Directed forgetting and aging: the role of retrieval processes, processing speed, and proactive interference

The directed forgetting effect obtained with the item method is supposed to depend on both selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered (TBR) items and attentional inhibition of to-be-forgotten (TBF) items. In this study, we investigated the locus of the directed forgetting deficit in older adults by exploring the influence of recollection and familiarity-based retrieval processes on age-related differences in directed forgetting. Moreover, we explored the influence of processing speed, short-term memory capacity, thought suppression tendencies, and sensitivity to proactive interference on performance. The results indicated that older adults' directed forgetting difficulties are due to decreased recollection of TBR items, associated with increased automatic retrieval of TBF items. Moreover, processing speed and proactive interference appeared to be responsible for the decreased recall of TBR items.     

Rethinking Social Participation: The Case of Immigrants in Canada

The social engagement of Canada’s immigrants continues to be the subject of debates. Most studies indicate a lower level of involvement, particularly for recent immigrants. This article investigates the possible causes of this lower participation by analyzing data from the 1998 General Social Survey (GSS), which provides precise measures of two different types of social engagement: volunteering and social participation. Three results stand out. First, formal volunteering and broader social participation do not display the same level of variability across groups. Second, the positive family effect usually observed does not apply to immigrants: the presence of children does not significantly increase their social engagement. Third, there is a strong gender component: whereas Canadian women are more likely to participate, immigrant women are not. Other factors (age, income, education), on the other hand, do seem to apply to both groups. We suggest that these results contribute to a new explanation of immigrant social engagement: Rather than being marked by a general immigration differential, newcomers to Canada seem to be left out of very specific, gender-influenced modes of participation, specifically, those related to the family, children, and schooling.     

Depressive symptoms in early marriage: predictions from relationship confidence and negative marital interaction.

The authors proposed a model of depressive symptoms in early marriage in which relationship confidence, defined as perceived couple-level efficacy to manage conflicts and maintain a healthy relationship, mediates the effect of negative marital interactions on depressive symptoms. The model was tested in a sample of 139 couples assessed prior to marriage and 1 year later. As predicted, relationship confidence demonstrated simple negative associations with negative marital interaction and depressive symptoms for all participants. Longitudinal path analyses supported the mediational model for women only. In women but not men, negative marital interaction indirectly had an impact on depressive symptoms through the mediator of relationship confidence. Findings suggest that relationship confidence may be important to understanding links between marital distress and depressive symptoms, especially in women.     

Family Therapy, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

In this article we use our experience with ballroom dancing to revisit three central systemic/relational ideas—summativity, pragmatics/aesthetics, and communication—in order to reaffirm our theoretical grounding in family therapy and to connect that grounding to community-mindedness in therapy. Community-mindedness consists of deliberate attention to the socially constructed grand narratives that dominate clients and therapists in the process of therapy. A detailed example is provided. Thanks to Leo Sayer     

The probability of causal conditionals

Conditionals in natural language are central to reasoning and decision making. A theoretical proposal called the Ramsey test implies the conditional probability hypothesis: that the subjective probability of a natural language conditional, P(if p then q), is the conditional subjective probability, P(q/p). We report three experiments on causal indicative conditionals and related counterfactuals that support this hypothesis. We measured the probabilities people assigned to truth table cases, P(pq), P(p notq), P( notpq) and P( notp notq). From these ratings, we computed three independent predictors, P(p), P(q/p) and P(q/ notp), that we then entered into a regression equation with judged P(if p then q) as the dependent variable. In line with the conditional probability hypothesis, P(q/p) was by far the strongest predictor in our experiments. This result is inconsistent with the claim that causal conditionals are the material conditionals of elementary logic. Instead, it supports the Ramsey test hypothesis, implying that common processes underlie the use of conditionals in reasoning and judgments of conditional probability in decision making.     

Deployment of spatial attention to words in central and peripheral vision

Four perceptual identification experiments examined the influence of spatial cues on the recognition of words presented in central vision (with fixation on either the first or last letter of the target word) and in peripheral vision (displaced left or right of a central fixation point). Stimulus location had a strong effect on word identification accuracy in both central and peripheral vision, showing a strong right visual field superiority that did not depend on eccentricity. Valid spatial cues improved word identification for peripherally presented targets but were largely ineffective for centrally presented targets. Effects of spatial cuing interacted with visual field effects in Experiment 1, with valid cues reducing the right visual field superiority for peripherally located targets, but this interaction was shown to depend on the type of neutral cue. These results provide further support for the role of attentional factors in visual field asymmetries obtained with targets in peripheral vision but not with centrally presented targets.     

Exploring Power and Gender Issues Emergent in an Institutional Workshop on Preventing Clergy Sexual Misconduct

The Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) sponsors the Crossing the Boundaries (CTB) workshop, a program that focuses on the maintenance of appropriate boundaries in clergy-congregant relationships as a means to prevent clergy sexual misconduct. Drawing primarily on an analysis of the synod-sanctioned workshop materials, an observation of the workshop, and interviews with 10 pastors who have attended the workshop, this paper explores differing conceptions of power and gender held by the synod officials and workshop participants.     

Functional neuroimaging of autobiographical memory

Functional neuroimaging studies of autobiographical memory have grown dramatically in recent years. These studies are important because they can investigate the neural correlates of processes that are difficult to study using laboratory stimuli, including: (i) complex constructive processes, (ii) recollective qualities of emotion and vividness, and (iii) remote memory retrieval. Constructing autobiographical memories involves search, monitoring and self-referential processes that are associated with activity in separable prefrontal regions. The contributions of emotion and vividness have been linked to the amygdala and visual cortex respectively. Finally, there is evidence that recent and remote autobiographical memories might activate the hippocampus equally, which has implications for memory-consolidation theories. The rapid development of innovative methods for eliciting personal memories in the scanner provides the opportunity to delve into the functional neuroanatomy of our personal past.     

Situational effects may account for gain scores in cognitive ability testing: A longitudinal SEM approach

Mean gain scores for cognitive ability tests between two sessions in a selection setting are now a robust finding, yet not fully understood. Many authors do not attribute such gain scores to an increase in the target abilities. Our approach consists of testing a longitudinal SEM model suitable to this view. We propose to model the scores' changes of a battery of tests between two sessions with a single factor, namely the change in the situational component of the scores. The situational component encompasses all effects due to the specificity of the state of the person in the current situation (e.g., anxiety level, tiredness, test-taking practice) and is allowed to vary from one session to another. By definition, this single component is supposed to influence all tests at a given session. In particular cases such as high-stake selection settings, where applicants are likely to train themselves before retaking the tests, situational factors might even suffice to explain mean score increases. Empirically, our latent change model closely fitted the scores of 752 applicants for entry into the French Aircraft Pilot Training, gathered on a set of three tests (visual perception, mechanical comprehension, and selective attention). Gain scores of moderate to strong effect sizes could be explained by common situational effects, with no need for admitting change on ability components. Therefore, gain scores may be understood as construct-irrelevant changes.