Working memory capacity and go/no-go task performance: selective effects of updating, maintenance, and inhibition

The ability to temporarily maintain information in order to successfully perform a task is important in many daily activities. However, the ability to quickly and accurately update existing mental representations in distracting situations is also imperative in many of these same circumstances. In the current studies, individuals varying in working memory capacity (WMC) performed different varieties of go/no-go tasks that have been hypothesized to measure inhibitory ability. The results indicated that low-WMC individuals relative to high-WMC individuals showed worse performance specifically in certain conditions of the conditional go/no-go task. Further analyses showed that increasing the temporal lag/number of intervening items between the previous target and the current lure had a deleterious effect on the performance of the low-WMC group only. The results indicate a relationship between WMC and the ability to selectively update, maintain, and retrieve information, especially in interference-rich conditions.     

The role of fluid and emotional intelligence in malingering

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of fluid (gf), social (SI) and emotional intelligence (EI) in faking the Beck Depression Inventory (2nd ed., BDI‐II). Twenty‐two students and 26 non‐students completed Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM), a social insight test, the Schutte et al. self‐report EI scale, and the BDI‐II under honest and faking instructions. Results were consistent with a new model of successful faking, in which a participant's original response must be manipulated into a strategic response, which must match diagnostic criteria. As hypothesised, the BDI‐II could be faked, and gf was not related to faking ability. Counter to expectations, however, SI and EI were not related to faking ability. A second study explored why EI failed to facilitate faking. Forty‐nine students and 50 non‐students completed the EI measure, the Marlowe‐Crown Scale and the Levenson et al. Psychopathy Scale. As hypothesised, EI was negatively correlated with psychopathy, but EI showed no relationship with socially desirable responding. It was concluded that in the first experiment, high‐EI people did fake effectively, but high‐psychopathy people (who had low EI) were also faking effectively, resulting in a distribution that showed no advantage to high EI individuals.     

The role of urgency and its underlying psychological mechanisms in problematic behaviours

The urgency facet of impulsivity, that is, the tendency to act rashly in response to intense emotional contexts [Cyders, M. A., & Smith, G. T. (2008). Emotion-based dispositions to rash action: positive and negative urgency. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 807-828], has been related to a wide range of maladaptive behaviours. The present study further investigates the role of urgency in problematic behaviours by considering distinct psychological mechanisms that may underlie this component of impulsivity. With this aim, 95 volunteer participants were screened with self-reported questionnaires assessing urgency and three problematic behaviours (compulsive buying, excessive mobile phone use, excessive Internet use). They performed two laboratory tasks: a stop-signal task designed to assess the capacity to inhibit prepotent responses in response to both neutral and emotional stimuli; and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) measuring the ability to take into account the future consequences of an action. A poor ability to inhibit prepotent responses in the emotional condition of the stop-signal task was found to predict more disadvantageous choices in the IGT, which ultimately results in higher urgency and more problematic behaviours. These findings shed new light on the construct of urgency, its related psychological mechanisms, and its role in problematic behaviours.     

Human kinship, from conceptual structure to grammar

Research in anthropology has shown that kin terminologies have a complex combinatorial structure and vary systematically across cultures. This article argues that universals and variation in kin terminology result from the interaction of (1) an innate conceptual structure of kinship, homologous with conceptual structure in other domains, and (2) principles of optimal, "grammatical" communication active in language in general. Kin terms from two languages, English and Seneca, show how terminologies that look very different on the surface may result from variation in the rankings of a universal set of constraints. Constraints on kin terms form a system: some are concerned with absolute features of kin (sex), others with the position (distance and direction) of kin in "kinship space", others with groups and group boundaries (matrilines, patrilines, generations, etc.). Also, kin terms sometimes extend indefinitely via recursion, and recursion in kin terminology has parallels with recursion in other areas of language. Thus the study of kinship sheds light on two areas of cognition, and their phylogeny. The conceptual structure of kinship seems to borrow its organization from the conceptual structure of space, while being specialized for representing genealogy. And the grammar of kinship looks like the product of an evolved grammar faculty, opportunistically active across traditional domains of semantics, syntax, and phonology. Grammar is best understood as an offshoot of a uniquely human capacity for playing coordination games.     

The effects of overlearning and distributed practise on the retention of mathematics knowledge

In two experiments, 216 college students learned to solve one kind of mathematics problem before completing one of various practise schedules. In Experiment 1, students either massed 10 problems in a single session or distributed these 10 problems across two sessions separated by 1 week. The benefit of distributed practise was nil among students who were tested 1 week later but extremely large among students tested 4 weeks later. In Experiment 2, students completed three or nine practise problems in one session. The additional six problems constituted a strategy known as overlearning, but this extra effort had no effect on test scores 1 or 4 weeks later. Thus, long‐term retention was boosted by distributed practise and unaffected by overlearning. Unfortunately, most mathematics textbooks rely on a format that emphasises overlearning and minimises distributed practise. An easily adopted alternative format is advocated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Initial Primary Teacher Education Students and Spirituality

In recent years there has begun to be a resurgence of interest in educating the whole child in response to an over emphasis on basic skills teaching. In the study reported in this article, initial primary teacher education students at a regional Australian university were asked to explore and discuss their beliefs about the notion of spirituality. A survey was one of the instruments used and the responses obtained were placed into one of five categories or dimensions of spirituality. These included spirituality and self (reflection); religion; nature (environment/universe); relationships; and major life events (birth/marriage/death). Each of these categories are discussed in relation to a similar study conducted in the United Kingdom. Some implications for teacher educators and their initial primary teacher education students are discussed. These implications are able to help both groups work towards a more spiritually sensitive curriculum which seeks to recognise spiritual development as integral and central for providing a holistic education for all children.     

Utah youth suicide study: psychological autopsy

We conducted a psychological autopsy study to further understand youth suicide in Utah. While traditional psychological autopsy studies primarily focus on the administration of psychometric measures to identify any underlying diagnosis of mental illness for the suicide decedent, we focused our interviews to identify which contacts in the decedent's life recognized risk factors for suicidal behavior, symptoms of mental illness, as well as barriers to mental health treatment for the decedent. Parents and friends recognized most symptoms universally, although friends better recognized symptoms of substance abuse than any other contact. The study results suggest that parents and friends are the most appropriate individuals for gatekeeper training and, in conjunction with other innovative screening programs, may be an effective strategy in reducing adolescent suicide.     

The word-frequency paradox for recall/recognition occurs for pictures

A yes-no recognition task and two recall tasks were conducted using pictures of high and low familiarity ratings. Picture familiarity had analogous effects to word frequency, and replicated the word-frequency paradox in recall and recognition. Low-familiarity pictures were more recognizable than high-familiarity pictures, pure lists of high-familiarity pictures were more recallable than pure lists of low-familiarity pictures, and there was no effect of familiarity for mixed lists. These results are consistent with the predictions of the Search of Associative Memory (SAM) model.