A diary after dinner: How the time of event recording influences later accessibility of diary events

Recording the events of a day in a diary may help improve their later accessibility. An interesting question is whether improvements in long-term accessibility will be greater if the diary is completed at the end of the day, or after a period of sleep, the following morning. We investigated this question using an internet-based diary method. On each of five days, participants (n?=?109) recorded autobiographical memories for that day or for the previous day. Recording took place either in the morning or in the evening. Following a 30-day retention interval, the diary events were free recalled. We found that participants who recorded their memories in the evening before sleep had best memory performance. These results suggest that the time of reactivation and recording of recent autobiographical events has a significant effect on the later accessibility of those diary events. We discuss our results in the light of related findings that show a beneficial effect of reduced interference during sleep on memory consolidation and reconsolidation.     

An aphasia database on the internet: a model for computer-assisted analysis in aphasiology

A web-based software model was developed as an example for data mining in aphasiology. It is used for educating medical and engineering students. It is based upon a database of 254 aphasic patients which contains the diagnosis of the aphasia type, profiles of an aphasia test battery (Aachen Aphasia Test), and some further clinical information. In addition, the cerebral lesion profiles of 147 of these cases were standardized by transferring the coordinates of the lesions to a 3D reference brain based upon the ACPC coordinate system. Two artificial neural networks were used to perform a classification of the aphasia type. First, a coarse classification was achieved by using an assessment of spontaneous speech of the patient which produced correct results in 87% of the test cases. Data analysis tools were used to select four features of the 30 available test features to yield a more accurate diagnosis. This classifier produced correct results in 92% of the test cases. The neural network approach is similar to grouping performed in group studies, while the nearest-neighbor method shows a design more similar to case studies. It finds the neurolinguistic and the lesion data of patients whose AAT profiles are most similar to the user's input. This way lesion profiles can be compared to each other interindividually. The Aphasia Diagnoser is available on the Web address http://fuzzy.iau.dtu.dk/aphasia.nsf and thus should facilitate a discussion about the reliability and possibilities of data-mining techniques in aphasiology.     

大学新生学科选择结果与人格特征关系的研究

该研究对17个系的1532名大学新生专业学科与其人格特点的关系用聚类分析和多元方差分析的方法进行了探索研究.聚类分析结果将男生根据人格特点分为理工科类、社会科学类中间科系"的特殊类.将女生也分为三大类,即与男生类似的社会科学类以及另外两类与学科分类隶属关系复杂的类别.男生对理工科和社会科学专业的选择结果与其人格特点有较明显的一致关系,而女生对社会科学专业的选择结果与其人格特点有较明显的一致关系.     

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome in Prader-Willi Syndrome: An Unrecognized and Untreated Cause of Cognitive and Behavioral Deficits?

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by a range of physical, psychological, and physiological abnormalities. It is also distinguished by the high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), i.e., repetitive upper airway collapse during sleep resulting in hypoxia and sleep fragmentation. In non-PWS populations, OSAS is associated with a range of neurocognitive and psychosocial deficits. Importantly, these deficits are at least partly reversible following treatment. Given the findings in non-PWS populations, it is possible that OSAS may contribute to neurocognitive and psychosocial deficits in PWS. The present review examines this possibility. While acknowledging a primary contribution from the primary genetic abnormality to central neural dysfunction in PWS, we conclude that OSAS may be an important secondary contributing factor to reduced neurocognitive and psychosocial performance. Treatment of OSAS may have potential benefits in improving neurocognitive performance and behavior in PWS, but this awaits confirmatory investigation.     

Correcting distorted perception of sleep in insomnia: a novel behavioural experiment?

Patients with primary insomnia overestimate their sleep onset latency (SOL) and underestimate their total sleep time (TST). The present study aimed to test the utility of a novel behavioural experiment designed to correct distorted perception of sleep among patients diagnosed with primary insomnia. Individuals with primary insomnia were asked to wear an actigraph and keep a sleep diary for three nights. On the following day, half were shown the discrepancy between the data recorded on the actigraph and their sleep diary (Shown-Discrepancy Group), the other half were not shown the discrepancy (No-Demonstration Group). Participants were then asked to wear the actigraph and keep a sleep diary for three further nights. Following the behavioural experiment, the Shown-Discrepancy Group estimated their SOL more accurately and reported less anxiety and preoccupation about sleep compared to the No-Demonstration Group. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Simultaneous classification and multidimensional scaling with external information

For the exploratory analysis of a matrix of proximities or (dis)similarities between objects, one often uses cluster analysis (CA) or multidimensional scaling (MDS). Solutions resulting from such analyses are sometimes interpreted using external information on the objects. Usually the procedures of CA, MDS and using external information are carried out independently and sequentially, although combinations of two of the three procedures (CA and MDS, or multidimensional scaling and using external information) have been proposed in the literature. The present paper offers a procedure that combines all three procedures in one analysis, using a model that describes a partition of objects with cluster centroids represented in a low-dimensional space, which in turn is related to the information in the external variables. A simulation study is carried out to demonstrate that the method works satisfactorily for data with a known underlying structure. Also, to illustrate the method, it is applied to two empirical data sets.     

From eye movement to cognition: Toward a general framework of inference comment on Liechty et al., 2003

Liechty, Pieters & Wedel (2003) developed a hidden Markov Model (HMM) to identify the states of an attentional process in an advertisement viewing task. This work is significant because it demonstrates the benefits of stochastic modeling and Bayesian estimation in making inferences about cognitive processes based on eye movement data. One limitation of the proposed approach is that attention is conceptualized as an autonomous random process that is affected neither by the overall layout of the stimulus nor by the visual information perceived during the current fixation. An alternative model based on the input-output hidden Markov model (IOHMM; Bengio, 1999) is suggested as an extension of the HMM. The need for further studies that validate the HMM classification results is also discussed.     

What is the Thematic Structure of Science?

The paper justifies the concept of “thematic structure” or “order of knowledge” over the traditional “classification of sciences” due to the uncertainty of many classification criteria. The thematic structure of science has, of course, various levels and various dimensions. Arguments against any forms of separating the humanities from sciences in the traditional sense of the term are presented and discussed. Equally unacceptable are attempts at sharp separation of technical disciplines and humanities. The thematic structure of humanities is not created by some material aspects but rather through the interest — or problem-oriented aspects. In addition to the natural sciences and the humanities there exists an important sphere of sciences on artefacts or, using the term by H. Simon, the sciences of the artificial. For the contemporary research activities is typical what could be denoted as “interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary complex.” The paper traces a set of epistemological criteria for the justification of the relative independence of a scientific discipline. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.