Motivations for play in online games.

An empirical model of player motivations in online games provides the foundation to understand and assess how players differ from one another and how motivations of play relate to age, gender, usage patterns, and in-game behaviors. In the current study, a factor analytic approach was used to create an empirical model of player motivations. The analysis revealed 10 motivation subcomponents that grouped into three overarching components (achievement, social, and immersion). Relationships between motivations and demographic variables (age, gender, and usage patterns) are also presented.     

Honesty doesn’t Always Pay – The Role of Honesty of Accounts for Success made in an Educational Setting in Inferences of Modesty and Arrogance

Previous research has documented that attributional information contained in causal accounts for success induce impressions of arrogance and modesty. The research further examined the role of accounts as well as level of success when perceivers know the real reason for success. Two studies of university students revealed that honesty strongly decreases arrogance and increases modesty in the case of effort accounts, and not in situations of communicated ability. In addition, honesty was determined not only by the truth value of an account but also by the extent to which the account induced impressions of arrogance and modesty. The present findings provide further understanding of the link between attributional information and social judgments.     

Associative and strategic components of episodic memory: a life-span dissociation

The authors investigated the strategic component (i.e., elaboration and organization of episodic features) and the associative component (i.e., binding processes) of episodic memory and their interactions in 4 age groups (10-12, 13-15, 20-25, and 70-75 years of age). On the basis of behavioral and neural evidence, the authors hypothesized that the two components are functionally related but follow different life-span gradients. In a fully crossed design, age differences in recognition memory for single words versus word pairs (associative demand manipulation) were examined under instructions that emphasized item, pair, or elaborative-pair encoding (strategy manipulation). As predicted, the results showed that the strategic and associative components follow different life-span trajectories. Relative to younger adults, children's difficulties in episodic memory primarily reflected lower levels of strategic functioning. In contrast, older adults showed impairments in both strategic and associative components. The authors conclude that the comparison of strategic and associative components of episodic memory across the life span helps to delineate the two components' unique and interactive contributions to episodic memory performance.     

Hippocampal alpha 5 subunit-containing GABA A receptors are involved in the development of the latent inhibition effect

Hippocampal GABA(A) receptors containing the alpha 5 subunit have been implicated in the modulation of hippocampal-dependent learning, presumably via their tonic inhibitory influence on hippocampal glutamatergic activity. Here, we examined the expression of latent inhibition (LI)--a form of selective learning that is sensitive to a number of manipulations targeted at the hippocampal formation, in alpha 5(H105R) mutant mice with reduced levels of hippocampal alpha 5-containing GABA(A) receptors. A single pre-exposure to the taste conditioned stimulus (CS) prior to the pairing of the same CS with LiCl-induced nausea was effective in reducing the conditioned aversion against the taste CS in wild-type mice--thus constituting the LI effect. LI was however distinctly absent in male alpha 5(H105R) mutant mice. Hence, a partial loss of hippocampal alpha 5 GABA(A) receptors is sufficient to alter one major form of selective learning, albeit this was not seen in the female. This observed phenotype suggests that specific activation of these extrasynaptic GABA(A) receptors may confer therapeutic potential against the failure to show selectivity in learning by human psychotic patients.     

Exploring self‐esteem of Hong Kong Chinese adults cardiac diseases

Low self‐esteem appears to be both a vulnerability factor for cardiac diseases and a result of cardiac diseases. Thus enhancing self‐esteem might facilitate recovery and/or help to prevent recurrence. Since some evidence suggests that self‐esteem might even serve as an important gauge of cardiac rehabilitation, it is therefore important to know more of the construct of self‐esteem to enable the planning of a more promising rehabilitation process. This paper explores the source and basis of the self‐esteem of Hong Kong Chinese with cardiac diseases. One hundred and fifty‐two adults with cardiac diseases and 146 adults not suffering from any major illness participated in this study. The Adult Source of Self‐Esteem Inventory (ASSEI) (Elovson & Fleming, 1989), open‐ended questions on self‐evaluation, and interviewing were the major procedures used to identify the sources and basis of the self‐esteem of persons with and without cardiac diseases. The subjects' important life aspects were identified through interpreting their responses to open‐ended questions and interviews. Moreover, a structured questionnaire on their subjective perceptions of importance and satisfaction in different life areas was used to identify the relationships between discrete self‐concept variables. Factor analysis of their responses to the 20 ASSEI items revealed four factors, namely, Interpersonal Relationship, Personal Quality, Physical Self, and Personal Achievement. We also examined and compared the means and ranks of the ASSEI items as indicated by the subjects. Content analysis of open‐ended questions further confirmed the self‐esteem domains of persons with cardiac diseases. The discrepancy of ideal‐actual physical abilities was found to be more prominent in the cardiac group. It was also found that family is an important entity to Chinese individuals with cardiac diseases. Implications of the findings to rehabilitation of persons with cardiac diseases were also discussed.     

