bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Memory and Metamemory Performance in Older Adults: One Deficit or Two?
Authors: Perfect T. J. , Stollery B.
Published: September 2011

In two separate experiments, three groups of older adults (50–80 years old) were shown lists of forename-surname pairs. At test subjects were cued with the surname and asked whether they knew the forename (prospective evaluation). Subjects attempted recall for those items they claimed to know and rated their confidence in their answer (retrospective evaluation). In Experiment 1 subjects saw the name list on 5 successive occasions and attempted recall after each. The older subjects recalled fewer items, but there were no age differences on retrospective memory evaluation. There was a marginally significant age effect on the prospective memory evaluation, which on closer inspection appeared to be a scaling effect related to recall performance. Experiment 2 verified this conclusion in a sample of older adults taking part in a training study extended over many weeks. The main implication of this work is that studies that compare metamemory accuracy in groups that differ in baseline memory performance should be careful before drawing conclusions about metamemory independently of memory performance.
New strings for Old: The Role of Similarity Processing in an Incidental Learning Task
Authors: Cock Josephine J. , Berry Dianne C. , Gaffan E. A.
Published: September 2011

This paper reports three experiments that examine the role of similarity processing in McGeorge and Burton's (1990) incidental learning task. In the experiments subjects performed a distractor task involving four-digit number strings, all of which conformed to a simple hidden rule. They were then given a forced-choice memory test in which they were presented with pairs of strings and were led to believe that one string of each pair had appeared in the prior learning phase. Although this was not the case, one string of each pair did conform to the hidden rule. Experiment 1 showed that, as in the McGeorge and Burton study, subjects were significantly more likely to select test strings that conformed to the hidden rule. However, additional analyses suggested that rather than having implicitly abstracted the rule, subjects may have been selecting strings that were in some way similar to those seen during the learning phase. Experiments 2 and 3 were designed to try to separate out effects due to similarity from those due to implicit rule abstraction. It was found that the results were more consistent with a similarity-based model than implicit rule abstraction per se.
Relativity of Judgements about Sound Amplitude and the Asymmetry of the Same-Different ROC
Authors: Hautus Michael J. , Irwin R. John , Sutherland Sarah
Published: September 2011

The problem of deciding whether two things are the same or different in magnitude can be solved by judging one magnitude relative to the other, or by making absolute judgements about the magnitude of each. The shape of the resulting receiver operating characteristic depends on which solution is adopted. In order to obtain empirical receiver operating characteristics, we therefore had subjects rate their confidence that two tone amplitudes were the same or different. Four subjects each made 500 ratings of three differences in amplitude. The asymmetry in the obtained characteristics indicated that subjects made relative rather than absolute judgements of the amplitudes, despite the fact that making absolute judgements would lead to better performance on the task.
Articulatory Length and Phonological Similarity in Span Tasks: A Reply to Baddeley and Andrade
Authors: Caplan David , Waters Gloria S.
Published: September 2011

We report a partial replication of previous results by Caplan, Rochon, and Waters (1992), using methods that address objections raised by Baddeley and Andrade (this issue) and that improve on several techniques used by them. The results cast doubts on the role of articulation in determining the word length effect in span, and hence on the role of articulation in rehearsal.
Do you Remember what you Imagined you Would do in that Place? The Motor Encoding Cue-Failure Effect in Sighted and Blind People
Authors: Cornoldi Cesare , Corti Maria Teresa , Helstrup Tore
Published: September 2011

Three experiments examine why the recall of performed actions often fails to profit from provision of retrieval context. A cue failure has, for instance, been demonstrated with cued recall for performed actions in that cued recall is lower than free recall, whereas control conditions show the usual free to cued recall increase for non-enacted material. The first experiment confirms the cue-failure effect and extends the generality of the finding to everyday cue contexts (where the cues are represented by images of the locations associated to the actions), which intuitively should be of general retrieval help. The second experiment shows that the cue-failure effect is also present, even to a greater extent, in congenitally totally blind people; the third experiment suggests how the cue-failure effect may be defeated by means of simultaneous motor and non-motor encoding.

