Effects of retrieving context information on accuracy-confidence relationships in recognition memory for faces

We investigated how retrieval conditions affect accuracy-confidence (A-C) relationship sin recognition memory for faces. Seventy participants took a face-recognition test and rated their confidence in their judgment. Twenty-three participants were assigned to a retrieval condition, where they were encouraged to remember background information (scenery) of each picture just before rating their confidence. Twenty-four participants were assigned to a verbalizing condition, in which they were encouraged to remember and verbally describe the background of each picture before rating. Twenty-three participants were assigned to a control condition. The results showed that for the control condition, an A-C relationship was found for old items but not for new items, replicating the results of Takahashi (1998) and Wagenaar (1988). In contrast, in the retrieval condition, an A-C relationship was found for both old and new items. In the verbalizing condition, an A-C relationship was not found for either old or new items. The results showed that retrieving background information affects A-C relationships, supporting the idea that confidence ratings rely not only on memory traces but also on various kinds of information such as retrieved background scenery. Implications for eyewitness testimony were discussed.     

Influence of odor cueing on the retrieval processes for autobiographical memories

This study investigated the influence of odor cueing on the retrieval process for autobiographical memories. In Experiment 1, forty two participants were asked to retrieve autobiographical memories in response to a label cue only, or a label cue with a congruent odor cue, or label cue with an incongruent odor cue. The results showed that in the label cue only condition and the incongruent odor cue condition, the latency with a concurrent task was slower than with no concurrent task. However, this was not observed in the congruent odor cue condition. In order to verify the results of Experiment 1, in Experiment 2, twenty participants were investigated with regard to autobiographical memories cued by odors having a high or low rate of identification. The results showed that memories cued by odors with a high rate of identification were retrieved faster. These results suggest that dual processing by odor and label promotes retrieval processes for autobiographical memories.     

Effects of environmental change and others' behavior on cooperative behavior and solution preference in social dilemma

This study examined how environmental change and others' behavior affected cooperative behavior and solution preference of the person in social dilemma situation. Participants in two experiments played an "environment game," in which gradual pollution in environment and reduction in profit rate were simulated. Information on behavior of other players was manipulated: in "free rider" condition, one person was an extreme free rider, and the others were cooperative; in "loafing" condition, everyone loafed. In both experiments, "Bad Apple Effect" was not observed clearly, and cooperative behavior increased as environmental pollution worsened. In Experiment 2, there was no main effect of others' behavior on solution preference. However, significant correlations were found among solution preference, motivation to control others' behavior, and perceived seriousness of the situation, only when an extreme free rider was among them.     

Automated assessment of myocardial SPECT perfusion scintigraphy: a comparison of different approaches of case-based reasoning

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the diagnostic accuracy of different approaches of case-based reasoning (CBR) for the assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD) using thallium-201 myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in comparison with coronary angiography. METHODS AND MATERIAL: For each scintigraphic image set, regional myocardial tracer uptake was obtained by polar map analysis. CBR algorithms based on a similarity measure were employed to identify similar scintigraphic images within the case library, where each case contained the scintigraphic data together with results of coronary angiography. The angiographic data of retrieved cases were then used to determine whether significant CAD was present in one of the major coronary arteries. Three different approaches of CBR were compared: (1) case retrieval based on a global comparison of polar map data (GLOB), (2) case retrieval based on a territorial comparison of polar map data (TER), and (3) case retrieval based on a comparison of a given case with eight sub-libraries classified according to the involvement of the three major coronary vessels using a group similarity measure (GROUP). Two matching algorithms the best-match approach and an adapted retrieving approach were combined with all three case retrieval methods and their influence on the diagnostic accuracy were investigated. RESULTS: For overall detection of significant CAD, the best-match approach of both TER and GROUP retrieval methods showed a higher diagnostic accuracy than the GLOB retrieval method (75% and 77% versus 70%, respectively). ROC analysis for the adapted retrieving approach showed a similar diagnostic accuracy for all three methods with an area under the curve of 0.79, 0.8, and 0.8 for GLOB, TER, and GROUP, respectively. CONCLUSION: The observed improvement in the diagnostic accuracy by the new approaches may lead to further improvements of CBR systems, which have the potential to offer valuable decision support for human readers, especially for less experienced investigators.     

