Interpreting Harry Bahrick's discovery: What confers immunity against forgetting?

Comments on H. P. Bahrick's (see record 1984-30581-001) study of the long-term retention of Spanish, in which it was found that Ss stopped forgetting after 5 yrs and maintained levels of performance that were proportionate to their initial achievement. The present author suggests that this retention is due to the extensive and unique cognitive structure involved rather than to the existence of a "permastore" in which individual items are retained. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of seating location on the injury of properly restrained children in child safety seats

Properly restrained child passengers in the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS), General Estimates System (GES), were studied for the effect of seating position on the risk of injury. The analysis focused on children seated in a child safety seat in a rear seat location. A multiple logistic regression model was used to assess whether the center rear seat is a safer seating position than either of the outboard rear seats. Standard errors for the odds ratios (ORs) of injury for several correlates of injury including seating position were obtained using a jackknife procedure. This analysis of the data showed that the center rear seat is not a safer seating position than either of the outboard rear seats in terms of odds of injury (left seat OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.73-1.03; right seat OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.85-1.20). These results do not agree with those of previous studies that suggested the center rear seat is the safest position for parents to place a child safety seat.     

A contour propagation approach to surface filling-in and volume formation.

A new approach to surface and volume formation is introduced in response to the question, "Why do some silhouettes look 3 dimensional (3D) and others took 2D?" The central idea is that form information can propagate away from a "propagable segment" (PS) of occluding contour that could have projected onto the image from the visible portion of a cross-section of a surface. A key property of a PS is that it exhibits abrupt curvature changes where it meets the rest of the occluding contour. An algorithm is described for filling in curved surfaces from a PS: When copies of a PS are propagated into the interior, they act as cross-sectional surface contours that also exhibit abrupt curvature changes with the rest of the occluding contour. The result is a nonmetric coding of 3D-shape in terms of local ordinal surface curvature and orientation relationships that is scale, translation, and rotation invariant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: James J. Gibson (1904-1979).

Presents the obituary of James J. Gibson (1904-1979). Gibson was a perception psychologist who was also the creator and leader of an epistemological movement. His claim that perception is direct, requiring no inferential steps and no processing of information, presents a radical alternative to prevailing views of the nature of knowledge. Gibson's life and career are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood amnesia and the beginnings of memory for four early life events.

Childhood amnesia was examined in a between-groups study of adults' memories of 4 datable target events: the birth of a younger sibling, a hospitalization, the death of a family member, and making a family move. 222 college students answered questions about events that had occurred when they were 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 yrs old and also about external information sources, such as family stories. Results show that the offset of childhood amnesia (earliest age of recall) is age 2 yrs for hospitalization and sibling birth and 3 yrs for death and move. Thus, some memories are available from earlier in childhood than previous research has suggested. Ss' mothers judged most of their children's memories as accurate. External information sources were negatively related to recall from the earlier ages (2–3 yrs) but positively to recall from later ages (4–5 yrs). These results are compatible with a multiple-determinants account of childhood amnesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Language-dependent recall of autobiographical memories.

Two studies of autobiographical memory explored the hypothesis that memories become more accessible when the linguistic environment at retrieval matches the linguistic environment at encoding. In Experiment 1, Russian-English bilinguals were asked to recall specific life experiences in response to word prompts. The results supported the hypothesis of language-dependent recall: Participants retrieved more experiences from the Russian-speaking period of their lives when interviewed in Russian and more experiences from the English-speaking period of their lives when interviewed in English. In Experiment 2, the language of the interview was varied independently from the language of the word prompts. Both variables were found to influence autobiographical recall. These findings show that language at the time of retrieval, like other forms of context, plays a significant role in determining what will be remembered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns.

Presents findings of a task force established by the American Psychological Association to report on the issues of what is known and unknown about intelligence. Significant conceptualizations of intelligence are reviewed, including the psychometric approach, theories of multiple forms of intelligence, cultural variations, theories of developmental progressions, and biological approaches. The meaning of intelligence test scores, what they predict, and how well they predict intelligence is discussed. Genetic factors and intelligence, focusing on individual differences, conventional IQ tests, and other tests intended to measure cognitive ability, are described. Environmental factors such as social and biological variables are discussed, and sex and ethnic group differences are addressed. Recommendations for future research are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of theory in the ecological study of memory: Comment on Bruce.

The present author agrees with D. Bruce (see record 1986-03043-001) that theoretical considerations have played only a small role in ecological work on memory up to this point. It is suggested that Bruce's theoretically oriented approach is a valuable one but that it is not the only ecological way to approach theoretical issues in memory. Three possible directions in the future of ecological memory theory are explored: traditional associated-element theories, mechanistic-functional theoretical synthesis that takes into account the findings of neuropsychology, and a genuinely ecological approach. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Never a dull moment.

Responds to a series of comments by J. P. Rushton, A. H. Yee, A. Mahlberg, H. H. Spitz, M. Velden, R. Lynn, C. B. Ernhart and N. Hebben, M. Melnick, J. A. Naglieri, R. M. Frumkin, and T. E. Reed (see records 84-18929, 18934, 18924, 18932, 18933, 18923, 18918, 18925, 18926, 18919, and 18928, respectively) on the APA Task Force on Intelligence Report (U. Neisser et al; see record 83-26553). Specific replies are given regarding the issues of research omissions, alternative interpretations of included data, and differences between Black and White IQ means. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)