Testing the dorsal stream attention hypothesis: Electrophysiological correlates and the effects of ventral stream damage

The roles of dorsal and ventral processing streams in visual orienting and conscious perception were examined in two experiments. The first employed high density EEG with source localization. The second comprised a neuropsychological case study. Visual orienting was assessed with an attention procedure, where peripheral letters cued participants towards a target location. In the perception procedure participants responded to the same letters by performing an explicit conscious discrimination. In Experiment 1, the peripheral letters elicited rapid dorsal stream activation in the attention procedure, and this activation preceded top-down enhancement of target processing in occipital cortex. In the perception procedure early ventral stream activation was seen. In addition, peripheral letters elicited an “early directing attention negativity” (EDAN) over parietal recording sites in the attention procedure, but not in the perception procedure. In Experiment 2, a patient with a bilateral ventral stream lesion but preserved dorsal stream function showed clear disruption to performance in the perception procedure, whilst exhibiting a normal visual orienting effect in the attention procedure. Taken together these findings (1) highlight the distinct roles of the dorsal and ventral streams in attention and perception, and (2) suggest how these streams might interact, via reentrant effects of attention on perceptual processing.     

Effects of age on attention level: changes in performance between the ages of 12 and 90

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to assess the changes in attention level among individuals between the ages of 12 and 90 years. A cross-sectional design was used, with each participant tested once by means of the Mathematics Continuous Performance Test (MATH-CPT). Participants were 496 males and females who were divided into eight age-groups, with each group spanning a period of ten years. Attention level was assessed through comparison with nine variables assessing attention. As people aged, significant reductions in the quality of performance emerged on the five main measures of the MATH-CPT: Two of the four sustained attention variables showed an improvement with age. The peak attention level was in the 30 to a 40-age range, after that, there was a constant decline in the level of attention. The study offers encouraging results with respect to the effect of aging on cognitive functioning and specifically sustained attention.     

Detection and Validation of Unscalable Item Score Patterns Using Item Response Theory: An Illustration with Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children

To test the hypothesis that age of first separation from a home environment is a factor in the emotional health of institutionalized boys, Rorschach protocols of 82 residents of Saint Francis Vocational School, a facility for deprived nondelinquent nonretarded youth aged 10 to 18, were examined. Seven Rorschach variables were used as dependent variables of emotional status. It was found that boys who had first been institutionalized before age 10 gave more color-dominant and pure color responses (p .005), and more responses with pathological overtones (p < .005), than did youth first placed at ages 10 to 13 or ages 14 to 17. Fixation was proposed as the basis for the group differences.     

Cognitive and emotional demands of black humour processing: the role of intelligence,aggressiveness and mood

Humour processing is a complex information-processing task that is dependent on cognitive and emotional aspects which presumably influence frame-shifting and conceptual blending, mental operations that underlie humour processing. The aim of the current study was to find distinctive groups of subjects with respect to black humour processing, intellectual capacities, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. A total of 156 adults rated black humour cartoons and conducted measurements of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. Cluster analysis yields three groups comprising following properties: (1) moderate black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence; low mood disturbance and moderate aggressiveness; (2) low black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence, high mood disturbance and high aggressiveness; and (3) high black humour preference and high comprehension; high nonverbal and verbal intelligence; no mood disturbance and low aggressiveness. Age and gender do not differ significantly, differences in education level can be found. Black humour preference and comprehension are positively associated with higher verbal and nonverbal intelligence as well as higher levels of education. Emotional instability and higher aggressiveness apparently lead to decreased levels of pleasure when dealing with black humour. These results support the hypothesis that humour processing involves cognitive as well as affective components and suggest that these variables influence the execution of frame-shifting and conceptual blending in the course of humour processing.     

