Who got vaccinated against H1N1 pandemic influenza? – A longitudinal study in four US cities

The recent H1N1 pandemic influenza stimulated numerous studies into the attitudes and intentions about the H1N1 vaccine. However, no study has investigated prospective predictors of vaccination behaviour. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal study among residents in four US cities during the course of the H1N1 outbreak, using Internet surveys to assess demographic, cognitive and emotional predictors of H1N1 vaccination behaviour. Surveys were conducted at two time points, before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) the H1N1 vaccine was widely available to the public. Results show that Time 2 vaccination rates, but not Time 1 vaccination intentions, tracked H1N1 prevalence across the four cities. Receipt of seasonal influenza vaccine in the previous year, worry, compliance with recommended interventions, household size and education assessed at Time 1 were significant prospective predictors of vaccination behaviour. Perception of the H1N1 vaccine, social influence and prioritised vaccine recipient status assessed at Time 2 also predicted vaccination behaviour. Critically, worry about H1N1 mediated the effects of both objective risk (prevalence at the city level) and perceived risk on vaccination behaviour. These results suggest that H1N1 vaccination behaviour appropriately reflected objective risk across regions, and worry acted as the mechanism by which vaccination behaviour followed objective risk.     

Bandwidth and Fidelity on the NEO-Five Factor Inventory: Replicability and Reliability of Saucier's (1998) Item Cluster Subcomponents

Battered and nonbattered women were administered the Hand Test to determine which psychological test variables could distinguish between these groups. Compared to the nonbattered group, the battered group produced substantially more fear responses. We also found significant positive relationships between the amount of fear responses produced and frequency of abuse, number of previous visits to a battered women's shelter, and medical treatment sought following an abusive incident. We discuss these results in the context of previous findings and their implications for the personality of battered women. We speculate that lowered environmental interest might be a personality factor that prolonged the abuse and that fear is a basic reaction to anticipated bodily harm.     

Reaching for the unknown: Multiple target encoding and real-time decision-making in a rapid reach task

Decision-making is central to human cognition. Fundamental to every decision is the ability to internally represent the available choices and their relative costs and benefits. The most basic and frequent decisions we make occur as our motor system chooses and executes only those actions that achieve our current goals. Although these interactions with the environment may appear effortless, this belies what must be incredibly sophisticated visuomotor decision-making processes. In order to measure how visuomotor decisions unfold in real-time, we used a unique reaching paradigm that forced participants to initiate rapid hand movements toward multiple potential targets, with only one being cued after reach onset. We show across three experiments that, in cases of target uncertainty, trajectories are spatially sensitive to the probabilistic distribution of targets within the display. Specifically, when presented with two or three target displays, subjects initiate their reaches toward an intermediary or ‘averaged’ location before correcting their trajectory in-flight to the cued target location. A control experiment suggests that our effect depends on the targets acting as potential reach locations and not as distractors. This study is the first to show that the ‘averaging’ of target-directed reaching movements depends not only on the spatial position of the targets in the display but also the probability of acting at each target location.     

New behavioral protocols to extend our knowledge of rodent object recognition memory

