ABOUT RUSSIAN MENTALITY IN LANGUAGE, SPEECH AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE

This article is devoted to the disclosure of the mental characteristics of the Russian language personality. Particular attention is paid to the synthetic structure of the language, the nonfixed order of words in the sentence and the category of impersonality, which together create a culturally specific mental context of language, speech and scientific discourse.

Fashion in Postmodern Political Communication

The goal of this article is to try to reach theoretical comprehension of the political fashion phenomenon. Conceptualization of fashion as an effect of mass communication allows one to see in it not only a phenomenon of pop culture but also an immanent side, and at the same time the main social, psychological and mental risk of the progress, – the accelerating humanity evolution. The article shows how modern values – novelty priority, truth accessibility, individualism, – and mass communications progress maximize the potential and danger of mass mental enthusiasm in political sphere. The author substantiates the following conclusion: political fashion in the communication mental context of postmodern appears to be the manifestation and factor the increasing crisis of social structure.

A generalized cortical activity pattern at internally-generated mental context boundaries during unguided narrative recall

Current theory and empirical studies suggest that humans segment continuous experiences into events based on the mismatch between predicted and actual sensory inputs; detection of these “event boundaries” evokes transient neural responses. However, boundaries can also occur at transitions between internal mental states, without relevant external input changes. To what extent do such “internal boundaries” share neural response properties with externally-driven boundaries? We conducted an fMRI experiment where subjects watched a series of short movies and then verbally recalled the movies, unprompted, in the order of their choosing. During recall, transitions between movies thus constituted major boundaries between internal mental contexts, generated purely by subjects’ unguided thoughts. Following the offset of each recalled movie, we observed stereotyped spatial activation patterns in the default mode network, especially the posterior medial cortex, consistent across different movie contents and even across the different tasks of movie watching and recall. Surprisingly, the between-movie boundary patterns were negatively correlated with patterns at boundaries between events within a movie. Thus, major transitions between mental contexts elicit neural phenomena shared across internal and external modes and distinct from within-context event boundary detection, potentially reflecting a cognitive state related to the flushing and reconfiguration of situation models.

Narrative thinking lingers in spontaneous thought

What we think about at any moment is shaped by what preceded it. Why do some experiences, such as reading an immersive story, feel as if they linger in mind beyond their conclusion? In this study, we hypothesize that the stream of our thinking is especially affected by "deeper" forms of processing, emphasizing the meaning and implications of a stimulus rather than its immediate physical properties or low-level semantics (e.g., reading a story vs. reading disconnected words). To test this idea, we presented participants with short stories that preserved different levels of coherence (word-level, sentence-level, or intact narrative), and we measured participants’ self-reports of lingering and spontaneous word generation. Participants reported that stories lingered in their minds after reading, but this effect was greatly reduced when the same words were read with sentence or word-order randomly shuffled. Furthermore, the words that participants spontaneously generated after reading shared semantic meaning with the story’s central themes, particularly when the story was coherent (i.e., intact). Crucially, regardless of the objective coherence of what each participant read, lingering was strongest amongst participants who reported being ‘transported’ into the world of the story while reading. We further generalized this result to a non-narrative stimulus, finding that participants reported lingering after reading a list of words, especially when they had sought an underlying narrative or theme across words. We conclude that recent experiences are most likely to exert a lasting mental context when we seek to extract and represent their deep situation-level meaning.

Oscillatory Correlates of Selective Restudy

Prior behavioral work has shown that selective restudy of some studied items leaves recall of the other studied items unaffected when lag between study and restudy is short, but improves recall of the other items when lag is prolonged. The beneficial effect has been attributed to context retrieval, assuming that selective restudy reactivates the context at study and thus provides a retrieval cue for the other items (Bäuml, 2019). Here the results of two experiments are reported, in each of which subjects studied a list of items and then, after a short 2-min or a prolonged 10-min lag, restudied some of the list items. Participants' electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded during both the study and restudy phases. In Experiment 2, but not in Experiment 1, subjects engaged in a mental context reinstatement task immediately before the restudy phase started, trying to mentally reinstate the study context. Results of Experiment 1 revealed a theta/alpha power increase from study to restudy after short lag and an alpha/beta power decrease after long lag. Engagement in the mental context reinstatement task in Experiment 2 eliminated the decrease in alpha/beta power. The results are consistent with the view that the observed alpha/beta decrease reflects context retrieval, which became obsolete when there was preceding mental context reinstatement.

The neural mechanisms of active removal from working memory

The ability to frequently update the contents working memory (WM) is vital for the flexible control of behavior. Whether there even exists a mechanism for the active removal of information from working memory, however, remains poorly understood. In this Registered Report we will test the predictions of models for two different (and not mutually exclusive) mechanisms of active removal: adaptation-hijacking and mental-context shifting. We will collect functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while subjects perform a novel “ABC-retrocuing” task designed to elicit two modes of removal, active or passive (Shan & Postle, Registered Report). The adaptation-hijacking model posits an adaptation-like modification of perceptual circuits combined with a weak activation of the to-be-removed item. Its predictions will be assessed by using multivariate inverted encoding modeling (IEM) and photic “pings” to assay the state of feature-selective encoding channels and of activity-silent representations under active-removal versus passive-removal conditions. A second model – “working memory episodic memory” (WMEM) – posits that interference from no-longer-relevant information is minimized by making the mental context associated with new information dissimilar from that associated with the to-be-“removed” information. This will be tested by using representational similarity analysis (RSA) to compare the rate of contextual drift under active-removal versus passive-removal conditions.

