One executive function never comes alone: monitoring and its relation to working memory,reasoning, and different executive functions

Monitoring is involved in many daily tasks and is described in several theoretical approaches of executive functioning. This study investigated the relative relationship of cognitive processes that are theoretically relevant to monitoring, such as concept formation, reasoning, working memory, and general cognitive control functions. Data from 699 participants who performed the Balanced Switching Task, aiming at capturing monitoring, were used. Subsamples also performed standard tasks assessing the processes assumed to be related to monitoring. Structural equation modeling revealed that general cognitive control processes are particularly relevant. They mediate the relationship between working memory, reasoning, and monitoring. Updating and maintaining information, as well as concluding from information which strategies can guide behavior toward predefined goals, is required for the ability to exert general cognitive control, which again may be relevant for implementing strategies in a goal-directed way. Together, these processes seem to be necessary to adequately monitor behavior in complex tasks.     

Lost in space: multisensory conflict yields adaptation in spatial representations across frames of reference

According to embodied cognition, bodily interactions with our environment shape the perception and representation of our body and the surrounding space, that is, peripersonal space. To investigate the adaptive nature of these spatial representations, we introduced a multisensory conflict between vision and proprioception in an immersive virtual reality. During individual bimanual interaction trials, we gradually shifted the visual hand representation. As a result, participants unknowingly shifted their actual hands to compensate for the visual shift. We then measured the adaptation to the invoked multisensory conflict by means of a self-localization and an external localization task. While effects of the conflict were observed in both tasks, the effects systematically interacted with the type of localization task and the available visual information while performing the localization task (i.e., the visibility of the virtual hands). The results imply that the localization of one’s own hands is based on a multisensory integration process, which is modulated by the saliency of the currently most relevant sensory modality and the involved frame of reference. Moreover, the results suggest that our brain strives for consistency between its body and spatial estimates, thereby adapting multiple, related frames of reference, and the spatial estimates within, due to a sensory conflict in one of them.     

Comparing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Systemic Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder: Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial (SOPHO-CBT/ST)

This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed to pilot the newly developed manualized and monitored systemic therapy (ST) for social anxiety disorder (SAD), as compared to manualized and monitored cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). We conducted a prospective multicenter, assessor-blind pilot RCT on 38 outpatients (ICD F40.1; Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID); Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, LSAS-SR >30). The primary outcome was level of social anxiety (LSAS-SR) at the end of treatment. A total of 252 persons were screened, and 38 patients were randomized and started therapy (CBT: 20 patients; ST: 18 patients; age: M = 36 years, SD = 14). Within-group, simple-effect intent-to-treat analyses (ITT) showed significant reduction in LSAS-SR (CBT:d = 1.04; ST:d = 1.67), while ITT mixed-design ANOVA demonstrated the advantage of ST (d = 0.81). Per-protocol analyses supported these results. Remission based on reliable change indices also demonstrated significant difference (LSAS-SR: 15% in CBT; 39% in ST;h: 0.550), supported by blind diagnosticians’ ratings of those who completed therapy (SCID; 45% in CBT, 78% in ST,p = .083). No adverse events were reported. CBT and ST both reduced social anxiety, supporting patient improvement with the newly developed ST for SAD; this has yet to be verified in a subsequent confirmatory RCT.     

Emotion emphasis effects in moral judgment are moderated by mindsets

Motivation and Emotion - In two studies, emotion emphasis effects on moral judgment are demonstrated. The studies indicate that emphasizing negative consequences in trolley-type dilemmas with...     

Tracking Fluctuations in Psychological States Using Social Media Language: A Case Study of Weekly Emotion

Personality psychologists are increasingly documenting dynamic, within-person processes. Big data methodologies can augment this endeavour by allowing for the collection of naturalistic and personality-relevant digital traces from online environments. Whereas big data methods have primarily been used to catalogue static personality dimensions, here we present a case study in how they can be used to track dynamic fluctuations in psychological states. We apply a text-based, machine learning prediction model to Facebook status updates to compute weekly trajectories of emotional valence and arousal. We train this model on 2895 human-annotated Facebook statuses and apply the resulting model to 303 575 Facebook statuses posted by 640 US Facebook users who had previously self-reported their Big Five traits, yielding an average of 28 weekly estimates per user. We examine the correlations between model-predicted emotion and self-reported personality, providing a test of the robustness of these links when using weekly aggregated data, rather than momentary data as in prior work. We further present dynamic visualizations of weekly valence and arousal for every user, while making the final data set of 17 937 weeks openly available. We discuss the strengths and drawbacks of this method in the context of personality psychology's evolution into a dynamic science. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Feedback consistency effects in visual and auditory word recognition: where do we stand after more than a decade?

