The Isolation, Primacy, and Recency Effects Predicted by an Adaptive LTD/LTP Threshold in Postsynaptic Cells

An item that stands out (is isolated) from its context is better remembered than an item consistent with the context. This isolation effect cannot be accounted for by increased attention, because it occurs when the isolated item is presented as the first item, or by impoverished memory of nonisolated items, because the isolated item is better remembered than a control list consisting of equally different items. The isolation effect is seldom experimentally or theoretically related to the primacy or the recency effects—that is, the improved performance on the first few and last items, respectively, on the serial position curve. The primacy effect cannot easily be accounted for by rehearsal in short-term memory because it occurs when rehearsal is eliminated. This article suggests that the primacy, the recency, and the isolation effects can be accounted for by experience-dependent synaptic plasticity in neural cells. Neurological empirical data suggest that the threshold that determines whether cells will show long-term potentiation (LTP) or long-term depression (LTD) varies as a function of recent postsynaptic activity and that synaptic plasticity is bounded. By implementing an adaptive LTP-LTD threshold in an artificial neural network, the various aspects of the isolation, the primacy, and the recency effects are accounted for, whereas none of these phenomena are accounted for if the threshold is constant. This theory suggests a possible link between the cognitive and the neurological levels.     

Examining the Role of Social Network Intervention as an Integral Component of Community-Based,Family-Focused Practice

Social network intervention aimed at bolstering the informal supports of high risk families is recognized as a common element of community-based, family-focused practice models, such as intensive family preservation services (IFPS), multisystemic therapy (MST), and the wraparound process. The empirical research basis for these practice models is examined, with an eye toward discerning the extent to which network intervention is identified as a critical component of comprehensive service. Results reveal that few studies make clear the degree to which treatment adhered to a focus on natural network enhancement or the development of informal resources. Those that did, suggest that relatively few families received this form of ecologically-oriented intervention. Consequently, this body of practice research offers insufficient evidence of the benefits or limitations associated with network facilitation with multi-need families. Explanations for these findings are explored and directions for future research are recommended.     

Disclosure of HIV-Positive Status to Latino Gay Men's Social Networks

This study explored disclosure of serostatus in a sample of 155 HIV-positive Latino gay men from New York City and Washington, DC. We examined rates of disclosure to different members of the social network: mothers, fathers, close friends, and primary sexual partners. There were high rates of disclosure of HIV-positive serostatus to main partners and closest friends and lower rates to fathers and mothers. We examined the role of 3 contextual target-dependent factors (emotional closeness to target, anticipated reactions from target, and target's knowledge of sexual orientation), as well as acculturation and time since diagnosis. Three separate logistic regression models were performed to predict disclosure of HIV-positive status to 3 targets: mothers, fathers, and closest friends. We found that disclosure was not a generalized tendency, but rather different factors were influential depending on the target. Whether the target was aware of participant's sexual orientation was associated with disclosure in all 3 models. Greater emotional closeness also predicted disclosure to mother and father; greater U.S. acculturation was associated with disclosure to father and marginally to mother. A longer time since diagnosis was associated with disclosure to the closest friend. These findings highlight the importance of taking into account roles and relationships, and their effect on disclosure.     

Histrionic Personality Disorder, Physical Attractiveness, and Social Adjustment

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is the only DSM-IV personality disorder (PD) explicitly linked to a person's physical appearance. This study examined the HPD–attractiveness link in a mixed-sex sample of college students. Consistent with expectations, HPD women were rated higher in attractiveness than women with other PDs or no PD. However, a parallel HPD–attractiveness link was not found in men. Subsequent analyses indicated that, relative to less attractive HPD women, more attractive HPD women (a) had a more varied and supportive social network, (b) exhibited more negative behaviors in important relationships, and (c) showed greater use of immature defenses, and less reliance on image-distorting, self-sacrificing, and mature defenses. Similar attractiveness–defense relationships were found in HPD men, but parallel results did not emerge for men in the other two domains. Implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions for future studies are offered.     

Child protection investigations: Discourse analysis and the management of incommensurability

This paper asks whether discourse analytic approaches in social psychology have yet produced methodologies adequate to the investigation of institutional ‘gaze’. Institutional language has been explored to the extent that state agencies construct members of the public by speaking about them in particular ways. This has often provided insight into the co-existence and competition of incommensurable discourses. However, studies of representation in the sense of speaking for have been notably absent from social psychology. It is argued that this aspect of discourse is a vital component in the study of contemporary governmental multi-agency strategy in the area of child protection, where recent legislation and policy aims at the coordination of incommensurable discourses. A methodology for studying this strategy is outlined through an account of the actor network approach in science studies, accounts of the State under the post-modern condition, and analyses of sections of interviews with social workers.     