What factors play a role in a listener's feelings evoked by irony?: the effect of listeners' personality traits and relationship with the speaker

This research investigated what factors play a role in a listener's feelings evoked by irony. In Experiment 1, participants imagined their best friend or an acquaintance as the speaker, and rated how they felt when apparent ironical utterances were made. The effects of the listener's empathy and conversational indirectness were examined. In Experiment 2, participants rated how they felt when apparent ironical utterances or literal utterances were made. The effects of the listeners' self-esteem and attitude toward humor were examined. The results showed that cognitions about joking relationships and the listener's attitude toward humor played an important role in the listener's feelings evoked by irony, whereas the listeners' self-esteem and their interpretation of conversational indirectness affected their perception of irony. Irony evoked positive feelings when the joke or the humor of irony was evaluated as positive politeness by the listener due to the listener's attitude toward humor or a joking relationship with the speaker.     

Developmental changes and individual differences in risk and perspective taking in adolescence

Despite the assumed prevalence of risk-taking behavior in adolescence, the laboratory evidence of risk taking remains scarce, and the individual variation poorly understood. Drawing from neuroscience studies, we tested whether risk and reward orientation are influenced by the perspective that adolescents take when making risky decisions. Perspective taking was manipulated by cuing participants prior to each choice whether the decision was made for "self," or from the perspective of an "other" (the experimenter in Experiment 1; a hypothetical peer in Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we show a developmental decrease in risk-taking behavior across different stages of adolescence. In addition, all age groups made fewer risky choices for the experimenter, but the difference between self and other was larger in early adolescence. In Experiment 2, we show that high sensation-seeking (SS) adolescents make more risky choices than low SS adolescents, but both groups make a similar differentiation for other individuals (low risk-taking or high risk-taking peers). Together, the results show that younger adolescents and high SS adolescents make more risky choices for themselves, but can appreciate that others may make fewer risky choices. The developmental change toward more rational decisions versus emotional, impulsive decisions may reflect, in part, more efficient integration of others' perspectives into one's decision making. These developmental results are discussed regarding brain systems important for risk taking and perspective taking.     

The role of noticing in prospective memory forgetting.

Two experiments used autonomic reactions (i.e., skin conductance responses; SCRs) in conjunction with behavioral responses to study retrieval processes in prospective memory. SCRs were recorded while participants performed a prospective memory task embedded in an ongoing task. Stimuli that received the same behavioral response (i.e., no prospective memory response) evoked different autonomic reactions as a function of whether they were versus were not prospective cues (Experiments 1 and 2) and as a function of whether they did versus did not share perceptual or conceptual features with prospective cues (Experiment 2). To the extent that SCRs provide an index of noticing a stimulus, increased SCRs for prospective cues and for stimuli that shared features with prospective cues (even though they were not responded to as prospective cues) provided evidence that noticing a stimulus is not invariably accompanied by recognizing the stimulus as a cue to perform an intended action. The results are consistent with the general 2-stages cue-focused view of prospective memory retrieval, which proposes that noticing a prospective cue prompts a directed memory search, which can result in recognizing the stimulus as a cue to perform an intended action and retrieving the intended action.     

A system in the human brain for predicting the actions of others

The ability to attribute mental states to others, and therefore to predict others' behavior, is particularly advanced in humans. A controversial but untested idea is that this is achieved by simulating the other person's mental processes in one's own mind. If this is the case, then the same neural systems activated by a mental function should re-activate when one thinks about that function performed by another. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we tested whether the neural processes involved in preparing one's own actions are also used for predicting the future actions of others. We provide compelling evidence that areas within the action control system of the human brain are indeed activated when predicting others' actions, but a different action sub-system is activated when preparing one's own actions.     

Differential maternal retrieval of jaundiced versus non-jaundiced Gunn rat pups

Gunn rat dams were tested for differential retrieval of their jaundiced versus non-jaundiced offspring in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, in which testing took place every day from Day 1 to Day 8 postpartum, non-jaundiced pups were retrieved significantly faster than jaundiced pups. In Experiment 2, in which testing took place every other day from Day 1 to Day 15 and the pups were weighed each test day, the order of retrieval of the 4 gender/genotype (jaundiced vs non-jaundiced) classifications as found in the 1st experiment was replicated and the non-jaundiced pups tended to be retrieved faster. Heavier pups were retrieved significantly faster than lighter pups, indicating that weight or size may be a cue to differential retrieval.     