The role of phonology-to-spelling consistency (i.e., feedback consistency) was investigated in 3 lexical decision experiments in both the visual and auditory modalities in French and English. No evidence for a feedback consistency effect was found in the visual modality, either in English or in French, despite the fact that consistency was manipulated for different kinds of units (onsets and rimes). In contrast, robust feedback consistency effects were obtained in the auditory lexical decision task in both English and French when exactly the same items that produced a null effect in the visual modality were used. Neural network simulations are presented to show that previous demonstrations of feedback consistency effects in the visual modality can be simulated with a model that is not sensitive to feedback consistency, suggesting that these effects might have come from various confounds. These simulations, together with the authors' results, suggest that there are no feedback consistency effects in the visual modality. In contrast, such effects are clearly present in the auditory modality. Given that orthographic information is absent from current models of spoken word recognition, the present findings present a major challenge to these models.     

On the development of regulatory focus: the role of parenting styles

The present study was designed to contribute to our understanding of the development of chronic self‐regulatory orientations reflecting self‐regulation with a promotion and prevention focus, respectively. Little research addressed this issue empirically, although regulatory focus theory (RFT) explicitly entails assumptions concerning the role of parenting styles in the development of habitual self‐regulatory orientations. According to RFT, parenting styles involving a critical and punitive mode that is focused on attaining safety and meeting obligations increases the likelihood that the child will acquire a predominantly prevention‐focused style of self‐regulation. In contrast, parenting styles involving a bolstering mode that is focused on accomplishing ideal goals and fulfilling aspirations increases the likelihood that the child will acquire a predominantly promotion‐focused style of self‐regulation. To test these assumptions, the present study assessed via self‐reports the degree to which participants experienced different parenting styles as well as their chronic self‐regulatory focus. The results reveal positive associations between the critical and punitive parenting style and prevention‐focused self‐regulation and between the bolstering parenting style and promotion‐focused self‐regulation thus corroborating the propositions of RFT. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rapid naming deficits in dyslexia: a stumbling block for the perceptual anchor theory of dyslexia

According to a recent theory of dyslexia, the perceptual anchor theory, children with dyslexia show deficits in classic auditory and phonological tasks not because they have auditory or phonological impairments but because they are unable to form a ‘perceptual anchor’ in tasks that rely on a small set of repeated stimuli. The theory makes the strong prediction that rapid naming deficits should only be present in small sets of repeated items, not in large sets of unrepeated items. The present research tested this prediction by comparing rapid naming performance of a small set of repeated items with that of a large set of unrepeated items. The results were unequivocal. Deficits were found both for small and large sets of objects and numbers. The deficit was actually bigger for large sets than for small sets, which is the opposite of the prediction made by the anchor theory. In conclusion, the perceptual anchor theory does not provide a satisfactory account of some of the major hallmark effects of developmental dyslexia.     

The virtual haptic display: A device for exploring 2-D virtual shapes in the tactile modality

In order to understand better the processes involved in the perception of shape through touch, someelement of control is required over the nature of the shape presented to the hand and the presentation timing. To that end, we have developed a cost-effective, computer-controlled apparatus for presenting haptic stimuli using active touch, known as a virtual haptic display (VHD). The operational principle behind this device is that it translates black and white visual images into topographic, 2-D taxel (tactile pixel) arrays, along the same principle using in Braille letters. These taxels are either elevated or depressed at any one time representing white and black pixel colors of the visual image, respectively. To feel the taxels, the participant places their fingers onto a carriage which can be moved over the surface of the device to reveal a virtual shape. We conducted two experiments and the results show that untrained participants are able to recognize different, simple and complex, shapes using this apparatus. The VHD apparatus is therefore ideal at presenting 2-Dshapes through touch alone. Moreover,this device and its supporting software can also be used for presenting computer-controlled stimuli in cross-modal experiments.