Personality and risk of cognitive impairment 25 years later

The authors examined the relationship between personality and cognitive impairment in 4,039 members of the Swedish Twin Registry. Neuroticism and extraversion scores were collected in 1973 at midlife, and cognitive impairment was assessed in the same group 25 years later. Data were analyzed with case-control and co-twin control designs. Greater neuroticism was associated with higher risk of cognitive impairment in the results from case-control, but not from co-twin, analyses. Compared with both extraversion and introversion, moderate extraversion was associated with lower risk of cognitive impairment in both case-control and co-twin designs, as was the combination of high neuroticism and low extraversion. Findings are discussed in the context of theories related to personality, psychological distress, arousal, and cognitive function.     

Development of a measure of drinking and driving expectancies for youth

The present study constructs and provides initial validation for a measure of positive expectancies for drinking and driving for use with adolescents and young adults (PEDD-Y). In Study 1, items were generated through open-ended responses from high school- and college-age youth. Data collected from a 2nd sample of college students (n = 404) identified a 29 item, 4 factor questionnaire. Two of the PEDD-Y factors (Convenience, Avoiding Consequences) explained additional variance in drinking and driving behavior above and beyond other cognitions about drinking and driving. Study 2 extended these results to a high school sample (n = 185). Study 3 demonstrated test-retest reliability of the PEDD-Y in college-age youth (n = 165). These results provide initial evidence for the utility of the PEDD-Y in assessing drinking and driving risk in adolescents and college students.     

10 years of illusions

A decade ago, S. Aglioti, J. F. X. DeSouza, and M. A. Goodale (1995) published an experiment that has had a big influence on the way that visual information is thought to control human behavior. Their findings have often been simplified as suggesting that action is immune to perceptual illusions. The current authors critically analyze the 4 steps involved in this simplification and argue that research during the last 10 years has shown that the validity of 3 of the 4 steps is doubtful. They conclude that this experiment cannot be regarded as firm support for the 2-visual-systems hypothesis (i.e., that the ventral stream is for perception and the dorsal stream is for visually guided actions).     

Perceived health following myocardial infarction: cross-validation of the Health Complaints Scale in Danish patients

With an ageing population and a decline in cardiac mortality rates, the number of patients with cardiac disease is increasing, which in turn poses a major challenge for secondary prevention. For this end, appropriate, sensitive, and validated instruments to assess health complaints and quality of life are required. The objectives of the current study were: (1) to cross-validate the Health Complaints Scale (HCS) in a Danish sample of patients with a first myocardial infarction (MI); and (2) to investigate whether perceived health, as measured by the HCS is related to cardiac disease severity. The HCS was originally developed in Belgian patients with coronary artery disease. One-hundred-and-twelve consecutive patients with a first myocardial infarction were assessed by means of a questionnaire four to six weeks post infarction. Clinical measures were sampled from medical records. The factor structure of the HCS and the internal consistency of the Somatic Complaints (alpha = 0.91) and Cognitive Complaints subscales (alpha = 0.94) were confirmed. The construct validity of the scale was confirmed against measures of psychopathology and personality. Patients scored significantly higher on the HCS Somatic and Cognitive scales as compared with self-reports of depression and anxiety (p < 0.0001). Health complaints were unrelated to severity of cardiac disease and rather reflected subjective perception of quality of life. These findings show that the HCS is a valid instrument that is equally applicable in Danish cardiac patients to monitor perceived health as a major component of quality of life.     

Does self-love lead to love for others? A story of narcissistic game playing

Five studies investigated the links among narcissism, self-esteem, and love. Across all studies, narcissism was associated primarily with a game-playing love style. This link was found in reports of general love styles (Study 1a) and of love in ongoing romantic relationships (Studies 1b-3, 5). Narcissists' game-playing love style was the result of a need for power and autonomy (Study 2) and was linked with greater relationship alternatives and lesser commitment (Study 3). Finally, narcissists' self-reports of game playing were confirmed by their partners in past and current relationships (Studies 4, 5). In contrast, self-esteem was negatively linked to manic love and positively linked to passionate love across studies. Implications for the understanding of narcissism in relationships are discussed.     

Impaired skill learning in patients with severe closed-head injury as demonstrated by the serial reaction time (SRT) task

A group of 20 patients who sustained closed-head injury (CHI) and a matched control group of 20 individuals were tested on the serial reaction time (SRT) task. Three different sequence-learning measures were generated from the task: two implicit and one explicit. The two implicit sequence-learning measures include: (1) the learning rate on the first five blocks of the repeated sequence, assumed to reflect primarily general reaction time learning, and (2) the difference between the fifth block of the repeated sequence and the sixth block, a random sequence that reflects implicit sequence-specific learning. In addition, an explicit measure of sequence learning was generated. The results indicate that the CHI group was impaired on the explicit measure of sequence learning. The groups did not differ on general reaction time learning, one of the implicit measures of sequence learning. However, the control group was superior to the CHI group in learning the specific sequence repeated in the SRT task. This pattern of results is unique to the CHI group, corresponding with neither that of amnesic patients nor with that of patients with dysfunction of the basal ganglia (i.e., Parkinson's diseases).     

Contribution of age, genes, and environment to the relationship between perceptual speed and cognitive ability

The aim of this study was to examine genetic influences on cognitive ability in adulthood in the context of the relationship between perceptual speed and cognitive aging. Quantitative genetic analysis of data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging allowed for estimation of the contribution of age, genetic, and environmental effects to the variance in a latent cognitive factor and to the covariance between the cognitive factor and perceptual speed. The sample included 292 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins. both reared together and reared apart, ranging in age from 40 to 84 years. Analysis of components of total variance in the cognitive factor indicated that 90% of the age-related variance in the cognitive factor was shared with perceptual speed and 70% of the genetic variance in the cognitive factor was shared with perceptual speed. The correlation between the speed and cognitive factors was primarily genetically mediated.     

Introduction to symposium on Philosophy and the art of writing by Richard Shusterman

This introductory piece provides context for this symposium on Richard Shusterman's new book, Philosophy and the Art of Writing. The piece reflects on the symposium genre from Plato's classic dialogue to its form today. It claims that Shusterman's work asks us to take this kind of philosophical writing more seriously, and for that reason the symposium itself has taken on a different structure. The piece discusses how each of the contributors responding to the book (with Shusterman leading the way), Eli Kramer, Randall Auxier, and Charles Johnson, have engaged in practicing, nurturing, and supporting broad modes of philosophical writing, and in turn why they have chosen to do so in this context.