The results are discussed in terms of strategic and non-strategic conceptions of action memory and of the independence of motor and visuospatial codes. This independence appears maintained also in the blind.
Dissociations between Word Priming Effects in Normal Subjects and Patients with Memory Disorders: Multiple Memory Systems or Retrieval?
Authors: Ostergaard Arne L.
Published: September 2011

Repetition priming was measured in two different tasks within a single experiment–-one in which subjects named briefly (tachistoscopically) presented words, and one requiring naming of visually fragmented/degraded words. Thirteen amnesic patients, 12 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 15 normal control subjects were tested under 4 experimental conditions involving the factorial combination of two variables: delay of test (10 minutes and 24 hours), and number of prior occurrences of the primed items (1 and 4). The two tasks produced very different patterns of priming effects, despite the fact that common study phases were employed. In one task the priming effect showed no decay and virtually no effect of the number of prior occurrences of the primed items, whereas both these variables affected priming in the other task. The AD patients evidenced impaired priming in both tasks. However, in the degraded-word-naming task the deficit was only apparent under some experimental conditions. The amnesics produced priming effects that in absolute terms were similar to those produced by control subjects. However, when group differences in overall performance level were taken into account in the tachistoscopic task, these patients also showed clear evidence of impaired priming. It is argued that the complex pattern of priming effects obtained is best explained by the characteristics of the retrieval cues provided in the tasks, and, generally, that such characteristics may determine whether or not experimental variables will affect measured priming.
Effects of Orthography are Independent of Phonology in Masked form Priming
Authors: Ferrand Ludovic , Grainger Jonathan
Published: September 2011

Briefly presented forward-masked primes that share letters with a word target have been shown to facilitate performance in different word recognition tasks. However, in all the experiments that have previously reported these facilitatory effects, related primes not only shared more letters with the target than did unrelated primes (orthographic priming), but they also shared more phonemes (phonological priming). The stimuli used in the present experiments allow us to separate out the effects of orthographic priming from phonological priming. Varying prime exposure duration from 14 to 57 msec, it is shown that effects of orthography follow a distinct time-course from the effects of phonology, and that orthographic facilitation does not result from a confound with phonological prime-target overlap.
Morphological Analysis of Disrupted Morphemes: Evidence from Hebrew
Authors: Feldman Laurie Beth , Bentin Shlomo
Published: September 2011

In concatenative languages such as English, the morphemes of a word are linked linearly so that words formed from the same base morpheme also resemble each other along orthographic dimensions. In Hebrew, by contrast, the morphemes of a word can be but are not generally concatenated. Instead, a pattern of vowels is infixed between the consonants of the root morpheme. Consequently, the shared portion of morphologically-related words in Hebrew is not always an orthographic unit. In a series of three experiments using the repetition priming task with visually presented Hebrew materials, primes that were formed from the same base morpheme and were morphologically-related to a target facilitated target recognition. Moreover, morphologically-related prime and target pairs that contained a disruption to the shared orthographic pattern showed the same pattern of facilitation as did nondisrupted pairs. That is, there was no effect over successive prime and target presentations, of disrupting the sequence of letters that constitutes the base morpheme or root. In addition, facilitation was similar across derivational, inflectional and identical primes. The conclusion of the present study is that morphological effects in word recognition are distinct from the effects of shared structure.
Cognitive Overload and Orthographic Errors: When Cognitive Overload Enhances Subject–Verb Agreement Errors. A Study in French Written Language
Authors: Fayol Michel , Largy Pierre , Lemaire Patrick
Published: September 2011

Three experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that cognitive overload enhances the occurrence of subject-verb agreement errors in French. Highly educated adults were presented orally with sentences they were required to write down. The sentences were of the types “N1 de N2 V” (Noun 1 of Noun 2 Verb: Le chien des voisins arrive/The neighbours’ dog is arriving) versus “Prl Pr2 V” (Pronoun 1 Pronoun 2 Verb: Il les aime/He likes them). In these sentences, N1 (Pr1) and N2 (Pr2) matched or mismatched in number. In the three experiments, the sentences had to be recalled either in an isolated condition (i.e. every presented sentence had to be immediately recalled) or with a concurrent task: click counting (Experiment 2) or serial recall of series of five words presented immediately after the sentences (Experiments 1 and 3). Participants showed errors when performing two concurrent tasks and almost no error when recalling isolated sentences. As expected, errors occurred when N1 (Pr1) and N1 (Pr2) mismatched in number. The results are consistent with our hypothesis and with a functional approach of written composition.
The Role of Binaural and Fundamental Frequency Difference cues in the Identification of Concurrently Presented Vowels
Authors: Shackleton Trevor M. , Meddis Ray , Hewitt Michael J.
Published: September 2011

