Individual differences in cardiovascular reactions to stress and cigarette smoking

The present study examined the stability of cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress and cigarette smoking, and the extent to which cardiovascular reactions to stress were predictive of cardiovascular reactions to smoking. Thirty subjects were given an initial test involving two repetitions of mental arithmetic stress and paced smoking while blood pressure and heart rate were measured. Two months later, 26 of these subjects were retested in the same paradigm. Large and stable individual differences were observed in cardiovascular reactivity to both stress and smoking. Moreover, for systolic and diastolic blood pressure, but not heart rate, reactions to stress were modestly correlated with reactions to cigarette smoking. These results are consistent with the possibility that level of reactivity to cigarette smoking may constitute a risk factor for coronary heart disease, and that one or more common variables may mediate the magnitude of blood pressure reactivity to both stress and cigarette smoking.     

Age-related differences in three tests of visual imagery.

Adult age differences were explored on 3 short tests of the ability to generate and manipulate mental images. Age-related decrements were found in all 3 tests and were especially marked on the Clock Test. The tests are all reliable, as shown by test-retest reliability coefficients. Correlations also revealed that the Brooks Letter Test and the East-West Test appear to tap one common underlying ability, whereas the Clock Test measured a somewhat different ability. The East-West and Clock tests, in particular, may provide rapid and easily administered assessments of age-related changes in aspects of mental imagery.     

Individual differences in the impact of attentional bias training on cardiovascular responses to stress in women

Abstract

Experimental studies show that training people to attend to negative stimuli makes them more likely to respond with greater anxiety to stress. The present study investigated this effect in students using measures of cardiovascular responses to stress and examined whether individual differences influence the impact of attention training on stress responses. Using a standard dot probe task, 30 participants underwent negative attentional bias training and 34 participants underwent anti-negative training before completing a stressful speech task. Results indicated that, overall, participants exhibited acclimatization to the procedures (indicated by a dip in blood pressure post-training) and normal stress responding (indicated by elevated blood pressure in response to stress; p<.001). However, consideration of participants’ scores for neuroticism/emotional-stability revealed important differences in how the intervention impacted on cardiovascular profiles (p=.008). For participants with high neuroticism scores, the negative attentional bias intervention elicited more exaggerated stress responding than the anti-negative intervention. For those with low neuroticism scores (i.e., emotionally stable participants), the anti-negative intervention was associated with elevated post-intervention blood pressure and higher blood pressure reactivity to stress. These findings provide evidence of the impact of attentional bias manipulation on physiological stress reactivity and suggest the effect is highly contingent on individual temperaments.     

Individual differences in the impact of attentional bias training on cardiovascular responses to stress in women

Experimental studies show that training people to attend to negative stimuli makes them more likely to respond with greater anxiety to stress. The present study investigated this effect in students using measures of cardiovascular responses to stress and examined whether individual differences influence the impact of attention training on stress responses. Using a standard dot probe task, 30 participants underwent negative attentional bias training and 34 participants underwent anti-negative training before completing a stressful speech task. Results indicated that, overall, participants exhibited acclimatization to the procedures (indicated by a dip in blood pressure post-training) and normal stress responding (indicated by elevated blood pressure in response to stress; p<.001). However, consideration of participants' scores for neuroticism/emotional-stability revealed important differences in how the intervention impacted on cardiovascular profiles (p=.008). For participants with high neuroticism scores, the negative attentional bias intervention elicited more exaggerated stress responding than the anti-negative intervention. For those with low neuroticism scores (i.e., emotionally stable participants), the anti-negative intervention was associated with elevated post-intervention blood pressure and higher blood pressure reactivity to stress. These findings provide evidence of the impact of attentional bias manipulation on physiological stress reactivity and suggest the effect is highly contingent on individual temperaments.     

Age-related differences in guessing on free and forced recall tests

This study examined possible age-related differences in recall, guessing, and metacognition on free recall tests and forced recall tests. Participants studied categorised and unrelated word lists and were asked to recall the items under one of the following test conditions: standard free recall, free recall with a penalty for guessing, free recall with no penalty for guessing, or forced recall. The results demonstrated interesting age differences regarding the impact of liberal test instructions (i.e., forced recall and no penalty) relative to more conservative test instructions (i.e., standard free recall and penalty) on memory performance. Specifically, once guessing was controlled, younger adults’ recall of categorised lists varied in accordance with test instructions while older adults’ recall of categorised lists did not differ between conservative and liberal test instructions, presumably because older adults approach standard free recall tests of categorised lists with a greater propensity towards guessing than young adults.     

Age-related differences in guessing on free and forced recall tests

This study examined possible age-related differences in recall, guessing, and metacognition on free recall tests and forced recall tests. Participants studied categorised and unrelated word lists and were asked to recall the items under one of the following test conditions: standard free recall, free recall with a penalty for guessing, free recall with no penalty for guessing, or forced recall. The results demonstrated interesting age differences regarding the impact of liberal test instructions (i.e., forced recall and no penalty) relative to more conservative test instructions (i.e., standard free recall and penalty) on memory performance. Specifically, once guessing was controlled, younger adults' recall of categorised lists varied in accordance with test instructions while older adults' recall of categorised lists did not differ between conservative and liberal test instructions, presumably because older adults approach standard free recall tests of categorised lists with a greater propensity towards guessing than young adults.     