Prolactin levels are elevated after infant carrying in parentally inexperienced common marmosets

Alloparental behavior (parental behavior directed to nondescendant young) is pervasive among human cultures but rare among other mammals. New World primates of the family Callitrichidae, including common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus jacchus), dwell in large families and many family members carry and/or provision infants. This study experimentally characterized alloparenting in common marmosets by measuring infant retrieval and carrying outside of the context of the family group. Prolactin was measured in samples collected before and after infant exposure to determine whether elevated prolactin levels were predictive of alloparental responsiveness. Seventeen nonbreeding, parentally inexperienced, singly or peer-housed common marmosets (10 females, 7 males, 6-66 months of age) were tested repeatedly in an infant retrieval paradigm. Infant retrieval was shown by 5 out of 17 monkeys (29%) in their first test. The rate of retrieval increased to 10 monkeys (59%) by the fourth test. No significant differences in age, sex, or housing condition existed between monkeys that retrieved infants and those not retrieving. Prolactin concentrations were significantly elevated in serum obtained after testing only in monkeys that retrieved infants. Prolactin levels after infant exposure were positively related to carrying duration. A separate experiment verified that neither prolactin nor cortisol was significantly elevated in response to prolonged handling. Cortisol levels were inversely proportional to handling time. Prolactin levels were not significantly related to handling time. Our results indicate that alloparental behavior is expressed at high rates after minimal infant experience, and prolactin levels rise concomitantly with the expression of alloparental behavior in this species.     

Contextual updating of infants' reactivated memories

The ease with which a reactivated memory is updated is updated has major implications for whether or not a prior memory is likely to be retrieved in the future. In three experiments, we explored this problem with nonverbal human infants, whose newly acquired memory of training in a specific context is readily updated by novel contextual information. In Experiment 1, exposing infants to a novel context immediately after a successful reactivation treatment neither impaired their retention in the original context nor facilitate it in the novel exposure one. In Experiment 2, increasing the delay between the reactivation treatment and exposure to the novel context also failed to facilitate retention in the novel test context. In Experiment 3, the reactivated memory was updated when the contingency was briefly experienced in the novel context immediately after the reactivation treatment. Under these circumstances, previously trained infants exhibited retention in the novel context, but infants who had not been trained 3 weeks earlier or whose original memory had not been reactivated exhibited none. The resistance of a reactivated memory to contextual updating unless the new context is predictive apparently buffers infants′ memories against revision after long delays by contexts that could be inappropriate.© 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Emergence of frequency-dependent cooperative strategies in iterated social dilemma: an experimental study

Previous formal work on iterated social dilemma has shown that the strategy prescribing one to cooperate if m or more others cooperated in the previous round and defect otherwise, loses their effectiveness as the group size increases. The only reciprocal strategy formally proved to be effective in an N-person situation is "trigger strategy" (Friedman, 1986). This strategy presumes that people set the threshold for cooperation, m, at its maximum, namely N-1: all members other than self. This study investigated whether people's choice behavior in iterated social dilemma approximated such a strategy. In groups of seven, participants played a social dilemma game repeatedly. They were provided with complete information regarding others' choices in the three preceding rounds, when making a choice in the current round. Results indicated that participants became more reciprocal as the game progressed, responding more sensitively to how many others cooperated in the previous round. Furthermore, the participants used a strategy in the game that were more lenient for reciprocation, with lower threshold for cooperation, than trigger strategy. Implications of current findings and some future directions were discussed.     

Make a lasting impression: The neural consequences of re‐encountering people who emote inappropriately

We can learn about the affective content of the environment by observing the behavior of others; their responses to stimuli tend to be appropriate to the context. To investigate the impact of observing such appropriate, compared with inappropriate, behaviors, we developed a novel behavioral task where participants observed different faces reacting to emotional scenes. We found that affective categorization of a scene was facilitated when it was presented alongside an appropriate facial expression (Experiment 1). Further, we observed that several brain areas in the right hemisphere—the putamen, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex—were more activate when viewing faces that were previously observed emoting inappropriately (Experiment 2). We contend that these areas form a network that codes for the retrieval of affective conflict information generated by observing individuals producing inappropriate emotions.     

