Constraints on decision making: Implications from genetics, personality, and addiction

An influential neurocomputational theory of the biological mechanisms of decision making, the “basal ganglia go/no-go model,” holds that individual variability in decision making is determined by differences in the makeup of a striatal system for approach and avoidance learning. The model has been tested empirically with the probabilistic selection task (PST), which determines whether individuals learn better from positive or negative feedback. In accordance with the model, in the present study we examined whether an individual’s ability to learn from positive and negative reinforcement can be predicted by genetic factors related to the midbrain dopamine system. We also asked whether psychiatric and personality factors related to substance dependence and dopamine affect PST performance. Although we found characteristics that predicted individual differences in approach versus avoidance learning, these observations were qualified by additional findings that appear inconsistent with the predictions of the go/no-go model. These results highlight a need for future research to validate the PST as a measure of basal ganglia reward learning.     

The Relationship Between the Repression-Sensitization Scale and the Incomplete Sentences Blank

Prior research with the Repression-Sensitization (R-S(scale has isolated certain differential behavior patterns in Ss scoring at the extremes of the scale. Thus Byrne's formulation of the R-S scale hypothesized a curvilinear relationship between the R-S scale and psychological adjustment. However, other research suggests that the relationship may be linear. Using Rotter's Incomplete Sentence Blank, College Form (ISB), it was hypothesized that there would be a linear relationship between the R-S scale and ISB. 204 college students took both the R-S and ISB. No significant sex differences were obtained. While the correlation between the R-S scale and ISB was significant (r = 59, p < .01), the results did not prove linearity, but there is insufficient evidence to support any other kind of relationship.     

The Role of Visual Cues in Movement Control and Motor Memory

3 groups of 12 Ss performed an index finger letter-writing task with visual information but without kinesthetic cues (+V?K), followed immediately by repeating the same letters without vision (?V?K). All groups performed 6 test trials of + V?K, then ?V?K writing. Group 1 had no experience with the task prior to the test trials, Group 2 practiced the letters without vision with kinesthetic cues (?V+K), while Group 3 had visual and kinesthetic practice (+V+K). Visual cues efficiently guided performance in the absence of kinesthesis, and visual memory traces had a marked reinforcing effect. Further, learned reliance on kinesthetic cues was present even in +V?K performance, but reliance on visual cues did not develop.     

Retention of Quiet Eye in Older Skilled Basketball Players

There is mounting research to suggest that cognitive and motor expertise is more resistant to age-related decline than more general capacities. The authors investigated the retention of skills in medium-aged skilled (n = 14) and older-aged skilled (n = 7) athletes by comparing them with medium-aged less skilled (n = 15) and older-aged less skilled (n = 15) participants. Participants performed basketball free throws and dart throws as a transfer task under standardized conditions. Motor performance (accuracy) and perceptual performance (quiet eye) were examined across the four groups. There were significant differences between skill groups and age groups in throwing accuracy on both throwing tasks. Skilled players outperformed less skilled and medium-aged players outperformed older-aged players in basketball and dart throws. There were no significant differences in quiet eye duration across the skill or age groups in either task. These results indicate expertise in a perceptual motor task such as the basketball free throw can be retained in older athletes and that present models of skill maintenance should be re-evaluated to consider the issue of transfer.     

Attachment Style and Early Maladaptive Schemas as Mediators of the Relationship between Childhood Emotional Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence

Theoretical and empirical research suggests possible pathways between women's experiences of childhood emotional abuse (CEA) and later intimate partner violence victimization (IPV-V) and perpetration (IPV-P), including attachment style and early maladaptive schemas. This study tested a model examining the unique mediating effects of insecure attachment and early maladaptive schemas on the relationship between CEA and IPV-V (n?=?396) or IPV-P (n?=?409) in college women. Contrary to hypotheses that both attachment style and maladaptive schema endorsement would mediate the relationship between CEA and IPV-V and IPV-P, regression analyses indicated the disconnection/rejection schema domain was the only significant mediator between CEA and IPV-V (p = .01). This same relation held for childhood emotional abuse and IPV-P (p < .001). These findings provide preliminary clinical utility for examining schema endorsement, the use of schema therapy (Young, Klosko, &; Weishar, 2003 Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S. and Weishar, M. E. 2003. Schema therapy: A practitioner's guide, New York: NY: Guilford.  [Google Scholar]), or both with women who have emotional abuse and IPV histories.     

