Examining the time course of post collaborative benefits across word lists and prose passages.

In the current study, we investigated how long the effects of one single collaboration session continue to influence individual memory. Participants learned categorized word lists and prose passages individually, and then they were instructed to recall learned materials either collaboratively or individually. Following initial recall, participants completed an individual recall test after a delay of 5 min, 48 h, or 1 week. On the initial recall test, we found that collaboration reduced recall of correct items on both word lists and prose passages (collaborative inhibition), and that collaboration reduced false recall on both word lists and prose passages (error correction). However, on the subsequent individual memory test after a delay, the pattern of post collaborative effects differed across veridical and false recall. For both word lists and prose passages, post collaborative benefits on correct recall lasted 1 week. However, there were no lasting effects of error correction on subsequent false recall. These results suggest that the time course of post collaborative benefits can be long lasting, but they are selective to veridical recall. The results are explained by theories of reexposure and error correction.

Increased whiB7 expression and antibiotic resistance in Mycobacterium chelonae carrying two prophages.

BACKGROUND: The global rise in the incidence of non-tuberculosis mycobacterial infections is of increasing concern due their high levels of intrinsic antibiotic resistance. Although integrated viral genomes, called prophage, are linked to increased antibiotic resistance in some bacterial species, we know little of their role in mycobacterial drug resistance. RESULTS: We present here for the first time, evidence of increased antibiotic resistance and expression of intrinsic antibiotic resistance genes in a strain of Mycobacterium chelonae carrying prophage. Strains carrying the prophage McProf demonstrated increased resistance to amikacin. Resistance in these strains was further enhanced by exposure to sub-inhibitory concentrations of the antibiotic, acivicin, or by the presence of a second prophage, BPs. Increased expression of the virulence gene, whiB7, was observed in strains carrying both prophages, BPs and McProf, relative to strains carrying a single prophage or no prophages. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that prophage alter expression of important mycobacterial intrinsic antibiotic resistance genes and additionally offers insight into the role prophage may play in mycobacterial adaptation to stress.

Evaluating the Spectrum of Cognitive-Motor Relationships During Dual-Task Jump Landing.

Cognitive function plays a role in understanding noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries, but the research into how cognitive function influences sport-specific movements is underdeveloped. The purpose of this study was to determine how various cognitive tasks influenced dual-task jump-landing performance along with how individuals' baseline cognitive ability mediated these relationships. Forty female recreational soccer and basketball players completed baseline cognitive function assessments and dual-task jump landings. The baseline cognitive assessments quantified individual processing speed, multitasking, attentional control, and primary memory ability. Dual-task conditions for the jump landing included unanticipated and anticipated jump performance, with and without concurrent working memory and captured visual attention tasks. Knee kinematics and kinetics were acquired through motion capture and ground reaction force data. Jumping conditions that directed visual attention away from the landing, whether anticipated or unanticipated, were associated with decreased peak knee flexion angle (P < .001). No interactions between cognitive function measures and jump-landing conditions were observed for any of the biomechanical variables, suggesting that injury-relevant cognitive-motor relationships may be specific to secondary task demands and movement requirements. This work provides insight into group- and subject-specific effects of established anticipatory and novel working memory dual-task paradigms on the neuromuscular control of a sport-specific movement.

How do associative and phonemic overlap interact to boost illusory recollection?

This project investigated the underlying mechanisms that boost false remember responses when participants receive study words that are both semantically and phonologically similar to a critical lure. Participants completed a memory task in which they were presented with a list of words all associated with a critical lure. Included within the list of semantic associates was a target that was either semantically associated (e.g., yawn) to the critical lure (e.g., sleep) or shared the initial (e.g., slam) or final (e.g., beep) phoneme(s) with the critical lure. After hearing the list, participants recalled each list item and indicated whether they just knew it was on the list or if they instead recollected specific contextual details of that item's presentation. We found that inserting an initial phonemic overlap target boosted experiences of recollection, but only when semantically related associates were presented beforehand. The results are consistent with models of spoken word recognition and show that established semantic context plus initial phonemic overlap play important roles in boosting false recollection.

