Sister Mary Emil Penet, IHM: Founder of the Sister Formation Conference

Mary Emil Penet, I.H.M., (1916-2001) used her talents and charisma to shape the first national organization of American women religious, the Sister Formation Conference (SFC; 1954-1964), facilitating the integrated intellectual, spiritual, psychological, and professional development of vowed women religious. In the decade preceding Vatican II, her leadership generated a renewal among religious communities focusing first on preparing young sister teachers, then sisters of all ages, whatever their ministries. Her educational contributions affected sisters’ development and ministries, their contribution to Vatican II aggiornamento, and later touched the lives of female college students, seminarians, and Catholic laity

Orientation and experience in the perception of form: A study with the arizona whale-kangaroo

When subjects are presented with the Arizona whale-kangaroo, an ambiguous figure, perception of the whale is more common than perception of the kangaroo. However, this difference is smaller in Australian than American subjects. Perception of the kangaroo is more orientation dependent than perception of the whale, which is perceived at all orientations of the stimulus. Together with the difference between subject populations, this effect reveals an influence of past experience on the perception of this new ambiguous figure. Perception of the whale versus the kangaroo differs in both reconstrual of parts and realignment of the object-centered reference frame. Observers report reference frame reconstruals before reference frame reversals, shedding light on the organization of object memory

Neuropsychologic function in toddlers exposed to cocaine in utero: A preliminary study

Patterns of neuropsychological performance on A-not-B, inhibition, motor, cognitive, language, and behavior tasks were examined in 34 toddlers--17 cocaine-exposed (CE) and 17 nonexposed (NE) controls. CE toddlers exhibited greater perseveration, less inhibition, poorer emotional regulation, and less task orientation relative to NE toddlers. Overall cognitive and language skills and motor impairment status were comparable among CE and NE toddlers. Differences in perseveration, emotional regulation, and task orientation between CE and NE toddlers remained significant after statistically controlling for overall cognitive skill. Prenatal cocaine exposure may impart selective vulnerability for deficits in executive function, inhibition, and emotional regulation in toddlers, perhaps related to the concurrent rapid frontal lobe maturation and the neurobiology of cocaine. Furthermore, these findings suggest that performance can be broken down into meaningful neuropsychological components in very young children

Executive functioning in preschool children: Performance on A-Not-B and other delayed response format tasks

The A-not-B (AB) task has been hypothesized to measure executive/frontal lobe function; however, the developmental and measurement characteristics of this task have not been investigated. The present study examined performance on AB and comparison tasks adapted from developmental and neuroscience literature in 117 1.9-5.5 yr old preschool children. Age significantly predicted performance on AB, Delayed Alternation, Spatial Reversal, Color Reversal, and Self-Control tasks. A 4-factor analytic model best fit task performance data. AB task indices loaded on 2 factors with measures from the Self-Control and Delayed Alternation tasks, respectively. AB indices did not load with those from the reversal tasks despite similarities in task administration and presumed cognitive demand (working memory). These results indicate that AB is sensitive to individual differences in age-related performance in preschool children and suggest that AB performance is related to both working memory and inhibition processes in this age range

Specific-and Partial-Source Memory: Effects of Aging

Normal aging can be associated with impairments in source memory (recollecting an event's context). This study examined the effects of aging on specific-source memory (e.g., remembering which of 4 people spoke a word) and partial-source memory (e.g., remembering the gender of the person who spoke the word). When young and older adults were matched in terms of old-new recognition, age-related deficits were observed on both specific-and partial-source recollection. When the groups were matched on partial-source performance, no disproportionate specific-source impairment was seen. The results suggest that aging does not differentially affect specific-versus partial-source memory. There has been considerable interest amongst memory researchers in characterizing the nature of the memory impairments associated with normal aging. Whereas evidence suggests that various aspects of memory decline with increasing age, it has become clear that some features of memory can be affected more than others. One area that has received particular attention is memory for contextual details, such as the source of remembered information (e.

