Error-related electrocortical responses in 10-year-old children and young adults

Recent anatomical and electrophysiological evidence suggests that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is relatively late to mature. This brain region appears to be critical for monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting ongoing behaviors. This monitoring elicits characteristic ERP components including the error-related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe) and correct-related negativity (CRN), with the ERN clearly relating to activation of the ACC; however, little attention has been paid to the examination of these ERP components in children. The present study examined developmental differences in the ERN, Pe, and CRN in normal 10-year-old children and young adults in a standard visual flanker task. We found that children had smaller ERNs than adults, with no between-group differences on the Pe, and some ambiguity concerning the CRN. Results provide electrophysiological support either for late maturation of the ACC or late involvement of the ACC in response monitoring. Results also suggest that there is some functional independence of response-monitoring ERP components. Error-related ERPs may be a useful tool in studying the development of this brain region and its role in behavior in normal and atypical development.     

The intelligence community and the war on terror: the role of behavioral science

The United States intelligence community has been under intense scrutiny from both inside and outside in the aftermath of September 11. Post mortem assessments of intelligence breakdowns may judge the events as more predictable than was in fact the actual reality. In a troubled world, when threats to national security can materialize very quickly, the intelligence community must be able to effectively and swiftly develop and implement plans to prevent further terrorist attacks on the homeland. Numerous scenarios need to be considered for the management of crisis situations. Intelligence actions must make it more difficult for terrorists to strike at their targets. The war on terror must confront a new generation of enemies who threaten to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction. This essay will focus on the role of behavioral science and how related reforms within the intelligence community could improve its capability to respond to a huge challenge.     

Replicating the five factor model of personality in a psychiatric sample

In this study we examined whether the factor structure and traits of the five-factor model of personality (FFM), derived from non-clinical samples, could be replicated in a sample of psychiatric patients. The revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) was administered to a study group of psychiatric patients (n=176). The test scores from these patients were intercorrelated, factor analyzed and the obtained factor structure was then compared to the factor structure of the normative data from the NEO PI-R. The factor structure from the psychiatric study group and that from the normative sample were virtually identical, with all five factors showing significant congruence. These results argue favorably for the clinical applicability of the FFM with psychiatric patients.     

Validating a “spurning scale” for teachers

Based on a model on helpers’ reactions to rejection of their help, a spurning scale for teachers was constructed, comprising items that examine teachers’ perception of spurning of their help/advice by students and colleagues. Three avenues were taken to assess the validity of the scale: The relationships of the spurning scores with burnout scores; the relationships of spurning scores with job (dis)satisfaction and with job turnover; and relationships of spurning scores with job stresses from different sources. In-service teachers enrolled in a teacher training program were invited to fill out a questionnaire that contained these variables. Results suggest that the spurning scale is valid.     

Dependent and Self-Critical Depressive Experiences among Inner-City Adolescents

ABSTRACT The Adolescent Depressive Experiences Questionnaire was administered to 142 inner-city ninth graders. Based on theory, several potential correlates of dependency and self-criticism were selected for study, including depression, aspects of anxiety, locus of control, and facets of social behavior. Self-criticism showed stronger associations with depression and concerns about losing others' approval, while dependency showed stronger associations with diffuse tension and worry and sensitivity to others' behavior. The two depressive tendencies had comparable associations with physiological anxiety and external locus of control. These findings are discussed in terms of current perspectives on the symptomatic heterogeneity of depressive experiences.     

What Eye Movements Reveal About Later Comprehension of Long Connected Texts

We know that reading involves coordination between textual characteristics and visual attention, but research linking eye movements during reading and comprehension assessed after reading is surprisingly limited, especially for reading long connected texts. We tested two competing possibilities: (a) the weak association hypothesis: Links between eye movements and comprehension are weak and short-lived, versus (b) the strong association hypothesis: The two are robustly linked, even after a delay. Using a predictive modeling approach, we trained regression models to predict comprehension scores from global eye movement features, using participant-level cross-validation to ensure that the models generalize across participants. We used data from three studies in which readers (Ns = 104, 130, 147) answered multiple-choice comprehension questions ~30 min after reading a 6,500-word text, or after reading up to eight 1,000-word texts. The models generated accurate predictions of participants' text comprehension scores (correlations between observed and predicted comprehension: 0.384, 0.362, 0.372, ps < .001), in line with the strong association hypothesis. We found that making more, but shorter fixations, consistently predicted comprehension across all studies. Furthermore, models trained on one study's data could successfully predict comprehension on the others, suggesting generalizability across studies. Collectively, these findings suggest that there is a robust link between eye movements and subsequent comprehension of a long connected text, thereby connecting theories of low-level eye movements with those of higher order text processing during reading.     

Paul Gray's narrowing scope: a "developmental lag" in his theory and technique

A cental thesis of Paul Gray's work is that a "developmental lag" pervades modern psychoanalysis in its failure to assimilate and apply knowledge gained about the role of the unconscious ego in intrapsychic life. But Gray himself, it is proposed, has become a victim of a new "developmental lag," of his own construction. As he somewhat single-mindedly pursued the ramifications of his "developmental lag" concept, Gray may have foreclosed on some noteworthy ideas developing around him. The most important example is his claim--herein refuted--that proper interpretive technique can avoid being infused with transference. He also seems to have rejected the theoretical importance of the internalization of the analyst and the clinical usefulness of countertransference. While emphasizing defense analysis, he ignores defenses such as splitting, denial, and disavowal as substantive problems for his technique of close-process attention. Gray's "undoing" of the rapprochement between "ego analysis" and "id analysis" by viewing the matter as an either-or proposition undermines the very real value of his contribution to the field.     

Explaining neurocognitive aging: is one factor enough?

As an introduction to the special issue on neurocognitive factors underlying age effects, we discuss a number of recent developments in the literature on aging. The classic distinction between generalized and process-specific cognitive changes with old age has reappeared in the distinctions between the frontal lobe hypothesis and more differentiated views of neurocognitive aging. We argue that neurological decay in the frontal cortex has important implications for cognitive control, but that the frontal lobe hypothesis does not capture the plethora of changes that characterize aging and incorrectly suggests a unitary effect.     

Beyond Dyadic Coordination: Multimodal Behavioral Irregularity in Triads Predicts Facets of Collaborative Problem Solving

We hypothesize that effective collaboration is facilitated when individuals and environmental components form a synergy where they work together and regulate one another to produce stable patterns of behavior, or regularity, as well as adaptively reorganize to form new behaviors, or irregularity. We tested this hypothesis in a study with 32 triads who collaboratively solved a challenging visual computer programming task for 20 min following an introductory warm‐up phase. Multidimensional recurrence quantification analysis was used to examine fine‐grained (i.e., every 10 s) collective patterns of regularity across team members' speech rate, body movement, and team interaction with the shared user interface. We found that teams exhibited significant patterns of regularity as compared to shuffled baselines, but there were no systematic trends in regularity across time. We also found that periods of regularity were associated with a reduction in overall behavior. Notably, the production of irregular behavior predicted expert‐coded metrics of collaborative activity, such as teams' ability to construct shared knowledge and effectively negotiate and coordinate execution of solutions, net of overall behavioral production and behavioral self‐similarity. Our findings support the theory that groups can interact to form interpersonal synergies and indicate that information about system‐level dynamics is a viable way to understand and predict effective collaborative processes.