ISSN : 1226-9654
Four experiments were conducted to investigate how aging and neuro-degeneration affect explicit and implicit memory task performance with respect to levels of processing. Each experiment consisted of an encoding stage and a retrieval stage. Participants performed either a semantic processing task or a perceptual processing task at the encoding stage, and performed both a cued recall task and a word fragment completion task at the retrieval stage. In Experiment 1, a typical dissociation between the explicit and the implicit memory with respect to the levels of processing was found in college students. In Experiments 2, 3, and 4, no dissociation was found in elderly adults, Alzheimer's patients, and Parkinson's patients. Dissociation was not found in both the elderly and the neuro-degeneration groups. The implications of these results were discussed in the final section with respect to understanding of human's memory structures and processing.
This study was planned to examine whether warnings and repetition could reduce false memories in young and old adults. Participants were 36 young and 36 old adults. Four DRM lists composed of 15 associate words each were used. They were asked to recall the words aurally presented in the 4 consecutive DRM lists, and this kind of trials were repeated 4 times. Each Half of young and old adults were given explicit warnings about the possibility of false memories and were asked to avoid recalling any associated but not-presented words (i.e., critical lure) in the DRM lists at the start of the experiment. To the other halves were no warnings given. The result was that correct memories increased with repetition, but warnings had little effect in young and old adults. However, false memories were reduced by warnings in both age groups, and repetition had a decreasing effect on false memories of young group, but not on false memories of old group. That is, only warnings but no repetition had an effect on false memories of old adults. This suggests that they could not give full attention to lexical traces of presented words or they might have difficulty in monitoring source of words in memory.
This study examined whether frontal brain asymmetry(FBA) could be the biological substrates of psychological health. In study 1, resting electroencephalogram(EEG) was recorded from participants during both 5 eyes-open and 5 eyes-closed 60-s baselines on 1 measurement occasion. Mean alpha power density asymmetry was extracted in midfrontal(F3/F4), lateral frontal(F7/F8) and anterior temporal(T3/T4) sites. For midfrontal sites, the relative left activation group showed significant higher level of positive affect, approach motivation, happiness, hope and ego-resiliency than the relative right activation group. In study 2, mean alpha power asymmetry also extracted in three frontal brain regions during resting baseline measure. FBA was extracted during viewing the emotional picture stimuli and doing imagination activities. For midfrontal site. participants who showed relative higher left activation reported higher positive emotion during viewing positive pictures and imagining positive event than those who showed right activation. And both exposure to positive pictures and positive imagination activity increased the relative reft activation. These findings support that relative left midfrontal activation can be the neurobiological mechanism of psychological health. Implications for research on the biological correlates of psychological health are discussed.
Two experiments were conducted to study the effects of knowledge on the interpretation of graphs and the use of information in the graphs. The effects of knowledge on the interpretation of graphs were explored in Experiment 1. In Experiment 1, three groups of undergraduate students (control, economics major, mathematics major) were given graphs of two areas (economics, mathematics) and were asked to choose the most appropriate interpretation of each graph among four alternatives. In the Context condition, where the legends of the graphs and some background information was given with the graphs so that participant's major would not exert any influence on the interpretation of the graphs, control group and economic major students chose the interpretation that matches the context. Whereas in the No-Context condition, where only the graphs were given, participants chose the interpretation that is in accord with their major. In Experiment 2, two groups of participants (economics major, mathematics major) were asked to calculate the answers to three economics problems. Two equations were given in each problem as hints. In the Ambiguous condition, where the two equations were eligible for the problem, both economics major and mathematics chose either equation equally often. However, in the Determinate condition, where only one of the two equations was eligible for the problem, only economics major students used the right equation more often. The results of the two experiments showed that the effect of knowledge is constrained by the task at hand and the information given by the context. That is, the effect of knowledge seemed to exert influence when the problem needs relevance judgment or when there is not enough information in the graphs.
It is found that previously ignored stimuli are devaluated than previously selected or novel stimuli in social-emotional evaluation task (Raymond, Fenske, & Tavassoli, 2003). We extended the previous research to the selection on the working memory representations. Participants were to remember one of two faces according to a cue. The cue was presented before the faces (pre-cue condition) or after the faces (post-cue condition). The task was to score the reliability of a selected face, an unselected face, or a novel face on a five point scale while maintaining the cued face. The selected faces were evaluated more trustworthy than the unselected or novel faces significantly under both the pre- and post-cue conditions. In addition, the reliability of unselected faces did not appear less trustworthy than that of the novel faces. These results suggest that information in the working memory is biased positively on the social-emotional judgments.