The (un)reliability of item-level semantic priming effects.

Many researchers have tried to predict semantic priming effects using a myriad of variables (e.g., prime-target associative strength or co-occurrence frequency). The idea is that relatedness varies across prime-target pairs, which should be reflected in the size of the priming effect (e.g., cat should prime dog more than animal does). However, it is only insightful to predict item-level priming effects if they can be measured reliably. Thus, in the present study we examined the split-half and test-retest reliabilities of item-level priming effects under conditions that should discourage the use of strategies. The resulting priming effects proved extremely unreliable, and reanalyses of three published priming datasets revealed similar cases of low reliability. These results imply that previous attempts to predict semantic priming were unlikely to be successful. However, one study with an unusually large sample size yielded more favorable reliability estimates, suggesting that big data, in terms of items and participants, should be the future for semantic priming research.

Filling the gaps: A speeded word fragment completion megastudy.

In the speeded word fragment completion task, participants have to complete fragments such as tom_to as quickly and accurately as possible. Previous work has shown that this paradigm can successfully capture subtle priming effects (Heyman, De Deyne, Hutchison, & Storms Behavior Research Methods, 47, 580-606, 2015). In addition, it has several advantages over the widely used lexical decision task. That is, the speeded word fragment completion task is more efficient, more engaging, and easier. Given its potential, we conducted a study to gather speeded word fragment completion norms. The goal of this megastudy was twofold. On the one hand, it provides a rich database of over 8,000 stimuli, which can, for instance, be used in future research to equate stimuli on baseline response times. On the other hand, the aim was to gain insight into the underlying processes of the speeded word fragment completion task. To this end, item-level regression and mixed-effects analyses were performed on the response latencies using 23 predictor variables. Since all items were selected from the Dutch Lexicon Project (Keuleers, Diependaele, & Brysbaert Frontiers in Psychology, 1, 174, 2010), we ran the same analyses on lexical decision latencies to compare the two tasks. Overall, the results revealed many similarities, but also some remarkable differences, which are discussed. We propose that both tasks are complementary when examining visual word recognition. The article ends with a discussion of potential process models of the speeded word fragment completion task.

List blocking and longer retention intervals reveal an influence of gist processing for lexically ambiguous critical lures.

In two experiments, we examined veridical and false memory for lists of associates from two meanings (e.g., stumble, trip, harvest, pumpkin, etc.) that converged upon a single, lexically ambiguous critical lure (e.g., fall), in order to compare the activation-monitoring and fuzzy-trace false memory accounts. In Experiment 1, we presented study lists that were blocked or alternated by meaning (within subjects), followed by a free recall test completed immediately or after a 2.5-min delay. Correct recall was greater for blocked than for alternated lists. Critical-lure false recall was greater for blocked lists on an immediate test, whereas both list types produced equivalent false recall on a delayed test. In Experiment 2, lists blocked and alternated by meaning were presented via a between-subjects design, in order to eliminate possible list-type carryover effects. Correct recall replicated the result from Experiment 1; however, blocking lists increased false recall on delayed, but not on immediate, tests. Across the experiments, clustering correct recall by meaning increased across the delay selectively for the alternated lists. Our results suggest that thematic (i.e., gist) processes are influential for false recall, especially following a delay, a pattern consistent with fuzzy-trace theory.

Using the speeded word fragment completion task to examine semantic priming.

The present research investigates semantic priming with an adapted version of the word fragment completion task. In this task, which we refer to as the speeded word fragment completion task, participants need to complete words such as lett_ce (lettuce), from which one letter was omitted, as quickly as possible. This paradigm has some interesting qualities in comparison with the traditionally used lexical decision task. That is, it requires no pseudowords, it is more engaging for participants, and most importantly, it allows for a more fine-grained investigation of semantic activation. In two studies, we found that words were completed faster when the preceding trial comprised a semantically related fragment such as tom_to (tomato) than when it comprised an unrelated fragment such as guit_r (guitar). A third experiment involved a lexical decision task, to compare both paradigms. The results showed that the magnitude of the priming effect was similar, but item-level priming effects were inconsistent over tasks. Crucially, the speeded word fragment completion task obtained strong priming effects for highly frequent, central words, such as work, money, and warm, whereas the lexical decision task did not. In a final experiment featuring only short, highly frequent words, the lexical decision task failed to find a priming effect, whereas the fragment completion task did obtain a robust effect. Taken together, these results suggest that the speeded word fragment completion task may prove a viable alternative for examining semantic priming.

