1,721,016 research outputs found
Superior memory: an example of the benefits of examining individual differences in cognitive psychology
Get PDFComments on an article by Robert Logie (see record 2018-64362-002). Author agrees with Logie that there is potentially much to be gained now from cognitive psychology research that investigates individual differences. Author would add the caveat, and Logie alludes to this too, that the traditional approach of comparing experimental conditions has been more productive than any other and has led to useful general theories (and descriptions of cognitive phenomena) in the areas of perception, attention, memory, and reasoning. Research with experimental-condition comparisons utilizing random assignment has revolutionized psychology and brought a well-rounded understanding of the mind that far surpassed contributions to psychology before the field used such methods. Nevertheless, because many reliable foundational theories (or general principles) have now already been established using this experimental method, it may now be a good time to incorporate more individual differences research, including investigating of how different people perform the same research task (as Logie suggests). Such research could either modify general theories or generate specific explanations of cognitive phenomena within a narrow focus (e.g., explanations of mechanisms within atypical samples). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved
The neuroscience of dissociative amnesia and repressed memory: Premature conclusions and unanswered questions
No full textA heated debate exists on whether traumatic memories can be dissociated or repressed. One way in which researchers have attempted to prove the existence of dissociative amnesia or repressed memory is to examine whether claims of amnesia for traumatic events are associated with specific neural markers. Methods: Here, we will argue that such neuroscientific examinations do not tell us whether traumatic memories can be unconsciously repressed or dissociated from consciousness, respectively. Results: We discuss neuroscientific studies on dissociative amnesia and repressed memory and show that there are no reliable biological markers for dissociative amnesia and that the alleged involved brain areas are heterogenous among studies. Furthermore, we will demonstrate that it is unclear whether these studies truly involved patients with dissociative amnesia and that alternative explanations of dissociative amnesia were often not ruled out (e.g. malingering, organic amnesia). Moreover, we will make the case that the discussed patients in the studies do not meet the DSM-5 criteria for dissociative amnesia. Conclusions: Taken together, neuroscientific research into dissociative amnesia does not present a convincing case for a biological basis of the purported memory loss
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM):memory distortion paradigms and individual differences
Get PDFThis dissertation addresses two basic questions: 1. Are people with highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) susceptible to memory distortions? 2. What is different about them that might offer clues that would help explain their ability? To answer the first question thoroughly, HSAM individuals and age match controls participated in a number of memory distortion tasks. In the DRM memory distortion word list paradigm we found that HSAM participants had comparably high rates of critical lure endorsement, indicating a vulnerability to false memories brought about by associations. They also participated in a classic misinformation experiment with photographic slides as the original event, and text narratives containing some pieces of misinformation. At the subsequent memory test HSAM individuals indicated more false memories than control participants, a finding that became non-significant when adjusting for individual differences in absorption. After a subsequent source test, HSAM and control participants had comparable numbers of false memories from misinformation. In semi-autobiographical memory distortion tasks, HSAM and control participants had fairly similar rates overall. For example, in a nonexistent news footage task using suggestion (also known as the "crashing memory" paradigm) 10% of HSAM individuals said they had seen the footage (a further 10% indicated maybe/unsure), whilst 18% of controls did (5% maybe; ns). A guided imagery task, with the same nonexistent footage as the target event, produced similarly increased rates of false report in HSAM (17% changed from "no" to "yes") and control (10% from "no" to "yes") participants. Memory for their emotions in the week after 9/11 was similarly inconsistent in HSAM and control participants. These results suggest that, relative to controls, HSAM individuals are as susceptible to both misinformation and reappraisals when the target events are semi-autobiographical.The second main research question asked what is different about HSAM individuals that might give us clues as to why they have their ability? To answer this we measured HSAM participants' and age/gender matched controls' on a number of behavioral measures to test three main hypotheses: imaginative absorption, emotional arousal, and sleep. HSAM participants were significantly higher than controls on two dispositions--absorption and fantasy proneness. These two dispositions were associated with a measure of HSAM ability within the superior memory participants. The emotional arousal hypothesis yielded only weak support. The sleep hypothesis was not supported in terms of quantity, but sleep quality may be a small factor worthy of further research. Other individual differences are also documented. Speculative pathways describing how absorption and fantasizing could lead to enhanced autobiographical memory are discussed
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