Anxiety and adjustment levels among the visually and hearing impaired and their relationship to locus of control, cognitive, social, and biographical variables

Forty-five hearing-impaired and 40 visually impaired male residential school children aged 6 to 16 years were administered measures of adjustment, anxiety, and locus of control (LOC). Scores related to intelligence and academic level, teacher and peer acceptance, and biographical variables were also obtained. The findings show that the correlates of anxiety and adjustment differed qualitatively as well as quantitatively between the groups.     

Molar and latent models of cognitive slowing: Implications for aging,dementia, depression,development, and intelligence

The time that it takes a group of participants to respond in simple cognitive tasks varies systematically with the identity of the group. For example, on most tasks, older adults take longer to respond than younger adults. Similarly, on most tasks, younger children take longer to respond than mature children. More generally, response time has been found to vary reliably with a number of other factors that differentiate groups of participants, including the levels of dementia, depression, and intelligence. For each factor, investigators have sought to determine whether the various mental processes are slowed identically as the level of impairment increases. They have based this determination largely on the relation between the overall response times of the relevant groups. Here it is shown how one can base this determination on the relation between the speeds of the individual latent or mental processes governing the performance of the target groups. Such a shift in emphasis has three important advantages: it reduces the possibility of falsely accepting or rejecting the hypothesis that all processes are slowed identically; it pinpoints the actual processes that are lengthened disproportionately when processes are not slowed identically; and it makes possible the rigorous testing of the effects of changes in speed on other dependent variables (e.g., accuracy).     

Pulmonary function as a cause of cognitive aging

Human aging is associated with decline in cognitive and physical functioning. Although pulmonary function predicts long-term performance (up to 10 years) on measures of cognitive function, recent data suggest the opposite relationship: Cognitive decline predicts self-reported physical limitations. In the study reported here, we utilized dual-change-score models to determine the directional relationship between pulmonary and cognitive function. Our sample consisted of 832 participants (ages 50-85 years at baseline), who were assessed in up to seven waves of testing across 19 years as part of the longitudinal Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. Changes in pulmonary function led to subsequent changes in fluid cognitive function, specifically, in tasks reflecting psychomotor speed and spatial abilities. There was no evidence that declines in cognitive function led to subsequent declines in pulmonary function. Thus, these data indicate a directional relationship from decreased pulmonary function to decreased cognitive function, a finding that underscores the importance of maintaining pulmonary function to ensure cognitive performance.     

Individual differences in cognitive control processes and their relationship to emotion regulation

Cognitive control and emotional control share many similarities, but the specific relationship between these processes is not well understood. This study explored the relationship between three types of cognitive control (working memory updating, response inhibition and set-shifting) and two emotional regulation strategies (expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal). Corrugator electromyography, behaviour and self-reports of affect were measured as indices of emotion regulation. Results indicate that working memory updating predicted negative affect reduction during reappraisal and during expressive suppression. This study specifically shows that the working memory component of cognitive control is associated with negative affect reduction. Response inhibition and set-shifting were not specifically related to negative affect reduction, but these variables did predict aspects of emotional behaviour and regulation. These results suggest a general role for cognitive control in some aspects of emotion regulation as well as a specific modulatory role for working memory updating in the regulation of negative affect.     

Visuospatial function in the beagle dog: an early marker of cognitive decline in a model of human aging and dementia

Visuospatial learning and memory impairments are an early marker for age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. Similar to humans, aged dogs show visuospatial learning and memory deficits (). One hundred and nine beagle dogs ranging between 0.25 and 11.99 years were tested on a visuospatial delayed non-matching to position (DNMP) task to better characterize the progression of visuospatial deficits in the dog. Age predicted 48.2% of the variability in learning the DNMP, with dogs ranging from 1 to 11.99 years generally making more errors with increasing age. By contrast, puppies (<1 year) likely were showing developmental deficits, possibly due to an immature prefrontal cortex. Mild visuospatial deficits were detected by 6 years, which precedes the typical onset of amyloid-beta (Abeta) accumulation in the dog brain by two years, and can serve as an early marker for cognitive decline in the dog. These findings suggest that (1) age-related changes in visuospatial function in the dog models that seen in humans, further validating the dog as a model for human aging and dementia; and (2) other mechanisms, such as oxidative stress, soluble Abeta oligomers or cholinergic deficits, are likely contributing to the early impairment.     

