Impact of negative affectively charged stimuli and response style on cognitive-control-related neural activation: An ERP study

The canonical AX-CPT task measures two forms of cognitive control: sustained goal-oriented control (“proactive” control) and transient changes in cognitive control following unexpected events (“reactive” control). We modified this task by adding negative and neutral International Affective Picture System (IAPS) pictures to assess the effects of negative emotion on these two forms of cognitive control. Proactive and reactive control styles were assessed based on measures of behavior and electrophysiology, including the N2 event-related potential component and source space activation (Low Resolution Tomography [LORETA]). We found slower reaction-times and greater DLPFC activation for negative relative to neutral stimuli. Additionally, we found that a proactive style of responding was related to less prefrontal activation (interpreted to reflect increased efficiency of processing) during actively maintained previously cued information and that a reactive style of responding was related to less prefrontal activation (interpreted to reflect increased efficiency of processing) during just-in-time environmentally triggered information. This pattern of results was evident in relatively neutral contexts, but in the face of negative emotion, these associations were not found, suggesting potential response style-by-emotion interaction effects on prefrontal neural activation.     

Satisfaction and Stressors in a Religious Minority: A National Study of Orthodox Jewish Marriage

The paucity of mental health studies with Orthodox Jews makes culturally competent counseling care unlikely. In this large‐scale investigation of marriage among Orthodox Jews, most respondents reported satisfaction with marriage and spouse, although satisfaction was highest among recently married couples. The most significant stressors were finances, communication, physical intimacy/sexuality, time pressures, and in‐law conflicts. Counseling interventions are discussed. La escasez de estudios sobre salud mental en poblaciones de judíos ortodoxos limita la posibilidad de ofrecer un cuidado de consejería culturalmente competente. En esta investigación a gran escala sobre el matrimonio entre judíos ortodoxos, la mayoría de los participantes indicaron satisfacción con su matrimonio y esposo/a, aunque la satisfacción fue mayor entre las parejas recién casadas. Los elementos estresantes más significativos fueron las finanzas, la comunicación, el contacto íntimo/sexualidad, la falta de tiempo, y los conflictos con la familia política. Se discuten intervenciones para la consejería.     

Positive and negative affect,depression, and cognitive processes in the Cognition in the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (Co-STAR) Trial

ABSTRACT

Objectives: This study examined the relationship between positive and negative affect, depressive symptoms, and cognitive performance. Methods: The sample consisted of 1479 non-demented, postmenopausal women (mean age = 67 years) at increased risk of breast cancer enrolled in the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project’s Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene. At each annual visit, women completed a standardized neuropsychological battery and self-report measures of affect and depression. Data from three visits were used in linear mixed models for repeated measures using likelihood ratio tests. Separate analyses were performed to relate positive/negative affect and depression to each cognitive measure. Results: Higher positive affect was associated with better letter fluency (p = .006) and category fluency (p < .0001). Higher negative affect was associated with worse global cognitive function (p < .0001), verbal memory (CVLT List B; p = .002), and spatial ability (p < .0001). Depressive symptoms were negatively associated with verbal knowledge (p = .004), figural memory (p < .0001), and verbal memory (p’s ≤ .0001). Discussion: Findings are consistent with some prior research demonstrating a link between positive affect and increased verbal fluency and between depressive symptoms and decreased memory. The most novel finding shows that negative affect is related to decreased global cognition and visuospatial ability. Overall, this research in a large, longitudinal sample supports the notion that positive affect is related to increases and negative affect to decreases in performance on distinct cognitive measures.     

How to Gain Eleven IQ Points in Ten Minutes: Thinking Aloud Improves Raven's Matrices Performance in Older Adults

ABSTRACT

Few studies have examined the impact of age on reactivity to concurrent think-aloud (TA) verbal reports. An initial study with 30 younger and 31 older adults revealed that thinking aloud improves older adult performance on a short form of the Raven's Matrices (Bors & Stokes, 1998 Bors, D. A. and Stokes, T. L. 1998. Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices: Norms for first-year university students and the development of a short form. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 58: 382–398. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Educational and Psychological Measurement, 58, p. 382) but did not affect other tasks. In the replication experiment, 30 older adults (mean age = 73.0) performed the Raven's Matrices and three other tasks to replicate and extend the findings of the initial study. Once again older adults performed significantly better only on the Raven's Matrices while thinking aloud. Performance gains on this task were substantial (d = 0.73 and 0.92 in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively), corresponding to a fluid intelligence increase of nearly one standard deviation.     

