Limits of the Retrieval-Inhibition Construct: List Segregation in Directed Forgetting

The authors hypothesized that retrieval inhibition in list method directed forgetting could be improved by presenting a task that maximized the segregation step of the retrieval-inhibition process. In Experiment 1, they presented lists of semantically related words in a list method directed-forgetting task to maximize retrieval inhibition. Contrary to predictions, this manipulation eliminated the directed-forgetting effect. The authors further investigated the results of Experiment 1 in Experiments 2 and 3 by manipulating recall instructions and by presenting lists that contained both a categorized and an unrelated list-half. They found directed-forgetting effects for semantically related word lists when participants were asked to recall only the TBR (to-be-remembered) items but not when participants were asked to recall both the TBF (to-be-forgotten) and TBR items. They also found that directed-forgetting effects were not produced when categorized items were presented in the 1st list.     

Emotional enhancement effect of memory: removing the influence of cognitive factors

According to the modulation hypothesis, arousal is the crucial factor in the emotional enhancement of memory (EEM). However, the multifactor theory of the EEM recently proposed that cognitive characteristics of emotional stimuli, e.g., relatedness and distinctiveness, also play an important role. The current study aimed to investigate the individual contribution of arousal to the neural correlates of the EEM by controlling for these additional cognitive factors. We observed the characteristic neuronal correlates of the EEM, in particular enhanced activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, which provides evidence for an arousal-driven EEM in the amygdala as proposed by the modulation hypothesis.     

When the half-full glass is appraised as half empty and memorised as completely empty: mood-congruent true and false recognition in depression is modulated by salience

Since the 1980s a large body of empirical effort has been devoted to mood-congruent memory (MCM) biases in clinical depression. Whereas there is broad, albeit not unequivocal, evidence that depressive patients retain negative-valenced memory items better than neutral material, few studies have investigated false memories in depression. In a pilot study we gathered support for both enhanced true and false memory for emotional material in depression. The present study aimed to extend these preliminary findings. In view of investigations suggesting that arousing and meaningful stimuli have facilitated access to memory, personal salience was considered a moderator for MCM. In the present study 21 depressed and 22 healthy participants were presented six false memory lists dealing with neutral, negative, and positive themes. At recognition, each item had to be appraised for its degree of valence subsequent to an old-new judgement. Pre-categorised and subjective valence did not discriminate groups. However, relative to controls depressed patients showed both more veridical as well as false recognition for items that concurrently elicited higher salience ratings in patients. In contrast, group differences in recognition performance did not significantly affect salience ratings. Results indicate that salience modulates MCM and may account for discrepancies in the literature.     

Factors Associated with Interest in Gene-Panel Testing and Risk Communication Preferences in Women from <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/2</Emphasis> Negative Families

Scientific advances have allowed the development of multiplex gene-panels to assess many genes simultaneously in women who have tested negative for BRCA1/2. We examined correlates of interest in testing for genes that confer modest and moderate breast cancer risk and risk communication preferences for women from BRCA negative families. Female first-degree relatives of breast cancer patients who tested negative for BRCA1/2 mutations (N = 149) completed a survey assessing multiplex genetic testing interest and risk communication preferences. Interest in testing was high (70 %) and even higher if results could guide risk-reducing behavior changes such as taking medications (79 %). Participants preferred to receive genomic risk communications from a variety of sources including: primary care physicians (83 %), genetic counselors (78 %), printed materials (71 %) and the web (60 %). Factors that were independently associated with testing interest were: perceived lifetime risk of developing cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 1.67: 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.06–2.65) and high cancer worry (OR = 3.12: CI 1.28–7.60). Findings suggest that women from BRCA1/2 negative families are a unique population and may be primed for behavior change. Findings also provide guidance for clinicians who can help develop genomic risk communications, promote informed decision making and customize behavioral interventions.     

Understanding Gender and Intimate Partner Violence from an International Perspective

This paper reviews the international literature on intimate partner violence with a focus on gender differences in perpetration and victimization rates. A total of 35 studies from 21 countries are discussed that report prevalence or incidence rates of men’s and women’s involvement in physical and/or sexual aggression against an intimate partner. In addition, evidence on risk factors as well as consequences of intimate partner violence for men and women is presented. Conceptual and methodological differences between the studies and the lack of comparable databases within countries are discussed as limitations of the evidence, and perspectives for future research are outlined in the framework of cross-cultural psychology.     

Mathematical models in Newton's Principia: A new view of the ‘Newtonian Style’

In this essay I argue against I. Bernard Cohen's influential account of Newton's methodology in the Principia: the ‘Newtonian Style’. The crux of Cohen's account is the successive adaptation of ‘mental constructs’ through comparisons with nature. In Cohen's view there is a direct dynamic between the mental constructs and physical systems. I argue that his account is essentially hypothetical‐deductive, which is at odds with Newton's rejection of the hypothetical‐deductive method. An adequate account of Newton's methodology needs to show how Newton's method proceeds differently from the hypothetical‐deductive method. In the constructive part I argue for my own account, which is model based: it focuses on how Newton constructed his models in Book I of the Principia. I will show that Newton understood Book I as an exercise in determining the mathematical consequences of certain force functions. The growing complexity of Newton's models is a result of exploring increasingly complex force functions (intra‐theoretical dynamics) rather than a successive comparison with nature (extra‐theoretical dynamics). Nature did not enter the scene here. This intra‐theoretical dynamics is related to the ‘autonomy of the models’.     

Shielding voices: The modulation of binding processes between voice features and response features by task representations

Vocal events offer not only semantic-linguistic content but also information about the identity and the emotional-motivational state of the speaker. Furthermore, most vocal events have implications for our actions and therefore include action-related features. But the relevance and irrelevance of vocal features varies from task to task. The present study investigates binding processes for perceptual and action-related features of spoken words and their modulation by the task representation of the listener. Participants reacted with two response keys to eight different words spoken by a male or a female voice (Experiment 1) or spoken by an angry or neutral male voice (Experiment 2). There were two instruction conditions: half of participants learned eight stimulus-response mappings by rote (SR), and half of participants applied a binary task rule (TR). In both experiments, SR instructed participants showed clear evidence for binding processes between voice and response features indicated by an interaction between the irrelevant voice feature and the response. By contrast, as indicated by a three-way interaction with instruction, no such binding was found in the TR instructed group. These results are suggestive of binding and shielding as two adaptive mechanisms that ensure successful communication and action in a dynamic social environment.     

A Problem with Discretizing Vale–Maurelli in Simulation Studies

Psychometrika - Previous influential simulation studies investigate the effect of underlying non-normality in ordinal data using the Vale–Maurelli (VM) simulation method. We show that...     

Declarative memory consolidation: mechanisms acting during human sleep

Of late, an increasing number of studies have shown a strong relationship between sleep and memory. Here we summarize a series of our own studies in humans supporting a beneficial influence of slow-wave sleep (SWS) on declarative memory formation, and try to identify some mechanisms that might underlie this influence. Specifically, these experiments show that declarative memory benefits mainly from sleep periods dominated by SWS, whereas there is no consistent benefit of this memory from periods rich in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. A main mechanism of declarative memory formation is believed to be the reactivation of newly acquired memory representations in hippocampal networks that stimulates a transfer and integration of these representations into neocortical neuronal networks. Consistent with this model, spindle activity and slow oscillation-related EEG coherence increase during early sleep after intense declarative learning in humans, signs that together point toward a neocortical reprocessing of the learned material. In addition, sleep seems to provide an optimal milieu for declarative memory reprocessing and consolidation by reducing cholinergic activation and the cortisol feedback to the hippocampus during SWS.