The effects of sensitization and social isolation on maternal behavior in the virgin rat

Thirty-three out of 67 virgin Sprague-Dawley rats spontaneously retrieved 5–10-day-old foster pups in a pretest. The 34 rats not responding immediately were randomly divided into three groups to study the effects of direct and exteroceptive exposure to young on the induction of maternal behavior. Retrieving, licking and crouching behavior appeared in a higher proportion of cage rats (n = 12) which received a fresh group of pups to live with throughout each day than in control rats (n = 10) that had only 5 min daily exposure. However basket rats (n = 12) also became maternal merely by exposure to exteroceptive stimuli from pups living in baskets fixed to the cage wall. In a second experiment, virgin rats that spontaneously retrieved pups were socially isolated for 2–4 weeks. As a result, a 50–60% decrease in the number of rats showing retrieval was found not only in an independent sample of rats (n = 20) but also in a related group (n = 13) that practiced the response in the week between a pretest and Week 2 in isolation. Therefore, the results demonstrate that exteroceptive cues from pups alone may be sufficient to induce maternal behavior in nonspontaneously retrieving virgin rats, and that isolation from pups and other social stimuli reduce retrieving behavior in initially responsive virgin rats.     

Naming norms for brief environmental sounds: Effects of age and dementia

Brief nontonal sounds are used in electrophysiology in the novelty oddball paradigm. These sounds vary in the brain activity they elicit and in the degree to which they can be identified, named, and remembered. Because ease of sound identification may influence sound processing, naming and conceptual norms were determined for 100 sounds for 77 young adults (Experiment 1). Naming ability decreases in normal and pathological aging. Therefore, norms were also derived for older adults (Experiment 2) and for probable Alzheimer's disease patients (Experiment 3). With respect to the young adults, perseverative naming behavior increased in these groups, and sound and picture naming performance were correlated. In Experiment 4, the sound-naming performance of children aged 5–6, 9–11, and 14–16 yers was compared. Name and conceptual agreements improved with age, whereas perseverative behavior decreased. These normative data should be useful in guiding sound selection in future studies and help clarify the relationships between sound naming and other variables, including direct and indirect memory performance.     

Regret in individual and group decision making

We compared the regret that people report in individual and group decision-making in two experimental studies. In the first study, thirty-nine participants were randomly assigned to either an individual or a group decision-making condition, and then failed on an assigned task. They were asked to rate their regret and cognitive variables of controllability, internal and external factors related to their failure. Participants in the group decision condition, reported less regret than in the individual decision condition. In the second study, we added individual and group decision conditions where the participants heard others express regret. Fifty-eight participants played and lost the same game in the four conditions. In the group decision condition, we found that the participants who heard others express regret reported more regret than the participants who did not hear others' regret. These findings suggest that the expression of regret enhances others' regret. Some implications of the findings are discussed.     

Referred and Nonreferred Children's Predictions of Their Mothers' Behavior Evaluations

We compared 15 school-age children referred to mental health facilities for noncompliant or oppositional behavior to 15 matched nonreferred children on their ability to predict their mothers' behavior evaluations. The Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist was administered to assess the extent of the behavioral problems of each child. We derived a behavior evaluation checklist and gave it to each child and his or her mother to determine the mother's evaluations of depicted behavioral instances and the child's predictions of those maternal evaluations. The results indicated that referred children had significantly greater difficulty predicting maternal evaluations than did nonreferred children. Mothers did not differ across groups in the proportion of negative evaluations offered, but referred children predicted significantly more negative maternal evaluations than did nonreferred children, Implications for clinical assessment and intervention and for future research were noted.     

Maternal behavior,pup vocalizations,and pup temperature changes following handling in mice of 2 inbred strains

A cross-fostering design was used to examine maternal behavior, pup vocalizations, and pup temperature changes following an infantile handling procedure in C57BL/6J (C) and A/J (A) mice. In Experiment I, maternal behavior of C and A mothers after infantile handling differed in a number of ways irrespective of the strain of the foster pups. In addition, A pups were retrieved faster but licked less than were C pups by mothers of both strains. Handling appeared to increase the probability that strain differences would occur in that no differences between the lines, in either the behavior of the mothers or the capacity of the pups to elicit maternal behavior, were found during observations made just prior to daily handling. These observations also revealed that mothers of both strains treated same-strain foster pups differently than they treated foster pups of another strain. In Experiment II, A pups were found to emit more ultrasound following handling than were C pups, suggesting that retrieval but not pup-licking was stimulated by ultrasonic signals. Measurement of pup temperature during and following the handling procedure showed that (1) strain differences in ultrasonic signaling were not related to strain differences in the degree of hypothermia experienced by the pups; (2) recovery of body temperature following handling was slow for pups of both strains, and depended to some degree on the strain of the pup's foster mother; and (3) development of thermoregulation occurred more rapidly in C than A pups.