Enhanced response inhibition during intensive meditation training predicts improvements in self-reported adaptive socioemotional functioning

We examined the impact of training-induced improvements in self-regulation, operationalized in terms of response inhibition, on longitudinal changes in self-reported adaptive socioemotional functioning. Data were collected from participants undergoing 3 months of intensive meditation training in an isolated retreat setting (Retreat 1) and a wait-list control group that later underwent identical training (Retreat 2). A 32-min response inhibition task (RIT) was designed to assess sustained self-regulatory control. Adaptive functioning (AF) was operationalized as a single latent factor underlying self-report measures of anxious and avoidant attachment, mindfulness, ego resilience, empathy, the five major personality traits (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience), difficulties in emotion regulation, depression, anxiety, and psychological well-being. Participants in Retreat 1 improved in RIT performance and AF over time whereas the controls did not. The control participants later also improved on both dimensions during their own retreat (Retreat 2). These improved levels of RIT performance and AF were sustained in follow-up assessments conducted approximately 5 months after the training. Longitudinal dynamic models with combined data from both retreats showed that improvement in RIT performance during training influenced the change in AF over time, which is consistent with a key claim in the Buddhist literature that enhanced capacity for self-regulation is an important precursor of changes in emotional well-being.     

Modeling age and retest processes in longitudinal studies of cognitive abilities

Mixed effects models were used to examine the separate effects associated with age and retest on changes in various cognitive abilities. Individuals (N > 800) ranging in age from 40 to 70 years at the 1st measurement occasion were assessed with measures of memory, spatial abilities, and speed on 4 occasions. All cognitive abilities showed decline associated with increased age and improvement across the 4 measurement occasions. The age-related effects were similar across variables, but the practice effects were largest for memory and smallest for speed. When retest effects were not included in the models, the age-related effects were underestimated, with the magnitude of bias depending on the size of the ignored retest effects. It is suggested that both age and retest should be modeled simultaneously when analyzing longitudinal data because part of the change across occasions may be attributable to practice or reactive effects.     

An experimental analysis of dynamic hypotheses about cognitive abilities and achievement from childhood to early adulthood

This study examined the dynamics of cognitive abilities and academic achievement from childhood to early adulthood. Predictions about time-dependent "coupling" relations between cognition and achievement based on R. B. Cattell's (1971, 1987) investment hypothesis were evaluated using linear dynamic models applied to longitudinal data (N=672). Contrary to Cattell's hypothesis, a first set of findings indicated that fluid and crystallized abilities, as defined by the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised (WJ-R; R. W. Woodcock & M. B. Johnson, 1989-1990), were not dynamically coupled with each other over time. A second set of findings provided support for the original predictions and indicated that fluid ability was a leading indicator of changes in achievement measures (i.e., quantitative ability and general academic knowledge). The findings of this study suggest that the dynamics of cognitive abilities and academic achievement follow a more complex pattern than that specified by Cattell's investment hypothesis.     

Action observation network in childhood: a comparative fMRI study with adults

Very little is known about the action observation network and the mirror neuron system (AON/MNS) in children and its age‐related properties compared with those observed in adults. In the present fMRI study we explored the activation of areas belonging to the AON/MNS in children and adults during observation of complex hand‐grasping actions, as compared to observation of simple grasping acts executed with the left and the right hand, seen from a first person perspective. The results indicate that during the action observation tasks in children there was activation of a cortical network similar to that found in adults, including the premotor cortex, the posterior part of the inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior parietal lobe. However, the activation in children was more widespread and showed a higher inter‐subject variability compared with adults. Furthermore, the activated network seems more lateralized to the left hemisphere in adults and more bilateral in children, with a linear growth of lateralization index as a function of age. Finally, in children the activation in the anterior intraparietal cortex (AIP) of each hemisphere was higher during observation of the contralateral hand (hand identity effect) and during the observation of complex actions relative to simple grasping acts, confirming the role of AIP for action‐related hand identity previously described in adults. These results support the assumption that structure and size of action representations are sensitive to mechanisms of development and show physiological plasticity. These properties of the AON/MNS could constitute a powerful tool for spontaneous reorganization and recovery of motor deficits after brain injury in children and in adults, as well as for specific rehabilitation programmes.     

