The generality of working memory capacity: a latent-variable approach to verbal and visuospatial memory span and reasoning

A latent-variable study examined whether verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) capacity measures reflect a primarily domain-general construct by testing 236 participants in 3 span tests each of verbal WM. visuospatial WM, verbal short-term memory (STM), and visuospatial STM. as well as in tests of verbal and spatial reasoning and general fluid intelligence (Gf). Confirmatory' factor analyses and structural equation models indicated that the WM tasks largely reflected a domain-general factor, whereas STM tasks, based on the same stimuli as the WM tasks, were much more domain specific. The WM construct was a strong predictor of Gf and a weaker predictor of domain-specific reasoning, and the reverse was true for the STM construct. The findings support a domain-general view of WM capacity, in which executive-attention processes drive the broad predictive utility of WM span measures, and domain-specific storage and rehearsal processes relate more strongly to domain-specific aspects of complex cognition.     

Central inhibition ability modulates attention-induced motion blindness

Impaired motion perception can be induced in normal observers in a rapid serial visual presentation task. Essential for this effect is the presence of motion distractors prior to the motion target, and we proposed that this attention-induced motion blindness results from high-level inhibition produced by the distractors. To investigate this, we compared the extent of the attention-induced motion blindness effect with performance on central inhibition tasks: Stroop colour naming and negative priming. A negative correlation between Stroop interference and motion performance reflected that low Stroop scores, indicative of strong inhibition ability, was associated with more severe impairments in motion perception. This association could not be explained by individual differences in fluid intelligence, task switching or response speed. Negative priming was not specifically associated with attention-induced motion blindness. The results confirm that attention can modulate motion perception and suggest that the processes involved may be shared with high-level cognitive abilities.     

An emerging postural response: is control of the hip possible in the newly walking child?

Previous researchers have proposed that because of their slow muscle-response latencies, 1- to 2-year-old children are unable to control hip-dominant postural responses when responding to balance threats (G. McCollum & T. Leen, 1989). To test that proposition, the authors exposed 41 children to backward support-surface translations and recorded muscle activations and movement kinematics. Children between 10 months and 10 years of age stood on a platform that was unexpectedly moved. Passive hip-dominant responses were observed among the least experienced walkers. In contrast, older children produced an active response, signified by higher levels of abdominal and quadriceps muscle activity and accompanied by larger hip flexor torques. Greater success in withstanding large magnitudes of perturbations were associated with actively generated hip responses.     

Correlates of aggression in African American and Puerto Rican children

The authors examined a cross-sectional interrelationship of psychosocial domains as they relate to aggression in a group of African American and English-speaking Puerto Rican children living in New York City. The population included 80 biological children of African American and Puerto Rican young adults who had been participating in the authors' ongoing longitudinal study, and 77 mothers or mother substitutes (rearing mothers) of those children. The authors performed hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that (a) the child's personality and maternal attributes were significantly related to the child's aggression, despite control on all of the other domains and (b) the ethnic identification and discrimination domain was no longer related to the child's aggression with control on the mother-child relationship domain or on the child's personality domain. The findings have implications for clinical practice and public policy.     

A six-factor structure of personality-descriptive adjectives: solutions from psycholexical studies in seven languages

Standard psycholexical studies of personality structure have produced a similar 6-factor solution in 7 languages (Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish). The authors report the content of these personality dimensions and interpret them as follows: (a) a variant of Extraversion, defined by sociability and liveliness (though not by bravery and toughness); (b) a variant of Agreeableness, defined by gentleness, patience, and agreeableness (but also including anger and ill temper at its negative pole); (c) Conscientiousness (emphasizing organization and discipline rather than moral conscience); (d) Emotionality (containing anxiety, vulnerability, sentimentality, lack of bravery, and lack of toughness, but not anger or ill temper); (e) Honesty-Humility; (f) Intellect/Imagination/Unconventionality. A potential reorganization of the Big Five factor structure is discussed.     

Gratitude in intermediate affective terrain: links of grateful moods to individual differences and daily emotional experience

Two studies were conducted to explore gratitude in daily mood and the relationships among various affective manifestations of gratitude. In Study 1, spiritual transcendence and a variety of positive affective traits were related to higher mean levels of gratitude across 21 days. Study 2 replicated these findings and revealed that on days when people had more grateful moods than was typical for them, they also reported more frequent daily episodes of grateful emotions, more intense gratitude per episode, and more people to whom they were grateful than was typical for them. In addition, gratitude as an affective trait appeared to render participants' grateful moods somewhat resistant to the effects of discrete emotional episodes of gratitude.     

Norwegian versions of the Living with Asthma Questionnaire (LWAQ) and Asthma Bother Profile (ABP), validation and comparison of two asthma groups

The Living with Asthma Questionnaire (LWAQ) and the Asthma Bother Profile (ABP) were translated into Norwegian using conventional back translation procedures, and completed by 30 asthma outpatients and 30 asthma patients admitted to inpatient rehabilitation. Reliability (Cronbach's alpha and retest-reliability) was shown to be good for both scales. Validity was established by showing significantly poorer health in the rehabilitation sample, and correlations with state and trait anxiety. The Norwegian translations are reliable and valid versions of the original questionnaires.     

When words collide: facilitation and interference in the report of repeated words from rapidly presented lists

Inhibited encoding is the basis of some accounts of repetition blindness--impaired report of the second occurrence of a repeated word in a rapidly presented word sequence. The author presents evidence for the claim that repetition effects arise from constructive processes of perception and memory that occur to some extent after the word sequence has been presented. Unpredictable postlist cues prompted subjects to report either the entire list or just the final word in the list. Repetition impaired the report of the second occurrence of a repeated word under full report but facilitated the report of such items when only the final word had to be reported. The author modulated this dissociation by presenting repeated words in sentences rather than unrelated word lists. The sensitivity of the effects of repetition to postlist cues supports a construction rather than an encoding inhibition account of repetition blindness.     

Actions and affordances in syntactic ambiguity resolution

In 2 experiments, eye movements were monitored as participants followed instructions containing temporary syntactic ambiguities (e.g., "Pour the egg in the bowl over the flour"). The authors varied the affordances of task-relevant objects with respect to the action required by the instruction (e.g., whether 1 or both eggs in the visual workspace were in liquid form, allowing them to be poured). The number of candidate objects that could afford the action was found to determine whether listeners initially misinterpreted the ambiguous phrase ("in the bowl") as specifying a location. The findings indicate that syntactic decisions are guided by the listener's situation-specific evaluation of how to achieve the behavioral goal of an utterance.