Gender differences in cardiovascular and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to psychological stress in healthy older adult men and women

Gender differences in the neuroendocrine and cardiovascular response to psychological stress may contribute to the gender differences in the prevalence of diseases associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes and hypertension. We measured plasma ACTH, cortisol, heart rate (HR), and blood pressure (BP) responses in 8 men and 8 women (55-75 years) exposed to the Matt Stress Reactivity Protocol (MSRP), a psychological challenge. The MSRP elicited significant increases in HR, systolic-, and diastolic BP, ACTH and cortisol (all p<0.01). Men had significantly greater cortisol and diastolic BP responses compared to women (p<0.05). Additionally, a positive correlation between the ACTH and cortisol responses was only found in the males (r=0.71, p<0.05). There were no group differences in HR, systolic BP, or ACTH responses. We conclude, that among older adults, men respond to psychological stress with greater increases in cortisol, compared to women. This greater activation of the HPA axis could translate into an elevated risk for CVD, diabetes and hypertension and may be related to the higher prevalence of these diseases in males. Gender differences in brain structures and/or cognitive processes may be responsible for these sexually dimorphic stress responses.     

Individual differences in type A behavior and cardiovascular responses to stress

The purpose of this study was to predict heart rate and blood pressure responses to a stressor task in 166 male and female university students using the multidimensional approach of the Survey of Work Styles. The Survey of Work Styles is comprised of scales for Impatience, Anger, Time Urgency, Work Involvement, Job Dissatisfaction, and Competitiveness. Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate were measured before and during a 5 min serial subtraction task. Three bipolar Survey of Work Styles profiles were identified for each sex. In males, similarity to each profile was uniquely related to one task cardiovascular measure. In females, two of the three profiles were uniquely related to one physiological measure assessed during the task. The data thus support separate treatment of male and female data. Consideration was given to the possible influence of TABP components, such as Anger, in the differences in the patterns of physiological responses for different Type A profile types. Implications of the physiological results for future studies on psychophysiological differences between Type A and B individuals, and the pathological links between Type A behavior and coronary heart diseases are discussed with emphasis on the recognition of the heterogeneity of personality profiles associated with Type A behavior.     

Age-related differences in deception

Young and older participants judged the veracity of young and older speakers' opinions about topical issues. All participants found it easier to judge when an older adult was lying relative to a young adult, and older adults were worse than young adults at telling when speakers were telling the truth versus lying. Neither young nor older adults were advantaged when judging a speaker from the same age group. Overall, older adults were more transparent as liars and were worse at detecting lies, with older adults' worse emotion recognition fully mediating the relation between age group and lie detection failures.     

Age-related differences in irrelevant-speech effects

Three experiments examined age-related differences in irrelevant-speech effects. Younger and older adults were required to recall short prose texts or lists of semantically related words presented visually together with distractor speech. In all experiments, older adults made more semantically related intrusion errors from the irrelevant speech than younger adults. Results of a source memory test suggested that these age-related differences in interference are most likely due to both inhibitory deficits and source-monitoring problems. The results lend partial support to the inhibition deficit theory of cognitive aging.     

Gender differences in stress reactions: Women filling the gaps

Abstract

Competing hypotheses explaining gender differences in depression were compared in a one-year longitudinal study of parents of ill children in Israel. Women were found to have more depressed mood than men when their children were ill or well, but both men and women responded with increased depression when their child was ill. Women were more likely than men to be with an ill child at the hospital, even if employed, suggesting role overload. Women did not report fewer personal or social resources than men, indicating that poverty of resources could not explain sex differences on depression. Nor did women use their resources less effectively than did men. Women were less depressed the greater their intimacy with their spouse and friends, but at all levels of intimacy were more depressed than men. Men, in contrast, isolated themselves from social support at the time of their child's illness and it was argued that men might be avoiding stress contagion. The importance of examining differential responding of men and women to stressors that have common meaning for both sexes was discussed.     

Assertiveness predicts threat and challenge reactions to potential stress among women.

In this study assertiveness as a moderator of stress reactions among women was examined. Specifically, the experimenters examined how high and low assertive women cognitively appraised, affectively and physiologically responded to, and behaviorally coped with the stress of giving an impromptu speech. High assertive women appraised the speech stressor as challenging, whereas low assertive women appraised the stressor as threatening. High assertive women also had a challenge pattern of autonomic response during the task, compared with the threat response of low assertive women. Afterward, the high assertive women reported experiencing less stress and negative emotion and greater positive emotion than did the low assertive women. Overall, the high assertive women's stress-related reactions indicated challenge, whereas the low assertive women's reactions indicated threat (see J. Tomaka, J. Blascovich, R. M. Kelsey, & C. L. Leitten, 1993).     

