采用词表法变式研究指向遗忘现象

在组内设计的词表法变式任务中,词表一的项目按语义或知觉特征分为遗忘项和记住项,中间指导语要求被试遗忘词表一某类项目的同时记住另一类项目,指向遗忘效应以词表一记住项与遗忘项的差异来反映。实验一中,词表一项目按语义性质分为记住项和遗忘项,结果显示:与控制组比较,标准词表法实验组词表一记忆受损显著,出现传统意义上的指向遗忘效应;变式实验组词表一记忆部分受损,与控制组差异接近.05显著水平;标准词表法实验组以及变式实验组词表二都没有表现出记忆获益;另外,变式实验组词表一记住项与遗忘项之间差异显著,反映出遗忘指导语效应。实验二发现:在变式任务中,指定被试遗忘词表一某种语义性质的项目,结果出现遗忘指导语效应;但是,在指定被试遗忘某种颜色项目时,结果没有出现遗忘指导语效应。变式任务结果比较好地支持提取抑制理论;同时也反映出,词表一记住项与遗忘项之间的区分度是影响变式情境下指向遗忘效应的重要因素。     

Sensitivity analysis in factor analysis: Difference between using covariance and correlation matrices

Influence curves of some parameters under various methods of factor analysis have been given in the literature. These influence curves depend on the influence curves for either the covariance or the correlation matrix used in the analysis. The differences between the influence curves based on the covariance and the correlation matrices are derived in this paper. Simple formulas for the differences of the influence curves, based on the two matrices, for the unique variance matrix, factor loadings and some other parameter are obtained under scale-invariant estimation methods, though the influence curves themselves are in complex forms.The authors are most grateful to the referees, the Associate Editor, the Editor and Raymond Lam for helpful suggestions for improving the clarity of the paper.     

Predicting Growth Curves of Externalizing Behavior Across the Preschool Years

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine 2 facets of externalizing behavior: its level at age 6 and its rate of change from age 2 to 6 among 299 boys from low-income families. As for age-6 level of externalizing behavior, maternal depressive symptoms, maternal acceptance of child behavior, parental conflict, and the interaction between maternal acceptance and maternal depressive symptoms were each uniquely associated with this outcome. Regarding the interaction, maternal acceptance was associated with externalizing behavior primarily when maternal depressive symptoms were low, and maternal depressive symptoms were related to externalizing behavior only when maternal acceptance was high. Externalizing behavior gradually decreased between ages 2 and 6; interactions between infant negative emotionality and maternal depressive symptoms and between parental conflict and maternal acceptance were associated with rate of change. Plots suggested a protective effect of low infant negative emotionality when maternal depressive symptoms were high and a larger effect of maternal acceptance when parental conflict was low compared to when it was high. Results add to a small but growing literature regarding predictors of continuity and change in early child externalizing behavior.     

Time ordering in frontal lobe patients: a stochastic model approach

Frontal lobe patients reproduced a sequence of capital letters or abstract shapes. Immediate and delayed reproduction trials allowed the analysis of short- and long-term memory for time order by means of suitable Markov chain stochastic models. Patients were as proficient as healthy subjects on the immediate reproduction trial, thus showing spared encoding and short-term memory. They failed, instead, on the delayed trials with capital letters, but not with random shapes, suggesting that their long-term memory impairment did not depend on primary deficits for ordering, but on inability to benefit from the organisational strategies that improve the retention and retrieval in normal subjects.     

Use of Level 1 and 2 driving automation on horizontal curves on interstates and freeways

Little is known about how the actual use of Level 1 and 2 driving automation systems may be affected by geometric road characteristics in naturalistic driving environments. This study examined the use of these systems on horizontal curves on interstates and freeways. It used travel data collected in a field operational test conducted with two 2016 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque vehicles equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) and two 2017 Volvo S90 vehicles equipped with ACC and Pilot Assist (PA). Logistic regression models estimated changes in the likelihood of ACC use associated with horizontal curvature in the Evoque vehicles, and of PA and ACC use in the S90 vehicles, while accounting for traffic conditions. Drivers were less likely to drive with ACC or PA on as horizontal curves became sharper. In the Evoque vehicles, the likelihood of using ACC was 71.6% lower on the sharpest category of horizontal curves (those with a degree of curvature>2.5 degrees per 100 feet of arc or a radius smaller than 2,292 feet), compared with straight road segments or the flattest horizontal curve category (those with a degree of curvature <= 1.5 degrees per 100 feet of arc or a radius no <3,820 feet). In the S90 vehicles, the likelihood of using PA and ACC declined 74.6 and 66.3%, respectively, on the sharpest curves. Many driving automation systems face challenges on horizontal curves, even within their operational design domain. Future implementations that improve functionality may enhance driver experience and boost drivers’ confidence in these systems, which should increase their use and maximize the safety benefits these systems might offer.     

Prior sensitivity in theory testing: An apologia for the Bayes factor

A commonly voiced concern with the Bayes factor is that, unlike many other Bayesian and non-Bayesian quantitative measures of model evaluation, it is highly sensitive to the parameter prior. This paper argues that, when dealing with psychological models that are quantitatively instantiated theories, being sensitive to the prior is an attractive feature of a model evaluation measure. This assertion follows from the observation that in psychological models parameters are not completely unknown, but correspond to psychological variables about which theory often exists. This theory can be formally captured in the prior range and prior distribution of the parameters, indicating which parameter values are allowed, likely, unlikely and forbidden. Because the prior is a vehicle for expressing psychological theory, it should, like the model equation, be considered as an integral part of the model. It is argued that the combined practice of building models using informative priors, and evaluating models using prior sensitive measures advances knowledge.     

Varieties of graded forgetting

Forgetting is typically viewed as counterproductive in everyday life. However, it may mainly be harmful when it is complete, that is, all-encompassing and permanent, and not when it is graded, that is, partial and fluctuating. I propose that forgetting is in fact mostly graded, and that this is an essential reason that it is often helpful. I delineate three ways in which forgetting may be graded. First, it may occur with respect to one, but not another, part of a memory. Second, it may occur in one context, but not in another. Third, forgetting may be present at one point in time, but not at another. Also, I propose that different levels of forgetting are possible, based on whether an engram or a context is unavailable, silent, restricted, latent, or potent. Overall, I hypothesize that forgetting is often helpful because it can be flexible and tailored to the circumstances.