Tempo discrimination in infants

An habituation/dishabituation paradigm demonstrates that 2- and 4-month-old infants are able to discriminate auditory sequences that vary slightly in tempo. Discriminations were only observed for intermediate tempi (600 ms but not 100, 300, 1500 ms IOI), suggesting that infants have the same optimal tempo range as adults.     

Competition Anxiety,Motivation, and Mental Toughness in Golf

The purpose of this study was to examine whether one's profile of motivation was associated with competition anxiety through mental toughness among 173 competitive golfers (164 men, 9 women). Latent profile analysis identified three distinct motivation profiles (high, moderate, and low motivation). Multicategorical mediation models demonstrated that athletes reporting low or moderate levels of motivation had higher levels of competition anxiety, with these associations partially mediated by lower levels of mental toughness. These findings would permit practitioners to better understand motivation, mental toughness, and competition anxiety symptoms, and their associations.     

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and Neuropsychological Functioning

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is marked by impairments across social, emotional, and academic functioning, but few studies have examined the...     

Cognitive Tempo in Educable Mentally Retarded Children

The present study investigated the relationship of time and errors on the Matching Familiar Figures test to the mental age of 40 Caucasian male, educable mentally retarded (EMR) children. The children, who ranged in age from six to 18 years, had intelligence test scores of less than 80, were exhibiting problems in adaptive behavior, and were all receiving special education services. An ANOVA revealed that with increasing mental age, elapsed time to first response increased and errors decreased, thus indicating a mental age developmental decrease in impulsivity. For all subjects, time was inversely related to errors. The data suggest that the development of cognitive tempo in EMR children parallels that of nonhandicapped children.     

Emotional Responses to Music: Interactive Effects of Mode,Texture, and Tempo

Although much research has explored emotional responses to music using single musical elements, none has explored the interactive effects of mode, texture, and tempo in a single experiment. To this end, a 2 (mode: major vs. minor) × 2 (texture: nonharmonized vs. harmonized) × 3 (tempo: 72, 108, 144 beats per min) within-participants experimental design was employed, in which 177 college students rated four, brief musical phrases on continuous happy-sad scales. Major keys, nonharmonized melodies, and faster tempos were associated with happier responses, whereas their respective opposites were associated with sadder responses. These effects were also interactive, such that the typically positive association between tempo and happiness was inverted among minor, nonharmonized phrases. Some of these effects were moderated by the gender and amount of musical experience of participants. A principal components analysis of responses to the stimuli revealed one negatively and one positively valenced factor of emotional musical stimuli.     

Validity of the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Symptom Dimension in Children: Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and ADHD-Inattention as Distinct Symptom Dimensions

This study examined the validity of the sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptom dimension in children. Ten symptom domains were used to define SCT (i.e., (1) daydreams; (2) attention fluctuates; (3) absent-minded; (4) loses train of thought; (5) easily confused; (6) seems drowsy; (7) thinking is slow; (8) slow-moving; (9) low initiative; and (10) easily bored, needs stimulation). Teacher ratings of 366 children (ages 5 to 13 with 56 % girls) along with parent ratings of 703 children (ages 5 to 13 with 55 % girls) indicated that SCT symptom domains one to eight showed convergent validity (i.e., substantial loadings on the SCT factor) and discriminant validity with the ADHD-IN dimension (i.e., higher loadings on the SCT factor than the ADHD-IN factor). Higher scores on this eight-symptom measure of SCT predicted lower levels of academic and social competence even after controlling for ADHD-IN and ADHD-HI. In addition, higher SCT scores still predicted higher anxiety/depression scores after controlling for ADHD-IN and ADHD-HI. Higher SCT scores also predicted lower ADHD-HI scores after controlling for ADHD-IN and anxiety/depression while higher ADHD-IN and anxiety/depression scores predicted higher ADHD-HI scores after controlling for SCT and anxiety/depression or ADHD-IN. SCT also showed a unique negative relationship with ODD while ADHD-IN and anxiety/depression showed unique positive relationships with ODD. This new measure of the SCT dimension was meaningfully independent from the ADHD-IN and anxiety/depression dimensions and suggests that such an SCT dimension may signify a distinct presentation of ADHD or a different (if highly comorbid) disorder altogether.     

