Action planning in sequential skills: relations to music performance

The hypothesis that planning music-like sequential actions involves anticipating their auditory effects was investigated in a series of experiments. Participants with varying levels of musical experience responded to each of four colour-patch stimuli by producing a unique sequence of three taps on three vertically aligned keys. Each tap triggered a tone in most experimental conditions. Response-effect (key-to-tone) mapping was either compatible—taps on the top, middle, and bottom keys triggered high, medium, and low pitched tones, respectively—or incompatible—key-to-tone mapping was scrambled, reversed, or neutral (taps on different keys triggered the same tone). The results suggest that action planning was faster with compatible than with incompatible mappings (and faster than with no tones). Furthermore, the size of this compatibility effect grew with increasing musical experience, which suggests that improvements in auditory imagery ability that typically accompany musical training may augment the role of anticipatory auditory-effect representations during planning.     

The Impact of Team Identification on Biased Predictions of Player Performance

The Psychological Record - The current investigation examined sport fans’ impressions of an athlete described as a potential member of their team or a potential member of a rival team. In...     

Response selection and response execution in task switching: evidence from a go-signal paradigm

The present study used a go/no-go signal delay (GSD) to explore the role of response-related processes in task switching. A go/no-go signal was presented at either 100 ms or 1,500 ms after the stimulus. Participants were encouraged to use the GSD for response selection and preparation. The data indicate that the opportunity to select and prepare a response (i.e., long GSD) resulted in a substantial reduction of task-shift costs (Experiment 1) and n-2 task-repetition costs (i.e., backward inhibition; Experiment 2) in the current trial. These results suggest that interference from the preceding trial can be resolved during response selection and preparation. Furthermore, the shift costs and the n-2 repetition costs after no-go trials with long GSD (i.e., response selection but no execution) were markedly smaller than after go trials. These findings suggest that the interference that gives rise to shift costs and n-2 repetition costs is related not solely to response selection but also to response execution. Thus, the present study demonstrates dissociable contributions of response selection and response execution to interference effects in task switching.     

Methodological and empirical issues when dissociating cue-related from task-related processes in the explicit task-cuing procedure

In the explicit cuing version of the task-switching paradigm, each individual task is indicated by a unique task cue. Consequently, a task switch is accompanied by a cue switch. Recently, it has been proposed that priming of cue encoding contributes to the empirically observed switch costs. This proposal was experimentally supported by using a 2:1 mapping of cues to tasks, so that a cue switch does not necessarily imply a task switch. The results indeed suggested a substantial contribution of “cue-switch costs” to task-switch costs. Here we argue that the 2:1 mapping potentially leads to an underestimation of “pure” task-switch costs. To support this argument, we report the results of a new study in which we used “transition cues” that indicate the identity of the current task based on the identity of the preceding task. This new type of cue allows a full factorial manipulation of cue switches and task switches because it includes the condition in which a cue repetition can also indicate a task switch (i.e., when the “switch” cue is repeated). We discuss the methodological implications and argue that the present approach has merits relative to the previously used 2:1 mapping of cues to tasks.     

Electrophysiological evidence for cognitive control during conflict processing in visual spatial attention

Event-related potentials were measured to investigate the role of visual spatial attention mechanisms in conflict processing. We suggested that a more difficult target selection leads to stronger attentional top-down control, thereby reducing the effects of arising conflicts. This hypothesis was tested by varying the selection difficulty in a location negative priming (NP) paradigm. The difficult task resulted in prolonged responses as compared to the easy task. A behavioral NP effect was only evident in the easy task. Psychophysiologically the easy task was associated with reduced parietal N1, enhanced frontocentral N2 and N2pc components and a prolonged P3 latency for the conflict as compared to the control condition. The N2pc effect was also obvious in the difficult task. Additionally frontocentral N2 amplitudes increased and latencies of N2pc and P3 were delayed compared to the easy task. The differences at frontocentral and parietal electrodes are consistent with previous studies ascribing activity in the prefrontal and parietal cortex as the source of top-down attentional control. Thus, we propose that stronger cognitive control is involved in the difficult task, resulting in a reduced behavioral NP conflict.     

Promoting Overall Health and Wellness Among Clients: The Relevance and Role of Professional Counselors

Given the rise in health care costs and the premature morbidity and mortality rates in the United States, the authors discuss the relevant constructs of wellness and holistic health as they relate and apply to the profession of counseling. Implications and application of the Indivisible Self model of wellness (J. E. Myers & T. J. Sweeney 2004) in counseling are highlighted.     

Cue-task associations in task switching

Cognitive flexibility can be studied using the task-switching paradigm. This paradigm requires subjects to adapt behaviour to changing contexts as indicated by a cue. In our study, we addressed the question of how cue-based implementation of mental “task sets” occurs. We assumed that cues build up associations to the tasks that they indicate. These associations lead to retrieval of the associated task set once the cue shows up again. In three experiments, we tested this assumption using a negative transfer paradigm. First participants were exposed to one cue-task mapping. After a training phase, the cue-task mapping changed in either of two ways. Whereas one group of participants got new cues, the other experienced a reversal of the learnt cue-task mapping. Our results show that participants build up cue-task associations and that these formerly learnt associations can hamper the implementation of new cue-task mappings (particular with mapping reversal). Prolonged preparation time decreased the cost of changing the cue-task mapping but did not change the overall pattern of results.     

Possible uses of Convulsofin liquid in the treatment of pediatric epilepsies

The effect of Convulsofin-liquidum on several epilepsies and types of seizure in childhood is described. Typical and atypical absences, tonic-clonic seizures of primary generalised epilepsies as well as atonic or myoclonic seizures are considered to be the main indications for the treatment with Convulsofin. To the special advantage of the application in drops especially with infants is referred.     

Computer tomography identification of carriers of Duchenne progressive muscular dystrophy

Comparison of findings obtained by computed tomography of muscles of possible carriers and normal subjects demonstrated that structural changes existed in 31 out of 74 women; the certainty of the information obtained became greater with increasing age. Six of the seven genealogically definite carriers were detected by computed tomography. The present results show that the use of computed tomography is promising for future carrier diagnosis.     

Computer tomography studies in myotonic dystrophies

Besides clinical symptoms, progress and electromyography the computer tomography is a possibility for improvement the diagnostic of myotone dystrophy. Even small changes in muscle structure are detectable and especially m. soleus exhibits early and pronounced alterations. By means of density distribution pattern an improved characterization of the disease is possible. Additional informations are obtained by cerebralcomputertomography. Hints for atrophy of brain tissue are expectable at all patients with myotone dystrophy. According to the presented findings the computer tomography enlarges the diagnostic possibilities at myotone dystrophy.