Forgetting of emotional information is hard: an fMRI study of directed forgetting

Strong evidence suggests that memory for emotional information is much better than for neutral one. Thus, one may expect that forgetting of emotional information is difficult and requires considerable effort. The aim of this item-method directed forgetting functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to investigate this hypothesis both at behavioral and neural levels. Directed forgetting effects were observed for both neutral and emotionally negative International Affective Picture System images. Moreover, recognition rate of negative to-be-forgotten images was higher than in case of neutral ones. In the study phase, intention to forget and successful forgetting of emotionally negative images were associated with widespread activations extending from the anterior to posterior regions mainly in the right hemisphere, whereas in the case of neutral images, they were associated with just one cluster of activation in the right lingual gyrus. Therefore, forgetting of emotional information seems to be a demanding process that strongly activates a distributed neural network in the right hemisphere. In the test phase, in turn, successfully forgotten images--either neutral or emotionally negative--were associated with virtually no activation, even at the lowered P value threshold. These results suggest that intentional inhibition during encoding may be an efficient strategy to cope with emotionally negative memories

Do I Have My Attention? Speed of Processing Advantages for the Self-Face Are Not Driven by Automatic Attention Capture

We respond more quickly to our own face than to other faces, but there is debate over whether this is connected to attention-grabbing properties of the self-face. In two experiments, we investigate whether the self-face selectively captures attention, and the attentional conditions under which this might occur. In both experiments, we examined whether different types of face (self, friend, stranger) provide differential levels of distraction when processing self, friend and stranger names. In Experiment 1, an image of a distractor face appeared centrally – inside the focus of attention – behind a target name, with the faces either upright or inverted. In Experiment 2, distractor faces appeared peripherally – outside the focus of attention – in the left or right visual field, or bilaterally. In both experiments, self-name recognition was faster than other name recognition, suggesting a self-referential processing advantage. The presence of the self-face did not cause more distraction in the naming task compared to other types of face, either when presented inside (Experiment 1) or outside (Experiment 2) the focus of attention. Distractor faces had different effects across the two experiments: when presented inside the focus of attention (Experiment 1), self and friend images facilitated self and friend naming, respectively. This was not true for stranger stimuli, suggesting that faces must be robustly represented to facilitate name recognition. When presented outside the focus of attention (Experiment 2), no facilitation occurred. Instead, we report an interesting distraction effect caused by friend faces when processing strangers’ names. We interpret this as a “social importance” effect, whereby we may be tuned to pick out and pay attention to familiar friend faces in a crowd. We conclude that any speed of processing advantages observed in the self-face processing literature are not driven by automatic attention capture

I Undervalue You but I Need You: The Dissociation of Attitude and Memory Toward In-Group Members

In the present study, the in-group bias or in-group derogation among mainland Chinese was investigated through a rating task and a recognition test. In two experiments,participants from two universities with similar ranks rated novel faces or names and then had a recognition test. Half of the faces or names were labeled as participants' own university and the other half were labeled as their counterpart. Results showed that, for either faces or names, rating scores for out-group members were consistently higher than those for in-group members, whereas the recognition accuracy showed just the opposite. These results indicated that the attitude and memory for group-relevant information might be dissociated among Mainland Chinese

Is That Me or My Twin? Lack of Self-Face Recognition Advantage in Identical Twins

Despite the increasing interest in twin studies and the stunning amount of research on face recognition, the ability of adult identical twins to discriminate their own faces from those of their co-twins has been scarcely investigated. One’s own face is the most distinctive feature of the bodily self, and people typically show a clear advantage in recognizing their own face even more than other very familiar identities. Given the very high level of resemblance of their faces, monozygotic twins represent a unique model for exploring self-face processing. Herein we examined the ability of monozygotic twins to distinguish their own face from the face of their co-twin and of a highly familiar individual. Results show that twins equally recognize their own face and their twin’s face. This lack of self-face advantage was negatively predicted by how much they felt physically similar to their co-twin and by their anxious or avoidant attachment style. We speculate that in monozygotic twins, the visual representation of the self-face overlaps with that of the co-twin. Thus, to distinguish the self from the co-twin, monozygotic twins have to rely much more than control participants on the multisensory integration processes upon which the sense of bodily self is based. Moreover, in keeping with the notion that attachment style influences perception of self and significant others, we propose that the observed self/co-twin confusion may depend upon insecure attachment

Comparative research of wear resistance by friction of nitriding and carburized constructional steels

W pracy przedstawiono wyniki badań właściwości tribologicznych azotowanych i nawęglanych stali konstrukcyjnych 18HGT i 20MnCr5. Zauważono wprost proporcjonalną zależność ich odporności na zużycie od wartości nacisków powierzchniowych. Jednakże właściwości tarciowo-zużyciowe warstw nawęglanych i azotowanych nie wykazały znaczących różnic.This work presents the research results of tribological properties of constructional steels of grades 18HGT and 20MnCr5 after nitriding or carburizing. A directly proportional dependence of their wear resistance on the value of their surface pressures was stated. However, wear–friction properties of carburized and nitrided layers did not show any significant differences

Warstwy dyfuzyjne wytworzone na stali i ich właściwości tribologiczne

The article presents the results of investigations of wear resistance by friction, employing the “3 cylinder-cone” method, of selected structural and tool steels, subjected to given thermo-chemical treatment, i.e. boriding, carburizing, nitriding and chromizing. It was observed that a proportionality exists between their wear resistance and the value of surface unit loading. Moreover, the friction-wear properties of these layers exhibited certain differences, dependent on their microstructure and chemistry.W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań odporności na zużycie przez tarcie metodą: „3 wałeczki–stożek” wybranych stali konstrukcyjnych i narzędziowych poddanych określonej obróbce cieplno-chemicznej, tj. borowaniu, nawęglaniu, azotowaniu i chromowaniu. Zauważono wprost proporcjonalną zależność ich odporności na zużycie od wartości nacisków powierzchniowych. Ponadto właściwości tarciowo-zużyciowe tych warstw wykazały pewne różnice zależne od ich struktury i budowy

Charakterystyki odporności na zużycie przez tarcie obrobionych cieplno - chemicznie stali konstrukcyjnych

The article presents results of investigations of wear resistance by friction, employing the “3 cylinder – cone” method, of selected structural steels subjected to given thermo-chemical treatment, i.e. nitriding, carburizing, and precipitation hardening after nitriding. The investigated steels were C45, 21NiCrMo2, 18HGT, and 41Cr4. These materials, after thermo-chemical treatment undergo metallurgical characteristics of diffusion layers formed on steel. It was observed that proportionality exists between their wear resistance and the value of surface unit loading. Moreover, the friction – wear properties of these layers exhibited certain differences, depending on their microstructure and chemistry.Artykuł ten przedstawia wyniki badań odporności na zużycie, wykorzystując metodę „3 wałeczki – stożek”, dotyczące wybranych stali konstrukcyjnych poddanych określonej obróbce cieplno-chemicznej, tj. azotowaniu, nawęglaniu i utwardzaniu wydzieleniowemu po azotowaniu. Badanymi stalami były: C45, 21NiCrMo2, 18HGT i 41Cr4. Stale te po obróbce cieplno-chemicznej podlegają ocenie metaloznawczej warstw dyfuzyjnych wytwarzanych na stali. Zauważa się ich proporcjonalną zależność pomiędzy odpornością na zużycie a wartością nacisku jednostkowego powierzchni. Jednakże własności tarciowo-zużyciowe wyraźnie różnią się, zależąc od ich mikrostruktury i budowy chemicznej