Search

Understanding how people rate their confidence is critical for the characterization of a wide range of perceptual, memory, motor and cognitive processes. To enable the continued exploration of these processes, we created a large database of confidence studies spanning a broad set of paradigms, participant populations and fields of study. The data from each study are structured in a common, easy-to-use format that can be easily imported and analysed using multiple software packages. Each dataset is accompanied by an explanation regarding the nature of the collected data. At the time of publication, the Confidence Database (which is available at https://osf.io/s46pr/) contained 145 datasets with data from more than 8,700 participants and almost 4 million trials. The database will remain open for new submissions indefinitely and is expected to continue to grow. Here we show the usefulness of this large collection of datasets in four different analyses that provide precise estimations of several foundational confidence-related effects.

In order to investigate the role of cytoskeletal genes in Alzheimer's disease(AD), we studied the expression of genes coding for actin, tubulin and neurofilament genes in brain tissues from Alzeimer's disease patients and normal controls using northern blot analysis. Analysis of neurofilament genes was performed by southern blot analysis. Our results show a more than 95% decrease in the expression of gene coding for the medium size subunit (160Kd) of neurofilament protein in the brain tissues of AD patients compared to the control individuals. We observe an 86% decrease in the expression of the small subunit (68Kd) of neurofilament gene in AD patients where as the expression of other cytoskeletal genes Actin and tubulin did not show any significant decrease. No major alterations of the gene coding for neurofilament M subunit were seen on Southern blot analysis. We conclude that an abnormality of neurofilament gene expression may explain some of the pathological features seen in AD.

This article explores the nature of congressional-presidential relations regarding war making in the early republic. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, I argue that Congress was not primary in war making during this period. Examining small wars, particularly those against native tribes, demonstrates how little influence Congress had, with oversight generally occurring only after the fact. Rhetorical presidential support for Congress's role did not accord with their practical readiness to initiate and manage hostilities unilaterally. The willingness of modern presidents to act without congressional consent is therefore not necessarily a historical aberration., One of the central issues in the debates leading up to the Constitution's ratification was the proper role of the executive. Of particular concern to many were new powers given [...]