Effects of generation on indirect measures of memory.

Subjects either read words (CHIMP) or generated words ("a small ape—C') during the study phase of three experiments. The effects of these encoding tasks on performance in two indirect, priming tests—word completion and word identification—were observed. The word completion test is a version of word stem completion in which subjects are shown the initial four letters of a five-letter word (e.g., CHIM_: CHIMP, CHIME) and are asked to add one letter to produce the first word that comes to mind. In word identification, subjects are shown a word briefly and are asked to identify it. Systematic comparisons of the two tests within single experiments showed that generation, either to semantic cues or to orthographic cues, had different effects on performance in the two tests: Word identification performance was lower for words generated rather than read, whereas word completion performance for words generated was indistinguishable from performance for words read. These results suggest that performance in different indirect tests depends on the processing of different types of information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit learning of new verbal associations.

Implicit learning of a series of new verbal associations was studied in four experiments. The first two experiments demonstrated that learning of a repeating sequence of verbal stimuli may occur without awareness, but only when the stimulus–response mapping requires an attention-demanding activity: Subjects who were unaware of the sequence learned when instructed to categorize the stimuli, but not when instructed simply to read them. However, in both situations, unaware subjects performed no better than untrained control subjects in expressing their knowledge of the sequence explicitly. In Experiments 3 and 4, subjects showed implicit learning when the task involved either motor responses to verbal stimuli or verbal responses to spatially arranged stimuli. These findings are discussed in terms of the conditions under which implicit learning can be obtained. First, they demonstrate implicit learning of a set of new associations in the verbal domain. Second, the data suggest that attention is important in implicit learning. Finally, the degree of interitem organization that is familiar preexperimentally seems to partially determine the amount of implicit learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in source forgetting: Effects on reality monitoring and on eyewitness testimony.

Age differences in memory for the source of memories were investigated using two different experimental paradigms. Experiment 1 used a reality monitoring paradigm. A series of actions were either performed, imagined, or watched, and subjects were later tested for their ability to recognize the actions and identify their origins. Elderly subjects made more false positive responses than did young subjects, and they made more source confusion errors, attributing actions to the wrong sources. Both new and imagined actions were most often misclassified as watched. Experiment 2 used an eyewitness testimony paradigm. After watching a film, subjects read a written version of the story. A recognition test showed that elderly subjects were more often misled by false information in the story than were the younger subjects, and were more confident that their erroneous responses were correct. The findings suggest that a decline in memory for sources may diminish the accuracy of elderly witnesses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The job demands-resources model of burnout.

The job demands-resources (JD-R) model proposes that working conditions can be categorized into 2 broad categories, job demands and job resources, that are differentially related to specific outcomes. A series of LISREL analyses using self-reports as well as observer ratings of the working conditions provided strong evidence for the JD-R model: Job demands are primarily related to the exhaustion component of burnout, whereas (lack of) job resources are primarily related to disengagement. Highly similar patterns were observed in each of 3 occupational groups: human services, industry, and transport (total N?=?374). In addition, results confirmed the 2-factor structure (exhaustion and disengagement) of a new burnout instrument—the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory—and suggested that this structure is essentially invariant across occupational groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Noun-phrase anaphora and focus: The informational load hypothesis.

The processing of noun-phrase (NP) anaphors in discourse is argued to reflect constraints on the activation and processing of semantic information in working memory. The proposed theory views NP anaphor processing as an optimization process that is based on the principle that processing cost, defined in terms of activating semantic information, should serve some discourse function—identifying the antecedent, adding new information, or both. In a series of 5 self-paced reading experiments, anaphors' functionality was manipulated by changing the discourse focus, and their cost was manipulated by changing the semantic relation between the anaphors and their antecedents. The results show that reading times of NP anaphors reflect their functional justification: Anaphors were read faster when their cost had a better functional justification. These results are incompatible with any theory that treats NP anaphors as one homogeneous class regardless of discourse function and processing cost. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of association upon masking and reading latency.

