Reactions to social and non‐social novelties in 2‐year‐olds

The purpose of this study is to investigate the internal structure of behavioural inhibition [cf. Goldsmith, H.H. and Campos, J.J. (1990). Child Development, 61 , 1944–1964]. Observations of 45 2‐year‐olds’ approaching/positive reactions, inhibited/negative reactions, and latencies, when encountering strangers as well as unfamiliar objects, are made in a laboratory setting. The intercorrelations between the six different measures, obtained from the observations, are analysed by means of a multitrait–multimethod matrix. It is concluded, from inspection of the matrix, that aggregations of data into indexes covering different reactions (approaching/positive reactions, inhibited/negative reactions, and latency) and settings (stranger and objects), respectively, are appropriate. To further validate the different indexes, assessments of concurrent variables (separation reactions, reactions to physical intrusion, reactions in a new setting, and maternal ratings of reactions to strangers) are used. The results indicate that all reactions to both social and non‐social novelties can be assigned to one construct, which is in line with the assumption made by Kagan and his co‐workers about behavioural inhibition. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interactions between mothers and infants showing food refusal

This study examined the interactional patterns of mothers and their infants who showed food refusal (N = 24) and of mothers and infants in a control group (N = 24) during feeding and play. The observations revealed significant group differences in both infant and maternal behavior. Infants in the case group rejected food more often and showed less clear communication signals than control infants, and mothers of case infants were less sensitive, less cooperative, and had more verbal teaching/control behavior than the control group. These differences pertained to both feeding and play situations. The findings have implications for the development of appropriate and efficient intervention strategies for infants showing food refusal.     

Auditory distractor processing in sequential selection tasks

In this review, we analyze the cognitive processes contributing to selection in audition. In particular, we focus on the processing of auditory distractors in sequential selection paradigms in which target stimuli are accompanied by distractors. We review the evidence from two established tasks, namely the auditory negative priming and the auditory distractor–response binding task, and discuss the cognitive mechanisms contributing to the results typically observed in these tasks. In fact, several processes have been suggested as to explain how distractors are processed and handled in audition; that is, auditory distractors can be inhibited, encoded with a do-not-respond-tag, integrated into a stimulus–response episode containing the response to the target, or upheld in working memory and matched/mismatched with the following distractor. In addition, variables possibly modulating these cognitive processes are discussed. Finally, auditory distractor processing is compared with distractor processing in vision.     

How Information Availability Interacts with Visual Attention during Judgment and Decision Tasks

Decisions in front of a supermarket shelf probably involve a mix of visually available information and associated memories—and interactions between those two. Several cognitive processes, such as decision making, search, and various judgments, are therefore likely to co‐occur, and each process will influence visual attention. We conducted two eye‐tracking experiments capturing parts of these features by having participants make either judgments or decisions concerning products that had been previously encoded. Half the time, participants made their choices with full information about the available products and half the time with crucial task‐relevant information removed. By comparing participants' use of visual attention during decisions and search‐based and memory‐based judgments, we can better understand how visual attention is differently employed between tasks and how it depends on the visual environment. We found that participants' visual attention during decisions is sensitive to evaluations already made during encoding and strongly characterized by preferential looking to the options later to be chosen. When the task environment is rich enough, participants engage in advanced integrative visual behavior and improve their decision quality. In contrast, visual attention during judgments made on the same products reflects a search‐like behavior when all information is available and a more focused type of visual behavior when information is removed. Our findings contribute not only to the literature on how visual attention is used during decision making but also to methodological questions concerning how to measure and identify task‐specific features of visual attention in ecologically valid ways. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Switching between filter settings reduces the efficient utilization of visual working memory

The capacity limitation of working memory requires that only relevant information gains access to the workspace, while irrelevant information is kept out. Thus, the ability to use attention to filter out irrelevant information is an important factor in how efficiently the limited storage space is used. Here, we examined to what degree the requirement to flexibly change filter settings affects filtering efficiency. Participants were presented with visual objects in different colors, and a cue presented in advance indicated which objects had to be stored. The contralateral delay activity, an event-related brain potential that reflects working-memory load was used to assess filtering efficiency during the retention interval. The data of two experiments showed that when filter settings had to be adjusted on a trial-by-trial basis, more irrelevant information passed the gate to working memory. Moreover, this switching-induced filtering deficit was restricted to those items that matched the previous, but currently irrelevant, filter settings. Thus, lingering effects of the selection history seem to counteract goal-directed encoding, and thus constitute an important attentional limitation for the efficient utilization of our limited workspace.     

