Hormonal changes after competition predict sex‐differentiated decision‐making

Recent neuroendocrinology research has pointed out that testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) changes after social interactions can predict risk‐taking behavior in decision‐making, depending on the sex of participants. However, previous research has focused on the effects of the changes in only one hormone, rather than the interaction between them, even though C can suppress T activity. Our aim was to test, in men and women, the role of T changes moderated by C changes after competition in decision‐making. Thus, 48 males and 46 females completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) after a laboratory competition or a noncompetitive task (control task). Saliva samples were collected before and after the competition/control task. IGT was employed to measure risk‐taking decision‐making, considering the degree of uncertainty. Our results showed sex‐differentiated effects of T and C changes on risk‐taking behavior. On the one hand, men from both task groups (Competition/Control) who had higher C and T changes after competition showed more risk‐taking decision‐making (higher IG Risk). On the other hand, women from the competitive task who had high C and T showed conservative decision‐making. Therefore, these results show sex‐differentiated decision‐making profiles, which would help to understand how men and women behave after experiencing a competitive social context.     

Cholinergic dependence of taste memory formation: evidence of two distinct processes

Learning the aversive or positive consequences associated with novel taste solutions has a strong significance for an animal's survival. A lack of recognition of a taste's consequences could prevent ingestion of potential edibles or encounter death. We used conditioned taste aversion (CTA) and attenuation of neophobia (AN) to study aversive and safe taste memory formation. To determine if muscarinic receptors in the insular cortex participate differentially in both tasks, we infused the muscarinic antagonists scopolamine at distinct times before or after the presentation of a strong concentration of saccharin, followed by either an i.p. injection of a malaise-inducing agent or no injection. Our results showed that blockade of muscarinic receptors before taste presentation disrupts both learning tasks. However, the same treatment after the taste prevents AN but not CTA. These results clearly demonstrate that cortical cholinergic activity participates in the acquisition of both safe and aversive memory formation, and that cortical muscarinic receptors seem to be necessary for safe but not for aversive taste memory consolidation. These results suggest that the taste memory trace is processed in the insular cortex simultaneously by at least two independent mechanisms, and that their interaction would determine the degree of aversion or preference learned to a novel taste.     

History matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture

Visual search for a conjunction target is made easier when distractor items are temporally segregated over time to produce two separate old and new groups (the new group containing the target item). The benefit of presenting half the distractors first is known as the preview effect. Recently, some researchers have argued that the preview effect occurs because new stimuli capture attention. This account was tested in the present study by using a novel "top-up" condition that exploits the fact that when previews appear only briefly before the search display, there is minimal preview benefit. We show that effects of a brief preview can be "topped up" by an earlier exposure of the same items, even when the preview disappears between its first and second presentations.This top-up effect demonstrates that the history of the old stimuli is important for the preview benefit, contrary to the account favoring onset capture. We discuss alternative accounts of how the preview benefit arises.     

Conduct Problems and Adherence to COVID-19 Guidelines: A Developmental Psychopathology-Informed Approach

COVID-19 underscores the importance of understanding variation in adherence to rules concerning health behaviors. Children with conduct problems have difficulty with rule adherence, and linking early conduct problems with later adherence to COVID-19 guidelines can provide new insight into public health. The current study employed a sample (N = 744) designed to examine the longitudinal consequences of childhood conduct problems (Mean age at study entry = 8.39). The first objective was to link early conduct problems with later adherence to both general and specific COVID-19 guidelines during emerging adulthood (M age = 19.07). The second objective was to prospectively examine how interactional (i.e., callous unemotional traits, impulsivity) and cumulative (i.e., educational attainment, work status, substance use) continuity factors mediated this association. The third objective was to examine differences in sex assigned at birth in these models. Direct associations were observed between childhood conduct problems and lower general, but not specific COVID-19 guideline adherence. Conduct problems were indirectly associated with both general and specific adherence via higher levels of callous unemotional traits, and with specific adherence via higher problematic substance use. No differences in the models were observed across sex assigned at birth. Findings provide insight into both how developmental psychopathology constructs are useful for understanding COVID-19 guideline adherence, and the ways in which conduct problems may shape health outcomes.

     

Does contextual cuing guide the deployment of attention?

