Psychological variables and success of interpersonal coordination of motor performance tasks]

This paper examines which dispositional, cognitive and motivational variables will contribute to improved multi-person motor coordination. The study conceptually refers to a control-theoretical approach of continuous motor behavior. According to this approach interpersonal behavior should be determined by similar regulative processes as is individual behavior. Results of a laboratory study with 18 three-person groups support assumptions of this approach. Substantial effects on group performance are found for dispositional and motivational variables. Theoretical implications of the results obtained are discussed. Conclusions for applied issues are derived.     

The effect of reward on orienting and reorienting in exogenous cuing

It is thought that reward-induced motivation influences perceptual, attentional, and cognitive control processes to facilitate behavioral performance. In this study, we investigated the effect of reward-induced motivation on exogenous attention orienting and inhibition of return (IOR). Attention was captured by peripheral onset cues that were nonpredictive for the target location. Participants performed a target discrimination task at short (170 ms) and long (960 ms) cue–target stimulus onset asynchronies. Reward-induced motivation was manipulated by exposing participants to low- and high-reward blocks. Typical cue facilitation effects on initial orienting were observed for both the low- and high-reward conditions. However, IOR was found only for the high-reward condition. This indicates that reward-induced motivation has a clear effect on reorienting and inhibitory processes following the initial capture of attention, but not on initial exogenous orienting that is considered to be exclusively automatic and stimulus-driven. We suggest that initial orienting is completely data-driven, not affected by top-down motivational processes, while reorienting and the accompanying IOR effect involve motivational top-down processes. To support this, we showed that reward-induced motivational processes and top-down control processes co-act in order to improve behavioral performance: High-reward-induced motivation caused an increase in top-down cognitive control, as signified by posterror slowing. Moreover, we show that personality trait propensity to reward-driven behavior (BAS-Drive scale) was related to reward-triggered behavioral changes in top-down reorienting, but not to changes in automatic orienting.     

Cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding in primates?

Several hypotheses propose that cooperative breeding leads to increased cognitive performance, in both nonhuman and human primates, but systematic evidence for such a relationship is missing. A causal link might exist because motivational and cognitive processes necessary for the execution and coordination of helping behaviors could also favor cognitive performance in contexts not directly related to caregiving. In callitrichids, which among primates rely most strongly on cooperative breeding, these motivational and cognitive processes include attentional biases toward monitoring others, the ability to coordinate actions spatially and temporally, increased social tolerance, increased responsiveness to others’ signals, and spontaneous prosociality. These processes are likely to enhance performance particularly in socio-cognitive contexts. Therefore, cooperatively breeding primates are expected to outperform their independently breeding sister taxa in socio-cognitive tasks. We evaluate this prediction by reviewing the literature and comparing cognitive performance in callitrichids with that of their sister taxa, i.e. squirrel monkeys, which are independent breeders, and capuchin monkeys, which show an intermediate breeding system. Consistent with our prediction, this review reveals that callitrichids systematically and significantly outperform their sister taxa in the socio-cognitive, but not in the non-social domain. This comparison is complemented with more qualitative evaluations of prosociality and cognitive performance in non-primate cooperative breeders, which suggest that among mammals, cooperative breeding generally produces conditions conducive to socio-cognitive performance. In the hominid lineage, however, the adoption of extensive allomaternal care presumably resulted in more pervasive cognitive consequences, because the motivational consequences of cooperative breeding was added to an ape-level cognitive system already capable of understanding simple mental states, which enabled the emergence of shared intentionality.     

Influence of bilateral motor behaviors on flexible functioning: an embodied perspective

To examine the influence of bilateral motor behaviors on flexibility performance, two studies were conducted. Previous research has shown that when performing unilateral motor behavior that activates the affective and motivational systems of approach versus avoidance (arm flexion vs. extension), it is the congruence between laterality and motor activation that determines flexibility-rigidity functioning (Cretenet & Dru, 2009). When bilateral motor behaviors were performed, a mechanism of embodiment was revealed. It showed that the flexibility scores were determined by the match between the respective qualities of congruence of each of the unilateral motor behaviors performed. These results bring to light an overall embodied mechanism associated with the compatibility of the cognitive impact(s) of each motor behavior performed.     

