Predicting the Early Developmental Course of Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care were examined to test whether: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms remain stable from 54 months through early elementary school; behavioral inhibition and attention deficits assessed at 54 months predict ADHD symptoms in elementary school, even after controlling for their temporal stability; and early behavioral inhibition and attention deficits moderate the longitudinal stability in ADHD symptoms. Data were examined using continuous and categorical measures of symptoms. Modest stability in ADHD symptoms from 54 months to third grade was found. Measures of inhibition and inattention predicted later teacher ratings uniquely, but no evidence was found for moderation. Measures of preschool behavioral inhibition also predicted “persistently at risk status” defined by elevated teacher ratings over time. Results are discussed in terms of executive and motivational facets of inhibition that may be related to early signs of ADHD.     

Performance on a face perception task is associated with empathy quotient scores, but not systemizing scores or participant sex

This preliminary study investigated whether individual differences in performance on a difficult social perception task (determining the sex of shape normalized, line drawn dynamic faces) are related to sex of observer, scores on an empathy quotient and scores on a systemizing quotient. Performance in the face perception task (N = 60) was above chance, indicating that participants could judge the sex of the degraded facial stimuli from dynamic information alone. There was a trend for women to be more accurate in their judgments of target sex than men, but regression analyses indicated that EQ scores alone predicted performance on the task. This study suggests that empathy may mediate sex differences in face perception abilities, and potentially other tasks in social perception.     

When accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses look the same: a limitation of the ‘pop‐out’ effect and the 10‐ to 12‐second rule

Research has found support for a ‘pop‐out effect’ that occurs when witnesses who accurately identify a criminal from a lineup are faster and uses more automatic processing than inaccurate witnesses who misidentify a foil. We present evidence that this finding may not occur with biased lineups. Witnesses to a mock theft were asked to make a lineup identification and three types of witnesses were compared: (1) accurate witnesses who identified a thief, (2) inaccurate witnesses who misidentified a foil who was more similar looking to the thief than the other lineup foils and (3) inaccurate witnesses who misidentified a foil who was not more similar in appearance to the thief than the other lineup foils. Accurate witnesses who identified the thief and inaccurate witnesses who misidentified a foil more similar to the thief than the other lineup foils were indistinguishable; both were faster, used more automatic recognition processes and were more confident than inaccurate witnesses who identified other foils. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dissociating motivational direction and affective valence: specific emotions alter central motor processes

We aimed to clarify the relation between affective valence and motivational direction by specifying how central and peripheral components of extension movements are altered according to specific unpleasant affective states. As predicted, premotor reaction time was quicker for extension movements initiated during exposure to attack than for extension movements initiated during exposure to all other valence categories (mutilation, erotic couples, opposite-sex nudes, neutral humans, household objects, blank). Exposure to erotic couples and mutilations yielded greater peak force than exposure to images of attack, neutral humans, and household objects. Finally, motor reaction time and peak electromyographic amplitude were not altered by valence. These findings indicate that unpleasant states do not unilaterally prime withdrawal movements, and that the quick execution of extension movements during exposure to threatening images is due to rapid premotor, rather than motor, reaction time. Collectively, our findings support the call for dissociating motivational direction and affective valence.     

Investigating the effects of tic suppression on premonitory urge ratings in children and adolescents with Tourette's syndrome

Tics represent a complex class of behaviors that have a neurobiological origin and are influenced by factors both internal and external to the individual. One factor that has gained recent attention is the premonitory urge. Contemporary behavioral models suggest that some tics are preceded by aversive somatic urges that increase in severity when tics are suppressed and are attenuated by performance of the tic. It has been proposed that the removal of premonitory urges may strengthen or maintain tics via negative reinforcement. This investigation is the first to empirically evaluate the effect of tic suppression on the premonitory urge phenomenon. Five children and adolescents, ages 8–17 years, participated in the study. Using an ABAB reversal design, tic frequency and subjective premonitory urge ratings were recorded under conditions of free-to-tic baseline (BL) and reinforced tic suppression (differential reinforcement of zero-rate behavior). Results show that four of the five children demonstrated reliable suppression. Of the four children who achieved suppression, three demonstrated a pattern in which subjective urge ratings were higher during suppression than during BL. Results provide preliminary support for the negative reinforcement view of tic function for some children.     

