A bilateral salpingo oophorectomy (BSO), removal of the ovaries, is recommended for carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations to reduce cancer risks. However, BSO induces surgical menopause, and is associated with an increased risk of dementia (Rocca et al., 2007a) and Parkinsonism (Rocca et al, 2007b). This study investigated the cognitive outcomes of BSO one to ten years post-surgically. The present dataset (n=37) revealed there was a significant difference between the BSO group and their age matched cohort on the Logical Memory task assessing verbal, episodic memory. Levels of E1G (estrogen metabolite) was a significant predictor of the RAVLT primacy subscale indicating higher levels were associated with better recall at the beginning of a list of words. Controlling for age, performance on the RAVLT A1 measuring short-term memory degraded further out from BSO. While limited by the sample size, results are consistent with reports of post-BSO cognitive changes (Vearncomb & Panchana, 2009).

This paper investigates how belief, social power, and ideology work together to create the subjectivities and social structures that guide our behaviour. Phenomena such as cognitive shortcuts, memory, bias, empathy, and dissonance are used to trace the effects of power and ideology on social construction and role-taking behaviour. Research on mass opinion in the United States is then used to identify the effects of information and salience on construction. Different conceptions of ideology and interest, drawn from the work of Hume, Marx, Gramsci, Althusser, Foucault, and others were referenced to explore the larger social dynamics of ideas and structures. Academic, ethical, and democratic implications are investigated at different points. The paper concludes by connecting parenting style to moral development in order to find strategies for resisting the tendency towards institutional behaviour.

The objectives were to explore cognitive function in older adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) through two studies: 1) a pilot study involving the metabolic stress of glucose ingestion and the environmental stress of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) environment and 2) an fMRI study exploring the neural mechanisms through hippocampal and prefrontal functional imaging during memory and executive functioning tasks. In T2DM subjects, environmental stress produced greater impairment in memory performance and metabolic stress produced overestimation of memory performance, with similar executive functioning, relative to healthy subjects (pilot study). T2DM subjects also sowed reduced hippocampal and greater prefrontal activation compared to healthy subjects (fMRI study). Moreover, the metabolic stress caused greater hippocampal and prefrontal activation in healthy subjects relative to placebo (fMRI study). These results indicate plausible neural mechanisms behind T2DM- and stress-associated cognitive impairments that can be used for future improvements in cognitive retention and rehabilitation.

A bilateral salpingo oophorectomy (BSO), removal of the ovaries, is recommended for carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations to reduce cancer risks. However, BSO induces surgical menopause, and is associated with an increased risk of dementia (Rocca et al., 2007a) and Parkinsonism (Rocca et al, 2007b). This study investigated the cognitive outcomes of BSO one to ten years post-surgically. The present dataset (n=37) revealed there was a significant difference between the BSO group and their age matched cohort on the Logical Memory task assessing verbal, episodic memory. Levels of E1G (estrogen metabolite) was a significant predictor of the RAVLT primacy subscale indicating higher levels were associated with better recall at the beginning of a list of words. Controlling for age, performance on the RAVLT A1 measuring short-term memory degraded further out from BSO. While limited by the sample size, results are consistent with reports of post-BSO cognitive changes (Vearncomb & Panchana, 2009).