Age,executive function,and social decision making: a dorsolateral prefrontal theory of cognitive aging

Current neuropsychological models propose that some age-related cognitive changes are due to frontal-lobe deterioration. However, these models have not considered the possible subdivision of the frontal lobes into the dorsolateral and ventromedial regions. This study assessed the age effects on 3 tasks of executive function and working memory, tasks dependent on dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction; and 3 tasks of emotion and social decision making, tasks dependent on ventromedial prefrontal dysfunction. Age-related differences in performance were found on all tasks dependent on dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction. In contrast, age-related differences were not found on the majority of the tasks dependent on ventromedial prefrontal dysfunction. The results support a specific dorsolateral prefrontal theory of cognitive changes with age, rather than a global decline in frontal-lobe function.     

Developmental change and intraindividual variability: relating cognitive aging to cognitive plasticity, cardiovascular lability, and emotional diversity

Repeated assessments obtained over years can be used to measure individuals' developmental change, whereas repeated assessments obtained over a few weeks can be used to measure individuals' dynamic characteristics. Using data from a burst of measurement embedded in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE; Baltes & Mayer, 1999), we illustrate and examine how long-term changes in cognitive ability are related to short-term changes in cognitive performance, cardiovascular function, and emotional experience. Our findings suggest that "better" cognitive aging over approximately 13 years was associated with greater cognitive plasticity, less cardiovascular lability, and less emotional diversity over approximately 2 weeks at age 90 years. The study highlights the potential benefits of multi-time scale longitudinal designs for the study of individual function and development.     

童年贫困与晚年认知老化：加速还是延缓?

童年贫困与晚年认知老化的关系尚存争议。有的研究表明, 童年贫困会加速个体的认知老化, 但是也有研究发现童年贫困会延缓个体的认知老化, 这与社会流动性起到的调节作用有关。对于童年贫困个体, 低稳定或者社会经济地位的向下流动(即长期贫困)会使逆境产生的消极影响不断累积, 从而加速个体的认知老化; 而心理韧性高的童年贫困个体, 可能会促使社会经济地位向上流动, 这会增加个体的认知储备, 并提升特定认知能力, 进而延缓认知老化。今后该领域的研究应该探讨童年主观贫困与认知老化之间的关系以及童年贫困对不同认知能力老化的影响, 也应关注童年贫困与晚年认知老化关系研究中的幸存者偏差效应。     

Marital virtues and their relationship to individual functioning,communication, and relationship adjustment

Extant research has documented both individual well-being and couple communication as important predictors of marital adjustment. In the recent years, researchers have looked beyond problem-based predictors, shifting the focus from pathology and communication to include positive actions and ways of being. This study used Fowers’ [(2005) Virtue and psychology: Pursuing excellence in ordinary practices. Washington, DC: APA Press] framework of virtue ethics to test additional potentially important linkages. This framework posits that characteristics, such as compassion and generosity, which are foundational to relationship adjustment. This study examined the direct and indirect links among individual functioning, marital virtues, communication, and marital adjustment. Data were collected from a sample of 422 married and cohabitating individuals using a self-report survey. Individual well-being significantly and consistently predicted virtues, communication, and relationship functioning. Marital virtues and communication were found to mediate the relationship between individual well-being and relationship adjustment. In addition, communication was found to mediate the relationship between marital virtues and relationship adjustment. Findings provide support for the notion that character strengths – enacted as marital virtues – influence communication and relationship adjustment.     

The relationship between cognitive function and hazard perception in younger drivers

Driving is a complex task; with research suggesting cognitive function plays a significant role in driver behaviour. Recent studies have investigated the role of cognitive function in younger drivers who are experiencing brain maturation and are over-represented in crash statistics. Emerging evidence suggests poor cognitive functioning is one explanation for this high crash risk. For younger drivers, the relationship between cognitive function and driving ability has been consistently shown for speeding and lane deviations. However, the driving skill most consistently linked to crash involvement is hazard perception, which is the ability to anticipate and respond to potentially dangerous traffic situations. The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive correlates of hazard perception in younger drivers. Seventy-nine undergraduate students completed a hazard perception test and a battery of cognitive tests that have previously demonstrated a relationship with safe driving. The newly created hazard perception test measured accuracy of hazard identification, response times when anticipating the hazard, and response times when taking action to avoid the hazard. Hazard perception accuracy was significantly related to visuo-spatial skills, executive functioning and global cognitive status. Anticipation response times were significantly related to inhibitory control, with no significant relationship found between cognitive function and action response times. These findings are discussed in line with limitations in the study. Future research into the role of specific cognitive domains could lead to the enhancement of hazard perception testing for licensing with cognitive training and assessment, with the potential to reduce the crash risk of vulnerable younger drivers.     

