No blank slates: Pre-existing schemas about pharmaceuticals predict memory for side effects

Objectives: Attribution of symptoms as medication side effects is informed by pre-existing beliefs about medicines and perceptions of personal sensitivity to their effects (pharmaceutical schemas). We tested whether (1) pharmaceutical schemas were associated with memory (recall/recognition) for side effect information (2) memory explained the attribution of a common unrelated symptom as a side effect.

Design: In this analogue study participants saw the patient leaflet of a fictitious asthma drug listing eight side effects.

Main outcome measures: We measured recall and recognition memory for side effects and used a vignette to test whether participants attributed an unlisted common symptom (headache) as a side effect.

Results: Participants who perceived pharmaceuticals as more harmful in general recalled fewer side effects correctly (r_{Correct Recall} = ?.273), were less able to differentiate between listed and unlisted side effects (r_{Recognition Sensitivity} = ?.256) and were more likely to attribute the unlisted headache symptom as a side effect (r_{side effect attribution} = .381, ps < .01). The effect of harm beliefs on side effect attribution was partially mediated by correct recall of side effects.

Conclusion: Pharmaceutical schemas are associated with memory for side effect information. Memory may explain part of the association between pharmaceutical schemas and the attribution of unrelated symptoms as side effects.     

Die‐by Framing both Lengthens and Shortens Life: Further Evidence on Constructed Beliefs in Life Expectancy

Decisions regarding consumption over the lifespan require some estimate of how long that lifespan is likely to be. Payne et al. (2013) found that respondents' estimates of their own life expectancy are on average 8.6 years shorter when elicited using a die‐by frame than when elicited by a live‐to frame. If decision makers act on these life expectancies, then an arbitrary detail of framing will lead to drastically different choices. We propose that the framing effect is sensitive to the iterative probabilistic elicitation procedure employed by the previous literature. Study 1 compares the framing effect across the iterative probabilistic procedure and a point estimate procedure that simply asks respondents the age they will live to/die by. The iterative probabilistic procedure implies a life expectancy six years shorter in the die‐by frame than in the live‐to frame, replicating the results of Payne et al. (2013). With the point estimate procedure, however, the framing effect reverses: the die‐by frame increases life expectancy by three years. In Study 2, we test for the framing effect using a point estimate procedure on a representative sample of 2000 Britons. Again, and in contrast with the previous literature, we find that the die‐by frame implies longer life. Our results reinforce the previous literature that beliefs around life expectancy are constructed. We recommend caution when attempting to debias life expectancy estimates or using life expectancies in choice architecture. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Values, Framing, and Citizens' Thoughts about Policy Issues: Effects on Content and Quantity

This study examines how frames invoking a core value shape the content and quantity of citizens' thoughts about a policy issue. An experimental study showed that exposure to a pro-school voucher equality frame increased the probability that participants would invoke equality in their open-ended survey responses. Exposure to an anti-school voucher equality frame produced the same effect, as did exposure to both frames. At the same time, participants who received either frame or both frames provided fewer open-ended responses. Thus, the frames appeared to focus participants' thoughts on one value while reducing the overall extent to which they thought about the issue. In broader terms, value framing may have implications for the nature and quality of public deliberation about policy issues—a point that scholars should keep in mind when considering how to define and study framing effects.     

关联性记忆错觉神经机制的研究

该文介绍了近年来使用DRM范式对关联性记忆错觉神经机制的研究。脑损伤病人以及正常人的神经成像研究表明：对关键诱饵的虚假再认可能和对学过项目的正确再认有着相似而又不完全相同的脑机制;颞叶中部和额叶对关联性记忆错觉的产生十分重要,并且它们各自的作用似乎都不是单一的。     

On the Observability of Purely Behavioral Sunk-Cost Effects: Theoretical and Empirical Support for the BISC Model

There is growing interest in whether and how sunk-cost effects for purely behavioral investments occur. In this article, we further discuss Cunha and Caldieraro's (2009) Behavioral Investment Sunk Cost (BISC) model and reconcile Otto's (2010) results with the BISC model predictions. We also report new data from two unpublished experiments that are consistent with the BISC model, and we discuss the conditions under which purely behavioral sunk-cost effects are likely to be observed.     

