Flexible feature-based inhibition in visual search mediates magnified impairments of selection: evidence from carry-over effects under dynamic preview-search conditions

Evidence for inhibitory processes in visual search comes from studies using preview conditions, where responses to new targets are delayed if they carry a featural attribute belonging to the old distractor items that are currently being ignored-the negative carry-over effect (Braithwaite, Humphreys, & Hodsoll, 2003). We examined whether inhibition was applied in the same manner across different types of displays or whether the inhibitory weighting applied to different features varied with their utility for the search task. To test this, we present the first empirical investigation of negative carry-over effects under the ecologically valid conditions of dynamic visual search. Experiment 1 investigated preview search using dynamic moving and static displays. Detection was very poor when new targets carried the color of the old distractors, and this negative carry-over effect was significantly exaggerated with moving, compared with static, displays. Experiments 2a and 2b demonstrated that this effect could not be attributed to an increased role of preattentive grouping between new and old items for dynamic displays. Collectively, the findings suggest that feature-based inhibition contributes strongly to preview search through dynamic displays, and this leads to an amplified attentional blindness to new targets. The data specifically indicate that inhibitory processes in search differentially weight color and location in moving and static displays, and that feature-based inhibition may underlie many instances of sustained inattentional blindness in everyday life.     

Emotional responses to rejection of gestures of intergroup reconciliation

Four experiments examine the emotional and attitudinal consequences of victim group rejection of a gesture of reconciliation from a transgressor group. Participants were reminded about an ingroup transgression and were told that their ingroup provided an apology (Studies 1 and 4) or an offer of repair (Studies 2 and 3). The authors varied whether the victim group rejected or accepted these gestures. As predicted, rejection resulted in greater anger and lower levels of satisfaction directed toward the victim group. Victim group response had little systematic effect on anxiety or shame, however. Appraisals of the response as illegitimate mediated the effects of victim group response (Studies 3 and 4). Furthermore, Study 4 showed that the emotional backlash toward victim groups who reject an offer of reconciliation leads to heightened racism and reduced intentions to financially compensate victim groups. Implications for how groups reconcile in the face of historical transgressions are discussed.     

Emerging effortful control in toddlerhood: the role of infant orienting/regulation, maternal effortful control, and maternal time spent in caregiving activities

Latent growth modeling (LGM) was used to examine the contribution of changes in infant orienting/regulation (O/R) to the emergence of toddler effortful control (EC), the contributions of maternal EC to the development of infant O/R and the emergence of toddler EC, the influence of maternal time spent in caregiving activities on toddler EC and the slope of infant O/R, and the contribution of maternal EC to subsequent maternal time spent in caregiving activities. Mothers from 158 families completed a self-report measure of EC when their infants were 4 months of age, a measure of infant O/R when their infants were 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 months of age, and a measure of toddler EC when their children reached 18 months of age. Information concerning maternal time spent in various interactive caregiving activities was collected when infants were 6 months old. Results indicated higher maternal EC predicted interindividual differences in the intercept (i.e., higher intercepts), but not slope, of infant O/R and that higher maternal EC, higher infant O/R intercept, and higher infant O/R slope contributed to higher toddler EC. Furthermore, higher maternal EC predicted greater maternal time spent in interactive caregiving activities with their infants and greater maternal time in interactive caregiving with infants also contributed to higher toddler EC after controlling for maternal EC. These findings contribute to the understanding of the influence of maternal EC, directly and through caregiving, on toddler EC. Additional implications as they are related to early developing regulatory aspects of temperament are discussed.     

