Engrams, memory storage, and mnemonic coding.

Among the basic questions concerning memory is the problem of "how the human brain records, stores, and transmits information… . I believe that acquired engrams are laid down like genetic codes, are transmitted as genetic information and revived and assembled into memories by some matching method. The matching may be either chemical or electrical and at some levels of neural organization of the sort we identify with frequency radio tuning or electrical resonance… . [If] we conceive of learning as a linking of sequential responses or facts, it is not the facts but the links between them which are altered by the learning process." Brain function resembles genetic replication and resonance phenomena rather than devices currently employed in automata. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generality and behavioral correlates of cognitive styles.

Factorial confirmation of 2 cognitive styles, defined as relationships between abilities within individuals, was sought in the within-individual variations of task performances. The cognitive styles, 1 termed "Conceptual versus Perceptual-motor Dominance," the other, "Strong versus Weak Automatization," were factorially isolated in each of 2 samples of adult normal males, and in 1 sample of adolescent male and female twins. The results are similar to those obtained by British factor analysts using hierarchical group factor method. Examination of the relationships of the factors to education and occupational levels in the adult normals revealed that the Strong Automatizers had higher occupational levels than the Weak Automatizers although the 2 groups of Ss did not differ in general intelligence or education. (35 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social recognition memory requires protein synthesis after reactivation.

Recent evidence indicates that reactivation of consolidated memories returns them to a protein-synthesis-dependent state called reconsolidation. The hypothesis that memories reconsolidate has never been assessed in social memory. The authors tested whether sheep (Ovis aries) mothers' memory of their lambs undergoes reconsolidation upon reactivation. After 7 days of mother-young contact, ewes were separated from their lambs for 8 hr, after which the lambs were reintroduced to their mothers for a 10-min reactivation session. Before reactivation, mothers received a subcutaneous injection of either the protein-synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (CY, 1 mg/kg) or vehicle. Mothers' lamb memory was tested 1 hr (short-term memory [STM]) or 16 hr (long-term memory [LTM]) after reactivation. Mothers treated with CY exhibited intact STM but deficient LTM. CY injection without reactivation or before presentation of an alien lamb induced no deficit in LTM. CY-induced LTM deficit was alleviated by (a) introducing a reminder just before the LTM test, (b) extending mother-young contact, and (c) preventing suckling by the familiar lamb during reactivation. Thus, reconsolidation can be shown to exist in social memory, and some of its boundary conditions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fetal cardiac responding: Maturational and behavioral correlates.

Intrapartum fetal heart rate (FHR) patterns in 48 full-term or preterm infants were classified as acceleratory or deceleratory. Deceleratory patterns were associated with higher baseline HR, lower birth weight, prematurity, and more abnormal reflexes scored on the Newborn Behavior Assessment Scale. Results suggest that FHR responses in the clinically healthy newborn may be related to early stress tolerance and CNS integrity. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal characteristics of male criminal offenders: Personality, psychopathological, and behavioral correlates.

Interest in conceptualizing the interpersonal style of individuals who engage in serious antisocial behavior has increased in recent years. This study examines the personality, psychopathological, and behavioral correlates of interpersonal dominance and warmth, as operationalized via scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (L. Morey, 2007), across several samples of male prison inmates (combined N = 1,062). Consistent with theory, multivariate analyses indicated that low warmth and, to a lesser extent, high dominance were associated with antisocial and paranoid traits, specifically, and externalizing-spectrum psychopathology more generally, whereas borderline traits and internalizing-spectrum psychopathology were uniquely associated with low interpersonal warmth. Among smaller subsamples of inmates followed prospectively, high dominance and, to a lesser extent, low warmth predicted general and aggressive institutional misconduct, whereas dominance uniquely predicted staff ratings of treatment noncompliance/failure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomic and behavioral correlates of appetitive conditioning in rats.

The cardiac responses accompanying conditioned stimulus (CS)-generated (orienting) and unconditioned stimulus (US)-generated appetitively motivated behaviors (P. C. Holland, 1977) were investigated. On the basis of contemporary psychophysiological research, CS-generated responses were predicted to produce bradycardia, and US-generated responses to produce tachycardia. Pairing a 10-s visual CS with food delivery produced conditioned behavioral orienting (rearing) during the initial portion of the CS, followed by magazine approach (US-generated) responses as the CS progressed. CS onset produced a decrease in heart rate, mediated by an increase in parasympathetic stimulation of the heart, which persisted throughout the 10-s CS; no support for a biphasic cardiac response was observed. These data are discussed with respect to other conditioned autonomic responses and their relevance to foraging and food ingestion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hippocampal cells have behavioral correlates during the performance of an auditory working memory task in the rat.