Predicted the effects of association upon masking and reading latency from a suggestion that the neural substrates of pairs of associated words contain more common elements than do the substrates of unassociated pairs of words. Stimuli were presented by tachistoscope to 10, 25, 9, and 12 undergraduate Ss, respectively, in 4 experiments. Results are considered from a neuropsychological standpoint: they are consistent with multi-cell theories of neural representation, but they appear not to be consistent with single-cell models. (French summary) (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of subliminal symbiotic activation on hypnotic rapport and susceptibility.

Divided 72 male undergraduates into 2 groups matched for susceptibility (high, medium, low) as measured by the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale—Form A. Experimental Ss received symbiotic ("Mommy and I are one") subliminal stimulation via tachistoscope in a double-blind design. The comparison group received a psychodynamically neutral stimulus ("People are walking"). Following subliminal stimulation, Ss were hypnotized individually. Projective tasks that indexed rapport with the hypnotist and the mother were administered during hypnosis. Rapport was also measured by rated intimacy of self-disclosure topics and by valence of topics selected to disclose to the hypnotist. MANOVA showed that symbiotic fantasies had an impact on measures assumed to be relevant to affective, relationship factors in hypnosis. Ss in the "Mommy" group selected more positively valenced topics to disclose to the hypnotist. However, no interaction between hypnotic susceptibility level and symbiotic activation was found, suggesting that susceptibility does not mediate the rapport. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of aging on source monitoring: Differences in susceptibility to false fame.

Older adults were less likely than young adults to spontaneously recollect the source of familiarity for previously read nonfamous names. Older adults were more likely to call old nonfamous names famous when subsequently encountered in a fame judgment task. Poor source monitoring by the elderly could not be accounted for by inability to recognize earlier read nonfamous names when specifically asked to do so. Both source-monitoring errors and recognition memory performance were based on attributions made about the experience of familiarity. Elderly subjects most prone to making familiarity errors recalled fewer items on a verbal learning task and were less likely to chunk information into semantic categories as it was recalled. This finding suggests that a decline in the tendency to spontaneously organize and integrate information underlies the poor source monitoring observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Direct versus indirect tests of memory for source: Judgments of modality.

We studied the relation between performance on direct versus indirect tests of memory for modality. Subjects read or heard words in a mixed list and then were tested by visual perceptual identification (the indirect test) and direct report of items as read, heard, or new. There was a dependent relation between perceptual identification performance and modality judgments, in accord with the hypothesis that subjects base their judgments of modality on relative perceptual fluency. In Experiment 2, we attempted to change the degree of dependence by providing subjects with an alternative basis for modality judgments. Subjects given a mnemonic to encode modality exhibited less dependence between perceptual identification performance and modality judgments than did subjects who encoded modality incidentally. The relation between direct and indirect tests of memory for source characteristics depends on the basis used for each. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating curriculum fit with class ability.

To evaluate curriculum fit with class ability, the magnitude of individual differences in size and number of instructional subunits read were examined, as well as number of repetitions (days) of a unit required to achieve a criterion level of performance. Two groups of 5th graders—a high IQ group (40 Ss) and an average IQ group (28 Ss)—read units of social science material from textbooks used in their own schools and in the other group's school. Empirical ratios (for the time to achieve criterion level and for the number of subunits to criterion level) of 3:1 and 5:1 were obtained for the average IQ group and the high IQ group, respectively, on their own curricula. The time to criterion and the number of subunits mastered in 8 days were correlated with IQ and reading achievement for both groups. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The pretesting effect: Do unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning?

