Hostility disturbs learning

Many studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between hostility and coronary artery disease; however, the pathogenic mechanisms by which hostility causes coronary artery disease have not been identified. Several studies have shown that hostility is associated with increased cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress. Sloan and colleagues used mental arithmetic and the Stroop Color-Word Task as psychological stressors and suggested that hostility is associated with diminished cardiac vagal control. It is supposed that the diminished cardiac vagal control results in uncontrollability of increased heart rate under stressful conditions so performance on mental stress tasks is poor. However, performance was not analyzed on the Stroop Color-Word Task. If hostility influences the autonomic nervous system, the performance of this mental stress task may also differ according to extent of hostility. In the present study, whether hostility disturbed performance of a mental stress task and the practice on it was examined. Subjects completed the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and were divided into three groups (High, Middle, and Low) by their total scores and three subscales (Cynicism, Hostile Affect, and Aggressive Responding). They also completed the Stroop Color-Word Task. Analysis showed practice by High and Middle scoring groups on Aggressive Responding had a significantly smaller effect than that by Low scoring groups. The pathogenic mechanisms by which hostility may underlie coronary artery disease were discussed.     

Relationship of IQ to suicide and homicide rate: an international perspective

IQs were correlated with the z score of suicide rate minus z score of homicide rate using nine regions of the world--established market economies, formerly socialized Europe, India, China, other Asian nations, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, Middle East Crescent, and the USA. Correlations were .85 and .83 with crude rates and age-adjusted rates, respectively. The homicide findings are consistent with previous research in individual countries showing that less intelligent persons commit homicide more often. However, the present findings of a positive correlation between IQ and suicide rates are the opposite of what has been found in the more definitive studies within countries. Explanations for the apparent paradox and for the findings more generally were offered.     

Plasticity of ability to form cross‐modal representations in infant Japanese macaques

In a previous study, Adachi, Kuwahata, Fujita, Tomonaga & Matsuzawa demonstrated that infant Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) form cross‐modal representations of conspecifics but not of humans. However, because the subjects in the experiment were raised in a large social group and had considerably less exposure to humans than to conspecifics, it was an open question whether their lack of cross‐modal representation of humans simply reflected their lower levels of exposure to humans or was caused by some innate restrictions on the ability. To answer the question, we used the same procedure but tested infant Japanese macaques with more extensive experience of humans in daily life. Briefly, we presented monkeys with a photograph of either a monkey or a human face on an LCD monitor after playing a vocalization of one of these two species. The subjects looked at the monitor longer when a voice and a face were mismatched than when they were matched, irrespective of whether the preceding vocalization was a monkey's or a human's. This suggests that once monkeys have extensive experience with humans, they will form a cross‐modal representation of humans as well as of conspecifics.     

Stress and coping in the elderly

Changing demographics indicate a significant increase in the number of surviving elderly, a decrease in the number of children in each family, and an increase in the number of surviving generations. Four guidelines are offered for minimizing the stress and maximizing the coping strategies of the elderly and their families: a) aging must be viewed as a life-span developmental experience, b) aging is a biopsychosocial phenomenon, c) supportive others can occupy critical positive or negative roles in the adaptation process, and d) the elderly and their families must develop proactive, anticipatory strategies for coping with the exigencies of age. These guidelines are offered to help the elderly face the challenge of aging successfully.     

Infants recognize identity in a dynamic facial animation that simultaneously changes its identity and expression

Recognition of facial identity and facial expression have been reported to be correlated. Previous studies using static facial photographs reported that identity recognition was not interfered by task-irrelevant change of facial expression but that expression recognition was interfered by task-irrelevant change of facial identity. In this study, we created dynamic morphing animations that simultaneously changes facial identity and expression to investigate the interaction between identity and expression recognition. We tested 7 –8-month-old infants who were around the age at which the recognition of facial expression develops. Using the familiarization–novelty preference procedure, we examined whether infants could learn identity and facial expression from morphing animation. We found that infants learned identity but not expression from the morphing animation. Our results demonstrate that the interaction between identity and expression occurs differently in infancy than in adults when both the dimension of facial identity and the expression vary simultaneously.     

The brain basis of the phonological deficit in dyslexia is independent of IQ

Although the role of IQ in developmental dyslexia remains ambiguous, the dominant clinical and research approaches rely on a definition of dyslexia that requires reading skill to be significantly below the level expected given an individual's IQ. In the study reported here, we used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine whether differences in brain activation during phonological processing that are characteristic of dyslexia were similar or dissimilar in children with poor reading ability who had high IQ scores (discrepant readers) and in children with poor reading ability who had low IQ scores (nondiscrepant readers). In two independent samples including a total of 131 children, using univariate and multivariate pattern analyses, we found that discrepant and nondiscrepant poor readers exhibited similar patterns of reduced activation in brain areas such as left parietotemporal and occipitotemporal regions. These results converge with behavioral evidence indicating that, regardless of IQ, poor readers have similar kinds of reading difficulties in relation to phonological processing.     

