The effect of interruption duration and demand on resuming suspended goals.

The time to resume task goals after an interruption varied depending on the duration and cognitive demand of interruptions, as predicted by the memory for goals model (Altmann & Trafton, 2002). Three experiments using an interleaved tasks interruption paradigm showed that longer and more demanding interruptions led to longer resumption times in a hierarchical, interactive task. The resumption time profile for durations up to 1 min supported the role of decay in defining resumption costs, and the interaction between duration and demand supported the importance of goal rehearsal in mitigating decay. These findings supported the memory for goals model, and had practical implications for context where tasks are frequently interleaved such as office settings, driving, emergency rooms, and aircraft cockpits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The changing pattern of prenatal care utilization in the United States, 1981-1995, using different prenatal care indices

CONTEXT: Two measures traditionally used to examine adequacy of prenatal care indicate that prenatal care utilization remained unchanged through the 1980s and only began to rise slightly in the 1990s. In recent years, new measures have been developed that include a category for women who receive more than the recommended amount of care (intensive utilization). OBJECTIVE: To compare the older and newer indices in the monitoring of prenatal care trends in the United States from 1981 to 1995, for the overall population and for selected subpopulations. Second, to examine factors associated with receiving intensive utilization. DESIGN: Cross-sectional and trend analysis of national birth records. SETTING: The United States. SUBJECTS: All live births between 1981 and 1995 (N=54 million). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Trends in prenatal care utilization, according to 4 indices (the older indices: the Institute of Medicine Index and the trimester that care began, and the newer indices: the R-GINDEX and the Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index). Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the risk of intensive prenatal care use in 1981 and 1995. RESULTS: The newer indices showed a steadily increasing trend toward more prenatal care use throughout the study period (R-GINDEX, intensive or adequate use, 32.7% in 1981 to 47.1 % in 1995; the Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index, intensive use, 18.4% in 1981 to 28.8% in 1995), especially for intensive utilization. Women having a multiple birth were much more likely to have had intensive utilization in 1995 compared with 1981 (R-GINDEX, 22.8% vs 8.5%). Teenagers were more likely to begin care later than adults, but similar proportions of teens and adults had intensive utilization. Intensive use among low-risk women also increased steadily each year. Factors associated with a greater likelihood of receiving intensive use in 1981 and 1995 were having a multiple birth, primiparity, being married, and maternal age of 35 years or older. CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of women who began care early and received at least the recommended number of visits increased between 1981 and 1995. This change was undetected by more traditional prenatal care indices. These increases have cost and practice implications and suggest a paradox since previous studies have shown that rates of preterm delivery and low birth weight did not improve during this time.     

Effects of transdermal nicotine and concurrent smoking on cognitive performance in tobacco-abstinent smokers.

Smokers experience cognitive decrements during tobacco abstinence and boosts in performance on resumption of smoking. Few studies have examined whether smoking cessation treatments such as transdermal nicotine (TN) ameliorate these decrements or attenuate the cognitive effects of smoking. Identifying the effects of nicotine on these tobacco-related changes in performance could guide the development of more efficacious treatments. The purpose of this double-blind, randomized, laboratory study was to use process-specific cognitive tasks to examine the effects of TN and tobacco smoking on attention and working memory in overnight-abstinent smokers (N = 124; 54 women). Each participant completed 4 sessions lasting 6.5 hr corresponding to 0-, 7-, 14-, or 21-mg TN doses, and smoked a single cigarette 4 hr after TN administration. Outcome measures were administered before and after smoking and included tasks measuring attention (alerting, orienting, and executive function), working memory (verbal and spatial), and psychomotor function. Analysis of variance (p     

Introduction to the special section: Working memory and neuropsychology—Interdependence of clinical and experimental research.

