Inhibitory spillover: increased urination urgency facilitates impulse control in unrelated domains

Visceral states are known to reduce the ability to exert self-control. In the current research, we investigated how self-control is affected by a visceral factor associated with inhibition rather than with approach: bladder control. We designed four studies to test the hypothesis that inhibitory signals are not domain-specific but can spill over to unrelated domains, resulting in increased impulse control in the behavioral domain. In Study 1, participants' urination urgency correlated with performance on color-naming but not word-meaning trials of a Stroop task. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that higher levels of bladder pressure resulted in an increased ability to resist impulsive choices in monetary decision making. We found that inhibitory spillover effects are moderated by sensitivity of the Behavioral Inhibition System (Study 3) and can be induced by exogenous cues (Study 4). Implications for inhibition and impulse-control theories are discussed.     

Do type and token effects reflect different mechanisms? Connectionist modeling of Dutch past-tense formation and final devoicing

In this paper, we show that both token and type-based effects in lexical processing can result from a single, token-based, system, and therefore, do not necessarily reflect different levels of processing. We report three Simple Recurrent Networks modeling Dutch past-tense formation. These networks show token-based frequency effects and type-based analogical effects closely matching the behavior of human participants when producing past-tense forms for both existing verbs and pseudo-verbs. The third network covers the full vocabulary of Dutch, without imposing predefined linguistic structure on the input or output words.     

Distinctive phonological features differ in relevance for both spoken and written word recognition

This paper discusses four experiments on Dutch which show that distinctive phonological features differ in their relevance for word recognition. The relevance of a feature for word recognition depends on its phonological stability, that is, the extent to which that feature is generally realized in accordance with its lexical specification in the relevant word position. If one feature value is uninformative, all values of that feature are less relevant for word recognition, with the least informative feature being the least relevant. Features differ in their relevance both in spoken and written word recognition, though the differences are more pronounced in auditory lexical decision than in self-paced reading.     

Effects of visual center of pressure feedback on postural control in young and elderly healthy adults and in stroke patients

The goal of this study was to compare young and elderly healthy individuals and elderly stroke patients in their capacity to use visual CP feedback (VF) in controlling both quiet standing and weight shifting and to assess their sensory re-weighing when this VF is withdrawn. A total of 40 participants were involved in this study. Participants were asked to either quietly stand on a force platform for a period of 45 s with eyes open (EO), using visual feedback (VF) or without visual feedback (No VF) or to perform a dynamic weight shifting task while using VF or No VF. During the quiet standing trials with VF, only the young (YO) were able to decrease the amplitude and increase the frequency of their sway in either plane. Removal of the VF resulted in a 'destabilizing' effect in both healthy elderly (EL) and stroke patients (ST) in the sagittal plane. With regard to the dynamic task, both the YO and EL were generally more successful at weight shifting in terms of speed and control when compared to the ST. Yet, when VF was removed, only the YO were able to largely maintain speed and precision of control. Hence, providing or removing visual CP feedback during quiet standing or removing VF during visually controlled weight shifting can discriminate healthy young participants from healthy elderly, but does not clearly discriminate healthy elderly from stroke patients in the same age group. Results revealed that sagittal plane imbalance in healthy elderly and stroke patients may be largely due to the effects of aging, whereas frontal plane imbalance is much more specific for the postural problems associated with stroke.     

How to cope with "noise" in social dilemmas: the benefits of communication

Interactions in social life may be seriously affected by negative noise, whereby actual or perceived behavior is less cooperative than was intended (e.g., arriving late due to an unforeseen traffic jam). The present research examines whether negative noise exerts detrimental effects on impressions and cooperation and whether such effects could be reduced by communication. Consistent with hypotheses, Study 1 revealed that negative noise exerts detrimental effects on both impressions of partners' benign intent and cooperation and that these detrimental effects could be effectively reduced by communication about noise. Study 2 replicated both findings but only for individuals with low trust. Mediation analysis revealed that impressions of benign intent and prosocial interaction goals underlie the positive effects of communication on cooperation.     

La pratique répétée du Trail Making Test réduit les différences liées à l’âge sur la performance à ce test

Age-related impairment in executive functioning has been found to explain partially the decrease of cognitive performance with aging. However, the practice of an executive test can improve performance to this test. In the present study, we investigated first how the practice of the Trail Making Test (TMT, flexibility test) may influence the age-related deficit to the performance in this test and then how the performance tended to improve, and at which pace, through the practice of this executive test. Two age groups of participants (young and older adults) practiced the TMT and were compared to two control groups (i.e., no practice between pre- and post-test). The practice groups’ scores were obtained at the end of each session. Globally, the results showed an improvement of performance (1) greater in the practice groups than in the control groups and (2) in practice groups, greater in older adults than in younger ones. Both younger and older adults progressed during the early practice sessions but the younger ones reached their optimal level earlier than the older adults who continued to improve over the sessions. These results could have a major impact on adapting cognitive stimulation programs to individual's characteristics such as age.     

Can children break the cycle of disadvantage? Structure and agency in the transmission of education across generations

Research has shown that parents tend to pass educational advantage or disadvantage on to their children. However, little is known about the extent to which the intergenerational transmission of education involves children’s agency. In this study we drew from two traditions in sociological and social psychological theorizing—the theory of cultural and social reproduction and the theory of human agency—to examine whether agency influences children’s educational performance, and if so, whether this influence can be observed among children across social classes. We used data from the Spanish sample of the Program for International Student Assessment (N = 25,003 15-year-olds). Results indicate that the level of child agency was weakly positively related to social class, that child agency impacted on a child’s educational performance, and that the positive effect of agency on educational performance did not vary by social class. This suggests that strategies to enhance disadvantaged children’s agency may prove useful in reducing social gradients in educational performance. More generally, our findings may ignite a debate about the role that social structure and human agency play in shaping social inequality and mobility.     

Affect and the weight of idealistic versus pragmatic concerns in decision situations

Individuals consider abstract values and principles important aspects of their identities. Nonetheless, they often make judgments and decisions that contradict these values and principles for the sake of pragmatic benefits. Assuming that the process of weighting idealistic and pragmatic concerns is context sensitive, the present research argues that affect influences the relative weight of idealistic versus pragmatic concerns in decision situations owing to its influence on the level of abstraction at which individuals represent situations mentally. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that more positive affect increases the prominent weighting of idealistic over pragmatic concerns while less positive affect leads to less differentiation between the relevance of idealistic and pragmatic concerns. Studies 3 and 4 test the assumption that affective influences on mental abstraction are crucial for affect‐dependent shifts in the weighting of idealistic and pragmatic concerns. By bringing together theorizing on affect and cognition with recent theorizing on the role of mental abstraction for decision processes, this article highlights a mechanism through which decisions can be influenced by feelings that goes beyond the mechanisms that have typically been discussed in the affect and cognition literature so far.