Emerging Technologies and Family Communication: The Case of International Students

Families with members living in different countries have embraced emerging technologies but little is known of the impact of mediated communication among these families. Economic globalization and the emergence of accessible information communication technologies have been parallel to the unprecedented number of higher education students who now travel abroad to study. Understanding the students’ experience may expand our knowledge on how the adoption of emerging technology is shaping transnational family relationships. In this study, international students were interviewed to share their perspectives of how mediated family communication may impact their wellbeing. Students from 14 countries and attending a university in Spain participated in 12 in-depth interviews and one focus group (n?=?10). Overall, the results suggest emerging technologies enable the maintenance of close relationships, foster a sense of connectedness, and help students to better adapt to a new environment. Students’ choices of technology are influenced by accessibility factors and cost. The type of relationship students have with their families seem to become more pronounced with interactions mediated by emerging technology. Since members of the younger generation may be more technologically literate than their predecessors, a shift in the role of who controls the use of and supplies advice about technology is manifest, with young adults advising parents about technology choices. Therefore, the control of the communication—i.e., frequency and length—is transferred from parents to students. According to students, mediated family exchanges strengthen their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. However, the continuous availability of the technology among family members may also be stressful.     

Do executive and reactive disinhibition mediate the effects of familial substance use disorders on adolescent externalizing outcomes?

The present study examined the potential mediating roles of executive and reactive disinhibition in predicting conduct problems, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and substance use among adolescents with and without a family history of substance use disorders. Using data from 247 high-risk adolescents, parents, and grandparents, structural equation modeling indicated that reactive disinhibition, as measured by sensation seeking, mediated the effect of familial drug use disorders on all facets of the adolescent externalizing spectrum. Executive disinhibition, as measured by response disinhibition, spatial short term memory, and "trait" impulsivity, was associated with ADHD symptoms. Moreover, although executive functioning weakness were unrelated to familial substance use disorders, adolescents with familial alcohol use disorders were at risk for "trait" impulsivity marked by a lack of planning. These results illustrate the importance of "unpacking" the broad temperament style of disinhibition and of studying the processes that underlie the commonality among facets of the externalizing spectrum and processes that predict specific externalizing outcomes.     

Don't hide your happiness! Positive emotion dissociation, social connectedness, and psychological functioning

It is now clear that positive emotion leads to enhanced psychological functioning. What is less clear, however, is just why this is so. Drawing on a social-functional perspective, we argue that positive emotional behavior that accurately signals to others the individual's internal state will enhance social connectedness. Positive emotional behavior that does not accurately signal a person's experience--such as a smile that is not felt--may impede social connectedness and, in turn, psychological functioning. This perspective suggests that (a) the degree to which experience and behavior are dissociated during positive emotional episodes, over and above level of positive behavior, should predict worse psychological functioning and (b) the effect of dissociation should be mediated by social connectedness. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a short-term prospective longitudinal study, with a baseline assessment of depressive symptoms and well-being at Time 1. Six months later, at Time 2, we used a novel within-individual laboratory paradigm to measure the degree to which positive emotional behavior was dissociated from (vs. coherent with) a participant's positive emotional experience. We also assessed level of positive behavior and experience. Then, another 6 months later, we assessed social connectedness as a mediator and depressive symptoms and well-being as outcomes at Time 3. Even when controlling for baseline functioning and for level of positive emotion behavior and experience, we found that greater positive experience-behavior dissociation at Time 2 predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of well-being at Time 3. As predicted, these associations were mediated by social connectedness.     

Telling things apart: the distance between response keys influences categorization times

People use spatial distance to talk and think about differences between concepts, and it has been argued that using space to think about different categories provides a scaffold for the categorization process. In the current study, we investigated the possibility that the distance between response keys can influence categorization times in binary classification tasks. In line with the hypothesis that distance between response keys can facilitate response selection in a key-press version of the Stroop task, our results showed that responses on incongruent Stroop trials were significantly facilitated when participants performed the Stroop task with response keys located far apart, compared with when they performed the task with response keys located close together. These results support the idea that the spatial structuring of response options facilitates categorizations that require cognitive effort, and that people can incorporate environmental structures such as spatial distance in their thought processes. Keeping your hands apart might actually help to keep things apart in your mind.