Opportunism in Memory: Preparing for Chance Encounters

Recognizing opportunities to achieve pending goals is an important cognitive ability. But when and how do we recognize that a current situation is especially suited to resuming a past goal? The predictive encoding model suggests pending goals are encoded into memory in association with anticipated environmental features. Optimally, these features are (a) necessary for successful goal satisfaction, (b) distinctive preconditions for expecting a plan to achieve the goal, and (c) described so as to be readily identified in the environment. Later, ordinary perception of features in the environment leads to automatic recognition of opportunities already prepared in memory. Evidence from experimental studies supports this theory, and demonstrates that general preparation can produce apparently novel opportunism. These findings suggest ways to facilitate the recognition of opportunities to satisfy pending goals.     

Intervention Effects on Stage of Change Membership and Transitions among Adolescent Energy Balance Behaviors

The transition from childhood to adolescence is a crucial period for the development of healthy behaviors to be sustained later in life. With obesity a leading public health problem, the promotion of healthy behaviors has the potential to make a huge impact. The current study evaluated Stage of Change progression in a large (N = 4158) computer-delivered, Transtheoretical Model-tailored intervention focusing on physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption (FV). Markov models were used to explore stage transitions and patterns of discrete change from sixth to ninth grade. Nested model comparisons examined the consistency of these patterns across time and intervention condition. Major findings supported models in which participants were free to transition forward and backward to any of the stages, but higher probabilities were observed for remaining in the same stage or for transitioning one or two stages forward. Participants in the intervention group had higher probabilities of transitioning toward Maintenance, with more change occurring relative to the comparison group during transitions from grades six to eight but not for grades eight to nine.     

The Influence of Social Interaction on Intuitions of Objectivity and Subjectivity

We present experimental evidence that people's modes of social interaction influence their construal of truth. Participants who engaged in cooperative interactions were less inclined to agree that there was an objective truth about that topic than were those who engaged in a competitive interaction. Follow‐up experiments ruled out alternative explanations and indicated that the changes in objectivity are explained by argumentative mindsets: When people are in cooperative arguments, they see the truth as more subjective. These findings can help inform research on moral objectivism and, more broadly, on the distinctive cognitive consequences of different types of social interaction.     

Trauma and Resilience Among Refugee and Undocumented Immigrant Women

Migration and resettlement processes are often characterized by stressful and traumatic experiences. Immigrants may experience premigration trauma in their countries of origin and trauma during their migration journey. Furthermore, refugee and undocumented immigrant women navigate unique and ongoing stressors postmigration. In this study, the authors used a phenomenological approach to explore refugee and undocumented immigrant women's experiences of trauma and stress and the ways in which they develop resilience to cope with these experiences.     

Certified Athletic Trainers’ Understanding and Use of Sport Psychology in Their Practice

Nine certified athletic trainers from one National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I institution participated in semistructured interviews about their understanding of sport psychology and use of psychological strategies in their work with injured athletes. Through Consensual Qualitative Research (Hill, 2012 Hill, C. E. (2012). Consensual qualitative research: A practical resource for investigating social science phenomenon. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. [Google Scholar]) procedures, three major domains were constructed: (a) recognition of the common psychological challenges of injury rehabilitation, (b) knowledge and understanding of sport psychology, and (c) utilization of sport psychology skills and strategies for rehabilitation. Although athletic trainers utilized basic psychological strategies (e.g., goal setting, reassurance) during injury rehabilitation, findings support the need for an interprofessional team approach to enhancing psychological recovery.     

Preliminary evidence of the impact of early childhood maltreatment and a preventive intervention on neural patterns of response inhibition in early adolescence

Maltreated youths in foster care often experience negative developmental and psychological outcomes, which have been linked with poor response inhibition. Recent evidence suggests that childhood maltreatment is also associated with alterations in the neural circuitry underlying response inhibition. However, a burgeoning line of research has begun to explore the mitigating effects of preventive interventions on neural functioning. The current study used event‐related functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the impact of early childhood maltreatment and a preventive intervention on response inhibition in early adolescence. Thirty‐six demographically similar adolescents (ages 9–14 years) completed a Go/NoGo task. The sample included nonmaltreated adolescents (n = 14) and maltreated adolescents who were in foster care as preschoolers and randomly assigned to receive services as usual (n = 11) or a preventive intervention, Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers (n = 11). The groups demonstrated similar behavioral performance but significantly different neural patterns. The maltreated adolescents who received services as usual demonstrated subcortical hypoactivity during successful response inhibition and subcortical hyperactivity during unsuccessful response inhibition. In contrast, the nonmaltreated adolescents and maltreated adolescents who received the intervention exhibited strikingly similar neural patterns during successful response inhibition, but the maltreated adolescents who received the intervention demonstrated prefrontal hypoactivity during unsuccessful response inhibition. These findings offer preliminary evidence that early childhood maltreatment alters the neural patterns underlying response inhibition in early adolescence and that participating in a preventive intervention could mitigate maltreatment‐related effects on these neural systems.