Is knowing believing? The role of event plausibility and background knowledge in planting false beliefs about the personal past

False memories are more likely to be planted for plausible than for implausible events, but does just knowing about an implausible event make individuals more likely to think that the event happened to them? Two experiments assessed the independent contributions of plausibility and background knowledge to planting false beliefs. In Experiment 1, subjects rated 20 childhood events as to the likelihood of each event having happened to them. The list included the implausible target event “received an enema,” a critical target event of Pezdek, Finger, and Hodge (1997). Two weeks later, subjects were presented with (1) information regarding the high prevalence rate of enemas; (2) background information on how to administer an enema; (3) neither type of information; or (4) both. Immediately or 2 weeks later, they rated the 20 childhood events again. Only plausibility significantly increased occurrence ratings. In Experiment 2, the target event was changed from “barium enema administered in a hospital” to “home enema for constipation”; significant effects of both plausibility and background knowledge resulted. The results suggest that providing background knowledge can increase beliefs about personal events, but that its impact is limited by the extent of the individual’s familiarity with the context of the suggested target event.     

Interacting Cache memories: evidence for flexible memory use by Western Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma californica)

When Western Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma californica) cached and recovered perishable crickets, N. S. Clayton, K. S. Yu, and A. Dickinson (2001) reported that the jays rapidly learned to search for fresh crickets after a 1-day retention interval (RI) between caching and recovery but to avoid searching for perished crickets after a 4-day RI. In the present experiments, the jays generalized their search preference for crickets to intermediate RIs and used novel information about the rate of decay of crickets presented during the RI to reverse these search preferences at recovery. The authors interpret this reversal as evidence that the birds can integrate information about the caching episode with new information presented during the RI.     

Caregiver Attitudes About Patients Told They Have Alzheimer's Disease After Truth Disclosure

We wished to determine caregiver attitudes about telling patients they have Alzheimer's disease (AD). At a clinic visit, the patient, caregiver, and other family members were informed of the diagnosis of AD in a frank discussion. Caregivers accompanying patients to the Memory Disorders Clinic (MDC) were interviewed in a postvisit telephone survey 3–12 months after the truth disclosure visit. Of the 37 caregivers of a consecutive series of AD clinic patients we contacted, 35 agreed to the interview. Of those caregivers interviewed, 68.6% agreed that it had been a good idea to tell the patient the diagnosis, although 11.4% disagreed. 74.3% thought that the truth disclosure had not been too upsetting; 20% disagreed. Caregivers with more education were more likely to agree that patients should be informed. Neither the relationship of the caregiver to the patient, the patient's age, sex, education level, nor degree of dementia were predictive of the caregiver's attitude about informing the patient. Most Caregivers agreed with disclosing the diagnosis. Only a small group of patients were judged very upset after hearing the diagnosis. Even for those patients, caregivers generally felt that an honest discussion of the diagnosis had been helpful.     

Prediction of outcome from cognitive-behavioral treatment of irritable bowel syndrome

The presence of a diagnosable Axis I psychiatric disorder predicted significantly (P < 0.001) lower likelihood of significant improvement among 90 irritable bowel syndrome patients given cognitive and behavioral treatments to help the disorder. Other psychological tests, including the MMPI, BDI, STAI, as well as demographic variables, failed to yield significant prediction.     

IDENTIFYING REINFORCERS FOR PERSONS WITH PROFOUND HANDICAPS: STAFF OPINION VERSUS SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT OF PREFERENCES

We evaluated a systematic means of determining stimulus preferences among seven profoundly handicapped persons. Preferences were determined by observing student approach responses to individual stimuli. Results indicated that there were differential stimulus preferences across the multiply handicapped participants. However, results of the systematic assessment did not coincide with the results of a more traditional, caregiver-opinion method of assessing student preferences. A second experiment was then conducted with five participants to evaluate whether stimuli that were assessed to consistently represent preferences would function as reinforcers in skill training programs. Results indicated that stimuli that were systematically assessed to represent student preferences typically functioned as reinforcers when applied contingently. However, preferred stimuli as reflected by caregiver opinion did not function as reinforcers unless those stimuli were also preferred on the systematic assessment. Results are discussed in terms of assisting profoundly handicapped persons by (a) improving the effectiveness of training programs by increasing the likelihood of using stimuli that have reinforcing value and (b) increasing the overall quality of life by providing preferred stimuli in the routine living environment.     

