Age differences in memory retrieval shift: Governed by feeling-of-knowing?

The noun-pair lookup (NP) task was used to evaluate strategic shift from visual scanning to retrieval. We investigated whether age differences in feeling-of-knowing (FOK) account for older adults' delayed retrieval shift. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) standard NP learning, (2) fast binary FOK judgments, or (3) Choice, where participants had to choose in advance whether to see the look-up table or respond from memory. We found small age differences in FOK magnitudes but major age differences in memory retrieval choices that mirrored retrieval use in the standard NP task. Older adults showed lower resolution in their confidence judgments (CJs) for recognition memory tests on the NP items, and this difference appeared to influence rates of retrieval shift, given that retrieval use was correlated with CJ magnitudes in both age groups. Older adults had particular difficulty with accuracy and confidence for rearranged pairs, relative to intact pairs. Older adults' slowed retrieval shift appears to be attributable to (1) impaired associative learning early in practice, not just a lower FOK; but also (2) retrieval reluctance later in practice after the degree of associative learning would afford memory-based responding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognition in prospective memory: Are performance predictions accurate?

This study investigated the role of metacognition in event-based prospective memory. The aim of the study was to explore the relation between an item-level prediction (judgments of learning, JOL) and actual performance. The task and JOLs allowed a differentiation of the two components of prospective memory tasks (retrospective vs. prospective). Results revealed that individuals' predictions were (moderately) accurate for delayed JOLs but not for JOLs that had to be given immediately after task encoding. Moreover, data revealed an underconfidence-with-practice effect only for the retrospective component. For the prospective component, a substantial and general level of underconfidence in individuals' prediction–performance ratios was observed. The importance of metacognitive factors for prospective memory is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 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)     

Influence of facial expression on memory for facial identity: Effects of visual features or emotional meaning?

Research has shown that neutral faces are better recognized when they had been presented with happy rather than angry expressions at study, suggesting that emotional signals conveyed by facial expressions influenced the encoding of novel facial identities in memory. An alternative explanation, however, would be that the influence of facial expression resulted from differences in the visual features of the expressions employed. In this study, this possibility was tested by manipulating facial expression at study versus test. In line with earlier studies, we found that neutral faces were better recognized when they had been previously encountered with happy rather than angry expressions. On the other hand, when neutral faces were presented at study and participants were later asked to recognize happy or angry faces of the same individuals, no influence of facial expression was detected. As the two experimental conditions involved exactly the same amount of changes in the visual features of the stimuli between study and test, the results cannot be simply explained by differences in the visual properties of different facial expressions and may instead reside in their specific emotional meaning. The findings further suggest that the influence of facial expression is due to disruptive effects of angry expressions rather than facilitative effects of happy expressions. This study thus provides additional evidence that facial identity and facial expression are not processed completely independently. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are we there yet? Stasis and progress in forensic psychology.

Progress in forensic psychology has been rapid in some areas and nonexistent in others. By contrasting technological and conceptual scientific progress in three areas--the legal disposition of mentally ill offenders, risk appraisal, and theories of individual differences in antisocial behaviour--I attempt to identify some determinants of progress. Conceptual progress appears to depend even more heavily than technological progress on developments in the more advanced sciences, supporting the idea that consilience plays a vital heuristic role in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are there still indications for cerclage in 1995?

AIM: In order to assess their undertook a retrospective study in their department over a 4 year period: from January 1991 to December 1994. METHOD: the study concerned 129 patients who were treated by cerclage. This procedure was performed prophylactically in the great majority of them (97), while it was carried out as an emergency in 32 (25%). RESULTS: the authors drew a distinction between two groups (prophylactic and emergency suture) when analyzing the various results: complications due to suture, mean age of pregnancy at delivery, threatened premature labor, mean length of prolongation obtained. These personal data formed the basis of a review of the literature, in order to specify the indications for suture adopted by various authors at the present time. CONCLUSION: the authors found themselves to be in agreement with data from the literature, considering a history of at least two obstetric accidents (late abortions) and/or the existence of a severe uterine malformation to be the principal indication for prophylactic suture. "Emergency" suture should be performed whenever there is a serious threat of early premature labor in the presence of cervical changes such that suture offers the only chance of prolonging the pregnancy.     