Single unit activity was recorded from the rat hippocampal CA1 and CA3 subfields, dentate gyrus (DG), entorhinal cortex, subicular complex, motor cortex (MC), prefrontal cortex, and dorsomedial thalamus during performance of a continuous nonmatching-to-sample task. The rats made go and no-go responses to indicate whether the current tone was the same as (match) or different from (nonmatch) the preceding tone. About half of the units from the MC, CA1, CA3, and DG had motor correlates, increments of activity immediately prior to a go response. This suggests that those regions are involved in making a response. The CA1 and CA3 had more units with comparison–motor correlates, increases of activity prior to a correct go response on nonmatch trials. This pattern of activity suggests that the CA1 and CA3 are involved in a mnemonic process of comparison between retained and current stimuli in a nonspatial auditory task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cognitive and neural correlates of tactile memory.

Tactile memory systems are involved in the storage and retrieval of information about stimuli that impinge on the body surface and objects that people explore haptically. Here, the authors review the behavioral, neuropsychological, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging research on tactile memory. This body of research reveals that tactile memory can be subdivided into a number of functionally distinct neurocognitive subsystems, just as is the case with auditory and visual memory. Some of these subsystems are peripheral and short lasting and others are more central and long lasting. The authors highlight evidence showing that the representation of tactile information interacts with information about other sensory attributes (e.g., visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic) of objects/events that people perceive. This fact suggests that at least part of the neural network involved in the memory for touch might be shared among different sensory modalities. In particular, multisensory/amodal information-processing networks seem to play a leading role in the storage of tactile information in the brain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived parental characteristics, locus of control orientation, and behavioral correlates of locus of control.

Attempted to ascertain perceived parental behavior associated with locus of control orientation. 112 high school seniors (58 males and 54 females) completed the Nowicki-Strickland Personal Reaction Survey and the Parent-Child Interaction Rating Scale. Generally, perceived paternal nurturance was associated with female internality, and perceived maternal nurturance was associated with male internality. All Ss perceived parents as having a similar locus of control orientation. In Phase 2 of the study, behavior associated with Ss' locus of control and perceived parental locus of control orientation was investigated. Ss' expressed internality was associated with higher achievement for males and with greater social involvement for females. Perceived paternal internality was significantly associated with greater female achievement. Results are discussed in terms of social learning and cultural role-expectancy theory. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intolerance of ambiguity in preschool children: Psychometric considerations, behavioral manifestations, and parental correlates.

Conducted 3 experiments in a longitudinal study of ego development in which multiple measures were administered at 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 yrs of age and in which information about the parents and parent–child interactions was also obtained. 57 female and 63 male preschoolers were reliably evaluated with respect to intolerance of ambiguity at 3? and 4? yrs of age by independent sets of nursery school teachers. Ss relatively intolerant of ambiguity were comparatively hesitant to enter, narrow in deploying attention within, and premature in imposing structure upon 3 ambiguous experimental situations. Early intolerance of ambiguity in boys was significantly related to later intolerance of ambiguity, general anxiety, structure-seeking behaviors, and less effective cognitive functioning when the boys were age 7. Early intolerance of ambiguity in girls was related, when the girls were age 7, to a pattern of highly stable peer relationships in which the girls played nonassertive roles. Fathers of boys intolerant of ambiguity described themselves as relatively distant and authoritarian, and in a standardized teaching situation were impatient, critical, and less resourceful while interacting with their sons. Mothers of girls intolerant of ambiguity described themselves as nurturant, and in the teaching situation were emotionally supportive and task structuring with their daughters. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

P-impulsive sensation seeking and its behavioral, psychophysiological and biochemical correlates

Impulsive unsocialized sensation seeking (ImpUSS) is a major factor discovered in factor analyses of scales used in psychobiological research. It is strongly convergent with Eysenck's P dimension and conscientiousness in the 'big five'. The components of the dimension and the P scale, have been validated as correlates of various kinds of disinhibited behaviors, criminality, sexuality, and substance use and abuse. ImpUSS is related to a failure in passive avoidance learning, probably as a function of impulsivity and attention to reward stimuli. Psychophysiological markers for the trait include strong orienting and weak defensive reflexes and an augmenting, rather than reducing, of cortical reaction to intense stimuli. At the neurochemical level the trait is related to low levels of monoamine oxidase (MAO) and the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin, and theoretically high levels of dopaminergic activity. The trait components have high heritabilities for a personality trait.     

Ability correlates of memory performance in adulthood and aging.

The predictive relationships between an array of cognitive process and intellectual ability variables and text- and word-recall performance were examined. A sample of 584 men and women from 3 age groups (19–36, 55–69, and 70–86 years) completed a battery of 23 tasks marking 2 latent criterion variables and 10 latent predictor variables. The results indicated that (a) individual differences in process and ability variables predict performance on text and word recall, accounting for approximately half of the variance; (b) the pattern of predictors is quite similar for text and word recall; (c) age-related differences in text and word recall can be substantially accounted for by individual differences in constituent abilities, particularly indicators of verbal speed and working memory; and (d) there is some evidence to suggest that the pattern of ability–performance relationships varies across age, but such interactions appear to be relatively small. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactional correlates of treatment outcome in behavioral parent training.