The relative importance of voice pitch and interaural difference cues in facilitating the recognition of both of two concurrently presented synthetic vowels was measured. The interaural difference cues used were an interaural time difference (400 μsec ITD), two magnitudes of interaural level difference (15 dB and infinite ILD), and a combination of ITD and ILD (400 μsec plus 15 dB). The results are analysed separately for those cases where both vowels are identical and those where they are different. When the two vowels are different, a voice pitch difference of one semitone is found to improve the percentage of correct reports of both vowels by 35.8% on average. However, the use of interaural difference cues results in an improvement of 11.5% on average when there is a voice pitch difference of one semitone, but only a non-significant 0.1% when there is no voice pitch difference. When the two vowels are identical, imposition of either a voice pitch difference or binaural difference reduces performance, in a subtractive manner. It is argued that the smaller size of the interaural difference effect is not due to a “ceiling effect” but is characteristic of the relative importance of the two kinds of cues in this type of experiment. The possibility that the improvement due to interaural difference cues may in fact be due to monaural processing is discussed. A control experiment is reported for the ITD condition, which suggests binaural processing does occur for this condition. However, it is not certain whether the improvement in the ILD condition is due to binaural processing or use of the improvement in signal-to-noise ratio for a single vowel at each ear.
Masked Orthographic Priming: The Effect of Prime-Target Legibility
Authors: Davis Christopher , Forster Kenneth I.
Published: September 2011

The occurrence of extensive orthographic form-priming may provide reasons for preferring connectionist-type models over table-lookup (algorithmic) ones. Short-term masked priming procedures, using either tachistoscopic identification or lexical decision as the response measure, have shown consistent form-priming effects. Unfortunately, different results emerge depending on the procedure used. With the identification procedure, almost any orthographic overlap between prime and target is sufficient for priming to occur, but with the lexical decision procedure, form priming effects are much more limited in scope. The experiments reported here show that accuracy in the masked identification paradigm is influenced by the legibility of the target stimulus when superimposed on an image of the prime, even though there is no orthographic overlap between the two stimuli. Yet for the lexical decision version of the masked priming procedure there is no difference in latency or error rate as a function of legibility. It is further shown that the presence or absence of the legibility effect has little to do with the nature of the task required of the subject, but is instead a function of the duration of the target–-i.e. the legibility effect depends on having the prime and the target both displayed rapidly, and both masked. Failing to take legibility effects into account may lead to problems in interpreting the exact extent of form-priming effects in studies that use the identification procedure.
A Framework for Understanding the Allocation of Attention in Location-Precued Discrimination
Authors: Cheal Mary Lou , Lyon Don R. , Gottlob Lawrence R.
Published: September 2011

The effects of attention on visual perception are assessed in the location-precuing paradigm. First, we present a review of some current metaphors for attention and relevant data. Then, a framework is suggested that provides an interpretation of the temporal sequence of external and assumed internal processes within a location-cuing trial. Cases when a precue correctly indicates the target location (valid trials) are compared to cases when the precue directs attention to the wrong location (invalid trials) with the cue location either at fixation or peripheral to the target location. Several specific hypotheses are suggested; these concern decrements in performance on invalid trials and effects of the location of a precue. For the most part, these hypotheses are supported by data in the literature and in some new studies. A gradient-filter metaphor for attention, which includes a synthesis of ideas from the gradient model and the attention gate model, is more consistent with the data than is a spotlight metaphor.
Stimulus Comparison Strategies and Task Demands in Successive Discrimination
Authors: Todkill Andrea L. , Humphreys Michael S.
Published: September 2011

This research isolates two distinct strategies used to identify stimuli presented at different rates in successive discrimination tasks. The short-term strategy (used at rapid rates) compares current stimuli to immediately prior stimuli present in sensory or other short-term storage, whereas the long-term strategy (used at slow rates) compares current stimuli to a standard stimulus in long-term memory. In Experiment 1, subjects detected a medium-duration tone amid both long and short distractors. Analysis of false alarms indicated that strategy choice is strongly influenced by event rate, and therefore by the presence or absence of sensory traces of preceding stimuli. Experiment 2 was designed to force subjects to use the short-term strategy (to detect targets, present stimuli had to be compared to their immediate predecessors), and varied the event rate. Subjects were able to maintain a high level of performance throughout the task only at the fastest event rate. This pattern of results suggested that when the task demanded it, subjects could use a particular strategy, but if the event rate (and consequently the availability or otherwise of relevant memorial traces) was not favourable to that strategy, then performance was disadvantaged.
Effects of Generation on Immediate Memory Span and Delayed Unexpected Free Recall
Authors: Schweickert Richard , McDaniel Mark A. , Riegler Gregory
Published: September 2011

We investigated the effects of generating words from fragments on pronunciation time, on immediate memory span, and on delayed free recall. Subjects read long words and short words aloud or generated them from strings with missing letters. Word-length and generation condition had multiplicative effects on speaking rate, as expected if each affected a separate process regulating the rate. We replicated the standard finding that span is smaller for longer words. Generation improved delayed free recall, indicating that relatively brief presentation times are adequate to produce a generation effect. Although generation improved long-term memory for the words, memory span was shorter for the words that were generated. The harmful effect of generation on span appears to be due to its slowing of speaking rate.
Reaction Times and Dyslexia
Authors: Nicolson Roderick I. , Fawcett Angela J.
Published: September 2011

