Differential brain shrinkage over 6 months shows limited association with cognitive practice

The brain shrinks with age, but the timing of this process and the extent of its malleability are unclear. We measured changes in regional brain volumes in younger (age 20–31) and older (age 65–80) adults twice over a 6 months period, and examined the association between changes in volume, history of hypertension, and cognitive training. Between two MRI scans, 49 participants underwent intensive practice in three cognitive domains for 100 consecutive days, whereas 23 control group members performed no laboratory cognitive tasks. Regional volumes of seven brain structures were measured manually and adjusted for intracranial volume. We observed significant mean shrinkage in the lateral prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the caudate nucleus, and the cerebellum, but no reliable mean change of the prefrontal white matter, orbital-frontal cortex, and the primary visual cortex. Individual differences in change were reliable in all regions. History of hypertension was associated with greater cerebellar shrinkage. The cerebellum was the only region in which significantly reduced shrinkage was apparent in the experimental group after completion of cognitive training. Thus, in healthy adults, differential brain shrinkage can be observed in a narrow time window, vascular risk may aggravate it, and intensive cognitive activity may have a limited effect on it.     

An Experimental Test of Whether Informants can Report About Child and Family Behavior Based on Settings of Behavioral Expression

Researchers and practitioners conduct multi-informant assessments of child and family behavior under the assumption that informants have unique perspectives on these behaviors. These unique perspectives stem, in part, from differences among informants in the settings in which they observe behaviors (e.g., home, school, peer interactions). These differences are assumed to contribute to the discrepancies commonly observed in the outcomes of multi-informant assessments. Although assessments often prompt informants to think about setting-specific behaviors when providing reports about child and family behavior, the notion that differences in setting-based behavioral observations contribute to discrepant reports has yet to be experimentally tested. We trained informants to use setting information as the basis for providing behavioral reports, with a focus on parental knowledge of children’s whereabouts and activities. Using a within-subjects controlled design, we randomly assigned 16 mothers and adolescents to the order in which they received a program that trains informants to use setting information when providing parental knowledge reports (Setting-Sensitive Assessment), and a control program involving no training on how to provide reports. Relative to the control program, the Setting-Sensitive Assessment training increased the differences between mother and adolescent reports of parental knowledge, suggesting that mothers and adolescents observe parental knowledge behaviors in different settings. This study provides the first experimental evidence to support the assumption that discrepancies arise because informants incorporate unique setting information into their reports.     

Extrafoveal capture of attention by emotional scenes: affective valence versus visual saliency

ABSTRACT

Pairs of emotional (pleasant or unpleasant) and neutral scenes were presented peripherally (≥5° away from fixation) during a central letter-discrimination task. Selective attentional capture was assessed by means of eye movement orienting, i.e., probability of first fixating a scene and the time until first fixation. Static and dynamic visual saliency values of the scenes were computationally modelled. Results revealed selective orienting to both pleasant and unpleasant relative to neutral scenes. Importantly, such effects remained in the absence of visual saliency differences, even though saliency influenced eye movements. This suggests that selective attention to emotional scenes is genuinely driven by the processing of affective significance in extrafoveal vision.     

The Necessary Limits to Temptation: The Turnkey Project

In case of special engineering projects of important relevance it is interesting to pay attention to several possible risks; some of them are in the field of morality or ethics. Due to the social importance of these risks, additional considerations or even additional warranties are justified.     

Personality change following religious conversion: perceptions of converts and their close acquaintances

This study focuses on how converts and their close acquaintances perceive changes in personality characteristics after religious conversion and possible demographic influences of these perceptions. Sixty Slovakian respondents self-defined as having experienced conversions rated themselves twice on measures of Big Five personality traits, self-esteem, and meaningfulness in life. The first rating provided retrospective information concerning pre-conversion conditions and the second rating obtained data reflecting the convert's present self-understanding. In addition, every convert was rated on the same characteristics by someone who knew the person well during both pre- and post-conversion times. The convert and the rater both provided demographic information (age, education, religiosity, relationship to conversions and converts etc.). Analyses showed that the converts perceived several personality changes: neuroticism decreased while self-esteem, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion increased. They also reported a large increase in meaningfulness. Perceived changes were in part related to education level and age for converts, and to religiosity in both converts and close persons, suggesting a retrospective bias.     

Coping through prayer: an empirical study in implicit religion concerning prayers for children in hospital

This study links two fields of empirical research. The first field (grounded in empirical theology) is concerned with ordinary prayer and that aspect of implicit religion discernable within explicit religious expressions. The second field (grounded in the psychology of religion) is concerned with private prayer as a significant method of coping in health-related contexts. Few previous studies, however, have focussed on the specific components comprising the content of such prayers and their concern for health issues relating to others, such as family and friends. The present study addresses this gap by employing the analytical framework for health and well-being devised previously in a content analysis of 583 prayers left in the chapel of a children's hospital in England. The conceptual and practical applications of the new research findings are discussed.     

