Effects of Acceptance and Commitment Training Plus Behavior Parent Training on Parental Implementation of Autism Treatment

The Psychological Record - The objective of this study was to examine the effects of acceptance and commitment training (ACT) plus behavior parent training (BPT), when delivered via telehealth, on...     

Sensitivity to lateral information on a perceptual word identification task in French third and fifth graders

This study aimed at examining sensitivity to lateral linguistic and nonlinguistic information in third and fifth grade readers. A word identification task with a threshold was used, and targets were displayed foveally with or without distractors. Sensitivity to lateral information was inferred from the deterioration of the rate of correct word identification when displayed with distractors. Results show that the two reader groups were sensitive to both right and left lateral information. The area of sensitivity to this information was more extended for the identification of easy words than difficult words. Examination of the detrimental effect of distractors suggests that in both third and fifth graders, the impact of lateral information on foveal processing is the result of a general distraction effect, but also of linguistic processing whose nature remains to be clarified.     

Character profiles and adolescents’ self-reported affect

Cognitive and behavioral changes during adolescence might be understood from the perspective of increased executive functioning that is expressed as gradual maturing character. Character profiles (combinations of low and high scores in three character traits: Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence) of 439 Swedish adolescents were used to evaluate the linear and non-linear relationship between character traits and self-reported positive and negative affect. Linear analysis showed that all three character traits were associated to positive and negative affect. Non-linear analysis showed that Self-directedness was associated with high positive affect and low negative affect when Cooperativeness was high. No association of higher Cooperativeness with positive and negative affect was found. Higher Self-transcendence was associated with higher negative affect when both Self-directedness and Cooperativeness were high. Although, Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence are associated to adolescents’ affective experience, these character traits are not associated to positive and negative affect in the same manner or linearly. Self-directedness’s positive relationship to high positive affect and low negative affect was present only when Cooperativeness was high. In other words, an autonomous adolescent (i.e., high Self-directedness) might experience more positive and less negative emotions as long as she/he feels as an integral part of society (i.e., high Cooperativeness).     

Religion and Selected Health Behaviors Among Latinos in Texas

Though research has shown that religion provides a protective influence with respect to a number of health-related outcomes, little work has examined its influence on patterns of alcohol (especially binge drinking) and tobacco consumption among Latinos in Texas. Thus, we used a probability sample of Texas adults to test this relationship via logistic regression. Our results revealed that clear distinctions emerge on the basis of both denomination and frequency of attendance. Specifically, Protestants who regularly attend religious services are significantly more likely to be abstainers and to have never smoked, while those with no religious affiliation exhibit relatively unfavorable risk profiles. These findings persist despite a range of socio-demographic controls. Our study supports the assertion that religion may serve as an important protective influence on risky health behaviors.     

Emotion affects action: Midcingulate cortex as a pivotal node of interaction between negative emotion and motor signals

Affective pictures drive the activity of brain networks and impact behavior. We showed previously that viewing unpleasant pictures interfered in the performance of a basic nonemotional visual detection task. In the present study, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the hypothesis that behavioral interference may result from the interaction between negatively valenced and motor-related signals in the brain. As in our previous study (Pereira et al., 2006), participants performed a simple target detection task that followed the presentation of unpleasant or neutral pictures. Our results revealed that an unpleasant emotional context modulated evoked responses in several regions engaged by the simple target detection task. In particular, the midcingulate cortex was recruited when participants performed target detection trials during the unpleasant context, and signal responses in this region closely mirrored the pattern of behavioral interference (as revealed via reaction time). Our findings suggest that the midcingulate cortex may be an important site for the interaction between negatively valenced signals and motor signals in the brain and that it may be involved in the implementation of defensive responses, such as freezing.     

Altruistic behavior and the bidimensional just world belief

Thirty participants were sampled after donating charity to a street beggar and were compared by means of 2 short scales of belief in ajust world for self (BJWS) and belief in a just world for others (BJWO) with 30 randomly selected people who passed the beggar by without donating charity. We assumed that BJWO would be negatively related to altruistic behavior, whereas BJWS would be positively linked with it. A logistic regression analysis introducing BJWS, BJWO, and participants' age and gender as predictors showed that BJWO was negatively related to altruistic behavior, whereas the BJWS tended to be positively associated to it. No effects were observed for age or gender.     

Alcohol and Aggression: Perspectives on Controlled and Uncontrolled Social Information Processing

This paper reviews the main current social cognitive explanations of the effects of acute alcohol consumption on aggression: the cognitive disruption model, the attributional model, and model of automaticity. The cognitive disruption model posits that intoxication affects controlled processing arising from the impairment of executive cognitive functions by alcohol's pharmacological properties. The individual consequently focuses on the most salient and proximal situational factors, thereby spoiling self‐regulatory processes. According to the attributional model, drinkers expect alcohol to mitigate social sanctions following aggression by shifting blame to alcohol. These explicit expectations represent an extrapharmacological cause of the alcohol–aggression link. Finally, the model of automaticity implies that alcohol meanings stored in long‐term memory and activated in drinking contexts automatically trigger aggressive thoughts and behavior without the individual's awareness. The explanation of intoxicated aggression should integrate these co‐etiological social cognitive models that take into account pharmacological as well as extrapharmacological consequences of alcohol consumption.     

Power and the Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations

This study examines how the illusion of transparency in negotiation differs depending on whether one is the powerful or less powerful negotiator. The illusion of transparency is the tendency for individuals to overestimate the extent to which their internal states and intentions are apparent to an outside observer. Thus, this illusion equals the difference between perceived and actual transparency. We predict that less powerful negotiators experience more perceived transparency than do powerful negotiators and that powerful negotiators exhibit greater actual transparency than do less powerful negotiators. The main hypothesis that the illusion of transparency is greater for less powerful negotiators than for powerful negotiators was supported.     

Learning orthography in adulthood: A magnetoencephalographic study

Previous work demonstrated that there were differences between literate and comparable illiterate adult subjects. These differences were found in the performance on several tests and on patterns of activation on PET and fMRI. In the present study subjects that learned to read and to write in adulthood (being previously completely illiterate) were compared to controls, that is subjects that learned at school at the proper age. Magnetoencephalography was done while subjects were reading words. Results showed that, although the reading performance was the same in both groups while performing the task, the pattern of source distribution was different between groups. There were more late sources in right temporo‐parietal areas of late literates compared to controls and more late sources in left inferior frontal cortex in control subjects. It is concluded that learning to read in adulthood is a process supported by different brain structures from the ones used when learning occurs at the proper age. This may suggest that the same task can be similarly performed by relying on diverse functional brain anatomic networks.