Memory processes and memory disorders are perhaps the most heavily studied areas in neuropsychology. One consequence of this is that a great deal of attention has focused on the theoretical and clinical aspects of memory, and many different conceptual viewpoints have arisen. In 1974, A. Baddeley and G. Hitch described a model system, working memory, that was developed to account for a variety of data concerning human short-term memory. The emphasis in the model was the notion that short-term memory could be active—could do work—and thus contribute to the processing of information to be remembered. The model has evolved during the intervening 20 years, and it has increasing importance for understanding normal memory, memory loss, and other cognitive operations. The purpose of this Special Section of Neuropsychology is to present a series of articles describing the contributions of the working memory model to neuropsychology and to elucidate how neuropsychological studies have led to direct tests of the model's tenets. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationships of working memory, secondary memory, and general fluid intelligence: Working memory is special.

Recent efforts have been made to elucidate the commonly observed link between working memory and reasoning ability. The results have been inconsistent, with some work suggesting that the emphasis placed on retrieval from secondary memory by working memory tests is the driving force behind this association (Mogle, Lovett, Stawski, & Sliwinski, 2008), whereas other research suggests retrieval from secondary memory is only partly responsible for the observed link between working memory and reasoning (Unsworth & Engle, 2006, 2007). In the present study, we investigated the relationship between processing speed, working memory, secondary memory, primary memory, and fluid intelligence. Although our findings show that all constructs are significantly correlated with fluid intelligence, working memory—but not secondary memory—accounts for significant unique variance in fluid intelligence. Our data support predictions made by Unsworth and Engle (2006, 2007) and suggest that the combined need for maintenance and retrieval processes present in working memory tests makes them special in their prediction of higher order cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The independent influence of apathy and depression on cognitive functioning in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the independent influence of symptoms of depression and apathy, two of the most common neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), on executive functioning and memory in PD patients using measures designed to discriminate between these symptoms. Method: Participants included 68 nondemented, idiopathic PD patients, ages 56–82 years. The Apathy Evaluation Scale—Self-Rating and select items of the Beck Depression Inventory II were used to assess symptoms of apathy and depression, respectively. Cognitive function was assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Hopkins Verbal Learning Test—Revised. Correlations and hierarchical regressions were conducted to investigate the relationships between apathy, depression, and cognitive function. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the degree of influence of depression and apathy on cognitive function. Results: Results revealed that symptoms of apathy, but not depression, were significantly and negatively associated with executive functioning. Immediate memory was significantly and negatively associated with both apathy and depression. However, apathy accounted for additional variance in memory performance after controlling for depression at a level approaching significance. Conclusions: Apathy is not only associated with cognitive impairment, but also with impaired daily functioning, caregiver burden and distress, medication noncompliance, and increased mortality. Differentiating apathy and depression, understanding their unique effects, and appropriately identifying apathy symptoms in patients have robust implications for the development of neuropsychological models of these effects in PD as well as practical implications in guiding improvements to patient care and enhancing quality of life in patients and caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A dynamic stimulus-driven model of signal detection.

Signal detection theory forms the core of many current models of cognition, including memory, choice, and categorization. However, the classic signal detection model presumes the a priori existence of fixed stimulus representations—usually Gaussian distributions—even when the observer has no experience with the task. Furthermore, the classic signal detection model requires the observer to place a response criterion along the axis of stimulus strength, and without theoretical elaboration, this criterion is fixed and independent of the observer's experience. We present a dynamic, adaptive model that addresses these 2 long-standing issues. Our model describes how the stimulus representation can develop from a rough subjective prior and thereby explains changes in signal detection performance over time. The model structure also provides a basis for the signal detection decision that does not require the placement of a criterion along the axis of stimulus strength. We present simulations of the model to examine its behavior and several experiments that provide data to test the model. We also fit the model to recognition memory data and discuss the role that feedback plays in establishing stimulus representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective study on the behavior of pediatric intensive care unit nurses, concerning the care given to suicidal children

