Correlations between intelligence and components of serial timing variability

Psychometric intelligence correlates with reaction time in elementary cognitive tasks, as well as with performance in time discrimination and judgment tasks. It has remained unclear, however, to what extent these correlations are due to top–down mechanisms, such as attention, and bottom–up mechanisms, i.e. basic neural properties that influence both temporal accuracy and cognitive processes. Here, we assessed correlations between intelligence (Raven SPM Plus) and performance in isochronous serial interval production, a simple, automatic timing task where participants first make movements in synchrony with an isochronous sequence of sounds and then continue with self-paced production to produce a sequence of intervals with the same inter-onset interval (IOI). The target IOI varied across trials. A number of different measures of timing variability were considered, all negatively correlated with intelligence. Across all stimulus IOIs, local interval-to-interval variability correlated more strongly with intelligence than drift, i.e. gradual changes in response IOI. The strongest correlations with intelligence were found for IOIs between 400 and 900 ms, rather than above 1 s, which is typically considered a lower limit for cognitive timing. Furthermore, poor trials, i.e. trials arguably most affected by lapses in attention, did not predict intelligence better than the most accurate trials. We discuss these results in relation to the human timing literature, and argue that they support a bottom–up model of the relation between temporal variability of neural activity and intelligence.     

Concurrent and Prospective Associations Between Social Anxiety and Responses to Stress in Adolescence

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Several studies have investigated the relationship between adolescents’ responses to stress and general anxiety and depression, but only few...     

Heart-beat perception, panic/somatic symptoms and anxiety sensitivity in children

There is considerable evidence implicating heart-beat perception (HBP) accuracy and anxiety sensitivity (AS) in the development of panic in adults. However, to date there have been no studies exploring the association between HBP, AS and childhood panic/somatic symptoms. Seventy-nine children aged 8 to 11 years completed a mental tracking paradigm (Psychophysiology 18 (1981) 483) to assess HBP, the Children's Anxiety Sensitivity Index (J Clin Chil Psychol 20 (1991) 162) and the Screen for Childhood Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (J Am Acad Child Adoles Psych 38 (1999) 1230). Those with good HBP (n = 7, 9%) had significantly higher panic/somatic symptoms (t = -1.71, P < 0.05), and AS (t = -2.16, P < 0.02) than those with poor HBP. There were no effects of age, sex or BMI on HBP. Those with high levels of panic/somatic symptoms were seven times more likely to have good HBP and had AS scores 1 S.D. higher than the remainder of the sample. Multivariate analyses revealed that these two phenotypes had independent associations with high panic/somatic symptoms. These results extend the literature on HBP and panic and suggest that in children, as in adults, increased panic/somatic symptoms are associated with enhanced ability to perceive internal physiological cues, and fear of such sensations.     

Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action as a Function of Racial Identity Among African American College Students

Variations in support for affirmative action were assessed in a sample of 181 African American college students in Massachusetts. These students generally endorsed affirmative action, and endorsement varied positively as a function of the belief that one had personally benefited from affirmative action. Aspects of racial identity, indexed by the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity, also predicted variations in attitudes toward affirmative action, over and above background factors and personal benefit. Consistent with realistic group conflict theory, the most influential aspects of identity were centrality (i.e., the degree to which group identity is central to personal identity), private regard (i.e., pride in the group), and an oppressed minority ideology (i.e., a viewpoint that emphasizes the similarities between African Americans and other oppressed groups).     

Cognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: development and evaluation

The paper describes the development of a cognitive therapy (CT) program for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is based on a recent cognitive model (Behav. Res. Therapy 38 (2000) 319). In a consecutive case series, 20 PTSD patients treated with CT showed highly significant improvement in symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety. A subsequent randomized controlled trial compared CT (N = 14) and a 3-month waitlist condition (WL, N = 14). CT led to large reductions in PTSD symptoms, disability, depression and anxiety, whereas the waitlist group did not improve. In both studies, treatment gains were well maintained at 6-month follow-up. CT was highly acceptable, with an overall dropout rate of only 3%. The intent-to-treat effect sizes for the degree of change in PTSD symptoms from pre to post-treatment were 2.70-2.82 (self-report), and 2.07 (assessor-rated). The controlled effect sizes for CT versus WL post-treatment scores were 2.25 (self-report) and 2.18 (assessor-rated). As predicted by the cognitive model, good treatment outcome was related to greater changes in dysfunctional post-traumatic cognitions. Patient characteristics such as comorbidity, type of trauma, history of previous trauma, or time since the traumatic event did not predict treatment response, however, low educational attainment and low socioeconomic status were related to better outcome.     

How people familiarize themselves with complex ecological concepts—anchoring of social representations of invasive non‐native species

New terms and frameworks are constantly being incorporated into scientific and public discourses on the management of natural resources and the environment. The idea of invasive non‐native plant and animal species, i.e. of species that enter a new range and spread prolifically, is currently becoming part of the public discourse in Scotland. This constitutes a valuable opportunity to study how people engage with new scientific concepts. We analysed focus group and personal interview data to examine how participants (including the general public, conservation volunteers and scientists) familiarized themselves with the ecological concept of invasive non‐native species. Our analysis draws on the idea of anchoring in the formation of social representations, complemented by concepts from cognitive linguistics and conceptual blending, and defines anchoring as a process of information transfer from source to target domains. Our findings suggest that social representations of invasive non‐native species were constituted to a large degree by perceptions of species' detrimental impacts and the human role in and responsibility for the introduction process. By contrast, the non‐nativeness of a species was not relevant for participants from the general public and conservation volunteers. Three types of anchoring could be distinguished in our participants' discussions that differed with regard to the relations between source and target domain. Whereas participants from the general public and conservation volunteers used all three types of anchoring, scientists did not. The identification of different anchoring types also helped to explain incongruencies in the scientific discourse on invasive non‐native species, and has implications for public information campaigns. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.