Electrophysiological evidence for late maturation of strategic episodic retrieval processes

Improvement in source memory performance throughout development is thought to be mediated by strategic processes that facilitate the retrieval of task-relevant information. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we examined developmental changes in these processes during adolescence. Adolescents (13-14 years) and adults (19-29 years) completed a memory exclusion task which required the discrimination between words studied in one color ('targets') and words studied in the alternative color ('non-targets') under two conditions that put different demands on strategic control. Memory accuracy improved with age and also increased with decreasing control demands in both age groups. The parietal old/new effect, an ERP correlate of recollection, was reliable for targets across conditions in both age groups. By contrast, ERP correlates of non-target recollection were present in adolescents across conditions but not in adults. This suggests that adults implemented a strategy to prioritize recollection of target information with greater success than adolescents regardless of control demands, presumably reflecting maturational differences in cognitive control. In support of this view, the ERP amplitude difference between targets and non-targets was positively correlated with a measure of working memory capacity (WMC) in adults but not in adolescents. A further age-related difference was that ERP correlates of post-retrieval processing, including late right-frontal old/new effects and late posterior negativities, were observed in adults only. Together, our data suggest protracted maturation in the strategic processes that underlie selective recollection and post-retrieval control.     

Increased spatial salience in the social Simon task: A response-coding account of spatial compatibility effects

A spatial compatibility effect (SCE) is typically observed in forced two-choice tasks in which a spatially defined response (e.g., pressing a left vs. a right key) has to be executed to a nonspatial feature of a stimulus (e.g., discriminating red from green) that is additionally connoted by a spatial feature (e.g., the stimulus points to the left or the right). Responses are faster and more accurate when the response side and the spatial stimulus feature are compatible than when they are incompatible. Previous research has demonstrated that SCEs are diminished when stimuli from only one response category are responded to in individual go/no-go tasks, whereas SCEs reemerge when two participants work jointly on two complementary, individual go/no-go tasks in a joint go/no-go task setting. This social Simon effect has been considered evidence for shared task representations. We show that SCEs emerge in individual go/no-go tasks when the spatial dimension is made more salient, whereas SCEs are eliminated in joint go/no-go tasks when the spatial dimension is made less salient. These findings are consistent with an account of social Simon effects in terms of spatial response coding, whereas they are inconsistent with an account of shared task representations. The relevance of social factors for spatial response coding is discussed.     

Cuban health psychology: A priority is the primary health care system

Cuban health psychology has experienced a great expansion during the last 25 years, both in the number of psychologists and in range of activities in the field. Today, psychologists are integrated at all levels of the national health system, an achievement which is particularly interesting in that Cuba is a developing country. In a position isolated from trends in international psychology, Cuba has developed a role for psychologists within the field of health which is adapted to its situation as a poor and socialistic country. Priority is given to preventive and community-based psychology within primary health care facilities. Psychologists in primary health care serve a composite client-group, with high priority given to pregnant women and to children. The work of these psychologists covers a wide range of health problems—-physical as well as mental—and focuses upon individuals as bio-psycho-social units. Their responsibilities include health promotion, disease prevention, consultation and treatment, rehabilitation, research and education. This report is based on a 2½ month long field study in Cuba, where Cuban health psychology, particularly as it relates to primary health care, was explored.     

Coping variables as predictors of perioperative emotional states and adjustment

Abstract

Surgery, regardless of its kind and severity, can be regarded as a major stress situation for any patient. High preoperative emotional arousal may negatively influence adaptation during surgery and, consequently, rate of postoperative recovery. In a series of previous studies, our research group analyzed the influence of dispositional and actual coping on subjective and objective stress indicators before, during, and after surgery. The present study investigates the influence of the dispositional coping variables vigilance and cognitive avoidance on actual surgery-related coping, state anxiety, and indicators of intra- and postoperative adjustment. The sample consisted of 42 male and 42 female patients undergoing elective maxillofacial surgery under general anaesthesia. Dispositional coping was measured on the dimensions vigilance and cognitive avoidance with the Mainz Coping Inventory. Actual surgery-related coping was assessed by means of a newly constructed inventory containing items to measure the four dimensions avoidance, vigilance, positive restructuring, and seeking social support.

Self-reported state anxiety was differentiated according to the cognitive, affective, and somatic components. The patients' adaptation was assessed by measuring doses of the narcotic agents used for induction of anaesthesia, the intraoperative status, and the amount of postoperative (analgesic and psychotropic) medication. Significant effects of coping mode, gender, and time of measurement were observed on the cognitive, affective and somatic component of state anxiety, the indicators of intraoperative adaptation and on postoperative medication. Also, patients' actual coping behavior could partly be predicted by dispositional coping. Results indicate that actual coping behavior and gender should be taken into account when trying to predict adaptation and developing psychological preparatory intervention programs.