现实性监控研究述评

现实性监控是来源记忆的重要组成部分.总结分析表明,现实性监控的研究成果主要体现在如下方面：①学习项目的比例、学习和测验阶段之间的干扰任务、被试的想象能力等均对现实性监控存在一定的影响;②儿童的现实性监控能力随年龄增长而提高,老人的现实性监控能力相对较低;③不同病人在现实性监控中有不同的困难;④内部来源与外部来源提取激活的大脑区域不同,前额区在区分两类项目时的作用明显.今后应在整合研究结论、建立相应认知模型、构建前额区和顶区联合作用的神经网络和应用推广等方面加强研究.     

中国学生ETPSP误用现象及其与英语学习水平的关系

基于概念整合理论和范畴化原型理论,以对真实语料的统计分析结果为4P-据,探讨了中国英语学习者在1：2语表达过程中的英语单数第三人称代词（ETPSP）误用现象及其原因,结果表明：（1）中国大学生存在普遍的ETPSP误用现象,主要表现为主语he／she、宾语him／her和定语his／her三类间的误用,特别是主语he／she间的误用人数比例高达75％;（2）英语学习水平对ETPSP误用具有重要影响,且主要表现为低水平组对“she”产出的高错误率,主要原因是其对“he（she）”产出错误的认知实时监控能力缺乏。     

Alienation Among the Visually Impaired: Some Important Predictors

We evaluated the effectiveness of a nondiet approach designed to reduce restrained eating behaviors and improve self-acceptance and self-esteem. This approach also encourages participants to address eating and exercise behavior separately. Subjects were Conoco employees who participated in the Wellness Department's Eat For L.I.F.E. (Long-term change; Image of self; Fun; Enjoyment of eating) program and completed pre-participation and 3-year follow-up questionnaires (N = 79). Pre- and postsurvey data were used to assess participants eating behavior, dieting behavior, self-acceptance, self-esteem, level of physical activity, and demographic information. Mastery of the internally directed eating style was assessed during the program at 3 months, at the conclusion of the 6-month program, and at the 3-year follow-up. Analysis of variance indicated that Eat For L.I.F.E. participants were able to significantly decrease their restrained eating behavior and increase self-acceptance, self-esteem, and level of physical activity. Participants also were able to adopt many aspects of the nonrestrained, internally directed eating style and decrease their frequency of weighing-in behavior. These results indicate that strategies fostering internally directed eating behaviors may be more centrally related to an individual's well-being than programs supporting externally directed eating behaviors.     

Monitoring the effects of adult psychotherapy in routine practice in Switzerland: A feasibility trial

Background: Several studies have been published on the effects of psychotherapy in routine practice. Complementing traditional views summarised as ‘dose‐effect models’, Stiles et al. put forward data consistent with the responsive regulation model underlining the importance of the client's active participant role in defining length of treatment. One may ask what level of change reached by a patient is considered to be the ‘good enough level’ (GEL) and if it is related to the duration of psychotherapy. Aims: The main objective of the present feasibility trial was to monitor the patient's session‐by‐session evolution using a self‐report questionnaire in order to define the GEL, i.e. the number of sessions necessary for the patient to reach significant change. Method: A total of N=13 patients undergoing psychotherapy in routine practice participated in the study, completing the Outcome Questionnaire – 45.2 (OQ‐45), which assesses the symptom level, interpersonal relationships and social role after every psychotherapy session. The data was analysed using multi‐level analyses (HLMs). Results: High feasibility of fine‐grained assessment of effects of psychotherapy in routine practice in Switzerland was shown; response rates being acceptable; however, detailed analysis of the GEL was not feasible within the short study time‐frame. Conclusions: Reflections on the political context of monitoring in the specific case of routine psychiatric practice in Switzerland are discussed.     

Time-of-day affects prospective memory differently in younger and older adults

The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of circadian arousal on prospective memory performance as a function of age. We tested a younger (18–34 years) and an older group (56–95 years) of participants on- and off-peak with regard to their circadian arousal patterns in a computer-based laboratory experiment. For the prospective memory task, participants had to press a particular key whenever specific target words appeared in an ongoing concreteness-judgment task. The results showed that prospective memory performance was better on- than off-peak in younger but not older participants. Younger participants consistently outperformed older participants in all conditions. We conclude that prospective remembering underlies time-of-day effects which most likely reflect controlled processes.     

