Lack of association between negative priming and Necker Cube reversals

50 undergraduates were tested on two tasks presented in a counterbalanced fashion: their ability to inhibit irrelevant information measured on a negative priming task involving letter case information and on the number of Necker Cube reversals produced in a specific time period. Since number of reversals presumably reflects a person's ability to see various interpretations of the Necker Cube, this assumes that multiple interpretations are available to a subject and no one interpretation dominates over another. If true, then more reversals could indicate an ability to inhibit irrelevant information. That is, observing one reversal at the expense of another reversal indicates a subject can adequately inhibit these various interpretations successfully, with more reversals indicating a higher ability to inhibit information successfully. Although it was predicted that negative priming performance would be related to the number of Necker Cube reversals, this was not the case (r = -.07).     

The role of interference in memory span

In two experiments, we investigated the possibility that susceptibility to proactive interference (PI) affects performance on memory span measures. We tested both younger and older adults (older adults were tested because of the suggestion that they are differentially susceptible to PI). We used two different span measures and manipulated testing procedures to reduce PI for these tasks. For older adults, span estimates increased with each PI-reducing manipulation; for younger adults, scores increased when multiple PI manipulations were combined or when PI-reducing manipulations were used in paradigms in which within-task PI was especially high. The findings suggest that PI critically influences span performance. We consider the possibility that interference-proneness may influence cognitive behaviors previously thought to be governed by capacity.     

Standardized and flexible batteries in neuropsychology: An assessment update

This article summarizes current literature relevant to commonly used tests and test batteries in clinical neuropsychology. The first section contains a discussion of the philosophy and relative advantages of standardized and flexible battery approaches in neuropsychology. The second contains historical background and a literature review of the two major standardized test batteries: the Halstead-Reitan and Luria-Nebraska. The third section includes reviews of tests that are frequently used in the flexible battery approach. Various tests of intellectual functioning, attention, memory, language, and spatial analyses are critiqued in this section. Contributions of the process approach are noted. The article ends by underscoring the need for continued research into the nature of neuropsychological measures and the abilities they assess.     

Positive crossover: Parent perceived partner responsiveness and health of youth with asthma

Romantic relationship functioning has implications that extend beyond the romantic dyad. This study tests whether a key positive aspect of relationships, perceived partner responsiveness, can cross over from parents' romantic relationships to children's health and well-being via parenting behavior. In a sample of 112 youth with asthma and their primary caregivers, when caregivers perceived higher partner responsiveness in their romantic relationship, youth experienced improved self-reported asthma symptoms, pulmonary functioning, and positive affect. The associations were robust while controlling for parents' relationship conflict and other relevant covariates, except for the pulmonary functioning outcome, which was instead predicted by parents' conflict. However, parenting behavior (i.e., positive and negative parenting) did not appear to mediate these links. This work highlights the importance of positive romantic relationship processes for youth health and well-being, emphasizing the relevance of clinical intervention work and the need to continue investigating mechanisms through which these processes may be linked.     

Perceptions of South Florida Hispanic and Anglo Catholics: From Whom Would They Seek Help?

Hispanic and Anglo Catholics in South Florida who attended Sunday services (N = 473) were surveyed to determine their help-seeking preferences for moral concerns, mental disorders, and practical life/family problems. Respondents were asked to indicate whether they would seek help from a priest; a priest with a degree and license in one of the helping professions (clinical social work, psychology, psychiatry, or mental health counseling); a layperson with a degree and license in one of the helping professions (clinical social work, psychology, psychiatry, or mental health counseling); or if they believed they could deal with the situation without external assistance. The findings suggest that Anglo Catholics prefer assistance from a person who was credentialed in one of the helping professions, whereas Hispanic Catholics would seek help from a priest with or without a background in the helping professions.     

Is lightness induction a pictorial illusion?

Lightness induction, or simultaneous lightness contrast (we prefer the term lightness induction since contrast has another meaning in the visual literature, namely, the relative intensity of the stimulation), was studied for a 3-D object (Adelson's wall of blocks) and its 2-D pictorial representations. A statistically significant lightness induction effect was found only for the pictures but not for the 3-D object. No lightness induction effect was found for the 3-D object under either monocular or binocular viewing conditions.     

The role of prefrontal cortex in working-memory capacity,executive attention,and general fluid intelligence: an individual-differences perspective

We provide an "executive-attention" framework for organizing the cognitive neuroscience research on the constructs of working-memory capacity (WMC), general fluid intelligence, and prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. Rather than provide a novel theory of PFC function, we synthesize a wealth of single-cell, brain-imaging, and neuropsychological research through the lens of our theory of normal individual differences in WMC and attention control (Engle, Kane, & Tuholski, 1999; Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999). Our critical review confirms the prevalent view that dorsolateral PFC circuitry is critical to executive-attention functions. Moreover, although the dorsolateral PFC is but one critical structure in a network of anterior and posterior "attention control" areas, it does have a unique executive-attention role in actively maintaining access to stimulus representations and goals in interference-rich contexts. Our review suggests the utility of an executive-attention framework for guiding future research on both PFC function and cognitive control.     

Individual differences in working memory capacity and visual search: The roles of top-down and bottom-up processing

Individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) have been implicated in a variety of top-down, attention-control tasks: Higher WMC subjects better ignore irrelevant distractions and withhold habitual responses than do lower WMC subjects. Kane, Poole, Tuholski, and Engle (2006) recently attempted to extend these findings to visual search, but found no relation between WMC and search efficiency, even in difficult tasks yielding steep search slopes. Here we used a visual search task that isolated the contributions of top-down versus bottom-up mechanisms, and induced a habitual response via expectation. Searches that relied primarily on bottom-up mechanisms did not vary with WMC, but searches that relied primarily on top-down mechanisms showed an advantage for higher over lower WMC subjects.