The impact of self-efficacy and implementation intentions-based interventions on fruit and vegetable intake among adults

This study tested the effect of interventions designed for people who do not eat yet the recommended daily fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) but have a positive intention to do so. Adults (N?=?163) aged 20-65 were randomised into four groups: implementation intentions (II group), self-efficacy (SE group), combination of II?+?SE group) and a control group receiving written information on nutrition. Study variables were measured at baseline, post-intervention and at 3-month follow-up. At follow-up, compared to the control group, FVI increased significantly in the II and II?+?SE groups (1.5 and 1.9 servings per day, respectively). Most psychosocial variables significantly increased compared to the control group, with the exception of SE for vegetable intake (VI). Moreover, at 3-month follow-up, change in FVI was mediated by changes in fruit intake (FI) intention and VI action planning. In conclusion, II interventions were efficient to increase FVI, with or without consideration for the development of SE. Thus, future studies should favour the adoption of this approach to bridge the intention-behaviour gap for FVI.     

Comparison of the distortion of probability information in decision under risk and an equivalent visual task

Decision makers typically overweight small probabilities and underweight large probabilities. However, there are recent reports that when probability is presented in the form of relative frequencies, this typical pattern reverses. We tested this hypothesis by comparing decision making in two tasks: In one task, probability was stated numerically, and in the other task, it was conveyed through a visual representation. In the visual task, participants chose whether a "stochastic bullet" should be fired at either a large target for a small reward or a small target for a large reward. Participants' knowledge of probability in the visual task was the result of extensive practice firing bullets at targets. In the classical numerical task, participants chose between pairs of lotteries with probabilities and rewards matched to the probabilities and rewards in the visual task. We found that participants' probability-weighting functions were significantly different in the two tasks, but the pattern for the visual task was the typical, not the reversed, pattern.     

Temperament and Problematic Alcohol Use in Adolescence: an Examination of Drinking Motives as Mediators

The present study investigated the associations between temperamental reactivity, drinking motives, alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences. Furthermore, it investigated whether drinking motives mediate the relations between temperamental reactivity and the alcohol use variables. The sample consisted of 188 adolescents (64.9% boys) between the ages of 13–20 years (M _age  = 16.9, SD = 1.32). Results revealed that the temperament factors of high BAS fun seeking and high negative affectivity were related to alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences respectively. Furthermore, high social and enhancement motives and low conformity motives were associated with alcohol consumption, whereas high coping-depression motives were associated with alcohol-related consequences. Finally, the relation between BAS fun seeking and alcohol consumption was mediated by enhancement and social motives and the association between negative affectivity and alcohol-related consequences was mediated by coping-depression motives. These results highlight the importance of focusing on temperament profiles and their associated drinking motives in the prevention and intervention of alcohol use problems among adolescents.     

Defining face perception areas in the human brain: a large-scale factorial fMRI face localizer analysis

A number of human brain areas showing a larger response to faces than to objects from different categories, or to scrambled faces, have been identified in neuroimaging studies. Depending on the statistical criteria used, the set of areas can be overextended or minimized, both at the local (size of areas) and global (number of areas) levels. Here we analyzed a whole-brain factorial functional localizer obtained in a large sample of right-handed participants (40). Faces (F), objects (O; cars) and their phase-scrambled counterparts (SF, SO) were presented in a block design during a one-back task that was well matched for difficulty across conditions. A conjunction contrast at the group level {(F-SF) and (F-O)} identified six clusters: in the pulvinar, inferior occipital gyrus (so-called OFA), middle fusiform gyrus (so-called FFA), posterior superior temporal sulcus, amygdala, and anterior infero-temporal cortex, which were all strongly right lateralized. While the FFA showed the largest difference between faces and cars, it also showed the least face-selective response, responding more to cars than scrambled cars. Moreover, the FFA's larger response to scrambled faces than scrambled cars suggests that its face-sensitivity is partly due to low-level visual cues. In contrast, the pattern of activation in the OFA points to a higher degree of face-selectivity. A BOLD latency mapping analysis suggests that face-sensitivity emerges first in the right FFA, as compared to all other areas. Individual brain analyses support these observations, but also highlight the large amount of interindividual variability in terms of number, height, extent and localization of the areas responding preferentially to faces in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex. This observation emphasizes the need to rely on different statistical thresholds across the whole brain and across individuals to define these areas, but also raises some concerns regarding any objective labeling of these areas to make them correspond across individual brains. This large-scale analysis helps understanding the set of face-sensitive areas in the human brain, and encourages in-depth single participant analyses in which the whole set of areas is considered in each individual brain.     

Cost-Benefit Analysis Mediation of the Relationship Between Sensation Seeking and Risk Behavior

Risk behavior during adolescence results in substantial morbidity and mortality. Sensation seeking consistently relates to engagement in risk behavior, but the psychological mediators of this relationship remain unclear. The current study demonstrates that adolescents’ judgments of the costs versus benefits of risk behavior were a significant mediator of this relationship. Participants were 406 racially and ethnically diverse adolescents ages 12-17 (M = 14.5, SD = 1.7; 48.3% female) who participated in a larger multi-site investigation of personality and neurocognitive predictors of risk behavior. Data were collected via self-report in a single laboratory session. Mediation of the relationship of sensation seeking to risk behavior was tested using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that higher levels of sensation seeking predicted weighing the benefits of risk behavior higher than its costs, which in turn predicted higher levels of risk behavior. Implications of these findings for understanding mechanisms underlying adolescents’ risk behavior and directions for future research are discussed.     

Exploratory decisions of Trinidadian guppies when uncertain about predation risk

Animal Cognition - Animals can reduce their uncertainty of predation risk by gathering new information via exploration behaviour. However, a decision to explore may also be costly due to increased...     

Eye contact elicits bodily self-awareness in human adults

Eye contact is a typical human behaviour known to impact concurrent or subsequent cognitive processing. In particular, it has been suggested that eye contact induces self-awareness, though this has never been formally proven. Here, we show that the perception of a face with a direct gaze (that establishes eye contact), as compared to either a face with averted gaze or a mere fixation cross, led adult participants to rate more accurately the intensity of their physiological reactions induced by emotional pictures. Our data support the view that bodily self-awareness becomes more acute when one is subjected to another’s gaze. Importantly, this effect was not related to a particular arousal state induced by eye contact perception. Rejecting the arousal hypothesis, we suggest that eye contact elicits a self-awareness process by enhancing self-focused attention in humans. We further discuss the implications of this proposal.