Clinical tests of memory in dementia, depression, and healthy aging

In Study 1, carefully screened elderly adults with primary degenerative dementia or major depression were compared to healthy aged control subjects on three tests of learning and memory: the Benton Visual Retention Test, Inglis Paired-Associate Learning Test, and the Fuld Object-Memory Evaluation (OME). The sharpest distinction in performance among the groups was observed on the OME, and discriminant equations based on this test correctly classified a high percentage (greater than or equal to 90%) of participants. Study 2 applied the classification rules derived in the first investigation to an unselected series of geropsychiatry inpatients referred for neuropsychological evaluation. There was agreement between memory test classification and general categories of clinical discharge diagnosis (organic vs. functional) for 21 of 25 patients, and with status at follow-up approximately 18 months later. Predictive value computations suggested that the OME is more accurate in confirming true dementia than in detecting dementia syndromes associated with functional disorders.     

Further considerations regarding inhibitory processes, working memory, and cognitive aging

The present study explored the relationship between inhibitory processing (as indexed by identity negative priming in a letter-naming task), working memory, discourse processing, and cognitive aging effects. Consistent with several other recent reports, this study found evidence of intact inhibitory processing, as measured by negative priming, in older adults as well as younger adults. This intact negative priming occurred in conjunction with diminished working memory span and impaired memory in the discourse processing task in the same sample of older adults, further arguing against the likelihood that declines in these areas are caused by impairments in the inhibitory processes measured by negative priming. The implications of these results for theories of cognitive aging and possible reasons for inconsistent findings regarding negative priming effects among the elderly are discussed.     

Intrusive thoughts and their relationship to actigraphic measurement of sleep: towards a cognitive model of insomnia

Although cognitive over-arousal has been hypothesised as a causal factor in sleep-onset insomnia, relatively little is known about the specific pre-sleep intrusions which delay sleep. To investigate this relationship adequately 'live', verifiable, unobtrusive and independent monitoring of thought process and sleep pattern is essential. This study was designed with these requirements in mind. Voice-activated audiotape recordings of spontaneous thoughts, and actigraphic data from which to estimate sleep parameters, were obtained over three consecutive nights from 21 participants (63 subject nights). Content analysis of transcribed audiotapes yielded eight categories of pre-sleep intrusion. Results from correlational and regression analyses indicate that thinking about sleep and the anticipated consequences of poor sleep, along with general problem-solving are the strongest predictors of objective sleep latency. Principal Components Analysis suggests that intrusions can be subsumed under one of three factors: 'active problem-solving', 'present state monitoring' and 'environmental reactivity'. Implications for cognitive models and treatments of insomnia are discussed.     

Number-Stroop performance in normal aging and Alzheimer's-type dementia

The number-Stroop paradigm was used to investigate changes in the inhibitory system and in numerical processing in healthy elderly and individuals with dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT). The size-congruity effect (i.e., relative to neutral trials, incongruent pairs interfere and/or congruent pairs facilitate either numerical or physical comparison) was found in all groups, though the pattern of interference and facilitation varied across them. Overall, the selective attention breakdown was reflected by the increase in interference shown by the older group and the DAT group. On the other hand, the observation of a standard laterality effect andof automatic numerical processing in all groups suggests that access and retrieval of numerical information is relatively resistant to cognitive deterioration.     

Integrating cognitive and emotion paradigms to address the paradox of aging

ABSTRACT

Thirty years ago, the subfields of emotion and cognition operated relatively independently and the associated science reflected the tacit view that they were distinct constructs. Today, questions about the integration of cognition and emotion are among the most interesting questions in the field. I offer a personal view of the key changes that fuelled this shift over time and describe research from my group that unfolded in parallel and led to the identification of the positivity effect.     

