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Biomedical subjects

M L Howe

Publications and source records attributed to M L Howe.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Long-term retention in 3.5-month-olds: familiarization time and individual differences in attentional style.

Using a paired-comparison procedure, we examined the effect of familiarization variables on 3.5-month-old infants' (n = 120) retention of dynamic visual stimuli after 1-min, 1-day, and 1-month delays. The proportion of total looking time to the novel stimulus revealed novelty, null, and familiarity preferences after 1-min, 1-day, and 1-month delays, respectively, for infants who were permitted 30 s of familiarization time. Twenty seconds of familiarization time was insufficient to produce novelty preferences. These results support models of infant retention in which the direction of attentional preferences (novel, familiar, or null) depends on memory accessibility. To examine the impact of individual differences in familiarization or attentional style on memory, infants were identified as long or short lookers according to their peak-look duration on pretest and familiarization trial measures. Compared to long lookers, short lookers showed better retention over time indicating that much of the variability in the infant group data could be accounted for by these individual differences.

Attention↗
PubMed2000

Distinctiveness effects in children's long-term retention.

In 3 experiments, kindergarten and second-grade children's retention was examined in the context of 2 distinctiveness manipulations, namely, the von Restorff and bizarre imagery paradigms. Specifically, children learned lists of pictures (Experiments 1a and 1b) or interactive images (Experiment 2) and were asked to recall them 3 weeks later. In Experiments 1a and 1b, distinctiveness was manipulated perceptually (changing colors) and conceptually (changing categories or switching to a numeral), whereas in Experiment 2, distinctiveness concerned the interaction (common or bizarre) between the referents. The results showed that (a) older children retained more information than younger children, (b) younger but not older children failed to benefit from numerically distinct information, and (c) distinctiveness in other domains facilitated children's retention. These results highlight the importance of distinctive information in children's retention.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1998

The ebb and flow of infant attentional preferences: evidence for long-term recognition memory in 3-month-olds.

Using paired-comparisons, 3-month-olds' (n = 148) recognition of dynamic visual events was investigated after retention intervals of 1 minute, 1 day, and 1 and 3 months (Experiment 1) and 1 minute, 1 day, and 1 week (Experiment 2). Participants were either tested at each retention interval (Multiple Tests) or tested at one interval (Single Test). The proportion of total looking time to the novel event and the length of the longest look to novel and familiar events in the first 15 s of the retention test revealed significant novelty preferences at 1 minute and 1 day and a null preference at 1 week for Multiple- and Single-Test groups. At 1 month, Multiple- (Proportion of Total Looking Time and Longest Look) and Single-Test groups (Longest Look only) preferred the familiar event. The 3-month test revealed a familiarity preference (both measures) for Single- and a null preference for Multiple-Tests groups. This changing pattern of attentional preferences is consistent with models of infant recognition memory in which novelty, familiarity, and null preferences are considered conjointly and hypothesized to reflect the accessibility of novel and familiar event representations in memory.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1998

When distinctiveness fails, false memories prevail.

The argument advanced in this article is that false memories can arise because of processes that normally affect forgetting, namely, the decline of distinctiveness and the rise of retroactive interference. Specifically, when the distinctiveness of a trace relative to the background of other traces diminishes, the potential for interference among like traces increases. To the extent that memories lose their distinctive properties, including the source of the memory, such memories may become confused with events that are supposed to be recalled as actually having occurred. This idea is elaborated in the context of studies of the effects of distinctiveness on reducing retroactive interference in children's long-term retention. It is concluded that advances in understanding false memories and the role distinctiveness might play in reducing such misrememberings is contingent on the development of additional formal modeling approaches like the one presented in the lead paper by Brainerd and Reyna (1998, this issue).

Child↗
PubMed1998

Individual differences in factors that modulate storage and retrieval of traumatic memories.

It is argued that memory for traumatic events is similar to that for other distinctive, personally significant events regardless of whether they are affectively positive or negative. Examined in this light, the focus now shifts to the role of individual differences in neurobiological, social, cognitive, and constitutional factors that conspire to determine long-term retention of significant autobiographical experiences. What is known about these factors in determining memorability is reviewed, issues of measurement inadequacies discussed, and recommendations for further research outlined.

