How do implementation intentions promote goal attainment? A test of component processes

Implementation intentions are plans that specify the when, where, and how of goal striving in advance, and have been shown to enhance rates of goal attainment compared to merely forming respective goal intentions. The present research investigated whether the accessibility of the specified situation (cue accessibility) and the strength of the association between the specified situation and the intended response (cue-response linkage) explain the impact of implementation intentions on goal achievement. Findings indicated that participants who planned how to undertake a verbal task better attained their goal compared to participants who did not form a plan. Crucially, implementation intention effects were mediated by the accessibility of the specified cue and by the strength of cue-response links. These findings support the idea that implementation intentions benefit performance because control of behavior is delegated to specified situational cues that initiate action automatically.     

The role of attention in the formation of auditory streams

There is controversy over whether stream segregation is an attention-dependent process. Part of the argument is related to the initial formation of auditory streams. It has been suggested that attention is needed only to form the streams, but not to maintain them once they have been segregated. The question of whether covert attention at the beginning of a to-be-ignored set of sounds will be enough to initiate the segregation process remains open. Here, we investigate this question by (1) using a methodology that does not require the participant to make an overt response to assess how the unattended sounds are organized and (2) structuring the test sound sequence to account for the covert attention explanation. The results of four experiments provide evidence to support the view that attention is not always required for the formation of auditory streams.     

Oscillatory priming and form complexity

Detection of a target grouping is expedited when the target display is preceded by presentation of an oscillating premask that includes priming elements presented intraphasically and below detection threshold at the display locations subsequently occupied by the target. Five experiments were performed to investigate how priming is affected by both the complexity and the geometry of prime/target forms. Experiment 1 showed that the subjective complexity of different polygons was coded in accord with an objective measure of form complexity. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed oscillatory priming to increase as a function of the subjective complexity of prime/target forms when those forms were regular and predictable. However, Experiments 4 and 5 showed that this relation did not hold when the prime/target forms were irregular and unpredictable. Taken together, it is argued that both subjective complexity and the Pr?gnanz quality of the prime/target forms come to determine the magnitude of priming. These results are discussed with reference to current physiological hypotheses regarding perceptual organization.     

Use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Early Identification of Alzheimer's Disease

A growing body of evidence suggests that a preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD) exists several years or more prior to the overt manifestation of clinical symptoms and is characterized by subtle neuropsychological and brain changes. Identification of individuals prior to the development of significant clinical symptoms is imperative in order to have the greatest treatment impact by maintaining cognitive abilities and preserving quality of life. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers considerable promise as a non-invasive tool for detecting early functional brain changes in asymptomatic adults. In fact, evidence to date indicates that functional brain decline precedes structural decline in preclinical samples. Therefore, fMRI may offer the unique ability to capture the dynamic state of change in the degenerating brain. This review examines the clinical utility of blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI in those at risk for AD as well as in early AD. We provide an overview of fMRI findings in at-risk groups by virtue of genetic susceptibility or mild cognitive decline followed by an appraisal of the methodological issues concerning the diagnostic usefulness of fMRI in early AD. We conclude with a discussion of future directions and propose that BOLD-fMRI in combination with cerebral blood flow or diffusion techniques will provide a more complete accounting of the neurovascular changes that occur in preclinical AD and thus improve our ability to reliably detect early brain changes prior to disease onset.     

The validity and reliability of the Violence Risk Scale-Sexual Offender version: assessing sex offender risk and evaluating therapeutic change

The Violence Risk Scale-Sexual Offender version (VRS-SO) is a rating scale designed to assess risk and predict sexual recidivism, to measure and link treatment changes to sexual recidivism, and to inform the delivery of sexual offender treatment. The VRS-SO comprises 7 static and 17 dynamic items empirically or conceptually linked to sexual recidivism. Dynamic items with higher ratings identify treatment targets linked to sexual offending. A modified stages of change model assesses the offender's treatment readiness and change. File-based VRS-SO ratings were completed on 321 sex offenders followed up an average of 10 years post-release. VRS-SO scores predicted sexual and nonsexual violent recidivism post-release and demonstrated acceptable interrater reliability and concurrent validity. A factor analysis of the dynamic items generated 3 factors labeled Sexual Deviance, Criminality, and Treatment Responsivity, all of which predicted sexual recidivism and were differentially associated with different sex offender types. The dynamic items together made incremental contributions to sexual recidivism prediction after static risk was controlled for. Positive changes in the dynamic items, measured at pre- and posttreatment, were significantly related to reductions in sexual recidivism after risk and follow-up time were controlled for, suggesting that dynamic items are indeed dynamic or changeable in nature.     

