Age dissociates recency and lag recency effects in free recall.

The temporal relations among word-list items exert a powerful influence on episodic memory retrieval. Two experiments were conducted with younger and older adults in which the age-related recall deficit was examined by using a decomposition method to the serial position curve, partitioning performance into (a) the probability of first recall, illustrating the recency effect, and (b) the conditional response probability, illustrating the lag recency effect (M. W. Howard & M. J. Kahana, 1999). Although the older adults initiated recall in the same manner in both immediate and delayed free recall, temporal proximity of study items (contiguity) exerted a much weaker influence on recall transitions in older adults. This finding suggests that an associative deficit may be an important contributor to older adults' well-known impairment in free recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociable mechanisms of subitizing and counting: Neuropsychological evidence from simultanagnosic patients.

Do people have to count to determine visual numerosity, or is there a fast "subitizing" procedure dedicated to small sets of 1 to 3 items? Numerosity naming time and errors were measured in 5 simultanagnosic patients who suffered from severe difficulties in serial counting. Although these patients made close to 100% errors in quantifying sets comprising more than 3 items, they were excellent at quantifying sets of 1, 2, and sometimes 3 items. Their performances in visual search tasks suggested that they suffered from a deficit of serial visual exploration, due to a fundamental inability to use spatial tags to keep track of previously explored locations. The present data suggest that the patients' preserved subitizing abilities were based not on serial processing but rather on a parallel algorithm dedicated to small numerosities. Several ways in which this parallel subitizing algorithm might function are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fractionating the binding process: Neuropsychological evidence from reversed search efficiencies.

The authors present neuropsychological evidence distinguishing binding between form, color, and size (cross-domain binding) and binding between form elements. They contrasted conjunctive search with difficult feature search using control participants and patients with unilateral parietal or fronto/temporal lesions. To rule out effects of task difficulty or loss of top-down guidance of search, the authors made conjunction search easier than feature search. Despite this, parietal patients were selectively impaired at detecting conjunction targets in their contralateral field. In contrast, the parietal patients performed like the other participants with form conjunctions, with form conjunctions being easier to detect than difficult feature targets. These data indicate a qualitative difference between binding in the form domain and binding across form, color, and size, consistent with theories that propose distinct binding processes in vision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between digit span and anxiety.

The hypothesis was tested that WAIS Digit Span (DS) performance is disrupted by anxiety. 110 college students, who had been tested on Taylor's MA scale and Sarason's Test Anxiety Questionnaire, were tested under an anxiety-inducing or rapport-establishing (control) procedure. After testing on DS, experimental Ss were asked if the instruction variable had disturbed them. With respect to DS: (a) no-significant differences were found between experimental and control groups, but within the experimental group, those who were disturbed were inferior on DS to control Ss (p r = -.23, p r = .26, p     

Further evidence of the intricacy of memory span.

Memory span was measured for lists of verbal items constructed such that the items in the 1st half of the list were of one category and those of the 2nd half were of another. In Exp 1, the lists consisted of digits and words (e.g., 2, 8, 77, horse, cow, sheep or horse, cow, sheep, 2, 8, 7); in Exp 2, they consisted of words from the same semantic domain and words from different semantic domains; in Exps 3 and 4, they consisted of words that rhymed and words that did not rhyme. A category-order effect occurred in each experiment: Span was larger when the digits, same-domain words, or rhyming words occurred in the 1st half of the list than when they occurred in the 2nd half. These findings suggest that memory span is more complex than is generally assumed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological dissociations between priming and recognition: A single-system connectionist account.

A key claim of current theoretical analyses of the memory impairments associated with amnesia is that certain distinct forms of learning and memory are spared. A compelling example is that amnesic patients and controls are indistinguishable in repetition priming but amnesic patients are impaired at recognizing the study items. The authors show that this pattern of results is predicted by a single-system connectionist model of learning in which amnesia is simulated by a reduced learning rate. They also demonstrate that the model can reproduce the converse pattern in which priming but not recognition is impaired if the input is assumed to be additionally degraded in a priming test. The authors conclude that dissociations between priming and recognition do not require functionally or neurally distinct memory systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociating conditional recency in immediate and delayed free recall: A challenge for unitary models of recency.

