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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Psychological reactions and retention by cocaine addicts during treatment according to HIV-serostatus: a matched-control study.

We compared retention in treatment and psychological reactions during drug abuse treatment by 22 HIV-antibody positive, physically asymptomatic cocaine addicts to 22 matched HIV-seronegative cocaine addicts. All subjects participated in an outpatient clinical research project. There were no significant differences between groups in sociodemographics and psychiatric symptom scores on entrance or cocaine use except for route of administration (chi 2 = 11.59, df = 2, p less than .005). There were no significant differences among groups regarding being informed of serostatus and beginning treatment. There was a trend (p = .079) for more seropositives to complete treatment. Using end-point analysis to compare 11 seropositive subjects who completed a minimum of 2 weeks of treatment to a matched seronegative comparison groups, there were no significant differences in mood states except for "anger/hostility" (interaction of group x time; F = 2.24, df = 13/260, p less than .05). Informing drug abusers in treatment regarding positive HIV-serostatus was not associated with a lower treatment-retention rate or adverse psychological reactions when counseling regarding HIV issues was integrated with drug abuse treatment.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗
PubMed2005

Moral distress of staff nurses in a medical intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: Moral distress is caused by situations in which the ethically appropriate course of action is known but cannot be taken. Moral distress is thought to be a serious problem among nurses, particularly those who practice in critical care. It has been associated with job dissatisfaction and loss of nurses from the workplace and the profession. OBJECTIVES: To assess the level of moral distress of nurses in a medical intensive care unit, identify situations that result in high levels of moral distress, explore implications of moral distress, and evaluate associations among moral distress and individual characteristics of nurses. METHODS: A descriptive, questionnaire study was used. A total of 28 nurses working in a medical intensive care unit anonymously completed a 38-item moral distress scale and described implications of experiences of moral distress. RESULTS: Nurses reported a moderate level of moral distress overall. Highest levels of distress were associated with the provision of aggressive care to patients not expected to benefit from that care. Moral distress was significantly correlated with years of nursing experience. Nurses reported that moral distress adversely affected job satisfaction, retention, psychological and physical well-being, self-image, and spirituality. Experience of moral distress also influenced attitudes toward advance directives and participation in blood donation and organ donation. CONCLUSIONS: Critical care nurses commonly encounter situations that are associated with high levels of moral distress. Experiences of moral distress have implications that extend well beyond job satisfaction and retention. Strategies to mitigate moral distress should be developed and tested.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Correlated attributes and categorization in the first half-year of life.

In two experiments with 36 human infants, we asked whether 3- and 6-month-olds could use correlations between attributes of individual objects to categorize. Infants learned to kick to move block mobiles that simultaneously displayed two categories defined by the figures displayed on them: the colors of the figures and the colors of the blocks. Two features were correlated, and the third varied across categories. Only 6-month-olds categorized novel category exemplars that preserved the original feature correlations (Experiment 1A), but both 3- and 6-month-olds discriminated feature recombinations that broke the original correlations (Experiment 1B). When category exemplars were presented successively, 6-month-olds also learned the feature correlations and used them to categorize (Experiment 2), but their performance was less robust. Infants' superior learning when stimuli were presented simultaneously may reflect "unitization," a learning disposition unique to immature infants. These experiments reveal that infants' ability to use correlated attributes to categorize emerges months earlier than previously thought.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed2005

Updating reactivated memories in infancy: II. Time passage and repetition effects.

Previous attempts to modify a reactivated memory by passively exposing infants to a novel cue immediately after reactivation were unsuccessful. Presently, we examined other conditions in which passive exposure to a novel cue immediately after reactivation might modify the memory. In three experiments, sixty-two 3-month-olds learned to move a distinctive mobile by kicking, forgot the training memory, and then received a reminder that reactivated it. Immediately afterward, they were passively exposed to a novel mobile. We found that passive exposure to novel information could modify reactivated memories that were older or had been reactivated before. Although exposure to a novel mobile occasionally produced only retroactive interference, memory modification never occurred alone, suggesting that response suppression to the original cue is prerequisite for the modification of reactivated memories. We propose that memory distortion (modification) is not an anomaly but is an adaptive, updating mechanism that ensures that behavior will be guided by memories containing contemporaneous information.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2005

Updating reactivated memories in infancy: I. Passive- and active-exposure effects.

This study examined the vulnerability of infants' reactivated memories to modification. In three experiments, one hundred eight 3-month-olds learned to move a distinctive mobile by kicking. After the operant task was forgotten, its memory was recovered by a reactivation treatment. Immediately afterward, attempts were made to modify the reactivated memory by exposing infants to a novel mobile. Exposing the novel mobile immediately after the reactivation treatment did not affect the reactivated memory (Experiment 1). When exposure to the novel mobile was delayed for 24 hr, the novel mobile temporarily interfered with recognition of the original mobile, but did not modify the reactivated memory (Experiment 2). Only when the contingency was briefly associated with the novel mobile (an active-exposure procedure) was the reactivated memory modified (Experiment 3). These data reveal that infants' recently reactivated memories are surprisingly resistant to updating unless the operant contingency that established the original memory accompanies the new information.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1980

Learning, using natural reinforcements, in insect preparations that permit cellular neuronal analysis.