The effects of stereotype activation on behavior: a review of possible mechanisms.

Considerable recent research has examined the effects that activated stereotypes have on behavior. Research on both self-stereotype activation and other-stereotype activation has tended to show that people behave in ways consistent with the stereotype (e.g., walking more slowly if the elderly stereotype is activated). Interestingly, however, the dominant account for the behavioral effects of self-stereotype activation involves a hot motivational factor (i.e., stereotype threat), whereas the dominant account for the behavioral effects of other-stereotype activation focuses on a rather cold cognitive explanation (i.e., ideomotor processes). The current review compares and contrasts the behavioral research on self- and other-stereotype activation and concludes that both motivational and cognitive explanations might account for effects in each domain.     

The integration of cognition and emotion during infancy and early childhood: regulatory processes associated with the development of working memory

This study was an attempt to integrate cognitive development (i.e., cognitive control) and emotional development (i.e., emotion regulation) in the first years of life. The construct of temperament was used to unify cognition and emotion because of its focus on attentional and regulatory behaviors. Children were seen at 8 months and 412-years of age in a study designed to examine the correlates of working memory development. Frontal brain electrical activity and temperament predicted working memory performance at 8 months. Similarly, frontal brain electrical activity, temperament, and language predicted working memory at age 412-years. Temperament in early childhood mediated the relation between infant temperament and early childhood working memory performance. These associated temperament characteristics highlight the value of early-learned regulatory and attentional behaviors and the impact of these early skills on later development.     

On motivational influences,moving beyond valence,and integrating dimensional and discrete views of emotion

ABSTRACT

The field of cognition and emotion has grown considerably over the past 30 years, with an increased emphasis on the relationships between emotional and motivational components and how they contribute to basic perceptual, cognitive, and neural processes. For instance, research has revealed that emotion often influences these processes via emotion’s relationship with motivational dimensions, as when positive emotions low versus high in approach motivational intensity have different influences on attentional and other cognitive processes. Research has also revealed that motivational direction (approach vs. withdrawal) and affective valence (positive vs. negative) are not as closely related as once was theorised; that is, positive affect is not inevitably associated with approach motivation and negative affect is not inevitably associated with withdrawal motivation. These and other lines of research with anger have suggested that the field needs to move beyond a focus on affective valence and it needs to consider an integration of dimensional and discrete models of emotion. The article also includes some suggestions for improving methods of measuring and inducing emotions and some recommendations for future researchers.     

Enhanced attentional capture in trait anxiety

Attentional Control Theory (ACT) proposes that anxiety is specifically associated with more attentional distraction by salient stimuli. Moreover, there is some suggestion that worry is one mechanism whereby anxiety impairs attentional control. However, direct evidence for these hypotheses is lacking. In the current study we addressed limitations of previous work by examining the relationships between trait anxiety and worry and attentional distraction by a salient, task-irrelevant color singleton in a visual search task. Results revealed that trait anxiety, but not worry, was related to increased attentional distraction (i.e., capture) by the color singleton. The current results suggest that anxiety is associated with a general enhancement of bottom-up processes involved in motivational significance detection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Biographic and behavioral factors are associated with music-related motor skills in children pianists

This study aimed to identify biographical and behavioral factors associated with children pianists’ motor skills using an objective assessment of a music-relevant motor task. Motor skills at the piano were assessed in 30 children pianists by measuring temporal unevenness in standardized scale playing using musical instrument digital interface (MIDI)-based scale analysis. Questionnaires were used to collect detailed information about the amount of time playing the piano, practice characteristics, attitudes toward music and practice, and the environment of music and practice. Associations between performance values and variables from the questionnaire were investigated using multivariable linear regression. A higher number of years playing the piano, more frequent parental involvement in the child’s practice, more frequent practice of technical exercises, and greater enjoyment of practice and of the visual arts were associated with better motor performance. In addition to cumulative experience and aspects of practice, extrinsic motivational factors (e.g., parental interest) and intrinsic motivational factors (e.g., an artistic disposition) were associated with better performance on a musically-relevant motor task in children pianists.     

