Cognitive and affective matching effects in persuasion: an amplification perspective

Past research suggests that cognitive and affective attitudes are more open to change toward cognitive and affective (i.e., matched) persuasive attacks, respectively. The present research investigates how attitude certainty influences this openness. Although an extensive literature suggests that certainty generally reduces an attitude's openness to change, the authors explore the possibility that certainty might increase an attitude's openness to change in the context of affective or cognitive appeals. Based on the recently proposed amplification hypothesis, the authors posit that high (vs. low) attitude certainty will boost the resistance of attitudes to mismatched attacks (e.g., affective attitudes attacked by cognitive messages) but boost the openness of attitudes to matched attacks (e.g., affective attitudes attacked by affective messages). Two experiments provide support for this hypothesis. Implications for increasing the openness of attitudes to both matched and mismatched attacks are discussed.     

When is it wrong to eat animals? The relevance of different animal traits and behaviours

Research suggests that animals’ capacity for agency, experience, and benevolence predict beliefs about their moral treatment. Four studies built on this work by examining how fine‐grained information about animals’ traits and behaviours (e.g., can store food for later vs. can use tools) shifted moral beliefs about eating and harming animals. The information that most strongly affected moral beliefs was related to secondary emotions (e.g., can feel love), morality (e.g., will share food with others), empathy (e.g., can feel others' pain), social connections (e.g., will look for deceased family members), and moral patiency (e.g., can feel pain). In addition, information affected moral judgements in line with how it affected superordinate representations about animals’ capacity for experience/feeling but not agency/thinking. The results provide a fine‐grained outline of how, and why, information about animals’ traits and behaviours informs moral judgements.     

The impact of affective and cognitive focus on attitude formation

We examined the effects of unobtrusive affective and cognitive focus on attitude formation. To induce focus, participants worked on a word-search puzzle consisting of either affective (e.g., emotion) or cognitive (e.g., reasoning) words. They then read positive and negative affective and cognitive information about a new attitude object. In the affective focus condition, evaluations were more congruent with the valence of the affective information than they were in the cognitive focus condition, where evaluations were more congruent with the valence of the cognitive information than they were in the affective focus condition. Affective focus also resulted in enhanced recall of affective information. The effects on evaluations remained stable over time, whereas effects on memory disappeared. Finally, affective focus was associated with faster response times, suggesting enhanced accessibility of affect-based attitudes. The present research shows that an affective or cognitive focus leads to the formation of different attitudes.     

Will you touch a dirty diaper? Attitudes towards disgust and behaviour

Individuals differ in their willingness to engage with disgusting stimuli (e.g., dirty diapers). We propose that such differences are associated with attitudes towards disgust. Specifically, we predicted that people with less negative attitudes towards disgust (i.e., those who evaluate disgust less negatively) would be more willing to engage with disgusting stimuli. We asked participants to engage with disgusting stimuli in the laboratory and used two measures that assess behavioural and affective or cognitive components of attitudes towards disgust. As predicted, less negative attitudes towards disgust were associated with greater engagement with disgusting stimuli, above and beyond the current experience of disgust and the tendency to experience disgust. These findings stress the importance of attitudes towards emotions in understanding emotion-relevant behaviour.     

Executive function, intellectual decline and daily living skills

Understanding the cognitive changes associated with compromised daily living skills in elderly individuals is important for making appropriate recommendations about the capacity for independent functioning. To this end, we retrospectively examined data from 92 elderly individuals presenting with cognitive decline who were administered measures of executive functioning, general intelligence, and daily living skills. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between executive functioning and daily living skills, while controlling for age, depression, and either IQ decline or current IQ. Executive functioning accounted for additional variance in a broad range of daily living skills after controlling for IQ decline. When FSIQ was used in the regression model rather than IQ decline, executive functioning was no longer uniquely associated with daily living skills. Executive functions appear to be important for daily living skills until a critical threshold of low intellectual functioning is reached, reflecting the combined influence of premorbid ability and the extent of intellectual decline. Our results suggest that understanding the relative contribution of different cognitive domains to functional decline in elderly individuals should take into account general intellectual functioning and estimated decline, and that the initiation and/or persistence of self-directed cognitive processes may be important for adaptive daily functioning. These findings have implications for making more evidence-based recommendations about the capacity for independent living.     