English semantic word-pair norms and a searchable Web portal for experimental stimulus creation.

As researchers explore the complexity of memory and language hierarchies, the need to expand normed stimulus databases is growing. Therefore, we present 1,808 words, paired with their features and concept-concept information, that were collected using previously established norming methods (McRae, Cree, Seidenberg, & McNorgan Behavior Research Methods 37:547-559, 2005). This database supplements existing stimuli and complements the Semantic Priming Project (Hutchison, Balota, Cortese, Neely, Niemeyer, Bengson, & Cohen-Shikora 2010). The data set includes many types of words (including nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), expanding on previous collections of nouns and verbs (Vinson & Vigliocco Journal of Neurolinguistics 15:317-351, 2008). We describe the relation between our and other semantic norms, as well as giving a short review of word-pair norms. The stimuli are provided in conjunction with a searchable Web portal that allows researchers to create a set of experimental stimuli without prior programming knowledge. When researchers use this new database in tandem with previous norming efforts, precise stimuli sets can be created for future research endeavors.

The semantic priming project.

Speeded naming and lexical decision data for 1,661 target words following related and unrelated primes were collected from 768 subjects across four different universities. These behavioral measures have been integrated with demographic information for each subject and descriptive characteristics for every item. Subjects also completed portions of the Woodcock-Johnson reading battery, three attentional control tasks, and a circadian rhythm measure. These data are available at a user-friendly Internet-based repository ( http://spp.montana.edu ). This Web site includes a search engine designed to generate lists of prime-target pairs with specific characteristics (e.g., length, frequency, associative strength, latent semantic similarity, priming effect in standardized and raw reaction times). We illustrate the types of questions that can be addressed via the Semantic Priming Project. These data represent the largest behavioral database on semantic priming and are available to researchers to aid in selecting stimuli, testing theories, and reducing potential confounds in their studies.

Does collaboration help or hurt recall? The answer depends on working memory capacity.

Collaborative inhibition (reduced recall in collaborative vs. nominal groups) is a robust phenomenon. However, it is possible that not everyone is as susceptible to collaborative inhibition, such as those higher in working memory capacity (WMC). In the current study, we examined the relationship between WMC and collaborative inhibition. Participants completed three shortened span tasks (automated operation span, automated reading span, symmetry span). They then viewed categorized word lists individually and then recalled the word lists alone or with a partner (Test 1), followed by an individual recall (Test 2). For correct recall, collaborative inhibition was greater among lower WMC individuals, and they showed no post collaborative benefits. Only higher WMC individuals benefited from prior collaboration. For false recall, higher WMC individuals had less false recall on Tests 1 and 2, and collaboration reduced errors on Test 1 for both lower- and higher WMC individuals. There were no lasting effects of collaboration on Test 2 errors. Furthermore, partner WMC appeared to influence recall, although this tentative finding is based on a smaller sample size. Specifically, on Test 2, participants had less false recall when their partner was higher in WMC and greater correct recall when both they and their partner were higher in WMC. We conclude that collaboration is relatively more harmful for lower WMC individuals and more beneficial for higher WMC individuals. These results inform theories of collaborative inhibition by identifying attentional control and WMC as mechanisms that moderate the magnitude of the effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Associations Between Cognitive Function and ACL Injury-Related Biomechanics: A Systematic Review.