Cognitive processes in dissociation: an analysis of core theoretical assumptions

Dissociation is typically defined as the lack of normal integration of thoughts, feelings, and experiences into consciousness and memory. The present article critically evaluates the research literature on cognitive processes in dissociation. The authors' review indicates that dissociation is characterized by subtle deficits in neuropsychological performance (e.g., heightened distractibility). Some of the cognitive phenomena (e.g., weakened cognitive inhibition) associated with dissociation appear to be dependent on the emotional or attentional context. Contrary to a widespread assumption in the clinical literature, dissociation does not appear to be related to avoidant information processing. Rather, it is associated with an enhanced propensity toward pseudo-memories, possibly mediated by heightened levels of interrogative suggestibility, fantasy proneness, and cognitive failures. Evidence for a link between dissociation and either memory fragmentation or early trauma based on objective measures is conspicuously lacking. The authors identify a variety of methodological issues and discrepancies that make it difficult to articulate a comprehensive framework for cognitive mechanisms in dissociation. The authors conclude with a discussion of research domains (e.g., sleep-related experiences, drug-related dissociation) that promise to advance our understanding of cognition and dissociation.     

From task characteristics to learning: A systematic review

Wielenga‐Meijer, E. G. A., Taris, T. W., Kompier, M. A. J. & Wigboldus, D. H. J. (2010). From task characteristics to learning: A systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 363–375. Although many theoretical approaches propose that job characteristics affect employee learning, the question is why and how job characteristics influence learning. The present study reviews the evidence on the relationships among learning antecedents (i.e., job characteristics: demands, variety, autonomy and feedback), learning processes (including motivational, meta‐cognitive, cognitive and behavioral processes) and learning consequences. Building on an integrative heuristic model, we quantitatively reviewed 85 studies published between 1969 and 2005. Our analyses revealed strong evidence for a positive relation between job demands and autonomy on the one hand and motivational and meta‐cognitive learning processes on the other. Furthermore, these learning processes were positively related to learning consequences.     

Health information processed under limited attention: is it better to be "hot" or "cool?".

INTRODUCTION: The attentional myopia model (T. Mann & A. Ward, 2004) posits that under conditions of limited attention, individuals will be disproportionately influenced by highly salient cues. The "hot/cool" model (J. Metcalfe & W. Mischel, 1999) suggests that cues designed to activate "hot" emotional systems will typically dominate attention and promote relevant behavior more than cues designed to activate "cool" cognitive systems. METHOD: While under conditions of high or low cognitive load, participants heard information regarding the use of a zinc supplement and reported their intentions to try it. In Study 1, cool message cues that promoted the use of zinc were more salient than hot cues that discouraged its use. In Study 2, hot cues that discouraged the use of zinc were more salient than cool cues that promoted its use. RESULTS: In both studies, the imposition of cognitive load increased the influence of salient cues, regardless of their motivational "temperature." CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with the attentional myopia model, either hot or cool health message cues can exert strong influence over individuals, depending on the relative salience of those cues.     

Dissociable influences of reward motivation and positive emotion on cognitive control

It is becoming increasingly appreciated that affective and/or motivational influences contribute strongly to goal-oriented cognition and behavior. An unresolved question is whether emotional manipulations (i.e., direct induction of affectively valenced subjective experience) and motivational manipulations (e.g., delivery of performance-contingent rewards and punishments) have similar or distinct effects on cognitive control. Prior work has suggested that reward motivation can reliably enhance a proactive mode of cognitive control, whereas other evidence is suggestive that positive emotion improves cognitive flexibility, but reduces proactive control. However, a limitation of the prior research is that reward motivation and positive emotion have largely been studied independently. Here, we directly compared the effects of positive emotion and reward motivation on cognitive control with a tightly matched, within-subjects design, using the AX-continuous performance task paradigm, which allows for relative measurement of proactive versus reactive cognitive control. High-resolution pupillometry was employed as a secondary measure of cognitive dynamics during task performance. Robust increases in behavioral and pupillometric indices of proactive control were observed with reward motivation. The effects of positive emotion were much weaker, but if anything, also reflected enhancement of proactive control, a pattern that diverges from some prior findings. These results indicate that reward motivation has robust influences on cognitive control, while also highlighting the complexity and heterogeneity of positive-emotion effects. The findings are discussed in terms of potential neurobiological mechanisms.     