Pediatric intensive care units use sophisticated medical technology and are staffed by deeply committed nurses who are subjected to significant psychological stress. This stress varies with the type of patient and influences the style and quality of care. With this respect, children and adolescents admitted after a suicidal attempt are considered catalysts. However, there have been no systematic studies of how pediatric intensive care nurses respond emotionally to their interactions with these patients. This epidemiological study conducted in five Parisian Teaching Hospital pediatric intensive care units used a specially designed questionnaire to evaluate nurses' responses on the basis of style of care. Children under 16 years of age admitted after attempted suicide were studied comparatively with same age children admitted for status asthmaticus or encephalopathy with seizures. Results highlighted the differences in nurses' psychological responses to these situations and their difficulties in interacting with patients. This study provides strict methodological guidelines for investigating an issue often discussed emotionally or on the basis of anecdotal data.     

Hindsight ≠ hindsight: Experimentally induced dissociations between hindsight components.

Hindsight bias has recently been conceived of not as a unitary phenomenon but as a conglomerate of 3 separate phenomenological manifestations (“hindsight components”; Blank, Nestler, von Collani, & Fischer, 2008): memory distortions, impressions of foreseeability, and impressions of inevitability. These components are thought to be fundamentally different in nature, to be influenced by different processes, and to serve different functions. This article provides strong evidence for the separate components view and its underlying assumptions by demonstrating theoretically predicted dissociations between the components. In Experiment 1, for example, we used a memory encoding manipulation to specifically influence the amount of hindsight memory distortion but not participants' inevitability impressions. Conversely, varying the number of provided reasons for an event outcome affected inevitability impressions but left memory distortion untouched. Similar results—using different theoretically derived manipulations—were obtained between foreseeability impressions and memory distortions (Experiment 2) and between inevitability and foreseeability impressions (Experiment 3). Theoretical and practical consequences of these results and of the separate components view are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics of Israeli primary health care physicians who treat depression

Primary health care physicians have a pivotal role in treating mental health problems. We determined the proportion of primary care physicians in Israel who treat depression and their characteristics. The study was based on a stratified national random sample of primary care physicians (n677, response rate 78%). From these physicians' reports 22% always treat depression, 36.6% usually, 28.6% sometimes, and 12.6% never. Based on a logistic regression model the physicians who always or usually treated depression were distinguished from the other physicians by their treating more medical conditions on their own, seeing themselves as having more first contact for psychosocial problems, having frequent contact with social workers and specializing in family medicine. Primary health care physicians play a major role in treating depression on their own. This raises new questions about how they treat depression themselves, and under what circumstances they treat or refer to a specialist.     

Instructional manipulations and age differences in memory: Now you see them, now you don't.

The instructions for most explicit memory tests use language that emphasizes the memorial component of the task. This language may put older adults at a disadvantage relative to younger adults because older adults believe that their memories have deteriorated. Consequently, typical explicit memory tests may overestimate age-related decline in cognitive performance. In 2 experiments, age differences were obtained when the instructions emphasized the memory component of the task (memory emphasis) but not when the instructions did not emphasize memory (memory neutral). These findings suggest that aspects of the testing situation, such as experimental instructions, may exaggerate age differences in memory performance and need to be considered when designing studies investigating age differences in memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Memory in mind and culture.

Reviews the book, Memory in mind and culture edited by Pascal Boyer and James V. Wertsch (see record 2010-05180-000). This book rides the waves of two recent trends: interdisciplinarity and the effect of mind on culture. First, its psychologist and anthropologist editors deliberately chose an interdisciplinary panel of experts on memory, inviting highly respected psychologists, anthropologists, and historians to review cutting-edge memory research in their area of expertise. For psychologists, the resulting collection not only provides readable reviews of current psychology research in memory but also introduces concepts and issues from other disciplines that may open new avenues for research. Second, the book emphasizes the coconstitution of mind and culture, especially seeking evidence for how our minds structure culture. This unusual perspective is especially well developed in the last chapters of the book (Boyer; Rubin) but shows its influence throughout the book, with some authors exploring new ideas about how basic research on memory processes can connect to the study of culture. In summary, this book provides excellent reviews of up-to-date memory research in psychology—from brain structures to blogs—and also innovatively connects this research to larger questions about human culture. Though the coverage of eminent cognitive psychologists is admirable, I wish the book had included some of the new work by cultural and evolutionary psychologists on the topic. Nevertheless, the book advances the field in important ways, pointing the way to new research and theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working Memory and Intelligence: The Same or Different Constructs?