Testing previously studied information enhances long-term memory, particularly when the information is successfully retrieved from memory. The authors examined the effect of unsuccessful retrieval attempts on learning. Participants in 5 experiments read an essay about vision. In the test condition, they were asked about embedded concepts before reading the passage; in the extended study condition, they were given a longer time to read the passage. To distinguish the effects of testing from attention direction, the authors emphasized the tested concepts in both conditions, using italics or bolded keywords or, in Experiment 5, by presenting the questions but not asking participants to answer them before reading the passage. Posttest performance was better in the test condition than in the extended study condition in all experiments—a pretesting effect—even though only items that were not successfully retrieved on the pretest were analyzed. The testing effect appears to be attributable, in part, to the role unsuccessful tests play in enhancing future learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Networks of the brain.

Reviews the book, Networks of the brain by Olaf Sporns (see record 2010-10728-000). This book provides a much-welcomed synthesis of the network perspective. This perspective is not entirely new. First, as indicated by the well-selected quotes from eminent historical figures—Golgi, Cajal, Broca, James, and Hebb included—that Sporns employs to introduce each chapter, network ideas have been considered for some time. Second, the core tools used to analyse networks, primarily graph theory (which dates back to 18th century mathematician Leonhard Euler), are well-established. Sporns provides a comprehensive, tour-de-force overview of the cutting edge of the application of network science to neuroscience. This is a book that everyone with an interest in brain function should read. It provides a grand overview of a field that will undoubtedly hold a central position in the future of neuroscience—if it has not already taken that position now. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relative importance of task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance to global ratings of job performance: A policy-capturing approach.

A review of research on job performance suggests 3 broad components: task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance. This study examined the relative importance of each component to ratings of overall performance by using an experimental policy-capturing design. Managers in 5 jobs read hypothetical profiles describing employees' task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance and provided global ratings of performance. Within-subjects regression analyses indicated that the weights given to the 3 performance components varied across raters. Hierarchical cluster analyses indicated that raters' policies could be grouped into 3 homogeneous clusters: (a) task performance weighted highest, (b) counterproductive performance weighted highest, and (c) equal and large weights given to task and counterproductive performance. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that demographic variables were not related to raters' weights. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test of a model for opinion change.

"Two experiments designed to test a mathematical model for opinion change were presented. In each experiment, subjects read 17 successive arguments summarized from the testimony and procedure of a jury trial." It was hypothesized that final judgment would be affected by serial position in being read (recency) and strength of the argument. The hypothesis was supported. 12 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Folk psychology or semantic entailment? Comment on Rips and Conrad (1989).

L. J. Rips and F. G. Conrad (see record 1989-24843-001) reported a puzzling but consistent result from a series of experiments designed to study folk beliefs about the mind. For example, subjects accept both "Dreaming is a kind of experiencing" and "Experiencing is a part of dreaming." Because this pattern is not observed for objects—"A hammer is a kind of tool" is acceptable, but "A tool is part of a hammer" is not—Rips and Conrad suggested that their results provide clues to differences between folk and scientific psychology. An alternative interpretation developed here holds that their results are not peculiar to terms denoting mental processes and shed no new light on folk theories of the mind; instead, they are quite general and follow from treating verbs as if they were nouns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in sperm mitochondria in patients with asthenozoospermia

The principal purpose of this study was to investigate the speech of two edentulous subjects fitted with a complete maxillary prosthesis made of three different palatal materials: aluminium, resin, stellite. The study was performed using two speakers fitted with a prosthesis (a man and a woman). They took part in the acoustic recording of logatoms read by themselves while wearing various prostheses. These recordings were tested from the auditory point of view by a series of six listeners (four men and two women) in an anechoic room. After 144 different tests, a speech reception threshold (SRT) was defined for each speaker and each different prosthesis. This SRT shows a level of speech intelligibility defined so that the lower the SRT, the more intelligible for the listener. The results show that: (i) both the material and the listener influence SRT: (P < 0.05); (ii) an interaction between the material factor and the speaker factor appears. (P < 0.05); (iii) The hierarchy factors influencing SRT are most important in the order: Listener --> material --> speaker; and (d) The group fitted with a metal prosthesis (aluminium, stellite) was more intelligible regarding the way they were perceived by others.