Salivary progesterone is associated with reduced coherence of attentional, cognitive, and motivational systems

The present study tested whether the hypothesis that high levels of progesterone (P) have a decoupling effect on the function of the brain hemispheres (Hausmann & Gunturkun, 2000) also extends to attentional functions, referential connections between verbal and nonverbal representations and the degree to which implicit motivational needs match a person's explicit goal commitments. Participants (28 women on oral contraceptives, 14 naturally cycling women, 50 men) completed the Lateralized Attention Network Task (Greene et al., 2008), a measure of the alerting, orienting, and conflict-resolution functions of attention for each hemisphere; a measure of referential competence (i.e., the ability to quickly name nonverbal information); a measure of the implicit motives power, achievement, and affiliation; and a content-matched personal goal inventory. In addition, they provided a saliva sample that was assayed for P and cortisol (C). Higher levels of P were associated with lower interhemispheric correlations for alerting and orienting, but with a higher correlation of conflict-resolution performance. Higher P was also associated with longer interhemispheric transfer time, lower congruence between implicit motives and explicit goal commitments and, after controlling for C, with lower referential competence. These results suggest that (a) P is associated with the degree to which attentional functions are correlated between hemispheres, although in a different direction for more posterior (alerting and orienting: decoupling) than for more anterior functions (conflict resolution: coupling), (b) that high P is associated with other indicators of reduced functional coherence between cognitive systems (longer interhemispheric transfer time, lower referential competence), and (c) that high P is also associated with low coherence between implicit and explicit motivational systems.     

Visuospatial working memory in Turner's syndrome

Turner's syndrome is a genetic disorder, specific to women, in which one of the X chromosomes is partially or completely deleted. This syndrome is associated with physical features such as short stature or failure in primary and secondary sexual development, together with a specific pattern of cognitive functions. It has been suggested that women affected by Turner's syndrome perform poorly in tasks measuring visuospatial abilities and have a verbal IQ significantly higher than performance IQ. Although this result has received strong empirical support, the nature of the visuospatial deficit is still unclear. Recent studies on visuospatial processes have highlighted that the underlying cognitive structure is more complex than previously suggested and several dissociations have been reported (e.g., visual vs spatial, sequential vs simultaneous, or passive vs active processes). In the present study we analyze in detail the characteristics of the visuospatial deficit associated with Turner's syndrome by presenting four young women with a comprehensive battery of tasks designed to tap all aspects of visuospatial working memory. Results confirm that Turner's syndrome is associated with a general visuospatial working memory deficit, but the pattern of performance of different cases can be different, with a greater emphasis on active visuospatial processes. and on either sequential or simultaneous spatial processes.     

Cognitive load causes kinematic changes in both elite and non-elite rowers

The current motor literature suggests that extraneous cognitive load may affect performance and kinematics in a primary motor task. A common response to increased cognitive demand, as observed in past studies, might be to reduce movement complexity and revert to previously learned movement patterns, in line with the progression-regression hypothesis. However, according to several accounts of automaticity, motor experts should be able to cope with dual task demands without detriment to their performance and kinematics. To test this, we conducted an experiment asking elite and non-elite rowers to use a rowing ergometer under conditions of varying task load. We employed single-task conditions with low cognitive load (i.e., rowing only) and dual-task conditions with high cognitive load (i.e., rowing and solving arithmetic problems). The results of the cognitive load manipulations were mostly in line with our hypotheses. Overall, participants reduced movement complexity, for example by reverting towards tighter coupling of kinematic events, in their dual-task performance as compared to single-task performance. The between-group kinematic differences were less clear. In contradiction to our hypotheses, we found no significant interaction between skill level and cognitive load, suggesting that the rowers' kinematics were affected by cognitive load irrespective of skill level. Overall, our findings contradict several past findings and automaticity theories, and suggest that attentional resources are required for optimal sports performance.     

