Individual differences in the neural basis of causal inferencing

This study used fMRI to examine individual differences in the neural basis of causal inferencing. Participants with varying language skill levels, as indexed by scores on the vocabulary portion of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, read four types of two-sentence passages in which causal relatedness (moderate and distant) and presence or absence of explicit clause connectives were orthogonally varied to manipulate coherence and cohesion during inference generation. Skilled readers showed better neural efficiency (less activation) during all context sentences and during all inference conditions. Increased activation in less-skilled readers was most extensively distributed in the right hemisphere (RH) homologues of left hemisphere (LH) language areas, especially in the most difficult passage types. Skilled readers also showed greater sensitivity to coherence (greater activation and synchronization in moderately related than distantly related passages) whereas less-skilled readers showed sensitivity to cohesion (greater activation and synchronization when clause connectives were present than when they were not). These finding support the hypothesis that skilled reading comprehension requires recruitment of the RH on an “as needed” basis. We describe the dynamic spillover hypothesis, a new theoretical framework that outlines the conditions under which RH language contributions are most likely evoked.     

Male susceptibility to attentional capture by power cues

The present investigation explores the possibility that power has increased salience among males but not females. Evidence indicates that stimuli that are self-relevant or related to chronic goals are more likely to capture attention than neutral information. Across three studies we explore the possibility that the premium males place on power influences how they attend to their environment. Consistent with the common belief that power more readily captures their attention, results indicate that males “dwell” longer on power-related cues (Experiment 1) and are more subject to distraction by task-irrelevant power cues (Experiment 2) than are females. Experiment 3 demonstrates that this increased salience has enduring social consequences by increasing the likelihood that males commit power-relevant material to memory.     

Aretaic Appraisal and Practical Reasons

When we criticize someone for being unjust, deceitful, or imprudent—or commend him as just, truthful, or wise—what is the content of our evaluation? On one way of thinking, evaluating agents in terms that employ aretaic concepts evaluates how they regulate their actions (and judgment‐sensitive attitudes) in light of the reasons that bear on them. On this virtue‐centered view of practical reasons appraisal, evaluations of agents in terms of ethical virtues (and vices) are, inter alia, evaluations of them as practical reasoners. Here I consider and respond to an objection that threatens to debunk the virtue‐centered view.     

Habituation and novelty detection fNIRS brain responses in 5‐ and 8‐month‐old infants: The Gambia and UK

The first 1,000 days of life are a critical window of vulnerability to exposure to socioeconomic and health challenges (i.e. poverty/undernutrition). The Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) project has been established to deliver longitudinal measures of brain development from 0 to 24 months in UK and Gambian infants and to assess the impact of early adversity. Here results from the Habituation‐Novelty Detection (HaND) functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) task at 5 and 8 months are presented (N = 62 UK; N = 115 Gambia). In the UK cohort distinct patterns of habituation and recovery of response to novelty are seen, becoming more robust from 5 to 8 months of age. In The Gambia, an attenuated habituation response is evident: a larger number of trials are required before the response sufficiently suppresses relative to the response during the first presented trials. Furthermore, recovery of response to novelty is not evident at 5 or 8 months of age. As this longitudinal study continues in The Gambia, the parallel collection of socioeconomic, caregiving, health and nutrition data will allow us to stratify how individual trajectories of habituation and recovery of response to novelty associate with different risk factors and adaptive mechanisms in greater depth. Given the increasing interest in the use of neuroimaging methods within global neurocognitive developmental studies, this study provides a novel cross‐culturally appropriate paradigm for the study of brain responses associated with attention and learning mechanisms across early development.     

Relationships between health behaviors,posttraumatic stress disorder,and comorbid general anxiety and depression

Poor health outcomes associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may reflect engagement in unhealthy behaviors that increase morbidity risk and disengagement in healthy behaviors that decrease morbidity risk. Although research supports this pattern, findings are not definitive, particularly for healthy behaviors. Many studies have not controlled for effects of concurrent generalized anxiety and depression, which might explain conflicting findings. To address this limitation, we used an online cross-sectional research design and multivariate multilevel modelling to evaluate associations between a multitude of health behaviors (i.e. sedentary behavior, sleep quality, physical activity, eating habits, alcohol use and substance use) and PTSD, while adjusting for comorbid generalized anxiety and depression, in a sample of trauma-exposed individuals (N = 246). Our results indicate that PTSD and comorbid generalized anxiety and depression symptoms were differentially associated with specific health constructs. Specifically, sedentary behavior and poor sleep quality were associated with PTSD, whereas low physical activity, poor sleep quality, and unhealthy eating habits were associated with depression. Both increased alcohol and substance use were associated with generalized anxiety. Results from our study highlight the need to conceptualize associations between health behaviors and specific psychological symptoms in a comprehensive manner as part of clinical presentations of PTSD.     

