Attentional capture and aging: implications for visual search performance and oculomotor control

Two studies examined potential age-related differences in attentional capture. Subjects were instructed to move their eyes as quickly as possible to a color singleton target and to identify a small letter located inside it. On half the trials, a new stimulus (i.e., a sudden onset) appeared simultaneously with the presentation of the color singleton target. The onset was always a task-irrelevant distractor. Response times were lengthened, for both young and old adults, whenever an onset distractor appeared, despite the fact that subjects reported being unaware of the appearance of the abrupt onset. Eye scan strategies were also disrupted by the appearance of the onset distractors. On about 40% of the trials on which an onset appeared, subjects made an eye movement to the task-irrelevant onset before moving their eyes to the target. Fixations close to the onset were brief, suggesting parallel programming of a reflexive eye movement to the onset and goal-directed eye movement to the target. Results are discussed in terms of age-related sparing of the attentional and oculomotor processes that underlie attentional capture.     

Everyday cognition and mortality: performance differences and predictive utility of the Everyday Cognition Battery

In this article, the authors examine the relationship between everyday cognition and mortality. Data were initially collected in 1996-1997 from 171 community-dwelling older people ranging in age from 60 to 92 years old (M = 74 years, SD = 7.38). Participants completed the Everyday Cognition Battery (ECB; J. C. Allaire & M. Marsiske, 1999, 2002) as well as basic cognitive ability tests. Results indicated that participants who died since testing (n = 56) had performed significantly worse than did still-living participants on all measures. Additionally, performance on the ECB Knowledge Test was a significant predictor of death even after controlling for basic cognitive abilities, demographics, and self-rated health.     

Depressive symptoms, cortisol, and cognition during human aging: the role of negative aging perceptions

Depressive symptoms and memory impairments are associated with heightened stress hormone levels during aging. A factor that is related to memory deficits during aging is internalized negative aging stereotypes; the idea people have about the process of aging. In this study, we assessed the associations between internalized negative aging stereotypes, depressive symptoms, subjective and objective memory assessments, and cortisol concentration among older adults. Forty older adults aged between 58 and 85 years (18 females and 22 males; mean age?±?SD: 71.25?±?8.80 years) were assessed in this study. Measures of internalized negative aging stereotypes, depressive symptoms, and both subjective and objective memory performance were assessed. Salivary samples were obtained for measurement of cortisol concentration. Stepwise linear regressions were executed in our main analyses. Internalized negative aging stereotypes were associated with increased depressive symptoms and subjective memory complaints. No significant differences were observed for objective memory performance, or cortisol concentration. Internalized negative aging stereotypes are associated with increased depressive symptomatology and subjective complaints of memory; however, they do not predict increased cortisol concentration nor objective memory performance during aging. These results indicate that the mechanism underlying the association between internalized negative aging stereotypes and cognitive impairments may not be related to dysregulations of cortisol secretion among older adults.     

Effects of hormone replacement therapy and aging on cognition: evidence for executive dysfunction

The present study was designed to explore whether the frontal lobe hypothesis of cognitive aging may be extended to describe the cognitive effects associated with estrogen use in postmenopausal women. Postmenopausal estrogen-only users, estrogen + progesterone users, and non-users (60-80 years old), as well as young, regularly cycling women (18-30 years old) completed an item and source memory task. Since source memory is thought to rely more on executive processes than item memory, we hypothesized that aging and estrogen effects would be greater for source memory than for item memory. Neuropsychological tests explored whether the effects of aging and estrogen use were revealed on other tests of frontal lobe function. Results from the experimental task revealed greater aging and estrogen effects for source memory than for item memory, and neuropsychological results revealed aging and estrogen effects on a subset of tests of executive function. Women on estrogen + progesterone therapy did not outperform non-users, suggesting that the addition of progesterone to hormone therapy may mitigate the benefits induced by estrogen use alone. Overall, findings support the hypothesis that estrogen use may temper age-related cognitive decline by helping to maintain functions subserved by the frontal lobes.     