52 21–38 yr old mothers and their 2–11 yr old children took part in a behavioral parent-training program to modify aggressive and oppositional child behavior. Several measures of mother–child interaction were obtained for each dyad at baseline, treatment, and follow-up. Measures included sociodemographic variables and home observations. After 1-yr follow-up, measures were compared between dyads who succeeded in the program and dyads who did not. Results show that: (1) unsuccessful mothers were more aversive and indiscriminate in their use of aversive behavior toward their children than successful mothers in all phases; (2) unsuccessful children were more aversive than successful children, but only in treatment and follow-up; and (3) all children evidenced some degree of indiscriminate aversive responding. The majority of unsuccessful dyads scored high on several measures of socioeconomic disadvantage, suggesting that such interactional differences might provide a link to account in part for the impact of adverse socioeconomic factors on mother–child interaction. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' beliefs about interaction control and their observed behavioral correlates.

A teacher's perception of control over interactions with pupils has been suggested as a possible mediator of the expectation communication process. The present study tested some predictions based on this line of reasoning, with both between- and within-classroom analysis models. Participants were 204 3rd–5th graders from 5 schools and 17 teachers. The within-classroom analysis found, as predicted, that teachers viewed interactions with low-expectation pupils as less controllable than those with high-expectation pupils and that teacher initiations were perceived as more controllable than child initiations. In addition, a predicted (but nonsignificant) negative relation was found between the frequency of a teacher's ignoring a pupil's response and interaction control: Less relative perceived control over a pupil was associated with a relatively more frequent occurrence of no feedback. Reasons for the weakness in relations are discussed. Also, explanatory analyses involving control and the frequency of 6 types of classroom interaction are presented. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stroke mortality and its socioeconomic, racial, and behavioral correlates in Florida

Stroke mortality is associated both with being black and with having low socioeconomic status. However, it is uncertain to what extent that increased risk is related to rates of behavior-related risk factors, such as hypertension, cigarette smoking, obesity, or alcohol consumption. The investigators performed an ecologic analysis to estimate the contributions of behavioral risks, socioeconomic status, and black race to regional variations in stroke mortality rates among persons 55-84 years of age in Florida. They used data from the 1980 census and from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for 1986 through 1988. Weighted multiple linear regression models indicated that regions in Florida with high stroke mortality rates were characterized by high prevalences of poverty, obesity, and hypertension. Although limited by its ecologic design, this study suggests that socioeconomic status and prevalence of behavioral risks contribute independently to interregional disparities in stroke mortality rates in Florida. BRFSS data, now available for more than 45 States, can be used to help clarify the relative contributions of behavioral and other risks to population-based mortality rates.     

Extent, pattern, and correlates of remote memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Content and contextual memory for remote public figures and events was assessed with a modified version of the Presidents Test in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Parkinson's disease (PD). Contributions of executive functioning, semantic memory, and explicit anterograde memory to remote memory abilities were also examined. The AD group had temporally extensive deficits in content and contextual remote memory not accountable for by dementia severity. The PD group did not differ from the control group in remote memory, despite anterograde memory impairment. These results support the position that different component processes characterize remote memory, various mnemonic and nonmnemonic cognitive processes contribute to remote memory performance, and anterograde and remote memory processes are dissociable and differentially disrupted by neurodegenerative disease. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attention structure, sociometric status, and dominance: Interrelations, behavioral correlates, and relationships to social competence.

To evaluate the interrelationships and external correlates of 3 potential measures of social competence (SC), a preschool class of 22 4-yr-olds was observed during free play throughout 1 school year. Ranks based on distribution of visual regard among peers, sociometric scores, and competitive dominance interactions were derived from data collected during each term. In addition, observations of play behavior and of aggression were collected throughout the year. Attention rank and sociometric scores were highly correlated and were substantially stable across terms. Dominance was not strongly related to attention rank or to sociometric scores and was less stable across time. The stability of the play and aggression data varied from category to category as did relationships between these categories and the status measures. Evidence demonstrates that attention rank is related to SC and is not a function of disruptive behavior, activity level, or proximity to adults. A relationship was also found between visual regard among peers and the social structure of the preschool play group. It is suggested that SC, broadly conceived, is a more salient basis for social organization among preschool peers than either the distribution of attention per se or competition/dominance relationships. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basic behavioral science research for mental health: Perception, attention, learning, and memory.

Examines the cognitive processes of sensation and perception, attention, learning, and memory to understand cognitive disorders seen in mental illnesses. The sensation and perception review includes recognizing patterns and shapes, perceiving words in reading and the "Where" and "When" Modules of the visual system. The focus on attention concerns it's important cognitive role to planned, adaptive behavior. Many aspects of learning are discussed, including learning and prediction, conditioning and addiction, instrumental learning, modulating and preserving behavior, and social learning of fears and phobias. Reconstructive memory, emotion and memory, forms of memory (working and implicit memory), and the cognitive unconscious are discussed. Directions for future research on perception, attention, learning, and memory are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)