Implicit and Explicit Memory in Depression/ Dysphoria: an Analysis of the Contribution of Perceptual and Conceptual Processes

<p>Earlier studies have shown impaired explicit test and normal implicit test performance in participants classified as depressed. A number of different models have been put forward to explain this 'typical' test dissociation including the memory systems, processing, and activation - elaboration models. Blaxton (1989, 1992) has pointed out that to date most test designs have confounded the memory systems and processing models. The aim of this series of experiments was to systematically compare the effects of depression on the processing and memory systems models and in so doing provide a more precise explanation for the effects of depression on human memory. Across Experiments 1 - 4 the performance of participants with depression or dysphoria were examined on implicit and explicit memory tests which were designed to tap either predominantly perceptual or conceptual processes. In Experiment 1 the conceptual tests of category association (implicit) and semantic cued recall (explicit) were compared with the perceptual tests of word fragment completion (implicit) and graphemic cued recall (explicit). In Experiment 2 the perceptual tests of perceptual identification (implicit) and the 'mixed' test of anagram solution (implicit) were compared with the conceptual free recall test (explicit). Both experiments used dysphoric university students and found no effects of dysphoria in comparison to normal controls matched for age, sex and education levels. Experiment 3 compared the conceptual category association (implicit) and free recall (explicit) tests with the perceptual word fragment completion test (implicit) using participants diagnosed with major depression disorder. This revealed significant impairments in both the conceptual tests while the perceptual test was intact. Experiment 4 compared the implicit word association test with the explicit word association test using dysphoric university students. Experiment 4 found that dysphoric participants were impaired in performing the explicit test while the implicit test remained intact. These findings suggest that dysphoria has no effect on implicit tests, but can effect conceptual explicit test measures. Clinical depression effects both conceptual implicit and conceptual explicit test measures. While these results support aspects of both the memory systems and processing models these findings may be best accommodated by a model which combines these models. The revised memory systems model is discussed as one means of achieving this.</p>

Implicit and Explicit Memory in Depression/ Dysphoria: an Analysis of the Contribution of Perceptual and Conceptual Processes

<p>Earlier studies have shown impaired explicit test and normal implicit test performance in participants classified as depressed. A number of different models have been put forward to explain this 'typical' test dissociation including the memory systems, processing, and activation - elaboration models. Blaxton (1989, 1992) has pointed out that to date most test designs have confounded the memory systems and processing models. The aim of this series of experiments was to systematically compare the effects of depression on the processing and memory systems models and in so doing provide a more precise explanation for the effects of depression on human memory. Across Experiments 1 - 4 the performance of participants with depression or dysphoria were examined on implicit and explicit memory tests which were designed to tap either predominantly perceptual or conceptual processes. In Experiment 1 the conceptual tests of category association (implicit) and semantic cued recall (explicit) were compared with the perceptual tests of word fragment completion (implicit) and graphemic cued recall (explicit). In Experiment 2 the perceptual tests of perceptual identification (implicit) and the 'mixed' test of anagram solution (implicit) were compared with the conceptual free recall test (explicit). Both experiments used dysphoric university students and found no effects of dysphoria in comparison to normal controls matched for age, sex and education levels. Experiment 3 compared the conceptual category association (implicit) and free recall (explicit) tests with the perceptual word fragment completion test (implicit) using participants diagnosed with major depression disorder. This revealed significant impairments in both the conceptual tests while the perceptual test was intact. Experiment 4 compared the implicit word association test with the explicit word association test using dysphoric university students. Experiment 4 found that dysphoric participants were impaired in performing the explicit test while the implicit test remained intact. These findings suggest that dysphoria has no effect on implicit tests, but can effect conceptual explicit test measures. Clinical depression effects both conceptual implicit and conceptual explicit test measures. While these results support aspects of both the memory systems and processing models these findings may be best accommodated by a model which combines these models. The revised memory systems model is discussed as one means of achieving this.</p>

Vulnerability to Psychosis, Ideas of Reference and Evaluation with an Implicit Test

Background: Ideas of reference (IRs) are observed in the general population on the continuum of the psychotic phenotype (as a type of psychotic-like experiences, PLE). The instruments usually used to evaluate IRs show some problems: They depend on the cooperation of the participant, comprehension of items, social desirability, etc. Aims: The Testal emotional counting Stroop (TECS) was developed for the purpose of improving evaluation of individuals vulnerable to psychosis and its relationship with ideas of reference. The TECS (two versions) was applied as an implicit evaluation instrument for IRs and related processes for early identification of persons vulnerable to psychosis and to test the possible influence of emotional symptomatology. Method: A total of 160 participants (67.5% women) from the general population were selected (Mean (M) = 24.12 years, standard deviation (SD) = 5.28), 48 vulnerable and 112 non-vulnerable. Results: Vulnerability to psychosis was related to greater latency in response to referential stimuli. Version 4 of the TECS showed a slight advantage in identifying more latency in response to referential stimuli among participants with vulnerability to psychosis (Cohen’s d = 1.08). Emotional symptomatology (especially stress), and IQ (premorbid) mediated the relationship between vulnerability and IR response latency. Conclusions: The application of the implicit Testal emotional counting Stroop test (TECS) is useful for evaluating processes related to vulnerability to psychosis, as demonstrated by the increased latency of response to referential stimuli.

What narrative is

Unacknowledged by its practitioners, narratology has often been revisionary rather than descriptive when categorizing narratives. This is because definitions, expert judgment and personal intuition, traditionally the main tools for categorization, are vulnerable to media blindness and to being theory loaded. I argue that to avoid revisionary accounts of ordinary everyday practices such as narrative or gameplay of which non-experts have a firm understanding, expert categorizations have to be tested against folk intuitions as they become apparent in ordinary language. Pictorial narrative in single pictures is introduced as a specific case of categorization dispute and an experiment laid out in which non-experts assess if different pictures tell stories. As the chosen pictures correspond to different criteria of narrative to varying degrees, the experiment also serves as an implicit test of these criteria. Its results confirm monochrony compatibilism, the position that single monochronic pictures can autonomously convey stories. While the pictures rated high in narrativity correspond to traditional criteria of narrative, I argue that the way in which these criteria are usually interpreted by narratologists is problematic because they exclude these pictures from the realm of narratives. It is argued that the way marginal phenomena are categorized is essential for a sound understanding of even the most paradigmatic objects of a domain because categorizations influence definitions and definitions ultimately guide interpretations.