Affect↗
PubMed1998

Individual differences in working memory and reasoning-remembering relationships in solving class-inclusion problems.

In the present experiment, we evaluated the effects of individual differences in reading span and variation in memory demands on class-inclusion performance. One hundred twenty college students whose reading spans ranged from low to medium to high (as indexed by a computerized version of the Daneman and Carpenter [1980] reading-span task) solved 48 class-inclusion problems. Half of the subjects had the solution information available when the problems were presented; the other half performed a detection task between solution information and problem presentation. The results from both standard statistical analyses and from a mathematical model indicated that differences in reading span and memory load had predictable, similar effects. Specifically, the sophistication of reasoning strategies declined when memory demands increased or when reading spans decreased. Surprisingly, these effects were primarily additive. The results were interpreted in terms of global resource models and findings from the developmental literature.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1997

Independent paths in the development of infant learning and forgetting.

We investigated the possibility that age differences in infants' long-term retention are artifacts of correlated differences in learning rates or learning opportunities (over-learning). Using path analytic procedures, these possibilities were examined in two experiments in which 15- and 18-month-olds (Experiment 1) and 12- and 15-month-olds (Experiment 2) learned five novel activities to a strict acquisition criterion. Three months later, infants' retention was tested using four test trials with no further study opportunities. Using a series of causal models to test the relationships between age, learning rate, learning opportunities, and forgetting rate, the results disconfirmed the artifact hypothesis. These analyses indicated that, at least for criterion-learning designs, developmental declines in forgetting rates between 12 and 18 months of age do exist independent of developmental differences in learning. Furthermore, age differences in forgetting rates are not confounded with age differences in "overlearning." These findings are discussed in terms of the growing body of evidence that attests to the continuity of memory development across childhood.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

The emergence and early development of autobiographical memory.

The authors provide a new framework that integrates autobiographical memory with other early achievements (e.g., gesturing, language, concept formation). In this theory, the emergence and early development of autobiographical memory does not require the invocation of specialized neurological or multiple memory mechanisms but rather arises as a natural consequence of developments in related domains including in the "software" that drives general memory functioning. In particular, autobiographical memory emerges contemporaneously with the cognitive self, a knowledge structure whose features serve to organize memories of experiences that happened to "me." Because this cognitive self emerges in the 2nd year of life, the lower limit for early autobiographical memories is set at about 2 years, with subsequent accumulation of memories linked to improvements in children's ability to maintain information in storage.

Autobiographies as Topic↗
PubMed1996

Reasoning from memory: a lifespan inquiry into the necessity of remembering when reasoning about class inclusion.

In the current experiment, we evaluated the relationship between reasoning and remembering across the lifespan (10-, 13-, 15-, 23-, and 67-year-olds) using color and number class-inclusion tasks. Subjects made judgments when memory load or information load was either high or low. Reading latency, choice latency, and choice accuracy data were collected and analyzed using formal models that partitioned memory and reasoning as well as type of reasoning strategy. The results showed that: (1) study skills, as indexed by reading latency, were sophisticated across the lifespan; (2) the difference between color and number choice latencies increased with age; (3) reasonably consistent effects were obtained as a function of increasing memory load, with the quality of both reasoning and remembering being adversely affected; (4) different effects were obtained at each age as a function of increasing information load; and (5) the major developmental trend across the lifespan was a tradeoff between class-inclusion and subclass-subclass forms of reasoning. A number of extant theoretical approaches were discussed, none of which were able to account for variations in class-inclusion performance across the lifespan. What was clear, however, was that memory-reasoning dependencies must be incorporated into any comprehensive theory of cognitive development across the lifespan.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Keeping injured employees working. Overcoming common problems.