Youth Needs at Intake into Trauma‐Informed Group Homes and Response to Services: An Examination of Trauma Exposure,Symptoms, and Clinical Impression

Trauma‐informed care is recommended to improve the quality of group home services for youth. Youth exposure to trauma and associated symptoms are important factors involved in making the clinical impression that determines treatment services. This study considered three dimensions of trauma (exposure, symptoms, and clinical impression) to determine associations with behavioral incidents of youth in trauma‐informed group homes and how trauma was related to changes in psychopathology from intake to discharge. Archival records of youth (N = 1,096), age 9–18 (M = 15.7 years) who received services from January 2013 to December 2017, and departed the program were used. Statistical procedures included hierarchical linear modeling and analysis of covariance. Results indicated trauma symptoms predicted emotional problems and self‐injurious behavior. Youth in high‐ and low‐trauma groups both showed decreases in behavioral incidents and psychopathology, but clinical impression of trauma moderated the change in emotional problems from intake to discharge. Youth deemed by clinicians to have lower trauma (based on history of maltreatment and expression of trauma symptoms) had greater decrease in emotional problems from admission to discharge. Limitations and implications for further research on implementation and effectiveness of trauma‐informed models are discussed.     

Emergent Values and the Experience of Aging

This study examined the role of values or guiding principles emerging from the life histories and reflections of 111 older adults as predictors of the experience of aging. Participants completed a detailed life history interview in which they described themselves on 10 major life dimensions. They also completed standardized questionnaires of well-being, personality traits, and intolerance of uncertainty. Participants expressed a mix of prosocial and self-interest values in their interviews. Multiple regression analyses indicated that social support and intolerance of uncertainty positively predicted the extent of values articulated in the interviews. Better quality of aging was predicted positively by extent of emergent values and greater well-being and negatively by age. The results indicate that an examination of values provides a unique contribution to the understanding of the experience of aging.     

Justice, Holism and Principles

Some moral theorists defend a holistic account of practical reasons and deny that the possibility of moral thought depends upon the existence of moral principles. This article explores the implications of this position for theorising about justice, which has often aspired to provide us with an ordered list of principles to govern our institutions and practices.

Familiarity and person construal: Individuating knowledge moderates the automaticity of category activation

In this experiment, we examined how perceivers' familiarity with targets moderates person construal. Based on evidence from object categorization that level of construal varies with expertise in a manner that maximizes cue validity, we reasoned that although social (i.e., group‐level) categorization is functional for construing unfamiliar others (about whom little or no individuating information is available), it is less functional for familiar others (about whom a great deal of individuating information is available). Results from an automatic priming paradigm provided evidence for our reasoning: Participants categorized unfamiliar faces according to the most salient categorical dimension available in the visual information (in this case, sex), but did not do so for familiar faces. Implications for models of person perception are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Normativity is the mother of intention: Wittgenstein, normative practices and neurological representations

To many philosophers, a scientific explanation of our contentful intentional states requires us to identify neurological representations that implement intentional states, and requires a reductive explanation of such representations' contents in terms of objective physical properties. From a Wittgensteinian point of view, however, contentful intentional states are normatively constituted within linguistic, social practices. These cannot be completely accounted for in purely physical terms. I outline this normative thesis, defending it from four objections: that it is not naturalistic, that social norms depend on optional desires to conform, that it over-intellectualizes having intentional states (so excludes animals and infants), and that it cannot account for the causal role of content. I explain the ramifications for scientific psychology and neuroscience, and for interpreting the results of such empirical research. Nothing is objectively a contentful representation, yet some brain states or processes can be normatively constituted as representations with content.