Grammatical gender effects on cognition: implications for language learning and language use

In 4 experiments, the authors addressed the mechanisms by which grammatical gender (in Italian and German) may come to affect meaning. In Experiments 1 (similarity judgments) and 2 (semantic substitution errors), the authors found Italian gender effects for animals but not for artifacts; Experiment 3 revealed no comparable effects in German. These results suggest that gender effects arise as a generalization from an established association between gender of nouns and sex of human referents, extending to nouns referring to sexuated entities. Across languages, such effects are found when the language allows for easy mapping between gender of nouns and sex of human referents (Italian) but not when the mapping is less transparent (German). A final experiment provided further constraints: These effects during processing arise at a lexical-semantic level rather than at a conceptual level.     

Essentializing race: implications for bicultural individuals' cognition and physiological reactivity

It is a widely held belief that racial groups have underlying essences. We hypothesized that bicultural individuals who hold this essentialist belief about race are oriented to perceive rigid interracial boundaries and experience difficulty passing between their ethnic culture and the host culture. As predicted, we found that the more strongly Chinese American participants endorsed an essentialist belief about race, the less effective they were in switching rapidly between Chinese and American cultural frames in a reaction time task (Study 1), and the greater emotional reactivity they exhibited (reflected in heightened skin conductance) while they talked about their Chinese and American cultural experiences (Study 2). Taken together, these findings suggest that essentialist beliefs about race set up a mind-set that influences how bicultural individuals navigate between their ethnic and host cultures.     

Creativity and cognition some implications for arts education

Abstract:

This study explored the relationships between creativity and cognitive skills, and the implications for arts education. The primary hypotheses were (a) that the creative arts career orientation is a valid personality construct, correlating with multiple domains of creative behavior; (b) that this orientation would be correlated with certain cognitive skills, including logical, divergent, and creative thinking; and (c) that these skills are themselves correlated with creative behaviors. Sixty‐five high school seniors were given the ACT Interest Inventory, several tests of logical, insightful, divergent, and creative thinking, and a modified version of the Creative Behavior Inventory. Results included significant correlations of the arts orientation with five domains of creative behawior and three cognitive skills. However, these skills were only correlated with two domains of creative behavior (literature and art). Discussion centered on fundamental implications for methods of arts education.     

Prevalence of mood symptoms and depressions during pregnancy: implications for clinical practice and research

A review of the literature demonstrates that the incidence of new mental disorders and their prevalence during pregnancy is similar to the 12-month incidence of mental disorders in women during other periods of their lives. The prevalence of severe mood, behavior, and cognitive symptoms during pregnancy is rather high. Severe mental symptoms during pregnancy have been reported to be associated with an increased rate of complications during pregnancy and delivery, preterm deliveries, low birth weight, a higher rate of postpartum depression, and a longer-term impact on the offspring's development. Several pre-pregnancy risk factors to develop dysphoric symptoms have been reported, but their utility for primiparous women with no previous history of mental disorders is unclear. The association of mental symptoms with general symptoms and biological changes during pregnancy is also unclear. Given the short- and long-term impact of dysphoric symptoms and stress during pregnancy on mother and child, efficacious, efficient, and safe prevention and treatment modalities are essential and achievable. Clarification of the nature and phenotyping of mental and general symptoms during pregnancy is an important step for the development of effective interventions.     

Reinforcing efficacy of food on performance during pre- and postmeal sessions

Assessments were conducted to identify preferred foods for 9 adults with severe to profound mental retardation. Subsequently, the reinforcing effects of each participant's most highly preferred food were evaluated during sessions conducted before and after lunch. Results showed that 4 participants' response rates were higher during premeal sessions than during postmeal sessions. By contrast, pre- and postmeal response rates were indistinguishable for the other 5 participants. These results indicate that the reinforcing efficacy of food may (but does not necessarily) diminish following meals and suggest that the influence of meal schedules should be examined on an individual basis when food is used as reinforcement during training sessions.     

