The cost of thinking about false beliefs: evidence from adults' performance on a non-inferential theory of mind task

Much of what we know about other people's beliefs comes non-inferentially from what people tell us. Developmental research suggests that 3-year-olds have difficulty processing such information: they suffer interference from their own knowledge of reality when told about someone's false belief (e.g., [Wellman, H. M., & Bartsch, K. (1988). Young children's reasoning about beliefs. Cognition, 30, 239-277.]). The current studies examined for the first time whether similar interference occurs in adult participants. In two experiments participants read sentences describing the real colour of an object and a man's false belief about the colour of the object, then judged the accuracy of a picture probe depicting either reality or the man's belief. Processing costs for picture probes depicting reality were consistently greater in this false belief condition than in a matched control condition in which the sentences described the real colour of one object and a man's unrelated belief about the colour of another object. A similar pattern was observed for picture probes depicting the man's belief in most cases. Processing costs were not sensitive to the time available for encoding the information presented in the sentences: costs were observed when participants read the sentences at their own pace (Experiment 1) or at a faster or a slower pace (Experiment 2). This suggests that adults' difficulty was not with encoding information about reality and a conflicting false belief, but with holding this information in mind and using it to inform a subsequent judgement.     

What attracts attention during police pursuit driving?

Efficient deployment of attention is important to the safe execution of tasks with a high content of visual information, such as driving. Chasing a lead vehicle is an extremely demanding and dangerous task, though little is known of the visual skills required. A study is reported that recorded the eye movements of police drivers and two control groups (novices and age‐ and experienced‐ matched controls) while watching a series of video clips of driving. The clips included pursuits, emergency response drives, and control drives (at normal speeds) around Nottinghamshire, UK. Analysis of gaze durations within certain categories of stimuli revealed that daytime pursuit drives correspond with an increase in gaze durations on a lead car (controlled for exposure), though police drivers direct their attention to other sources of potential hazards, such as pedestrians, more so than other drivers. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of acute and chronic flunitrazepam on delay discounting in pigeons

Delay to delivery of a reinforcer can decrease responding for that reinforcer and increase responding for smaller reinforcers that are available concurrently and delivered without delay; acute administration of drugs can alter responding for large, delayed reinforcers, although the impact of chronic treatment on delay discounting is not well understood. In this experiment, the effects of repeated administration of the benzodiazepine flunitrazepam were studied in 6 pigeons responding on one key to receive food that was delivered immediately and on a second key to receive a larger amount of food that was delivered following delays which increased across a single session. Pigeons responded predominantly for the large reinforcer when there were no delays and when delays were short; however, as delays increased, responding for the large reinforcer decreased. Acutely, flunitrazepam (0.32, 1.0 and 3.2 mg/kg) dose-dependently increased responding for the large reinforcer, shifting the discounting curve rightward and upward. Repeated administration of flunitrazepam (0.32, 1.0 and 3.2 mg/kg, each for six sessions, separated by one session during which vehicle was administered) did not markedly alter its effects on responding for the large reinforcer, indicating that the development of tolerance to this effect of flunitrazepam is modest under these conditions.     

The effects of applied tension on symptoms in French-speaking blood donors: a randomized trial.

Blood-donation-related symptoms such as dizziness and weakness discourage people from participating in this important health-related activity. Four hundred sixty-seven young adult, French-speaking blood donors were randomly assigned to (a) a condition in which they learned a possible preventive technique called applied tension and were asked to practice it from the time they got on the donation chair until they were just about to get up, (b) a placebo condition in which they learned applied tension and were asked to practice it from the time they got on the chair until the insertion of the donation needle, or (c) a no-treatment control condition. Donors assigned to the treatment condition reported significantly fewer blood-donation-related symptoms than did donors assigned to the other conditions and rated their likelihood of returning to give blood again as greater than did those in the no treatment condition. Among donors whose chairs were not reclined, participants in the treatment condition had significantly smaller heart rate reactions to blood donation than did those in the other conditions.     

Family Alliance in Infancy and Toddlerhood Predicts Social Cognition in Adolescence

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Infants developing in a cooperative family alliance (FA), characterized by cohesion and mutual support between family members observable during...     

Factor structure and measurement invariance of a short measure of the Big Five personality traits

The main purpose of this study is to assess the factor structure and the measurement invariance of the Mini-International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP; Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, & Lucas, 2006). The Mini-IPIP is a brief instrument evaluating personality traits according to the Big Five models. Two samples were collected comprising nearly 800 participants. Confirmatory factor analyzes revealed a five-factor solution consistent with the Big Five model. Measurement invariance analyses showed that the Mini-IPIP was reasonably invariant across samples, genders and age groups. Overall, results pointed to a satisfactory factorial structure and an adequate invariance of the measure.     

Mother-Child and Father-Child Interactional Synchrony in Dyadic and Triadic Interactions

Patterns of interactional synchrony were compared in mother-child and father-child dyads during dyadic and triadic interactions. Forty-two dual-earner families from the French province of Québec, Canada, participated in the study with their 32 months-old child. Parent?Cchild interactions were coded using a taxonomy including the social partners?? physical proximity, visual and body orientation, and dyadic involvement. Analyses show similar patterns of interactional synchrony in mother-child and father-child dyads in the dyadic context while father-child dyads presented less interactional synchrony than mother-child dyads when interacting in triad. Discussion focuses on the impact of the context and on the factors that could explain the changes in father-child patterns of interaction from one context to another.     

Stop-Think-Relax: An Adapted Self-Control Training Strategy for Individuals with Mental Retardation and Coexisting Psychiatric Illness

Published self-instructional techniques for stress/anger management for those with mental retardation and developmental disabilities are often impractical due to the demands of complex instructional sequencing and of applying the technique during distressing situations. The development and implementation of an adapted, self-instructional, self-control technique employing a simple, 3-step method, reinforced by iconic visual cues, will be presented. The application of this strategy in individuals with mental retardation and concurrent mental illness will be reviewed in 3 detailed clinical cases. The Stop-Think-Relax strategy is a highly versatile and easily taught method for self-control that can be successfully applied in adults with limited cognitive capacities and with coexisting psychiatric features.