Animals often show an innate preference for novelty. This preference facilitates spontaneous exploration tasks of novelty discrimination (recognition memory). In response to limitations with standard spontaneous object recognition procedures for rodents, a new task (“bow-tie maze”) was devised. This task combines features of delayed nonmatching-to-sample with spontaneous exploration. The present study explored aspects of object recognition in the bow-tie maze not amenable to standard procedures. Two rat strains (Lister Hooded, Dark Agouti) displayed very reliable object recognition in both the light and dark, with the Lister Hooded strain showing superior performance (Experiment 1). These findings reveal the potential contribution of tactile and odor cues in object recognition. As the bow-tie maze task permits multiple trials within a session, it was possible to derive forgetting curves both within-session and between-sessions (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, rats with hippocampal or fornix lesions performed at normal levels on the basic version of the recognition task, contrasting with the marked deficits previously seen after perirhinal cortex lesions. Next, the training protocol was adapted (Experiment 3), and this modified version was used successfully with mice (Experiment 4). The overall findings demonstrate the efficacy of this new behavioral task and advance our understanding of object recognition.Understanding the neural basis of recognition memory, the ability to discriminate whether a stimulus is novel or familiar, is heavily reliant on animal research. Here, advances have been closely tied to the introduction of new behavioral tests. The preeminent example concerns one-trial tests of recognition memory for monkeys using delayed nonmatching-to-sample (Mishkin and Delacour 1975). These tasks reward the natural preference that monkeys have for selecting novel items and permit multiple recognition trials within a single session. These features make the task relatively easy to train and then maximize findings from small group sizes. Although rat tasks closely based on delayed nonmatching-to-sample have been devised (Aggleton 1985; Mumby et al. 1990; Steckler et al. 1998; Prusky et al. 2004), they are very rarely employed as they are difficult to train and performance levels are unreliable.Almost all studies of rodent recognition memory now employ the spontaneous object recognition test and its direct variants (Ennaceur and Delacour 1988; Dix and Aggleton 1999; Winters et al. 2008). These tasks again take advantage of an innate preference for novel items, but this preference is displayed by spending more time exploring novel than familiar stimuli. In the standard version of the task, a rodent (rat or mouse) is placed in an arena containing two identical objects and then freely allowed to explore these objects for several minutes (“sample” phase). After a delay, the rodent is placed back in the arena (“test” phase), which now contains one familiar object (a copy of the sample phase objects) and a novel object. Recognition is signified by greater exploration of the novel object. Because the task measures spontaneous behavior, it requires minimal pretraining, but for the same reason it is prone to considerable variance. Unlike delayed nonmatching-to-sample, each trial (sample plus test phase) takes many minutes, and so only one recognition trial is normally given per session. Advantages are that proactive interference between objects is minimized, and the one-trial design lends itself to episodic-like tests of memory (Dere et al. 2005; Good et al. 2007). Disadvantages include the fact that data accumulation, with appropriate counterbalancing, is slow.To address these limitations, a new object recognition test using a “bow-tie maze” (Fig. 1A) has been developed for rats (Albasser et al. 2010). This test combines features of delayed nonmatching-to-sample with spontaneous object preference: It permits multiple trials per session, but the measure of recognition comes from the preferential exploration of novelty. The rat is first placed in one end of a bow-tie–shaped maze that contains a single object (object A; Fig. 1B). After a minute, the rat is allowed to run to the other end of the maze where there are two dissimilar objects (A and B; Fig. 1B). Object A is familiar as it is identical to the object previously explored, while object B is novel. Consequently, a rat will typically prefer to explore object B. On the next trial, a minute later, the rat shuttles back to the initial start point, but this time encounters objects B and C. Object B is now familiar, while object C is novel. The next trial, 1 min later, is between object C (now familiar) and object D (novel), and so on. A food reward placed under every object promotes shuttling back and forth within the maze, and encourages interaction with the objects. Unlike delayed nonmatching-to-sample, the food reward is not contingent on first selecting the novel object.Open in a separate windowFigure 1.(A) Schematic of the bow-tie maze. A sliding door separates the two ends of the maze in which two objects are placed. (B) General procedure showing the presentation order of the objects in the standard object recognition task. All objects are rewarded (+). (Arrow) Rat movements. (Black print) Novel objects, (gray print) familiar objects.The present study used the bow-tie maze to explore recognition memory on four fronts. In Experiment 1, recognition in the light and recognition in the dark were compared to help determine the cues available to detect object familiarity. It is known that rats can perform recognition tasks when solely reliant on visual cues (Aggleton 1985; Bartko et al. 2007; Winters and Reid 2010), but object recognition based on other modalities remains largely unexplored (Winters and Reid 2010). Potential cues for recognition include odor differences and tactile information. It is known that rats can discriminate novel from familiar olfactory cues (Otto and Eichenbaum 1992; Kesner et al. 2002; Fortin et al. 2004; Wolff et al. 2006), while tactile (e.g., vibrissae) cues can be used to distinguish surfaces (e.g., Birrell and Brown 2000). The bow-tie maze is ideal for studying object recognition in the dark as the rats are rewarded for visiting items in set locations (to receive food rewards), and so should readily approach the objects. In contrast, running the standard spontaneous object recognition test (in an arena) in the dark would be problematic as it is not clear how the rats would first appreciate the presence of the to-be-discriminated objects.An additional goal of Experiment 1 was to determine how readily the bow-tie maze could be used to compile within-session and between-session forgetting curves. A limitation with the standard spontaneous object task is that with only one trial per session it can be very time consuming to create forgetting curves, while within-session forgetting curves for individual animals are not feasible. These shortcomings create limitations when examining manipulations thought to affect memory. The possibility of deriving within-session forgetting curves is particularly appealing as: (1) it minimized the impact of those factors that introduce variance when performance is compared across sessions, and (2) the animal need not be removed from the maze, which could additionally disrupt performance, e.g., by increasing stress. A further component of Experiment 1 manipulated object memory strength by presenting objects either once (“single”) or six times (“repeated”). Recognition was tested after a 3-h delay with the twin goals of determining whether repeated presentation would aid performance and whether these performance levels would be sufficiently above chance so that they could be used to examine factors involved in longer term memory.At the same time, Experiment 1 provided the opportunity to compare two rat strains, Dark Agouti (DA) and Lister Hooded (LH). Previous studies suggest that the Dark Agouti strain might be particularly good at visual recognition tasks (Aggleton 1996), though others have argued that this strain has aberrant behavioral properties, including higher anxiety and higher levels of inappropriate nonspatial behaviors in spatial learning tasks (Mechan et al. 2002; Harker and Whishaw 2004; but see Aggleton and Vann 2004).Experiment 2 examined the ability of rats with either hippocampal or fornix lesions to perform object recognition in the bow-tie maze. There is a longstanding debate over the impact of hippocampal damage on recognition memory, with mixed findings coming from spontaneous object recognition tests (Clark et al. 2000; Mumby 2001; Gaskin et al. 2003; Winters et al. 2008). The bow-tie maze should prove informative as numerous trials can be run to assess the impact of selective brain lesions. Although in this initial study only short retention delays were examined, these same delays and conditions are highly sensitive to perirhinal cortex lesions (Aggleton et al. 2010; Horne et al. 2010), a brain region regarded as vital for recognition memory (Brown and Aggleton 2001). In Experiment 3 the training protocol changed so that objects did not cover food rewards. Rather, a single food reward was always placed between the test objects. This modification was examined because: (1) it would preclude any exploration scores that were simply derived from attempts to move the test objects in order to uncover the food reward, and (2) it would introduce a task variant that might be amenable to small rodents not able to move objects. Accordingly, Experiment 4 examined the performance of mice (strain C57Bl/6) on a test of object recognition based on the modified version of the bow-tie maze from Experiment 3.     

