The path or the goal? Decision vs. information focus in biased information seeking after preliminary decisions

Research on the phenomenon of selective exposure to information demonstrates that after preliminary or final decisions, people show a preference for supporting rather than conflicting information (confirmation bias). In this article, we examine conditions that increase or decrease distortions in the search for information. We report on four experiments indicating that the confirmation bias is influenced by whether people focus on their decision or on the presented pieces of information during the information search. Focusing on the decision, for example, because a reward for a correct decision is promised or simply because participants repeatedly think of it, increases the confirmation bias. On the other hand, if participants focus on the available pieces of information because they have to invest money in order to search for information or because they have to evaluate the individual pieces of information, the confirmation bias decreases. Implications for theoretical understanding and interventions for decision-making situations are discussed.     

Food cravings consume limited cognitive resources

Using Tiffany's (1990) cognitive model of drug use and craving as a theoretical basis, the present experiments investigated whether cravings for food expend limited cognitive resources. Cognitive performance was assessed by simple reaction time (Experiment 1) and an established measure of working memory capacity, the operation span task (Experiment 2). In each experiment, female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a craving or control condition. Participants in the craving condition abstained from eating chocolate for 24 hours prior to testing and performed the cognitive task in the presence of chocolate, a manipulation that successfully elicited chocolate cravings. In both experiments, there was no main effect of craving condition on cognition, but there was a significant interaction between condition and trait chocolate craving. In support of Tiffany's model, our results show that habitual food cravers direct limited cognitive resources to craving-related cues, at the cost of competing cognitive demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

Variation in the serotonin transporter gene modulates selective attention to threat

The 5-HTTLPR is an insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene. Prior research has revealed associations between the short-allele variant of this polymorphism, enhanced self-reported negative emotionality, and hypersensitivity of fear relevant neural circuits. In a sample of 50 healthy women we examined the role of 5-HTTLPR for cognitive-affective processing of phylogenetical fear-relevant stimuli (spiders) in a dot probe task. In contrast to homozygote long-allele carriers (ll), participants carrying at least 1 short allele (ss and sl) selectively shifted attention toward pictures of spiders, when these were presented for a duration of 2,000 ms. These results argue for an involvement of 5-HTTLPR in cognitive processing of threatening stimuli and thus, underpin its general role for individual differences in negative affect.     

Expressive writing buffers against maladaptive rumination

This study examined whether ruminative style moderated the effects of expressive writing. Sixty-nine participants were assessed for ruminative style and depression symptoms at the beginning of their 1st college semester. Participants were then randomized to either an expressive writing or a control writing condition. Changes in depression symptoms were assessed 2, 4, and 6 months later. Results showed that a brooding ruminative style moderated the effects of expressive writing such that among those assigned to the expressive writing condition, individuals with greater brooding scores reported significantly fewer depression symptoms at all of the follow-up assessments relative to individuals with lower brooding scores. In contrast, reflective pondering ruminative style did not moderate the effects of expressive writing on depression symptoms. These findings suggest that expressive writing could be used as a means of reducing depression symptoms among those with a maladaptive ruminative tendency to brood.     

The Logic of Knowledge Based Obligation

Deontic Logic goes back to Ernst Mally’s 1926 work, Grundgesetze des Sollens: Elemente der Logik des Willens [Mally. E.: 1926, Grundgesetze des Sollens: Elemente der Logik des Willens, Leuschner & Lubensky, Graz], where he presented axioms for the notion ‘p ought to be the case’. Some difficulties were found in Mally’s axioms, and the field has much developed. Logic of Knowledge goes back to Hintikka’s work Knowledge and Belief [Hintikka, J.: 1962, Knowledge and Belief: An Introduction to the Logic of the Two Notions, Cornell University Press] in which he proposed formal logics of knowledge and belief. This field has also developed quite a great deal and is now the subject of the TARK conferences. However, there has been relatively little work combining the two notions of knowledge (belief) with the notion of obligation. (See, however, [Lomuscio, A. and Sergot, M.: 2003, Studia Logica 75 63–92; Moore, R. C.: 1990, In J. F. Allen, J. Hendler and A. Tate (eds.), Readings in Planning, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Mateo, CA]) In this paper we point out that an agent’s obligations are often dependent on what the agent knows, and indeed one cannot reasonably be expected to respond to a problem if one is not aware of its existence. For instance, a doctor cannot be expected to treat a patient unless she is aware of the fact that he is sick, and this creates a secondary obligation on the patient or someone else to inform the doctor of his situation. In other words, many obligations are situation dependent, and only apply in the presence of the relevant information. Thus a case for combining Deontic Logic with the Logic of Knowledge is clear. We introduce the notion of knowledge based obligation and offer an S5, history based Kripke semantics to express this notion, as this semantics enables us to represent how information is transmitted among agents and how knowledge changes over time as a result of communications. We consider both the case of an absolute obligation (although dependent on information) as well as the (defeasible) notion of an obligation which may be over-ridden by more relevant information. For instance a physician who is about to inject a patient with drug d may find out that the patient is allergic to d and that she should use d′ instead. Dealing with the second kind of case requires a resort to non-monotonic reasoning and the notion of justified belief which is stronger than plain belief, but weaker than absolute knowledge in that it can be over-ridden. This notion of justified belief also creates a derived notion of default obligation where an agent has, as far as the agent knows, an obligation to do some action a. A dramatic application of this notion is our analysis of the Kitty Genovese case where, in 1964, a young woman was stabbed to death while 38 neighbours watched from their windows but did nothing. The reason was not indifference, but none of the neighbours had even a default obligation to act, even though, as a group, they did have an obligation to take some action to protect Kitty. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the conferences SEP-2004, and DALT-2004.     

