Bilateral saccadic eye movements and tactile stimulation,but not auditory stimulation,enhance memory retrieval

Recent research has shown superior memory retrieval when participants make a series of horizontal saccadic eye movements between the memory encoding phase and the retrieval phase compared to participants who do not move their eyes or move their eyes vertically. It has been hypothesized that the rapidly alternating activation of the two hemispheres that is associated with the series of left–right eye movements is critical in causing the enhanced retrieval. This hypothesis predicts a beneficial effect on retrieval of alternating left–right stimulation not only of the visuomotor system, but also of the somatosensory system, both of which have a strict contralateral organization. In contrast, this hypothesis does not predict an effect, or a weaker effect, on retrieval of alternating left–right stimulation of the auditory system, which has a much less lateralized organization. Consistent with these predictions, we replicated the horizontal saccade-induced retrieval enhancement (Experiment 1) and showed that a similar retrieval enhancement occurs after alternating left–right tactile stimulation (Experiment 2). Furthermore, retrieval was not enhanced after alternating left–right auditory stimulation compared to simultaneous bilateral auditory stimulation (Experiment 3). We discuss the possibility that alternating bilateral activation of the left and right hemispheres exerts its effects on memory by increasing the functional connectivity between the two hemispheres. We also discuss the findings in the context of clinical practice, in which bilateral eye movements (EMDR) and auditory stimulation are used in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.     

Formal Operational Reasoning in African University Students

Few studies have investigated formal operational concepts among Africans. The present study examined formal operational reasoning among African university students. Both Piagetian and neo-Piagetian criteria of 75% and 50% success rate were used for determining the presence of formal operational concepts. Three formal operational concepts—propositional, proportional, and combinatorial reasoning—were assessed among African university students.     

The development and analysis of tutorial dialogues in AutoTutor Lite

The goal of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) that interact in natural language is to emulate the benefits that a well-trained human tutor provides to students, by interpreting student answers and appropriately responding in order to encourage elaboration. BRCA Gist is an ITS developed using AutoTutor Lite, a Web-based version of AutoTutor. Fuzzy-trace theory theoretically motivated the development of BRCA Gist, which engages people in tutorial dialogues to teach them about genetic breast cancer risk. We describe an empirical method to create tutorial dialogues and fine-tune the calibration of BRCA Gist’s semantic processing engine without a team of computer scientists. We created five interactive dialogues centered on pedagogic questions such as “What should someone do if she receives a positive result for genetic risk of breast cancer?” This method involved an iterative refinement process of repeated testing with different texts and successively making adjustments to the tutor’s expectations and settings in order to improve performance. The goal of this method was to enable BRCA Gist to interpret and respond to answers in a manner that best facilitated learning. We developed a method to analyze the efficacy of the tutor’s dialogues. We found that BRCA Gist’s assessment of participants’ answers was highly correlated with the quality of the answers found by trained human judges using a reliable rubric. The dialogue quality between users and BRCA Gist predicted performance on a breast cancer risk knowledge test completed after exposure to the tutor. The appropriateness of BRCA Gist’s feedback also predicted the quality of answers and breast cancer risk knowledge test scores.     

Integration of parafoveal orthographic information during foveal word reading: beyond the sub-lexical level?

Prior research has shown that processing of a given target word is facilitated by the simultaneous presentation of orthographically related stimuli in the parafovea. Here we investigate the nature of such spatial integration processes by presenting orthographic neighbours of target words in the parafovea, considering that neighbours have been shown to inhibit, rather than facilitate, recognition of target words in foveal masked priming research. In Experiment 1, we used the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm to manipulate the parafoveal information subjects received while they fixated a target word within a sentence. In Experiment 2, we used the Flanking Letters Lexical Decision paradigm to manipulate parafoveal information while subjects read isolated words. Parafoveal words were either a higher-frequency orthographic neighbour of targets words (e.g., blue-blur) or a high-frequency unrelated word (e.g., hand-blur). We found that parafoveal orthographic neighbours facilitated, rather than inhibited, processing of the target. Thus, the present findings provide further evidence that orthographic information is integrated across multiple words and suggest that either the integration process does not enable simultaneous access to those words’ lexical representations, or that lexical representations activated by spatially distinct stimuli do not compete for recognition.     

Post‐traumatic factors and resilience: the role of shelter management and survivours' attitudes after the earthquakes in El Salvador (2001)

A participatory research action was undertaken in the two largest shelters established after the earthquakes in El Salvador (2001). One hundred fifteen semi‐structured interviews were carried out among refugees, which later formed the basis for a self‐managed community plan. Comparisons between the two shelters—which differed primarily in whether the grouping of tents was made to reflect the community of origin of the survivors (shelter Santa Gertrudis) or not (shelter El Cafetalón)—showed that refugees in Santa Gertrudis participated more often in community activities, and had more positive emotional memories, fewer feelings of having been humiliated and less emotional discomfort than refugees in El Cafetalón. The results suggest that forms of organisation and management which consider elements of dignity, participation and respect for the capacity of the victims to control their own lives are relevant factors for effective individual and community coping after a catastrophe. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contraceptive behavior and efficacy: the influence of illusion of fertility control and adult attachment tendencies

College students' illusions regarding their vulnerability to risks related to sexual intercourse affect their contraceptive behavior. The authors explored the influence of the illusion of fertility control and attachment tendencies upon contraceptive behavior among 141 male and 251 female self-selected undergraduate students at a small Midwestern university during fall 1993 and spring 1994 semesters. The illusion of fertility control scale (IFCS) was designed to measure the extent to which aspects of the situation present at last intercourse foster an illusion of fertility control. The IFCS attempts to measure the degree to which people believe that they completely control their own fertility, when they are actually taking some degree of fertility risk. 79% of the students were aged 16-24, with the rest older, 90.56% are White, 6.89% Black, 76.3% never-married, 16.6% currently married, and 18.6% had children. Study findings are based upon the analysis of responses from those sexually experienced, never-married, and aged 16-24 years. Multiple regression analyses determined that illusion of fertility control and attachment style were related to contraception, and that 2 subscales of the IFCS were related to contraception. More precisely, a belief in bodily control was associated with less effective current contraceptive use. Females who felt more independence from their partners in making sexual decisions were characterized by a higher contraceptive failure rate. Furthermore, people with a dismissing attachment style reported a history of less reliable contraception.     

The relationship between mothers' and daughters' sex-role attitudes and self-concepts in three types of family environment

Assuming that mothers are significant others in daughters' socialization, this study was conducted to determine if significant relationships exist between mothers and daughters regarding sex-role attitudes and self-concepts. Three types of families were sampled: those where the mother was a full-time homemaker, those where she was employed because of economic necessity, and those where she was employed for personal and professional fulfillment. The results indicated significant relationships between mothers' and daughters' attitudes toward marriage, children, and careers, but not self-concepts. Differences were also found between the three groups of mothers and daughters. Mothers who are involved in careers that are personally salient differ from mothers who are employed because of economic necessity and mothers who are full-time homemakers.