Contextual cuing experiments show that when displays are repeated, reaction times to find a target decrease over time even when observers are not aware of the repetition. It has been thought that the context of the display guides attention to the target. The authors tested this hypothesis by comparing the effects of guidance in a standard search task with the effects of contextual cuing. First, in standard search, an improvement in guidance causes search slopes (derived from Reaction Time x Set Size functions) to decrease. In contrast, the authors found that search slopes in contextual cuing did not become more efficient over time (Experiment 1). Second, when guidance was optimal (e.g., in easy feature search), they still found a small but reliable contextual cuing effect (Experiments 2a and 2b), suggesting that other factors, such as response selection, contribute to the effect. Experiment 3 supported this hypothesis by showing that the contextual cuing effect disappeared when the authors added interference to the response selection process. Overall, the data suggest that the relationship between guidance and contextual cuing is weak and that response selection can account for part of the effect.     

The efficacy of a Web-based counterargument tutor

In two experiments, we developed and tested an interactive Web-based tutor to help students identify and evaluate counterarguments. In Experiment 1, we determined the extent to which high- and low-argumentationability participants were able to identify counterarguments. We tested the effectiveness of having participants read didactic text regarding counterarguments and highlight claims. Both preparations had some positive effects that were often limited to high-ability participants. The Web-based intervention included interactive exercises on identifying and using counterarguments. Web-based presentation was state driven, using a Java Server Pages page. As participants progressively identified argument elements, the page changed display state and presented feedback by checking what the user clicked against elements that we had coded in XML beforehand. Instructions and feedback strings were indexed by state, so that changing state selected new text to display. In Experiment 2, the tutor was effective in teaching participants to identify counterarguments, recognize responses, and determine whether counterarguments were rebutted, dismissed, or conceded.     

Influence of spatial attention on conscious and unconscious word priming

We used a qualitative dissociation procedure to assess semantic priming from spatially attended and unattended masked words. Participants categorized target words that were preceded by parafoveal prime words belonging to either the same (20%) or the opposite (80%) category as the target. Using this paradigm, only non-strategic use of the prime would result in facilitation of the target responses in related trials. Primes were immediately masked or masked with a delay, while spatial attention was allocated to the primes' location or away from the primes' location. Immediate masked, strongly related primes facilitated target responses irrespective of the spatial attention. Delayed masked, related primes led to reversed (strategic) or facilitatory priming depending on whether they were cued or uncued. These findings demonstrate that perceiving a stimulus with or without awareness depends on both stimulus quality and attention orienting and that non-strategic priming can be observed from clear visible but spatially unattended words.     

Top-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in search

An inefficient visual search task can be facilitated if half the distractor items are presented as a preview prior to the presentation of the remaining distractor items and target. This benefit in search is termed the preview effect. Recent research has found that a preview effect can still occur if the previewed items disappear before reappearing again just before the search items (the “top-up” procedure). In this paper we investigate the attentional demands of processing during the preview and the top-up periods. Experiment 1 found that if attention is withdrawn from the top-up stage then no preview effect occurs. Likewise if attention is withdrawn from the initial preview period then the preview effect is reduced (Experiment 2). The data suggest that the preview effect is dependent on attention being paid both to the initial display and also to the re-presentation of the old display before the search display appears. The data counter accounts of preview search in terms of automatic attention capture by new items or by inhibition of return. We discuss alternative accounts of the results, and in particular suggest an amalgamation of a temporal grouping and a visual marking account of preview search.     

The Role of Overt and Covert Avoidance Strategies in Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms and Fear of Emotion

Models of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have largely focused on the role of cognitive (i.e. covert) processes in the maintenance of GAD symptoms, including cognitive avoidance (e.g., thought suppression). Researchers have begun to investigate more systematically the role of overt avoidance behaviors in GAD symptoms and processes. However, the contribution of both overt and covert avoidance strategies in GAD symptoms and emotional processes has not been examined yet. The aim of the present study was to investigate if both overt and covert avoidance strategies are related to (Objective 1) and make a unique contribution in the explanation of the variance of (Objective 2) GAD symptoms, chronic worry and emotional processes (i.e. fear of emotion). Individuals high in chronic worry and GAD symptoms (N?=?113) recruited from the community completed measures of the study variables. Greater use of overt and covert avoidance were both related to greater GAD symptoms, worry severity and fear of emotion. However, covert avoidance was the only unique correlate of GAD symptoms, worry severity and fear of emotion. The results suggest that covert avoidance makes a greater contribution to GAD symptoms and fear of emotion, than does overt avoidance. Future studies are needed to understand how overt avoidance behaviors fit into theoretical models of chronic worry and GAD.

     

Ethnic Prejudice,Resilience, and Perception of Inclusion of Immigrant Pupils among Italian and Catalan Teachers

Journal of Child and Family Studies - In the current study we investigated the relationship between ethnic prejudice and resilience and the perception of inclusion of immigrant students among...