Age-related differences in inference revision processing

In comparison to younger adults, older adults demonstrate deficiencies in cognitive and linguistic abilities. Such cognitive factors that decline with age include working memory capacity and inhibitory abilities. The purpose of the present investigation was to measure differences in time course processing of inference revision abilities, as well as working memory, as they exist relative to adult age differences. Fifteen neurologically intact older adults and 15 younger adults participated in this study. A cross-modal lexical priming paradigm was chosen as the measure of the inference revision task; the listening span task of Tompkins, Bloise, Timko, and Baumgaertner (1994) was selected as the measure of working memory. Both groups demonstrated normal priming effects. No age-related differences were found on the working memory measure. Age-related differences did emerge on inferencing abilities. A significant correlation emerged between the older group's performance on comprehending inference revisions and their working memory capacity. Generally, inhibitory abilities and working memory capacity appeared to adversely affect older participant's performance.     

Age-related differences in localized attentional interference

Attentional selection of an object in the visual field degrades processing of neighboring stimuli in young adults. A pair of experiments examined the effects of aging on such localized attentional interference. In Experiment 1, younger and older observers made speeded same-different judgments of target shapes that varied in spatial separation. Performance declined for both age groups as the distance between targets decreased, but an Age x Distance interaction indicated that the magnitude of this effect was larger for older adults. Experiment 2 ruled out sensory masking as an explanation for these findings. Results indicate that older observers experience losses in the ability to attend to multiple spatially proximal stimuli within the visual field.     

Age-related differences in timing with breaks

Two groups of participants differing in age were compared on a time production task during which timing was temporarily interrupted. Produced intervals lengthened with increasing delay before the break occurrence, and the effect was more pronounced in older than in younger adults. A reaction time response to the signal beginning the break period was required also. Older participants responded more slowly to this signal, but they benefited to a greater extent from a lengthening of the time preceding its presentation. These results suggest that performance of older participants is affected by attention sharing and preparation involved in timing with breaks.     

Correction to: Age-related differences in the attentional white bear

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - This article was originally published with errors in the graphs. It has been republished with corrections.     

Age-related differences in medial prefrontal activation in response to emotional images

Research has suggested that aging results in a "positivity effect," with young adults dwelling on negative information, and older adults attending to positive information. In order to understand age-related changes in emotional processing underlying this effect, the present fMRI study compared neural activity in young and older adults as they viewed positive, negative, and neutral images. Results indicated a striking age-related reversal in the valence of information eliciting activity within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Negative in comparison with positive images activated the VMPFC more for young adults, whereas positive in comparison with negative images activated the VMPFC more for the older adults. The VMPFC is a region associated with the processing of emotional information, and more specifically, with emotion generation and emotion regulation. Therefore, the present results suggest that age-related changes in these processes implemented by the VMPFC contribute to older adults' "positivity effect."     

Sex differences in reactions to evaluative feedback

Two studies tested the influence of various types of verbal evaluative feedback men's and women's self-evaluations of their performance in achievenment situations. We tested a theory that women perceive evaluative feedback, particularly negative feedback, to be more informative about their abilities than do men. Because of this, women's self-assessments of their abilities are more straightforwardly influenced by evaluative feedback than are men's. In contrast, men take a more self-promotional approach to evaluative situations, and therefore are more selective in their responses to feedback. Results from our questionnaire study showed that women's self-evaluations were influenced by both positive and negative evaluative statements. Men allowed positive feedback to influence them more than negative feedback, and were less influenced overall by negative feedback than women. Furthermore, women reported that evaluative feedback, particularly negative feedback, contained more information relevant to their abilities than men. Our laboratory study showed that women's actual self-evaluations were impacted differently by positive and negative feedback, whereas men's were not. In addition, we found some evidence to indicate that women were more negatively influenced by feedback that was positively toned, yet irrelevant with respect to their performance, than men. This finding underscores the fact that the focus, and not just the valence, of evaluative feedback plays an important role in men's and women's responses to it.     

Sex differences in recipients' reactions to aid

The purpose of this study was to determine whether males and females differentially respond to the receipt of aid as a function of their similarity to the donor and their own chronic level of self-esteem. Female and male adults received either help from a fictitious partner or no aid. All subjects were given information that they had been paired with a partner who had an inferior, similar, or superior level of task-relevant experience. Females paired with a partner of equal experience reported greater decrements in situational self-esteem than did males. Furthermore, females who received help reported a higher level of satisfaction with the help, and in all but one of the similarity conditions, females expressed a greater need for help than did males. When self-esteem was considered, high self-esteem females paired with persons with similar experience exhibited greater decrements in mood than did other high self-esteem females; males did not differ across conditions. Implications of the obtained sex differences were discussed in relation to sex differences in help-seeking behavior and sex role stereotypes.The authors would like to express their gratitude to Rob Beller, Mary Greenspun, Cheryl Hepfel, and Andrea Nagel, who assisted in data collection, and to Sanford Braver, who assisted with analyses. Thanks are also extended to Paul Karoly, Clark Presson, and Manuel Barrera for their advice throughout the completion of this study. The study was completed as partial fulfillment for the requirements of a master's degree by the first author at Arizona State University.