Five groups of children, including two groups of dyslexics (aged 15 and 11 years), were tested on simple reaction, selective choice reaction, and lexical decision tasks. In simple reactions to a pure tone, the dyslexic children responded as quickly as their chronological age controls and significantly faster than their reading age controls. In selective choice reactions to pure tones, the dyslexic children were significantly impaired compared with their chronological age controls and no faster than their reading age controls. This speed impairment obtained even though a selective choice reaction task has only one positive response. In “by-item” analyses of lexical decisions to spoken words, the dyslexic children were significantly impaired compared even with their reading age controls. The pattern of results suggests that at least two factors contribute to slowness of dyslexic children: a general deficit reflected in slower stimulus classification speed and a linguistic deficit reflected in slower lexical access speed.
Allocation of Attention in Texture Segregation, Visual Search, and Location-Precuing Paradigms
Authors: Cheal MaryLou , Lyon Don R.
Published: September 2011

Is there a common mechanism (or set of mechanisms) that controls the allocation of spatial attention in texture segregation, visual search, and location-precuing tasks? This question was addressed by comparing data from our previous research on location-cuing and search tasks with data from a new set of experiments on texture segregation, in which a common set of stimuli was used across the three paradigms. However, when we ranked the scores for the targets on texture segregation speed, search rate, and improvement due to precuing effects, agreement between these measures was less than perfect. Further analyses of these results led to the following conclusions: (a) speed of texture segregation is affected by perceptual aspects of the display other than the attentional salience of a particular target; (b) visual search rate and the size of precuing effects are strongly related over most of the set of targets we used; and (c) some cases in which search rate was not consistent with size of precue effects may be related to the presence of nearby distractors in the search task.
Past Midnight: Semantic Processing in an Implicit Learning Task
Authors: Bright J. E. H. , Burton A. M.
Published: September 2011

Four experiments are reported which examine the nature of representations underlying an implicit learning task. When shown a series of clock faces, each bearing a time between 6 and 12 o'clock, subjects subsequently show a selection preference for novel clock faces between these times. Furthermore, they show no signs of being aware of the underlying rule governing this preference. This effect is also present when the representation of time of day is changed from analogue to digital between learning and test. In the final experiment subjects show no preference for seen over unseen clocks between these critical times. These data suggest that, for this particular task, implicit learning involves abstract representations.
Overlapping Mental Operations in Serial Performance with Preview
Authors: Pashler Harold
Published: September 2011

Dual-task research has revealed a response-selection bottleneck: response selection cannot occur simultaneously in two different tasks, though perceptual processing may overlap response selection (Welford, 1952; Pashler & Johnston, 1989). In serial performance with preview, the same task is performed repeatedly, but stimuli are available well before response. Does the dual-task bottleneck limit the rate of responding in this situation, despite the fact that task set need not change? Four experiments examined manual responses to letters, varying stimulus preview. Preview increased RTs for the first response and reduced the subsequent inter-response intervals (IRIs). Preview also reduced the effect of visual intensity and response duration on IRIs, whereas effects of stimulus-response mapping variables were unchanged. These results indicate that the response-selection bottleneck limits serial performance, just as it limits concurrent performance of two unrelated tasks. This implies that the response-selection bottleneck is not caused by the need to switch task set.
Pre-cuing Target Location Reduces Interference but Not Negative Priming from Visual Distractors
Authors: Fox Elaine
Published: September 2011

Research on visual selective attention has shown that processing of distractors can produce (1) interference with response to a concurrent target, and (2) negative priming of response to a subsequent target. These results support late-selection accounts of attention. However, recent findings demonstrate that when conditions are optimal for attentional focusing, the interference effects are almost entirely eliminated. This result has been interpreted as supporting early-selection accounts. The present study investigates the impact of focusing attention on negative priming in addition to interference effects. In a letter-identification task, reliable interference and negative priming effects were observed from distractors. However, when the location of the target in the prime display was pre-cued, interference effects were significantly reduced, but negative priming effects did not decrease. This pattern of results provides further evidence that the absence of interference is insufficient to determine whether distractors have been semantically processed (Driver & Tipper, 1989).
Attentional Tracking in the Perception of Apparent Motion: Evidence from Sequential Blanking Displays
Authors: Gellatly Angus , Blurton Anthony
Published: September 2011

