Search

Hindsight bias (HB) is the tendency to retrospectively exaggerate one's foresight knowledge about the outcome of an event. Cognitive processes influenced by newly obtained outcome information are used to explain the HB phenomenon, but the neural correlates remain unknown. This study investigated HB in the context of election results using a memory design and functional magnetic resonance imaging for the first time. Participants were asked to predict and recall the percentage of votes obtained by (pairs of) candidates before and after an election. The results revealed that 88% of participants showed HB by recalling that their predictions were closer to the actual outcomes than they really were; and participants had HB for 38% of the events. The HB effect was associated with activation in the medial superior frontal gyrus and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), which have been implicated in updating an old belief due to new information and is similar to the process of reconstruction bias. Furthermore, participants with a greater HB effect showed greater activation of the left IFG. In conclusion, we successfully observed the HB phenomenon in election results, and our imaging results suggested that the HB phenomenon might involve reconstruction bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwan is a mountainous island, and nearly 75% of its lands are 1000 m above sea level. Formosan wood mice, Apodemus semotus, are endemic rodents and are broadly distributed at altitudes between 1400 and 3700 m in Taiwan. Interestingly, Formosan wood mice show similar locomotor activity in the laboratory as they do in the wild. Hence, we are interested in studying whether exploratory behaviors and central dopaminergic activity are changed in the open field test.We usedmale C57BL/6J mice as the control, comparing their behavioral responses in the open field, step-down inhibitory avoidance discrimination and novel object recognition tests with those of male Formosan wood mice. We also examined dopamine and its major metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in the medial prefrontal cortex, striatum and nucleus accumbens. In open field tests, Formosan wood mice revealed higher levels of locomotion and exploration than C57BL/6J mice. Learning and memory performance in the novel object recognition test was similar in both Formosan wood mice and C57BL/6J mice, but more agile responses in the inhibitory avoidance discrimination task were found in Formosan wood mice. There was no difference in behavioral responses in the open field test between new second-generation Formosan wood mice and Formosan wood mice that were inbred for more than 10 generations. After repeated exposure to the open field test, high levels of locomotion and exploration as well as central dopaminergic activities were markedly persistent in Formosan wood mice, but these activities were significantly reduced in C57BL/6J mice. Diazepam (anxiolytic) treatment reduced the higher exploratory activity and central dopaminergic activities in Formosan wood mice, but this treatment had no effect in C57BL/6J mice. This study provides comparative findings, as two phylogenetically related species showed differences in behavioral responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Postgraduate Year (PGY) Program allows doctors-in-training to learn about the diagnosis, treatment and nursing of various common, general diseases. These items form the core curriculum and are mostly learned through caring for patients and clinical teaching. Doctors-in-training are evaluated for their knowledge through written tests or assignments, based on which the effectiveness of their training is also assessed; however, this generally produces a negative learning attitude among them. So we introduced the flipped classroom into PGY training program to change PGY students’ learning behavior. Although the flipped classroom is highly valued and has been practiced by teachers in schools of various levels, very few attempts have been made until now to report the learning outcomes achieved through the flipped classroom by means of rigorous research methods. Therefore we tried to employed Ajzen and Fishbein’s (1980) theory of reasoned action and Bandura’s self-efficacy to predict and explain the participants’ behavioral intention when participating in the core curriculum learning of the flipped classroom and to assess the change in students’ learning behavior and learning effectiveness. From August 2013 to July 2014, 39 PGY students from the General Surgery of the Tri-Service General Hospital were selected as the participants of this study. The control group included 43 students of the previous year, that is, the year before the intervention of the flipped classroom. A comparative analysis was performed. The questionnaire’s related matrices indicated highest correlation between self-efficacy and behavioral intention (r = 0.491, P < 0.01), followed by attitude (r = 0.365, P < 0.01) and subjective norms (r = 0.360, P < 0.01.) All three showed positive correlations with behavioral intention; among attitude, subjective norms, and self-efficacy, the pairwise correlations also reached significance level. The flipped classroom can indeed change PGY students’ the learning behavior from “passive learning” to “active learning.