Sex Differences in Effectiveness of Extended-Release Stimulant Medication among Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study examined whether adolescent females with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are differentially responsive than their male counterparts to extended-release stimulant medications. This investigation may bear special importance for an adolescent (as opposed to child) population, because hormonal and metabolism differences between sexes are most likely to emerge at this time. Male (n = 19) and female (n = 16) adolescents, ages 16–19 with ADHD, participated in a randomized, double-blind crossover study evaluating the effectiveness of osmotic-release methylphenidate, extended release amphetamine salts, placebo, and routine limited medication regimen. Medication efficacy was evaluated using ADHD symptom ratings from adolescent self-report and parent report, along with objective measures of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity during driving performance and neuropsychological tasks. Males and females were largely equivalent in impairment, and medication was similarly effective in reducing symptoms. No interactions were found between sex and medication on any measure of effectiveness or side effects. This finding suggests that the efficacy and tolerability of extended-release stimulant medications is equivalent for male and female adolescents with ADHD.     

Non‐linear structural equation models with correlated continuous and discrete data

Structural equation models (SEMs) have been widely applied to examine interrelationships among latent and observed variables in social and psychological research. Motivated by the fact that correlated discrete variables are frequently encountered in practical applications, a non‐linear SEM that accommodates covariates, and mixed continuous, ordered, and unordered categorical variables is proposed. Maximum likelihood methods for estimation and model comparison are discussed. One real‐life data set about cardiovascular disease is used to illustrate the methodologies.     

The coordination of compensatory tracking and anticipatory timing tasks

Two experiments investigated the presence of a coordination factor in a task consisting of compensatory tracking and anticipatory timing components. The task (Intercept task) resembles a computer game in which a rocket must be aimed and fired to shoot an incoming missile. The studies were designed to determine if a coordinating ability exists above and beyond the abilities needed to perform the component tasks alone. We also investigated the nature of coordination abilities through correlations with other types of coordination tasks and measures of intelligence. Is coordination a general cognitive ability that contributes to performance in a wide range of coordination tasks, or is coordination ability task specific? Multiple regression analyses indicated the existence of a coordination ability in the Intercept task. This coordination ability, however, was shown to be unrelated to the coordination of visual and linguistic processing and to psychometric measures of intelligence as assessed by the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Coordination of visual and linguistic processing correlated with a component of the ASVAB measuring perceptual speed. We conclude that, although the ability to integrate separate components of a complex task draws on a coordination ability, this ability is domain specific and thus varies depending on the nature of the component tasks.     

Sensitivity to event timing in regular and irregular sequences: Influences of musical skill

In two experiments, the performance of listeners with different amounts of musical training (high skill, low skill) was examined in a two-alternative forced choice time-detection task involving simple five-cycle acoustic sequences. In each of a series of trials, all listeners determined which of two pattern cycles contained a small time change. Sequence context was also varied (regular vs. irregular timing). In Experiment 1, in which context was manipulated as a between-subjects variable, high-skill listeners performed significantly better than low-skill listeners only with regular patterns. In Experiment 2, in which context was manipulated as a within-subjects variable, the only significant source of variance was pattern context: All listeners were better at detecting time changes in regular than in irregular patterns. The results are considered in light of several hypotheses, including the expectancy/contrast model (Jones & Boltz, 1989).     

Early stimulus processing in dysthymia and anhedonia.

Previous event-related brain potential (ERP) research has found that dysthymic subjects differ from control subjects during later stages of information processing. An important issue that emerges from this literature is whether differences found in these ERP components, typically associated with cognitive processing, can be attributed to earlier differences in basic perceptual processing. This study was undertaken to determine whether early processing deficits are apparent in dysthymic persons. Responses of dysthymics (n = 23) were compared with those of anhedonic (n = 15) and normal control (n = 17) subjects. ERPs were recorded while subjects heard tones at 55, 65, 75, 85, and 95 dB. Overall, N1-P1 and N1-P2 components of the ERP increased in a strong linear fashion as stimulus intensity increased. Dysthymics did exhibit a smaller N1-P2 response than normal subjects, which suggests the presence of difficulties in initial perceptual processing.