A comprehensive meta-analysis of the predictive validity of the graduate record examinations: implications for graduate student selection and performance

This meta-analysis examined the validity of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) and undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) as predictors of graduate school performance. The study included samples from multiple disciplines, considered different criterion measures, and corrected for statistical artifacts. Data from 1,753 independent samples were included in the meta-analysis, yielding 6,589 correlations for 8 different criteria and 82,659 graduate students. The results indicated that the GRE and UGPA are generalizably valid predictors of graduate grade point average, 1st-year graduate grade point average, comprehensive examination scores, publication citation counts, and faculty ratings. GRE correlations with degree attainment and research productivity were consistently positive; however, some lower 90% credibility intervals included 0. Subject Tests tended to be better predictors than the Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical tests.     

Improved episodic integration through enactment: implications for aging

Enactment may improve memory for verb phrases by facilitating episodic integration of object-action components into a unitized whole. It is unclear, however, whether the influence of enactment on episodic integration is related to or independent of the strength of the preexisting semantic relationship between components. To address this issue, the authors examined the influence of enactment on memory for lists of semantically related object-action phrases ("Put money in the wallet") and semantically unrelated phrases created by repairing these objects and actions to make phrases that were unusual but still were possible to perform ("String a thread through the wallet," "Put money in the napkin"). As such, phrases in the related and unrelated lists were matched for familiarity of the individual components and differed only in the associative strength of the object-action relationship. Although verbatim recall of unrelated lists was poorer under standard verbal encoding conditions, enactment succeeded in bringing performance to the level of related lists, indicating that enactment's influence on episodic integration was independent of the semantic relatedness of the object and action components. Analysis of partial recall errors (accurate recall of only one component) suggested that enactment benefited recall in the unrelated lists by improving memory for the action and reducing fragmentation of the association, providing further support for the unitization view. This pattern of results was replicated in normal older adults, a population that exhibits particular difficulty with episodic memory for unrelated associations. The cognitive mechanisms by which enactment may improve episodic integration in both younger and older adults are discussed.     

Selective attention improves under stress: implications for theories of social cognition

Three influential perspectives of social cognition entail conflicting predictions regarding the selectivity of performance under stress. According to the attention view, selectivity to the task-relevant attribute improves under stress because of reduced utilization of task-irrelevant attributes. According to the capacity-resource approach, stress depletes attentional resources wherefore selectivity fails for all but chronically accessible information. A third perspective, ironic process theory, similarly holds that selective attention fails under stress but adds that task-irrelevant information is rendered hyperaccessible. The theoretical derivations were tested in a series of experiments using 2 classes of selectivity measures, with special care taken to control for hitherto neglected factors of context The results showed that the selectivity of attention improved under stress, consistent with the prediction of the attention view.     

Some characteristics of EMG patterns during locomotion: implications for the locomotor control process

Myoelectric signals from several muscles of the lower limb were studied under various speed and stride length conditions. The main purpose was to determine invariant and variant features among these myoelectric patterns. A pattern recognition algorithm was used to analyze these activity patterns. Within-condition analysis revealed some common features among the EMG patterns. This suggests that the nervous system does not have to generate all the muscle activity patterns, only the common features that can, in appropriate combination, produce the necessary activity patterns. From the across condition analysis, the following rules emerged. First, both phasic component and magnitude (d.c. level) of the muscle activity patterns have to be modulated to meet the demands imposed by the various conditions. Second, the variability in the proximal muscle activity patterns across conditions are higher than the distal muscle activity patterns. Within each group, the extensor muscles and double-jointed muscles show greater variability than the flexor muscles and single-jointed muscles. And finally, the changes in the average value (d.c. level) of the muscle activity patterns across conditions are not uniform but show muscle and task specificity. For example, within the speed condition, the increase in d.c. level of the extensors with speed of locomotion show a proximal to distal trend. Based on these results, a conceptual model for the human locomotor control process is proposed.     