CONTEXT: Does lower baseline cognitive function predispose athletes to ACL injury risk, especially when performing unplanned or dual-task movements? OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between cognitive function and biomechanics related to ACL injuries during cognitively challenging sports movements. DATA SOURCES: PubMed (MEDLINE), Web of Science, Scopus, and SciELO databases were searched; additional hand searching was also conducted. STUDY SELECTION: The following inclusion criteria had to be met: participants completed (1) a neurocognitive test, (2) a cognitively challenging sport-related task involving lower limbs, and (3) a biomechanical analysis. The following criteria determined exclusion from the review: studies involving participants with (1) recent or current musculoskeletal injuries; (2) recent or current concussion; (3) ACL surgical reconstruction, reviews of the literature, commentary or opinion articles, and case studies. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) statement and registered at the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 3. DATA EXTRACTION: Two of authors independently extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of the articles with the Downs and Black and ROBINS-I checklists, to assess methodological quality and risk of bias, respectively. RESULTS: Six studies with different methodologies and confounding factors were included in this review. Of these 6 studies, 3 were ranked as high-quality, 3 demonstrated a low risk of bias, 2 a moderate risk, and 1 a severe risk. Five studies found a cognitive-motor relationship, with worse cognitive performance associated with increased injury risk, with 1 study reporting the opposite directionality for 1 variable. One study did not identify any interaction between cognitive function and biomechanical outcomes. CONCLUSION: Worse cognitive performance is associated with an increased injury risk profile during cognitively challenging movements.

Influence of Fatigue on Cognitive-Motor Function During Unanticipated Landings.

BACKGROUND: Physical fatigue and cognitive performance have been suggested as risk factors for an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, and fatigue has also been demonstrated to reduce cognitive processing. The combined effects of fatigue and lower cognitive function during cognitive-challenging movements may increase knee mechanics associated with the ACL injury risk. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized that (1) knee mechanics would be detrimentally affected by fatigue and associated with baseline cognitive function and (2) fatigue-induced deleterious changes in cognitive performance and knee mechanics would be correlated. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive laboratory study. METHODS: A total of 22 athletes completed baseline cognitive testing. After performing maximal vertical jumps, they performed a jump-land-jump task based on unanticipated visual cues. Then, they completed a fatigue protocol including countermovement jumps, among other tasks, until the jump height decreased below 90% of their assessed maximum. Immediately after reaching the first fatigue point, they performed another set of jump-landing tasks, followed by repeating the fatigue protocol until the jump height decreased below 85% of their assessed maximum. After reaching the second fatigue point, they performed a final set of jump-landing tasks and repeated the initial cognitive assessment battery. RESULTS: Mixed-effects models revealed that knee flexion decreased through the fatigue protocol (baseline: 61.8°; midpoint: 61.1°; final: 60.1°; P = .003). Stepwise regression showed that fatigue-worsened attentional control corresponded to smaller knee abduction angles (R2adjusted = 51.68%; ßstandardized = 1.16; P = .001), and worse reaction time after fatigue correlated with increased knee abduction angles (ßstandardized = 0.85; P = .006) after accounting for the role of attentional control. CONCLUSION: Fatigue induced incremental modifications in sagittal-plane knee mechanics during an unanticipated sports movement. In addition, fatigue induced changes in cognitive function related to ACL injury-relevant knee mechanics. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The novel findings regarding fatigue-dependent changes in injury-relevant biomechanics during cognitively challenging movements represent an extension of recent developments in understanding the role of cognition in the ACL injury risk.

Once established, goal reminders provide long-lasting and cumulative benefits for lower working memory capacity individuals.

Previous research has shown that Stroop effects interact with working memory capacity (WMC) more strongly with lists of mostly congruent items. Although the predominant explanation for this relationship is goal maintenance, some research has challenged whether listwide effects truly reflect goal-maintenance abilities. The current study improved upon previous methodology by using both within-subject and between-subjects manipulations of goal reminder, increasing both the number of trials between reminders and the total length of the task to allow for greater goal neglect, and more precisely maintaining congruency proportion within each block. Participants completed the Automated Operation Span followed by a Stroop task in which they stopped every 24 trials to vocalize either a goal-reminder statement ("name the color not the word") or a nongoal statement ("This is part of my intro to psychology class"). In the within-subject manipulation (Experiment 1), there was no consistent benefit for goal reminders over nongoal statements. However, in the between-subjects manipulation (Experiment 2), results demonstrated a strong benefit of goal reminders, such that goal reminders eliminated the relation between WMC and Stroop effects, whereas that relation was robust following nongoal statements. Moreover, the benefit of receiving goal reminders lasted for at least 24 trials and accumulated across the course of the experiment. These data provide strong evidence that goal reminders eliminate the relationship between WMC and Stroop errors and suggest goal reminders can be a useful intervention for those suffering from lapses in controlled attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Patience is a virtue: Individual differences in cue-evoked pupil responses under temporal certainty.

