情绪记忆的神经基础

情绪记忆具有强烈、持久的特点,在记忆中具有优势地位。杏仁核是情绪记忆的关键脑区,其外侧核被认为是情绪回路建立的中心部位。恐惧条件反射是情绪记忆,特别是情绪回路研究的有效手段。情绪记忆的编码,储存与提取受到杏仁核与各相关脑区共同影响,其中激素调节在这些过程中发挥重要作用。文中结合最新的研究成果对情绪记忆的神经机制进行讨论     

Flexible use of spatial cues in the southern flying squirrel (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Glaucomys volans</Emphasis>)

Insects, birds, and mammals have been shown capable of encoding spatial information in memory using multiple strategies or frames of reference simultaneously. These strategies include orientation to a goal-specific cue or beacon, to the position of the goal in an array of local landmarks, or to its position in the array of distant landmarks, also known as the global frame of reference. From previous experiments, it appears that birds and mammals that scatter hoard rely primarily on a global frame of reference, but this generalization depends on evidence from only a few species. Here we examined spatial memory in a previously unstudied scatter hoarder, the southern flying squirrel. We dissociated the relative weighting of three potential spatial strategies (beacon, global, or relative array strategy) with three probe tests: transposition of beacon and the rotation or the expansion of the array. The squirrels’ choices were consistent with a spatial averaging strategy, where they chose the location dictated by at least two of the three strategies, rather than using a single preferred frame of reference. This adaptive and flexible heuristic has not been previously described in animal orientation studies, yet it may be a common solution to the universal problem of encoding and recalling spatial locations in an ephemeral physical landscape.     

Episodic memory development: theory of mind is part of re‐experiencing experienced events

Two experiments with 3½‐ to 6½‐year‐old children showed that theory‐of‐mind development is associated with the growth of episodic memory. Episodic memory was assessed by manipulating informational conditions such that they permit or prevent the formation of episodic memories in terms of re‐experiencing the recalled event. Only experienced events, e.g. seeing how one puts a picture of a frog into a box, can be remembered by re‐experience. Events known through indirect information cannot be re‐experienced, e.g. putting pictures into the box when blindfolded and being later shown on video what was on these cards. Children were also tested on a battery of theory‐of‐mind tasks assessing their understanding of the origins of knowledge. There was a significant interaction in both experiments showing that recall of directly experienced items improved in relation to indirectly presented items the higher children's theory‐of‐mind scores. The discussion suggests that episodic memory development is specifically linked to the growing ability to introspect an ongoing experience and interpret it as representing an actual past event. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

无关声音效应研究述评

无关声音效应是在对注意与记忆进行研究时所发现的一个现象,有益于探讨噪音等无关声音刺激对个体认知过程、工作绩效及身心健康的影响作用。在简要回顾ISE现象的界定与理论解释争论的基础上,重点从对刺激强度不同的ISE现象之理论分析、应用价值及一些相关的近期研究方面作了介绍,从对ISE现象的理论解释、无关声音刺激的选取、研究方法的综合使用、ISE现象中的个体差异等方面做了展望。     

工读生情绪一致性记忆实验研究

本研究主要是考察在工读生中的情绪一致性记忆,实验采用Deese-Rodiger-McDermot(DRM)任务研究范式,品行障碍青少年被试(工读生),在实验中表现出对于攻击与愤怒的反应偏向,与普通学生相比产生了更多的错误记忆,而普通中学生则没有反应偏好,证明了工读生对于情绪材料的反应偏向。运用信号检测论的分析表明,工读生对于攻击与愤怒负性情绪的辨别力低于普通学生。这需要在临床中注意情绪一致性错误记忆的研究,未来的研究应该深入探讨工读生的执行认知功能。     