The effects of age,rank and neophobia on social learning in horses

Social learning is said to meet the demands of complex environments in which individuals compete over resources and cooperate to share resources. Horses (Equus caballus) were thought to lack social learning skills because they feed on homogenously distributed resources with few reasons for conflict. However, the horse’s social environment is complex, which raises the possibility that its capacity for social transfer of feeding behaviour has been underestimated. We conducted a social learning experiment using 30 socially kept horses of different ages. Five horses, one from each group, were chosen as demonstrators, and the remaining 25 horses were designated observers. Observers from each group were allowed to watch their group demonstrator opening a feeding apparatus. We found that young, low-ranking and more exploratory horses learned by observing older members of their own group, and the older the horse, the more slowly it appeared to learn. Social learning may be an adaptive specialisation to the social environment. Older animals may avoid the potential costs of acquiring complex and potentially disadvantageous feeding behaviours from younger group members. We argue that horses show social learning in the context of their social ecology and that research procedures must take such contexts into account. Misconceptions about the horse’s sociality may have hampered earlier studies.     

Trajectories of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescent Girls: A Comparison of Parallel Trajectory Approaches

Longitudinal mixture models have become popular in the literature. However, modest attention has been paid to whether these models provide a better fit to the data than growth models. Here, we compared longitudinal mixture models to growth models in the context of changes in depression and anxiety symptoms in a community sample of girls from age 10 to 17. Model comparisons found that the preferred solution was a 5-class parallel process growth mixture model that differed in the course of depression and anxiety symptoms reflecting both ordering of symptoms and qualitative group differences. Comparisons between classes revealed substantive differences on a number of outcomes using this solution. Findings are discussed in the context of clinical assessment and implementation of growth mixture models.     

A Single-Session Workshop to Enhance Emotional Awareness and Emotion Regulation for Graduate Students: A Pilot Study

Emerging adults are at substantial risk for developing or worsening psychopathology and university students appear to be particularly vulnerable. Interventions targeted at these young adults that can mitigate transdiagnostic causal risk factors or burgeoning mental health problems have the potential to make a large impact. We aimed to develop and pilot test an accessible, single-session, transdiagnostic group intervention with the goals of enhancing emotion regulation skills and reducing risk for mental health problems in graduate students. The intervention included psychoeducation, skills instruction (e.g., mindful emotion awareness, cognitive flexibility, countering emotion-driven behaviors), group discussion, and supervised practice based on content from the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders. The pilot program demonstrated strong feasibility and acceptability. Baseline, 1-month, and 3-month follow-up surveys also suggested benefits for reducing emotional avoidance and suppression, increasing use of cognitive reappraisal, and reducing symptoms of depression and neuroticism. Graduate students have seldom been the beneficiaries of university-based intervention and prevention research. Furthermore, most college and university mental health centers do not have the capacity to provide psychoeducation, preventative, or early intervention services to the many students who need or could benefit from them. Results suggest that future iterations of this intervention could address such barriers to meaningfully supporting emerging adults in graduate school.     

Altering Impulsive Decision Making With an Acceptance-Based Procedure

Delay discounting is one facet of impulsive decision making and involves subjectively devaluing a delayed outcome. Steeply discounting delayed rewards is correlated with substance abuse and other problematic behaviors. To the extent that steep delay discounting underlies these clinical disorders, it would be advantageous to find psychosocial avenues for reducing delay discounting. Acceptance-based interventions may prove useful as they may help to decrease the distress that arises while waiting for a delayed outcome. The current study was conducted to determine if a 60–90 minute acceptance-based training would change delay discounting rates among 30 undergraduate university students in comparison to a waitlist control. Measures given at pre- and posttraining included a hypothetical monetary delay discounting task, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), and the Distress Tolerance Scale. Those assigned to the treatment group decreased their discounting of delayed money, but not distress intolerance or psychological inflexibility when compared to the waitlist control group. After the waiting period, the control group received the intervention. Combining all participants’ pre- to posttreatment data, the acceptance-based treatment significantly decreased discounting of monetary rewards and increased distress tolerance. The difference in AAQ-II approached significance. Acceptance-based treatments may be a worthwhile option for decreasing delay discounting rates and, consequently, affecting the choices that underlie addiction and other problematic behaviors.