Disequilibrium in the mind, disharmony in the body

Although it is generally acknowledged that experiences of frustration, confusion, and anxiety are embodied phenomena, very little is known about how these processes modulate presumably unconscious, but constantly present, subtle bodily movement. We addressed this problem by tracking the low-level dynamics of body movement, using 1/f noise, pink noise, or "fractal scaling", during naturalistic experiences of affect in two studies involving deep learning and effortful problem-solving. Our results indicate that body movement fluctuations of individuals experiencing cognitive equilibrium was characteristic of correlated pink noise, but there was a whitening of the signal when participants experienced states that are diagnostic of cognitive distress such as anxiety, confusion, and frustration. We orient our findings within theories that emphasise the embodied nature of cognition and affect and with perspectives that view affective and cognitive processes as emergent products of a self-organising dynamical system (the brain) that is inextricably coupled to the body.     

A comparison of parental attention and preferred items during tummy time: A consecutive controlled case series evaluation

Tummy time is an activity for infants to practice their early motor skills. Although most pediatricians recommend tummy time, parents may avoid the procedures due to indices of infant discomfort during this period. This consecutive controlled case series evaluation compared the effects of preferred items selected from a preference assessment with those of parental attention on head evaluation and negative vocalizations during tummy time. In addition, we directly evaluated parental choice by inviting parents to select which tummy time treatment they wanted to implement. We found that both preferred items and parental attention effectively increased head elevation and decreased negative vocalizations during tummy time; however, parents tended to prefer the treatment that included the preferred item.     

The decision tree polytope and its application to sequential decision problems

This paper describes a new mathematical programming approach to sequential decision problems that have an underlying decision tree structure. The approach, based upon a characterization of strategies as extreme points of a 0–1 polytope called the ‘decision tree polytope’, is particularly suited to the direct examination of risk-return and other tradeoffs amongst strategies. However, it can also be used for conventional utility maximization if a utility function is available. Further, the approach requires no algorithmic development—it can be implemented using commercially available algebraic modeling software and can solve large problems. A related, and already known, approach can be used for some more general Markov decision problems. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influences of APOE ε4 and expertise on performance of older pilots

Little is known about how APOE ε4-related differences in cognitive performance translate to real-life performance, where training and experience may help to sustain performance. We investigated the influences of APOE ε4 status, expertise (FAA pilot proficiency ratings), and their interaction on longitudinal flight simulator performance. Over a 2-year period, 139 pilots aged 42-69 years were tested annually. APOE ε4 carriers had lower memory performance than noncarriers (p = .019). APOE interacted with Expertise (p = .036), such that the beneficial influence of expertise (p = .013) on longitudinal flight simulator performance was more pronounced for ε4 carriers. Results suggest that relevant training and activity may help sustain middle-aged and older adults' real-world performance, especially among APOE ε4 carriers.     

Children Expressing Mixed Emotion in a Nonsocial Context

Abstract

Efforts to demonstrate children’s ability to report experiencing mixed emotions have typically used an allocentric approach, asking children to report on emotions of other individuals in response to stories or movie clips demonstrating social themes. In contrast, literature examining children’s personal experiencing and understanding of their own mixed emotions, typified as an egocentric approach, in nonsocial situations remains underdeveloped. The current study examined the development of children’s reported understanding and experience of mixed emotions egocentrically. By examining a nonsocial context, this investigation extends existing gender- and age-related research on expressing egocentric mixed emotion. Using a computerized game with a disappointing wins paradigm, egocentric mixed emotional experience was elicited in 142 children (80 boys, 62 girls) aged 6 to 12?years. Results revealed that age, but not gender, was a statistically significant predictor of expressing egocentric mixed emotion experience and understanding. When studying mixed emotion development in a nonsocial context, gender did not contribute to differences in child reports. A significant positive relationship between egocentric mixed emotion experiencing and understanding also emerged. These findings contribute to our understanding of children’s emotion development and offer future directions for examining the broad domain of nonsocial contexts in youth expression of mixed emotions.