Temporal distinctiveness models of recency in free recall predict that increasing the delay between the end of sequence and attempting recall of items from that sequence will reduce recency. An empirical dissociation is reported here that violates this prediction when the delay is introduced by the act of recall itself. Analysis of data from a number of previously published free recall studies shows that when the assumed availability of final list items is taken into account, recency increases across the first few output positions in immediate recall despite the delay introduced by recalling items; no such change, with a trend to decreasing recency, is observed in delayed recall. Simulations are presented, showing that 2 models accounting for recency in free recall, the temporal context model (M. W. Howard & M. J. Kahana, 2002) and the SIMPLE model (G. D. A. Brown, I. Neath, & N. Chater, 2007), are unable to account for this novel pattern of data. Further simulations show that the results are consistent with a short-term buffer contributing to recency in immediate free recall and that ordered probing of items may also contribute to this effect; both of these are consistent with the formulation of a short-term buffer akin to models of serial recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distributed and focused attention: Neuropsychological evidence for separate attentional mechanisms when counting and estimating.

Evidence is presented for 2 modes of attention operating in simultanagnosia. The authors examined visual enumeration in a patient, GK, who has severe impairments in serially scanning across a scene and is unable to count the numbers of items in visual displays. However, GK's ability to judge the relative magnitude of 2 displays was consistently above chance, even when overall luminosity did not vary with the number of items present. In addition, several variables had a differential impact on GK's counting and magnitude estimation. Magnitude estimation but not counting was facilitated by using elements that grouped more easily and by presenting the elements in regular configurations. In contrast, counting was facilitated by placing the elements in different colors while magnitude estimation was disrupted. Also GK's performance on magnitude estimation tasks was disrupted by asking him to count the elements present. The data suggest that GK can process visual stimuli in either a focused or distributed attention mode. When in a focused attention mode, performance is limited by poor serial scanning of attention due to an impaired explicit representation of visual space. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological and neuroradiological distinctions between Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases.

Examined neuropsychological and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) differences among 23 Ss (mean age 70 yrs) with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 9 Ss (mean age 49.2 yrs) with Huntington's disease (HD), and 13 normal controls (mean age 71.7 yrs). Neuropsychological results show that HD Ss' episodic and semantic memory deficits were attributable to retrieval deficiencies, whereas AD Ss' impairments reflected a lack of storage and a breakdown in the structure of semantic knowledge. MRI results show that these cognitive changes were mirrored by significant group differences in striatal and cortical degeneration. AD Ss evidenced more widespread cortical damage, and HD Ss showed more striatal destruction. Both groups evidenced significant deterioration in medial temporal lobe and diencephalic structures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological impairment in patients with schizophrenia and evidence of hyponatremia and polydipsia.

Patients with schizophrenia and water imbalance may represent a subset of patients with distinct pathophysiological abnormalities and susceptibility to cognitive impairment. Specifically, patients with polydipsia and hyponatremia have been shown to have smaller anterior hippocampal volumes, which are also associated with various impairments in neuroendocrine function. To determine whether abnormalities in patients with water imbalance extend to the cognitive realm, the present study evaluated neuropsychological functioning in three groups of patients with schizophrenia: polydipsic hyponatremic, polydipsic normonatremic, and nonpolydipsic normonatremic. Participants were administered cognitive tests assessing intelligence, attention, learning/memory (verbal, nonverbal, emotional), and facial discrimination. Hyponatremic patients showed poorer overall neuropsychological functioning relative to all other patients, and polydipsic normonatremic patients performed intermediate to the other two groups. Results indicate that patients with schizophrenia and polydipsia, and particularly those with hyponatremia, show prominent cognitive deficits relative to patients without water imbalance. The clinical, neuroendocrine, and cognitive abnormalities in these patients may arise from pathology within the anterior hippocampus and associated prefrontal/limbic brain regions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment and the processing of social information across the life span: Theory and evidence.