The relationship between cognitive,motor-kinesthetic,and oculomotor adaptation

The literature concerning adaptation to prism indicates that several adaptive mechanisms may be important. The particular mechanism or mechanisms involved depends (at least in part) upon the type of adaptive exposure. In the present study. three adaptive mechanisms (cognitive. oculomotor, and motor-kinesthetic) were investigated. Ss were asked to point in the dark at an illuminated target. The target was seen displaced from its veridical position due to a wedge prism placed before S’s right eye. The left eye was occluded. Ss then viewed their visual target pointing errors through the displacing prism without seeing any part of their bodies. One group of Ss was instructed to ignore these prism-induced errors and to continue pointing at the target’s visual position. A second group of Ss was instructed to compensate fully for their errors and to at tempt to eliminate them on all future trials. For the latter group errors were completely eliminated, while for Ss instructed to ignore their errors, relatively small improvement in visual target settings occurred. This improvement was called cognitive adaptation, since it depended on the S’s conscious control. In addition. for both conditions. evidence was found that allowing Ss to view their prism-induced pointing errors resulted in some form of motor-kinesthetic adaptation. This adaptation was hypothesized to represent a change in the judged position of the pointing hand relative to its felt position. It was concluded that this motor-kinesthetic adaptation was dependent, in part, upon cognitive information concerning the effects of the prism and that it serves to reduce conflict between cognitive and visual cues, i.e., between what S believes and what he sees.     

Dimensions of depression and perfectionism in pregnant and nonpregnant women: their levels and interrelationships and their relationship to marital satisfaction

The authors studied S. J. Blatt's (1974) 2 dimensions of depression (anaclitic and introjective), P. L. Hewitt and G. L. Flett's (1991b) 3 dimensions of perfectionism (socially prescribed, self-oriented, and other-oriented), and the relationship between these and marital satisfaction in 100 married women in the last trimester of their first pregnancy and in 50 married women who had not yet experienced pregnancy. The measures used were the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (S. J. Blatt, J. P. D'Afflitti, & D. M. Quinlan. 1976a, 1976b), the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (P. L. Hewitt & G. L. Flett, 1989), and G. B. Spanier's (1976) Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Pregnant and nonpregnant women did not differ in anaclitic depression, but the level of introjective depression of pregnant women was lower than that of nonpregnant women. The two groups did not differ in level of marital satisfaction or in any of the dimensions of perfectionism. For both groups, introjective depression was positively correlated with socially prescribed perfectionism and negatively correlated with marital satisfaction. Self-oriented perfectionism was positively related to introjective depression and negatively related to marital satisfaction for nonpregnant women. For the pregnant women, there was a negative relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and marital satisfaction. Anaclitic depression and other-oriented perfectionism were unrelated to any of the other variables studied.     

Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task

Previous work has shown that bilingualism is associated with more effective controlled processing in children; the assumption is that the constant management of 2 competing languages enhances executive functions (E. Bialystok, 2001). The present research attempted to determine whether this bilingual advantage persists for adults and whether bilingualism attenuates the negative effects of aging on cognitive control in older adults. Three studies are reported that compared the performance of monolingual and bilingual middle-aged and older adults on the Simon task. Bilingualism was associated with smaller Simon effect costs for both age groups; bilingual participants also responded more rapidly to conditions that placed greater demands on working memory. In all cases the bilingual advantage was greater for older participants. It appears, therefore, that controlled processing is carried out more effectively by bilinguals and that bilingualism helps to offset age-related losses in certain executive processes.     

The relationship between men's endogenous levels of testosterone and their penile responses to erotic stimuli.

The endogenous levels of testosterone of six nonclinical, sexually functional men were compared to the magnitude and speed of development of their objectively measured penile erections to repeated presentations of an erotic film und to their self-reported sexual activity. Plasma testosterone concentrations were significantly correlated with two measures of the magnitude of film-elicited sexual arousal (i.e., both peak and mean erection) and with one measure of the speed of development of sexual arousal (i.e., the latency to 90% of full erection) but not with the other (i.e., the latency to 20% of full erection). There was also a significant inverse relationship between testosterone levels and their reported frequency of orgasm by any means. but the reported time from their last orgasm was not related to testosterone levels.