Prenatal maternal cortisol measures predict learning and short-term memory performance in 3- but not 5-month-old infants.

Little is known about relations between maternal prenatal stress and specific cognitive processes-learning and memory-in infants. A modified crib-mobile task was employed in a longitudinal design to test relations between maternal prenatal cortisol, prenatal subjective stress and anxiety, psychosocial variables, and learning and memory in 3- and 5-month-old infants. Results revealed that maternal prenatal cortisol was affected by particular psychosocial variables (e.

Self-regulation and working memory in musical performers.

Performing music in front of others can be stressful, even for experienced performers. The physiological effects of stress, namely, increases in cortisol and sympathetic nervous system activity, have been shown to have detrimental effects on cognition, particularly working memory. This study used an audition-like performance scenario to elicit a stress response in performers who differed in their degree of musical experience.

Does visual information influence infants' movement to music?

Humans are often exposed to music beginning at birth (or even before birth), yet the study of the development of musical abilities during infancy has only recently gained momentum. The goals of the present study were to determine whether young infants (ages four to seven months) spontaneously moved rhythmically in the presence of music, and whether the presence of visual information in addition to music would increase or decrease infants' movement. While nearly all infants moved in the presence of music, very few infants demonstrated rhythmic movement.

Retrospective and prospective metacognitive judgments in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).

A growing body of research suggests that some non-human animals are capable of making accurate metacognitive judgments. In previous studies, non-human animals have made either retrospective or prospective judgments (about how they did on a test or how they will do on a test, respectively). These two types of judgments are dissociable in humans.

Increases in cortisol are positively associated with gains in encoding and maintenance working memory performance in young men.

Past studies have demonstrated that increases in cortisol secretion are associated with either enhancements or impairments of long-term memory, depending on the subprocess involved. However, working memory is generally studied as a unified system within the cortisol literature. The present study sought to determine if cortisol increases are positively associated with increases in performance in the encoding subprocess of working memory, and whether increases are positively or negatively associated with performance changes in the maintenance subprocess.

Sequential planning in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta).

In the current study, we examined the planning abilities of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) by training them on a five-item list composed of coloured photographs and then testing them on switch and mask trials. In contrast to previous studies where monkeys made responses using a joystick, in the current study, monkeys made responses directly to a touch screen. On switch trials, after a response to the first list item, the on-screen positions of two list items were exchanged.