Neuropsychological effects of stress on social phobia with and without comorbid depression

BACKGROUND: The influence of stress on neuropsychological functioning was assessed in socially phobic (SP), comorbid socially phobic/major depression (CM), and asymptomatic control subjects (AC) under baseline and stressor conditions. METHODS: Subjects were 33 clinically diagnosed undergraduates aged 18 to 41 years. Neuropsychological measures included the Trail Making Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Spatial Span, and Digit Span administered during a baseline condition and a psychosocial stress condition (videotaping). RESULTS: Spatial Span scores were reduced for SP during stress, improved for AC, and showed no change for CM. TMT B times showed an interaction effect, with completion time improving significantly less for SP than for AC and CM during stress. Analyses of the normative data for WCST total errors indicated that AC and CM improved significantly during stress, while SP performance declined during stress. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that comorbid depressed versus non-depressed SP subjects respond uniquely to stress in terms of their neuropsychological functioning and self-reported mood and experiences; generalized social phobia may be associated with spatial working memory disturbance during social stress. Therefore, situations involving potential social and personal evaluation (e.g., examinations or presentations) may have a significant impact on the neuropsychological functioning of SP individuals.     

Wittgenstein and religious dogma

It is well understood that Wittgenstein defends religious faith against positivistic criticisms on the grounds of its logical independence. But exactly how are we to understand the nature of that independence? Most scholars take Wittgenstein to equate language-games with belief-systems, and thus to assert that religions are logical schemes founded on their own basic beliefs and principles of inference. By contrast, I argue that on Wittgenstein’s view, to have religious faith is to hold fast to a certain picture of the world according to which one orients one’s actions and attitudes, possibly even in dogmatic defiance of contrary evidence. Commitment to such a picture is grounded in passion, not intellection, and systematic coherence is largely irrelevant.     

Implicit associations between smoking and social consequences among smokers in cessation treatment

Explicit expectations of the negative and positive social consequences of smoking are likely to have substantial influence on decisions regarding smoking. However, among smokers trying to quit, success in smoking cessation may be related not only to the content of expectancies about smoking's social effects but also to the ease with which these cognitive contents come to mind when confronted with smoking stimuli. To examine this possibility, we used the implicit association test (IAT) [Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480] to assess implicit cognitive associations between smoking and negative vs. positive social consequences among 67 heavy social drinkers seeking smoking cessation treatment in a randomized clinical trial. Results showed that the relative strength of implicit, negative, social associations with smoking at baseline predicted higher odds of smoking abstinence during treatment over and above the effects of relevant explicit measures. The only variable that significantly correlated with IAT scores was the density of smokers in participants' social environment; those with more smoking in their social environment showed weaker negative social associations with smoking. Results suggest implicit cognition regarding the social consequences of smoking may be a relevant predictor of smoking cessation outcome.     

A review of research methods in IO/OB work-family research

A methodological review was conducted of work-family (WF) research published in industrial-organizational psychology and organizational behavior journals over a period of 24 years (1980-2003). Content analysis was conducted on 225 individual studies published in 210 articles to categorize methodological features, including the research design, sources of data used, data analysis techniques, reliability and validity of measures used, and sociodemographic characteristics of the samples. Results support many of the criticisms of WF research and suggest that scholars publishing WF research in industrial-organizational psychology and organizational behavior journals could make greater use of longitudinal and experimental research designs, gather more multisource data, and move beyond the individual level of analysis. Adopting more diverse conceptualizations of family, including a greater proportion of racial and ethnic minorities, and studying workers in occupations other than managerial or professional positions also appear warranted. Finally, methodological trends varied across specific WF content areas, which suggests that distinct methodologies might be useful to advance knowledge of specific WF topics.