对语义网络中概念非类属关系的实验研究

本研究包括三个实验。实验一在混和呈现条件下比较被试对隐喻句和类属句的加工时问,发现可理解性高的隐喻句的R_T不比类属句的慢。实验二在分组呈现条件下比较被试加工隐喻句与类属句的速度,结果与实验一基本相同。实验一、二中还发现类属概念的层次与语义加工时间没有必然联系。实验三比较了隐喻句对三类概念的启动作用,发现隐喻对自身的语义特征概念有明显的启动作用。根据三个实验的结果,我们提出了一种称为特征联结的语义网络结构模型。     

柯林斯语义层次网络模型的实验研究

应用语义验证法对柯林斯与奎利安的语义层次网络模型进行研究,结果表明:(1)柯林斯等人的语义层次网络模型不完全适用于人脑的信息加工;(2)被试对主语所指称客体的熟悉程度是决定语义验证时间的一个重要因素;(3)被试提取概念各属性的时间并非完全由属性储存的位置决定的。     

Clinicians and supervisors' experiences with developing practices of open dialogue in network meetings in public mental health services

Open Dialogue is a dialogical approach focusing on the perspectives of patients and their social networks on treatment and recovery processes. As part of a larger research project, this prospective cohort study explores what promotes and hinders the development of Open Dialogue in network meetings (ODNM) based on the experiences of thirty-seven clinicians and seven supervisors. Multistage focus group interviews were used to collect data and were analysed thematically. We generated two main themes: (1) togetherness and isolation and (2) challenging and evolving. The findings show that ODNM can be developed in public mental healthcare, but this leads to both challenges and opportunities at the organisational level, such as conflicting perspectives, the difficulty of maintaining interest in ODNM, the need for committed and involved leaders, and the growing change in the traditional view of treatment, which has made clinicians collaborate more with patients and their relatives.     

The organization of construal networks and functional adaptation

This review examined the association of construal network organizations with functional adaptation and psychological well-being. Recent neuropsychological research supports the presence of distinct construal networks in the brain that organize action at different levels of goals and tasks. Construal networks are sets of connected construals, or mental representations of objects, events, and behaviors. Little attention, however, has been given to how the organization of construal networks promotes functional adaptation. Cognitive processes, construal levels, personal meaning, cultures, and situations influence the configurations of construal networks. The reviewed evidence indicated that construal network organization facilitates functional adaptation and well-being, either though the coherence or fit of the assembled construals with each other or through the mediation of their fit with situations or contexts, like a culture. This review goes beyond previous studies by describing the constructive, creative, and hypothetical aspects of construal organizations and their effects on functional adaptation and psychological well-being.     

Acute exercise and children’s cognitive functioning: What is the optimal dose of cognitive challenge?

Acute bouts of exercise have the potential to benefit children’s cognition. Inconsistent evidence on the role of qualitative exercise task characteristics calls for further investigation of the cognitive challenge level in exercise. Thus, the study aim was to investigate which “dose” of cognitive challenge in acute exercise benefits children’s cognition, also exploring the moderating role of individual characteristics. In a within-subject experimental design, 103 children (M_age = 11.1, SD = 0.9, 48% female) participated weekly in one of three 15-min exergames followed by an Attention Network task. Exergame sessions were designed to keep physical intensity constant (65% HR_max) and to have different cognitive challenge levels (low, mid, high; adapted to the ongoing individual performance). ANOVAs performed on variables that reflect the individual functioning of attention networks revealed a significant effect of cognitive challenge on executive control efficiency (reaction time performances; p = .014, ƞ²_p = .08), with better performances after the high-challenge condition compared to lower ones (ps < .015), whereas alerting and orienting were unaffected by cognitive challenge (ps > .05). ANOVAs performed on variables that reflect the interactive functioning of attention networks revealed that biological sex moderated cognitive challenge effects. For males only, the cognitive challenge level influenced the interactive functioning of executive control and orienting networks (p = .004; ƞ²_p = .07). Results suggest that an individualized and adaptive cognitively high-challenging bout of exercise is more beneficial to children’s executive control than less challenging ones. For males, the cognitive challenge in an acute bout seems beneficial to maintain executive control efficiency also when spatial attention resources cannot be validly allocated in advance. Results are interpreted referring to the cognitive stimulation hypothesis and arousal theory.