A general paradigm is described that permits testing the ability of an arthropod to learn (by operant conditioning) to alter the position of a single leg segment in order to relate to behaviorally appropriate reinforcement. The paradigm was designed so that intracellular recording from identified neurons involved would be possible during the training of a locust or grasshopper, for which extensive neuron maps are available. As a prelude to such studies, electromyograms were made from the antagonistic muscles that move the conditioned limb, which in the present experiments was the tibia of the metathoracic leg. Negative (aversive) reinforcement was provided by a loud sound/vibration and positive (reward) reinforcement by food in the form of sugar-water or fresh-growing grass. In the aversive reinforcement experiments the sound, which reflexly caused flexion, was on continually except when the tibia of one hind leg was voluntarily placed in an electronically set position "window" displaced, in extension, away from the preferred position. In feeding experiments, food was brought automatically to the mouth by a motor-driven arm when the tibia was held within a position window set away from the preferred position in either extension or flexion. Whole or headless insects learned to turn off the sound permanently, except for sporadic brief interruptions, by tonic shifting of tibial position. Insects learned to bring food to the mouth by modifying the plateau phase of a position displacement lasting for a few minutes, that was found to occur from time to time also in controls. In aversive learning, minimum times to turn off the sound were 22 sec for the easiest position and 4 min for the most difficult. The longest time in the easiest position was 1 min 40 sec and in the most difficult 39 min; excluding measurement for individuals that did not learn. In reward learning, the minimum time in the easiest position was just under 1 min, and 12 min in the most difficult position. The longest times were about 8 hr regardless of difficulty.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

The trauma-memory argument.

The trauma-memory argument proposes that memories of childhood trauma can affect adult behavior outside awareness and that such unconscious memories can return to awareness even after long delays. Unfortunately, this conclusion is based on case reports of unknown representativeness and on clinical studies which are methodologically flawed or do not consider alternative explanations. Of particular concern is the general lack of independent verification of the ostensibly forgotten memories. The trauma-memory argument is plausible, in at least some respects, given what we know about the processes of remembering and forgetting, but considerably more research is needed before it can serve as a basis for scientifically sound clinical practice.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Steps toward healing: false memories and traumagenic amnesia may coexist in vulnerable populations.

Child abuse is surely the most agonizing psychological issue of our time. We decry the tendency to polarize around the either-or dichotomy of "recovered versus false memories," when both are likely to occur. Memory researchers seem to generalize from the mild, one-shot stressors of the laboratory to the severe repeated traumas reported by abused populations, an inferential leap that is scientifically dubious. Naturalistic studies show (a) some post-traumatic memory impairment (not just forgetting, but difficulty remembering in spite of repeated efforts); (b) dissociativity, such as emotional numbing, detachment, and the like; but also (c) increased suggestibility (Spiegel & Cardena, 1991). About 20% of the normal population is highly suggestible, and in these individuals it is trivially easy to show suggested amnesia, detachment, perceptual blocking, etc., as well as to suggest dramatically false memories. It is therefore vital to assess suggestibility and dissociativity in traumatized populations. Adult survivors of abuse may show both more false "memories" and more "false forgetting" than the normal population.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

The role of overt rehearsal in enhanced conscious memory for emotional events.

This study tested the hypothesis that overt rehearsal is sufficient to explain enhanced memory associated with emotion by experimentally manipulating rehearsal of emotional material. Participants viewed two sets of film clips, one set of emotional films and one set of relatively neutral films. One set of films was viewed in each of two sessions, with approximately 1 week between the sessions. Participants were given a free recall test of all of films viewed approximately 1 week after the second session. Rehearsal was manipulated by instructing one group of participants not to discuss the films with anyone (no talk group) and instructing a second group to discuss both sets of films with at least three people (forced talk group). A third group consisted of participants instructed not to discuss the films with anyone, but who did not comply with these instructions (talkers group). All groups recalled significantly more of the emotional films than the neutral films. Furthermore, the relative number of emotional and neutral films recalled did not differ significantly among the three groups. The results indicate that overt rehearsal is insufficient to explain the enhancing effects of emotion on memory.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2001

The credibility of children's testimony: can children control the accuracy of their memory reports?

In previous work with adults (A. Koriat & M. Goldsmith, 1994, 1996c), it was shown that people can enhance the accuracy of their testimony substantially when they (a) are effective in monitoring the correctness of their answers, (b) are free to control their reporting accordingly (i.e., to decide which pieces of information to volunteer and which to withhold), and (c) are given incentives for accurate reporting. A theoretical model was developed, which specifies the critical role of metacognitive monitoring and control processes in mediating free-report memory accuracy. The present study applies that model to examine the strategic regulation of memory accuracy by children. Three experiments indicate that both younger (ages 7 to 9) and older (ages 10 to 12) children can enhance the accuracy of their testimony by screening out wrong answers under free-report conditions but suggest a developmental trend in the level of memory accuracy that is thereby achieved. The implications of the results for the dependability of children's testimony in legal settings are discussed.

Age Factors↗