Spirituality and Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: Stress Counter-balancing Effects on the Well-being of Older Adults

The goal of this study was to examine stress-ameliorating effects of religiosity, spirituality, and healthy lifestyle behaviors on the stressful relationship of chronic illness and the subjective physical well-being of 221 older adults. We also investigated whether the intervening variables functioned as coping behaviors and orientations or as adaptations in late life. Guided by the stress paradigm, path analysis was used to assess these relationships in a stress suppressor model and a distress deterrent model. No suppressor effects were found; however a number of distress deterrent relationships were detected. Spirituality, physical activities, and healthy diet all contributed to higher subjective physical well-being, as counter-balancing effects, in the distress deterrent model. The findings have implications for future research on the role of spirituality, religiosity and lifestyle behaviors on the well-being of chronically ill older adults. Findings also support the need for studying different dimensions of religiosity and spirituality in an effort to understand coping versus adaptation in behaviors and orientations. Gracie H. Boswell, Ph.D., M.Ed. (Case Western Reserve University) and (M. Ed.- Kent State University). She is a Carolina Program in Health and Aging Research Scientist at the Institute on Aging- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests have been social gerontology and quality of life, emphasizing religiosity/spirituality. Eva Kahana, Ph.D. (University of Chicago) is Pierce T. and Elizabeth D. Robson Professor of Humanities and Director of the Elderly Care Research Center- Case Western Reserve University. Her research concentration has been the sociology of aging (coping & stress and institutionalization). Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, Ph.D. (Northwestern University) is Director- Center for Aging and Diversity, Institute on Aging, Professor- School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Administration at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests have been caregiving and minority health disparities.     

Rethinking Accountability in the Context of Human Rights

Within liberal democratic theory, ‘democratic accountability’ denotes an aggregative method for linking political decisions to citizens’ preferences through representative institutions. Could such a notion be transferred to the global context of human rights? Various obstacles seem to block such a transfer: there are no ‘world citizens’ as such; many people in need of human rights are not citizens of constitutional democratic states; and the aggregative methods that are supposed to sustain the link are often used in favour of nation-state strategic action rather than human rights. So what could accountability mean in relation to human rights? This article argues that discourse theory offers resources for approaching these problems and for rethinking a normative notion of accountability in relation to human rights. It is suggested that accountability should link political decisions to universal agreements through global rights institutions and that the link should be sustained by deliberative rather than aggregative procedures.     

Sex differences in the association of math achievement with visual-spatial and verbal working memory: Does the type of math test matter?

Previous research on sex differences in mathematical achievement shows mixed findings, which have been argued to depend on types of math tests used and the type of solution strategies (i.e., verbal versus visual-spatial) these tests evoke. The current study evaluated sex differences in (a) performance (development) on two types of math tests in primary schools and (b) the predictive value of verbal and visual-spatial working memory on math achievement. Children (N = 3175) from grades 2 through five participated. Visual-spatial and verbal working memory were assessed using online computerized tasks. Math performance was assessed five times during two school years using a speeded arithmetic test (math fluency) and a word problem test (math problem solving). Results from Multilevel Multigroup Latent Growth Modeling, showed that sex differences in level and growth of math performance were mixed and very small. Sex differences in the predictive value of verbal and visual-spatial working memory for math performance suggested that boys seemed to rely more on verbal strategies than girls. Explanations focus on cognitive and emotional factors and how these may interact to possibly amplify sex differences as children grow older.     

Trunk and center of mass movements during gait in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Motion of the body center of mass (CoM) can often indicate the overall effect of the strategy of forward progression used. In the present study, focus is placed on trunk movements in the sagittal, coronal, and transverse/rotation plane, as well as placement of the CoM, during gait in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Seventeen children with JIA, all with polyarticular lower extremity involvement were examined before and approximately two weeks after treatment with intra-articular cortico-steroid injections. Movement was recorded with a 6-camera 3D motion analysis system in both the children with JIA and in 21 healthy controls. Trunk and center of mass movements were compared between JIA and controls, and effects of intra-articular cortico-steroid treatment were evaluated. Children with JIA were more posteriorly tilted in the trunk, contrary to the common clinical impression, and had their CoM placed more posterior and off-centred, which may have been a result of pain. With such knowledge, it might be possible to better understand the effects of their pain and involvement, and ultimately to plan a treatment strategy for improving their gait patterns.     

The relation between worrying and concerns: the importance of perceived probability and cost

The relation between worrying and individuals' concerns was examined in a sample of 197 college students. Participants described the five undesirable outcomes that they thought about most often, indicated how likely they thought the outcomes were, and how upset they would be by them. Worry severity was measured using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. The relation between worry severity and the life domains about which individuals were concerned was quite weak. In contrast, as predicted, greater worry was associated with higher probability and cost estimates. In addition, cost estimates moderated the relation between worry severity and probability estimates. The potential importance of perceived threat for understanding worrying is discussed.