Aging, attention, and intelligence

The aims of this study were (a) to find out if attentional ability factors that are separate from the well-established ability factors (e.g., fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and short-term acquisition and retrieval function) can be identified, and (b) to establish, through the use of part correlations, whether attentional abilities play a role in the changes in fluid and crystallized intelligence that occur with increasing age. A battery of 36 tests (19 psychometric tests and 17 measures of attentional processes) were given to 100 people. 20 of whom were in each age decade between 20 and 70. Results indicated that three attentional factors--Search, Concentration, and Attentional Flexibility--exist at the primary-ability level and that all three define fluid intelligence at the second-order level. Results also indicate that the decline in fluid intelligence with increasing age disappears if attentional factors are parted-out. Similarly, the increase in crystallized intelligence with increasing age becomes even greater if one controls for attentional processes. I conclude that changes in attentional processes play an important part in changes in human intelligence with age.     

Aging, Memory, and Comprehension

There are changes in the ability to comprehend and remember information with aging. In general, older adults perform more poorly than younger adults at tasks that require knowledge of the information that was actually encountered. However, they can perform as well as or better than younger adults at tasks involving more global levels of understanding, such as in the use ofinformation in a situation model. This increased emphasis on situation models may serve to compensate for deficits at lower levels of processing and may be achieved through more focused selection of situation-defining information, increased dependence on schemas, and a broader generation and use of inferences.     

Social and Academic Impairment in Youth with ADHD, Predominately Inattentive Type and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) was originally identified as a construct that characterized the inattention problems of some children with attention deficit disorder (ADD). Research has indicated that using SCT symptoms to identify a subset of youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, predominately inattentive type (ADHD-IT) may elucidate distinct patterns of impairment and thereby improve the external validity of ADHD subtypes. The objective of the current study was to investigate whether youth with clinically-assessed ADHD-IT and high levels of SCT exhibit unique social and academic impairments. In a clinic-referred sample of youth (N?=?209; 23 % female) aged 6 to 17 years, participants who met criteria for three different groups were identified: ADHD, Combined Type (ADHD-CT; n?=?80), ADHD-IT with low SCT symptoms (n?=?74), and ADHD-IT with high SCT symptoms (n?=?55). These groups were compared on indicators of social and academic functioning while considering the effects of co-occurring internalizing and disruptive behavior disorders. Youth with ADHD-IT high in SCT exhibited uniquely elevated withdrawal, as well as low leadership and low peer-directed relational and overt aggression, which were not accounted for by co-occurring disorders. This high-SCT group was also the only group to have more homework problems than the ADHD-CT group, but only when other disruptive behavior disorders were absent. The distinctiveness of the high-SCT group, which was primarily evident in social as opposed to academic functioning, provides partial support for the external validity and clinical utility of SCT.     

Time and Rhythm in Couples

In this article, a theory is offered on the role of time in couple functioning and distress. The theory argues that no single set of temporal patterns is associated with couple distress or satisfaction. Rather, it advocates attention to the individual differences between couples in their understanding of the meaning of the temporal patterns in their relationship. The couple's narrative about the evolution and maintenance of these temporal patterns can be understood as revealing much about partners' experiences of the relationship in terms of the concepts of closeness and power. Interventions on the temporal dimension may be useful when the couple presents with an explicit problem in temporal patterns; when a particular temporal pattern prevents the couple from addressing other issues; and when the therapist wishes to reframe a problem in a manner that lowers conflict intensity. Along with the theory, a preliminary taxonomy of time problems in couples is presented as a guide to assessment. This is followed by clinical vignettes to illustrate how the theory can be used in couple therapy.     

Rhythm and dominance

Subjects were tested by a short experimental procedure involving tapping of a rhythm with one limb with a simultaneous regular beat with another limb. Informal observations had suggested a rhythm dominance effect—that is was dramatically easier with some limb combinations. Notably it was easy when the right hand tapped the rhythm and the left hand the beat but almost impossible the other way round. Equally, both hands dominated both feet. Our tests revealed enormous individual differences, subjects separating neatly into three groups. Some people could not do the task at all, some could do it with any limb combination, the latter group including all the serious musicians tested. For the remainder the rhythm dominance effect was clear. However, the laterality effect was the same (right hand advantage) for a majority (60%) of left handers. We conclude, then, that this effect is linked to language dominance and not handedness. In addition it seems there is a task scheduler which imposes its own view in combining this laterality effect with the dominance of hands over feet.     