Jotting down notes or preparing for the future? Action identification and academic performance

The purpose of the present study was both to extend the performance optimality hypothesis of action identification theory to the realm of education and to examine the indirect role of action identification levels and action maintenance difficulty on the relationship between initial and final performance. Results demonstrated that students’ final performance is related to their initial performance and that this relationship is mediated by the way they identify the action of “attending a class”, which is itself inconsistently mediated by action maintenance difficulty. These findings pave the way for new educational applications in order to improve students’ academic performance.     

Spatial Working Memory in Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment: Effects of Task Load and Contextual Cueing

ABSTRACT

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is characterized by episodic memory deficits, while aspects of working memory may also be implicated, but studies into this latter domain are scarce and results are inconclusive. Using a computerized search paradigm, this study compares 25 young adults, 25 typically aging older adults and 15 amnestic MCI patients as to their working-memory capacities for object-location information and potential differential effects of memory load and additional context cues. An age-related deficit in visuospatial working-memory maintenance was found that became more pronounced with increasing task demands. The MCI group additionally showed reduced maintenance of bound information, i.e., object-location associations, again especially at elevated memory load. No effects of contextual cueing were found. The current findings indicate that working memory should be considered when screening patients for suspected MCI and monitoring its progression.     

The Relationship Between Athletic Identity and Career Decisions in Athletes

The present study examined the association between athletic identity, career decision-making self-efficacy, future time attitude, gender, and age to explore the process of future career selection in athletes. The sample was composed of 153 athletes, and variables were measured using the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale–plus, the Career-Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale–Short Form, and the Time Attitude Scale. Results show that athletes with higher athletic identity have higher levels of career-decision-making self-efficacy and higher levels of optimism regarding the future. Furthermore, athletes with higher athletic identity are more likely intend to choose a sport-related profession in the future.     

Ecological Validity,Representative Design,and Correspondence Between Experimental Task Constraints and Behavioral Setting: Comment on Rogers,Kadar, and Costall (2005)

More than 20 years ago, Swenson (1988) Swenson, R. 1988. Emergence and the principle of maximum entropy production: Multi-level system theory, evolution, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.. Proceedings of the 32nd annual meeting of the International Society for General Systems Research, 32: 32 [Google Scholar] proposed and elaborated the Law of Maximum Entropy Production (LMEP) as the missing piece of physical or universal law that would account for the ubiquitous and opportunistic transformation from disordered, or less ordered, to more highly ordered states. Given Boltzmann's (1974) Boltzmann, L. 1974. “The second law of thermodynamics”. In Theoretical physics and philosophical problems, Edited by: Bush, S. G. Boston: Reidel. (Original work published 1886) [Google Scholar] interpretation, the Second Law of Thermodynamics has generally been interpreted as a “law of disorder.” Schrödinger (1945) Schrodinger, E. 1945. What is life?, New York: Macmillan.  [Google Scholar] and Bertalanffy (1952) had shown, however, that the Second Law, viewed from the classical perspective of Clausius (1865) Clausius, R. 1865. Ueber verschiedene fur die anwendung bequeme formen der haupt gleichungen der mechanischen warmtheorie.. Annalen der Phys. und Chem., 7: 389–400.  [Google Scholar] and Thomson (1852) Thomson, W. 1852. On the universal tendency in nature to the dissipation of mechanical energy. Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 4: 304–306. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], was not anathema to order. Ordered flow, including life, was permissible as long as it produced enough entropy to compensate for its own internal entropy reduction. The central problem remained, however: If the spontaneous production of order was “infinitely improbable,” as Boltzmann had surmised, then why were ordered systems such a fundamental and characteristic property of the visible world? LMEP provided the answer: Order production is inexorable because order produces entropy faster than disorder. In Swenson (1989d) Swenson, R. 1989d. Gauss-in-a-box: Nailing down the first principles of action. Perceiving Acting Workshop Review, 5: 60–63. (Technical Report of the Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action) [Google Scholar], LMEP was given expression as a precise law that could be demonstrated in falsifiable, experimental, physical terms. In Swenson and Turvey (1991) Swenson, R. 1991a. “End-directed physics and evolutionary ordering: Obviating the problem of the population of one”. In The cybernetics of complex systems: Self-organization, evolution, and social change, Edited by: Geyer, F. 41–60. Salinas, CA: Intersystems Publications.  [Google Scholar], LMEP was tied explicitly to the progressive emergence of living things with their perception–action capabilities.