Age-related increase in top-down activation of visual features

Previous research suggests that, during visual search and discrimination tasks, older adults place greater emphasis than younger adults on top-down attention. This experiment investigated the relative contribution of target activation and distractor inhibition to this age difference. Younger and older adults performed a singleton discrimination task in which either an E or an R target (colour singleton) was present among distractor letters. Relative to a baseline condition in which the colours of the targets and distractors remained constant, an age-related slowing of performance was evident when either the colour of the target or that of the distractors varied across trials. The age-related slowing was more pronounced in response to target colour variation, suggesting that older adults place relatively greater emphasis on the top-down activation of target features.     

The organization of room geometry and object layout geometry in human memory

Research with humans and with nonhuman species has suggested a special role of room geometry in spatial memory functioning. In two experiments, participants learned the configuration of a room with four corners, along with the configuration of four objects within the room, while standing in a fixed position at the room's periphery. The configurations were either rectangular (Experiment 1) or irregular (Experiment 2). Room geometry was not recalled better than object layout geometry, and memories for both configurations were orientation dependent. These results suggest that room geometry and object layout geometry are represented similarly in human memory, at least in situations that promote long-term learning of object locations. There were also some differences between corners and objects in orientation dependence, suggesting that the two sources of information are represented in similar but separate spatial reference systems. [corrected]     

Threat and selective exposure: the moderating role of threat and decision context on confirmatory information search after decisions

Previous studies on the impact of perceived threat on confirmatory information search (selective exposure) in the context of decision making have yielded mixed results. Some studies have suggested that confirmatory information search is reduced, yet others have found contradictory effects. The present series of 5 studies consistently found that the crucial moderator for these inconsistent findings was whether the induced threat was contextually related to the subsequent decision and information search tasks. Contextual incongruence (e.g., an induction of terrorist threat followed by an economic decision case) results in reduced levels of confirmatory information search, whereas a congruent threat (e.g., an induction of terrorist threat followed by a decision case on terrorism) results in increased levels of confirmatory information search. Analyses of the underlying psychological processes revealed that decision-unrelated threat inductions increase decision makers' experienced decision uncertainty, thus reducing confirmatory information search.     

Real rules

Wright is correct in surmising that Wittgenstein’s refusal to be drawn into the metaphysical and epistemological questions that his own discussion of rules allegedly raises results from his rejection of the assumptions that pit the Platonist against the communitarian. This paper shows why the entire idea (which continues to dazzle philosophers)—that in speaking a language or in engaging in other normative practices we are operating a calculus according to strict rules—has to be rejected. It results, in part, from the conflation of different understandings of ‘knowing the rules’: one in which rules can be ‘read off’ from the practice by a theorist and those in which expressions of rules are consulted within the course of the practice.     

Career-specific parental behaviors in adolescents’ development

Parents are major partners in helping adolescents prepare for a career choice. Although several studies have examined links between general aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescents’ career development, little research has addressed the mechanisms involved. This study aimed to validate a three-dimensional instrument for the assessment of parental career-related behaviors and to examine their associations with career exploration and decision-making difficulties. After testing the dimensional structure of the instrument, we examined the relationship between parents’ behaviors and adolescents’ career development by using data from 359 German adolescents who reported the amount of perceived parental career-related behaviors and their career exploration and decision-making difficulties. The results of structural equation modeling confirmed the hypothesized dimensional structure (support, interference, lack of engagement). While parental support associated positively with career exploration, interference and lack of engagement associated with decision-making difficulties. Furthermore, interference and lack of engagement moderated the relationship between support and exploration. Support moderated the association between interference and decision-making difficulties.     

Dream rebound of suppressed emotional thoughts: the influence of cognitive load

Initial evidence suggests that suppressing a thought prior to sleep results in subsequent dreaming of that thought. The present research examined the influence of cognitive load on dreaming following suppression. In Experiment 1, 100 participants received either a suppression instruction or no instruction for an intrusive thought prior to sleep, and subsequently completed a dream diary. Participants instructed to suppress reported dreaming about the target thought more than controls; dream rebound was predicted by poorer performance on a working memory task. In Experiment 2, 126 participants received either a suppression instruction or no instruction for an intrusive thought prior to sleep, and half of participants also had cognitive load of learning a 9-digit number. Participants receiving the suppression instruction under cognitive load reported greater dream rebound than other participants. These findings indicate that thought suppression prior to sleep leads to dream rebound, and this effect is enhanced by cognitive load.     

On the role of goal relevance in emotional attention: disgust evokes early attention to cleanliness

Prior evidence has shown that aversive emotional states are characterised by an attentional bias towards aversive events. The present study investigated whether aversive emotions also bias attention towards stimuli that represent means by which the emotion can be alleviated. We induced disgust by having participants touch fake disgusting objects. Participants in the control condition touched non-disgusting objects. The results of a subsequent dot-probe task revealed that attention was oriented to disgusting pictures irrespective of condition. However, participants in the disgust condition also oriented towards pictures representing cleanliness. These findings suggest that the deployment of attention in aversive emotional states is not purely stimulus driven but is also guided by the goal to alleviate this emotional state.     

Adaptation of the "Recovery Experience Questionnaire" in a Spanish sample

The aim of this work was to examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the "Recovery Experience Questionnaire" developed by Sonnentag and Fritz. The sample was made up of 941 professionals from the security sector. Results from the exploratory factor analysis suggested the possibility of considering a four-factor structure. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the four-factor model with three correlated items each provided the best fit to the data (CFI=0.97, GFI=0.96, NNFI=0.96, RMSEA=0.05 y AIC=171.76). Therefore, the questionnaire maintains the four recovery experiences -psychological detachment from work, relaxation, mastery experiences and control over leisure time--but with 12 items instead of 16 items as in the original scale. Reliability analysis showed good internal consistency for this scale with Cronbach alpha coefficients for the factors ranging from .75 to .88. Significant correlations were found between the recovery experiences and various external variables, providing evidence of construct validity. Thus, this Spanish version shows adequate psychometric properties and may help to achieve a better understanding of this topic.     

Profile analysis of standardized intelligence test performance of very low functioning individuals

Practitioners are frequently faced with the need to evaluate the intellectual skills of individuals with very low levels of functioning. Owing to the statistical rarity of these persons, few tests have sufficient range of scores for a detailed analysis of intraindividual differences in performance. This paper describes a method that uses are equivalents and standard scores to recreate the full range of variability in the scores of low-functioning individuals. The method allows for a more complete interpretation of performance that can lead to better educational and therapeutic programming.