Everyday Cognitive Functioning in Cardiac Patients: Relationships Between Self-report,Report of a Significant Other and Cognitive Test Performance

ABSTRACT

Candidates for cardiac bypass surgery often experience cognitive decline. Such decline is likely to affect their everyday cognitive functioning. The aim of the present study was to compare cardiac patients' ratings of their everyday cognitive functioning against significant others' ratings and selected neuropsychological tests. Sixty-nine patients completed a battery of standardised cognitive tests. Patients and significant others also completed the Everyday Function Questionnaire independently of each other. Patient and significant other ratings of patients' everyday cognitive difficulties were found to be similar. Despite the similarities in ratings of difficulties, some everyday cognitive tasks were attributed to different processes. Patients' and significant others' ratings were most closely associated with the neuropsychological test of visual memory. Tests of the patients' verbal memory and fluency were only related to significant others' ratings. Test scores of attention and planning were largely unrelated to ratings by either patients or their significant others.     

Should We Approach Approach and Avoid Avoidance? An Inquiry from Different Levels

Abstract

Approach motivation (striving for desired end-states, eagerly focusing on where one wants to be) is often held up as the best type of motivation: It feels good and is associated with many positive outcomes. Indeed, a common perception is that regulation in terms of approach motivation is almost always better than regulation in terms of avoidance motivation. However, as we discuss, this conclusion is worthy of a deeper look. We consider how approach and avoidance motivation manifest at different levels in a self-regulatory hierarchy and how this can help us understand the upsides and downsides of both approach and avoidance motivation. In other words, approach motivation is not always beneficial and avoidance motivation is not always problematic. Understanding these trade-offs involves a consideration of which level in the hierarchy approach or avoidance is manifested, what types of outcomes are being examined (the experience of regulation vs. performance), and how the approach or avoidance regulation fits or does not fit with an individual’s broad concerns or specific situational demands. Furthermore, a hierarchical approach helps make sense of behaviors that reflect simultaneous approach and avoidance tendencies, such as tactical approach to remove (avoid) a threat, providing a dynamic and nuanced view of motivation.     

Trends and Patterns Among Music Pirates

The current work, based on data from a cross-sectional sample of approximately 2,000 randomly selected university students, seeks to clarify exactly who is most likely to engage in online music piracy. The extant knowledgebase on why individuals take part in this form of intellectual property is growing, but little is known about the type and background of those involved. This study therefore seeks to construct a profile of the typical music pirate by measuring the salience of demographic characteristics and the respondent's scope of overall participation in cyberspace-based activities. Findings indicated that respondents’ differentially participated in music piracy based on their gender, race, type of college major, proficiency in using the Internet, and variety of online participation. Policy solutions based on an attempt to clearly specify, reinforce, and enforce definitions of appropriate Internet use are consequently suggested to reduce the prevalence of piracy among a university population.     

What remains on your mind after you are done?: Flexible regulation of knowledge accessibility

The accessibility of stored knowledge has been found to decline over time after activation without further stimulation. A special case is goal pursuit; goal-related knowledge remains accessible until goal completion, and then its accessibility declines rapidly. We hypothesized that after goal completion the decline in accessibility of goal-related knowledge would be especially rapid for strong promotion-focused individuals because their motivation to eagerly advance beyond the status quo would make accessibility of this knowledge an irrelevant detriment. We hypothesized an opposite effect for strongly prevention-predominant individuals because their motivation to vigilantly maintain a satisfactory state would make accessibility of this knowledge continually relevant. The results of two studies supported both these predicted moderators of accessibility change. Indeed, we found that for strongly prevention-predominant participants, knowledge accessibility actually increased over time after goal completion. We discuss how even basic cognitive mechanisms, like changes in accessibility, can be affected by general motivational concerns.     

On the psychology of time in action: regulatory mode orientations and procrastination

Six studies explored the relations of the regulatory modes of locomotion and assessment to individuals' tendency toward procrastination. Across academic and organizational contexts, and a variety of ways of assessing procrastination, the authors found assessment to be positively related to procrastination and locomotion to be negatively related to procrastination. Discussion considered implications of these findings to task environments that may instill the tendencies toward locomotion or assessment and to task requirements where timeliness and punctuality are (or are not) prioritized.     