Visual information is processed by two separate visual pathways. One is the magnocellular visual pathway (M-pathway), which carries high temporal frequency information but low spatial frequency information. The other is the parvocellular visual pathway (P-pathway), which carries low temporal information but high spatial information. Kveraga and colleagues (2007) presented participants with high and low spatial frequency images and found that participants made faster and more accurate categorization responses to the low spatial frequency images. They hypothesized this was due to low spatial frequency “gist” information being rapidly carried by the M-pathway. Using diffuse light and hand posture manipulations, we replicated the advantage for low spatial frequency (LSF) images in both experiments, and also found a larger advantage for LSF information when biasing the M-pathway (using hand posture). We were unable to inhibit the M-pathway using red diffuse light. Thus, it does appear “gist” processing is uniquely carried by the M-pathway.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of four variables: (1) cognitive ability; (2) sequence of a tri modal media presentation; (3) questions written at each of the six levels of Bloom's taxonomy; and (4) two questionning strategies as evaluated by the mean achievement scores of the two groups of fourth grade students who had two specific cognitive abilities.The study was designed to answer two questions for each group of learners. An analysis of the data was conducted on the sequence of media treatments and questioning strategy used during the treatment. Two experiments were used in the design. The 78 students in Experiment I were labeled the Verbal Group, having attained a score at the 75th percentile or higher on the Verbal Battery of the Cognitive Abilities Test. The 74 students in Experiment II were labeled the Non Verbal Group as they had attained a score at the 25th percentile or lower on the Non Verbal Battery of the Cognitive Abilities Test. The treatment used in an attempt to determine the effect of the four variables was (1) a sequence of auditory, visual, and print modes; (2) two questioning strategies; Test Whole and Test Parts; (3) three stories written at an average readability level of 4.8 according to Fry’s Readability Graph which served as the content of the presentation; and (4) six questions for each story which were written to coincide with the six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. Each story was divided into two portions. For Treatments 1 and 2 the first portion of the story was recorded as the auditory mode. The remaining portion was the print mode. For Treatment 3 the first portion of the stories was the print mode while the second portion became the auditory mode.Each experiment had three treatments with two questioning strategies used in each treatment. The treatments were three alternate sequencings of a visual, auditory, and print presentation. In each of these sequences, one group received Test Whole, which consisted of six questions that evaluated the content being given at the completion of each story. The group which received Test Parts answered two questions at the completion of each mode's presentation during the story.A two-way analysis of variance was used for the two measures in each experiment. The interaction was computed between (a) sequence of treatments and (b) questioning strategies. The F test was used to determine the homogeneity of the groups. When the analysis revealed significance, the Tukey Post Hoc statistic was used to determine the location of the effect.For the Verbal Group in Experiment I, there was no statistical difference for either of the measures of treatment and questioning. For the Non Verbal Group in Experiment II the measure of treatment revealed a significance (P = .003). The Tukey Post Hoc analysis Treatment 1 and Treatment 3 as one explanation of the significance. The measure of questioning for this group also failed to show a significance.Regarding results of Experiment II with students who had low abilities, the study determined that the aid of the visual and auditory modes were of significant help to these students. The results for experiment I supported previous studies which revealed that print oriented students performequally well regardless of the sequence of visual, auditory, and print modes.

Les wikis publics permettent à leur lecteur de participer à l'écriture de leur contenu. Cette recherche s'inscrit dans une perspective d'anthropologie des savoirs, en ce qu'elle vise à comprendre ce que les wikis permettent d'un point de vue cognitif et ce qu'ils questionnent d'un point de vue épistémique et politique. L'usage de ces artefacts s'est notamment répandu avec leur implémentation pour de grands projets de construction et d'organisation de connaissances (encyclopédie, documentation en ligne). Nous émettons l’hypothèse que cette appropriation renvoie à deux enjeux anthropologiques majeurs, l'un ayant trait à la forme de cognition (distribuée socialement et techniquement) rendue possible par les wikis, l'autre étant lié aux problèmes d'organisation de communautés ouvertes dont le projet est épistémique. Cette recherche a pour but premier d'analyser la contribution en tant qu'activité constitutive des projets menés sur les wikis publics. Se faisant, elle questionne non seulement les conditions épistémiques, mais aussi les conditions politiques de la construction de connaissances sur un mode collectif et médiatisé. Notre second but est de comprendre le rôle de la négociation dans la contribution. Ayant défini que les communautés épistémiques se reconnaissent au fait qu'elles produisent des connaissances de façon délibérée et délibérative, nous avons postulée que l'analyse du déroulement des négociations entourant des contributions allait nous permettre d'étudier la façon dont les acteurs gèrent l'intrication des dimensions sociales, politiques et épistémiques. À partir de là, nous avons articulé notre travail autour de cette question : Que révèle l'étude de la négociation des contributions au regard de la construction des connaissances et des conventions de participation dans les communautés épistémiques ? Pour étudier les contributions et leurs négociations, nous avons procédé en trois étapes. D'abord, nous avons réalisé un travail de définition des concepts de communautés épistémiques, de contribution et de politisation. Nous avons aussi pris soin de définir en quoi l'étude des négociations pouvait nous aider à comprendre la participation aux problèmes épistémiques et sociaux. Ensuite, pour réfléchir à ce qui caractérise la contribution épistémique, nous nous sommes appuyée sur le résultat d'une enquête par questionnaires en ligne et sur des entretiens menés auprès de contributeurs de trois communautés (issus du wiki de Debian, du wiki de la communauté Ubuntu-fr et du Projet:Québec de Wikipédia.fr). Ces trois études de cas devaient nous permettre de comparer des témoignages sur l'activité de contribution pour dégager des éléments caractéristiques. En troisième lieu, nous avons procédé à l'analyse détaillée des échanges s'organisant autour d'un litige ayant trait soit aux contenus, soit aux dispositifs, soit aux règles internes de chacune de ces communautés. L'analyse conceptuelle nous a mené à proposer quatre caractéristiques de la contribution. Il s'agirait d'une activité motivée par un intérêt personnel, orientée vers un objectif de mise en commun, impliquant une délibération et une forme de reconnaissance liée aux compétences. Le travail d'enquête nous aura amené à revoir cette caractérisation en considérant ces points comme étant avant tout l'objet de tensions caractéristiques. Ainsi avons-nous découvert que les motivations et attentes des contributeurs se construisaient en tension entre intérêt personnel et collectif, que les principes de sélection des contributions étaient constamment débattus, de même que le rapport à la reconnaissance et à l'identification des participants dans un univers où l'anonymat est souvent de mise. Cependant l'enquête révèle que loin d'être nuisibles, ces mises en débat semblent structurantes, ce qui renforce l'idée que les négociations d'ordre social et politique jouent un rôle majeur dans la vie des wikis. Finalement, l'analyse détaillée nous a permis de distinguer ce qui, des négociations, relevait d'une dispute sociale et d'une dispute épistémique. Elle nous a aussi permis d'observer que les contributeurs les plus impliqués savaient eux aussi faire cette distinction et passer d'un domaine à l'autre à des fins de résolution d'une dispute. Cela nous amène à conclure que les wikis supportent bien une forme nouvelle de cognition collective. Nous pensons voir émerger une culture de la contribution qui s'appuie sur une appropriation communautaire des enjeux politiques et épistémiques ayant trait à une forme participative de production de connaissances. Nous soulignons finalement les formes d'exclusions propres à ce phénomène : les inégalités de l'accès et de la participation à cette forme d'écrit public, la sous-représentation des femmes et des communautés culturelles minoritaires, ainsi que les risques de bureaucratisation, de manipulation de l'information et de formation d'une élite technique ou politique. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Communautés épistémiques, contribution, politisation, négociation, cognition collective, wiki, artefacts cognitifs.

