Imagery Rescripting : The Impact of Conceptual and Perceptual Changes on Aversive Autobiographical Memories

BACKGROUND: Imagery rescripting (ImRs) is a process by which aversive autobiographical memories are rendered less unpleasant or emotional. ImRs is thought only to be effective if a change in the meaning-relevant (semantic) content of the mental image is produced, according to a cognitive hypothesis of ImRs. We propose an additional hypothesis: that ImRs can also be effective by the manipulation of perceptual features of the memory, without explicitly targeting meaning-relevant content. METHODS: In two experiments using a within-subjects design (both N = 48, community samples), both Conceptual-ImRs-focusing on changing meaning-relevant content-and Perceptual-ImRs-focusing on changing perceptual features-were compared to Recall-only of aversive autobiographical image-based memories. An active control condition, Recall + Attentional Breathing (Recall+AB) was added in the first experiment. In the second experiment, a Positive-ImRs condition was added-changing the aversive image into a positive image that was unrelated to the aversive autobiographical memory. Effects on the aversive memory's unpleasantness, vividness and emotionality were investigated. RESULTS: In Experiment 1, compared to Recall-only, both Conceptual-ImRs and Perceptual-ImRs led to greater decreases in unpleasantness, and Perceptual-ImRs led to greater decreases in emotionality of memories. In Experiment 2, the effects on unpleasantness were not replicated, and both Conceptual-ImRs and Perceptual-ImRs led to greater decreases in emotionality, compared to Recall-only, as did Positive-ImRs. There were no effects on vividness, and the ImRs conditions did not differ significantly from Recall+AB. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that, in addition to traditional forms of ImRs, targeting the meaning-relevant content of an image during ImRs, relatively simple techniques focusing on perceptual aspects or positive imagery might also yield benefits. Findings require replication and extension to clinical samples

Modeling grain boundaries in solids using a combined nonlinear and geometrical method

The complex arrangements of atoms near grain boundaries are difficult to understand theoretically. We propose a phenomenological (Ginzburg-Landau-like) description of crystalline phases based on symmetries and fairly general stability arguments. This method allows a very detailed description of defects at the lattice scale with virtually no tunning parameters, unlike usual phase-field methods. The model equations are directly inspired from those used in a very different physical context, namely, the formation of periodic patterns in systems out-of-equilibrium ({\it e.g.} Rayleigh-B\'enard convection, Turing patterns). We apply the formalism to the study of symmetric tilt boundaries. Our results are in quantitative agreement with those predicted by a recent crystallographic theory of grain boundaries based on a geometrical quasicrystal-like construction. These results suggest that frustration and competition effects near defects in crystalline arrangements have some universal features, of interest in solids or other periodic phases.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

On the Blameworthiness of Forgetting

It is a mistake to think that we cannot be morally responsible for forgetting because, as a matter of principle, forgetting is outside of our control. Sometimes we do have control over our forgetting. When forgetting is under our control there is no question that it is the proper object of praise and blame. But we can also be morally responsible for forgetting something when it is beyond our control that we forget that thing. The literature contains three accounts of the blameworthiness of forgetting over which the agent has no control—the tracing account, the liberalized awareness condition, and attributionism. Even though these are competing accounts of the blameworthiness of harmful forgetting they are compatible with one another. In particular, it is possible to come up with a position that endorses the tracing account for certain kinds of harmful forgetting and attributionism for other kinds of harmful forgetting

Teaching talk, tell-backs, and a declarative to procedural knowledge interface

Can explicit, declarative knowledge be converted to implicit, procedural knowledge? This Teaching Tip advocates the use of Teaching Talk, defined as succinct and therefore retrievable language of instruction, restated by learners as Tell-Backs for the purpose of internalizing pronunciation concepts to establish declarative knowledge. The intervening mechanism is prompted production, a form of error feedback that is achieved when the language of intervention matches the language of instruction that was used to introduce a target feature, and is in turn consistent with the tell-backs that learners use to internalize those features. Prompted production promotes self-monitoring and self-correction, and serves as an interface to bridge the declarative to procedural knowledge gap.Published versio

Instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school

This article offers an examination of instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school. We distinguish the Expert, Spiral and Reading approach as groups of instructional strategies that mainly differ in their general design plan to control students' processing load. In order, they emphasize topdown program design, incremental learning, and program modification and amplification. In contrast, tactics are specific design plans that prescribe methods to reach desired learning outcomes under given circumstances. Based on ACT* (Anderson, 1983) and relevant research, we distinguish between declarative and procedural instruction and present six tactics which can be used both to design courses and to evaluate strategies. Three tactics for declarative instruction involve concrete computer models, programming plans and design diagrams; three tactics for procedural instruction involve worked-out examples, practice of basic cognitive skills and task variation. In our evaluation of groups of instructional strategies, the Reading approach has been found to be superior to the Expert and Spiral approaches