminding as a procedure for encoding event frequency. Associative set size effects were absent in each task, suggesting that competitors play no role in either task.     

Social achievement goals: the nature and consequences of different orientations toward social competence

The proposition that achievement goals are applicable to the social domain was examined in four studies. Study 1 established that different orientations toward developing or demonstrating social competence can be seen in individuals' responses to open-ended questions about their social goals and social competence. Studies 2 through 4 evaluated a new survey measure of social achievement goals. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized model of social achievement goals. Convergent and discriminant validity for the new measure of social achievement goals was established. In line with hypotheses, a social development goal was associated with adjustment and a social demonstration-avoid goal was associated with maladjustment both concurrently and longitudinally. A social development goal also was positively related to instructor ratings of students' social adjustment in small classroom settings. A social demonstration-approach goal was most often unrelated to adjustment. The importance of social achievement goals for a comprehensive understanding of social motivation and adjustment is discussed.     

The capacity to symbolise: Ideas and implications

Through a literature review and clinical examples of session material and dreams, this paper explores aspects of the origin and development of the capacity to symbolise. The literature review considers Freud’s thinking on symbols in dreams, hysteria and obsessional neurosis, Klein’s discovery of the importance of unconscious phantasy, Bion’s ideas on the psychotic part of the mind and Bick’s seminal ideas on skin as an important symbolic boundary between psyche and soma. The clinical material in this paper is used to demonstrate the capacity to symbolise, reasons for the impairment of this capacity, and how the translation of symbols through interpretation in a therapeutic setting can enable the symbols to acquire meaning. It includes examples both of the author’s work with adults and of other clinicians’ work with a child and an adolescent in a psychotic state of mind. The paper’s aim is to consolidate the idea that the capacity to symbolise grows out of an optimal early parent/child relationship and that the awareness of the significance of the symbols when they have been interpreted is of crucial importance.     

Does the character-based dimension of stories impact narrative processing? An event-related potentials (ERPs) study

Cognitive Processing - This event-related potentials (ERPs) study investigated online processes of integration of information relating to characters in narrative comprehension. The final sample...     

Positive Thought Induction for Arresting Disease Progression: A Hypnotherapeutic Application in HIV/AIDS

The present research aimed to investigate the effect of positive thought induction through hypnotherapeutic strategies, e.g., package of relaxation, guided imagery, positive suggestions, etc., on the coping strategies, clinical and immune parameters of disease progression in people living with HIV/AIDS(PLWHA). Data were collected from 20 adults HIV+ patients having CD4 count above 250 and plasma viral load less than 5000, screened from a large group of HIV+ patients who had volunteered for the study. A repeated measure design of research was used. Results of post and follow-up tests indicated that positive thought induction through hypnotherapy had yielded significant positive changes in several dimension of coping strategies (e.g., active coping, alcohol/drug abuse, denial, planning, reinterpretation and growth). Similarly, it led to significant increase in different Immunological parameters (e.g.,% of CD4 count, absolute CD4 count, absolute CD8 count, proportion of CD4 to CD8 count, and absolute CD3 count). These results suggest the effective use of hypnotherapy as an adjunct therapy to arrest disease progression and improve quality of life of PLWHA. In addition, the result highlights the effect of positive thoughts in strengthening positive coping strategies and improving immune competence in PLWHA.     

Parental Psychological Control and Childhood Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Perceived Lack of Control

Parental psychological control has been found to relate to the development of childhood anxiety; however, this relation has not been thoroughly examined. The purpose of this study was to understand the nature of the relation between parental psychological control and anxiety symptoms in children, as well as to understand whether this relation is mediated by children’s perceived control. Questionnaires were administered to children ages 8–11. Results indicated a significant relation between parental psychological control and child anxiety symptoms. Results further indicated that this relation was fully mediated by children’s perceptions of how much control they feel they have over events in their lives. These findings suggest that although parental psychological control and a child’s perceived control both contribute to the development of anxiety, it is possible that parental psychological control contributes to the development of anxiety by affecting a child’s perception of control.