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo,Processing Speed,and Internalizing Symptoms: the Moderating Effect of Age

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) has been defined by a constellation of caregiver-reported symptoms that includes daydreaming, difficulty initiating and sustaining effort, lethargy, and physical underactivity. These symptoms have been observed in both typically developing children and in some children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)—especially those with the predominantly inattentive presentation. Symptoms of SCT (typically identified via rating scales) appear separable from DSM inattentive ADHD symptoms, but have also been associated with internalizing symptoms. To date, however, few studies have examined associations among ratings of SCT and speeded performance-based measures. The present study examined associations among SCT, processing speed, and internalizing symptoms in a sample of 566 clinically referred children (65% male), while also considering how these associations change with age. Findings revealed small but significant age-related differences in the strength of associations between the “Daydreamy” element of SCT and processing speed (as measured by the WISC-IV Processing Speed Index—PSI), with stronger associations observed in younger children. Importantly, this difference in strength of association was not accounted for by the change in WISC-IV test forms for PSI subtests between 6–7 year-olds and 8–16 year-olds. Conversely, the association between SCT and internalizing symptoms remained generally consistent across the age range. Findings contribute to further characterization of the “slowness” of responding seen in SCT and may have implications for behavioral intervention.     

Aging, source memory, and emotion

In 2 experiments we assessed younger and older adults' ability to remember contextual information about an event. Each experiment examined memory for 3 different types of contextual information: (a) perceptual information (e.g., location of an item); (b) conceptual, nonemotional information (e.g., quality of an item); and (c) conceptual, emotional information (e.g., safety of an item). Consistent with a large literature on aging and source memory, younger adults outperformed older adults when the contextual information was perceptual in nature and when it was conceptual, but not emotional. Age differences in source memory were eliminated, however, when participants recalled emotional source information. These findings suggest that emotional information differentially engages older adults, possibly evoking enhanced elaborations and associations. The data are also consistent with a growing literature, suggesting that emotional processing remains stable with age (e.g., Carstensen & Turk-Charles, 1994, 1998; Isaacowitz, Charles, & Carstensen, 2000).     

The Relation Between Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and DSM-IV ADHD

To test the relation between sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and DSM-IV ADHD symptoms, parent and teacher ratings of the 18 DSM-IV ADHD items and five potential SCT items were obtained in a community sample of 8-18 year-old twins that was overselected for ADHD and learning disabilities (n = 296). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a three-factor model provided the best fit to the data for both parent and teacher ratings. DSM-IV inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms loaded on two factors consistent with the DSM-IV model, and five SCT symptoms loaded primarily on a third factor. The SCT and inattention factors were highly correlated, whereas SCT and hyperactivity-impulsivity were weakly related. Both raters indicated that children meeting symptom criteria for the combined and inattentive subtypes exhibited significantly more SCT symptoms than those meeting symptom criteria for hyperactive-impulsive type and the comparison group without ADHD. Children meeting symptom criteria for the inattentive type exhibited significantly more SCT symptoms than those meeting criteria for the combined type, based on teacher ratings. These results suggest that SCT is an internally consistent construct that is significantly associated with DSM-IV inattention.     

Aging, inhibition, and social inappropriateness

This study explores the hypothesis that age-related declines in inhibitory ability are associated with increases in socially inappropriate behavior. Consistent with this hypothesis, older participants were less likely than younger participants to differentiate between public and private settings when inquiring about potentially embarrassing issues, according to their peers. Additionally, this indiscriminate public inquiry was associated with decreased closeness with participants' peers, particularly for older adults. Finally, this age-related increase in social inappropriateness was mediated by inhibitory deficits associated with aging. These results suggest that age-related deficits in inhibitory ability may cause people to become socially inappropriate against their will.