Community,liberty and the practice of teaching

Does the cultivation of liberty undermine communities of practice? The answer depends significantly on what is meant by the cultivation of liberty and on what is meant by a community of practice. On the question of community, the work of Rawls and Sandel serves as a starting point. I examine three conceptions — the instrumental, the sentimental and the constitutive — and attempt to illustrate them with examples of communities of practice. I argue that Sandel's criterion for distinguishing between the sentimental and constitutive conceptions of community does not do the work required of it.On the question of liberty undermining community, I argue that if liberty is taken as license then it is a threat both to communities and to practices, whereas if it is taken as independence then it threatens neither. Two conceptions of independence can be distinguished. One, which is central to liberal political theory, does not presuppose an account of the good; the other, which I argue is central to the flourishing of a community of practice, does. It presupposes that account of the good which is implicit in the end or telos of the practice concerned.     

EFFECTIVENESS OF BRIEF TIME-OUT WITH AND WITHOUT CONTINGENT DELAY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

We evaluated a commonly used component of brief time-out, in which release from time-out is delayed contingent on the occurrence of disruption. Data were collected for one normal and two mentally retarded children on time-out-producing behaviors (aggression and disruption) as well as delay-producing behaviors during time-out (loud vocalizations, out-of-chair, aggression, and disruption). The results of a combination ABAC reversal and multiple-baseline design indicated that, under the conditions used in this investigation, both delay and no delay variations were effective in reducing the frequency of the target behaviors. Implications for the use of time-out to reduce aberrant behaviors are discussed.     

PERCEPTION OF SOCIALIZATION ROLES: A STUDY OF ISRAELI MOTHERS IN TOWN AND KIBBUTZ*

Variations in mothers' role perceptions were studied as a function of (a) the amount of time mothers spend with their children, and (b) the cultural ideology of childrearing that assigns to the mother either sole or shared responsibility for socialization. Four groups of Israeli mothers of toddlers were studied. Among nuclear family mothers 21 had children in nursery school, and 22 had children in fulltime daycare. Among kibbutz mothers 23 lived on Familial kibbutzim where children slept at home, and 22 lived on Communal kibbutzim where children slept apart from their parents. Questionnaires assessed mothers' perceptions of mother and caregiver influence and their use of disciplinary and nurturant techniques. Whereas amount of time did not contribute to variations in role perceptions, childrearing ideology (sole vs shared socialization responsibility) showed strong effects. In accord with nuclear family ideology, daycare mothers perceived mothers as more influential and as using more of all socializing techniques than caregivers. In accord with their ideology of shared responsibilities, kibbutz mothers perceived caregivers to be as influential as mothers. Further, as specified by kibbutz ideology, kibbutz mothers reported that they used nurturance more and disciplinary techniques less than caregivers. The importance of cultural ideology on parents' role perceptions is discussed.     

Morphemic relationships in the lexicon: Are they distinct from semantic and formal relationships?

The influence of morphemic relationships on the repetition priming effect, which is presumed to provide an index of lexical organization, was examined in several experiments. An attempt was made in all experiments to minimize nonlexical contributions to these lexical effects by placing related items in a context of unrelated items. Priming among regularly and irregularly suffixed morphemic relatives, associates, and synonyms was examined. Morphemic relatives and associates yielded significant priming, although priming was largest for regularly suffixed morphemic relatives. Priming was not obtained for synonyms. In previous research (Napps & Fowler, 1987), priming was not found among orthographically and phonologically related words. The results are interpreted to mean that morphemic priming is not the result of the convergence of semantic, orthographic, and phonological relationships, but rather that morphemic relationships are represented explicitly in the lexicon.