The role of impulsivity in actual and problematic use of the mobile phone

Several authors have investigated the risks arising from the growth in mobile phone use (e.g. debts incurred by young people). The aims of the present study are (1) to validate a new questionnaire assessing problematic mobile phone use: the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ), and (2) to investigate the relationships between the PMPUQ and the multi‐faceted construct of impulsivity. With these aims, 339 subjects were screened using the PMPUQ and the UPPS Impulsive Behaviour Scale (UPPS) which assesses four distinct components associated with impulsive behaviours (urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance and sensation seeking). The results showed that the PMPUQ has an acceptable fit and assesses four different dimensions of problematic mobile phone use (prohibited use, dangerous use, dependence, financial problems). While each facet of impulsivity played a specific role in mobile phones use, urgency appeared to be the strongest predictor of problematic use. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Living up to high standards and psychological distress

We argue and demonstrate that setting high standards, an essential aspect of perfectionism, is not associated with maladaptive responses in and of itself. Rather, our findings suggest that people's responses to their perceptions that they consistently fail to meet their own standards are maladaptive. More importantly, in the present survey study (n = 293), we extend previous research by showing that low personal standards and the perception that others are imposing high standards on the self operate in concert to strengthen the link between perceived discrepancy and psychological distress. Furthermore, in support of our moderation‐mediation model, regression analyses provided evidence for the mediating role of generalised self‐efficacy beliefs. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is the influence of working memory capacity on high-level cognition mediated by complexity or resource-dependent elementary processes?

The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of working memory (WM) in elementary activities and the nature of the mechanisms mediating the influence of WM capacity on high-level cognition. We demonstrate that even elementary activities such as reading digits, subitizing small arrays of dots, or solving simple additions like 3+1 are sensitive to individual differences in WM capacity. Moreover, we demonstrate that a complex task such as counting large arrays of dots involving these elementary activities as processing steps does not induce WM-related differences beyond what can be predicted from the concatenation of differences elicited by the task’s elementary constituents. In line with the time-based resource-sharing model, these results suggest that the influence of WM capacity on high-level cognition is mediated by the impact of a basic general-purpose resource that affects each atomic step of cognition.     

Environmental cue saliency influences the vividness of a remote spatial memory in rats

The Morris water maze is frequently used to evaluate the acquisition and retrieval of spatial memories. Few experiments, however, have investigated the effects of environmental cue saliency on the strength or persistence of such memories after a short vs. long post-acquisition interval. Using a Morris water maze, we therefore tested in rats the effect of the saliency of distal cues on the vividness of a recent (5 days) vs. remote (25 days) memory. Rats trained in a cue-enriched vs. a cue-impoverished context showed a better overall level of performance during acquisition. Furthermore, the probe trials revealed that the rats trained and tested in the cue-impoverished context (1) spent less time in the target quadrant at the 25-day delay, and (2) swam shorter distances in the target area, with fewer crossings at both 5- and 25-day delays, as compared to their counterparts trained and tested in the cue-enriched context. Thus, the memory trace formed in the cue-enriched context shows better resistance to time, suggesting an implication of cue saliency in the vividness of a spatial memory.     

Directed forgetting and aging: the role of retrieval processes, processing speed, and proactive interference

The directed forgetting effect obtained with the item method is supposed to depend on both selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered (TBR) items and attentional inhibition of to-be-forgotten (TBF) items. In this study, we investigated the locus of the directed forgetting deficit in older adults by exploring the influence of recollection and familiarity-based retrieval processes on age-related differences in directed forgetting. Moreover, we explored the influence of processing speed, short-term memory capacity, thought suppression tendencies, and sensitivity to proactive interference on performance. The results indicated that older adults' directed forgetting difficulties are due to decreased recollection of TBR items, associated with increased automatic retrieval of TBF items. Moreover, processing speed and proactive interference appeared to be responsible for the decreased recall of TBR items.     