Exploring the personal and social context of female youth sex offenders

This study explored the personal and social context of young female sex offenders, probing their risk profiles for prospective treatment interventions. A convenience sample of eight young South African female sexual offenders participated in the study (black = 88%, Indian = 12%, age range = 14–20 years). They completed semi-structured interviews on their perceptions of the influences to commit a sexual offence. The data were thematically analysed. Emergent themes on factors associated with sexual offending included: peer influence, poor child monitoring, parental neglect, unproductive sexual health education, as well as insight into the participants’ maladaptive beliefs and distorted thinking.     

Fidelity Assessment to Improve Teacher Instruction and School Decision Making

Teachers must provide high-quality instruction based on evidence-based practices to provide students meaningful opportunities to learn and to improve school outcomes. Although teachers have access to a variety of resources on evidence-based practices, poor implementation may limit the effectiveness of teacher practices, as indicated by low levels of student achievement and flat rates of progress. However, inadequate student response to instruction or intervention may also be due to a mismatch between teacher practices and student needs such as when students require more intensive support. As a result, school teams must determine the degree to which teachers provide instruction and intervention as intended (i.e., fidelity of implementation) to determine if an inadequate student response is due to poor implementation of practices that match student needs or due to a need for more intensive support. The authors report the necessity of including contingencies for measuring fidelity within school-wide assessment practices. Methods for assessing fidelity that can be used by school administrators, school psychologists, and teachers are discussed. Examples of recommended methods are provided for both academic and behavioral practices.     

Witnesses' failure to detect covert manipulations in their written statements

Law enforcement agencies and legal professionals often have to rely on witness statements. Undetected errors in witnesses' statements, however, could impede the accurate reconstruction of a crime and lead to the incrimination of innocent suspects. Here, we examined whether witnesses can detect manipulations in their written statements. We expect that writing a statement could provide a good means for discrimination between what is truly recalled and what is an error. This is because writing allows to monitor and control the previously produced information. In 3 experiments, participants watched a mock crime film and subsequently provided a written statement of what they had witnessed. Following a delay of several minutes (Experiment 1), 48 hr (Experiment 2), or 1 month (Experiment 3), participants were exposed to and interviewed about their testimony. Unknown to them, they were confronted with statements, which included 4 secretly manipulated details. Participants' missed a substantial number of manipulations in their written statements. Importantly, the detection rates varied as a function of delay (Experiments 1 and 2: 74–89%; Experiment 3: 36%–52%). Detection rates also varied as a function of the type of details that were manipulated. Our findings indicate that writing a statement comes with limited benefits in witnesses' ability to detect errors in their statements.     

Post-encoding emotional arousal enhances consolidation of item memory,but not reality-monitoring source memory

The current study examined whether the effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on item memory extends to reality-monitoring source memory and, if so, whether the effect depends on emotionality of learning stimuli and testing format. In Experiment 1, participants encoded neutral words and imagined or viewed their corresponding object pictures. Then they watched a neutral, positive, or negative video. The 24-hour delayed test showed that emotional arousal had little effect on both item memory and reality-monitoring source memory. Experiment 2 was similar except that participants encoded neutral, positive, and negative words and imagined or viewed their corresponding object pictures. The results showed that positive and negative emotional arousal induced after encoding enhanced consolidation of item memory, but not reality-monitoring source memory, regardless of emotionality of learning stimuli. Experiment 3, identical to Experiment 2 except that participants were tested only on source memory for all the encoded items, still showed that post-encoding emotional arousal had little effect on consolidation of reality-monitoring source memory. Taken together, regardless of emotionality of learning stimuli and regardless of testing format of source memory (conjunction test vs. independent test), the facilitatory effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on item memory does not generalize to reality-monitoring source memory.     

Processing of negative stimuli facilitates event-based prospective memory only under low memory load

Event-based prospective memory (PM) is related to the ability to execute a previously planned action at the appropriate situation. Previous literature showed enhanced performance when emotional stimuli are used as PM targets. However, it was entirely unexplored whether this effect is susceptible to prospective memory load (PML), related to the number of target events that are relevant for the pending PM task. Here we presented participants with angry or neutral faces for an identity judgment (ongoing task). A different number of faces, depending on low vs. high levels of PML, served as PM targets. The results showed better PM performance following negative than neutral targets, but only under low levels of PML. This indicates that the bottom-up facilitation driven by negative stimuli serving as PM targets dramatically depends on the available attention resources allocated for monitoring the incoming information.