A Multidimensional Approach to Apathy after Traumatic Brain Injury

Apathy is commonly described following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and is associated with serious consequences, notably for patients’ participation in rehabilitation, family life and later social reintegration. There is strong evidence in the literature of the multidimensional nature of apathy (behavioural, cognitive and emotional), but the processes underlying each dimension are still unclear. The purpose of this article is first, to provide a critical review of the current definitions and instruments used to measure apathy in neurological and psychiatric disorders, and second, to review the prevalence, characteristics, neuroanatomical correlates, relationships with other neurobehavioural disorders and mechanisms of apathy in the TBI population. In this context, we propose a new multidimensional framework that takes into account the various mechanisms at play in the facets of apathy, including not only cognitive factors, especially executive, but also affective factors (e.g., negative mood), motivational variables (e.g., anticipatory pleasure) and aspects related to personal identity (e.g., self-esteem). Future investigations that consider these various factors will help improve the understanding of apathy. This theoretical framework opens up relevant prospects for better clinical assessment and rehabilitation of these frequently described motivational disorders in patients with brain injury.     

The effect of embodied emotive states on cognitive categorization

Research has uncovered that positive affect broadens cognitive categorization. The motivational dimensional model, however, posits that positive affect is not a unitary construct with only one cognitive consequence. Instead, this model puts forth that there are different positive affects varying in approach motivational intensity. According to this model, only positive affects lower in motivational intensity should broaden cognitive processes, whereas positive affects higher in motivational intensity should narrow cognitive processes. Consistent with these predictions, high approach positive affect has been shown to narrow attention, whereas low approach positive affect has been shown to broaden it (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008). High approach positive affect, therefore, might narrow categorization. Two experiments investigated this possibility by having participants respond to cognitive categorization tasks in 3 body postures designed to elicit different levels of approach motivation: reclining backward, which should evoke low approach motivation; sitting upright, which should evoke moderate approach motivation; and leaning forward, which should evoke high approach motivation. Participants smiled while in each posture in order to experience positive affect. Experiment 1 provided initial support for the idea that high approach positive affect narrows categorization and low approach positive affect broadens categorization. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with improved smiling instructions. These results extend previous work by showing that the motivational model's predictions hold for basic attentional processes as well as higher level cognitive processes such as categorization.     

The Influence of Affective States on Cognitive Broadening/Narrowing: Considering the Importance of Motivational Intensity

Decades of research suggested that positive affective states broaden cognitive processes, whereas negative affective states narrow cognitive processes. More recent research suggests, however, that these conclusions may be premature. These past experiments often compared positive affects low in motivational intensity with negative affects high in motivational intensity. These past experiments, therefore, may have confounded affective valence with motivational intensity. Recent evidence suggests that motivational intensity rather than affective valence influences cognitive broadening/narrowing. That is, affective states of low motivational intensity (e.g., sadness, postgoal positive affect) broaden cognition, whereas affective states of high motivational intensity (e.g., disgust, pregoal positive affect) narrow cognition. We posit that narrowing occurs during affective states of high motivational intensity to aid organisms in acquiring desirable objects or avoiding aversive ones. In contrast, broadening occurs during affective states of low motivational intensity to open organisms to new opportunities.     

Responding to emotional scenes: effects of response outcome and picture repetition on reaction times and the late positive potential

Processing the motivational relevance of a visual scene and reacting accordingly is crucial for survival. Previous work suggests the emotional content of naturalistic scenes affects response speed, such that unpleasant content slows responses whereas pleasant content accelerates responses. It is unclear whether these effects reflect motor-cognitive processes, such as attentional orienting, or vary with the function/outcome of the motor response itself. Four experiments manipulated participants’ ability to terminate the picture (offset control) and, thereby, the response’s function and motivational value. Attentive orienting was manipulated via picture repetition, which diminishes orienting. A total of N?=?81 participants completed versions of a go/no-go task, discriminating between distorted versus intact pictures drawn from six content categories varying in positive, negative, or neutral valence. While all participants responded faster with repetition, only participants without offset control exhibited slower responses to unpleasant and accelerated responses to pleasant content. Emotional engagement, measured by the late positive potential, was not modulated by attentional orienting (repetition), suggesting that the interaction between repetition and offset control is not due to altered emotional engagement. Together, results suggest that response time changes as a function of emotional content and sensitivity to attention orienting depends on the motivational function of the motor response.