轻度弱智儿童工作记忆、加工速度的实验研究

选取轻度弱智、一般智力以及智力优秀三组共288名小学生作为被试,每个被试接受三种测验,即工作记忆测验、加工速度测验、韦氏儿童智力测验中国修订版,以考察轻度弱智儿童群体在与工作记忆和加工速度相关的认知任务上的反应特征,以及轻度弱智儿童与一般儿童在这些任务上的差异。通过方差分析、聚类分析等统计方法得到以下结果：1．轻度弱智儿童和智力一般儿童在工作记忆和加工速度上有显著差异。2．轻度弱智儿童群体在各基本认知能力中可能存在的缺陷并不平衡,工作记忆较稳定地反映了该群体在智力上的缺陷,但存在一部分在加工速度上体现为正常水平的亚类群体。     

12-20岁个体前瞻记忆的发展与影响因素的研究

以334名12～20岁个体为被试,采用两因素混合设计,探讨这一年龄阶段个体前瞻记忆的发展及影响因素。结果发现,被试前瞻记忆水平随年龄增长而提高,且在14～16岁发展最快;提高基于时间的前瞻记忆负载,会使前瞻记忆成绩降低;前瞻记忆与当前任务的完成呈负相关。表明前瞻记忆是一种策略加工过程。     

Effect of skill level on recall of visually presented patterns of musical notes

Expertise effects in music were studied in a new task: the construction of mental representations from separate fragments. Groups of expert musicians and non-musicians were asked to recall note patterns presented visually note by note. Skill-level, musical well-formedness of the note patterns and presentation mode were varied. The musicians recalled note patterns better than the non-musicians, even though the presentation was visual and successive. Furthermore, only musicians' performance was affected by musical well-formedness of the note patterns when visual gestalt properties, verbal rehearsability, and familiarity of the stimuli were controlled. Musicians were also able to use letter names referring to notes as efficiently as visual notes, which indicates that the better recall of musicians cannot be explained by perceptual visual chunking. These results and the effect of skill level on the distribution of recall errors indicate that the ability to chunk incoming information into meaningful units does not require that complete familiar patterns are accessible to encoding processes, yet previous knowledge stored in long-term memory affects representation construction in working memory. The present method offers a new reliable tool, and its implications to the research on construction of representations and musical imagery are discussed.     

Environmental Correlates of Gambling Behavior in Urban Adolescents

The present study considered the relation between adolescent gambling behavior and the perceived environment, the component of Jessor and Jessor’s (1977) Problem Behavior Theory that assesses the ways that adolescents perceive the attitudes and behaviors of parents and peers. The predominantly African-American sample included 188 sophomores from two urban public high schools. Using the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents to assess gambling risk, rates of both at-risk (20.7%) and problem (12.8%) gambling were found to be high. Boys displayed more gambling problems than did girls. The perceived environment accounted for significant variance in gambling problems and frequency, with proximal components displaying stronger relationships than distal components. Perceiving parent gambling and friend models for problem behavior were positively correlated with gambling problems, and friend models were positively related to gambling frequency. Among girls, family support was positively related to gambling problems. Among boys, this relation was negative. The authors Emerson M. Wickwire, Jr. James P. Whelan, and Andrew W. Meyers are members of The Institute for Gambling Education and Research, Department of Psychology, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN. The primary research interest of this group is the prevention and treatment of gambling related problems. David M. Murray, Ph.D., is the Chair of the Division of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.     

A cognitive approach to dogmatism: An investigation into the relationship of verbal working memory and dogmatism

This study investigated the relationship of working memory to open and closed belief systems. Two hundred college students completed a working memory span test to measure verbal working memory, and Rokeach’s Dogmatism Scale (1956). Regression analysis was undertaken to determine the contribution of verbal working memory to dogmatism. A negative correlation was found between dogmatism scores and working memory scores (p = .002) confirming the hypothesis that those participants who display a larger working memory capacity would show lower levels of dogmatic beliefs than participants displaying a smaller working memory capacity. Error analysis was employed to determine the significance of inhibition processes; indicating that capacity limits in verbal working memory, and not processing deficits, were primarily responsible for poor working memory scores. Dogmatism was not found to be related to gender, age, ethnicity, religious affiliation, academic major, or level of education.