Genetic background differences and nonassociative effects in mouse trace fear conditioning

Fear conditioning, including variants such as delay and trace conditioning that depend on different neural systems, is widely used to behaviorally characterize genetically altered mice. We present data from three strains of mice, C57/BL6 (C57), 129/SvlmJ (129), and a hybrid strain of the two (F(1) hybrids), trained on various versions of a trace fear-conditioning protocol. The initial version was taken from the literature but included unpaired control groups to assess nonassociative effects on test performance. We observed high levels of nonassociative freezing in both contextual and cued test conditions. In particular, nonassociative freezing in unpaired control groups was equivalent to freezing shown by paired groups in the tests for trace conditioning. A number of pilot studies resulted in a new protocol that yielded strong context conditioning and low levels of nonassociative freezing in all mouse strains. During the trace-CS test in this protocol, freezing in unpaired controls remained low in all strains, and both the C57s and F(1) hybrids showed reliable associative trace fear conditioning. Trace conditioning, however, was not obtained in the 129 mice. Our findings indicate that caution is warranted in interpreting mouse fear-conditioning studies that lack control conditions to address nonassociative effects. They also reveal a final set of parameters that are important for minimizing such nonassociative effects and demonstrate strain differences across performance in mouse contextual and trace fear conditioning.     

The hidden sides of self-esteem: Two dimensions of implicit self-esteem and their relation to narcissistic reactions

Implicit, or nonconscious, self-esteem is often assumed to involve a unidimensional evaluation of the self. Our studies demonstrate that implicit self-esteem is in fact multifaceted and can be divided into at least two dimensions, which we term self-liking and self-attractiveness. Among participants for whom narcissistic thoughts and feelings were experimentally activated, we found that the two dimensions of implicit self-esteem were differentially associated with self-reported narcissism (Study 1) and feelings of aggressiveness (Study 2). In particular, narcissistic reactions were predicted by the combination of a high level of implicit self-attractiveness and a low level of implicit self-liking. These findings add to the growing understanding of the complexities of implicit self-esteem.     

Deceptiveness on the PAI: a study of naïve faking with psychiatric inpatients

In this study, we sought to explore the diagnostic accuracy of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) Validity scales (Negative Impression Management [NIM] and Positive Impression Management [PIM]) and indexes (Malingering index, Defensiveness index [DEF]; Morey, 1993, 1996; Cashel Discriminant Function; Cashel, Rogers, Sewell, & Martin-Cannici, 1995; and Rogers Discriminant Function [RDF]; Rogers, Sewell, Morey, & Ustad, 1996) to identify differences in profiles completed by psychiatric inpatients under standardized instructions (Time 1) and after random assignment (Time 2) to a fake good (n=21), fake bad (n=20), or retest (n=21) scenario. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction effect. Whereas the retest group did not show any significant changes on the PAI variables from Time 1 to Time 2, both faking groups showed changes in expected directions. Discriminant function analyses revealed that NIM, RDF, and lower scores on DEF best differentiated between the faking bad and retest groups. PIM was the only nonredundant significant score discriminating the faking good and retest groups. Cutoffs for these scales and indexes established in prior research were supported using diagnostic efficiency statistics. Results suggest that NIM and RDF in faking bad scenarios and PIM in faking good scenarios are most sensitive to unsophisticated attempts to dissimulate by inpatient psychiatric patients.     

The development of depth perception from motion parallax in infancy

North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota Little is known about infants' perception of depth from motion parallax, even though it is known that infants are sensitive both to motion and to depth-from-motion cues at an early age. The present experiment assesses whether infants are sensitive to the unambiguous depth specified by motion parallax and, if so, when this sensitivity first develops. Eleven infants were followed longitudinally from 8 to 29 weeks. Infants monocularly viewed a translating Rogers and Graham (1979) random-dot stimulus, which appears as a corrugated surface to adult observers. Using the infant-control habituation paradigm, looking time was recorded for each 10-sec trial until habituation, followed by two test trials: one using a depth-reversed and one using a flat stimulus. Dishabituation results indicate that infants may be sensitive to unambiguous depth from motion parallax by 16 weeks of age. Implications for the developmental sequence of depth from motion, stereopsis, and eye movements are discussed.     

BEAUTY IN THE LIVING WORLD

Almost all admit that there is beauty in the natural world. Many suspect that such beauty is more than an adornment of nature. Few in our contemporary world suggest that this beauty is an empirical principle of the natural world itself and instead relegate beauty to the eye and mind of the beholder. Guided by theological and scientific insight, the authors propose that such exclusion is no longer tenable, at least in the data of modern biology and in our view of the natural world in general. More important, we believe an empirical aesthetics exists that can help guide experimental design and development of computational models in biology. Moreover, because theology and science can both contribute toward and equally profit from such an aesthetics, we propose that this empirical aesthetics provides the foundation for a living synergy between theology and science.