Limitations for Change Detection in Multiple Gabor Targets

We investigate the limitations on the ability to detect when a target has changed, using Gabor targets as simple quantifiable stimuli. Using a partial report technique to equalize response variables, we show that the log of the Weber fraction for detecting a spatial frequency change is proportional to the log of the number of targets, with a set-size effect that is greater than that reported for visual search. This is not a simple perceptual limitation, because pre-cueing a single target out of four restores performance to the level found when only one target is present. It is argued that the primary limitation on performance is the division of attention across multiple targets, rather than decay within visual memory. However in a simplified change detection experiment without cueing, where only one target of the set changed, not only was the set-size effect still larger, but it was greater at 2000 msec ISI than at 250 msec ISI, indicating a possible memory component. The steepness of the set-size effects obtained suggests that even moderate complexity of a stimulus in terms of number of component objects can overload attentional processes, suggesting a possible low-level mechanism for change blindness.     

The mentalistic basis of core social cognition: experiments in preverbal infants and a computational model

Evaluating individuals based on their pro‐ and anti‐social behaviors is fundamental to successful human interaction. Recent research suggests that even preverbal infants engage in social evaluation; however, it remains an open question whether infants’ judgments are driven uniquely by an analysis of the mental states that motivate others’ helpful and unhelpful actions, or whether non‐mentalistic inferences are at play. Here we present evidence from 10‐month‐olds, motivated and supported by a Bayesian computational model, for mentalistic social evaluation in the first year of life.A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://youtu.be/rD_Ry5oqCYE     

The ontology of artifacts

Beginning with Aristotle, philosophers have taken artifacts to be ontologically deficient. This paper proposes a theory of artifacts, according to which artifacts are ontologically on a par with other material objects. I formulate a nonreductive theory that regards artifacts as constituted by—but not identical to—aggregates of particles. After setting out the theory, I rebut a number of arguments that disparage the ontological status of artifacts.     

False memories in music listening: exploring the misinformation effect and individual difference factors in auditory memory

ABSTRACT

The study of false memory has had a profound impact on our understanding of how and what we remember, as shown by the misinformation paradigm [Loftus, E. F. (2005). Planting misinformation in the human mind: A 30-year investigation of the malleability of memory. Learning & Memory, 12(4), 361–366. doi:10.1101/lm.94705]. Though misinformation effects have been demonstrated extensively within visual tasks, they have not yet been explored in the realm of non-visual auditory stimuli. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether post-event information can create false memories of music listening episodes. In addition, we explored individual difference factors potentially associated with false memory susceptibility in music, including age, suggestibility, personality, and musical training. In two music recognition tasks, participants (N?=?151) listened to an initial music track, which unbeknownst to them was missing an instrument. They were then presented with post-event information which either suggested the presence of the missing instrument or did not. The presence of misinformation resulted in significantly poorer performance on the music recognition tasks (d?=?.43), suggesting the existence of false musical memories. A random forest analysis indicated that none of the individual difference factors assessed were significantly associated with misinformation susceptibility. These findings support previous research on the fallibility of human memory and demonstrate, to some extent, the generality of the misinformation effect to a non-visual auditory domain.     

Detecting performance invalidity in children: Not quite as easy as A,B, C, 1, 2, 3 but automatized sequences appears promising

In adult populations, embedded performance validity indicators are well established, as they are time efficient, resistant to coaching, and allow for more continuous monitoring of effort than standalone measures. Although several recent studies have demonstrated the appropriateness of using standalone validity tests with school-age children, a paucity of pediatric work has examined embedded indicators. The present study investigated the value of a simple automatized sequences task to detect performance invalidity in 439 clinically referred patients with mild head injury aged 8 through 17 years. Sixteen percent of the participants failed the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT). Thirteen percent failed the MSVT and also performed below established cutoffs on either the Test of Memory Malingering or Wechsler Digit Span subtest. The group classified as providing invalid data performed significantly worse than the group passing the MSVT across all sequencing conditions. Sensitivity and specificity for the total time on the sequencing task compared favorably to data produced for many respected adult-based embedded indicators (i.e., sensitivity around 50% when specificity ≥ 90%). Classification statistics for any embedded performance validity test can be expected to be worse in more severely affected populations; however, the current sequencing task appears to have value in detecting invalid performance in relatively high-functioning older children and adolescents. The fact that the task takes less than a couple of minutes to administer makes it especially appealing.