The effect of chair type on users' viewing experience for 360-degree video

The consumption of 360-degree videos with head-mounted displays (HMDs) is increasing rapidly. A large number of HMD users watch 360-degree videos at home, often on non-swivel seats; however videos are frequently designed to require the user to turn around. This work explores how the difference in users’ chair type might influence their viewing experience. A between-subject experiment was conducted with 41 participants. Three chair conditions were used: fixed, half-swivel and full-swivel. A variety of measures were explored using eye-tracking, questionnaires, tasks and semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that the fixed and half-swivel chairs discouraged exploration for certain videos compared with the full-swivel chair. Additionally, participants in the fixed chair had worse spatial awareness and greater concern about missing something for certain video than those in the full-swivel chair. No significant differences were found in terms of incidental memory, general engagement and simulator sickness among the three chair conditions. Furthermore, thematic analysis of post-experiment interviews revealed four themes regarding the restrictive chairs: physical discomfort, difficulty following moving objects, reduced orientation and guided attention. Based on the findings, practical implications, limitations and future work are discussed

Long-term air pollution and traffic noise exposures and mild cognitive impairment in older adults : a cross-sectional analysis of the Heinz Nixdorf recall study

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) describes the intermediate state between normal cognitive aging and dementia. Adverse effects of air pollution (AP) on cognitive functions have been proposed, but investigations of simultaneous exposure to noise are scarce. Objectives: We analyzed the cross-sectional associations of long-term exposure to AP and traffic noise with overall MCI and amnestic (aMCI) and nonamnestic (naMCI) MCI. Methods: At the second examination of the population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study, cognitive assessment was completed in 4,086 participants who were 50–80 years old. Of these, 592 participants were diagnosed as having MCI (aMCI, n = 309; naMCI, n = 283) according to previously published criteria using five neuropsychological subtests. We assessed long-term residential concentrations for size-fractioned particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides with land use regression, and for traffic noise [weighted 24-hr (LDEN) and night-time (LNIGHT) means]. Logistic regression models adjusted for individual risk factors were calculated to estimate the association of environmental exposures with MCI in single- and two-exposure models. Results: Most air pollutants and traffic noise were associated with overall MCI and aMCI. For example, an interquartile range increase in PM2.5 and a 10 A-weighted decibel [dB(A)] increase in LDEN were associated with overall MCI as follows [odds ratio (95% confidence interval)]: 1.16 (1.05, 1.27) and 1.40 (1.03, 1.91), respectively, and with aMCI as follows: 1.22 (1.08, 1.38) and 1.53 (1.05, 2.24), respectively. In two-exposure models, AP and noise associations were attenuated [e.g., for aMCI, PM2.5 1.13 (0.98, 1.30) and LDEN 1.46 (1.11, 1.92)]. Conclusions: Long-term exposures to air pollution and traffic noise were positively associated with MCI, mainly with the amnestic subtype

Influence of Cognitive Functioning on Age-Related Performance Declines in Visuospatial Sequence Learning

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate how age-related performance differences in a visuospatial sequence learning task relate to age-related declines in cognitive functioning. Method: Cognitive functioning of 18 younger and 18 older participants was assessed using a standardized test battery. Participants then undertook a perceptual visuospatial sequence learning task. Various relationships between sequence learning and participants’ cognitive functioning were examined through correlation and factor analysis. Results: Older participants exhibited significantly lower performance than their younger counterparts in the sequence learning task as well as in multiple cognitive functions. Factor analysis revealed two independent subsets of cognitive functions associated with performance in the sequence learning task, related to either the processing and storage of sequence information (first subset) or problem solving (second subset). Age-related declines were only found for the first subset of cognitive functions, which also explained a significant degree of the performance differences in the sequence learning task between age-groups. Discussion: The results suggest that age-related performance differences in perceptual visuospatial sequence learning can be explained by declines in the ability to process and store sequence information in older adults, while a set of cognitive functions related to problem solving mediates performance differences independent of age