Retaking ability tests in a selection setting: implications for practice effects,training performance,and turnover

This field study investigated the effect of retaking identical selection tests on subsequent test scores of 4,726 candidates for law enforcement positions. For both cognitive ability and oral communication ability selection tests, candidates produced significant score increases between the 1st and 2nd and the 2nd and 3rd test administrations. Furthermore, the repeat testing relationships with posthire training performance and turnover were examined in a sample of 1,515 candidates eventually selected into the organization. As predicted from persistence and continuance commitment rationales, the number of tests necessary to gain entry into the organization was positively associated with training performance and negatively associated with turnover probability.     

Emotional sequelae of abortion: implications for clinical practice

For women in therapy who have had abortions, an exploration of the context and aftermath of each abortion has been suggested. This inquiry should include: characteristics of the woman herself before and at the time of the abortion, the nature of the interpersonal and cultural milieu at the time, characteristics of the medical environment and procedure, and any events subsequent to the abortion that may evoke regrets about the earlier decision.
Whether or not such an inquiry results in the identification of unresolved issues surrounding the abortion, it is likely to enhance one's general understanding of the client. Exploring a woman's decision to have an abortion can bring into relief developmental and family issues, relationship conflicts, and her aspirations for education, work, and family. A woman's approach to establishing and asserting her priorities and values in making difficult personal decisions becomes clear as does her ability to tolerate and resolve the ambivalence inherent in making difficult decisions.
In psychotherapy, it is important to understand and address those aspects of experience that women have difficulty resolving. Hence, the emphasis on categories of experience that may have a negative impact on a woman's emotional well-being after abortion. Nevertheless, the clinician should remember that even women who report negative post-abortion sequelae overwhelmingly report that they feel that the decision was the right one for them. Having ambivalent feelings to resolve does not necessarily mean that one has made a wrong choice, only that one has made an emotionally significant choice with far-reaching personal implications, in a sociocultural environment that reinforces the ambivalence inherent in such decisions.     

The social process of aging: Its implications for pastoral ministry

Aging, in the context of modern American culture, is as much a social process as it is a biological fact. It is because we perceive the characteristics of old age to be threatening to our common values that we relegate the elderly to out-group status and attempt to manage them, much as we do the members of other deviant populations. The result is the creation of a self-abasing elderly role, to which the aging are in many ways forced to conform. If our ministry is to affirm the humanity of older men and women, it is necessary that we cease to look upon them as complexes of typical traits. Only then can we begin to make the healing love of Christ present for them.     

Varieties of inhibition: manifestations in cognition, event-related potentials and aging.

Inhibition and facilitation are the driving forces of selective attention. Some important and still unresolved conceptual issues with respect to facilitation and inhibition are: (a) are they separate processes with different neural substrates (b) what is their time course and (c) what is their temporal locus: do they operate at the level of early sensory, central or response-related selection processes? In this introductory article we present a overview of relevant experimental paradigms that are also (in part) reflected in the contributions of this special volume, and discuss the major behavioral and psychophysiological findings from which inhibitory processes have been inferred. The global pattern of the results indicates that there are multiple inhibitory systems and processes in the central nervous system that may be expressed in many different ways. Our overview of paradigms together with the aging-related literature leads us to propose a framework for conceptualizing inhibitory processes in terms of three distinct but interacting neural systems at the level of anterior and posterior cortices and the brain stem.     

The prematurity stereotype: Empirical evidence and implications for practice

The prematurity stereotype is defined as a set of biased beliefs about infants who are identified as having been born prematurely. This article reviews studies that have explored how this prematurity stereotype may negatively influence adults' perceptions of, expectations for, and behavior toward premature infants. The findings from these studies are considered in the context of more general knowledge about how expectations can influence behavior and result in self-fulfilling prophecies. Recent research designed to investigate how prematurity stereotyping can be reduced also is described and evaluated. Finally, the implications of this program of research for intervention with parents of premature infants and suggestions for future research directions are discussed.