心脑血管疾病患者高血糖的管理

糖尿病是心脑血管疾病的主要危险因素,血糖控制不佳会加重此类患者的病情,影响其预后,因此,急慢性心脑血管疾病患者的高血糖要积极处理。在血糖控制过程中,要综合考虑患者的病情,选择安全、有效的降糖方案,避免低血糖和药物的副作用。本文就心脑血管疾病患者高血糖的管理进行了总结。     

Ceiling effects make Hughes and Nicholson’s data analyses and conclusions inconclusive

Hughes and Nicholson (2010) suggest that recognizing oneself is easier from face vs. voice stimuli, that a combined presentation of face and voice actually inhibits self-recognition relative to presentation of face or voice alone, that the left hemisphere is superior in self-recognition to the right hemisphere, and that recognizing self requires more effort than recognizing others. A re-examination of their method, data, and analyses unfortunately shows important ceiling effects that cast doubts on these conclusions.     

不熟悉材料伴随熟悉类别标签时儿童的归纳推理

对呈现在儿童面前的不熟悉的材料用儿童熟悉的、各不相同的类别标签命名之后,使儿童面临知觉相似和类别冲突的情形下,研究了儿童的归纳推理及其发展。研究结果显示,在此情形下,5岁儿童的归纳推理主要是基于知觉相似的,7岁儿童基于知觉相似和基于类别的归纳推理之间差异不显著,11岁儿童则主要基于类别进行归纳推理。     

Pharmacological treatment effects on eye movement control

The increasing use of eye movement paradigms to assess the functional integrity of brain systems involved in sensorimotor and cognitive processing in clinical disorders requires greater attention to effects of pharmacological treatments on these systems. This is needed to better differentiate disease and medication effects in clinical samples, to learn about neurochemical systems relevant for identified disturbances, and to facilitate identification of oculomotor biomarkers of pharmacological effects. In this review, studies of pharmacologic treatment effects on eye movements in healthy individuals are summarized and the sensitivity of eye movements to a variety of pharmacological manipulations is established. Primary findings from these studies of healthy individuals involving mainly acute effects indicate that: (i) the most consistent finding across several classes of drugs, including benzodiazepines, first- and second- generation antipsychotics, anticholinergic agents, and anticonvulsant/mood stabilizing medications is a decrease in saccade and smooth pursuit velocity (or increase in saccades during pursuit); (ii) these oculomotor effects largely reflect the general sedating effects of these medications on central nervous system functioning and are often dose-dependent; (iii) in many cases changes in oculomotor functioning are more sensitive indicators of pharmacological effects than other measures; and (iv) other agents, including the antidepressant class of serotonergic reuptake inhibitors, direct serotonergic agonists, and stimulants including amphetamine and nicotine, do not appear to adversely impact oculomotor functions in healthy individuals and may well enhance aspects of saccade and pursuit performance. Pharmacological treatment effects on eye movements across several clinical disorders including schizophrenia, affective disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease are also reviewed. While greater recognition and investigation into pharmacological treatment effects in these disorders is needed, both beneficial and adverse drug effects are identified. This raises the important caveat for oculomotor studies of neuropsychiatric disorders that performance differences from healthy individuals cannot be attributed to illness effects alone. In final sections of this review, studies are presented that illustrate the utility of eye movements for use as potential biomarkers in pharmacodynamic and pharmacogenetic studies. While more systematic studies are needed, we conclude that eye movement measurements hold significant promise as tools to investigate treatment effects on cognitive and sensorimotor processes in clinical populations and that their use may be helpful in speeding the drug development pathway for drugs targeting specific neural systems and in individualizing pharmacological treatments.     

Biological Implications of Gene–Environment Interaction

Gene–environment interaction (G × E) has been treated as both a statistical phenomenon and a biological reality. It is argued that, although there are important statistical issues that need to be considered, the focus has to be on the biological implications of G × E. Four reports of G × E deriving from the Dunedin longitudinal study are used as exemplars of the biological considerations that should lead to an hypothesis-driven choice of the specific genetic polymorphisms and the specific environmental influence to be investigated. The same four studies are used to discuss how the assessment of internal and external validity can be undertaken and how experimental approaches in humans and with animal models may be informative in the elucidation of the relevant operative biological mechanisms.