Individual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces—One element of social cognition.

Recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Individual differences in the ability to perform these tasks may therefore reflect important aspects of social or emotional intelligence. Although functional models of face cognition based on group and single case studies postulate multiple component processes, little is known about the ability structure underlying individual differences in face cognition. In 2 large individual differences experiments (N = 151 and N = 209), a broad variety of face-cognition tasks were tested and the component abilities of face cognition—face perception, face memory, and the speed of face cognition—were identified and then replicated. Experiment 2 also showed that the 3 face-cognition abilities are clearly distinct from immediate and delayed memory, mental speed, general cognitive ability, and object cognition. These results converge with functional and neuroanatomical models of face cognition by demonstrating the difference between face perception and face memory. The results also underline the importance of distinguishing between speed and accuracy of face cognition. Together our results provide a first step toward establishing face-processing abilities as an independent ability reflecting elements of social intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural similarities and differences in group work: Pilot study of a U.S.–Chinese group comparison.

This pilot study representing collaborative cross-cultural research was conducted to compare cross-cultural similarities and differences between 2 comparable task groups by using the 8-step learning through discussion (LTD; W. F. Hill, 1969) method. One LTD group was conducted in the United States with U.S. members; the other LTD group was conducted in China with Chinese members. The same scholarly article on career needs of Chinese middle school students provided the discussion input (M. H. France, Y. Jin, K. Huang, F. Si, & W. Zhang, 1991). Videotapes of each group were made for comparative review by the researchers, providing for analysis of similarities and differences in verbal interaction, nonverbal interaction, leader role, and content themes. Implications of the results and suggestions for U.S. group leaders in working with Chinese task groups are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are working memory deficits in bipolar disorder markers for psychosis?

Working memory deficits have been identified in bipolar disorder, but there is evidence suggesting that these deficits may be markers for psychosis rather than affective disorder. The current study examined this issue by comparing two groups of individuals with bipolar disorder, one with psychotic features and one without psychotic features, with a group of normal controls. Working memory was conceptualized as a multicomponent system that includes auditory and visuospatial short-term stores, executive control processes, and an episodic buffer that allows for communication between short- and long-term memory stores (Baddeley & Logie, 1999). Results indicated that only executive control processes significantly differentiated the psychotic and nonpsychotic bipolar groups, although visuospatial working memory differentiated both bipolar groups from controls. The results support the idea that some aspects of working memory performance are markers for psychosis, while others may be more general markers for bipolar disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in switching between cognitive tasks: Does internal control ability decline with age?

The present study tested the hypothesis that older adults establish a weaker task set than younger adults and therefore rely more on stimulus-triggered activation of task sets. This hypothesis predicts that older adults should have difficulty with task switches, especially when the stimuli-responses are associated with multiple, competing tasks. Weak task preparation, however, could actually benefit older adults when performing an unexpected task. The authors tested this prediction in Experiment 1 using a repeating AABB task sequence, with univalent and bivalent stimuli intermixed. On some univalent trials, participants received an unexpected task. Contrary to the authors' predictions, expectancy costs were not smaller for older adults. Similar findings were obtained in Experiments 2 and 3, in which the authors used a task-cueing paradigm to more strongly promote deliberate task preparation. The authors found no disproportionate age effects on switch costs but did find age effects on bivalence costs and mixing costs. The authors conclude that older adults do experience extra difficulty dealing with stimuli associated with 2 active tasks but found no evidence that the problem specifically stems from an increased reliance on bottom-up task activation rather than top-down task preparation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do young and older adults rely on different processes in source memory tasks? A neuropsychological study.

Source memory has consistently been associated with prefrontal function in both normal and clinical populations. Nevertheless, the exact contribution of this brain region to source memory remains uncertain, and evidence suggests that processes used by young and older adults may differ. The authors explored the extent to which scores on composite measures of neuropsychological tests of frontal and medial temporal function differentially predicted the performance of young and older adults on source memory tasks. Results indicated that a frontal composite measure, consistently associated with source memory performance in older adults, was unrelated to source memory in young adults, although it was sensitive to a demanding working memory task. The memory composite score, however, predicted performance in the young group. In addition, item and source memory were correlated in young but not older people. Findings are discussed in terms of age-related differences in working memory and executive functions, and differential binding processes necessary for item and source memory. The requirement to integrate item and source information at encoding appears to place greater demands on executive or working memory processes in older adults than in younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for age–face associations in younger and older adults: The role of generation and schematic support.

