The latent variable approach as applied to transitive reasoning

We discuss the limitations of hypothesis testing using (quasi-) experiments in the study of cognitive development and suggest latent variable modeling as a viable alternative to experimentation. Latent variable models allow testing a theory as a whole, incorporating individual differences with respect to developmental processes or abilities in the model. Experiments, in contrast, aim at testing hypotheses that refer to a specific part of a theory; also they ignore individual differences or model the individual differences using age group as a proxy for developmental stage. Drawing on a sample of 409 5–13-year olds, we demonstrate the advantages of latent variable models in the area of transitive reasoning. A comparison of three models showed that the latent variable model that represented fuzzy trace theory had a better fit than the models representing Piaget's theory or linear ordering theory.     

Classical conditioning,awareness, and brain systems

Memory is composed of several different abilities that are supported by different brain systems. The distinction between declarative (conscious) and nondeclarative (non-conscious) memory has proved useful in understanding the nature of eyeblink classical conditioning – the best understood example of classical conditioning in vertebrates. In delay conditioning, the standard procedure, conditioning depends on the cerebellum and brainstem and is intact in amnesia. Trace conditioning, a variant of the standard procedure, depends additionally on the hippocampus and neocortex and is impaired in amnesia. Recent studies have sharpened the contrast between delay and trace conditioning by exploring the importance of awareness. We discuss these new findings in relation to the brain systems supporting eyeblink conditioning and suggest why awareness is important for trace conditioning but not for delay conditioning.     

The sensory nature of knowledge: Sensory priming effects in semantic categorization

The aim of the present study was to show the perceptual nature of conceptual knowledge by using a priming paradigm that excluded an interpretation exclusively in terms of amodal representation. This paradigm was divided into two phases. The first phase consisted in learning a systematic association between a geometrical shape and a white noise. The second phase consisted of a short-term priming paradigm in which a primed shape (either associated or not with a sound in the first phase) preceded a picture of an object, which the participants had to categorize as representing a large or a small object. The objects were chosen in such a way that their principal function either was associated with the production of noise (“noisy” target) or was not typically associated the production of noise (“silent” target). The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the prime and the target was 100 ms or 500 ms. The results revealed an interference effect with a 100-ms SOA and a facilitatory effect with a 500-ms SOA for the noisy targets only. We interpreted the interference effect obtained at the 100-ms SOA as the result of an overlap between the components reactivated by the sound prime and those activated by the processing of the noisy target. At an SOA of 500 ms, there was no temporal overlap. The observed facilitatory effect was explained by the preactivation of auditory areas by the sound prime, thus facilitating the categorization of the noisy targets only.     

Failing to Recall: Examining the Effects of Trace Decay and Interference on Memory for Campaign Information

Voters are continuously bombarded with information during political campaigns, yet a consistent conclusion from research on voter learning is that individuals remember far less information about political candidates than one might expect. What remains unclear is why memory for campaign information is so poor. The present study examines two explanations for memory failure. Using an experimental design, the present study explores whether campaign information fades from memory (trace decay) or whether extraneous information impedes an individual's subsequent ability to recall campaign information (interference). The results suggest that examining the ways in which the larger information environment influences recall of campaign information has important implications for the importance we attribute to campaign information in models of voter decision making.     

感染后咳嗽患儿血微量元素分析与黄芪注射液联合甘草合剂治疗研究

分析儿童感染后咳嗽的临床特点以及与外周血微量元素的关系,观察黄芪注射液联合甘草合剂治疗儿童感染后咳嗽的疗效。对自2006年1月至2008年6月在德州市妇幼保健院儿科门诊治疗的75例感染后咳嗽患儿行外周血微量元素测定,与40例健康小儿微量元素对比,并将75例患儿随机分为两个治疗组进行临床观察：实验组39例,口服黄芪注射液...     

Developmental reversals in false memory: Effects of emotional valence and arousal

Do the emotional valence and arousal of events distort children’s memories? Do valence and arousal modulate counterintuitive age increases in false memory? We investigated those questions in children, adolescents, and adults using the Cornell/Cortland Emotion Lists, a word list pool that induces false memories and in which valence and arousal can be manipulated factorially. False memories increased with age for unpresented semantic associates of word lists, and net accuracy (the ratio of true memory to total memory) decreased with age. These surprising developmental trends were more pronounced for negatively valenced materials than for positively valenced materials, they were more pronounced for high-arousal materials than for low-arousal materials, and developmental increases in the effects of arousal were small in comparison with developmental increases in the effects of valence. These findings have ramifications for legal applications of false memory research; materials that share the emotional hallmark of crimes (events that are negatively valenced and arousing) produced the largest age increases in false memory and the largest age declines in net accuracy.     

Another Look at the Role of Empty Categories in Sentence Processing (and Grammar)

The gap/gapless processing debate in the psycholinguistics literature contrasts two processing models: one that assumes the trace-based Government and Binding (or Principles and Parameters) Grammar and the (augmented) Active Filler Strategy and one that assumes the traceless Dependency Categorial Grammar and the Principle of Dependency Formation. This paper reports on an experiment that found new evidence against the gapless/traceless model, considers why such evidence was not found in previous studies, and explores whether a parser that combines a (partially) traceless grammar and the augmented Active Filler Strategy can explain the current finding.     

Antecedent priming at trace positions in Japanese long-distance scrambling

We report the results from three cross-modal lexical decision experiments investigating antecedent priming effects in Japanese. In the first two experiments we examined antecedent reactivation at the preverbal trace position in long-distance scrambling sentences. We found an interaction between the participants' working memory (WM) span and antecedent priming. For the high span group, the magnitude of antecedent priming at the trace position was significantly larger than at the earlier control position; for the low span group, on the other hand, there was no such difference. In a third experiment, we examined whether similar reactivation effects could be observed for argument expressions that are not base-generated adjacent to the verb. Contrary to scrambled objects, subject noun phrases (NPs) in canonically ordered sentences were not reactivated at the preverbal test position in either of the two participant groups. We argue that the priming effect observed in the high span group supports a trace-based account of long-distance scrambling. The degree of complexity of the experimental sentences was such that they exceeded the memory span of the low span group. We conclude that argument traces access their antecedents irrespective of the position of their subcategorizers.     

Role of cholinergic system on the construction of memories: taste memory encoding

There is a large body of evidence suggesting that cholinergic activity is involved in memory processes. It seems that cholinergic activity is essential to learn several tasks and recent works suggest that acetylcholine plays an important role during the early stages of memory formation. In this review, we will discuss the results related to taste memory formation, focusing particularly on the conditioned taste aversion paradigm. We will first give evidence that nucleus basalis magnocellularis is involved in taste memory formation, due to its cholinergic projections. We then show that the cholinergic activity of the insular (gustatory) cortex is related to the taste novelty, and that the cholinergic signals initiated by novelty are crucial for taste memory formation. Then we present recent data indicating that cortical activation of muscarinic receptors is necessary for taste trace encoding, and also for its consolidation under certain circumstances. Finally, interactions between the cholinergic and other neuromodulatory systems inducing intracellular mechanisms related to plastic changes will be proposed as important processes underlying gustatory memory trace storage.