Researchers have used J. Bowlby's (1969/1982, 1973, 1980, 1988) attachment theory frequently as a basis for examining whether experiences in close personal relationships relate to the processing of social information across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We present an integrative life-span–encompassing theoretical model to explain the patterns of results that have emerged from these studies. The central proposition is that individuals who possess secure experience-based internal working models of attachment will process—in a relatively open manner—a broad range of positive and negative attachment-relevant social information. Moreover, secure individuals will draw on their positive attachment-related knowledge to process this information in a positively biased schematic way. In contrast, individuals who possess insecure internal working models of attachment will process attachment-relevant social information in one of two ways, depending on whether the information could cause the individual psychological pain. If processing the information is likely to lead to psychological pain, insecure individuals will defensively exclude this information from further processing. If, however, the information is unlikely to lead to psychological pain, then insecure individuals will process this information in a negatively biased schematic fashion that is congruent with their negative attachment-related experiences. In a comprehensive literature review, we describe studies that illustrate these patterns of attachment-related information processing from childhood to adulthood. This review focuses on studies that have examined specific components (e.g., attention and memory) and broader aspects (e.g., attributions) of social information processing. We also provide general conclusions and suggestions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociation between location and shape in visual space.

There are often large perceptual distortions of shapes lying on the ground plane, even in well-lit environments. These distortions occur under conditions for which the perception of location is accurate. Four hypotheses are considered for reconciling these seemingly paradoxical results, after which 2 experiments are reported that lend further support to 1 of them-that perception of shape and perception of location are sometimes dissociable. The 2 experiments show that whereas perception of location does not depend on whether viewing is monocular or binocular (when other distance cues are abundant), perception of shape becomes more veridical when viewing is binocular. This means that perception of shape is not fully constrained by the perceived locations of the vertices that define the shape. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memorial and strategic determinants of tactile recency.

Across 4 experiments, recency arising from the presentation of 5-item tactile lists was assessed with immediate and delayed recall with or without a same-modality suffix. The lists were presented with or without concurrent verbalization and at rates varying from 0.5 s to 2 s per item. Delaying recall or the addition of a suffix impaired recency both in the absence of concurrent verbalization during list presentation and at the 1-s presentation rate. In contrast, both concurrent verbalization during list presentation and a 0.5-s presentation rate restored recency for both the delayed recall and suffix conditions. This pattern of data is problematic for sensory memory and for trace discriminability accounts of modality and suffix effects. It is suggested that a sensory memory account together with an attention-biasing strategy by which limited encoding resources are diverted toward the terminal list item can better accommodate the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological evidence for visual- and motor-based affordance: Effects of reference frame and object–hand congruence.

Two experiments are reported that use patients with visual extinction to examine how visual attention is influenced by action information in images. In Experiment 1 patients saw images of objects that were either correctly or incorrectly colocated for action, with the objects held by hands that were congruent or incongruent with those used premorbidly by the patients. The images were also shown from a 1st- and 3rd-person perspective. There was an overall reduction in extinction for objects colocated for action. In addition, there was an extra benefit when the objects were held in hands congruent with those used by the patients and when the objects were seen from a 1st-person perspective. This last result fits with an effect of motor simulation, over and above a purely visual effect based on positioning objects correctly for action. Experiment 2 showed that effects of hand congruence could emerge with images depicted from a 3rd-person perspective when patients saw themselves holding the objects. The data indicate 2 effects of action information on extinction: (a) an effect of colocating objects for action, which does not depend on a self-reference frame (a visual effect), and (b) an effect sensitive to object–hand congruence, which does depend on a self-reference frame (a motor-based effect). The self-reference frame is induced when stimuli are viewed from a 1st-person perspective and when an image of the self is seen from a 3rd-person perspective. Both visual and motor-based effects of action information facilitate the spread of attention across objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primacy and recency effects in nonhuman primates.