Due to the background discrepancy, the regulations of healthy insurance, and the different situation of medical service, there is different perception of balance billing between patients and physicians. The promotion of balance billing is based on the request by law, paid by the users, and medical budget control, which can lead to lower growth rate of medical fee. The purpose of this study is not only to reveal the difference of perception of balance billing between patients and physicians, but also to find out the relationship between service satisfaction and perception gap. Cross-section research method was used to investigate the opinions of admitted patients and physicians in 65 hospitals, located in southern Taiwan and affiliated with the Bureau of National Health Insurance, by questionnaire during a 2 months period. We¡¦d performed various statistical analyses in order to identify the different perception between patients and physicians, and the relationship between perception gap and medical service satisfaction. After extensive research on the related factors, including medical service situation, individual need, and past experience of patients, we can predict their expectation to balance billing. Besides, the discrepancy of expectation and perception between patients and physicians can cause the satisfaction gap, which may influences medical service satisfaction. Our results provided the related factors of satisfaction to the Bureau of National Health Insurance, in effort to help the promotion of balance billing.

This study investigated whether individuals identified as highly creative can resist a cognitive fixation tendency brought upon by the introduction of examples prior to an idea generation task. Ninety-eight subjects, ranging in age from twelve to seventeen and participating in Texas A&M University??s Youth Adventure Program for gifted students, comprised the sample. All took the Thinking Creatively with Sounds and Words test and were divided into three creativity groups (high, middle, and low) based on originality scores. A proportional stratified random sampling procedure was implemented to ensure equal representation for experimental and control groups. The subjects were then presented an experimenter-designed idea generation task, patterned after Smith, Ward, & Schumacher (1993), that called for them to generate ideas for a chair of the future. The experimental group viewed examples prior to task onset that all included three specific features relevant to the design of a chair (adjustable lever, four legs, drink holder). The control group did not view any examples prior to task onset. Conformity effects were measured in relation to the proportion of the features in the examples that were included in the ideas generated by the subjects. Chi-square and a model generated analysis of variance procedure were used to determine if there were any significant direct or interaction effects for both the creativity and treatment groupings on the construct of conformity. The results demonstrated that subjects in the control group conformed at a significantly lesser rate than the experimental one, across all creativity groupings. A significant difference was also found between the high and low creativity groups for conformity. The ANOVA data additionally discovered a significant interaction effect between the variables of treatment condition and creativity grouping, indicating that the interplay of these two variables influenced results. Finally, the conformity rate of those individuals with the highest level of creativity, true to the linear nature of the initial polynomial trend contrast, were, on average, the lowest observed scores.

Diss.--München, 1998. / Bibliogr. p. [257]-271.