Talking about interest: exploring the role of social interaction for regulating motivation and the interest experience

The Self-Regulation of Motivation Model suggests that the experience of interest is an important source of human motivation and that people often strategically regulate the experience of interest. Previous work based on this model suggests that the social context may influence this process at multiple points. The present research focuses on whether talking to others about an activity experience is one means by which individuals evaluate how interesting that activity is. In Study 1 college students completed questionnaires that asked about real life experiences where working on an activity was more interesting because they worked with others. They described experiences that occurred first in any domain, and then that occurred specifically in the school domain. Results suggested that the more students talked with others about the activity after it happened the more they reported greater interest in the activity after the conversations. In the school domain, this was especially true for Latinos and for individuals who scored higher on the Relational Self-Construal scale. Study 2 employed a lab paradigm to control for the task that individuals talked to others about and to examine whether the nature of listeners’ reactions influenced the speaker’s interest even after the study was ostensibly over. First, replicating Pasupathi and Rich (2005, ‘Inattentive listening undermines self-verification in personal storytelling’, Journal of Personality 73, pp. 1051–1086) college students who talked to a distracted friend about a computer game during the lab session reported a significant drop in interest relative to those who talked to attentive friends, regardless of whether the attentive listeners agreed or disagreed with participants. Importantly, interest ratings at a 4–6 week follow-up were affected by the perceived responsiveness of listeners during spontaneous conversational retellings outside the lab, controlling for interest levels at the end of the lab session. Taken together, results suggest that social interaction plays an important role in regulating activity interest even beyond the immediate activity experience.     

Inference Patterns in Theoretical Social Psychology: Looking Back as We Move Forward

An important hallmark of modern social psychology is the central importance of theory and hypothesis testing. The inference structure, however, underlying such tests are rarely acknowledged and may have important implications for the field. In this study, we examine the inference patterns utilized over 20 years of published work in a leading journal of social psychology. We found that verification, in contrast to falsification and crucial tests of alternative hypotheses, was the dominant inference structure utilized. Crucial tests were conducted least of all. These trends were discussed in light of larger issues from the philosophy of science, as well as its potential implications for the field.     

Evolving science in adolescence: comment on Ellis et al. (2012)

Ellis et al. (2012) bring an evolutionary perspective to bear on adolescent risky behavioral development, clinical practice, and public policy. The authors offer important insights that (a) some risky behaviors may be adaptive for the individual and the species by being hard-wired due to fitness benefits and (b) interventions might be more successful if they move with, rather than against, the natural tendencies of an adolescent. Ellis and colleagues criticize the field of developmental psychopathology, but we see the 2 fields as complementary. Their position would be enhanced by integrating it with contemporary perspectives on dynamic cascades through which normative behavior turns into genuinely maladaptive outcomes, dual processes in adolescent neural development, and adolescent decision making. Finally, they rightly note that innovation is needed in interventions and policies toward adolescent problem behavior.     

Coordinated action in multiteam systems

This study investigated coordinated action in multiteam systems employing 233 correspondent systems, comprising 3 highly specialized 6-person teams, that were engaged in an exercise that was simultaneously "laboratory-like" and "field-like." It enriches multiteam system theory through the combination of theoretical perspectives from the team and the large organization literatures, underscores the differential impact of large size and modular organization by specialization, and demonstrates that conventional wisdom regarding effective coordination in traditional teams and large organizations does not always transfer to multiteam systems. We empirically show that coordination enacted across team boundaries at the component team level can be detrimental to performance and that coordinated actions enacted by component team boundary spanners and system leadership positively impact system performance only when these actions are centered around the component team most critical to addressing the demands of the task environment.     

Perceiving and desiring: a new look at the cognitive penetrability of experience

This paper considers an orectic penetration hypothesis (OPH) which says that desires and desire-like states may influence perceptual experience in a non-externally mediated way. This hypothesis is clarified with a definition, which serves further to distinguish the interesting target phenomenon from trivial and non-genuine instances of desire-influenced perception. Orectic penetration is an interesting possible case of the cognitive penetrability of perceptual experience. The OPH is thus incompatible with the more common thesis that perception is cognitively impenetrable. It is of importance to issues in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, epistemology, and general philosophy of science. The plausibility of orectic penetration can be motivated by some classic experimental studies, and some new experimental research inspired by those same studies. The general suggestion is that orectic penetration thus defined, and evidenced by the relevant studies, cannot be deflected by the standard strategies of the cognitive impenetrability theorist.     