STOP-IT: Windows executable software for the stop-signal paradigm

The stop-signal paradigm is a useful tool for the investigation of response inhibition. In this paradigm, subjects are instructed to respond as fast as possible to a stimulus unless a stop signal is presented after a variable delay. However, programming the stop-signal task is typically considered to be difficult. To overcome this issue, we present software called STOP-IT, for running the stop-signal task, as well as an additional analyzing program called ANALYZE-IT. The main advantage of both programs is that they are a precompiled executable, and for basic use there is no need for additional programming. STOP-IT and ANALYZE-IT are completely based on free software, are distributed under the GNU General Public License, and are available at the personal Web sites of the first two authors or at expsy.ugent.be/tscope/stop.html.     

Nonlinear principal components analysis: introduction and application

The authors provide a didactic treatment of nonlinear (categorical) principal components analysis (PCA). This method is the nonlinear equivalent of standard PCA and reduces the observed variables to a number of uncorrelated principal components. The most important advantages of nonlinear over linear PCA are that it incorporates nominal and ordinal variables and that it can handle and discover nonlinear relationships between variables. Also, nonlinear PCA can deal with variables at their appropriate measurement level; for example, it can treat Likert-type scales ordinally instead of numerically. Every observed value of a variable can be referred to as a category. While performing PCA, nonlinear PCA converts every category to a numeric value, in accordance with the variable's analysis level, using optimal quantification. The authors discuss how optimal quantification is carried out, what analysis levels are, which decisions have to be made when applying nonlinear PCA, and how the results can be interpreted. The strengths and limitations of the method are discussed. An example applying nonlinear PCA to empirical data using the program CATPCA (J. J. Meulman, W. J. Heiser, & SPSS, 2004) is provided.     

Neuroticism and responses to social comparison among cancer patients

The present study examined how the effects of three audiotapes containing different types of social comparison information on the mood of cancer patients depended on the level of neuroticism. On the procedural tape, a man and woman discussed the process of radiation therapy, on the emotion tape, they focussed on emotional reactions to their illness and treatment, while on the coping tape they focussed on the way they had been coping. A validation study among 115 students showed that the tapes were perceived as they were intended. The main study was conducted among 226 patients who were about to undergo radiation therapy. Compared to patients in the control group, as patients were higher in neuroticism, they reported less negative mood after listening to the procedural and the coping tape. Furthermore, as patients were higher in neuroticism, they reported less negative mood after listening to the coping tape than to the emotion tape. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Endogenous Covert Spatial Orienting in Audition Cost-Benefit Analyses of Reaction Times and Event related Potentials

The presentstudy examines mechanisms ofendogenous covertspatialorienting inaudition as revealed by event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and reaction times (RTs). In one experimental condition, subjects were instructed to respond to any target tone irrespective of whether it was presented in a valid (spatially predictive cue), neutral (uninformative cue), or invalid (misleading cue) trial. In another experimental condition, only target tones presented at a cued position required a response-that is, subjects could completely ignore tones presented at the uncued ear. Cue validity had an effect on RT, which consisted in benefits for valid trials and in costs for invalid trials relative to the RTs in neutral trials. There were also distinct ERP effects of cue validity in the 100-300 msec time range. These ERP effects were enlarged in the condition in which uncued tones could be ignored. The effects of cue validity onRTsandERPsdemonstratedcovertorientinginauditionbothforstimulirequiring anovert response andalso for stimuli that did not require a behavioural response. It is argued that this attentional selection is located at intermediate stages of information processing, rather than at peripheral stages such as basic sensory-specific processing or response selection.     

Bulimia,dietary restraint,and concern for dieting

The concept of dietary restraint has recently been used to explain binge-eating in dieters. It has been proposed that the violation of various restraint rules typically leads to hinging in individuals exhibiting high dietary restraint. This study examined the role of dietary restraint in a clinical sample of bulimics. After eating a preload to break dietary restraint, bulimic binge-eaters (those who binge but do not purge) were found to eat significantly more than bulimics who binged and purged (bulimia nervosa) and significantly more than normals. In addition, purging bulimics were found to have more concern about dieting than binge-eaters, while normals were found to have less concern about dieting and less anxiety about eating than both bulimic groups. These data suggest that the psychopathology of bulimia nervosa and bulimia (binge-eating) may be substantially different. It was proposed that the most distinguishing characteristic may be the preoccupation with dieting, weight, and body size, which is more extreme in bulimia nervosa.