Concurrent and prospective associations between facial affect recognition accuracy and childhood antisocial behavior

This study examined the concurrent and prospective associations between children's ability to accurately recognize facial affect at age 8.5 and antisocial behavior at age 8.5 and 10.5 years in a sub sample of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort (5,396 children; 2,644, 49% males). All observed effects were small. It was found that at age 8.5 years, in contrast to nonantisocial children; antisocial children were less accurate at decoding happy and sad expressions when presented at low intensity. In addition, concurrent antisocial behavior was associated with misidentifying expressions of fear as expressions of sadness. In longitudinal analyses, children who misidentified fear as anger exhibited a decreased risk of antisocial behavior 2 years later. The study suggests that concurrent rather than future antisocial behavior is associated with facial affect recognition accuracy. Aggr. Behav. 36:305–314, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Intensive Mindfulness Training and the Reduction of Psychological Distress: A Preliminary Study

There is increasing evidence for the utility of mindfulness training as a clinical intervention. Most of this research has examined secular-based mindfulness instruction. The current study examined the effects of a 10-day Buddhist mindfulness meditation course on the psychological symptoms of 53 participants. A repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated reductions in overall psychological distress from the pre-course baseline to a 3-month follow-up. Correlation analyses indicated that the reported reduction in psychological distress was not influenced by social desirability bias and that the effect was not dependent on daily meditation between course completion and follow-up. Issues regarding modality of mindfulness training (secular versus Buddhist) are discussed.     

Context and cue cards in young children's testimony: a comparison of brief narrative elaboration and context reinstatement

In a comparison of interview procedures that aimed to assist retrieval strategies in children's event recall, 72 children aged 4-6 years were questioned about a witnessed event. Context reinstatement and brief narrative elaboration (an abbreviated version of K. J. Saywitz and L. Snyder's [1996] procedure) produced similar levels of correct recall, and both elicited more correct recall than did a control condition, with no increase in errors. Combining these procedures did not further improve performance. The superiority of narrative elaboration over the control group was evident in free recall and did not depend on explicit prompting with cue cards. These findings suggest that incorporating brief narrative elaboration training in investigative interviews with children may, like context reinstatement, be a valuable mnemonic aid.     

Genetic causal beliefs about obesity,self-efficacy for weight control,and obesity-related behaviours in a middle-aged female cohort

Objective: Obesity is a heritable condition with well-established risk-reducing behaviours. Studies have shown that beliefs about the causes of obesity are associated with diet and exercise behaviour. Identifying mechanisms linking causal beliefs and behaviours is important for obesity prevention and control.

Design: Cross-sectional multi-level regression analyses of self-efficacy for weight control as a possible mediator of obesity attributions (diet, physical activity, genetic) and preventive behaviours in 487 non-Hispanic White women from South King County, Washington.

Main Outcome Measures: Self-reported daily fruit and vegetable intake and weekly leisure-time physical activity.

Results: Diet causal beliefs were positively associated with fruit and vegetable intake, with self-efficacy for weight control partially accounting for this association. Self-efficacy for weight control also indirectly linked physical activity attributions and physical activity behaviour. Relationships between genetic causal beliefs, self-efficacy for weight control, and obesity-related behaviours differed by obesity status. Self-efficacy for weight control contributed to negative associations between genetic causal attributions and obesity-related behaviours in non-obese, but not obese, women.

Conclusion: Self-efficacy is an important construct to include in studies of genetic causal beliefs and behavioural self-regulation. Theoretical and longitudinal work is needed to clarify the causal nature of these relationships and other mediating and moderating factors.     

A test of ve-theories of risk and the effect of the central limit theorem

There are several theories of risk which indicate that risk could be a function only of variance and expectation. A transformation on odds or skewness was constructed which left the variance and expectation of a gamble unchanged. Perceived risk was clearly a function of this transformation as well as variance and expectation, even under multiple play in which the effect of the central limit theorem modifies the effect of skewness but it remains a relevant variable.     

Temporal brightness enhancement: Studies of individual differences

We have previously identified categorical individual differences in the occurrence of temporal brightness enhancement (TBE) by using a simultaneous brightness discrimination paradigm (Bowen & Markell, 1980).TBE is a nonmonotonic relation between brightness and pulse duration, pulses of intermediate duration (75–125 msec) can appear brighter than longer or shorter pulses of the same luminance. Three classes of observers can be defined based on whether they perceive TBE under one of two conditions of temporal asynchrony between a short test pulse and a longer (500 msec) comparison pulse:simultaneous onset of the pulses orsimultaneous offset. Type A observers show TBE for both asynchrony conditions; Type B observers show the effect for simultaneous offset but not simultaneous onset; Type C observers do not show TBE for either asynchrony. In the present study, we show that Type A and Type C observers maintain a constant brightness-duration relation as the asynchrony between test and comparison pulses is varied from simultaneous onset to simultaneous offset. Type B observers show a gradual shift in the brightness-duration relation as asynchrony changes. In a separate experiment, we find that practice has little effect on Type A and Type B observers but that Type C observers may change in classification to Types A and B over as few as five experimental sessions. The hypothesis that individual differences are due to differential “weighting” of chromatic (sustained) and achromatic (transient) visual channels is discussed.     

Temporal brightness enhancement studied with a large sample of observers: Evidence for individual differences in brightness perception

Brightness vs. duration relations were measured for 80 naive observers using a method in which a short pulse (10–500 msec) was compared to a pulse 500 msec longer in duration at the same luminance. Pulses were presented under two conditions of pulse asynchrony: simultaneous onset and simultaneous offset. Three classes of observers were found: Type A observers (57% of all observers) showed temporal brightness enhancement (the Broca-Sulzer effect) for both simultaneous onset and offset conditions. Type B observers (33% of the sample) showed brightness enhancement for simultaneous offset but not onset. Type C observers (10% of the sample) did not exhibit brightness enchancement under either asynchrony condition. The distribution of these classes was not affected by the specificity of instructions concerning the brightness judgment or by the sequencing (ordered vs. random) of stimuli. We analyze how these classes of observers might be explained either on the basis of differing neurophysiological mechanisms or responses or on the basis of differing psychophysical criteria. Further, we present a model of the data which illustrates how behaviorally distinct types of observers could be generated by continuous distributions within the general population of either perceptual criteria or neurophysiological responses.     

What did I eat yesterday? Determinants of accuracy in 24-hour food memories

Large-scale diet-related epidemiological work relies on the quality of self-reported food consumption. As this epidemiological work forms the basis of knowledge of the relationship of diet to disease, it is essential that the self-reports of personal diet are understood. It is generally accepted that foods consumed are under-reported, even over as short a period as 24 hours. However, little is known about the potential systematic biases that may affect the quality of self-reported food intake. The current study examines the accuracy of memories of the consumption of snack foods eaten in the previous 24 hours and investigates factors that may bias these memories. All participants had previously participated in a randomized intervention trial to lower dietary fat intake to 20 per cent of calories. Fifty-six women (intervention and control) tasted eight snack foods in a laboratory setting. They were telephoned a day later and asked to recall the type of snack foods (M&Ms, pretzels, etc.) and the quantity of each food they consumed. Subjects in general under-reported the number of selections and the quantity of each item consumed. Women who accurately recalled an item, reported more liking for that item compared to those who forgot the item. Women currently maintaining a low-fat diet were less accurate in their recall of low-fat items than women on a high-fat diet. Low-fat eaters, however, may be slightly better at recalling how much of certain foods they consumed. Results have implications for survey research and understanding the psychological influences on reports of food consumption used in large-scale diet studies.