Several investigators have claimed over the past decade that working memory (WM) and general intelligence (g) are identical, or nearly identical, constructs, from an individual-differences perspective. Although memory measures are commonly included in intelligence tests, and memory abilities are included in theories of intelligence, the identity between WM and intelligence has not been evaluated comprehensively. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 86 samples that relate WM to intelligence. The average correlation between true-score estimates of WM and g is substantially less than unity (p? = .479). The authors also focus on the distinction between short-term memory and WM with respect to intelligence with a supplemental meta-analysis. The authors discuss how consideration of psychometric and theoretical perspectives better informs the discussion of WM-intelligence relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual distinctiveness supports detailed visual long-term memory for real-world objects.

Humans have a massive capacity to store detailed information in visual long-term memory. The present studies explored the fidelity of these visual long-term memory representations and examined how conceptual and perceptual features of object categories support this capacity. Observers viewed 2,800 object images with a different number of exemplars presented from each category. At test, observers indicated which of 2 exemplars they had previously studied. Memory performance was high and remained quite high (82% accuracy) with 16 exemplars from a category in memory, demonstrating a large memory capacity for object exemplars. However, memory performance decreased as more exemplars were held in memory, implying systematic categorical interference. Object categories with conceptually distinctive exemplars showed less interference in memory as the number of exemplars increased. Interference in memory was not predicted by the perceptual distinctiveness of exemplars from an object category, though these perceptual measures predicted visual search rates for an object target among exemplars. These data provide evidence that observers' capacity to remember visual information in long-term memory depends more on conceptual structure than perceptual distinctiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantitative estimation: From the real world to the psychology lab.

Banaji and Crowder (see record 1990-00387-001) contend "that the movement to develop an ecologically valid psychology of memory has proven itself largely bankrupt" (p. 1185). The authors have two primary concerns. First, they believe that it is rare for studies of real-world cognition to support conclusions that generalize broadly. Second, they are concerned that such studies may be inherently incapable of making significant theoretical or methodological contributions. The research program outlined here can be viewed as a response (in the form of a case study) to the Banaji and Crowder position. Specifically, this project has adopted both theoretical and methodology perspectives from the study of real-world memory to address a long-standing issue in the mainstream memory literature. The project itself was designed to characterize the strategies used to estimate event frequency and the conditions that foster the use of these strategies. A valid model of the estimation process is necessary in order to understand the encoding and representation of event frequency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extending the study of autobiographical memory: Thinking back about life across the life span.

By combining a life perspective with a life span perspective, the authors present a basic framework for extending the study of autobiographical memory. The life perspective suggests not only the consideration of individual episodes of memory but how they are strung together into a life. The life span perspective takes into account the chronological age and life context of individuals and how these factors might affect abilities and motivations related to the use of autobiographical memory. The authors discuss how these 2 perspectives are combined to yield a useful framework for studying autobiographical memory and present 2 examples of work done using this framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Destination memory impairment in older people.