Minority Influence,Social Change,and Social Stability

From Moscovici (Social influence and social change. London, Academic Press; 1976) on, a growing body of research on minority influence has been conducted within the social psychology mainstream. A general guideline of most of the research on this topic associates minority influence with social change and innovation. Minorities have been considered as challengers to social stability, and their dynamics have been considered in relation to the mechanisms through which social changes occur and established norms are modified and evolve in human society. In the present paper, we try to extend this viewpoint by suggesting that it represents only one side of a much more complex story. We consider the conditions under which minorities produce social change as well as the conditions under which they are, instead, inclined to defend the status quo. We then suggest that an integrative account of different approaches – namely, social identity, social dominance, and system justification – might contribute to expanding the theoretical frame of minority influence.     

Clinical utility of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) in the Spanish transsexual and nontranssexual population

The aim of the study is to evaluate the usefulness of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974), an overall measurement of the cultural construct of masculinity and femininity, in the psychological assessment of Spanish transsexuals. Seventy male-to-female transsexuals (MF), 51 female-to-male transsexuals (FM), 77 control men, and 79 control women completed the Spanish version of the BSRI. Statistically significant differences between groups were only found on the femininity scale, on which MF transsexuals and control women scored significantly higher than FM transsexuals and control men. The results indicate that (a) only the femininity scale of the BSRI appears to be useful today for evaluating differences in the sex-role identification in Spanish controls and transsexuals; and (b) MF and FM transsexuals score as a function of their gender identity instead of their anatomical sex on the BSRI femininity scale.     

Assessing cross-partner associations in physiological responses via coupled oscillator models

A host of theoretical frameworks suggest associations of physiological signals between two individuals within a romantic relationship. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence of such associations using physiological reactivity from both partners in the dyad. In this study we use measures of respiration and heart rate from romantic partners recorded across three laboratory tasks. We examine the interrelations of each measure between both dyad members using coupled linear oscillators (Boker & Nesselroade, 2002). These models were used to capture oscillations in respiration and heart rate, and to examine interdependence in the physiological signals between both partners. Results show that associations were detectable within all three tasks, with different patterns of coupling within each task. Discussion centers on ways to investigate the synchrony of physiological responses across within relationships, including the promises of and obstacles for doing so.     

Cultural differences in the development of processing speed

The aim of the present work was to examine cultural differences in the development of speed of information processing. Four samples of US children (N = 509) and four samples of East Asian children (N = 661) completed psychometric measures of processing speed on two occasions. Analyses of the longitudinal data indicated that, although processing speed was comparable among US and East Asian children at the youngest age (~4.5 years), it developed more rapidly in some but not all of the East Asian samples. Results are discussed in terms of factors that may promote more rapid development of processing speed in some East Asian cultures.     

A General Population Twin Study of Conduct Problems and the Auditory P300 Waveform

Reduced amplitude of the P300 event-related potential has been consistently associated with a variety of externalising problems, including conduct disorder. The few available genetically-informative studies of these relationships, however, were conducted among adolescents/adults (i.e., at an age when conduct disorder has typically already become manifest). Among 200 general population twins with a mean age of 9 years (range 6–14 years), we studied the relationship between the P300 waveform elicited by an auditory oddball task and the DSM-oriented conduct problems scale of the Child Behavior Checklist 6–18. Conduct problems scores were negatively and significantly correlated (r?=??0.19, p?=?0.01) with P300 amplitude; correlations between P300 amplitude and the other DSM-oriented Child Behavior Checklist scales were non-significant, except for oppositional defiant problems (p?=?0.01). We found moderate heritability estimates for both P300 amplitude (0.58, CI:0.37;0.73) and conduct problems (0.52, CI:0.25;0.70). Bivariate twin analyses indicated that the covariation between these two phenotypes can be explained by additive genetic factors only, with a genetic correlation of ?0.33. An association between reduced P300 amplitude and conduct problems can be substantiated already in childhood, at an age that precedes the most typical onset of conduct disorder. This relationship appears to be genetic in nature. Reduced P300 amplitude can represent a valuable marker for conduct problems, and can contribute to the early identification of children at high-risk for conduct disorder.