Association of financial and health literacy with cognitive health in old age

We tested the hypothesis that higher financial and health literacy is associated with better cognitive health in 755 older persons who completed a literacy measure (M = 67.9, SD = 14.5) and then had annual clinical evaluations for a mean of 3.4 years. In proportional hazards models, higher literacy was associated with decreased risk of developing incident Alzheimer’s disease (n = 68) and results were similar for financial and health literacy subscales and after adjustment for potential confounders. In mixed-effects models, higher literacy was related to higher baseline level of cognition and reduced cognitive decline in multiple domains. Among the 602 persons without any cognitive impairment at baseline, higher literacy was associated with a reduced rate of cognitive decline and risk of developing incident mild cognitive impairment (n = 142). The results suggest that higher levels of financial and health literacy are associated with maintenance of cognitive health in old age.     

Prior task experience and comparable stimulus exposure nullify focal and nonfocal prospective memory retrieval differences

We explored the nature of focal versus nonfocal event-based prospective memory retrieval. In the context of a lexical decision task, people received an intention to respond to a single word (focal) in one condition and to a category label (nonfocal) for the other condition. Participants experienced both conditions, and their order was manipulated. The focal instruction condition was a single word presented multiple times. In Experiment 1, the stimuli in the nonfocal condition were different exemplars from a category, each presented once. In the nonfocal condition retrieval was poorer and reaction times were slower during the ongoing task as compared to the focal condition, replicating prior findings. In Experiment 2, the stimulus in the nonfocal condition was a single category exemplar repeated multiple times. When this single-exemplar nonfocal condition followed in time the single-item focal condition, focal versus nonfocal performance was virtually indistinguishable. These results demonstrate that people can modify their stimulus processing and expectations in event-based prospective memory tasks based on experience with the nature of prospective cues and with the ongoing task.     

Transforming valences through transitive inference: How are faces emotionally dissonant?

Information that is emotionally incongruous with self-concepts can produce feelings of unease. This implies that embedding incongruous information in newly formed relational structures would have little effect on their previous emotive properties. Alternatively, Relational Frame Theory highlights the importance of contextualized stimulus-stimulus relations, where the structure of a relational series is key in determining the function of its elements. To see whether series membership can mitigate ‘dissonance’ when a salient element is employed, the present investigation trained and tested a seven-term relational series (X>A>B>C>D>E>Y) using blurred faces as stimuli. Specifically, Stimuli X, A, B, D, E and Y were blurred unfamiliar faces and Stimulus C constituted of the participant’s own blurred face, assumed to be more salient than the former. To assess how the valences of the related stimuli were transformed by relational series membership, self-report ratings and electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were collected before and after training the X>A>B>C>D>E>Y series. These pre vs. post contrasts revealed that, for unfamiliar faces, stimulus valence transformed as a function of relational structure. Conversely, the lack of difference in pre vs. post contrasts of Stimulus C, which maintained a high valence, suggest that relational series membership may not suffice to mitigate emotionally dissonant information.     

Inferred threat and safety: Symbolic generalization of human avoidance learning

Symbolic generalization of avoidance may underlie the aetiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate inferred threat-avoidance and safety (non-avoidance) behaviours that occur in the presence of stimuli indirectly related to learned threat and safety cues. A laboratory experiment was conducted involving two symbolic stimulus equivalence relations consisting of three physically dissimilar stimuli (avoidance cues: AV1–AV2–AV3 and neutral cues: N1–N2–N3). During avoidance learning involving aversive images and sounds, a key-press avoidance response was trained for one member of one of the relations (AV2) and non-avoidance for another (N2). Inferred threat and safety behaviour and ratings of the likelihood of aversive events were tested with presentations of all remaining stimuli. Findings showed a significantly high percentage of avoidance to both the learned and inferred threat cues and less avoidance to both the learned and inferred safety cues. Ratings in the absence of avoidance were high during training and testing to threat cues and low to safety cues and were generally lower in the presence of avoidance. Implications for associative and behavioural accounts of avoidance, and modern therapies for anxiety disorders are discussed.     

How Galileo dropped the ball and Fermat picked it up

This paper introduces a little-known episode in the history of physics, in which a mathematical proof by Pierre Fermat vindicated Galileo’s characterization of freefall. The first part of the paper reviews the historical context leading up to Fermat’s proof. The second part illustrates how a physical and a mathematical insight enabled Fermat’s result, and that a simple modification would satisfy any of Fermat’s critics. The result is an illustration of how a purely theoretical argument can settle an apparently empirical debate.     

The visual hemifield asymmetry in the spatial blink during singleton search and feature search

The present study examined a visual field asymmetry in the contingent capture of attention that was previously observed by Du and Abrams (2010). In our first experiment, color singleton distractors that matched the color of a to-be-detected target produced a stronger capture of attention when they appeared in the left visual hemifield than in the right visual hemifield. This replicated Du and Abrams and also revealed a difference between hemifields in the time course of this effect. Our second experiment suggested that this asymmetry is moderated by the tuning of attentional control settings: when the target was easier to detect the asymmetry was attenuated. Our third experiment showed that this asymmetry is also present during singleton detection: a color singleton distractor produced a larger capture effect in the left hemifield than in the right hemifield. Finally, our fourth experiment suggested that this asymmetry is moderated by the salience of the attention-capturing distractor: when the distractor was not salient, the asymmetry was attenuated. These results suggest that there are boundary conditions in the observed hemifield asymmetry in the contingent capture of attention and several underlying brain systems might be involved.     

Rights Forfeiture Theorists Should Embrace the Duty View of Punishment

In this paper, I bring into conversation with each other two views about the justification of punishment: the rights forfeiture theory and the duty view. I argue that philosophers attracted to the former should instead accept the latter.     

Testing four explanations for the better/worse-than-average effect: Single- and multi-item entities as comparison targets and referents

In six experiments, we tested four explanations for the better/worse-than-average effect (B/WTA) by manipulating the number of items comprising the target or referent of direct comparison. A single-item target tended to be rated more extremely than a single-item or a multi-item referent (Experiments 1–3). No B/WTA was obtained, however, when a multi-item target was compared with either a single- or multi-item referent (Experiments 4 and 5). A bias favoring a multi-item target was found only if cohesiveness among the items was increased through instructions (Experiment 6). The Unique-Attributes Hypothesis generally provided the best explanation the findings; the focalism explanation also demonstrated some empirical viability. The results suggest that important preferential decision-making outcomes can be affected by both the number of items and whether items are strategically manipulated to serve as targets or referents of comparison.     

Effects of a group stereotype on memory for behaviors performed by a group member

Participants were provided with a group impression prior to receiving behavioral information pertaining to a group member. The group impression conveyed a below average level of intelligence or an above average level of intelligence. In addition, the distribution of intelligence scores within the group was unimodal in one condition and bimodal in another condition. The behavioral information pertaining to the individual group member was predominantly intelligent or predominantly unintelligent, thereby affording the on‐line formation of an intelligent or unintelligent personal impression regarding the group member. After receiving the behavioral information, participants recalled the behaviors and rated the group member along the intelligence dimension. Recall and judgment data revealed that the group impression functioned as the dominant expectancy that influenced processing of the behavioral information. Moreover, the effect of the group expectancy was substantially greater in the unimodal condition than in the bimodal condition. Presence of a group impression appears to reduce the tendency for participants to derive a personal impression on‐line, and reduce the tendency for participants to rely on a derived personal expectancy when encoding behaviors performed by a group member. Potential moderators of this effect are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.