1. In the past, employers did not routinely provide work for injured/disabled employees. While today many companies wish to reduce workers' compensation costs and understand the savings available through modified work programs, remnants of the old philosophy remain. 2. Often employers initiate a new program, only to have it detailed or complicated by misunderstandings and lack of common assumptions. The occupational health nurse can be a key team member in recognizing and countering fears and concerns that prevent implementation of a successful program. 3. Common obstacles that arise are both philosophical (the employee must be 100% fit) and practical (all our jobs are repetitive, so how can we provide work?). The occupational health nurse must continue to educate, motivate, assist, and communicate the goals and vision of the new philosophy.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1995

Metamemory and memory construction.

In this article, we present the contemporary conceptualization of metamemory as beliefs, accurate and naive, about memory. We discuss the implications of metamemory for memory construction in general and for suggestibility and the recovery of memories in particular. We argue that beliefs about memory influence (a) the probability that suggestions will be incorporated into memory and (b) judgments about the veracity of subsequent recollections. Implications for research on the role of beliefs in suggestibility and memory recovery are outlined.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Development of the middle concept.

Children's use of the middle concept was assessed in two developmental studies. In Experiment 1, children in kindergarten through Grade 5 were given middle-size pretraining followed by the presentation of sets of three stimuli representing eight novel dimensions. There was a marked improvement in the mastery of the middle concept across elementary school grades. Asking the child to point to the middle "dimension label" (e.g., middle oval) facilitated performance when compared to asking the child to point to the middle thing. In Experiment 2, second- through fifth-grade children were pretrained to choose the middle item associated with a single set of three stimuli, two sets of three stimuli representing the same dimension, or two sets of three stimuli with each set representing a different dimension. Transfer to six novel test dimensions was evaluated. Pretraining with two rather than one stimulus set transferred to the novel test dimensions. The results were related to induction and transposition theories and to issues concerning implicit and explicit learning.

Child↗
PubMed1994

Dynamic modeling, chaos, and cognitive development.

We provide an introduction to the essential constructs involved in dynamic modeling. These constructs are then related to issues in psychological development. In particular, we discuss stages, states, sequences, and pure transition models as well as cross-sectional and longitudinal experimental designs. We conclude that transition is a key invariance in development and that single subject, longitudinal designs are essential in studying the dynamics of ontogeny.

Child↗
PubMed1994

Reasoning in middle childhood: a dynamic model of performance on transitivity tasks.

An overview of the models and data relevant to children's transitive reasoning is provided. We propose a new conceptual framework, one which is embedded in a dynamic model that accounts for children's failures to reason transitively. It is assumed that rather than reasoning in a transitive manner, children often encode both relational and absolute stimulus information and use stimulus generalization as a transfer mechanism. The model is applied to new and extant data. The model provides an adequate and parsimonious account of children's failures on these tasks. We conclude that progress in understanding children's reasoning is dependent on operationalizing constructs in formal models so that assumptions can be evaluated and rejected.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1993

On resolving the enigma of infantile amnesia.

Historical and current theories of infantile amnesia are examined. To evaluate the viability of these theories, as well as the phenomenon of infantile amnesia itself, a review of memory development from birth through the preschool years is provided, including an overview of relevant perceptual and neurological maturation. In the context of this review, extant theories of infantile amnesia are shown to falter, and it is concluded that infantile amnesia is a chimera of a previously unexplored relationship between the development of a cognitive sense of self and the personalization of event memory. This hypothesis is examined in detail and discussed in the context of related developments in language and social cognition.

Awareness↗
PubMed1993

On measuring (in)dependence of cognitive processes.

The authors provide a critical evaluation of the use of stochastic independence in psychological research. Specifically, they consider problems of confirming the null hypothesis, power of the statistical test, Simpson's paradox, and between-subjects and within-subject correlations. These problems are discussed in the context of research on theories of memory and cognitive development and illustrated with data on reasoning-remembering relationships. The authors conclude that demonstrations of response independence do not, by themselves, provide sufficient grounds for deciding whether a single process or multiple processes are necessary to account for performance. Instead, they argue that formal models are necessary if findings of (in)dependence are to be interpreted meaningfully in terms of underlying theoretical processes.

Attention↗