The reports of primacy and recency memory effects in nonhuman primates have been criticized because they have all used an initiating response. That is, the presentation of the to-be-remembered list of items was always contingent on a response being initiated by the nonhuman primate. It has been argued that this initiating response improves performance for early items in the list, resulting in the occurrence of the primacy effect, independent of any memory processing mechanism. This criticism was addressed in the present study by not using an initiating response prior to the presentation of the list. Nevertheless, both a primacy and a recency effect were observed in all 6 rhesus monkeys evaluated using a serial probe recognition task. Thus, the results are similar to those for humans, in that both primacy and recency effects can be obtained in nonhuman primates. A brief literature review is included, and it is proposed that the primacy and recency effects observed in humans, nonhuman primates, and infraprimates can be explained within the context of the configural-association theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociation between syntactic and semantic processing during idiom comprehension.

Syntactic and semantic processing of literal and idiomatic phrases were investigated with a priming procedure. In 3 experiments, participants named targets that were syntactically appropriate or inappropriate completions for semantically unrelated sentence contexts. Sentences ended with incomplete idioms (kick the…) and were biased for either a literal (ball) or an idiomatic (bucket) completion. Syntactically appropriate targets were named more quickly than inappropriate ones for both contextual biases, suggesting that syntactic analysis occurs for idioms. In a final experiment, targets were either concrete (expected) or abstract (unexpected) nouns. For literal sentences, the abstract targets were named more slowly than the concrete targets. In contrast, there was no concreteness effect for idiomatic sentences, suggesting that the literal meaning of the idiom is not processed. Overall, the results provide evidence for dissociation between syntactic and semantic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning myopia: An adaptive recency effect in category learning.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 29(6) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition (see record 2007-16866-001). On page 633, Table 2, the values in columns (T, P) and (P, T) in the dual condition row incorrectly read .10 and .90, respectively. The correct values are .90 and .10, respectively.] Recency effects (REs) have been well established in memory and probability learning paradigms but have received little attention in category learning research. Extant categorization models predict REs to be unaffected by learning, whereas a functional interpretation of REs, suggested by results in other domains, predicts that people are able to learn sequential dependencies and incorporate this information into their responses. These contrasting predictions were tested in 2 experiments involving a classification task in which outcome sequences were autocorrelated. Experiment 1 showed that reliance on recent outcomes adapts to the structure of the task, in contrast to models' predictions. Experiment 2 provided constraints on how sequential information is learned and suggested possible extensions to current models to account for this learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological effects of immoral actions: The experimental evidence.

Considers the psychological consequences of immoral actions. Research on the effects on adults of breaking conventionally defined moral rules in controlled experiments is critically reviewed, including aggression, counterattitudinal advocacy, dishonesty, and interpersonal damage studies. It is established that immoral actions do affect the transgressor, with most of the impact related to the transgression. In experimental settings, major distortions do not result. Methodological issues with dependent measures are indicated, and patterns of research activity are discussed. Sense of responsibility for immoral actions and subjective definition of behavior as immoral may mediate effects. Current theories on reaction to transgression—cognitive dissonance, equity restoration, guilt, and negative-state relief—are evaluated. Limitations of existing experimentation, ways to increase its relevance to the full range of immoral actions, and ethical issues in the experimental study of immorality are indicated. (85 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and the brain: Neuropsychological correlates.

This review considers neuropsychological changes associated with alcohol abuse and touches on related neuropathological and neuroradiological research. Most neuropsychological research has been conducted with recently detoxified (1 month sober) alcoholic men, many of whom manifest deficits in abstracting ability, complex perceptual-motor skills, and learning and recall but demonstrate preserved verbal intelligence. Long-term abstinence (months to years) can be associated with slow recovery, suggesting the presence of intermediate-duration organic mental disorder. Animal research indicates that dendritic rearborization can occur after cessation of chronic ethanol exposure. A dose-effect relation between alcohol consumption variables and human neuropsychological performance has not been established. Sources of neuropsychological variability that might precede, coexist with, or be effects of excessive drinking include family history of alcoholism, developmental and neuromedical risk events, nutritional status, age, and education. A model illustrating the possible interrelations of these variables is presented, and a plea is made for assiduous care in subject selection and characterization as a prerequisite for further progress in understanding the long-term effects of alcohol on the brain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)