Ederaldo José Lopes

Memória de trabalho viso-espacial em crianças de 7 a 12 anos

Visuo-spatial working memory in 7-12 year old children. This study aimed to evaluate the mechanisms of visual-spatial memory in children. Seventy eight children took part in an experiment with four factors: children’s age, stimuli spatial position, stimuli visual similarity, stimuli set color. The results have shown that all main factors are statistically meaningful. The oldest children presented a better performance than the youngest ones. Stimuli set formed by low similarity letters were better recollected than the stimuli set formed by high similarity letters. The recall of the spatial position of letters was better in trials where the letters of a set were presented in the same color. The percentage of correct recall changed meaningfully as a function of the spatial position in which the target had been presented. The results were interpreted according to models that emphasize aspects of development of cognitive strategies along with the human development, especially the working memory model.

A psicologia cognitiva experimental cinqüenta anos depois: a crise do paradigma do processamento de informação

Resumo: Este texto apresenta uma discussao acerca da revolucao cognitiva em Psicologia e de sua problematica teorico-metodologica que parece culminar numa tentativa de naturalizacao do conhecimento e numa dificuldade de integracao da experimentacao, modelagem computacional da mente e neurociencias. Tres abordagens alternativas/complementares ao processamento da informacao sao apresentadas: a abordagem computacional, as neurociencias e a psicologia ecologica. Palavras-chave: processamento da informacao; metodo experimental; abordagem computacional; neurociencias, psicologia ecologica. EXPERIMENTAL COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY FIFTY YEARS LATER: THE CRISIS OF THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING PARADIGM

Falsas Memórias: questões teórico-metodológicas

Falsas Memorias (FM´s) ocorrem quando uma pessoa lembra de eventos que nao aconteceram, situacoes que nunca presenciou, lugares onde nunca esteve, ou entao, se lembra de maneira distorcida do que realmente houve. O objetivo deste artigo e apresentar revisao historica do tema, alguns modelos teoricos e suas contribuicoes para a compreensao do assunto. E apresentado o DRM (Deese-Roediger-McDemott), um paradigma usado para se estudar as FM´s. Com a teoria, ficou clara a complexidade e importância do tema para a Psicologia e a necessidade dos psicologos estarem atentos ao assunto, principalmente aqueles que trabalham diretamente com a memoria das pessoas.

Estudo das habilidades de memória e raciocínio simbólico e não-simbólico de crianças e adolescentes surdas por meio da bateria padrão do Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test

This study aimed to explore memory and symbolic and non symbolic reasoning skills of deaf children and adolescents using the analyses of performance of the standard battery of Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT). Fifty five participants took part in the study. The collected data were analyzed through parametric statistics. The data suggest that the capacity to manipulate and to represent memorized symbolic information may be enhanced by school and/or extracurricular activities.

Características psicométricas da Bateria Padrão do Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT): um estudo preliminar

Este trabalho teve como objetivo realizar a analise preliminar das caracteristicas psicometricas da Bateria Padrao do Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) numa amostra com 77 sujeitos. Os subtestes avaliaram as habilidades de atencao para detalhe, processamento sequencial, mediacao simbolica, formacao de conceitos, integracao viso-motora, pensamento abstrato, processamento holistico, capacidade de sintese, dentre outros. Como se trata de um teste nao-verbal, a comunicacao entre o aplicador e o avaliado foi feita a partir de gestos universais, e 100% dos participantes foram capazes de compreender as instrucoes. Uma analise de componentes principais indicou a presenca de um componente (fator g) que explicou 90,01% da variância total do teste. O coeficiente de consistencia interna (metodo das metades) e bastante satisfatorio (0,99). Os dados obtidos, ate o presente, mostram a viabilidade de aplicacao deste teste, configurando-se numa alternativa para os testes intelectuais verbais conhecidos.

Stimulus segmentation in the visual search task.

Four experiments were conducted in order to study the segmentation process in a visual search task with relevant stimuli (target and distractors) randomly distributed among textural elements. The basic idea was that a parallel segmentation process of the relevant stimuli would contribute to the overall reaction time independently of the contribution of the number of relevant stimuli. In the first experiment, with relevant stimuli and textural elements that differed in the orientation of their component lines, texture presence interacted with number of relevant stimuli and with target presence. These results were not favorable to the parallel segmentation hypothesis. In the second and third experiments, in which the relevant and the textural stimuli differed in orientation and in the luminance contrast of their component lines, the results support a parallel segmentation process for the higher contrast conditions. In these experiments, the effect of texture presence was greater on target-absent than on target-present trials. Experiment 4 shows that the search can be restricted to the high-contrast relevant stimuli when the number of these stimuli is constant and the number of textural stimuli changes from trial to trial. The present results suggest that the relevant stimuli can be segmented in parallel and then submitted to a restricted analysis, even when they are scattered among textural stimuli.