Older adults are assumed to have poor destination memory—knowing to whom they tell particular information—and anecdotes about them repeating stories to the same people are cited as informal evidence for this claim. Experiment 1 assessed young and older adults' destination memory by having participants tell facts (e.g., “A dime has 118 ridges around its edge”) to pictures of famous people (e.g., Oprah Winfrey). Surprise recognition memory tests, which also assessed confidence, revealed that older adults, compared to young adults, were disproportionately impaired on destination memory relative to spared memory for the individual components (i.e., facts, faces) of the episode. Older adults also were more confident that they had not told a fact to a particular person when they actually had (i.e., a miss); this presumably causes them to repeat information more often than young adults. When the direction of information transfer was reversed in Experiment 2, such that the famous people shared information with the participants (i.e., a source memory experiment), age-related memory differences disappeared. In contrast to the destination memory experiment, older adults in the source memory experiment were more confident than young adults that someone had shared a fact with them when a different person actually had shared the fact (i.e., a false alarm). Overall, accuracy and confidence jointly influence age-related changes to destination memory, a fundamental component of successful communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consolidation of Long-Term Memory: Evidence and Alternatives.

Memory loss in retrograde amnesia has long been held to be larger for recent periods than for remote periods, a pattern usually referred to as the Ribot gradient. One explanation for this gradient is consolidation of long-term memories. Several computational models of such a process have shown how consolidation can explain characteristics of amnesia, but they have not elucidated how consolidation must be envisaged. Here findings are reviewed that shed light on how consolidation may be implemented in the brain. Moreover, consolidation is contrasted with alternative theories of the Ribot gradient. Consolidation theory, multiple trace theory, and semantization can all handle some findings well but not others. Conclusive evidence for or against consolidation thus remains to be found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are memory self-efficacy and memory performance related? A meta-analysis.

The association between memory self-efficacy (MSE) and memory performance is highly documented in the literature. However, previous studies have produced inconsistent results, and there is no consensus on the existence of a significant link between these two variables. In order to evaluate whether or not the effect size of the MSE–memory performance relationship in healthy adults is significant and to test several theory-driven moderators, we conducted a meta-analysis of published and unpublished studies. A random-effects model analysis of data from 107 relevant studies (673 effect sizes) indicated a low but significant weighted mean correlation between MSE and memory performance, r = .15, 95% CI [.13, .17]. In addition, the mean effect size was significantly moderated by the way MSE was assessed. Memory performance was more strongly related to concurrent MSE (perceived current ability to perform a given task) than it was to global MSE (perceived usual memory ability in general). Furthermore, we found marginally larger MSE–memory performance correlations when the memory situations used to assess MSE involved familiar stimuli. No effect of the method used to assess global MSE or domain MSE (memory rating vs. performance predictions) was found. The results also show that the resource demands of the memory tasks have a moderator effect, as the MSE–performance correlation is larger with free-recall and cued-recall tasks than it is with recognition tasks. Limitations (generalization issues, moderators not considered) and implications for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of learning methods on collaboration: Prior repeated retrieval enhances retrieval organization, abolishes collaborative inhibition, and promotes post-collaborative memory.

Research on collaborative memory has unveiled the counterintuitive yet robust phenomenon that collaboration impairs group recall. A candidate explanation for this collaborative inhibition effect is the disruption of people's idiosyncratic retrieval strategies during collaboration, and it is hypothesized that employing methods that improve one's organization protects against retrieval disruption. Here it is investigated how one's learning method during the study phase—defined as either repeatedly studying or repeatedly retrieving information—influences retrieval organization and what effects this has on collaborative recall and post-collaborative individual recall. Results show that repeated retrieval consistently eliminated collaborative inhibition. This enabled participants to gain the most from re-exposure to materials recalled by their partners that they themselves did not recall and led to improvements in their individual memory following collaboration. This repeated retrieval advantage stemmed from the preferential manner in which this learning method strengthened retrieval organization. Findings are also discussed that reveal a relationship between retrieval organization and the interaction observed between learning method and short versus long delay seen in the testing effect literature. Finally, results show that the elusive benefits of cross-cuing during collaboration may be best detected with a longer study–test delay. Together, these findings illuminate when and how collaboration can enhance memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)