A dysphoric's TALE: The relationship between the self-reported functions of autobiographical memory and symptoms of depression

Autobiographical memory (AM) is believed to serve self, social and directive functions; however, little is known regarding how this triad of functions operates in depression. Using the Thinking About Life Experiences questionnaire [Bluck, S., & Alea, N. (2011). Crafting the TALE: Construction of a measure to assess the functions of autobiographical remembering. Memory, 19, 470–486.; Bluck, S., Alea, N., Habermas, T., & Rubin, D. C. (2005). A TALE of three functions: The self–reported uses of autobiographical memory. Social Cognition, 23, 91–117.], two studies explored the relationship between depressive symptomology and the self-reported frequency and usefulness of AMs for self, social and directive purposes. Study 1 revealed that thinking more frequently but talking less frequently about past life events was significantly associated with higher depression scores. Recalling past events more frequently to maintain self-continuity was also significantly associated with higher depressive symptomology. However, results from Study 2 indicated that higher levels of depression were also significantly associated with less-frequent useful recollections of past life events for self-continuity purposes. Taken together, the findings suggest atypical utilisations of AM to serve self-continuity functions in depression and can be interpreted within the wider context of ruminative thought processes

Effects of expectancy and agency on the feedback-related negativity

There is an evolving body of research using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to study electrophysiological activity in the brain associated with feedback processing in gambling tasks. In particular, investigators have examined the roles of outcome valence (Gehring & Willoughby, 2002) and outcome probability (Bellebaum & Daum, 2008) on an ERP component known as the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN), whose amplitude has been shown to distinguish positive and negative outcomes. The current study examined the possibility that FRN amplitude might also be modulated by a person\u27s subjective expectation of a particular outcome (expectancy), as well as whether or not an outcome was the result of their own actions or those of another (agency). Consistent with past research, the results of Experiment 1 of this study show an increase in the amplitude of the FRN when participants are given feedback indicating a loss during a decision-making task. This increased negativity in response to negative feedback was greater for trials in which participants were led to expect a win, though only for trials in which the value of the outcome was relatively smaller. In Experiment 2, the FRN was also found to be greater in amplitude on trials where losses resulted from choices made by participants as opposed to the choices of a computerized opponent. The findings of the current study suggest a somewhat nuanced account of the FRN in which amplitude is sensitive to individual expectations about winning and losing as well as the individual\u27s perceived role in wins and losses

Properties of the Charmed P-wave Mesons

Two broad charmed mesons, the D_0^* and D_1', have recently been observed. We examine the quark model predictions for the D_0^* and D_1' properties and discuss experimental measurements that can shed light on them. We find that these states are well described as the broad, j=1/2 non-strange charmed P-wave mesons. Understanding the D_0^* and D_1' states can provide important insights into the D_{sJ}^*(2317), D_{sJ}(2460) states whose unexpected properties have led to renewed interest in hadron spectroscopy.Comment: 7 pages. Some additional discussion and reference

Post-Transcriptional Regulation Of The Eulkaryotic Transcriptome By The Covalent Rna Modicication N6-Methyladenosine

Post-Transcriptional regulation of the eukaryotic transcriptome by the covalent RNA modification N6-methyladenosine Stephen James Anderson Brian Gregory Once a messenger RNA molecule is transcribed, a myriad of RNA fate decisions must be made. How these fate decisions are made is often unclear, and elucidating factors determining these fate outcomes is an essential task in order to fully understand gene regulation. One poorly- understood but undoubtedly important factor in post-transcriptional gene regulation is the covalent modification of ribonucleotides. Much like DNA can have chemical groups added to a nucleotide within its primary sequence, RNA can be modified in a similar manner. These covalent modifications of RNA are a ubiquitous feature found within the RNA of all organisms. Dozens of these modifications have been described to date, yet the function or importance of most of these modifications remains unclear. One crucial RNA modification is N6-methyladenosine (m6A), as it is the most abundant known non-cap modification within the eukaryotic transcriptome. In this work, we characterize the role of m6A in the Arabidopsis transcriptome using various sequencing methods that demonstrate that m6A is an abundant mark that is largely maintained across differing Arabidopsis tissues and developmental stages. This prevalent mark promotes transcript stability in mNRAs involved in many important and diverse biological processes, such as salt stress. The absence of this mark results in endonucleolytic cleavage and degradation of the transcript in a highly specific and local manner. We further demonstrate that this modification modulates secondary structure throughout the transcriptome, and that m6A is associated with changes in RNA-binding protein association. Lastly, we turn our view to how an association between m6A and the m6A-specific binding protein YTHDC1 influences the development and transcriptome-wide splicing and polyadenylation pattern in the mouse germline. We demonstrate that in the absence of YTHDC1, widespread developmental, splicing, and polyadenylation defects occur, resulting in non-functional gametes. In total, this work greatly expands our knowledge and understanding of the biological importance and mechanisms of m6A-mediated post-transcriptional regulation

Survival processing versus self-reference : a memory advantage following descriptive self-referential encoding