Simulating demand for cigarettes among pregnant women: A Low‐Risk method for studying vulnerable populations

A substantive obstacle to experimentally studying cigarette smoking and use of other tobacco products in pregnant women is the risk of adverse effects on mother and fetus from experimenter administration of the product of interest. The purpose of this study is to investigate bypassing that obstacle by using behavioral economic simulation tasks. In the present study we used the Cigarette Purchase Task (CPT) to simulate changes in demand for hypothetical cigarettes as a function of varying cigarette prices. Participants were 95 pregnant women who completed the CPT prior to participation in a smoking‐cessation trial. Aggregate and individual participant demand varied as an orderly function of price and those changes were well fitted by an exponential equation. Demand also varied in correspondence to two well‐validated predictors of individual differences in smoking cessation among pregnant women (cigarettes smoked per day, pre‐pregnancy quit attempts). Moreover, CPT indices were more effective than these two conventional variables in predicting individual differences in whether women made a quit attempt during the current pregnancy. Overall, these results represent a promising step in demonstrating the validity and utility of the CPT for experimentally examining demand for cigarettes, and potentially other tobacco and nicotine delivery products, among pregnant women.     

How regulatory fit enhances motivational strength during goal pursuit

Higgins' (2000) theory of regulatory fit proposes that motivational strength will be enhanced when the manner in which people work toward a goal sustains (rather than disrupts) their regulatory orientation. This enhanced motivational strength in turn should improve efforts at goal attainment. In Experiment 1, predominantly promotion‐ and prevention‐focused participants were given the goal of writing a report on their leisure time, and were assigned either eagerness‐ or vigilance‐framed means to use. Promotion/eagerness and prevention/vigilance participants were about 50% more likely to turn in their reports than promotion/vigilance and prevention/eagerness participants. In Experiment 2, participants read either a promotion‐ or a prevention‐framed health message urging them to eat more fruits and vegetables, and were then asked to imagine either the benefits of compliance or the costs of non‐compliance. Promotion/benefits and prevention/costs participants subsequently ate about 20% more fruits and vegetables over the following week than promotion/costs and prevention/benefits participants. The implications of regulatory fit's enhancement of motivational strength are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attitudes to Marriage and Sexual Behaviors: A Survey of Gender and Culture Differences in China and United Kingdom

This paper reports a survey carried out among 505 university students in China and 338 students in the United Kingdom. The survey included questions on attitudes toward mate-selection preferences, marriage, and sexual behavior. The findings show that traditional values in mate-selection preferences persist more in China than in the United Kingdom and indicate that, despite a profound social revolution over the last two decades, a relatively conservative sexual culture still exists in China today. Traditional morality and attitudes prevail especially among women. Gender and culture differences are discussed.     

Engaging the consumer: The science and art of the value creation process

Regulatory engagement theory [Higgins, E. T. (2006). Value from hedonic experience and engagement. Psychological Review, 113, 439–460.] proposes that value is a motivational force of attraction to or repulsion from something, and that strength of engagement contributes to value intensity independent of hedonic and other sources of value direction. This paper reviews different sources of engagement strength, including dealing with challenges by opposing interfering forces and overcoming personal resistance, preparing for something that is likely to happen, and using “fit” or “proper” means of goal pursuit. We present evidence that each of these sources of engagement strength can intensify the value of something, and we show how stronger engagement can not only make something positive more positive but also make something negative more negative. We also discuss how these effects of stronger engagement on the value of something else are independent of actors' own personal experiences during goal pursuit. We then broaden regulatory engagement theory by describing the nature of these personal experiences from different sources of engagement strength—distinct positive experiences (e.g., feeling “pleasure” vs. feeling “right”) and distinct negative experiences (e.g., feeling “tension” vs. feeling “defiance”)—and consider the science and art of combining them with engagement strength for maximal persuasion and influence.