John Nash: The Sufferings of Those Who Loved Him

This article, as a sequel to three previous papers on John Nash by Capps (2003, 2004a, & 2004b), focuses on the other side of Nashs beautiful mind by examining the sufferings of those who loved him. Nashs mistress and wife, appear to have suffered the most by Nashs narcissistic and paranoid schizophrenic tendencies due to his noncommittal and disrespectful attitudes. Nashs exploitive and experiential ways of relating to his close male friends (special friendships) seemed to have caused much pain and agony in at least two of his special friends. In addition, Nashs two sons also suffered from his lack of affection and responsibility. Thus it is crucial for people in mental health professionals as well as in pastoral care and counseling not only to care for the mentally ill but also for those who are around him or her.     

Taï chimpanzees anticipate revisiting high-valued fruit trees from further distances

The use of spatio-temporal memory has been argued to increase food-finding efficiency in rainforest primates. However, the exact content of this memory is poorly known to date. This study investigated what specific information from previous feeding visits chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, take into account when they revisit the same feeding trees. By following five adult females for many consecutive days, we tested from what distance the females directed their travels towards previously visited feeding trees and how previous feeding experiences and fruit tree properties influenced this distance. To exclude the influence of sensory cues, the females’ approach distance was measured from their last significant change in travel direction until the moment they entered the tree’s maximum detection field. We found that chimpanzees travelled longer distances to trees at which they had previously made food grunts and had rejected fewer fruits compared to other trees. In addition, the results suggest that the chimpanzees were able to anticipate the amount of fruit that they would find in the trees. Overall, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that chimpanzees act upon a retrieved memory of their last feeding experiences long before they revisit feeding trees, which would indicate a daily use of long-term prospective memory. Further, the results are consistent with the possibility that positive emotional experiences help to trigger prospective memory retrieval in forest areas that are further away and have fewer cues associated with revisited feeding trees.     

Assessing Phonemic Fluency in Multilingual Contexts: Letter Selection Methodology and Demographically Stratified Norms for Three South African Language Groups

Because of their global clinical utility, phonemic fluency tests are frequently incorporated into neuropsychological assessment batteries. However, in heterogeneous societies their use is complicated by the lack of careful attention to using letters of equivalent difficulty across languages, and the paucity of norms stratified by relevant sociodemographic variables. In accordance with the International Test Commission's guidelines for adaptation of test material in multilingual contexts, this study provides (1) an internationally replicable methodological template for selecting appropriate letter sets; (2) empirical evidence to substantiate the equivalence of a letter set across three languages; (3) a template for evaluating the relative impact of sociodemographic variables on phonemic fluency; and (4) appropriately stratified norms for the letter set SBL (English and Afrikaans) / IBL (Xhosa) in a sample (N = 512) of urban participants (7–25 years with 1–17 years of education) from the Cape Town region of the Western Cape province of South Africa.     

The role of temporal delay and repeated prospective memory cue exposure on the deactivation of completed intentions

Previous studies have shown that completed prospective memory (PM) intentions entail aftereffects in terms of ongoing-task-performance decrements in trials containing repeated PM cues which previously served as PM cues triggering the intended action. Previous research reported that PM aftereffects decrease over time, thus revealing a specific time course of PM aftereffects. In the present study, we tested two accounts for this pattern, assuming either that the decline of aftereffects is related to the temporal distance to PM task completion or may be a result of the repeated exposure of repeated PM cues in the ongoing task. In three experiments, we manipulated both the temporal distance to PM task completion and the frequency of repeated PM cues and demonstrated that aftereffects of completed intentions declined with repeated exposure of formerly relevant PM cues. In addition, effects of repeated exposure were not only limited to the repetition of specific PM-cue exemplars but also generalized to other semantically related PM cues within the PM-cue category. Together, findings show that decreased aftereffects of completed intentions are not related to the temporal duration of the subsequent test block, but crucially depend on the repeated exposure of the previously relevant PM cues.     

Results of the healthy body healthy spirit trial.

Healthy Body Healthy Spirit was a multicomponent intervention to increase fruit and vegetable (F & V) consumption and physical activity (PA) delivered through Black churches. Sixteen churches were randomly assigned to 3 intervention conditions. At baseline, 1,056 individuals were recruited across the 16 churches, of which 906 (86%) were assessed at 1-year follow-up. Group 1 received standard educational materials, Group 2 received culturally targeted self-help nutrition and PA materials, and Group 3 received the same intervention as did Group 2 as well as 4 telephone counseling calls based on motivational interviewing (MI) delivered over the course of 1 year. At 1-year follow-up, Groups 2 and 3 showed significant changes in both F & V intake and PA. Changes were somewhat larger for F & V. For F & V, but not PA, there was a clear additive effect for the MI intervention.     

On pacing trials while scanning brain hemodynamics: The case of the SNARC effect

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Experimental designs used to describe psychological effects on overt human behavior are seldom suited to localize their corresponding neural substrates based on...