Word association in early Alzheimer’s disease

The hypothesis that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) degrades semantic representations predicts that AD qualitatively alters spontaneous thoughts. In two experiments contrasting free associations to words with strong (e.g., bride-groom) versus weak (e.g., body-leg) associates participants with AD produced less common responses (e.g., bride-pretty) than normal controls but only for words with strong associations, and only on the first (but not on second or third) association response. Furthermore, all participants produced fewer semantically related responses to words with weak associates. Because strong associations should be retrieved more easily than weak associations these results are problematic for retrieval-based accounts of AD. Instead we propose that AD entails a semantic deficit, and that strong associations involve more semantic processing than weak associations (in all speakers).     

Integrating haptic-tactile feedback into a video-capture-based virtual environment for rehabilitation.

Video-capture virtual reality (VR) systems are gaining popularity as intervention tools. To date, these platforms offer visual and audio feedback but do not provide haptic feedback. We contend that adding haptic feedback may enhance the quality of intervention for various theoretical and empirical reasons. This study aims to integrate haptic-tactile feedback into a video capture system (GX VR), which is currently applied for rehabilitation. The proposed multi-modal system can deliver audio-visual as well as vibrotactile feedback. The latter is provided via small vibratory discs attached to the patient's limbs. This paper describes the system, the guidelines of its design, and the ongoing usability study.     

Work Attitudes and Emotional Responses of Permanent, Voluntary, and Involuntary Temporary-help Employees: An Exploratory Study

On souhaite, avec cette recherche, compléter les travaux empiriques encore rares concernant l'impact du travail intérimaire sur les salarids concerned. On a comparé un échantillon de 90 intérimaires à un autre échantillon composé de 134 titulaires pour ce qui est de l'implication dans le travail, de la satisfaction professionnelle et du stress. Conformément au schema theorique et aux hypothèses opératoires issus de leurs propres déclarations, les intérimaires ont été séparés en deux sous-groupes sur la base du (non) volontariat pour cette forme de travail. Une analyse de variance multivariée (MANOVA) et une analyse de covariance multivariée (MANCOVA) ont mis en évidence des différences significatives au niveau de la satisfaction, mais pas de la motivation, ni du stress lié au rôle.
The current research is an attempt to extend the scant empirical literature addressing the impact of the temporary-help work arrangement on the temporary-help employees (THEs) employed under that arrangement. A sample of 90 THEs was compared to a sample of 134 permanent employees with respect to work involvement, work satisfaction, and stress measures. In accordance with the conceptual framework and the operational hypotheses that were derived and based on their own statements, THEs were divided into those who work on that arrangement voluntarily as opposed to those who worked as THEs involuntarily. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed significant differences only with regard to satisfaction measures and not for work involvement or role stress measures.     

Consensus in personality judgments at zero acquaintance

This research focused on the target effect on a perceiver's judgments of personality when the perceiver and the target are unacquainted. The perceiver was given no opportunity to interact with the target, a condition we refer to as zero acquaintance. We reasoned that in order to make personality judgments, perceivers would use the information available to them (physical appearance). Consensus in personality judgments would result, then, from shared stereotypes about particular physical appearance characteristics. Results from three separate studies with 259 subjects supported this hypothesis. On two of the five dimensions (extraversion and conscientiousness) on which subjects rated each other, a significant proportion of variance was due to the stimulus target. Consensus on judgments of extraversion appears to have been largely mediated by judgments of physical attractiveness. Across the three studies there was also evidence that the consensus in judgments on these two dimensions had some validity, in that they correlated with self-judgments on those two dimensions.     

Selective listening and threshold for tones appearing on a relevant and on an irrelevant input channel

Threshold scores for tones appearing on shadowed and on nonshadowed messages were obtained in order to test whether input presented on an irrelevant channel is attenuated when Ss attend to another channel. Comparisons were made between threshold scores obtained for each ear, when Ss shadowed messages appearing on that ear and when Ss shadowed messages appearing on the contralateral ear. The threshold scores in the two conditions were highly similar. Data are evaluated in the context of auditory target detection, with targets identified by their verbal content vs their physical characteristics.     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire in a Non-Clinical Sample of Israeli Children and Adolescents

