Are there age-related differences in learning to optimize speed, accuracy, and energy expenditure?

Studies of age-related differences in manual aiming have indicated that older adults take longer to complete their movements than their younger counterparts because they tend to rely on time-consuming feedback-based control processes. Many authors have suggested that the reliance on feedback is the result of a "play-it-safe" strategy that has been adopted to compensate for a deterioration in accurate and consistent force generation. That is, perhaps because older adults know that their motor systems are not as reliable as the systems were at a younger age, they plan shorter movements that conserve time and space for feedback control to correct their programmed actions. The vast majority of the previous studies that have revealed these age-related differences in aiming, however, have used computer-based tasks that involve the transformation of perceptual into motor space. In the present experiment, older and younger adults completed real aiming movements over three sessions. The results suggest that, when acting in a real environment, the main difference between older and younger adults in movement execution lies in the efficient use of response-related feedback, not in the programming of movement.     

Moral value transfer from regulatory fit: what feels right is right and what feels wrong is wrong

People experience regulatory fit (E. T. Higgins, 2000) when the strategic manner of their goal pursuit suits their regulatory orientation, and this regulatory fit feels right. Fit violation feels wrong. Four studies tested the proposal that experiences of fit can transfer to moral evaluations. The authors examined transfer of feeling wrong from fit violation by having participants in a promotion or prevention focus recall transgressions of commission or omission (Studies 1 and 2). Both studies found that when the type of transgression was a fit violation, participants expressed more guilt. Studies 3 and 4 examined transfer of feeling right from regulatory fit. Participants evaluated conflict resolutions (Study 3) and public policies (Study 4) as more right when the means pursued had fit.     

Attributional style predicts causes of negative life events on the Attributional Style Questionnaire

The causes cited by 218 participants for the hypothetical positive and negative life events on the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and the dimensional ratings of the causes were examined to determine the match between the dimensional and categorical definitions of attributional style. Optimists (n = 105) and pessimists (n = 113) used different types of causes to explain the negative ASQ events, but not the positive events. However, optimists' and pessimists' causal explanations shared a number of features. The findings suggest that attributional styles depend, in part, on the event being explained and demonstrate that the ASQ events elicit specific types of causes.     

Nicotine enhances contextual fear conditioning in C57BL/6J mice at 1 and 7 days post-training

Nicotine has been demonstrated to enhance learning processes. The present experiments extend these results to examine the effects of nicotine on acquisition and consolidation of contextual and cued fear conditioning, and the duration of nicotine's enhancement of conditioned fear. C57BL/6 mice were trained with two pairings of an auditory CS and a foot shock US. Multiple doses of nicotine were given before or immediately after training and on testing day (0.0, 0.050, 0.125, 0.250, and 0.375 mg/kg, i.p). Freezing to both the context and auditory CS was measured 24h after training and again 1 week after training. Mice did not receive nicotine for the 1-week retest. Nicotine (0.125 and 0.250 mg/kg) given on both training and testing days enhanced freezing to the context at 24h. In addition, elevated freezing to the context was seen 1 week post-training in mice previously treated with 0.125 and 0.250 mg/kg nicotine. Thus, nicotine-treated mice did show elevated levels of freezing when retested 1 week later, even though no nicotine was administered at the 1-week retest. Mice that received nicotine on training day or testing day only and mice that received nicotine with mecamylamine, a nicotinic receptor antagonist, were not different from saline-treated mice. In addition, post-training administration of nicotine did not enhance fear conditioning. The present results indicate that nicotine enhancement of contextual fear conditioning depends on administration of nicotine on training and test days but results in a long-lasting enhancement of memories of contextual fear conditioning that remains in the absence of nicotine.     

Sources of openness/intellect: cognitive and neuropsychological correlates of the fifth factor of personality

We characterize Openness/Intellect as motivated cognitive flexibility, or cognitive exploration, and develop a neuropsychological model relating it to dopaminergic function and to the functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Evidence is reviewed for sources of Openness/Intellect shared with Extraversion and sources unique to Openness/Intellect. The hypothesis that the cognitive functions of the dorsolateral PFC are among the latter was tested using standard measures of cognitive ability and a battery of tasks associated with dorsolateral PFC function (N=175). Dorsolateral PFC function, as well as both fluid and crystallized cognitive ability, was positively related to Openness/Intellect but no other personality trait. Additionally, facet level analysis supported the characterization of Openness/Intellect as a primarily cognitive trait.     