Perception of sequential blanking displays was studied in a series of three experiments investigating factors that influence whether “shadow motion” or “item motion” is seen in a display. In addition to the duration of the blanking interval (BI) itself, three other such factors were identified: the eccentricity at which the display is viewed, the spacing of items in the display, and the type of motion that subjects are instructed to try to see. It is argued that these and other previously reported results are explicable without the need to invoke any kind of visual integration period. Instead, they are interpreted in terms of a first-order system of automatic luminance detectors and a second-order tracking system involving both voluntary and involuntary attention. The relationship of these findings to other recent work in apparent motion and visual attention and to other bistable motion displays is discussed.
Optimizing the use of Vision in Manual Aiming: The Role of Practice
Authors: Elliott Digby , Chua Romeo , Pollock Barbara J. , Lyons James
Published: September 2011

The purpose of this study was to determine how subjects learn to adjust the characteristics of their manual aiming movements in order to make optimal use of the visual information and reduce movement error. Subjects practised aiming (120 trials) with visual information available for either 400 msec or 600 msec. Following acquisition, they were transferred to conditions in which visual information was available for either more or less time. Over acquisition, subjects appeared to reduce target-aiming error by moving to the target area more quickly in order to make greater use of vision when in the vicinity of the target. With practice, there was also a reduction in the number of modifications in the movement. After transfer, both performance and kinematic data indicated that the time for which visual information was available was a more important predictor of aiming error than the similarity between training and transfer conditions. These findings are not consistent with a strong “specificity of learning” position. They also suggest that, if some sort of general representation or motor programme develops with practice, that representation includes rules or procedures for the utilization of visual feedback to allow for the on-line adjustment of the goal-directed movement.
Verbal Short-term Memory and Vocabulary Learning in Polyglots
Authors: Papagno C. , Vallar G.
Published: September 2011

Polyglot and non-polyglot Italian subjects were given tests assessing verbal (phonological) and visuo-spatial short-term and long-term memory, general intelligence, and vocabulary knowledge in their native language. Polyglots had a superior level of performance in verbal short-term memory tasks (auditory digit span and nonword repetition) and in a paired-associate learning test, which assessed the subjects’ ability to acquire new (Russian) words. By contrast, the two groups had comparable performance levels in tasks assessing general intelligence, visuo-spatial short-term memory and learning, and paired-associate learning of Italian words. These findings, which are in line with neuropsychological and developmental evidence, as well as with data from normal subjects, suggest a close relationship between the capacity of phonological memory and the acquisition of foreign languages.
The Effects of Data-Driven and Conceptually Driven Generation of Study Items on Direct and Indirect Measures of Memory
Authors: Flory Peter , Pring Linda
Published: September 2011

Two experiments are reported which investigated the effects of data-driven generation of study items on direct and indirect measures of memory. Previous research in the field of implicit memory has traditionally employed generation procedures at encoding which focused on conceptually driven processing. The present study undertook to devise data-driven generation procedures that were predicted to lead to a generation effect on word-stem completion.

In Experiment 1 subjects had to generate target items from anagrams and newly developed “assemblograms”, requiring mainly data-driven processing, as well as from semantic cues and definitions, involving mainly conceptually driven processing. Effects of these generate conditions were compared to the usual name condition on a direct word-stem cued recall test, and on an indirect word-stem completion test. Differences between data-driven generation on the stem completion task and the name condition failed to reach significant differences in retention.

In Experiment 2 subjects generated targets from assemblograms and from semantic cues. The data revealed the predicted occurrence of a generation effect on an indirect memory test following data-driven generation. The finding of a generation effect in an indirect as opposed to a direct memory test was seen as support for the view that generating a study item may enhance data-driven as well as conceptually driven processing, depending on the processing demands made by generation procedures. The results were interpreted within the transfer-appropriate processing framework, with additional reference to Glisky and Rabinowitz's two-component account of generation effects (Glisky & Rabinowitz, 1985).
Representational Consequences of Two Modes of Learning
Authors: Roberts Paul L. , MacLeod Colin
Published: September 2011

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that a non-strategic mode of rule learning results in atomic representations. In each case subjects were taught concepts under two different conditions, designed to favour either non-strategic or strategic learning. Following training, subjects demonstrated an equivalent ability to discriminate exemplars from non-exemplars of the concepts acquired under each of these two learning conditions. However, performance on a decompositional inference task, which required access to critical constituent elements within the rule representations, was disproportionately poor for a concept acquired under the training condition that favoured non-strategic learning. These findings lend support to the view that rule acquisition can be mediated by either of two modes of learning, and that the format of knowledge representations is not equivalent across these two learning modes.
Memory for Related and Unrelated Words: Further Evidence on the Influence of Semantic Factors in Immediate Serial Recall
Authors: Poirier Marie , Saint-Aubin Jean
Published: September 2011

