The path more travelled: Time pressure increases reliance on familiar route-based strategies during navigation

Navigating large-scale environments involves dynamic interactions between the physical world and individuals’ knowledge, goals, and strategies. Time pressure can result from self-imposed goals or relatively dynamic situational factors that induce varied constraints. While time pressure is ubiquitous in daily life and has been shown to influence affective states, cost-benefit analyses, and strategy selection, its influence on navigation behaviour is unknown. The present study examined how introducing varied time constraints during virtual urban navigation would influence spatial strategies and impact the efficiency and effectiveness of goal-directed wayfinding. Participants learned a large-scale urban virtual environment by wayfinding between a series of 20 successive landmark goals (e.g., You have reached the Theater. Now find the Bank.). A day later, they again performed the same task, but landmark-to-landmark trials were characterized by conditions of low-, moderate-, or high-pressure time limits as quantified by a pilot experiment. As time pressure increased, participants more likely navigated along previously experienced paths and less likely travelled in the global direction of the destination. Results suggest strategy shifts under time constraints that increase reliance on egocentric, route-based strategies and decrease reliance on global configural knowledge, probably in an attempt to reduce cognitive demands and support performance under pressure.     

Maternal limit setting during toddlerhood,delay of gratification,and behavior problems at age five

In this study, self‐regulation was examined in relation to maternal limit setting during toddlerhood. Observational coding of limit‐setting interactions was carried out at 12, 24, and 36 months using the Prohibition Coding Scheme (Houck & LeCuyer, 1995; LeCuyer‐Maus & Houck, 2002). At five years, self‐regulation was assessed by observation of self‐imposed delay‐of‐gratification (Shoda, Mischel, & Peake, 1990), and behavior problems were measured by maternal report on a behavior checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991). Maternal limit‐setting patterns at every age differentiated subsequent duration of delay, but not behavior problems. A power‐based maternal pattern in limit setting adversely affected later self‐imposed delay. Although an indirect limit‐setting pattern optimized the child's delay duration, a teaching‐based pattern yielded more consistently positive outcomes at 36 months and normative delay durations at age five years. ©2004 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Suicidal Ideation in Elderly Bereaved: The Role of Complicated Grief

This study examined whether symptoms of complicated grief at baseline predicted suicidal ideation during a depressive episode in elderly bereaved individuals. Over a 17-month period, serial ratings of suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and complicated grief were obtained from 130 elderly participants who had lost their spouses within the past 2 years. Groups of active and passive suicidal ideators, as well as nonideator controls, were compared via analysis of variance (ANOVA) with respect to levels of complicated grief, depression, and anxiety. Elderly bereaved with both active and passive suicidal ideation were found to have higher symptomatic levels of depression, hopelessness, complicated grief, and anxiety, as well as lower levels of perceived social support, than nonideators at study entry. Fifty-seven percent of the patients with high complicated grief scores were found to be ideators during the follow-up versus 24% of the patients with low complicated grief scores. Patients with any suicidal ideation had higher symptom levels of depression, anxiety, and complicated grief when they were ideators as compared with periods when they denied ideation. Fifteen out of the 39 ideators had recurrent depressive episodes versus 5 of the 91 nonideators. Patients with a history of suicide attempts were more likely to be ideators after loss than other bereaved. Thus, the condition of having high levels of complicated grief symptoms and depressive symptoms appears to make bereaved individuals vulnerable to suicidal ideation. Detection of high levels of complicated grief could help clinicians identify patients who may be at heightened risk for suicide.