Investigación en la memoria humana: Hipótesis actuales y nuevas perspectivas

Research on human memory has increased significantly in the last few decades. Inconsistencies and controversies inherent to such research, however, are rarely articulated on published reports. The goal of the present article is to present and discuss a series of open questions related to major topics on human memory research that can be addressed by future research. The topics covered here are visual working memory, recognition memory, emotion and memory interaction, and methodological issues of false memories studies. Overall, the present work reveals a series of open questions and alternative analysis which could be useful for the process of hypothesis generation, and consequently for the design and implementation of future research on human memory.A pesquisa em memoria humana aumentou significativamente nas ultimas decadas. Inconsistencias e controversias inerentes a pesquisas com este foco, entretanto, sao raramente articuladas nas publicacoes especializadas. O objetivo do presente artigo e apresentar e discutir uma serie de questoes abertas relacionadas aos principais topicos de pesquisa em memoria humana, e que podem vir a ser abordados por pesquisas futuras. Os topicos abordados no presente estudo sao memoria operacional visual, memoria de reconhecimento, interacao entre emocao e memorias e aspectos metodologicos do estudo de falsas memorias. De forma geral, o presente trabalho revela uma serie de questoes em aberto e analises alternativas que podem ser uteis para o processo de geracao de hipoteses, e consequentemente para o desenvolvimento de pesquisas futuras sobre a memoria humana.

Human memory research: Current hypotheses and new perspectives

Research on human memory has increased significantly in the last few decades. Inconsistencies and controversies inherent to such research, however, are rarely articulated on published reports. The goal of the present article is to present and discuss a series of open questions related to major topics on human memory research that can be addressed by future research. The topics covered here are visual working memory, recognition memory, emotion and memory interaction, and methodological issues of false memories studies. Overall, the present work reveals a series of open questions and alternative analysis which could be useful for the process of hypothesis generation, and consequently for the design and implementation of future research on human memory.A pesquisa em memoria humana aumentou significativamente nas ultimas decadas. Inconsistencias e controversias inerentes a pesquisas com este foco, entretanto, sao raramente articuladas nas publicacoes especializadas. O objetivo do presente artigo e apresentar e discutir uma serie de questoes abertas relacionadas aos principais topicos de pesquisa em memoria humana, e que podem vir a ser abordados por pesquisas futuras. Os topicos abordados no presente estudo sao memoria operacional visual, memoria de reconhecimento, interacao entre emocao e memorias e aspectos metodologicos do estudo de falsas memorias. De forma geral, o presente trabalho revela uma serie de questoes em aberto e analises alternativas que podem ser uteis para o processo de geracao de hipoteses, e consequentemente para o desenvolvimento de pesquisas futuras sobre a memoria humana.

Falsas memórias e tempo de reação: estudo com o procedimento de palavras associadas

False Memories (FM) are based on memory errors and occur when people remember situations that never happened to them, events at which they were not present, or when remembrance from occurred facts are reminded differently from what really happened. This paper aims to present reaction time data about false memories with the adaptation of the DRM (Deese‑Roediger‑McDermott) paradigm into Brazilian Portuguese. The experiment was performed by 12 participants. Sets of memorized words (CPM) composed of 3, 5 or 7 items and the type of test (target, critical distractor and not related distractor) were manipulated within subjects. The results indicate a trend of increasing in reaction time according to the set of memorized words and confirm the importance of reaction time as a measure to study false memories in short‑term situations.

Falsas memórias no Teste Pictórico de Memória

False memories (FM) are defined as memories that people have of facts or events that have never happened, illusions or distortions of facts which have occurred. The purpose of this work was to verify the occurrence of FM in the Pictorial Memory Test. The exposure time of the card (1, 3 or 5 minutes) was manipulated in order to understand its influence on the onset of FM. The sample was composed of 273 participants. The results showed a significant decrease in the percentage of false answers given the exposure time from the fastest to the slowest.