A number of recent studies have explored the role of long-term memory factors in memory span tasks. The effects of lexicality, frequency, imageability, and word class have been investigated. The work reported in this paper examined the effect of semantic organization on the recall of short lists of words. Specifically, the influence of semantic category on immediate serial recall and the interaction of this variable with articulatory suppression was investigated in three experiments. Experiment 1 compared immediate serial recall performance when lists comprising items from the same semantic category were used (homogeneous condition) with a situation where lists held items from different semantic categories. Experiment 2 examined the same conditions with and without articulatory suppression during item presentation, and Experiment 3 reproduced these conditions with suppression occurring throughout presentation and recall. Results of all three experiments showed a clear advantage for the homogeneous condition. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the homogeneous category advantage did not depend on the articulatory loop. Furthermore, error analysis indicated that this effect was mainly attributable to better item information recall for the homogeneous condition. These results are interpreted as reflecting a long-term memory contribution to the recall stage of immediate serial recall tasks.
Pupil Dilation as a Measure of Processing Load in Simultaneous Interpretation and Other Language Tasks
Authors: Hyönä Jukka , Tommola Jorma , Alaja Anna-Mari
Published: September 2011

The present study tested whether the pupillary response can be applied to study the variation in processing load during simultaneous interpretation. In Experiment 1, the global processing load in simultaneous interpretation as reflected in the average pupil size was compared to that in two other language tasks, listening to and repeating back an auditorily presented text. Experiment 1 showed clear differences between the experimental tasks. In Experiment 2, the task effect was replicated using single words as stimuli. Experiment 2 showed that momentary variations in processing load during a lexical translation task are reflected in pupil size. Words that were chosen to be more difficult to translate induced higher levels of pupil dilation than did easily translatable words. Moreover, repeating back words in a non-native language was accompanied by increased pupil dilations, in comparison to repetition in the subject's native language. In sum, the study lends good support to the use of the pupillary response as an indicator of processing load.
Bias in Conditional Inference: Implications for Mental Models and Mental Logic
Authors: St.B.T. Evans Jonathan , Clibbens John , Rood Benjamin
Published: September 2011

Three experiments are reported in which subjects are given the opportunity to make any of the four inferences associated with conditional statements: modus ponens (MP), denial of the antecedent (DA), affirmation of the consequent (AC), and modus tollens (MT). The primary purpose of the research was to establish the generality and robustness of polarity biases that may be occasioned by systematic rotation of negative components in the conditional rules. In Experiments 1 & 2, three forms of conditionals were used: “if (not) p then (not) q”, “(not) p only if (not) q” and “(not) q if (not) p”. Experiment 1 used a conclusion evaluation task, whereas Experiment 2 used a conclusion production task. In Experiment 3, thematic conditionals were presented with and without a preceding scenario.

The biases investigated were (a) affirmative premise bias—the tendency to draw more inferences from affirmative premises and (b) negative conclusion bias—the tendency to draw more inferences with negative conclusions. The suggestive evidence for affirmative premise bias in the literature was not supported: very little evidence was found for it in the current experiments. Robust findings of negative conclusion bias were, however, found across the three experiments, although the bias was mostly restricted to DA and MT inferences. This suggests that the bias is best regarded as a difficulty with double negation.

The results are discussed with respect to both the mental logic and mental model accounts of propositional reasoning. Neither theory as currently formulated can explain all of our findings, although a plausible revision of each is considered.
Study of a Servo-control Strategy for Projectile Interception
Authors: Tresilian J.R.
Published: September 2011

Models of a servo control strategy for projectile interception proposed by Chapman (1968) are developed in order to determine how the strategy performs in the presence of important constraints known to limit the performance of human fielders. Simulation experiments were conducted for two cases: (a) The fielder is initially in the plane of projectile motion and moves forwards and backwards in this plane—the 1D case. (b) The fielder is not initially in the plane of projectile motion—the 2D case. Simulations showed that Chapman's strategy is robust and works well in the 1D case despite various limiting constraints. Model behaviour was qualitatively similar to published data on human performance. In the 2D case the strategy works to some extent, but performance is severely limited. Including an additional control action as originally suggested by Chapman can improve matters considerably. The problem of how to distinguish use of Chapman's strategy from an alternative predictive strategy is raised. Despite considerable problems in making such a distinction, simulation studies indicated a possible observable difference. This was tested in a simple experiment: The results tended to favour Chapman's strategy but did not enable a predictive strategy to be definitively ruled out.
Sources of Disagreement in Object Naming
Authors: Vitkovitch Melanie , Tyrrell Lisa
Published: September 2011