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined the associations between basic auditory perception, speech prosodic processing, and vocabulary development in Chinese kindergartners, specifically, whether early basic auditory perception may be related to linguistic prosodic processing in Chinese Mandarin vocabulary acquisition. A series of language, auditory, and linguistic prosodic tests were given to 100 preschool children who had not yet learned how to read Chinese characters. The results suggested that lexical tone sensitivity and intonation production were significantly correlated with children's general vocabulary abilities. In particular, tone awareness was associated with comprehensive language development, whereas intonation production was associated with both comprehensive and expressive language development. Regression analyses revealed that tone sensitivity accounted for 36% of the unique variance in vocabulary development, whereas intonation production accounted for 6% of the variance in vocabulary development. Moreover, auditory frequency discrimination was significantly correlated with lexical tone sensitivity, syllable duration discrimination, and intonation production in Mandarin Chinese. Also it provided significant contributions to tone sensitivity and intonation production. Auditory frequency discrimination may indirectly affect early vocabulary development through Chinese speech prosody. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To validate the three time-difference neuropsychological protocols developed by the National Institute of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the Canadian Stroke Network for assessment of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) in Mandarin-speaking subjects and to investigate the clinical application of the shortest form. Methods: Patients aged 50 years or older who had a stroke were invited to participate in the study. Clinical diagnosis of VCI was made. The NINDS-VCI Neuropsychology Protocols, 60-, 30-, and two 5-minute protocols, were administered. The criteria validities of the cognitive protocols against the diagnoses of stroke and VCI were determined via Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis. The optimal cut-off point for the 5-minute protocols total score was estimated for clinical use in screening. Results: Eighty-three patients and 53 controls were recruited during the study period. Patients with stroke performed more poorly than the control group in the three neuropsychological protocols. Forty-two patients with stroke were diagnosed with VCI. VCI was used as the standard to estimate the criteria validities. The area under the ROC curve was 0.78, 0.80, 0.75, and 0.73 for the 60-, 30-, 5-mintue protocol-A and 5-minute protocol-B, respectively. Conclusion: These modified neuropsychological protocols can be used as valid instruments when performing comprehensive cognitive assessment or for screening of VCI in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) has been reported to have acceptable reliability and a tripartite structure, including a general memory factor and specific Prospective and Retrospective Memory factors. The Taiwanese version of the PRMQ was examined in an adult sample (n = 269, age range: 19–95). The 11-item Taiwanese PRMQ demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.82–0.90) as well as a tripartite structure with one general Episodic Memory factor and one specific Prospective Memory factor. There was no gender effect, but older adults reported better prospective memory performance, and individuals with a higher level of education rated less retrospective memory failure. Preliminary Taiwanese normative data are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Taiwan is a mountainous island, and nearly 75% of its lands are 1000 m above sea level. Formosan wood mice, Apodemus semotus , are endemic rodents and are broadly distributed at altitudes between 1400 and 3700 m in Taiwan. Interestingly, Formosan wood mice show similar locomotor activity in the laboratory as they do in the wild. Hence, we are interested in studying whether exploratory behaviors and central dopaminergic activity are changed in the open field test. We used male C57BL/6J mice as the control, comparing their behavioral responses in the open field, step-down inhibitory avoidance discrimination and novel object recognition tests with those of male Formosan wood mice. We also examined dopamine and its major metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in the medial prefrontal cortex, striatum and nucleus accumbens. In open field tests, Formosan wood mice revealed higher levels of locomotion and exploration than C57BL/6J mice. Learning and memory performance in the novel object recognition test was similar in both Formosan wood mice and C57BL/6J mice, but more agile responses in the inhibitory avoidance discrimination task were found in Formosan wood mice. There was no difference in behavioral responses in the open field test between new second-generation Formosan wood mice and Formosan wood mice that were inbred for more than 10 generations. After repeated exposure to the open field test, high levels of locomotion and exploration as well as central dopaminergic activities were markedly persistent in Formosan wood mice, but these activities were significantly reduced in C57BL/6J mice. Diazepam (anxiolytic) treatment reduced the higher exploratory activity and central dopaminergic activities in Formosan wood mice, but this treatment had no effect in C57BL/6J mice. This study provides comparative findings, as two phylogenetically related species showed differences in behavioral responses., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing or financial interests., (© 2019. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.)