Separating value from selection frequency in rapid reaching biases to visual targets

Stimuli associated with positive rewards in one task often receive preferential processing in a subsequent task, even when those associations are no longer relevant. Here we use a rapid reaching task to investigate these biases. In Experiment 1 we first replicated the learning procedure of Raymond and O'Brien (2009), for a set of arbitrary shapes that varied in value (positive, negative) and probability (20%, 80%). In a subsequent task, participants rapidly reached toward one of two shapes, except now the previously learned associations were irrelevant. As in the previous studies, we found significant reach biases toward shapes previously associated with a high probable, positive outcome. Unexpectedly, we also found a bias toward shapes previously associated with a low probable, negative outcome. Closer inspection of the learning task revealed a potential second factor that might account for these results; since a low probable negative shape was always paired with a high probable negative shape, it was selected with disproportionate frequency. To assess how selection frequency and reward value might both contribute to reaching biases we performed a second experiment. The results of this experiment at a group level replicated the reach-bias toward positively rewarding stimuli, but also revealed a separate bias toward stimuli that had been more frequently selected. At the level of individual participants, we observed a variety of preference profiles, with some participants biased primarily by reward value, others by frequency, and a few actually biased away from both highly rewarding and high frequency targets. These findings highlight that: (1) rapid reaching provides a sensitive readout of preferential processing; (2) target reward value and target selection frequency are separate sources of bias; and (3) group-level analyses in complex decision-making tasks can obscure important and varied individual differences in preference profiles.     