This study examined the psychometric properties of a Hebrew version of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ) in a non-clinical sample of Israeli children and adolescents. We produced a Hebrew translation of the BIQ and collected 227 responses to it from parents of children aged 4–15. Some respondents in the larger sample also completed the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) questionnaire (n?=?91) and the Conners’ Abbreviated Parent-Teacher (CONNERS) questionnaire (n?=?39), in addition to the BIQ. Lastly, 21 children of BIQ respondents (aged 8–14) completed a self-report version of the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to assess how well the established six correlated factor model of the BIQ applied to the sample data. The Hebrew BIQ demonstrated good internal consistency (Chronbach’s α?=?.94, n?=?227) and 3 month test–retest reliability, (r?=?.95, p?<?.001, n?=?21). It also showed both convergent validity, as scores on the BIQ were correlated with the SCARED (r?=?.66, p?<?.01. n?=?91), and discriminant validity, as BIQ scores were not correlated with the CONNERS (r?=?.24, n?=?39). Finally, mother reports of BI were significantly correlated to child reports of BI via the BIQ (r?=?.60, p?<?.01, n?=?21). Thus, through this preliminary study we demonstrated that the Hebrew version of the BIQ is an effective tool for screening for BI among Israeli children, making it a useful instrument for future research.     

Direct and indirect effects of multilingualism on novel language learning: An integrative review

Accumulated recent research suggests that prior knowledge of multiple languages leads to advantages in learning additional languages. In the current article, we review studies examining potential differences between monolingual and multilingual speakers in novel language learning in an effort to uncover the cognitive mechanisms that underlie such differences. We examine the multilingual advantage in children and adults, across a wide array of languages and learner populations. The majority of this literature focused on vocabulary learning, but studies that address phonology, grammar, and literacy learning are also discussed to provide a comprehensive picture of the way in which multilingualism affects novel language learning. Our synthesis indicates two avenues to the multilingual advantage including direct transfer of prior knowledge and prior skills as well as indirect influences that result from multilingual background and include more general changes to the cognitive-linguistic system. Finally, we highlight topics that are in need of future systematic research.     

Foregrounding Desire: A Defense of Kant’s Incorporation Thesis

In this paper I defend Kant’s Incorporation Thesis, which holds that we must “incorporate” our incentives into our maxims if we are to act on them. I see this as a thesis about what is necessary for a human being to make the transition from ‘having a desire’ to ‘acting on it’. As such, I consider the widely held view that ‘having a desire’ involves being focused on the world, and not on ourselves or on the desire. I try to show how this view is connected with a denial of any deep distinction between reason and inclination. I then argue for an alternative view of what ‘having a desire’ involves, one according to which it involves being focused both on the world and on ourselves. I show how this view fits naturally with the Kantian distinction between reason and inclination, accounts for independent intuitions about ‘having a desire’, and supports the Incorporation Thesis. I then make some further suggestions about how we might conceive of the object of incorporation.     

A theory of causal learning in children: causal maps and Bayes nets

The authors outline a cognitive and computational account of causal learning in children. They propose that children use specialized cognitive systems that allow them to recover an accurate "causal map" of the world: an abstract, coherent, learned representation of the causal relations among events. This kind of knowledge can be perspicuously understood in terms of the formalism of directed graphical causal models, or Bayes nets. Children's causal learning and inference may involve computations similar to those for learning causal Bayes nets and for predicting with them. Experimental results suggest that 2- to 4-year-old children construct new causal maps and that their learning is consistent with the Bayes net formalism.     

Orthographic structure versus morphological structure: principles of lexical organization in a given language

Most models of visual word recognition in alphabetic orthographies assume that words are lexically organized according to orthographic similarity. Support for this is provided by form-priming experiments that demonstrate robust facilitation when primes and targets share similar sequences of letters. The authors examined form-orthographic priming effects in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Hebrew and Arabic have an alphabetic writing system but a Semitic morphological structure. Hebrew morphemic units are composed of noncontiguous phonemic (and letter) sequences in a given word. Results demonstrate that form-priming effects in Hebrew or Arabic are unreliable, whereas morphological priming effects with minimal letter overlap are robust. Hebrew bilingual subjects, by contrast, showed robust form-priming effects with English material, suggesting that Semitic words are lexically organized by morphological rather than orthographic principles. The authors conclude that morphology can constrain lexical organization even in alphabetic orthographies and that visual processing of words is first determined by morphological characteristics.