Is the Web as good as the lab? Comparable performance from Web and lab in cognitive/perceptual experiments

With the increasing sophistication and ubiquity of the Internet, behavioral research is on the cusp of a revolution that will do for population sampling what the computer did for stimulus control and measurement. It remains a common assumption, however, that data from self-selected Web samples must involve a trade-off between participant numbers and data quality. Concerns about data quality are heightened for performance-based cognitive and perceptual measures, particularly those that are timed or that involve complex stimuli. In experiments run with uncompensated, anonymous participants whose motivation for participation is unknown, reduced conscientiousness or lack of focus could produce results that would be difficult to interpret due to decreased overall performance, increased variability of performance, or increased measurement noise. Here, we addressed the question of data quality across a range of cognitive and perceptual tests. For three key performance metrics??mean performance, performance variance, and internal reliability??the results from self-selected Web samples did not differ systematically from those obtained from traditionally recruited and/or lab-tested samples. These findings demonstrate that collecting data from uncompensated, anonymous, unsupervised, self-selected participants need not reduce data quality, even for demanding cognitive and perceptual experiments.     

Psychometric Properties of the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) in Chinese Adolescents

The Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) was developed to assess Internet addiction in Chinese populations, but its psychometric properties in adolescents have not been examined. This study aimed to evaluate the factor structure and psychometric properties of CIAS-R in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. 860 Grade 7 to 13 students (38 % boys) completed the CIAS-R, the Young’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT), and the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) in a survey. The prevalence of Internet addiction as assessed by CIAS-R was 18 %. High internal consistency and inter-item correlations were reported for the CIAS-R. Results from the confirmatory factor analysis suggested a four-factor structure of Compulsive Use and Withdrawal, Tolerance, Interpersonal and Health-related Problems, and Time Management Problems. Moreover, results of hierarchical multiple regression supported the incremental validity of the CIAS-R to predict mental health outcomes beyond the effects of demographic differences and self-reported time spent online. The CIAS is a reliable and valid measure of internet addiction problems in Hong Kong adolescents. Future study is warranted to validate the cutoffs of the CIAS-R for identification of adolescents with Internet use problems who may have mental health needs.     

Within-word serial order control: Adjacent mora exchange and serial position effects in repeated single-word production

An essential function of language processing is serial order control. Computational models of serial ordering and empirical data suggest that plan representations for ordered output of sound are governed by principles related to similarity. Among these principles, the temporal distance and edge principles at a within-word level have not been empirically demonstrated separately from other principles. Specifically, the temporal distance principle assumes that phonemes that are in the same word and thus temporally close are represented similarly. This principle would manifest as phoneme movement errors within the same word. However, such errors are rarely observed in English, likely reflecting stronger effects of syllabic constraints (i.e., phonemes in different positions within the syllable are distinctly represented). The edge principle assumes that the edges of a sequence are represented distinctly from other elements/positions. This principle has been repeatedly observed as a serial position effect in the context of phonological short-term memory. However, it has not been demonstrated in single-word production. This study provides direct evidence for the two abovementioned principles by using a speech-error induction technique to show the exchange of adjacent morae and serial position effects in Japanese four-mora words. Participants repeatedly produced a target word or nonword, immediately after hearing an aurally presented distractor word. The phonologically similar distractor words, which were created by exchanging adjacent morae in the target, induced adjacent-mora-exchange errors, demonstrating the within-word temporal distance principle. There was also a serial position effect in error rates, such that errors were mostly induced at the middle positions within a word. The results provide empirical evidence for the temporal distance and edge principles in within-word serial order control.     

Genetic and environmental structure of Cloninger's temperament and character dimensions

The multivariate genetic and environmental structure of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was investigated in a sample of 617 pairs of adolescent and young adult twins from Japan. Additive genetic factors accounted for 22% to 49% of the variability on all TCI temperament scales. Although the theory predicts lower heritability for the character scales, all character subscales had a substantial genetic contribution, and nonshared environmental influences accounted for the remainder. Multivariate genetic analyses showed that several subscales used to define one dimension shared a common genetic basis with subscales defining others. Using the degree of shared genetic influence as the basis to rearrange the TCI subscales into new dimensions, it was possible to create genetically independent scales. The implications for personality measurement, theory, and molecular genetic research are discussed.