Subjective experience of episodic memory and metacognition: a neurodevelopmental approach.

Episodic retrieval is characterized by the subjective experience of remembering. This experience enables the co-ordination of memory retrieval processes and can be acted on metacognitively. In successful retrieval, the feeling of remembering may be accompanied by recall of important contextual information. On the other hand, when people fail (or struggle) to retrieve information, other feelings, thoughts, and information may come to mind. In this review, we examine the subjective and metacognitive basis of episodic memory function from a neurodevelopmental perspective, looking at recollection paradigms (such as source memory, and the report of recollective experience) and metacognitive paradigms such as the feeling of knowing). We start by considering healthy development, and provide a brief review of the development of episodic memory, with a particular focus on the ability of children to report first-person experiences of remembering. We then consider neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) such as amnesia acquired in infancy, autism, Williams syndrome, Down syndrome, or 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. This review shows that different episodic processes develop at different rates, and that across a broad set of different NDDs there are various types of episodic memory impairment, each with possibly a different character. This literature is in agreement with the idea that episodic memory is a multifaceted process

What Role Can an International Financial Centre's Law Play in the Development of a Sunrise Industry? The Case of Hong Kong and Solar Powered Investments

How can international financial centres like Hong Kong increase assets under management – and thus their size and ranking? Most policymakers and their advisors wrongly answer this question by focusing on financial institutions, and the law that governs them. Instead, policymakers need to start by looking at actual markets. What new tastes and technologies need funding? How can such funding fit into already existing geographies of production, distribution and finance? In this paper, we show how a focus on funding sunrise industries can help increase assets under management for the financial institutions operating in an international financial centre like Hong Kong. We show – using the specific example the photovoltaic (solar power) sector – how changes in financial law need to be contingent on market needs. We specifically show how legal changes which promote the securitisation of solar assets (and the sale of these securities) can help increase Hong Kong’s financial institutions’ assets under management. By using this specific case, we hope to provide insight into the broader question of how technological change, geography, and financial law interact.preprin

Single Scale for Odor Intensity in Rat Olfaction

SummaryHumans and laboratory animals are thought to discriminate sensory objects using elemental perceptual features computed by neural circuits in the brain [1, 2]. However, it is often difficult to identify the perceptual features that animals use to make specific comparisons. In olfaction, changes in the concentration of a given odor lead to discriminable changes in both its perceived quality [3, 4] and intensity [5, 6]. Humans use perceived intensity to compare quantities of different odors. Here we establish that laboratory rats also use perceived intensity to compare concentrations of different odors and reveal the perceptual organization of this elemental feature. We first trained rats to classify concentrations of single odors as high or low. When subsequently classifying concentrations of two odors presented on different trials of the same session, rats made errors consistent with using a single intensity criterion for both odors. This allowed us to investigate the relative perceived intensity of different odor pairs. Odor intensity was not only a function of concentration, but varied also with molecular weight and exposure time. These findings demonstrate the role of perceived intensity as an elemental perceptual feature of odors in rat olfaction

Nonlinear femtosecond pulse propagation in an all-solid photonic bandgap fiber

Nonlinear femtosecond pulse propagation in an all-solid photonic bandgap fiber is experimentally and numerically investigated. Guiding light in such fiber occurs via two mechanisms: photonic bandgap in the central silica core or total internal reflection in the germanium doped inclusions. By properly combining spectral filtering, dispersion tailoring and pump coupling into the fiber modes, we experimentally demonstrate efficient supercontinuum generation with controllable spectral bandwidth

Dispersive diffusion controlled distance dependent recombination in amorphous semiconductors

The photoluminescence in amorphous semiconductors decays according to power law $t^{-delta}$ at long times. The photoluminescence is controlled by dispersive transport of electrons. The latter is usually characterized by the power $alpha$ of the transient current observed in the time-of-flight experiments. Geminate recombination occurs by radiative tunneling which has a distance dependence. In this paper, we formulate ways to calculate reaction rates and survival probabilities in the case carriers execute dispersive diffusion with long-range reactivity. The method is applied to obtain tunneling recombination rates under dispersive diffusion. The theoretical condition of observing the relation $delta = alpha/2 + 1$ is obtained and theoretical recombination rates are compared to the kinetics of observed photoluminescence decay in the whole time range measured.Comment: To appear in Journal of Chemical Physic

Cross-Cultural Differences in Attitudes Toward Altruism, Forgiveness and Gratitude

Cross-Cultural Differences in Attitudes Toward Altruism, Forgiveness and Gratitude As a relatively new field of study, positive psychology has rarely been assessed in a cross-cultural context. The present study aimed to compare Chinese, Taiwanese and American cultures in regards to five central aspects of positive psychology: altruism, forgiveness, gratitude, life satisfaction (SWL), and psychological well-being (PWB). Additionally, culture-based perceptions and stereotypes concerning these positive psychological principles were also addressed. A 67-item survey was administered undergraduate students from universities in both China (n=139) and Taiwan (n=112), and will be administered to undergraduate students at SUNY Fredonia. The survey consisted of items from the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, the GQ-6 questionnaire, the Helping Attitudes Scale, Ryff’s PWB, and the SWLS. Half of the participants in each sample answered as themselves and, to address potential stereotypes, the other half answered as they would if they were hypothetically a member of the other culture (e.g. a Chinese participant would answer as if they were an American). Chinese participants who answered for themselves (CS) had significantly higher scores on forgiveness than Chinese participants who answered as if they were Americans (CA). However, CA participants had significantly higher scores than CS participants on the PWB subscales of personal growth and self-acceptance. Taiwanese participants answering as themselves (TS) scored significantly higher in gratitude than Taiwanese students who answered as Americans (TA). Additionally, significant correlations were found in each of the samples between several of the major positive psychological facets. Because this study is still in progress, data from the American sample has yet to be collected. However, preliminary results indicate important differences between the eastern cultures’ perceptions of themselves and their perceptions of Americans. We believe that additional findings will further our understanding of the influence of cultures on attitudes and perceptions. Keywords: Altruism, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Life Satisfaction, Psychological Well-being, Cultur