Executive Function,Intellectual Decline and Daily Living Skills

ABSTRACT

Understanding the cognitive changes associated with compromised daily living skills in elderly individuals is important for making appropriate recommendations about the capacity for independent functioning. To this end, we retrospectively examined data from 92 elderly individuals presenting with cognitive decline who were administered measures of executive functioning, general intelligence, and daily living skills. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between executive functioning and daily living skills, while controlling for age, depression, and either IQ decline or current IQ. Executive functioning accounted for additional variance in a broad range of daily living skills after controlling for IQ decline. When FSIQ was used in the regression model rather than IQ decline, executive functioning was no longer uniquely associated with daily living skills. Executive functions appear to be important for daily living skills until a critical threshold of low intellectual functioning is reached, reflecting the combined influence of premorbid ability and the extent of intellectual decline. Our results suggest that understanding the relative contribution of different cognitive domains to functional decline in elderly individuals should take into account general intellectual functioning and estimated decline, and that the initiation and/or persistence of self-directed cognitive processes may be important for adaptive daily functioning. These findings have implications for making more evidence-based recommendations about the capacity for independent living.     

Cognitive Functioning in Aging and Dementia: The Kungsholmen Project

The Kungsholmen Project (KP) is a community-based longitudinal study of aging and dementia targeting the 75+ population. In this article, we review empirical studies with a cognitive focus from the KP. The main findings indicate that (a) there is an age-related decline for some cognitive domains (e.g., episodic memory, verbal fluency, visuoconstructive skill, psychomotor speed), but not for others (e.g., primary memory, visuoperceptive skill, motor-hand coordination), (b) multiple individual-difference variables within demographic (e.g., sex, education) life-style (e.g., activity levels), genetic (e.g., apolipoprotein E genotype), and health-related (e.g., vitamin B deficiency, depression, diabetes) domains are related to late-life cognitive functioning, (c) a potential for improving cognitive performance – a reserve capacity – is present also among very old adults, (d) the 2 most common dementia diseases, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD), affect cognition in a strikingly similar manner, (e) the role of individual-difference variables in cognitive functioning is markedly reduced in dementia – the pathogenesis itself may overshadow the influence of other variables, and (f) there is a long preclinical period in dementia during which cognitive deficits are detectable. As is true with the other projects represented in this issue, the KP portrays a rather diversified picture of cognitive aging, although systematic patterns are evident with regard to the variability of late-life cognitive functioning.     

The closed mind: ‘Experience’ and ‘cognition’ aspects of openness to experience and need for closure as psychological bases for right‐wing attitudes

Openness to Experience and Need for Closure (NFC) are dispositional variables related to social‐cultural right‐wing attitudes. The present study investigated their joint effects. Factor analysis revealed an ‘experiential’ dimension with high loading openness items, and a ‘cognition’ dimension with high loadings for most NFC items and about a quarter of the openness item set. The experiential openness items were weakly related to right‐wing attitudes, demonstrating little predictive value. Conversely, the cognitive openness and NFC items were powerful predictors of right‐wing attitudes, and also played an important role in integrative models, both as a predictor of authoritarianism‐based racism and as a mediator of age related increments in right‐wing attitudes. It is concluded that right‐wing attitudes should be primarily understood in terms of (motivated) cognition, and to a smaller extent in terms of experiential openness. The distinction between ‘experiential’ and ‘cognitive’ openness is critically assessed, and it is asserted that because cognition is a multifaceted construct openness contains more than one cognitive dimension. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Justice Beliefs,Personal Well-Being and Harsh Social Attitudes: Initial Demonstration of a Polynomial Regression and Response Surface Methodology

