When learning to classify by relations is easier than by features

Relational reasoning is often considered more resource intensive than feature-based reasoning. This view implies that learning categories defined by relational regularities should be more difficult than learning categories defined by featural regularities. Unfortunately previous studies do not ground featural and relational information in a common perceptual substrate. After addressing this concern, a series of experiments compare learning performance for relation- and feature-based categories. Under certain circumstances we find faster learning for relation-based categories. The results suggest that mechanisms rooted in relational processes (e.g., relative stimulus judgement, analogical comparison) facilitate or hinder learning depending on whether the relational processes highlight or obscure the underlying category structure. Conversely, category learning affects relational processes by promoting relational comparisons that increase the coherence of acquired categories. In contrast to the largely independent research efforts in category learning and analogy research, our findings suggest that learning and comparison processes are deeply intertwined.     

Development of the Brain’s Functional Network Architecture

A full understanding of the development of the brain’s functional network architecture requires not only an understanding of developmental changes in neural processing in individual brain regions but also an understanding of changes in inter-regional interactions. Resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) is increasingly being used to study functional interactions between brain regions in both adults and children. We briefly review methods used to study functional interactions and networks with rs-fcMRI and how these methods have been used to define developmental changes in network functional connectivity. The developmental rs-fcMRI studies to date have found two general properties. First, regional interactions change from being predominately anatomically local in children to interactions spanning longer cortical distances in young adults. Second, this developmental change in functional connectivity occurs, in general, via mechanisms of segregation of local regions and integration of distant regions into disparate subnetworks.     

Prototype Personality Diagnosis in Clinical Practice: A Viable Alternative for DSM-V and ICD-11

Several studies suggest that a prototype matching approach yields diagnoses of comparable validity to the more complex diagnostic algorithms outlined in DSM-IV. Furthermore, clinicians prefer prototype diagnosis of personality disorders (PDs) to the current categorical diagnostic system or alternative dimensional methods. An important extension of this work is to investigate the degree to which clinicians are able to make prototype diagnoses reliably. The aim of this study is to assess the inter-rater reliability of a prototype matching approach to personality diagnosis in clinical practice. Using prototypes derived empirically in prior research, outpatient clinicians diagnosed patients' personality after an initial evaluation period. External evaluators independently diagnosed the same patients after watching videotapes of the same clinical hours. Inter-rater reliability for prototype diagnosis was high, with a median r = .72. Cross-correlations between disorders were low, with a median r = .01. Clinicians and clinically trained independent observers can assess complex personality constellations with high reliability using a simple prototype matching procedure, even with prototypes that are relatively unfamiliar to them. In light of its demonstrated reliability, efficiency, and versatility, prototype diagnosis appears to be a viable system for DSM-V and ICD-11 with exceptional utility for research and clinical practice.     

Selective attention to threat: A test of two cognitive models of anxiety

Two experiments evaluated differential predictions from two cognitive formulations of anxiety. According to one view, attentional biases for threat reflect vulnerability to anxiety; and as threat inputs increase, high trait anxious individuals should become more vigilant, and low trait individuals more avoidant, of threat (Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1988, 1997). However, according to a “cognitive-motivational” view, trait anxiety influences the appraisal of stimulus threat value, rather than the direction of attentional bias, and both high and low trait anxious individuals should exhibit greater vigilance for high rather than mild threat stimuli (Mogg & Bradley, 1998). To test these predictions, two experiments examined the effect of manipulating stimulus threat value on the direction of attentional bias. The stimuli included high threat and mild threat pictorial scenes presented in a probe detection task. Results from both studies indicated a significant main effect of stimulus threat value on attentional bias, as there was increased vigilance or reduced avoidance of threat, as threat value increased. This effect was found even within low trait anxious individuals, consistent with the “cognitive-motivational” view. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.     

The Effects of Cognitive Ability and Conscientiousness on Performance Over Time: A Censored Latent Growth Model

This study examined the extent to which cognitive ability and conscientiousness predicted initial academic performance (i.e., grade point average) and changes in performance over the course of college students' careers. A censored latent growth model that controlled for initial performance was used. Results showed positive effects of cognitive ability and conscientiousness on initial performance, but only positive effects of conscientiousness on performance change. However, because initial performance negatively affected performance change, cognitive ability and conscientiousness negatively indirectly affected performance change through initial performance. In addition, results revealed cognitive ability accounted for more variance in initial performance than conscientiousness, and conscientiousness accounted for more variance in performance change than cognitive ability. Finally, results show that, beyond the third semester, conscientiousness is a better predictor of student performance than cognitive ability.     

Examining the Effects of Gain-Framed Messages on the Activation and Elaboration of Possible Sport Selves in Middle-Aged Adults

Using an online cross-sectional randomized design, we explored whether messages emphasizing benefits of sport (sport gain-framed messages) would activate and elaborate hoped-for possible sport selves in 40- to 59-year-olds. One group viewed a video containing sport gain-framed messages, and a comparison group completed a sport and physical activity quiz. Results showed that the message group attended to a health and fitness message most frequently and demonstrated more frequent activation of possible selves than the quiz group. The message group's possible selves also contained more elaborate content related to delaying the effects of aging through sport and the social benefits of sport.     

Functional Neuroimaging Insights Into the Development of Skilled Reading

ABSTRACT— Typically developing children require years of overt training and practice to learn to read with skill. The relatively recent advent of functional neuroimaging methods amenable to the study of children has provided insight into the neurobiological underpinnings of skilled reading development. In this brief review, we discuss how neuroimaging during reading-related tasks has revealed that, when adult and child skilled readers perform identical reading-related tasks with comparable levels of performance, these groups show similar but nonidentical patterns of regional brain activity. Children activate some neural regions that adults do not activate (or activate less), and vice versa. The activity patterns in these regions transition to mature levels with increased proficiency and maturity. The dynamic nature of the reading brain as the child matures is thought to be a demonstration of both the inherent flexibility and the increasing efficiency of brain processing over development.     

Individual differences in susceptibility to false memory in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm

The authors addressed whether individual differences in the working memory capacity (WMC) of young adults influence susceptibility to false memories for nonpresented critical words in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott associative list paradigm. The results of 2 experiments indicated that individuals with greater WMC recalled fewer critical words than individuals with reduced WMC when participants were forewarned about the tendency of associative lists (e.g., bed, rest, . . .) to elicit illusory memories for critical words (e.g., sleep). In contrast, both high and low WMC participants used repeated study-test trials to reduce recall of critical words. These findings suggest that individual differences in WMC influence cognitive control and the ability to actively maintain task goals in the face of interfering information or habit.     

Information-processing biases in young adults from bereaved and divorced families

Parental loss or divorce is associated with increased risk for affective disorders, potentially because of dysfunctional information processing. This study evaluated attentional biases to threat or loss-related cues in young adults from divorced, parental-loss, or intact families. Participants from intact families showed avoidance of supraliminal threat and loss cues, whereas those from divorced families showed vigilance toward loss cues. Those from bereaved families showed no pattern of bias. Abuse and poor family relationships were associated independently with vigilance toward negative cues. After controlling for abuse, group differences in threat bias were no longer apparent. Results suggest that parental death or divorce may increase risk of affective disorder owing to the loss of a "protective bias" away from negative stimuli.     

Multiple‐Lens Paradigm: Evaluating African American Girls and Their Development

Developmental issues for African American adolescent girls are best understood using a multiple‐lens paradigm inclusive of gender, race, ethnicity, and social class. This article provides a context for assessing the relevance of these socially influenced constructs to identity development for adolescent African American girls. The relationship between the “myth of femininity” and personal worth and value is examined using this paradigm.