On the persuadability of memory: Is changing people's memories no more than changing their minds?

The observation of parallels between the memory distortion and persuasion literatures leads, quite logically, to the appealing notion that people can be ‘persuaded’ to change their memories. Indeed, numerous studies show that memory can be influenced and distorted by a variety of persuasive tactics, and the theoretical accounts commonly used by researchers to explain episodic and autobiographical memory distortion phenomena can generally predict and explain these persuasion effects. Yet, despite these empirical and theoretical overlaps, explicit reference to persuasion and attitude‐change research in the memory distortion literature is surprisingly rare. In this paper, we argue that stronger theoretical foundations are needed to draw the memory distortion and persuasion literatures together in a productive direction. We reason that theoretical approaches to remembering that distinguish (false) beliefs in the occurrence of events from (false) memories of those events – compatible with a source monitoring approach – would be beneficial to this end. Such approaches, we argue, would provide a stronger platform to use persuasion findings to enhance the psychological understanding of memory distortion.     

Destination and source memory in Huntington's disease

Destination memory refers to the recall of the destination of previously relayed information, and source memory refers to the recollection of the origin of received information. We compared both memory systems in Huntington's disease (HD) participants. For this, HD participants and healthy adults had to put 12 items in a black or a white box (destination task), and to extract another 12 items from a blue or a red box (source task). Afterwards, they had to decide in which box each item had previously been deposited (destination memory), and from which box each item had previously been extracted (source memory). HD participants showed poorer source as well as destination recall performance than healthy adults in the proposed tasks. Correlation analysis showed that destination recall was significantly correlated with episodic recall in HD participants. Destination memory impairment in HD participants seems to be considerably influenced by their episodic memory performance.     

Sabina Spielrein's Siegfried and other myths: facts versus fictions

Sabina Spielrein's life events became known to posterity through a private correspondence with Freud and Jung, and through her diaries. Based on a misinterpretation of the documents, a myth, a fiction, was created about an alleged sexual affair with Jung and a case of misconduct during treatment. Another myth was that her relationship with Jung was a cause of the historic break-up between Freud and Jung. The biographical facts described by the author in a number of publications show that her treatment ended when she left the hospital to become Jung's student in the medical school, a situation with its own ethical rules. Furthermore, the alleged “scandal” was no public matter: it turned out to be no more than a personal quarrel. Before, during, and after that turbulent episode, Spielrein and Jung maintained a long and tender friendship and correspondence that included sharing creative ideas that enriched psychoanalysis. In these exchanges, a special role was played by the myth of Siegfried and other themes in Wagner's operas.     

Effects of pointing compared with naming and observing during encoding on item and source memory in young and older adults

Research showed that source memory functioning declines with ageing. Evidence suggests that encoding visual stimuli with manual pointing in addition to visual observation can have a positive effect on spatial memory compared with visual observation only. The present study investigated whether pointing at picture locations during encoding would lead to better spatial source memory than naming (Experiment 1) and visual observation only (Experiment 2) in young and older adults. Experiment 3 investigated whether response modality during the test phase would influence spatial source memory performance. Experiments 1 and 2 supported the hypothesis that pointing during encoding led to better source memory for picture locations than naming or observation only. Young adults outperformed older adults on the source memory but not the item memory task in both Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants manually responded in the test phase. Experiment 3 showed that if participants had to verbally respond in the test phase, the positive effect of pointing compared with naming during encoding disappeared. The results suggest that pointing at picture locations during encoding can enhance spatial source memory in both young and older adults, but only if the response modality is congruent in the test phase.     

贫富阶层刻板印象对源记忆的影响

源检测框架下,在记忆的提取阶段激活刻板印象会导致错误记忆,通过激活贫富刻板印象,考察对源检测记忆的影响,结果发现被试表现出刻板印象一致的错误记忆,通过多项式加工树模型的分析发现,被试在来源判断时利用刻板印象知识表现出猜测反应.     

Effects of information accuracy and volume on decision making

Recent advances in information technology have resulted in increasingly complex work environments. Much of the complexity is due to a deluge of information available across networks (Gleick, 2011) and unknown reliability, which introduces additional uncertainty (Platt & Huettel, 2008). Understanding the performance characteristics of human information processing for optimal decision making under such conditions of data abundance and uncertainty is critical in complex networked information environments, such as military operations. One focus of the United States military is providing troops with the richness of information formally reserved for higher echelons (Bawden & Robinson, 2009). However, this effort risks cognitive overload, where too much information can result in impaired performance. The present study examined human decision making under varying levels of cognitive load and source reliability. Participants determined the reliability of two information sources and decided how to use them to minimize cognitive load and improve performance in a visual search task. Unbeknownst to participants, one source provided highly accurate information and one provided moderately accurate information. Results showed that participants had more trust in the more accurate than the less accurate source, and decision making accuracy decreased as cognitive load increased. When cognitive load was highest, participants were more accurate on trials with the more accurate source. Thus, the more accurate source facilitated better performance, whether through better intel or through participants offloading some of the cognitive load to the reliable source.     

大学生学科问题类比迁移的实验研究

考察了单个和两个源问题条件下大学生学科问题类比迁移的情况。实验1考察表面特性对学科问题迁移成绩的影响,以及个体的时间控制、解题策略。实验2考察两个源问题表面相似关系和思路归纳关系对迁移成绩的影响。结果表明：1)表面相似性对迁移成绩影响显著,同领域学科问题之间更容易迁移;2)依据表面和依据结构来激活源问题都是有效策略．源问题学习时间与迁移效果之间不存在显著关系;3)思路归纳对迁移成绩影响显著。     

高校辅导员职业压力源量表的编制

目的:编制高校辅导员职业压力源量表。方法:在访谈、开放式问卷和文献综述基础上,初步编制量表题目,对预试结果进行探索性因素分析,后修订成正式量表,再对结果进行验证性分析。结果:辅导员职业压力源可归为发展保障、工作负荷、社会支持、管理体制、成就动机、工作难度6个维度,总解释率为64.26%,量表的α系数和分半信度分别为0.895和0.774,验证性因素分析模型拟合指标良好。结论:该量表符合心理测量学的要求,可用于相关研究。     

青少年偶像崇拜现象的心理透视

偶像崇拜是青少年中普遍存在的社会现象，对青少年的成长有着深刻的影响，已引起社会各界的关注。同时偶像崇拜现象有它的心理根源，教育者应采取适当的方法给予引导。     

Narcissism lost: On translating and being translated1

The authors present a detailed account of the experiences shared in translating and having one’s work translated. Carneiro maintains that, in order to communicate with their readers, writers should relinquish the narcissistic satisfaction they derive from their texts in the original. Beyond this, she feels that, owing to a good understanding between her and her translator, the creativity in her original text persists in the translation. Brakel introduces himself to the IJPA readership and shows how he works when translating the cultural and linguistic nuances and peculiarities of Brazilian Portuguese. He concludes with some thoughts about the affect he experiences from his original work and the work he has translated.