Tendencies to believe in justice are multidimensional and include beliefs that the world is fair to one’s self (personal justice beliefs) as well as to others (general justice beliefs). Previous research suggests that personal and general justice beliefs are divergently linked to well-being and harsh social attitudes, respectively. However, whether and how these justice tendencies conjointly affect well-being and harsh social attitudes is less well known. Guided by equity theory, the current study used polynomial regression and surface response methodology to demonstrate how specific discrepancies between justice beliefs for self and others predict personal well-being and harsh social attitudes. Participants (N?=?1079) completed measures of tendencies to believe in personal and general justice, as well as measures of physical symptoms associated with illness and attitudes towards the poor. Results suggested that discrepancy between personal and general justice beliefs had detrimental effects on these outcomes (i.e., higher number of illness symptoms and harsher attitudes towards the poor). Moreover, discrepancy resulting from a strong belief in general justice and a weak belief in personal justice (i.e., other-favorable discrepancy) was more strongly negatively associated with well-being and positively associated with harsh attitudes towards the poor than discrepancy resulting from a strong personal justice belief and a weak general justice belief (i.e., self-favorable discrepancy). The current research highlights the potential for personal and general justice beliefs to conjointly predict well-being and social attitudes, while simultaneously demonstrating the capacity to better understand these interactive relationships through the use of surface response methodology.     

Cognitive and Behavioral Contributions to Depression Severity,Quality of Life,and Functioning Among People Living With HIV in South Africa

Cognitive-behavioral treatments for depression typically address both behavioral (e.g., activation) and cognitive (e.g., rumination) components, and consequently improve quality of life (QOL) and function in high-resource settings. However, little is known about the cross-cultural applicability and relative contribution of these components to depression symptom severity, QOL, and functional impairment in South Africa and other resource-limited global settings with high HIV prevalence rates.Persons with HIV (N = 274) from a peri-urban community outside Cape Town, South Africa, were administered multiple measures of depression (Hamilton Depression Scale, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, South African Depression Scale), cognitive and behavioral components related to depression (Ruminative Response Scale, Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale), and measures of QOL and functioning (Sheehan Disability Scale, Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Scale—Short Form). Multiple linear regression models were fit to assess the relative contribution of behavioral and cognitive components to depression severity, QOL, and functional impairment in this population.Models accounting for age and sex revealed that lower levels of behavioral activation (BA) were significantly associated with all measures of depression, as well as with QOL and functional impairment (all ps < .01). Rumination was associated with all measures of depression (all ps < .01), but not with QOL or functional impairment.The consistent and unique association of BA with depression, QOL, and functional impairment bolsters its importance as a treatment target for this population.     

Creating Mr. Right and Ms. Right: Interpersonal ideals and personal change in newlyweds

Based on research on exchanging information during conflict (e.g., Levinger, 1983) and the energizing effects of negative feelings (e.g., Lewin, 1951; Gottman & Krokoff, 1989), this study explores circumstances in which individuals change, over the years, in fulfillment of their spouses’unmet ideals for them. In a longitudinal study of over 200 African American newlywed couples and White newlywed couples, respondents’ratings were combined to form an index of individuals’change in fulfillment of their partners’initially unmet ideals for them. Predictions were that individuals would change more when they listen and try to understand their partners’feelings during conflict or when they have negative feelings about the functioning of the relationship. Results were that high openness to information exchange during conflict predicted high change for White husbands, White wives, and African American wives, and negative feelings about relationship functioning predicted high change for White wives, African American wives, and African American husbands.     

Neuropsychological outcomes of pediatric demyelinating diseases: a review

Immune-mediated central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating diseases impact various areas of the brain, optic nerves, and/or spinal cord and can result in a wide range of neurologic symptoms including adverse cognitive outcomes. Neuropsychological outcomes in adult multiple sclerosis (MS) are well documented, while literature on such outcomes in pediatric cohorts is more limited. Furthermore, literature on neuropsychological outcomes in pediatric acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), neuromyelitis optica (NMO), and transverse myelitis (TM) is even more limited. This paper is the first to review what is known about neuropsychological outcomes associated with immune-mediated CNS demyelinating diseases, with a focus on pediatric MS, ADEM, NMO, and TM. Additionally, this review illuminates the need to clarify differences in neuropsychological sequelae between conditions, characterize longitudinal cognitive outcomes, and investigate neuropsychological outcomes in relation to clinical variables (e.g., age of onset, disease duration, number of relapses) and psychosocial variables (e.g., fatigue, emotional problems, behavioral functioning) to better understand neuropsychological outcomes associated with these conditions.     