Memory for ages of unfamiliar faces was examined in an associative memory task to determine whether generation as well as schematic support (cues from faces) would enhance later cued recall of the age information and reduce older adults' associative deficit. Participants studied faces and were either presented with the age or first had to guess before being shown the correct age. Later, participants were given a cued-recall test. Both younger and older adults exhibited associative memory enhancements from first generating the ages at encoding (a generation effect) despite the fact the initial generation was often inaccurate. Although older adults recalled fewer ages overall compared with younger adults, older adults were able to remember the age information for older faces equally as well as younger adults. However, when errors committed during generation were large and when schematic support was not available to support encoding and retrieval (when the age information was inconsistent given the cues from the face), generating was no longer beneficial for either older or younger adults. Thus, although older adults display an associative deficit when remembering specific age–face associations, this can be reduced through the use of prior knowledge and generation at encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are there "autistic-like" features in congenitally blind children?

Reduced levels of serum albumin concentration, a routine blood test, within the "normal" range have been reported to be associated with mortality risk. The literature is reviewed, with a focus on cohort studies meeting specified criteria, and findings are summarized. In studies of many populations, comprising healthy subjects and patients with acute or chronic illness, serum albumin concentration is inversely related to mortality risk in a graded manner over its entire range; the estimated increase in the odds of death ranges from 24% to 56% for each 2.5 g/l decrement in serum albumin concentration. The association predicts overall and cause-specific mortality including cardiovascular mortality. It is likely that albumin concentration is a highly sensitive indicator of preclinical disease and disease severity. A direct protective effect of the albumin molecule is suggested by the persistence of the association after adjustment for other known risk factors and preexisting illness, and after exclusion of early mortality. Although biologically plausible, there is no direct evidence for this hypothesis. Serum albumin concentration is an independent predictor of mortality risk and could be useful in the quantification of risk in a broad range of clinical and research settings.     

Cortical networks implicated in semantic and episodic memory: common or unique?

While previous functional neuroimaging studies have shown that semantic and episodic memory tasks activate different cortical regions, they never compared regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) patterns associated with semantic and episodic memory within the same experimental design. In this study, we used H2(15)O PET to study subjects in the course of semantic and episodic memory tasks. rCBF was measured in 9 normal volunteers during a resting baseline condition and two cognitive tasks. In the semantic categorisation task subjects heard a list of concrete words and had to respond to words belonging to the "animals" or "food" category. In the episodic recognition task subjects heard a list of concrete words, half "old", i.e. belonging to the list of the semantic categorisation task, and half "new", i.e. presented for the first time. Subjects had to respond to the "old" words. Both tasks were compared to a resting condition. Statistical analysis was performed with Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM). Compared to the resting condition, the semantic tasks, activated the superior temporal gyri bilaterally, the left frontal cortex, and right premotor cortex. The episodic tasks activated the left superior temporal gyrus, the frontal cortex bilaterally, and the right inferior parietal cortex. Compared to the episodic memory tasks, the semantic memory tasks activated the superior temporal/insular cortex bilaterally and the right premotor cortex. Compared to the semantic memory tasks, the episodic memory tasks activated the right frontal cortex. These results suggest that cortical networks implicated in semantic and episodic memory show both common and unique regions, with the right prefrontal cortex being the neural correlate specific of episodic remembering.     

Choke or thrive? The relation between salivary cortisol and math performance depends on individual differences in working memory and math-anxiety.

In the current study, we explored how a person's physiological arousal relates to their performance in a challenging math situation as a function of individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity and math-anxiety. Participants completed demanding math problems before and after which salivary cortisol, an index of arousal, was measured. The performance of lower WM individuals did not depend on cortisol concentration or math-anxiety. For higher WM individuals high in math-anxiety, the higher their concentration of salivary cortisol following the math task, the worse their performance. In contrast, for higher WM individuals lower in math-anxiety, the higher their salivary cortisol concentrations, the better their performance. For individuals who have the capacity to perform at a high-level (higher WMs), whether physiological arousal will lead an individual to choke or thrive depends on math-anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are there cognitive subtypes in adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder?