Linguistic signatures of regulatory focus: how abstraction fits promotion more than prevention

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated how strategic inclinations associated with promotion versus prevention orientations--that is, eager approach versus vigilant avoidance, respectively--affect the use of language. It is hypothesized that eager promotion strategies used to attain desired end states entail using more abstract language than used with vigilant prevention strategies. This is shown to hold for experimentally induced relationship goals (Experiment 1) and communication goals (Experiment 2). In the 3rd experiment, the authors examined the impact of abstractly and concretely worded messages upon the behavioral intentions of chronically prevention- and promotion-oriented individuals and found support for the hypothesis that behavioral intentions to engage in specific activities are stronger when there is a fit between message wording and chronic orientation than when there is no fit. The broader implications of these findings are discussed.     

Regulatory Fit and Resisting Temptation during Goal Pursuit

Because avoiding obstacles to goal attainment is a favored means of prevention-focused self-regulation, the authors proposed that resisting tempting diversions from task completion would better fit a prevention focus than a promotion focus, thus affecting task enjoyment and performance. Whether deciphering encrypted messages (Study 1) or solving math problems (Study 2), when exposed to attractive distracting video clips, participants in a prevention focus reported greater task enjoyment than did participants in a promotion focus, whereas the reverse was true when the distracting clips were not presented. Indeed, prevention-focused participants enjoyed the tasks more when they had to resist temptation than when they did not. In Study 2, prevention-focused participants outperformed promotion-focused participants under distracting (but not nondistracting) conditions, and regression analyses suggested that task enjoyment mediated this effect. Different regulatory states thus appear to differentially equip people to deal with tempting diversions from goal attainment.     

Enjoying goal-directed action: the role of regulatory fit

We propose that the fit between an action's strategic orientation and the actor's regulatory state can influence the amount of enjoyment the action provides. In two studies using different methods of manipulating regulatory states and of gauging action evaluations, high regulatory fit increased participants' anticipations of action enjoyability. In a third study, high regulatory fit increased participants' enjoyment of, perceived success at, and willingness to repeat a novel laboratory task, and these effects were independent of participants' actual success on the task. Across the three studies, participants in a regulatory state oriented toward accomplishment experienced eagerness-related actions more favorably than vigilance-related actions, whereas participants in a regulatory state oriented toward responsibility experienced vigilance-related actions more favorably than eagerness-related actions. These findings' implications for understanding task interest and motivation are discussed.     

Motivation in Mental Accessibility: Relevance Of A Representation (ROAR) as a New Framework

The notion of accessibility of mental representations has been invaluable in explaining and predicting human thought and action. Focusing on social cognition, we review the large corpus of data that has accumulated since the first models of mental activation dynamics were outlined. We then outline a framework that we call Relevance of a Representation (or ROAR for short), the main tenant of which is that not all stimulated representations are in fact activated (i.e., influence thought and action processes). More specifically, we propose that the degree to which a representation is available to processes of thought and action is a function of that representation's motivational relevance. We end by demonstrating how the framework enables re-addressing the notions of accessibility, automaticity and selective attention.     

Tailoring visual images to fit: Value creation in persuasive messages

The present studies aimed to extend Regulatory Fit Theory in the domain of persuasive communication by (a) using printed advertisement images without any verbal claim, instead of purely or mostly verbal messages; (b) selecting the images to fit the distinct orientations of regulatory mode rather than regulatory focus; and (c) priming regulatory mode orientation instead of relying on chronic prevalence of either locomotion or assessment orientation. We found that recipients primed with a locomotion orientation experienced fit, and were more persuaded, when exposed to “dynamic” versus “static” visual images; conversely, recipients primed with an assessment orientation experienced fit and were more persuaded when exposed to “static” versus “dynamic” images. Our findings show that the experience of fit can be induced by visual messages, resulting in positive effects in terms of attitude toward product advertisement and estimated price of advertised products. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.