Tim Brennen

Resolving semantically induced tip-of-the-tongue states for proper nouns

Three experiments are reported in which tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTSs) were induced in subjects by reading them pieces of item-specific information. In Experiments 1 and 2, subjects attempted toname famous people. These experiments showed that, in a TOTS, seeing a picture of the faceof the target person did not facilitate naming, whereas the initials of the person’s name did. In Experiment 3, a similar result was obtained with a landmark-naming task. The results of the experiments are discussed with reference to current models of memory structure and name retrieval.

Trauma-related and neutral false memories in war-induced Posttraumatic Stress Disorder☆

Recent models of cognition in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) predict that trauma-related, but not neutral, processing should be differentially affected in these patients, compared to trauma-exposed controls. This study compared a group of 50 patients with PTSD related to the war in Bosnia and a group of 50 controls without PTSD but exposed to trauma from the war, using the DRM method to induce false memories for war-related and neutral critical lures. While the groups were equally susceptible to neutral critical lures, the PTSD group mistakenly recalled more war-related lures. Both false and correct recall were related more to depression than to self-rated trauma. Implications for accounts of false memories in terms of source-monitoring are discussed.

Naming Faces and Objects Without Comprehension A Case Study

The case of a 74-year-old woman with Alzheimers dementia is presented. Her ability to identify objects and faces was investigated, and it was shown that an items name could sometimes be recalled in the absence of any appropriate semantic information. Performance on multiple-choice tests of semantic knowledge for items that were named was not above chance levels, even though the semantic test immediately followed the naming response. These data appear problematic for current models of face and object processing, where access to a name is dependent upon prior access to information about the identity of the item. However, in the trials where the patient named faces without category information, she appeared to know that the people were celebrities, which suggests that this limited information may allow access to the name and that the degree of semantic access required when naming faces is lower than previously thought.

Does retrieval-induced forgetting occur for emotional stimuli?

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is a phenomenon where the retrieval of an item impairs memory for items associated to the retrieved item. This effect has been robustly demonstrated with a wide range of stimuli. A few studies have investigated this phenomenon with emotional memories for autobiographical life events and for pathology-specific memories in clinical populations. The present study investigated whether RIF would be observed for stimuli of positive and negative emotional valence in the normal population. On a recognition test, the effect was observed both on measures of accuracy and response time with neutral words, but no RIF was observed for words of negative and positive emotional valence. In addition, RIF was observed only for studied items and did not extend to all members of the studied categories. This observation was made possible by the use of a recognition task in the test phase, and is accounted for in terms of episodic inhibition (Racsmány & Conway, 2006).

Arctic cognition: a study of cognitive performance in summer and winter at 69°N

Evidence has accumulated over the past 15 years that affect in humans is cyclical. In winter there is a tendency to depression, with remission in summer, and this effect is stronger at higher latitudes. In order to determine whether human cognition is similarly rhythmical, this study investigated the cognitive processes of 100 participants living at 69 degrees N. Participants were tested in summer and winter on a range of cognitive tasks, including verbal memory, attention and simple reaction time tasks. The seasonally counterbalanced design and the very northerly latitude of this study provide optimal conditions for detecting impaired cognitive performance in winter, and the conclusion is negative: of five tasks with seasonal effects, four had disadvantages in summer. Like the menstrual cycle, the circannual cycle appears to influence mood but not cognition.

Context effects in the processing of familiar faces

SummaryIn this paper we report five experiments that investigate the influence of prime faces upon the speed with which familiar faces are recognized and named. Previously, priming had been reported when the prime and target faces were closely associated, e.g., Prince Charles and Princess Diana (Bruce & Valentine, 1986). In Experiment 1 we show that there is a reliable effect of relatedness on a double-familiarity decision, even when the faces are only categorially related, e. g., Kirk Douglas and Clint Eastwood. Then it was shown that such an effect emerges only on a double decision task (Experiments 2 and 3). Experiment 4 showed that on a primed naming task, faces preceded by a categorially related prime were responded to more quickly than those preceded by an unrelated prime, and the effect was due to inhibition. Experiment 5 replicated this effect and also showed that when associatively related primes were used, a facilitatory, and not an inhibitory, effect is found. It is argued that the facilitation of associative priming arises at an earlier locus than the inhibition of categorial priming.

Hope and expectancies for future events in depression

The present study investigated prospective cognition with the Hope scale (Snyder et al., 1991) and the Unrealistic Optimism Scale (Weinstein, 1980) in clinically depressed (CD; n = 61), previously depressed (PD; n = 42), and never depressed controls (ND; n = 46). In line with previous research, significant negative correlations between hope and symptoms of depression were found. Previously depressed reported lower levels of hope than NDs, but were more hopeful than CDs. In addition, relationships between depressive symptoms, dysfunctional attitudes, and expectations for the future were examined. As hypothesized, the CDs estimated their probability of experiencing positive events in the future as lower and their probability of experiencing negative events as higher than the two other groups. The PDs differed not from the NDs in their probability estimates. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Naming very familiar people: When retrieving names is faster than retrieving semantic biographical information

One of the most reliable findings in the literature on person indentification is that semantic categorization of a face occurs more quickly than naming a face. Here we present two experiments in which participants are shown the faces of their colleagues, i.e., personally familiar people, encountered with high frequency. In each experiment, naming was faster than making a semantic classification, despite the fact that the semantic classifications were highly salient to the participants (Experiment 1: highest degree obtained; Experiment 2: nationality). The finding is consistent with models that allow or parallel access from faces to semantic information and to names, and demonstrates the need for the frequency of exposure to names to be taken into account in models of proper name processing e.g. Burke, Mackay, Worthley and Wade (1991).

Automatic and Effortful Processing of Self‐Statements in Depression

Clark and Beck (1999) and Williams et al. (1997) have come up with quite different conclusions regarding which cognitive processes are most affected by negative self‐schemata and negative knowledge structures. In order to increase the understanding of differences in effortful and automatic processing in depression, we compared never depressed (ND), previously depressed (PD) and clinically depressed (CD) individuals on free recall, recognition and fabrication of positive and negative self‐statements. The results showed that: (i) overall NDs and PDs recalled more positive self‐statements than CDs, whereas CDs correctly recognized more negative self‐statements than NDs and PDs; and (ii) CDs and PDs fabricated more negative than positive self‐statements, whereas no difference was obtained for NDs. The results seem to be in line with Clark and Becks suggestions. However, there are several aspects of the present findings that make the picture more complicated.

Retrieval-induced forgetting after trauma: a study with victims of sexual assault.

The Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (RIF) paradigm is used to study how the repeated retrieval practice of particular memories impairs the retrieval of related memory traces. A study is reported where this automatic form of forgetting was investigated in a group of sexual-assault victims and a control group. Using a recognition-cued RIF task, the present study examined RIF with neutral, positive, negative and trauma-specific stimuli. Response time data showed that irrespective of previous trauma exposure, a RIF effect was observed for neutral material, but not for emotional material. No differences in RIF between the trauma group and the control group were found. Inconsistencies with previous literature and the implications for emotional memory are discussed.