There has been increasing knowledge of the treatment, diagnosis, and demographics of adults with residual attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, less is known about the neuropsychological functioning in adults with residual ADHD. In comparing the clinical neuropsychological test performance of a group of adult clinic patients with residual ADHD (N = 30) with that of normal controls (N = 10), we found the patients performed worse on the Trail Making Test, a visual continuous performance test, and the "Brown-Peterson" Auditory Consonant Trigrams Test, but not on any other neuropsychological measures. This pattern indicated a deficit in the area of executive control type functioning, a functional deficit that could be linked to dysregulation of frontal lobe brain systems. Of equal interest was that patients diagnosed with ADHD/hyperactive impulsive type (ADHD+) and patients diagnosed with ADHD/inattentive type (ADHD-) had different types of executive system deficits. ADHD+ was associated with relative deficiency on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. ADHD- was associated with relative deficiency on the "Brown-Peterson" Auditory Consonant Trigrams Test, a measure of working memory, as well as less olfactory identification on a smell identification test. The data are discussed in terms of recent localization theories of frontal lobe function. The preliminary data suggest that the different cognitive weaknesses of ADD subtypes may be linked to dysregulation of separate frontal brain regions and/or neurotransmitter systems.     

Developmental and individual differences in young children’s use and maintenance of a selective memory strategy.

Children who were 4 to 8 years of age were asked to perform a sort-recall task where only half of the items had to be studied and remembered. Following a baseline trial, children were assigned to 1 of 3 groups and were prompted to use either a sorting or a clustering strategy (experimental groups) or were not prompted at all (control group). Children were seen 2 weeks later and given a new set of items for the transfer-of-training sort–recall phases. Levels of recall and strategy use (sorting, clustering, multiple strategy use) were higher for older children, typical items, sorting prompts, and trials with repeated presentations of test materials. Older children used more strategies than younger children, although even 4-year-olds used more than one strategy when performing the memory tasks. Results of multivariate cluster analyses revealed systematic individual differences, separating low performers from production-deficient children and high performers. Overall, findings show that clustering appears to be an early developing, but less effective strategy, with multiple-strategy use and especially sorting being used more frequently and effectively by older children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for names and faces: a characteristic of social intelligence?

"The Memory for Names and Faces picture subtest of the George Washington University Social Intelligence Test and a miniature social situation testing the association of spoken names with human subjects… were administered to 210 Ss… [under] three conditions of set and non-set… to evaluate the consequences of preparatory instructions upon the social recall task performances… . The relationships between the social recall tasks are small (about .30) but statistically significant… . Sex differences favoring females on both social recall tasks are highly significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguishing common and task-specific processes in word identification: A matter of some moment?

The same 500 words were presented in 6 different word identification tasks (Experiment 1: lexical decision, semantic categorization, and 3 speeded naming tasks; Experiment 2: delayed naming). Reaction time (RT distributions were estimated for each task and analyses tested for the effects of word frequency and animacy on various parameters of the RT distribution. Low frequency words yielded more skewed distributions than high frequency words in all tasks except delayed naming. The differential skew was most marked for tasks that required lexical discrimination. The semantic categorization task yielded highly skewed distributions for all words, but the word frequency effect was due to shifts in the location of the RT distributions rather than changes in skew. The results are used to evaluate the relative contributions of a common lexical access process and task-specific processes to performance in lexical discrimination and naming tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are attractive men's faces masculine or feminine? The importance of controlling confounds in face stimuli.

Women's preferences for male masculinity are highly variable. Although many researchers explain this variability as reflecting systematic individual differences in how women resolve the tradeoff between the costs and benefits of choosing a masculine partner, others suggest that methodological differences between studies are responsible. A recent study found general femininity preferences for judgments of faces that were manipulated in sexual dimorphism of shape but general masculinity preferences for judgments of faces that were based on perceived masculinity. Using the original stimuli, we replicated these previous results but found equivalent general femininity preferences for both types of faces when nonface confounds in the stimuli (e.g. hairstyle) were eliminated through masking. We conclude that care must be taken to control potential confounds in stimuli and that the influence of nonface cues on preferences for facial masculinity deserves further study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)