Mental fatigue disturbs local processing more than global processing

Focusing of attention is influenced by external features such as the presence of global or local target stimuli, but also by motivation and mood states. In the current study, we examined whether working on cognitively demanding tasks for 2 h, which induces mental fatigue, subsequently had a differential effect on global and local processing. The results showed that, compared to non-fatigued participants, fatigued participants particularly displayed compromised local processing. This indicates that mental fatigue may also manifest itself as effects on attentional focusing. The findings of this study are in line with recent ideas about the nature of fatigue-related cognitive deficits, implying disturbances in the control over attention and behaviour.     

The cascaded nature of lexical selection and integration in auditory sentence processing

An event-related brain potential experiment was carried out to investigate the temporal relationship between lexical selection and the semantic integration in auditory sentence processing. Participants were presented with spoken sentences that ended with a word that was either semantically congruent or anomalous. Information about the moment in which a sentence-final word could uniquely be identified, its isolation point (IP), was compared with the onset of the elicited N400 congruity effect, reflecting semantic integration processing. The results revealed that the onset of the N400 effect occurred prior to the IP of the sentence-final words. Moreover, the factor early or late IP did not affect the onset of the N400. These findings indicate that lexical selection and semantic integration are cascading processes, in that semantic integration processing can start before the acoustic information allows the selection of a unique candidate and seems to be attempted in parallel for multiple candidates that are still compatible with the bottom-up acoustic input.     

Bimanual interference in children performing a dual motor task

The present study addressed the development of bimanual interference in children performing a dual motor task, in which each hand executes a different task simultaneously. Forty right-handed children (aged 4, 5-6, 7-8 and 9-11years, ten in each age group) were asked to perform a bimanual task in which they had to tap with a pen using the non-preferred hand and simultaneously trace a circle or a square with a pen using the preferred hand as quickly as possible. Tapping and tracing were also performed unimanually. Differences between unimanual and bimanual performance were assessed for number of taps, length of tap trace and mean tracing velocity. It was assumed that with increasing age, better bimanual coordination would result in better performance on the dual task showing less intermanual interference. The results showed that tapping and tracing performance increased with age, unimanually as well as bimanually, consistent with developmental advancement. However, the percentage of intermanual interference due to bimanual performance was not significantly different in the four age groups. Although performing the dual task resulted in mutual intermanual interference, all groups showed a significant effect of tracing shape. More specifically, all age groups showed a larger percentage decrease in tracing velocity when performing the circle compared to the square in the dual task. The present study reveals that children as young as four years are able to coordinate both hands when tapping and tracing bimanually.     

Does marriage protect older people from distress? The role of equity and recency of bereavement

The association between marital status and distress was examined in a largely neglected group, namely older people (65 and older; N = 1,649). In this 2-wave study, married persons were less distressed than single persons, but perceived equity within the marriage and recency of bereavement qualified these findings. Married persons who felt inequitably treated were more distressed than persons who had always been single. Married persons reported less distress than recently (= 2 years ago) widowed persons, but only equitably treated married persons reported less distress than persons widowed for more than 2 years. Increased distress between the 2 waves occurred in recently widowed persons, and there was a decrease in distress in persons who were widowed shortly before the 1st wave. No gender effects were found.     

Intelligence and cognitive flexibility: Fluid intelligence correlates with feature “unbinding” across perception and action

People integrate the features of perceived events and of action plans, as well as of episodic stimulus—response relations, intoevent files. We investigated whether the management of event files, and particularly the speed of updating the binding between the task-relevant stimulus feature and the response, correlates with fluid intelligence. Indeed, the performance of participants scoring high on Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices test was less impaired by a mismatch between the stimulus—response relation in the current and the previous trial. This result suggests that high intelligence is accompanied by a higher degree of flexibility in handling event files—that is, by higher efficiency in updating episodic representations.     

The cognitive-affective neuroscience of the unconscious

There is an ongoing debate about how best to conceptualize the unconscious. Early psychodynamic views employed theories influenced by physics to explain clinical material, while subsequent cognitivist views relied on computational models of the mind to explain laboratory data. More recently, advances in cognitive-affective neuroscience have provided new insights into the workings of unconscious cognition and affect. We briefly review some of this recent work and its clinical implications.     

On the likelihood ratio test in structural equation modeling when parameters are subject to boundary constraints

The authors show how the use of inequality constraints on parameters in structural equation models may affect the distribution of the likelihood ratio test. Inequality constraints are implicitly used in the testing of commonly applied structural equation models, such as the common factor model, the autoregressive model, and the latent growth curve model, although this is not commonly acknowledged. Such constraints are the result of the null hypothesis in which the parameter value or values are placed on the boundary of the parameter space. For instance, this occurs in testing whether the variance of a growth parameter is significantly different from 0. It is shown that in these cases, the asymptotic distribution of the chi-square difference cannot be treated as that of a central chi-square-distributed random variable with degrees of freedom equal to the number of constraints. The correct distribution for testing 1 or a few parameters at a time is inferred for the 3 structural equation models mentioned above. Subsequently, the authors describe and illustrate the steps that one should take to obtain this distribution. An important message is that using the correct distribution may lead to appreciably greater statistical power.     

The regional genetic and newborn screening service collaboratives: the first two years

Newborn screening and genetic technologies are expanding and changing rapidly, increasing the demand for genetic specialty services. Because of the scarcity and geographic maldistribution of genetic specialty services, access to these services is a critical issue. This article discusses some of the efforts initiated by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, particularly the establishment of regional genetic and newborn screening collaboratives to improve access to these services and expertise.     

Switching between tasks and responses: a developmental study

Task switching requires the ability to flexibly switch between task rules and responses, and is sensitive to developmental change. We tested the hypothesis that developmental changes in task switch performance are associated with changes in the facilitating or interfering effect of the previously retrieved stimulus-response (S-R) association. Three age groups (7-8-year-olds, 10-12-year-olds and 20-25-year-olds) performed a two-choice reaction time (RT) task in which spatially compatible or incompatible responses were required. The RT costs associated with switching between tasks were larger when responses were repeated than when responses were alternated. Younger children showed a greater cost than adults when switching between tasks but repeating responses. This age difference decreased when the interval between the previous response and the upcoming stimulus increased. Switch costs were larger when switching to the compatible task than to the incompatible task, but this effect did not differ between age groups. These findings suggest that young children build up stronger transient associations between task sets and response sets, which interfere with their ability to switch to currently intended actions. A similar pattern has previously been observed for older adults (Mayr, 2001), suggesting a common contributor to task switching deficits across the life span.     

Spiritual care as eHealth: a systematic review

A systematic review was undertaken of the literature on the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT's) in the provision and support of religious and spiritual care in healthcare. Indexes such as Medline, PsychoINFO and Proquest Religion were searched. The review found little systematic study of the effectiveness of the Internet and other ICT's in religious and spiritual care. It is believed that the results of this review provide a basis for promise spiri care in the further explora of the potential and of ICT's for tual healthcare.