The Limit of Mental Structures

The development of consistent health behaviors is important for chronic illness prevention and management. The current study experimentally compared two strategies—a personal-rule and a deliberation strategy—designed to help participants consistently perform their intended behaviors over a 7-week period in a real-world setting. Although the personal-rule strategy had theoretical support from behavioral economics and empirical support from both animal and human lab experiments, the deliberation strategy group was significantly more successful than the personal-rule strategy group, both initially (time to first violation, p < .01, Cohen's d = .51) and over the entire 7-week period (overall success, p < .05, Cohen's d = .18). These effects were significant even after controlling for known predictors of behavioral success, including individual-difference variables, person-behavior factors, and resolution-related factors.     

A Note on Stability in Force Applied to Control a Repetitive Task With the Legs

The forces applied to pedals during cycling were collected every 40 ms from approximately 29,000 movement repetitions. Intra-cycle mean values of force and its variability were significantly correlated, supporting Schmidt–s impulse variability theory of within-movement activities of the legs. In addition, as mean forces approached peak values, coefficients of variation decreased. From averages taken minute by minute, intra-cycle forces were seen to rise or fall in concert, implying that the pattern as a whole constituted a significant neuromuscular unit of control.     

Partial knowledge in a tip-of-the-tongue state about two- and three-word proper names

Participants in this study attempted to name 44 famous people in response to reading biographical information about them. Half of the celebrities had names that contained two words (e.g., Gwyneth Paltrow and Sean Penn), and half of them had names containing three words (e.g., Catherine Zeta Jones and Billy Bob Thornton). Half of the names had previously been judged to be of high familiarity (e.g., Gwyneth Paltrow), and half were of lower familiarity (e.g., Billy Bob Thornton). The results showed that when in a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state, the participants were able to estimate at above-chance rates whether a celebrity’s name comprised two or three words. Accurate information about the number of words was not available to the participants unless they were in a TOT state or had already named the person. Attempts to identify celebrities whose name had three elements were associated with an increased number of TOTs, relative to celebrities whose name had two units, but there was no difference in the number of don’t know responses for names containing two or three words. Calculations based on Gollan and Brown (2006) suggested that having three names impaired the phonological but not the semantic stage of lexical retrieval, whereas low familiarity impaired both semantic and phonological retrieval stages.     

Videoconferencing and forensic mental health in Australia

Videoconferencing is in common use in Australian forensic mental health services. It provides opportunities to link remote prisons, courts, and psychiatric clinics with distant specialist services, and enables a range of activities including assessment, treatment and feedback, expert testimony, education, and inter-service planning. These functions are acceptable to patients and clinicians, and in Australia videoconferencing minimizes disruption to small services and their patients, who might otherwise face lengthy journeys. In particular, marginalized patient groups, including indigenous people and prisoners, may receive better services. The evidence base supports use of videoconferencing despite a number of practical, legal, and clinical issues that may reduce its effectiveness compared with face-to-face assessments. Videoconferencing technologies are critical to effective forensic mental health services in Australia.     

The roles of ethnic identity,anti-white attitudes,and academic self-concept in African American student achievement

Conventional wisdom in much of the educational and psychological literatures states that the ethnic and racial identity of African American students is related to their academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine whether ethnic identity and anti-white attitudes predicted the academic achievement of African American students at a historically Black university. A hypothesized path model was proposed that included ethnic identity, attitudes toward other ethnic groups, anti-white attitudes, perceptions of caring faculty, academic self-concept, and devaluing academic success. The path analysis model explained 27% of the variance in grade point average and revealed three direct effects on grade point average: (a) academic self-concept (positive), (b) devaluing academic success (negative), and (c) anti-white attitudes (negative). Ethnic identity was indirectly linked with grade point average (GPA) through academic self-concept and devaluing academic success. Tests of two alternative nested models suggest that even in an indirect role, ethnic identity may be more important than anti-white attitudes in a model of African American academic achievement.