Two experiments examined the processing of objects with low name agreement. Experiment I compared naming latencies for objects with three different types of name disagreement to those for matched control objects with very high name agreement. Objects with low name agreement due to abbreviations (e.g. phone) were named no more slowly than were control objects. Objects with multiple names (e.g. couch, sofa, settee) and objects often given incorrect names (e.g. spider for ant) took longer to name correctly than did matched controls. These results were confirmed in a second naming experiment using a revised set of high-name-agreement control stimuli. In Experiment 2, subjects carried out an object decision task using the revised stimulus set. Subjects could recognize objects with multiple names as quickly as those with high name agreement. Objects often given incorrect names were recognized by subjects more slowly than were high-agreement matched stimuli. The pattern of data suggests that the delay in naming latency due to the availability of more than one correct name arises after structural recognition. In contrast, the slowed naming of objects often misnamed would seem to originate from difficulties encountered at or before the structural stage of recognition.
Problem Difficulty and Response Format in Syllogistic Reasoning
Authors: Hardman David K. , Payne Stephen J.
Published: September 2011

It was hypothesized that the perceived irrelevance of the proposition “Some X are not Y” is a factor contributing to the difficulty of nearly all the determinate syllogisms classed as multiple model by Johnson-Laird and Byrne (1991), according to mental models theory. Experiment 1 supported this hypothesis by showing that subjects frequently correctly evaluate valid “Some … not” conclusions but rarely produce them, even when they have evaluated them elsewhere. Explanations of these findings based on the use of superficial strategies were ruled out. Experiment 2 further supported the hypothesis by showing that performance increased across the no-conclusion, multiple-choice, and evaluation task formats, and that this effect generalized to problems containing the quantifier “only”. However, the initial hypothesis was rejected in light of Experiment 3, which found no difference between multiple-choice and no-conclusion formats when the number of allowable conclusions was controlled for. Nevertheless, superior performance remained in the evaluation format, and it is suggested that offered conclusions may be used as a goal for the reasoning process. This interpretation is supported by the finding (Experiments 1 and 3) that subjects appear to search only for alternative conclusions that maintain the subject-predicate structure of the offered conclusion.
Associative and Normative Accounts of Negative Transfer
Authors: Williams Douglas A. , Docking Genevieve L.
Published: September 2011

Subjects were given a prediction task in which they had to learn that one cue, P (positive), was followed by the outcome, and a compound of P and another cue, N (negative), was not followed by the outcome. Next, N was tested in compound with a transfer cue, T, which had signalled the outcome but had never been compounded with N. Experiment 1 confirmed an important assumption of the Rescorla–Wagner model (Wagner & Rescorla, 1972) that negation of T should depend on the specific P cue compound with N being positively contingent. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed the model's prediction that no decrement in negative transfer should be observed following postlearning devaluation of P. Unfortunately, the model did not anticipate that a large proportion of devaluation trials relative to learning trials would attenuate negative transfer (Experiment 4), nor did it predict that negative transfer would occur when P was neutral during the learning stage and was only later made positive (Experiment 3). The results can be accommodated by the Rescorla–Wagner model if one assumes that absent cues have their associative strengths altered.
Difference between photoluminescence and electroluminescence of excimer-based platinum [1, 3-difluoro-4,6-di(2-pyridinyl) benzene]chloride
Authors: Xu Hong , Lv Yanfang , Zhu Wenqing , Xu Feng , Long Li , Yu Fangfang , Wang Zixing , Wei Bin
Published: September 2011

A chromatically stable white phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode using platinum [1,3-difluoro-4,6-di(2-pyridinyl)benzene]chloride (Pt-4) dye as the emitting layer, producing both light blue-monomer and red-excimer emission, is obtained. We have investigated both photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) of Pt-4 dye, which appear to be very different. Whereas the PL spectra reveal monomer and excimer peaks at around 480 nm and 610 nm, the 480 nm monomer and 660 nm excimer emission are characteristic of the EL spectra. It is shown that in contrast to PL, which is ascribed to an energy transfer process, EL emission can be explained by direct hole trapping, which is deduced from the energy levels of Pt-4 dye and 1, 3-bis(9-carbazolyl) benzene host and demonstrated by current density–voltage characteristics of various concentrations.
Spatial and temporal evolutions of ozone in a nanosecond pulse corona discharge at atmospheric pressure
Authors: Duten X , Redolfi M , Aggadi N , Vega A , Hassouni K
Published: September 2011

This paper deals with the experimental determination of the spatial and temporal evolutions of the ozone concentration in an atmospheric pressure pulsed plasma, working in the nanosecond regime. We observed that ozone was produced in the localized region of the streamer. The ozone transport requires a characteristic time well above the millisecond. The numerical modelling of the streamer expansion confirms that the hydrodynamic expansion of the filamentary discharge region during the streamer propagation does not lead to a significant transport of atomic oxygen and ozone. It appears therefore that only diffusional transport can take place, which requires a characteristic time of the order of 50 ms.
Disease profiles differ between non-fished and fished populations of edible crab (Cancer pagurus) from a major commercial fishery
Authors: Bateman Kelly S. , Hicks Ruth J. , Stentiford Grant D.
Published: September 2011