Attention control is often examined behaviorally by measuring task performance and self-reported mind wandering. However, recent studies have also used pupillometry to measure task engagement versus task disengagement/mind wandering. In the current study, we investigated participants' ability to engage versus relax attention control in anticipation of hard (antisaccade) versus easy (prosaccade) trials within a saccade task, creating a "Cue-Evoked" Pupillary Response (CEPR). Participants completed the Automated OSPAN as a measure of working memory capacity (WMC) followed by a saccade task with a constant 5,000 ms delay between cue and stimulus. Occasional thought probes were included to gauge on- versus off-task attentional state. Consistent with recent findings (Hutchison et al., 2020, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46, 280-295; Wang et al., 2015, European Journal of Neuroscience, 41, 1102-1110), we found better performance and more Task-Unrelated Thoughts (TUTs) on prosaccade trials, larger pupil diameters when preparing for antisaccade trials, and larger pupil diameters when on-task. Further, lower WMC individuals showed pupil dilation throughout the fixation delay for both types of trials, whereas higher WMC individuals only showed dilation immediately before stimulus onset when expecting an antisaccade trial. Saccade accuracy was predicted by WMC, smaller early CEPR, larger late CEPR, and less CEPR variability, but not self-reported TUTs. These findings demonstrate that, under temporal certainty, higher WMC individuals may be more efficient in their exertion of attention control. Further, they indicate that physiological measures can not only validate self-report measures, but also help identify situations in which self-report may be inaccurate.

Influence of serial subtraction tasks on transient characteristics of postural control.

We sought to better understand the influence of cognitive perturbations on transient aspects of postural control. Twenty healthy, younger adults had their postural control assessed during eyes open quiet stance. Participants completed three different conditions that either had no cognitive perturbation present, an easy cognitive perturbation (i.e., serial subtraction by ones), or a more difficult cognitive perturbation (i.e., serial subtraction by sevens). All trials finished with 60 s of undisturbed eyes open quiet stance, which was the focus of the balance assessment. 95% confidence ellipse area (EA) was calculated for 5-s epochs throughout the trial. The difference in EA from the first epoch after participants started (onset) or stopped (offset) the cognitive task to the last epoch of the trial (i.e., 55-60 s after perturbation) was used to characterize transient postural control behavior. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was also used to quantify changes in prefrontal cortex activation during the counting tasks to support interpretation of the transient balance findings. There was a significant effect of condition for transient balance characteristics following a cognitive perturbation (P < 0.001), with greater transient increases in postural sway for both difficult (Cohen's d = 0.40, P < 0.001) and easier (Cohen's d = 0.29, P = 0.013) cognitive perturbations relative to no cognitive perturbation. The onset of cognitive tasks was also associated with greater transient increases in postural sway than the offset of the cognitive tasks (Cohen's d = 0.24, P = 0.019). The functional near-infrared spectroscopy data indicated that a significant decrease in deoxygenated hemoglobin was observed for left Brodmann area 46 for both the subtraction by ones (T = -3.97; Benjamini-Hochberg significance value (q) = 0.008) and subtraction by sevens (T = -3.11; q = 0.036) conditions relative to the baseline condition. The subtraction by sevens condition was also associated with a relative increase in deoxygenated hemoglobin for the right Brodmann area 9 (T = 3.36; q = 0.026) compared to the subtraction by ones condition. In conclusion, serial subtraction can elicit transient increases in postural sway, with more difficult tasks and the onset of the cognitive-motor challenge exhibiting magnified effects. Additionally, even the cessation of a cognitive task (i.e., serial subtraction) can be associated with lingering perturbing effects on balance control.

