Intensional Protocols for Dynamic Epistemic Logic

Journal of Philosophical Logic - In dynamical multi-agent systems, agents are controlled by protocols. In choosing a class of formal protocols, an implicit choice is made concerning the types of...     

Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study

This meta-analysis of 172 studies (N = 2,263 anxious,N = 1,768 nonanxious) examined the boundary conditions of threat-related attentional biases in anxiety. Overall, the results show that the bias is reliably demonstrated with different experimental paradigms and under a variety of experimental conditions, but that it is only an effect size of d = 0.45. Although processes requiring conscious perception of threat contribute to the bias, a significant bias is also observed with stimuli outside awareness. The bias is of comparable magnitude across different types of anxious populations (individuals with different clinical disorders, high-anxious nonclinical individuals, anxious children and adults) and is not observed in nonanxious individuals. Empirical and clinical implications as well as future directions for research are discussed.     

Characteristics of Internet use in relation to game genre in Korean adolescents.

As the number of internet users increases, a new game genre using the internet as a networking tool is emerging. Some game genres are regarded as having greater addiction potentials than others. Games and the internet are closely related. We investigated games frequently used by adolescents and classified each of them with the help of game professionals. We also examined internet use patterns to identify relationships between game genre and internet use patterns. 627 middle school and high school students (male 488, female 139) completed questionnaires concerning computer and game use patterns and Korean internet addiction scales. Game genres were divided into eight criteria (simulation, role playing game, web board, community, action, adventure, shooting, and sports). Using Korean internet addiction scales, 627 participants were divided into a normal group (474), a potential risk group (128), and a high-risk group (25). Each group showed significant differences in total internet addiction scores. We classified players into specific game users based upon the game types they most prefer. Role playing game users showed significantly higher internet addiction scores than web board and sports game users. Game and internet addictions are also connected with interpersonal relationship patterns. We suggest that users of some game genre have unique psychological addiction potentials that are different from others and that this influences both game selection and internet use.     

NEURONAL CODING OF SERIAL ORDER:

Abstract— How does the brain create rule-governed sequences of behavior? An answer to this question may come from a surprising source: the neostriatum (caudate nucleus and putamen), Traditionally, the neostriatum has been considered pun of the brain's motor system, but its contribution to the preparation or execution of movement is recognized generally to concern high-level motor functions. Recent work implicates the neostriatum in disorders of sequential action and thought, as in the repetition of thoughts or habits in human obsessive-compulsive disorder and movements or speech in Tourette's syndrome. Yet there is no direct evidence to support the idea that the neostriatum controls sequences of behavior. Using ethological and neurophysiological techniques to study neural activity in the rat neoslriatum during syntactic grooming sequences, we found that neuronal activity in the anterolateral neostriatum depended on the execution of syntactic sequences of grooming actions. The individual grooming movements themselves did not activate the neoslriatum; activation was determined by the syntactic sequence in which grooming movements were performed. These data provide the first direct evidence that the neoslriatum coordinates the control of rule-governed behavioral sequences.     

Attentional spreading in object-based attention

The authors investigated 2 effects of object-based attention: the spread of attention within an attended object and the prioritization of search across possible target locations within an attended object. Participants performed a flanker task in which the location of the task-relevant target was fixed and known to participants. A spreading attention account predicts that object-based attention will arise from the spread of attention through an attended object. A prioritization account predicts that there will be a small, if any, object-based effect because the location of the target is known in advance and objects are not required to prioritize the deployment of attentional search. The results suggested that object-based attention operates via the spread of attention within an object.     

Factor structure of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in Hong Kong adolescents

We present data from the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) for 2 samples of Hong Kong community adolescents (combined N = 1,385). The 4 positive affect items related poorly to the remainder of the scale. Using 16 items, the data were consistent with 2 models with highly correlated factors: (a) a 2-factor model, 1 of which merged somatic and affective items, and (b) a 3-factor model separating somatic, depressed, and interpersonal items. Correlations with related constructs provide preliminary support of validity. Hong Kong adolescents are influenced both by traditional concepts of mind-body holism and Western psychological models separating psychological and somatic symptoms.     

Lying in the name of the collective good: a developmental study

The present study examined the developmental origin of 'blue lies', a pervasive form of lying in the adult world that is told purportedly to benefit a collective. Seven, 9-, and 11-year-old Chinese children were surreptitiously placed in a real-life situation where they decided whether to lie to conceal their group's cheating behavior. Children were also assessed in terms of their willingness in hypothetical situations to endorse lying or truth-telling that benefits a collective but at the same time harms an individual. Results showed that as age increased, children became more inclined to endorse lying in the name of the collective good, and to tell lies for their group themselves. Furthermore, children's endorsement about blue lies in hypothetical situations predicted their actual lying behavior.     

Reactivation-dependent amnesia in Pavlovian approach and instrumental transfer

The theory of memory reconsolidation relates to the hypothesized restabilisation process that occurs following the reactivation of a memory through retrieval. Thus the demonstration of reactivation-dependent amnesia for a previously acquired memory is a prerequisite for showing that such a memory undergoes reconsolidation. Here we show that the appetitive Pavlovian representations that underlie Pavlovian approach and Pavlovian-instrumental transfer are destabilized following their retrieval. This reactivation-dependent amnesia demonstrates that the general motivational or incentive properties of appetitive conditioned stimuli, as well as their conditioned reinforcing properties, can be reduced by blocking memory reconsolidation.     

Catastrophizing as a Cognitive Vulnerability Factor Related to Depression in Workers’ Compensation Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of catastrophizing as a mediator and moderator between life stress and depression in a sample of workers’ compensation patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Pain intensity, life stress (especially work and financial stress), and catastrophizing contributed significantly to depression. Catastrophizing was found to be partially mediating the relationship between life stress and depression and a moderator between social stress and depression. The results supported the role of catastrophizing as a cognitive vulnerability-stress factor related to depression in chronic pain patients. Screening for life stress and intervening early to prevent catastrophizing from occurring in the workers’ compensation rehabilitation process may reduce psychosocial distress and enhance the overall effectiveness of rehabilitation programming for workers’ compensation patients with chronic pain.