Retrieval failure, rehearsal deficiency, and short-term memory loss in the aphasic adult

Studies show that aphasic patients typically are grossly impaired in short-term memory performance. Since aphasics generally experience difficulty in word retrieval, it is conceivable that short-term memory loss is partially the result of verbal rehearsal deficiency which, in turn, is caused by the word retrieval problem. This paper reports an experiment in which five aphasic adults were nonverbally to recall individualized lists of pictures they could easily name and lists of pictures they could not name. Final items in the two lists were recalled with equal accuracy; this was expected in that the recency effect usually reflects sensory rather than verbal storage. Initial items were recalled with greater accuracy than middle-list items in the nameable sets but not in the unnameable sets. This primacy effect suggests the aphasics rehearsed the nameable pictures, but both lists were recalled so poorly that rehearsal deficit was considered responsible for no more than a fraction of the aphasics' reduction in short-term memory.     

Hemispheric differences in processing emotions and faces.

Visual field differences for the recognition of emotional expression were investigated using a tachistoscopic procedure. Cartoon line drawings of five adult male characters, each with five emotional expressions ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative, were used as stimuli. Single stimuli were presented unilaterally for 85 msec. Subjects (N = 20) were asked to compare this target face to a subsequent centrally presented face and to decide whether the emotional expressions of the two faces, or the character represented by the two faces, were the same or different. Significant left visual field (LVF) superiorities for both character and emotional expression recognition were found. Subsequent analyses demonstrated the independence of these effects. The LVF superiority for emotional judgments was related to the degree of affective expression, but that for character recognition was not. The results of this experiment are consistent with experimental and clinical literature which has indicated a right hemispheric superiority for face recognition and for processing emotional stimuli. The asymmetry for emotion recognition is interpreted as being an expression of the right hemisphere's synthetic and integrative characteristics, its holistic nature, and its use of imagic associations.     

Age,and midcareer crisis: An empirical study of academics

This study develops an empirical basis for examining the midcareer crisis/ transition period of academic staff surveyed by questionnaire in four Australian Universities and Colleges. A total of 672 usable returns were obtained, representing a response rate of 52% of the academic staff. Principal components and factor analysis were used to establish latent social-role variables. Analysis of variance and covariance was applied using the latent social-role variables as dependent variables and occupational attributes such as age, sex, etc., as independent variables. The variable age was isolated from the larger study in this paper to illustrate empirically a midcareer crisis period for the population studied which is consistent with the general literature on midcareer crisis/transition.