Objectively-Measured Impulsivity and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Testing Competing Predictions from the Working Memory and Behavioral Inhibition Models of ADHD

Impulsivity is a hallmark of two of the three DSM-IV ADHD subtypes and is associated with myriad adverse outcomes. Limited research, however, is available concerning the mechanisms and processes that contribute to impulsive responding by children with ADHD. The current study tested predictions from two competing models of ADHD-working memory (WM) and behavioral inhibition (BI)-to examine the extent to which ADHD-related impulsive responding was attributable to model-specific mechanisms and processes. Children with ADHD (n?=?21) and typically developing children (n?=?20) completed laboratory tasks that provided WM (domain-general central executive [CE], phonological/visuospatial storage/rehearsal) and BI indices (stop-signal reaction time [SSRT], stop-signal delay, mean reaction time). These indices were examined as potential mediators of ADHD-related impulsive responding on two objective and diverse laboratory tasks used commonly to assess impulsive responding (CPT: continuous performance test; VMTS: visual match-to-sample). Bias-corrected, bootstrapped mediation analyses revealed that CE processes significantly attenuated between-group impulsivity differences, such that the initial large-magnitude impulsivity differences were no longer significant on either task after accounting for ADHD-related CE deficits. In contrast, SSRT partially mediated ADHD-related impulsive responding on the CPT but not VMTS. This partial attenuation was no longer significant after accounting for shared variance between CE and SSRT; CE continued to attenuate the ADHD-impulsivity relationship after accounting for SSRT. These findings add to the growing literature implicating CE deficits in core ADHD behavioral and functional impairments, and suggest that cognitive interventions targeting CE rather than storage/rehearsal or BI processes may hold greater promise for alleviating ADHD-related impairments.     

Understanding Phonological Memory Deficits in Boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Dissociation of Short-term Storage and Articulatory Rehearsal Processes

The current study dissociated and examined the two primary components of the phonological working memory subsystem--the short-term store and articulatory rehearsal mechanism--in boys with ADHD (n?=?18) relative to typically developing boys (n?=?15). Word lists of increasing length (2, 4, and 6 words per trial) were presented to and recalled by children following a brief (3 s) interval to assess their phonological short-term storage capacity. Children's ability to utilize the articulatory rehearsal mechanism to actively maintain information in the phonological short-term store was assessed using word lists at their established memory span but with extended rehearsal times (12 s and 21 s delays). Results indicate that both phonological shortterm storage capacity and articulatory rehearsal are impaired or underdeveloped to a significant extent in boys with ADHD relative to typically developing boys, even after controlling for age, SES, IQ, and reading speed. Larger magnitude deficits, however, were apparent in short-term storage capacity (ES?=?1.15 to 1.98) relative to articulatory rehearsal (ES?=?0.47 to 1.02). These findings are consistent with previous reports of deficient phonological short-term memory in boys with ADHD, and suggest that future attempts to develop remedial cognitive interventions for children with ADHD will need to include active components that require children to hold increasingly more information over longer time intervals.     

The double-edged pen: Omnipotent fantasies in the creativity and addictions of Stephen King

The legendary debate over whether a connection between creativity and addictions exists is one that is shrouded in mystery and intrigue, but also one that continuously returns to the circuitous metaphor of the chicken and the egg. In an effort to better understand nuances in the relationship between creativity and addictions, this paper examines the life of Stephen King, and the omnipotent fantasies from which both his creative processes and addictive behaviours emerged. Since the early twentieth century, psychodynamic thinkers have highlighted omnipotent fantasies as a psychological force driving creative processes as efforts towards personal transformation. Similarly, numerous psychodynamic theories have highlighted omnipotent fantasies as playing a cardinal role in the psychological processes that propel substance abuse. And yet, the construct of omnipotence has yet to be examined as a theoretical bridge to bind such theories of creativity and substance abuse together. While fostering personal meaning and self-transformation when manifested in his creative writing processes, omnipotent fantasies have also lead Stephen King down a precarious path of addictive behaviours. Through a narrative analysis of the life of Stephen King, who has written in great depth about both his creativity and substance abuse, I will illustrate how omnipotent fantasies often shape and foster both healthy, creative processes towards growth and maladaptive, addictive impulses towards self-destruction.     

Parenting Behaviors and Childhood Anxiety: A Psychometric Investigation of the EMBU-C

Parent rearing behaviors, including both behavioral modeling and parent–child interactions, are associated with anxiety in children. Patterns of overprotection or rejecting behavior from parents may lead children to develop behavioral avoidance, lower self-confidence, and higher symptoms of anxiety. Additional research is needed to further elucidate the role that parenting behavior plays in the development of childhood anxiety. Unfortunately, few measures of parenting behavior exist. The EMBU-C is a 40-item child-report measure of these behaviors, but empirical data supporting the psychometric properties of the EMBU-C are limited. The current investigation examined the psychometric properties of the EMBU-C in the context of childhood anxiety. Participants were 213 children with an anxiety disorder and 150 recruited from the community (all aged 8–13 years). Overall, the EMBU-C demonstrated promising psychometrics. In terms of convergent validity, parent rearing behaviors described on the EMBU-C were significantly related to children’s anxiety symptoms, anxiety-related disability, parenting stress, family functioning and children’s externalizing behaviors. Further, the overprotection and anxious-rearing subscales discriminated between clinical and community participants. Finally, parental overprotection significantly predicted increases in child anxiety and anxiety-related disability 1 year later. Thus, the EMBU-C appears to have value as a clinical tool for assessing parental factors that may contribute to anxiety in children. Recommendations for further item development and measure improvement are offered.