Spatial offloading in multiple task monitoring

Coordinating multiple tasks requires a high degree of cognitive control, and individuals with limited executive functions often show difficulties in everyday multitasking. We tested the hypothesis that demands on executive control can be alleviated by internally representing the temporal pattern of goals and deadlines as spatial relations. In two experiments, participants completed a multitasking session by monitoring deadlines of four clocks running at different rates, along with separate tasks of executive functioning and spatial ability. In Experiment 1, individual and gender-related differences in spatial ability (mental rotation) predicted multitasking performance, beyond the contributions of both the updating and inhibition components of executive functioning, and even when spatial cues were eliminated from the layout of the monitoring task. Experiment 2 extended these findings by showing that concurrent spatial load impaired task monitoring accuracy, and that these detrimental effects were accentuated when spatial abilities were compromized due to fluctuation in female sex hormones. These findings suggest that multiple task monitoring involves working memory-related functions, but that these cognitive control demands can be offloaded by relying on spatial relation processes.     

Forgiveness,Depression, and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescents: Gender Differences in this Relationship

With the development of positive psychology, protective factors have received increased attention as buffers against suicidal ideation and attempts and against the risk factors for suicide (e.g., depressive symptoms). Empirical evidence suggests that one of the protective factors associated with depression and suicide is forgiveness. Although previous studies have demonstrated a negative association between forgiveness and risk of suicide, studies on gender differences in adolescents are still scarce. Thus, the authors assessed the moderating role of gender in a sample of adolescents. The participants were 572 adolescents (50.9% boys; M age = 15.49 years, SD = 1.09 years) from secondary school centers. The results revealed that forgiveness moderated the relationship between depression and suicidal ideation for boys but not for girls. Specifically, for boys the relationship between depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors weakened as levels of forgiveness increased. These findings suggest therapeutic applications to reduce the likelihood of suicide in the group of adolescent boys with higher scores on depression and lower levels of forgiveness. The study results are discussed in terms of the need to use gender perspectives in positive psychology intervention programs.     

Effects of lifestyles and the Mediterranean diet on elderly people’s quality of life according to gender / Efectos de los estilos de vida y la dieta mediterránea en la calidad de vida en personas mayores en función del género

Abstract

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been associated with certain eating habits, such as the Mediterranean diet (MD) and lifestyles. However, the specific role of gender in this association is not yet known. The objective of this study was to analyse the relationship between the consumption of the MD essential foods and lifestyle (tobacco and alcohol consumption and exercise) with the HRQoL of 340 elderly people aged over 60 living in the Spanish Mediterranean area. The results show a better HRQoL in males. Compared to females, the lifestyles of males include a moderate consumption of alcohol and tobacco in addition to a greater frequency of physical activity. The predictive models of HRQoL were also different between males and females, as the influence of lifestyles and MD were greater in males. These results are clinically useful for the designing of programmes that promote successful ageing as they can be specified for sex.     

Toward the Fullness of Christ: A Catholic Vision of Ecumenism

This article locates the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's recent document Dominus Iesus against the background of great ecumenical advance in North America and elsewhere and a series of highly encouraging ecumenical statements published by John Paul II. Its most contentious statement is a reiteration and clarification of the Vatican II teaching in Lumen Gentium that the church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church. It distinguishes among churches in the proper sense, with valid episcopate and eucharist, and defective ecclesial communities. The church of Christ cannot subsist in them but only in the Catholic Church. The article points out, nevertheless, that since all these bodies are recognized as having elements of the church, the operation of grace is still ecclesial and not individual and secondly that a pneumatologically orientated Christology sees ecumenism as a response in grace to the divine economy.     

The juvenile transition: A developmental switch point in human life history

This paper presents a new perspective on the transition from early to middle childhood (i.e., human juvenility), investigated in an integrative evolutionary framework. Juvenility is a crucial life history stage, when social learning and interaction with peers become central developmental functions; here it is argued that the “juvenile transition” is a developmental switch point in the human life history, when both sex-related and individual differences in reproductive strategies are expressed after the assessment period provided by early childhood. Adrenarche, the secretion of adrenal androgens starting at the beginning of middle childhood, is proposed as the endocrine mechanism mediating the juvenile transition. It is argued that, in connection with the stress system, adrenal androgens enable adaptive plasticity in the development of reproductive strategies through integration of environmental and genetic factors. Finally, evidence is reviewed of both sex-related and individual differences arising during the juvenile transition, in the domains of attachment and aggression. Juvenility plays a central role in the ontogeny of behavior and personality; this paper contributes to defining its place within an integrated model of human development.     

Influence of social conditions in song sharing in the adult canary

In songbirds, experience of social and environmental cues during a discrete period after birth may dramatically influence song learning. In the canary, the ability to learn new songs is assumed to persist throughout life. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether social context could guide changes in adult song. Three groups of canaries were kept in different social and temporal conditions. Results showed that the multiple hierarchical levels of the canary song structure were affected by social environment: songs of males housed together for 2 years were more similar than those of males that spent the same time in individual cages in regard to acoustic parameters, syllable repertoire and repertoire of sequences of two-syllable types. However, social housing did not result in the emergence of a group-specific vocal signature within songs. In conclusion, these results suggested that under the influence of social factors, a copying process could allow adult canaries to adjust, at least in part, their songs to those of other individuals.     

Unraveling the Aging Skein: Disentangling Sensory and Cognitive Predictors of Age‐related Differences in Decision Making

Age‐related differences in sensory functioning, processing speed, and working memory have been identified as three significant predictors of the age‐related performance decline observed in complex cognitive tasks. Yet, the assessment of their relative predictive capacity and interrelations is still an open issue in decision making and cognitive aging research. Indeed, no previous investigation has examined the relationships of all these three predictors with decision making. In an individual‐differences study, we therefore disentangled the relative contribution of sensory functioning, processing speed, and working memory to the prediction of the age‐related decline in cognitively demanding judgment and decision‐making tasks. Structural equation modeling showed that the age‐related decline in working memory plays an important predictive role, even when controlling for sensory functioning, processing speed, and education. Implications for research on decision making and cognitive aging are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Revised Parental Emotion Regulation Inventory

Despite significant research on parental emotion, parents’ regulation of their own emotions during discipline encounters is an understudied topic. Progress in this area of inquiry would be enhanced by the development of valid measures of emotion regulation. The present article describes an evaluation of such a measure, the revised Parental Emotion Regulation Inventory (PERI2). Mothers of 2-year-old children (N?=?232) completed the PERI2, additional questionnaire measures, and a parent-child observation during home visits. The present findings support the factorial and concurrent validity of the PERI2’s suppression (e.g., concealing negative emotion), capitulation (e.g., giving into aversive child behavior to reduce negative emotion) and escape (e.g., walking away mid discipline encounter to reduce negative emotion) factors. Suppression, capitulation, and escape were distinct but interrelated emotion regulatory behaviors that were associated with such factors as harsh parenting, lax discipline, parental maladjustment, and child physical aggression. In contrast, the psychometric adequacy of the reappraisal factor (e.g., thinking differently about the child’s behavior to reduce negative emotion) was not supported. The results support the future use of the PERI2, minus the reappraisal factor’s items.