The prediction of above-average participation in volunteerism: a test of the theory of planned behavior and the volunteers functions inventory in older Australian adults

In the present prospective study of 81 older volunteers from a nonprofit organization in Australia, the authors compared the predictive utility of I. Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior with that of E. G. Clary and M. Snyder's (1991) functional approach to volunteering. The authors mailed questionnaires to 385 volunteers in two waves of data collection. The first wave measured theory-of-planned-behavior variables and functional-approach variables. The second wave measured self-reported volunteering behavior for the previous month. Regression analyses supported both the theory of planned behavior and the functional approach; the theory of planned behavior accounted for a significantly larger proportion of variance in above-average participation in self-reported volunteerism. The findings of the present study provided some support for both the theory of planned behavior and the functional approach as models of self-reported volunteerism.     

The power PC theory and causal powers: comment on Cheng (1997) and Novick and Cheng (2004)

It has been claimed that the power PC theory reconciles regularity and power theories of causal judgment by showing how contingency information is used for inferences about unobservable causal powers. Under the causal powers theory causal relations are understood as generative relations in which a causal power of one thing acts on a liability of another thing under some releasing condition. These 3 causal roles are implicit or explicit in all causal interpretations. The power PC theory therefore fails to reconcile power theories and regularity theories because it has a fundamentally different definition of power and does not accommodate the tripartite causal role distinction. Implications of this distinction are drawn out.     

Visual impressions of interactions between objects when the causal object does not move

Stimuli were presented that consisted of a stationary row of black-bordered white rectangles. As observers watched, each rectangle in turn from left to right changed from white to black. The final rectangle did not change colour but moved off from left to right. The sequential colour change suggested motion from left to right, and observers reliably reported a visual impression that this illusory motion kicked or bumped the last rectangle, thereby making it move. The impression was stronger when the sequential colour change was faster, but was not significantly affected by the number of the rectangles in the row (ranging from 2 to 8). These results support the conclusion that neither contact nor motion of a causal object is necessary for a visual impression of causality to occur.     

A latent cue preference based on sodium depletion in rats

Three experiments show latent (or incidental) learning of salt-cue relationships using a conditioned cue-preference paradigm. Rats drank a salt solution while confined in one compartment and water in an adjacent, distinct compartment on alternate days. When given access to the two compartments with no solutions present, sodium-deprived rats preferred their salt-paired compartments; normal rats preferred their water-paired compartments. Reversing the deprivation states of the two groups reversed their preferences. These results show that rats can latently acquire associations between environmental cues and the taste of salt, and can use this information flexibly to guide behavior based upon internal cues produced by sodium deprivation.     

Intra-amygdala muscimol injections impair freezing and place avoidance in aversive contextual conditioning

Rats were trained by shocking them in a closed compartment. When subsequently tested in the same closed compartment with no shock, normal rats showed an increased tendency to freeze. They also showed an increased tendency to actively avoid the compartment when given access to an adjacent neutral compartment for the first time. Amygdala inactivation with bilateral muscimol injections before training attenuated freezing and eliminated avoidance during the test. Rats trained in a normal state and given intra-amygdala muscimol injections before the test did not freeze or avoid the shock-paired compartment. This pattern of effects suggests that amygdala inactivation during training impaired acquisition of a conditioned response (CR) due either to inactivation of a neural substrate essential for its storage or to elimination of a memory modulation effect that facilitates its storage in some other brain region(s). The elimination of both freezing and active avoidance by amygdala inactivation during testing suggests that neither of these behaviors is the CR. The possibility that the CR is a set of internal responses that produces both freezing and avoidance as well as other behavioral effects is discussed.     

Feared consequences of panic attacks in panic disorder: a qualitative and quantitative analysis

Cognitions are hypothesized to play a central role in panic disorder (PD). Previous studies have used questionnaires to assess cognitive content, focusing on prototypical cognitions associated with PD; however, few studies have qualitatively examined cognitions associated with the feared consequences of panic attacks. The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative and quantitative analysis of feared consequences of panic attacks. The initial, qualitative analysis resulted in the development of 32 categories of feared consequences. The categories were derived from participant responses to a standardized, semi-structured question (n = 207). Five expert-derived categories were then utilized to quantitatively examine the relationship between cognitions and indicators of PD severity. Cognitions did not predict PD severity; however, correlational analyses indicated some predictive validity to the expert-derived categories. The qualitative analysis identified additional areas of patient-reported concern not included in previous research that may be important in the assessment and treatment of PD.     

Attentional disregulation: a benefit for implicit memory

The authors investigated the effect of age and time of testing on the ability to control attention and addressed the possibility that older adults' susceptibility to distraction may sometimes facilitate performance on a later cognitive task. Using a modification of a G. Rees, C. Russell, C. D. Frith, and J. Driver (1999) procedure, the authors asked the participants to make same or different judgments on line drawings superimposed with task-irrelevant letter strings. Memory for the distractors was subsequently tested with an implicit memory task. Both older and young adults demonstrated greater memory for distractors at nonoptimal times of day than at optimal times of day; however, older adults showed considerably better memory for the distractors than did young adults.     

Dorsal hippocampus function in learning and expressing a spatial discrimination

Learning to discriminate between spatial locations defined by two adjacent arms of a radial maze in the conditioned cue preference paradigm requires two kinds of information: latent spatial learning when the rats explore the maze with no food available, and learning about food availability in two spatial locations when the rats are then confined in one arm with food and the other with no food. Previous research showed that a functional dorsal hippocampus is not required for latent learning. The present experiments show that it is required for learning about food availability, and during retrieval of both types of information.     

The relationship between measures of executive function, motor performance and externalising behaviour in 5- and 6-year-old children

In his cognitive-energetic model of information processing Sergeant [Sergeant, J. (2000). The cognitive-energetic model: An empirical approach to ADHD. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 24, 7-12] links executive function (EF) to motor behaviour. This link has been supported by evidence from a number of sources including studies of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Little is known developmentally about this association. Given the rapid change in both motor proficiency and EF that takes place in the pre-school years, this appears an important time to look for the emergence of the link between these factors. In this study we tested 5- and 6-year-old children on motor tasks from the movement assessment battery for children and on measures of response inhibition (Stroop and stop-signal task) and examined the relationship between scores on these measures. Additionally, in order to relate this behaviour to everyday function, the Rowe behavioural rating inventory (RBRI), a teachers' behavioural rating of externalising behaviour, was also gathered and this related to EF and motor performance. It was found that motor performance correlated significantly with RBRI scores (better motor performance with lower externalising behaviour) and with Stroop performance. The relationship between motor performance and stop-signal task performance was in the expected direction but failed to reach significance and there was no clear association between performance on the stop-signal task and either Stroop or RBRI scores. The results are discussed in relation to different aspects of response inhibition (inhibition of a pre-potent response, interference control) and how these might relate to motor control.