Bateman, K. S., Hicks, R. J., and Stentiford, G. D. 2011. Disease profiles differ between non-fished and fished populations of edible crab (Cancer pagurus) from a major commercial fishery. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 2044–2052. Despite their significant contribution to global marine fisheries, relatively little information is available on the pathogen profile of commercially exploited decapod crustacean populations. Most of the information published relates to adult (fished) subpopulations, with almost nothing known about disease processes and mortality drivers in juveniles. The seasonal profile of pathogens in non-fished (prerecruit) and fished (recruit) subpopulations of Cancer pagurus, a major target fishery target in European waters, is investigated. Histopathology and ultrastructural assessment of tissues demonstrated a distinct pathogen profile in the two subpopulations, the apparent prevalence of specific pathogens varying with both season and life stage of the host. In some cases, highly prevalent pathogens in the prerecruit subpopulation were not observed in the recruit subpopulation. In this context, the discovery of a novel and highly prevalent haplosporidian-like parasite infecting the antennal gland and bladder of prerecruit life stages of C. pagurus is reported. Co-infections with pathogens described previously, such as Hematodinium sp. and C. pagurus bacilliform virus, were also observed. Disease assessments in the prerecruit subpopulation of commercial decapod fishery targets could perhaps be utilized to improve the estimation of cohort success and, therefore, forecasts of future recruitment to the fishery.
Advocacy science and fisheries decision-making
Authors: Rice Jake C.
Published: September 2011

Rice, J. C. 2011. Advocacy science and fisheries decision-making. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 2007–2012. Science advice is supposed to meet idealistic standards for objectivity, impartiality, and lack of bias. Acknowledging that science advisors are imperfect at meeting those standards, they nonetheless need to strive to produce sound, non-partisan advice, because of the privileged accountability given to science advice in decision-making. When science advisors cease to strive for those ideals and promote advocacy science, such advice loses the right to that privileged position. There are temptations to shape science advice by using information that “strengthens” the conservation case selectively. Giving in to such temptation, however, dooms the advice; science advice becomes viewed as expressions of the biases of those who provide it rather than reflecting the information on which the advice is based. Everyone, including the ecosystems, loses. There are ways to increase the impact of science advice on decision-making that do not involve perverting science advice into advocacy: peer review by diverse experts, integrating advice on ecological, economic, and social information and outcomes, and focusing advisory approaches on risks, costs, and trade-offs of different types of management error. These approaches allow the science experts to be active, informed participants in the governance processes to aid sound decision-making, not to press for preselected outcomes. Everyone, including the ecosystems, wins.
Actinomyces weissii sp. nov., isolated from dogs
Authors: Hijazin Muaz , Alber Jörg , Lämmler Christoph , Kämpfer Peter , Glaeser Stefanie P. , Busse Hans-Jürgen , Kassmannhuber Johannes , Prenger-Berninghoff Ellen , Förnges Thorsten , Hassan Abdulwahed Ahmed , Abdulmawjood Amir , Zschöck Michael
Published: September 2011

Two Gram-positive, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacteria were isolated from the oral cavities of two dogs. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities both strains were shown to belong to the genus

Actinomyces

and were most closely related to

Actinomyces bovis

(97.3 % and 97.5 %, respectively). The polyamine profile of the two isolates and

Actinomyces bovis

DSM 43014T was composed of spermidine and spermine as the major components. Menaquinone MK-9 was the major compound in the quinone system of the two strains and

Actinomyces bovis

. The polar lipid profiles of strains 2298T and 4321 were almost identical, containing diphosphatidylglycerol as the major compound, and moderate to trace amounts of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositol-mannoside, phosphatidylglycerol and several unidentified lipids. A highly similar polar lipid profile was detected in

Actinomyces bovis

DSM 43014T supporting the affiliation of strains 2298T and 4321 to the genus

Actinomyces

. The typical major fatty acids were C16 : 0, C18 : 0 and C18 : 1ω9c. Fatty acids C14 : 0 and C18 : 2ω6,9c were found in minor amounts. The results of physiological and biochemical analyses revealed clear differences between both strains and the most closely related species of the genus

Actinomyces

. Thus, strains 2298T and 4321 represent a novel species, for which the name Actinomyces weissii sp. nov., is proposed, with strain 2298T ( = CIP 110333T = LMG 26472T = CCM 7951T = CCUG 61299T) as the type strain.