Public attitudes toward sex offenders and their relationship to personality traits and demographic characteristics

The present study examined public attitudes toward the sentencing, treatment, management, and perceived dangerousness of sex offenders. Seventy‐eight university undergraduates completed a 25‐item attitude toward sex offenders survey developed for the present study, along with a five‐factor measure of personality (NEO Personality Inventory – Revised), a demographic questionnaire, and the Paulhus Deception Scale, to control for social desirability. While participants most frequently endorsed the belief that sentences were not sufficiently severe, they tended to espouse treatment and risk management alternatives to longer sentences and eschewed exceptionally severe punishments (e.g., surgical castration). Participants estimated high rates of sexual recidivism (59%), although they also estimated significantly lower recidivism rates for treated offenders. Results of a principle components analysis suggested that participant attitudes comprised two broad domains: systems attitudes (e.g., law enforcement, corrections, justice) and rehabilitative attitudes. Although few demographic differences emerged in participant attitudes, ‘openness to experience’ and ‘agreeableness’ each significantly predicted more rehabilitative attitudes, while contrary to expectations, ‘extraversion’ was significantly associated with more negative systems‐related attitudes. The results provide support that personality traits may be linked to important social attitudes, including those toward sex offenders. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What constrains grammatical gender effects on semantic judgements? Evidence from Portuguese

Four studies investigated whether grammatical gender biases the semantic judgements of Portuguese speakers, relative to speakers of English. Some research reports that grammatical gender has a pervasive influence on speakers' cognitive representations (e.g., Boroditsky, Schmidt, & Philips, 2003; Sera, Elieff, Forbes, Burch, & Rodriguez, 2002). Others argue that effects of grammar arise through linguistic processing (e.g., Vigliocco, Vinson, Paganelli, & Dworzynski, 2005) and are restricted to animate categories for which gender is a pertinent feature. The present results found effects of gender in Portuguese speakers' judgements of inanimate objects, but only when gender was task relevant and/or when the stimuli were words, rather than pictures. These findings support the view that gender effects on cognitive judgements arise as a function of linguistic processing and/or task demands, rather than directly influencing conceptual or semantic representations.     

Personal Contact with Refugees is Key to Welcoming Them: An Analysis of Politicians' and Citizens' Attitudes Towards Refugee Integration

Politicians are influential both in directing policies about refugees and in framing public discourse about them. However, unlike other host country residents, politicians' attitudes towards refugees and integration are remarkably understudied. We therefore examine similarities and differences between politicians' attitudes towards refugee integration and those held by citizens. Based on the stereotype content model, we expect that political ideology informs stereotypes about refugees, which subsequently shape attitudes towards refugee integration. Based on the Contact Hypothesis, we further argue that personal contact with refugees reduces negative stereotypes about them—in particular for those endorsing a right-wing ideology. We draw on data collected via two surveys with 905 politicians and 8013 citizens in the Netherlands to show that (1) unlike those with a left-wing orientation, residents (i.e., both politicians and citizens) with a right-wing orientation hold more negative stereotypes about refugees, which in turn relate to more negative attitudes towards refugee integration; (2) personal contact with refugees is associated with less negative stereotypes among residents; and (3) politicians, compared to citizens, report less negative stereotypes and more positive attitudes towards refugee integration. The practical implication of fostering residents' contact with refugees as well as the implications for future research are discussed.     

The Prevalence of Metacognitive Routes to Judgment

Metacognitive routes to judgment may be taken more often than suggested by Schwarz (2004). First, judgments that appear to be consistent with a systematic processing account may be based on higher order metacognitive theories. Specifically, individuals’ inferential judgments based on naive theories about retrieval ease may be interpreted to be potentially biased, resulting in an adjustment in the opposite direction of the initial judgment to correct for the bias. Second, whereas favorable attitudes may reflect the positive experience of processing fluency, favorable attitudes may also reflect naive theories at work. When the target (e.g., brand name, logo, etc.) can be more easily processed, the hedonic experience of processing fluency gives rise to more favorable attitudes toward the target. However, when information about the target (e.g., an ad highlighting benefits of the brand) can be more easily processed, individuals may interpret the experience of processing fluency based on naive theory and attribute the experience to the information being more persuasive, resulting in more favorable attitudes toward the target.     

