The retention of nouns,adjectives, and verbs of sentences

This research compared the retention of nouns, adjectives and verbs of sentences. A model of the structure underlying the retention of sentences and in which deep structure constituent propositions are hierarchically related, was used to make predictions concerning the retention of these word classes. The model was not supported by the data and it was determined that latencies to recognize the words of a previously presented sentence were the same for all classes of words. This result indicated that for recognition (but not necessarily for other memory tasks), each word of a sentence is seperately or equally accessible (as long as inter-word imagery is the same). However, a further experiment showed that, although word class is not a variable, the image-arousing capacity of a word is. Latencies and error rates were much lower for high-imagery words than for low-imagery ones. The findings on error rates in recognizing words were interesting and pointed to a different model where the meaning representations and syntatic functions of words have an active role in sentence retention.     

The Effect of Morphological Complexity on Verbal Working Memory: Results from Arabic Speaking Children

To examine the role of morphology in verbal working memory. Forty nine children, all native speakers of Arabic from the same region and of the same dialect, performed a Listening Word Span Task, whereby they had to recall Arabic uninflected words (i.e., base words), inflected words with regular (possessive) morphology, or inflected words with irregular (broken plural) morphology. Each of these words was at the end of a sentence (henceforth, target word). The participant’s task was to listen to a series of sentences and then recall the target words. Recall of inflected words was significantly poorer than uninflected words, and recall of words with regular morphology was significantly poorer than recall of words with irregular morphology. These findings, albeit preliminary, suggest a role of morphology in verbal working memory. They also suggest that, at least in Arabic, regular morphological forms are decomposed into their component elements and hence impose an extra load on the central executive and episodic buffer components of working memory. Furthermore, in concert with findings from other studies, they suggest that the effect of morphology on working memory is probably language-specific. The clinical implications of the present findings are addressed.     

Presence of meaning,search for meaning,religiousness, satisfaction with life and depressive symptoms among a diverse Israeli sample

The present study explored the structure and correlates of meaning in life (MIL) among an Israeli sample. The sample consisted of 559 adults. The average age of participants was 48.24 and 61.3% of them were females. Participants provided demographic information and completed measures of MIL, satisfaction with life, and depressive symptoms. The MIL Questionnaire showed a very good fit for the proposed 2-factor model (i.e. presence of meaning, search for meaning) to the data collected from the current sample. Presence of meaning correlated positively with both search for meaning and satisfaction with life, and negatively with depressive symptoms. Search for meaning was positively and weakly tied to satisfaction with life, but was unrelated to depressive symptoms. Religiousness appeared as a significant moderator between the two meaning factors, and between them and life satisfaction. Specifically, as religiousness became stronger: (a) the link between presence of meaning and search for meaning became weaker; (b) the link between presence of meaning and life satisfaction became stronger and (c) the link between search for meaning and life satisfaction became weaker. The findings suggest that there are differential implications of presence search for meaning on the health and well-being, and the important role religiousness plays in this regard.     

Artificial grammar learning is facilitated by distributed practice: Evidence from a letter reordering task

Cognitive Processing - Previous studies have shown that distributed practice—a training strategy that is known to facilitate memory—is likely to result in greater learning than massed...     

Qualitatively distinct factors contribute to elevated rates of paranoia in autism and schizophrenia

A converging body of clinical and empirical reports indicates that autism features elevated rates of paranoia comparable to those of individuals with paranoid schizophrenia. However, the distinct developmental courses and symptom manifestations of these two disorders suggest that the nature of paranoid ideation may differ between them in important and meaningful ways. To evaluate this hypothesis, we compared patterns of responses on the Paranoia Scale between actively paranoid individuals with schizophrenia (SCZP), individuals with schizophrenia who were not actively paranoid (SCZNP), adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and healthy controls. Despite an overall similar level of heightened paranoia in the ASD and SCZP groups, discriminant correspondence analysis (DiCA) revealed that these groups were characterized by unique underlying factors. Paranoia in the SCZP group was defined by a factor based upon victimization, suspicion, and threat of harm. Whereas paranoia in the ASD group was partially characterized by this factor, it was distinguished from SCZP by an additional pattern of responses reflective of increased social cynicism. These findings indicate that paranoia in ASD is supported by qualitative factors distinct from schizophrenia and highlight mechanistic differences in the formation of paranoid ideation that may inform the development of disorder-specific treatments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Distinct Facial Characteristics Differentiate Communicative Intent of Infant‐Directed Speech

Adults and infants can differentiate communicative messages using the nonlinguistic acoustic properties of infant‐directed (ID) speech. Although the distinct prosodic properties of ID speech have been explored extensively, it is currently unknown whether the visual properties of the face during ID speech similarly convey communicative intent and thus represent an additional source of social information for infants during early interactions. To examine whether the dynamic facial movement associated with ID speech confers affective information independent of the acoustic signal, adults' differentiation of the visual properties of speakers' communicative messages was examined in two experiments in which the adults rated silent videos of approving and comforting ID and neutral adult‐directed speech. In Experiment 1, adults differentiated the facial speech groups on ratings of the intended recipient and the speaker's message. In Experiment 2, an original coding scale identified facial characteristics of the speakers. Discriminant correspondence analysis revealed two factors differentiating the facial speech groups on various characteristics. Implications for perception of ID facial movements in relation to speakers' communicative intent are discussed for both typically and atypically developing infants. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐violent resistance and violence against siblings

A parent‐training approach to the treatment of violence against siblings according to the principles of non‐violent resistance was developed aiming at resisting the violence, providing protection to the victims and reducing escalation between the parents and the violent child.     

Linguistic and nonlinguistic auditory processing of rapid vowel formant (F2) modulations in university students with and without developmental dyslexia

To help resolve the issue of whether developmental dyslexia (DD) is related to central auditory processing deficits or to language-specific processing deficits, we had nine dyslectic and nine nondyslectic right-handed undergraduate students perform linguistic (Experiment 1: phoneme identification) and nonlinguistic (Experiment 2: formant rate change detection) tasks. In Experiment 1, subjects listened to synthetic vowels whose second formant (F2) was modulated sinusoidally with F1, F3, and F4 held constant. F2 modulation rate (4-18 Hz) was manipulated within and across stimuli. The groups did not differ in phoneme identification. Experiment 2 was run three times and showed that the control subjects' performance improved across runs whereas the dyslexics' deteriorated across runs (p < .0001), suggesting practice and fatigue effects, respectively. Performance on the two experiments correlated significantly and negatively for the dyslexic subjects only. These results suggest that resource depletion or frontal lobe dysfunction may be implicated in developmental dyslexia.     

Component processes in task switching

Participants switched between two randomly ordered, two-choice reaction-time (RT) tasks, where an instructional cue preceded the target stimulus and indicated which task to execute. Task-switching cost dissipated passively while the participants waited for the instructional cue in order to know which task to execute (during the Response-Cue Interval). Switching cost was sharply reduced, but not abolished, when the participants actively prepared for the task switch in response to the instructional cue (during the Cue-Target Interval). The preparation for a task switch has shown not to be a by-product of general preparation by phasic alertness or predicting target onset. It is suggested that task-switching cost has at least three components reflecting (1) the passive dissipation of the previous task set, (2) the preparation of the new task set, and (3) a residual component.