Fractionating working memory: consolidation and maintenance are independent processes

In the present study, we required subjects to remember simple objects that were masked to interrupt consolidation and allow us to estimate the rate of information accrual in visual working memory. We compared a consolidation-baseline condition with a consolidation-during-maintenance condition in which subjects needed to remember a set of unmasked items and then were shown to-be-remembered masked items. We hypothesized that if the control processes of consolidation and maintenance are performed by common mechanisms, then consolidation should be less efficient when performed during maintenance than when performed alone. However, we found that an identical amount of information was encoded per unit time in the two conditions. These results indicate that working memory consolidation is not slowed by maintenance and suggest a two-step model of encoding in visual working memory.     

Storage of features, conjunctions and objects in visual working memory

Working memory can be divided into separate subsystems for verbal and visual information. Although the verbal system has been well characterized, the storage capacity of visual working memory has not yet been established for simple features or for conjunctions of features. The authors demonstrate that it is possible to retain information about only 3-4 colors or orientations in visual working memory at one time. Observers are also able to retain both the color and the orientation of 3-4 objects, indicating that visual working memory stores integrated objects rather than individual features. Indeed, objects defined by a conjunction of four features can be retained in working memory just as well as single-feature objects, allowing many individual features to be retained when distributed across a small number of objects. Thus, the capacity of visual working memory must be understood in terms of integrated objects rather than individual features.     

Dating Relationships and the Demand/Withdraw Pattern of Communication

This study examines whether afemale-demand/male-withdraw pattern occurs in datingrelationships and whether this response increases duringdiscussions of difficult topics. One hundred and eightindividuals (women = 60, men = 48) currently in a datingrelationship completed the Communication PatternsQuestionnaire, Short Form (CPQSF) regarding either adifficult or nondifficult discussion. The racialcomposition of the undergraduate student population at thetime the study was conducted was 68.8% Caucasian, 8.9%Hispanic, 8.9% International, 6.0% African American,5.6% Asian American, and 1.8% Native American (data on socioeconomic status were unavailable).Results show that dating couples do employ apredominantly female-demand/male-withdraw pattern, whichincreases in response to difficult discussions. However, this study also found that many dating couplesemployed male-demand/female-withdraw or equaldemand/withdraw patterns. Post hoc tests also showedthat couples exhibiting eitherfemale-demand/male-withdraw or male-demand/female-withdraw patterns weremore ingrained in specific negative behavior patterns,employed more demand/withdraw behaviors, and exhibitedless positive behaviors than couples with an equal demand/withdraw pattern.     

Validation of the URICA-S in Group Therapy: Associations of Stages of Change with Therapeutic Factors and Treatment Outcome

Stages of change could be driving forces to activate the realization of therapeutic factors and symptom change. Consequently, the aims of the present study were to investigate whether the stages of change concept is valid in group therapy settings shown by factor analysis, internal consistencies, and criterion validity. A total of 377 patients completed measures of stages of change, symptom change, and therapeutic factors. A confirmatory factor analysis replicated the stages of change factors for group therapy. Related to the criterion validity, stages of change demonstrated only low, non-significant associations with symptom change, but some stages of change were significant predictors of certain therapeutic factors. Further research is needed to explore whether a stronger focus on motivational stages of change could help to intensify the realization of therapeutic factors in group therapy.     

Motivational reserve: motivation-related occupational abilities and risk of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease

Midlife motivational abilities, that is, skills to initiate and persevere in the implementation of goals, have been related to mental and physical health, but their association with risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) has not yet been directly investigated. This relation was examined with data from the German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe). A total of 3,327 nondemented participants (50.3% of a randomly selected sample) aged 75-89 years were recruited in primary care and followed up twice (after 1.5 and 3 years). Motivation-related occupational abilities were estimated on the basis of the main occupation (assessed at follow-up II) using the Occupational Information Network (O* NET) database, which provides detailed information on worker characteristics and abilities. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the relative risk of developing MCI and AD in relation to motivation-related occupational abilities, adjusting for various covariates. Over the 3 years of follow-up, 15.2% participants developed MCI and 3.0% developed AD. In a fully adjusted model, motivation-related occupational abilities were found to be associated with a reduced risk of MCI (HR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.64-0.92). Motivation-related occupational abilities were associated with reduced risk of AD in ApoE ε4 carriers (HR: 0.48; CI: 0.25-0.91), but not in noncarriers (HR: 0.99; CI: 0.65-1.53). These results suggest that midlife motivational abilities are associated with reduced risk of MCI in general and with reduced risk of AD in ApoE ε4 carriers. Revealing the mechanisms underlying this association may inform novel prevention strategies for decelerating cognitive decline in old age.     

Listening, not watching: situational familiarity and the ability to detect deception

In 4 experiments, the authors investigated the influence of situational familiarity with the judgmental context on the process of lie detection. They predicted that high familiarity with a situation leads to a more pronounced use of content cues when making judgments of veracity. Therefore, they expected higher classification accuracy of truths and lies under high familiarity. Under low situational familiarity, they expected that people achieve lower accuracy rates because they use more nonverbal cues for their veracity judgments. In all 4 experiments, participants with high situational familiarity achieved higher accuracy rates in classifying both truthful and deceptive messages than participants with low situational familiarity. Moreover, mediational analyses demonstrated that higher classification accuracy in the high-familiarity condition was associated with more use of verbal content cues and less use of nonverbal cues.     

Are social value orientations expressed automatically? Decision making in the dictator game

Drawing on the social intuitionist model, the authors studied the hypothesis that social value orientations are expressed automatically in behavior. They compared spontaneous and more deliberated decisions in the dictator game and confirmed that social values determine behavior when responses are based on the automatic system. By means of both mediation and experimental analyses, the authors further demonstrate that the automatic expression of social value orientations is mediated by perceptions of interpersonal closeness. A reasoning process can subsequently override these automatic responses and disconnect decisions from perceptions of interpersonal closeness. This results in lower levels of other-regarding behavior, at least for prosocials.     

What a feeling! Touching sexually laden stimuli makes women seek rewards

We argue that women's previously documented unresponsiveness to sexual primes when making economic decisions may be a consequence of the specific types of primes that have been used (i.e., visual primes). In three studies we show that presenting women with tactile sexual cues does influence their decisions about economic rewards. Similar to the effect found in men, the first study demonstrates that touching a pair of boxer shorts leads to a craving for monetary rewards in women. In the second study it is shown that touching a pair of boxers makes women less loss averse for both money and food. The third study explicitly focuses on the relative effectiveness of tactile versus visual sexual cues in altering women's economic decisions, and reveals that women's willingness-to-pay for economic rewards increases only when the sexual cue is tactile. We suggest that touching (vs. seeing) sexually laden stimuli prompts pre-programmed consummatory Pavlovian responses that promote approaching economic rewards.