A reduction in congruency effects under working memory (WM) load has been previously described using different attentional paradigms (e.g., Kim, Kim, & Chun, 2005; Smilek, Enns, Eastwood, & Merikle, 2006). One hypothesis is that different types of WM load have different effects on attentional selection, depending on whether a specific memory load…

This paper aims to explore a range of aesthetic aspects involved in the devising and production processes of oral history performance in a classroom setting. It touches upon the ethical dimension of aesthetics employing the Confucianist Wang Yang Ming's aesthetic philosophy and Buber's theories of relation as the theoretical frames. The devising…

Reports that infants in the second year of life can attribute false beliefs to others have all used a "search" paradigm in which an agent with a false belief about an object's location searches for the object. The present research asked whether 18-month-olds would still demonstrate false-belief understanding when tested with a novel "non-search"…

Several memory processes have been examined regarding their relation to psychometric intelligence with the exception of sensory memory. This study examined the relation between decay of iconic memory traces, measured with a partial-report task, and psychometric intelligence, assessed with the Berlin Intelligence Structure test, in 111…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate how relevance instructions influence readers' personal reading intentions, reading goals, text processing, and memory for text. Undergraduates (n = 52) were randomly assigned to one of three pre-reading relevance instruction conditions that asked them to read from a perspective or to read…

A theory devised initially on the basis of instrumental reward schedule data, such as the PREE, was extended to deal with various Pavlovian findings. These Pavlovian findings include blocking, unblocking, relative validity, positive and negative patterning, renewal, reinstatement, reacquisition, and inhibition. In addition, the sequential model…

The properties of retrograde amnesia after damage to the hippocampus have been explicated with some success using a rat model of human medial temporal lobe amnesia. We review the results of this experimental work with rats focusing on several areas of consensus in this growing literature. We evaluate the theoretically significant hypothesis that…

Research has demonstrated that Long-Evans rats (LER) display superior mnemonic function over Wistar rats (WR). These differences are correlated with endogenous and input-dependent properties of the hippocampus. The present work sought to determine if juvenile pretraining might enhance hippocampal structural markers and if this would be associated…

Gene transcription is essential for the establishment and the maintenance of long-term memory (LTM) and for long-lasting forms of synaptic plasticity. The molecular mechanisms that control gene transcription in neuronal cells are complex and recruit multiple signaling pathways in the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Protein kinases (PKs) and…

Two voluntary task-switching experiments probed the influence of previous exposures to stimuli and categorizations of these stimuli on task choice during subsequent exposures to the same stimuli. Subjects performed origin and size judgments under standard voluntary task-switching instructions to perform the tasks equally often in a random order.…

Across languages, children with developmental dyslexia are known to have impaired lexical phonological representations. Here, we explore associations between learning new phonological representations, phonological awareness, and sensitivity to amplitude envelope onsets (rise time). We show that individual differences in learning novel phonological…

Long-term memory for fear of an environment (contextual fear conditioning) emerges later in development (postnatal day; PD 23) than long-term memory for fear of discrete stimuli (PD 17). As contextual, but not explicit cue, fear conditioning relies on the hippocampus; this has been interpreted as evidence that the hippocampus is not fully…

Previous studies suggested that the beta-adrenergic receptor antagonist propranolol might be a novel, potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This hypothesis stemmed mainly from rodent studies showing that propranolol interferes with the reconsolidation of Pavlovian fear conditioning (FC). However, subsequent investigations…

The role of focusing 4-year-olds' attention on "feeling" or "looking" was examined in three experiments by testing predictions about children's memory for their interactions with an adult partner as they engaged in a collaborative task. Children made collages with an adult partner, and they were later asked to remember who placed the pieces on the…

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…