Characterization of the cluster MabR prophages of Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium chelonae.

Mycobacterium abscessus is an emerging pathogen of concern in cystic fibrosis and immunocompromised patients and is considered one of the most drug-resistant mycobacteria. The majority of clinical Mycobacterium abscessus isolates carry 1 or more prophages that are hypothesized to contribute to virulence and bacterial fitness. The prophage McProf was identified in the genome of the Bergey strain of Mycobacterium chelonae and is distinct from previously described prophages of Mycobacterium abscessus. The McProf genome increases intrinsic antibiotic resistance of Mycobacterium chelonae and drives expression of the intrinsic antibiotic resistance gene, whiB7, when superinfected by a second phage. The prevalence of McProf-like genomes was determined in sequenced mycobacterial genomes. Related prophage genomes were identified in the genomes of 25 clinical isolates of Mycobacterium abscessus and assigned to the novel cluster, MabR. They share less than 10% gene content with previously described prophages; however, they share features typical of prophages, including polymorphic toxin-immunity systems.

The effects of mediated word lists on false recall and recognition.

False memory effects were explored using unrelated list items (e.g., slope, reindeer, corn) that were related to mediators (e.g., ski, sleigh, flake) that all converged upon a single nonpresented critical item (CI; e.g., snow). In Experiment 1, participants completed either an initial recall test or arithmetic problems after study, followed by a final recognition test. Participants did not falsely recall CIs on the initial test; however, false alarms to CIs did occur in recognition, but only following an initial recall test. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to guess the CI, followed by a recognition test. The results replicated Experiment 1, with an increase in CI false alarms. Experiment 3 controlled for item effects by replacing unrelated recognition items from Experiment 1 with both CIs and list items from nonpresented lists. Once again, CI false alarms were found when controlling for lexical characteristics, demonstrating that mediated false memory is not due simply to item differences.

Age-related differences in guessing on free and forced recall tests.

This study examined possible age-related differences in recall, guessing, and metacognition on free recall tests and forced recall tests. Participants studied categorised and unrelated word lists and were asked to recall the items under one of the following test conditions: standard free recall, free recall with a penalty for guessing, free recall with no penalty for guessing, or forced recall. The results demonstrated interesting age differences regarding the impact of liberal test instructions (i.e., forced recall and no penalty) relative to more conservative test instructions (i.e., standard free recall and penalty) on memory performance. Specifically, once guessing was controlled, younger adults' recall of categorised lists varied in accordance with test instructions while older adults' recall of categorised lists did not differ between conservative and liberal test instructions, presumably because older adults approach standard free recall tests of categorised lists with a greater propensity towards guessing than young adults.

Providing goal reminders eliminates the relationship between working memory capacity and Stroop errors.

Previous research has shown that list-wide effects in the Stroop task interact with working memory capacity (WMC). The predominant explanation for this relationship is goal maintenance. However, some researchers have challenged whether list-wide effects truly reflect goal-maintenance abilities. In the current study, we examined whether goal maintenance explains higher WMC individuals' better performance within mostly congruent (MC) Stroop lists by providing periodic goal reminders to some of the participants. Two hundred and twelve participants from Montana State University first completed the Automated Operation Span and were then assigned to either a true control, goal reminder, or nongoal reminder condition. During the Stroop task, the true control condition received rest breaks every 60 trials, whereas the goal reminder and nongoal reminder conditions stopped every 12 trials to vocalize either the task goal or a rehearsed statement, respectively. We regressed Stroop errors on reminder condition and WMC, comparing each group to the true control. For the Goal Reminder × True Control comparison, there was an interaction, such that WMC negatively correlated with Stroop errors in the true control, but not in the goal reminder condition. In contrast, for the Nongoal Reminder × True Control comparison, there was only an overall effect of WMC, with greater Stroop errors for those lower in WMC. These data provide evidence that goal reminders eliminate the relationship between WMC and Stroop interference.