Oscillatory correlates of selective restudy

Prior behavioral work has shown that selective restudy of some studied items leaves recall of the other studied items unaffected when lag between study and restudy is short, but improves recall of the other items when lag is prolonged. The beneficial effect has been attributed to context retrieval, assuming that selective restudy reactivates the context at study and thus provides a retrieval cue for the other items (Bäuml, 2019). Here the results of two experiments are reported, in each of which subjects studied a list of items and then, after a short 2-min or a prolonged 10-min lag, restudied some of the list items. Participants’ electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded during both the study and restudy phases. In Experiment 2, but not in Experiment 1, subjects engaged in a mental context reinstatement task immediately before the restudy phase started, trying to mentally reinstate the study context. Results of Experiment 1 revealed a theta/alpha power increase from study to restudy after short lag and an alpha/beta power decrease after long lag. Engagement in the mental context reinstatement task in Experiment 2 eliminated the decrease in alpha/beta power. The results are consistent with the view that the observed alpha/beta decrease reflects context retrieval, which became obsolete when there was preceding mental context reinstatement.

Drivers’ workload measures to verify functionality of ferry boats boarding area

Functionality of a square used for ferry boats boarding has repercussions on safety and comfort of users, as well as on the efficiency of maritime transport. Inadequate use of the infrastructure causes driving errors followed by corrective manoeuvres, loss of time and potential accidents with consequences for community and the maritime transport compa-ny. The wide diversification of traffic components and payment methods are generally managed through a traditional horizontal and vertical signage system that does not refer to any current legislation. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate driver's behaviour and the interaction that takes place between the latter and the environ-mental context. In particular, the authors focused on the study of the driver’s workload in a simulated environment, considering a users' sample and different driving scenarios inside the boarding area, concerning traffic conditions (isolated vehicle or presence of disturbing vehicles) and signs position. All this, in order to evaluate whether any change in a virtual context could bring real benefits to drivers, before being transferred to the real context. The results obtained, in terms of subjective workload and performance measures, have made it possible to judge the different solutions proposed in a simulated environment through synthetic indices referring to the entire boarding place or at certain parts of it. In this way, the manager can decide to change the circulation of the entire square or only some aspects of detail, such as some signals, in the event that they manifest an evident difficulty in the transfer of infor-mation. The use of the simulated environment allows greater speed in identifying the best solution, lower costs (avoid-ing the creation of a critical configuration for circulation) and greater user safety, since risky manoeuvres are identi-fied and corrected by the simulator. The proposed procedure can be used by managers for a correct arrangement of the signs, for the purpose of correctly directing the flows and maximizing the flow rate disposed of.

Effects of acute exercise on directed forgetting

Background: The directed forgetting paradigm involves individuals encoding a list of words(List 1; L1) and then, prior to encoding a second list of words (List 2; L2), they are given specific instructions to either remember all the words from L1 or to try and forget these words. In this paradigm, after encoding L1, those who are given the directed forgetting (DF) instructions tend tore call more words for L2 when compared to those who were given the remember (R) instructions(DF benefit effect). Similarly, those given the DF instructions tend to recall fewer words from L1(DF cost effect). This DF phenomenon may, in part, occur via attentional inhibitory mechanisms, or mental context-change mechanisms, which may be influenced via acute exercise. Methods: The present experiment investigates if acute exercise can facilitate DF when exercise occurs after L1 forgetting instructions. Participants (N = 97; Mage = 21 years) were randomly assigned into either acute exercise (15-min high-intensity aerobic exercise) plus DF (EX + DF),2) DF (directed forgetting) only (DF) or 3) R (remember) only (R). A standard two list (L1 and L2)DF paradigm was employed. Results: We observed evidence of a DF cost effect, but not a DF benefit effect. For L1, although both EX + DF and DF differed from R, there was no difference between EX + DF and DF. Further, although for L2, EX + DF was different than DF, neither of these groups differed when compared to R. Conclusion: We reserve caution in suggesting that exercise had a DF effect.

Survival of the salient: Emotion rescues otherwise forgettable memories via neural reactivation and post-encoding hippocampal connectivity

Emotion’s selective effects on memory go beyond the simple enhancement of threatening or rewarding stimuli. They can also rescue otherwise forgettable memories that share overlapping features. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the brain mechanisms that support this retrograde memory enhancement. In a two-phase incidental encoding paradigm, participants first view images of neutral tools and animals. During Phase 1, these images are intermixed with neutral scenes, which provides a unique ‘context tag’ for this specific phase of encoding. A few minutes later, during Phase 2, new pictures from one category are paired with a mild shock (fear-conditioned stimulus; CS+), while pictures from the other category are not shocked. fMRI analyses reveal that, across participants, retroactive memory benefits for Phase 1 CS+ items are associated with greater phasic reinstatement of the prior mental context during Phase 2 CS+ items. We also see that greater VTA/SN activation during Phase 2 CS+ items relates to this retroactive memory enhancement, suggesting that emotion promotes both the encoding and ongoing consolidation of overlapping representations. Additionally, we find that emotional experience-dependent changes in post-encoding hippocampal functional coupling with CS+ category-selective cortex relate to the magnitude of the retroactive memory effect. These hippocampal connectivity patterns also mediate the relationship between dopaminergic emotional encoding effects and across-participant variability in the retroactive memory benefit. Collectively, our findings suggest that an interplay between online and offline brain mechanisms may enable emotion to preserve seemingly mundane memories that become significant in the future.