A behavioral genetic study of trait emotional intelligence

Numerous models of emotional intelligence (EI) have proposed the existence of hitherto undiscovered mental abilities, competencies, and skills. The theory of trait emotional intelligence suggests that the content domains of these models invariably contain permutations of personality traits. The two studies in this article examine the heritability of trait EI scores with a view to demonstrating empirically that the construct has a similar level of genetic influence as other personality traits. Study 1 was a family design of 133 high-school students and their parents. Regressions of offspring on midparent scores suggested median upper-limit heritability estimates of .18 at facet level, .25 at factor level, and .32 at the global trait EI level. Study 2 was a twin design (213 pairs of monozygotic [MZ] twins and 103 pairs of dizygotic [DZ] twins). It yielded median heritabilities of .42 for the facets, .44 for the factors, and .42 for global trait EI. Overall, our findings are in accordance with studies of the major personality dimensions and provide further empirical support for the conceptualization of EI as a personality trait.     

The role of working memory in carrying and borrowing

The present study analyzed the role of phonological and executive components of working memory in the borrow operation in complex subtractions (Experiments 1 and 2) and in the carry operation in complex multiplications (Experiments 3 and 4). The number of carry and borrow operations as well as the value of the carry were manipulated. Results indicated that both the number of carry/borrow operations and the value of the carry increased problem difficulty, resulting in higher reliance on phonological and executive working-memory components. Present results are compared with those obtained for the carry operation in complex addition and are further discussed in the broader framework of working-memory functions.     

Predictors of perceived susceptibility of breast cancer and changes over time: a mixed modeling approach

OBJECTIVE: To examine predictors of perceived susceptibility to breast cancer and assess differences across three dependent measures. DESIGN: Annual surveys were completed by US women veterans (N = 3,758) participating in a repeat mammography intervention trial. Multivariable non-linear mixed model analyses examined individual- and group-level changes in perceived susceptibility to breast cancer. DEPENDENT MEASURES: Three single-item measures of perceived susceptibility to breast cancer (percent risk, ordinal risk, and comparative risk likelihood). Predictors included demographic, health status, health behavior, affect, knowledge, and subjective norm variables. RESULTS: Breast symptoms and greater cancer worry increased perceived susceptibility for all three measures. Other predictors varied by dependent measure. Random change, indicating individual variability, was observed for percent risk only. CONCLUSION: Despite small model effect sizes, breast symptoms and cancer worry were consistent predictors and may be good targets for messages designed to influence women's perceived susceptibility to breast cancer. Researchers may benefit from using measures of perceived susceptibility with larger response scales, but additional measurement research is needed. Combining indicators of perceived susceptibility may be undesirable when different predictors are associated with different measures.     

Phenotypic and genetic relationships between vocational interests and personality

Relationships between personality and vocational interest factors were examined at the phenotypic and genetic levels. Twins and siblings (N = 516) completed self-report personality and vocational interest scales. Following factor analyses of each scale, five personality and six vocational interest factors were extracted. At the phenotypic level, correlations between personality and vocational interests ranged from zero to .33. Heritability estimates of the scales showed that genetic components accounted for 0–56% of the variance for the vocational interest factors and 44–65% for the personality factors. Genetic correlations between the two areas ranged from zero to .50. The results suggest that personality is related to some vocational interest dimensions and that some of these observed relationships have a common genetic basis.     

Memory for positive,negative and neutral events in younger and older adults: Does emotion influence binding in event memory?

When remembering an event, it is important to remember both the features of the event (e.g., a person and an action) and the connections among features (e.g., who performed which action). Emotion often enhances memory for stimulus features, but the relationship between emotion and the binding of features in memory is unclear. Younger and older adults attempted to remember events in which a person performed a negative, positive or neutral action. Memory for the action was enhanced by emotion, but emotion did not enhance the ability of participants to remember which person performed which action. Older adults were more likely than younger adults to make binding errors in which they incorrectly remembered a familiar actor performing a familiar action that had actually been performed by someone else, and this age-related associative deficit was found for both neutral and emotional actions. Emotion not only increased correct recognition of old events for older and younger adults but also increased false recognition of events in which a familiar actor performed a familiar action that had been performed by someone else. Thus, although emotion may enhance memory for the features of an event, it does not increase the accuracy of remembering who performed which action.     

Searching for serial refreshing in working memory: Using response times to track the content of the focus of attention over time

One popular idea is that, to support the maintenance of a set of elements over brief periods of time, the focus of attention rotates among the different elements, thereby serially refreshing the content of working memory (WM). In the research reported here, probe letters were presented between to-be-remembered letters, and response times to these probes were used to infer the status of the different items in WM. If the focus of attention cycles from one item to the next, its content should be different at different points in time, and this should be reflected in a change in the response time patterns over time. Across a set of four experiments, we demonstrated a striking pattern of invariance in the response time patterns over time, suggesting either that the content of the focus of attention did not change over time or that response times cannot be used to infer the content of the focus of attention. We discuss how this pattern constrains models of WM, attention, and human information processing.     

Assessment of information content in visual signal: analysis of optical flow fractal complexity

We make a first attempt at distinguishing an information-carrying visual signal by comparing visual characteristics of American Sign Language to everyday human motion, to identify what clues might be available in one but not in the other. The comparison indicated significantly higher fractal complexity in sign language across tested frequency bands (0.01–15?Hz), as compared to everyday motion. A comparison of our results with other work showing high fractal complexity in the speech signal allows us to suggest the underlying properties of linguistic signals which allow babies to “tune into” a specific channel, or modality, during language acquisition.     

Counseling for loss of faith

Pastoral Psychology -