Previous research has shown that rating words for their relevance to a survival scenario leads to better retention of the words than rating them for self-reference. Past studies have, however, relied exclusively on an autobiographical self-reference task in which participants rate how easily a common noun brings to mind a personal experience. We report five experiments comparing survival processing to a descriptive self-reference task in which participants rated how well trait words described them. Rating trait adjectives for survival value led to higher levels of recall and recognition than rating them for their relevance to a moving home scenario. Rating the adjectives for self-reference, however, led to higher levels of recall (Experiments 1 and 3) and recollection (Experiment 2) than survival rating. Experiment 4 replaced trait adjectives with trait nouns and found that self-reference led to greater recognition accuracy than survival processing. Experiment 5 used trait nouns followed by tests of free recall and found a memory advantage following self-reference that was not influenced by the imageability of the stimuli. The findings are discussed in terms of theories of the survival processing and self-reference effects and the relationship between them

Adaptive false memory: Imagining future scenarios increases false memories in the DRM paradigm

Previous research has shown that rating words for their relevance to a future scenario enhances memory for those words. The current study investigated the effect of future thinking on false memory using the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) procedure. In Experiment 1, participants rated words from 6 DRM lists for relevance to a past or future event (with or without planning) or in terms of pleasantness. In a surprise recall test, levels of correct recall did not vary between the rating tasks, but the future rating conditions led to significantly higher levels of false recall than the past and pleasantness conditions did. Experiment 2 found that future rating led to higher levels of false recognition than did past and pleasantness ratings but did not affect correct recognition. The effect in false recognition was, however, eliminated when DRM items were presented in random order. Participants in Experiment 3 were presented with both DRM lists and lists of unrelated words. Future rating increased levels of false recognition for DRM lures but did not affect correct recognition for DRM or unrelated lists. The findings are discussed in terms of the view that false memories can be associated with adaptive memory functions

Preferences for Residential Development Attributes and Support for the Policy Process: Implications for Management and Conservation of Rural Landscapes

The rural public may not only be concerned with the consequences of land management; residents may also have systematic preferences for policy instruments applied to management goals. Preferences for outcomes do not necessarily imply matching support for the underlying policy process. This study assesses relationships among support for elements of the policy process and preferences for management outcomes. Preferences are examined within the context of alternative proposals to manage growth and conserve landscape attributes in southern New England. Results are based on (a) stated preferences estimated from a multi-attribute contingent choice survey of rural residents, and (b) Likert-scale assessment of strength of support for land use policy tools. Findings indicate general but not universal correlation among policy support indicators and preferences for associated land use outcomes, but also confirm the suspicion that policy support and land use preference may not always coincide.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Word Mode: a crowding-free reading protocol for individuals with macular disease

Central retinal loss through macular disease markedly reduces the ability to read largely because identification of a word using peripheral vision is negatively influenced by nearby text, a phenomenon termed visual crowding. Here, we present a novel peripheral reading protocol, termed Word Mode, that eliminates crowding by presenting each word in isolation but in a position that mimics its natural position in the line of text being read, with each new word elicited using a self-paced button press. We used a gaze-contingent paradigm to simulate a central scotoma in four normally-sighted observers, and measured oral reading speed for text positioned 7.5° in the inferior field. Compared with reading whole sentences, our crowding-free protocol increased peripheral reading speeds by up to a factor of seven, resulted in significantly fewer reading errors and fixations per sentence, and reduced both the critical print size and the text size required for spot reading by 0.2–0.3 logMAR. We conclude that the level of reading efficiency afforded by the crowding-free reading protocol Word Mode may return reading as a viable activity to many individuals with macular disease

Diffusion of Computer Applications Among Physicians: A Quasi-Experimental Study

An experimental program involving the use of a hospital information system was implemented and evaluated on four services at Methodist Hospital of Indiana, a 1120-bed, private teaching hospital. Ten other hospital services were assigned to a control group. The program utilized educationally influential physicians to disseminate information concerning the advantages of using predesigned computer-stored personal order sets for the entry of medical orders into a hospital information system. Data from the hospital information system\u27s tapes were collected at three times in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the program resulted in a significant increase in personal order set use by physicians, physician assistants, and unit secretaries on the experimental services. The results of the study suggest that the identification and use of educationally influential physicians is an effective means of introducing medical innovations into clinical settings

Spiral mechanisms are required to account for summation of complex motion components

AbstractStimuli from one family of complex motions are defined by their spiral pitch, where cardinal axes represent signed expansion and rotation. Intermediate spirals are represented by intermediate pitches. It is well established that vision contains mechanisms that sum over space and direction to detect these stimuli (Morrone et al., Nature 376 (1995) 507) and one possibility is that four cardinal mechanisms encode the entire family. We extended earlier work (Meese & Harris, Vision Research 41 (2001) 1901) using subthreshold summation of random dot kinematograms and a two-interval forced choice technique to investigate this possibility. In our main experiments, the spiral pitch of one component was fixed and that of another was varied in steps of 15° relative to the first. Regardless of whether the fixed component was aligned with cardinal axes or an intermediate spiral, summation to-coherence-threshold between the two components declined as a function of their difference in spiral pitch. Similar experiments showed that none of the following were critical design features or stimulus parameters for our results: superposition of signal dots, limited life-time dots, the presence of speed gradients, stimulus size or the number of dots. A simplex algorithm was used to fit models containing mechanisms spaced at a pitch of either 90° (cardinal model) or 45° (cardinal+model) and combined using a fourth-root summation rule. For both models, direction half-bandwidth was equated for all mechanisms and was the only free parameter. Only the cardinal+model could account for the full set of results. We conclude that the detection of complex motion in human vision requires both cardinal and spiral mechanisms with a half-bandwidth of approximately 46°