One Family at a Time: A Prevention Program for At‐Risk Parents

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a psychoeducational parenting program with at‐risk parents of young children. At‐risk was defined as excessive parental use of verbal and corporal punishment combined with low‐income status. All families were seen for 10 weeks, either individually or in very small groups. Results showed that compared with the control group, parents participating in the program significantly decreased their levels of verbal and corporal punishment, anger, stress, and reported child behavior problems; results were maintained at follow‐up. Implications for counselors are provided.     

The face of fear: Effects of eye gaze and emotion on visual attention

We investigated whether a fearful expression enhances the effect of another's gaze in directing the attention of an observer. Participants viewed photographs of faces whose gaze was directed ahead, to the left or to the right. Target letters then appeared unpredictably to the left or right. As expected, targets in the location indicated by gaze were detected more rapidly. In nonanxious volunteers the effects of fearful gaze did not differ from neutral gaze, but fearful expression had a more powerful influence in a selected high anxious group. Attention is thus more likely to be guided by the direction of fearful than neutral gaze, but only in anxiety-prone individuals.     

Probability, logic and the cognitive foundations of rational belief

Since Pascal introduced the idea of mathematical probability in the 17th century discussions of uncertainty and “rational” belief have been dogged by philosophical and technical disputes. Furthermore, the last quarter century has seen an explosion of new questions and ideas, stimulated by developments in the computer and cognitive sciences. Competing ideas about probability are often driven by different intuitions about the nature of belief that arise from the needs of different domains (e.g., economics, management theory, engineering, medicine, the life sciences etc). Taking medicine as our focus we develop three lines of argument (historical, practical and cognitive) that suggest that traditional views of probability cannot accommodate all the competing demands and diverse constraints that arise in complex real-world domains. A model of uncertain reasoning based on a form of logical argumentation appears to unify many diverse ideas. The model has precursors in informal discussions of argumentation due to Toulmin, and the notion of logical probability advocated by Keynes, but recent developments in artificial intelligence and cognitive science suggest ways of resolving epistemological and technical issues that they could not address.     

A Typology of LDS Sociopolitical Worldviews

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons, Latter-Day Saints, or LDS) are sometimes thought of as a monolithic block of economic and social conservatives. This article addresses whether this is caused by strong religious effects, or whether it is an artifact of unrepresentative sampling. Q methodology is used to identify six "types" of political worldviews among a multinational and multiracial sample of active Latter-Day Saints. The six types reveal some interesting ideological variations among Mormons, particularly on economic issues, and even some unique LDS issues. A second-order factor analysis indicates a high level of commonality across types on social issues, but important differences on orientation toward government. I conclude that the failure to include racial and cultural variation in Mormon samples has led us to overestimate the otherwise significant influence of LDS doctrine on members' political views.     

Children's conceptions of mental illness: A naïve theory approach

This paper reports two studies that investigated children's conceptions of mental illness using a naïve theory approach, drawing upon a conceptual framework for analysing illness representations which distinguishes between the identity, causes, consequences, curability, and timeline of an illness. The studies utilized semi‐structured interviewing and card selection tasks to assess 6‐ to 11‐year‐old children's conceptions of the causes and consequences (Study 1) and the curability and timeline (Study 2) of different mental and physical illnesses/ailments. The studies revealed that, at all ages, the children held coherent causal–explanatory ideas about the causes, consequences, curability, and timeline of both mental and physical illnesses/ailments. However, while younger children tended to rely on their knowledge of common physical illnesses when thinking about mental illnesses, providing contagion and contamination explanations of cause, older children demonstrated differences in their thinking about mental and physical illnesses. No substantial gender differences were found in the children's thinking. It is argued that children hold coherent conceptions of mental illness at all ages, but that mental illness only emerges as an ontologically distinct conceptual domain by the end of middle childhood.