Altruism and health outcomes in multiple sclerosis: The effect of cognitive reserve

Despite age-associated decreases in cognitive and physical abilities, age is not associated with a decrease in ratings of well-being; this phenomenon is termed the ‘paradox of well-being.’ One potential explanation for this paradox may be that older adults place less value on cognitive abilities that have been shown to decrease with age (e.g., memory) and more value on cognitive abilities shown to increase with age (e.g., knowledge). Using online methods, 358 individuals between the ages of 18 and 88 completed a survey assessing the values placed on everyday cognitive abilities, self-ratings for those same abilities, and life satisfaction. Results indicated that there were minimal age-related differences in values placed on everyday cognitive abilities and that values generally did not moderate the relationship between perceptions of cognitive functioning and life satisfaction. Of note, values placed on cognition significantly predicted life satisfaction in younger adults, but not in middle-aged and older adults.     

Priming attachment security improves attitudes towards a range of therapies

We sought to understand how attachment orientation influenced attitudes towards different types of psychological therapies. In two studies, we (1) examined attachment orientation as a predictor of attitudes towards different therapies and (2) tested whether attachment security priming could improve attitudes. Study 1 (n = 339) found associations between attachment orientation and attitudes towards, and likelihood of using different therapies. Positive and negative attitudes about different therapies mediated the relationship between attachment avoidance and likelihood of use. Study 2 (n = 412) showed that primed security (vs. neutral prime) improved attitudes towards relational, non‐relational and distanced‐relational therapies for those with a fearful‐avoidant attachment orientation. For relational and distanced‐relational therapies, the mechanism of this effect was increased cognitive openness. Attachment orientation is a determinant of therapy attitudes and anticipated help‐seeking behaviour. Priming security may promote open‐minded decision‐making about some therapies. Findings are discussed with relevance to attachment theory, research and clinical practice.     

Deciding the Fate of Others: The Cognitive Underpinnings of Racially Biased Juror Decision Making

In criminal law, jurors are supposed to ignore defendant race when considering factual matters of culpability. However, when judging the merits of a criminal case, jurors’ ability (or inability) to avoid bias may affect verdicts. Fact-based decision making expend cognitive resources, while heuristic-based decisions (e.g., using criminal stereotypes) conserve resources. Here, we investigated whether differences in cognitive resources and prejudice attitudes about Blacks influenced trial outcomes. We tested the impact of working memory capacity (WMC), cognitive load, prejudice, and target race (Black, White) on penalties ascribed to fictional criminal defendants in ambiguous-fact cases. Results showed that when “loaded,” prejudiced-low-WMC persons supported guilty verdicts with higher confidence more often for Black than White defendants. Conversely, regardless of WMC or prejudice attitude, participants penalized White defendants more often when not loaded. We suggest that cognitive resources and prejudice attitude influence fact-based decisions. Links to juror judgments and potential trial outcomes are discussed.     

Motivational determinants of motor performance: The hidden second task

Summary The present study was designed to test facilitating and debilitating effects of motivational processes on motor behavior. It was predicted that motivational processes have a more pronounced effect on motor performance when control is frequently transferred to attentional mechanisms (i. e., early in the acquisition phase). The results were consistent with this expectation. A strong motive to achieve success and pretreatment designed to enhance achievement motivation were associated with an increase in the quality of performance. A strong tendency to engage in state-oriented cognitive activities, by contrast, (e.g., thinking about the potential threat to one's selfesteem resulting from failure) was associated with poorer performance, It is concluded that experiments on motor behavior in which subjects are instructed to perform a single motor task may actually involve dual-task (or even multiple-task) performance if some part of the subjects' attentional capacity is used for task-irrelevant cognitive activities.