1,720,998 research outputs found
Shaping Preferences Through Memory: Aged-Related Mechanisms in Dissonance Reduction
Full text linkPreference change is a robust phenomenon observed in internally guided decision-making situations.
Choice-induced preference change, in particular, occurs when individuals revise their preferences to align
with their choices, reducing cognitive dissonance—a psychological state of discomfort arising from
conflicting cognitions. Episodic memory has been suggested to play a role in this process, by helping recall
choice-relevant information that reinforces post-choice preferences. However, age-related declines in
memory may weaken this mechanism, leading to diminished preference adjustments in older adults.
This study explored the relationship between episodic memory and choice-induced preference change in
young and older adults. A sample of 33 healthy subjects aged 20-75 years underwent an adapted free-choice
paradigm that included a recognition memory test for the choice made. Our results showed that younger
participants exhibited significant preference changes in both overall and remembered choices, whereas
older participants showed no such adjustments.
These findings suggest that episodic memory supports choice-induced preference change in younger adults.
In contrast, other mechanisms susceptible to aging may underlie dissonance reduction in older adults such
as executive functions and/or emotional-affective factors
Boosting Phonological Fluency Following Leftward Prismatic Adaptation: A New Neuromodulation Protocol for Neurological Deficits?
Full text linkPrism adaptation (PA) has been recently shown to modulate a brain frontal-parieto-temporal network,
with an increase of excitation of this network in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the side of prismatic
deviation. This effect raises the hypothesis that left prismatic adaptation, modulating the excitability of
frontal areas of the left hemisphere could modulate subjects’ performance on linguistic tasks that map
on those areas.
To test this hypothesis, sixty-one healthy subjects participated in experiments in which leftward, rightward
or no-PA were applied before the execution of a phonological fluency task, i.e. a task with the strict left
hemispheric lateralization and mapping onto frontal areas.
Leftward-PA significantly increased the number of words produced compared with the pre-PA (p = .0017),
R-PA (p=.00013) and no-PA (p=.0005) sessions. In contrast, rightward-PA did not significantly modulate
phonological fluency compared with the pre-PA (p = .92) and no-PA (p = .99) sessions.
The effect of leftward PA on phonological fluency correlated with the magnitude of spatial aftereffect, i.e.
the spatial bias towards the side of space opposite to prismatic deviation following prisms removal (r =
.51; p = .04).
The present findings document for the first time modulation of a language ability following prismatic
adaptation. The results could have a huge clinical impact on neurological populations, opening new
strategies of intervention for language and executive dysfunctions
Early detection of memory impairments in older adults: standardization of a short version of the verbal and nonverbal Recognition Memory Test
Full text linkIn several neurological conditions, in elderly and cognitively impaired subjects, memory functioning must be evaluated to early detect the cognitive deterioration processes. In particular, recognition memory assessment is an essential step in the clinical and neuropsychological evaluation of early memory impairments. The Recognition Memory Test (RMT) developed by Smirni et al. (G Ital Psicol XXXVII(1):325–343, 2010) is an effective instrument to assess verbal and nonverbal recognition memory in the Italian population. The current study provides a new, brief, and reliable RMT format to evaluate recognition memory on elderly subjects and it reports normative data in an older adult Italian population sample (including 100 participants well distributed across sex, education, and age categories). The shortened version of RMT keeps the administration procedures and materials of the original Italian RMT constant, i.e., words, faces, and buildings. Multiple regression analysis revealed significant effects of age and educational level on performance but no effect of sex. Inferential cutoffs have been determined and equivalent scores computed. The availability of equivalent scores for the Recognition Memory Test will prove useful in the clinical evaluation of patients’ memory profiles
Benton visual form discrimination test in healthy children: normative data and qualitative analysis
No full textThe attention evaluation may be considered a crucial phase in neuropsychological assessment. It must take into account the systemic nature of the attentional functions and must use different reliable tests in relation to the neurological and attentional
problems to be addressed. The aim of the study was to offer the clinician an effective tool for attention assessment and provide the normative data and performance analysis on the Benton Visual Form Discrimination Test on an Italian sample (number 323) of healthy school children, from ages 5 to 11. Performance on Visual FormDiscrimination Test (VFDT) significantly increased with
growing age. Performances were significantly different when the test was divided into four sets. All groups, especially the
younger ones, showed some difficulty in maintenance and sustained attention. The correct answers were significantly more
numerous when they were placed at the top quadrants. This effect was more marked in the younger groups. Sex was never a
significantly influencing performance. Our data seem to indicate that the higher attentional frontoparietal network becomes more
functionally organized around 9–10 years. VFDTappears as a discriminative task. In clinical practice, our normative data can be
used both on complex visual attention skill evaluation in children and on the ability to maintain visual attention in tim
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Full text linkWe 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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