Investigating secondary‐distinctiveness‐based effects in aging and Alzheimer's disease patients

The aim of the present study was 2‐fold. First, two experiments were devised to further investigate secondary distinctiveness‐based effects in relation to aging. By using a repeated study‐test procedure, it aimed at restoring the bizarreness effect (Experiment 1) or at amplifying the orthographic distinctiveness (OD) effect in older adults (Experiment 2). Second, by including Alzheimer's disease patients (AD patients) in both experiments, it also aimed at instigating research on secondary distinctiveness‐based effects in relation to Alzheimer disease. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that a repeated study‐test procedure may to some extent facilitate the free recalling of bizarre images in older adults. However, the benefit of such procedure does not seem to be durable in older adults (no bizarreness effect for the last study‐test cycle) and is inefficient in AD patients. Surprisingly, for both older adults and AD patients, results of Experiment 2 revealed a similar OD effect across all study‐test cycles. The findings of both experiments were related to previous work suggesting that the bizarreness effect and the OD effect are mediated by different processing.     

Algorithmic complexity for short binary strings applied to psychology: a primer

As human randomness production has come to be more closely studied and used to assess executive functions (especially inhibition), many normative measures for assessing the degree to which a sequence is randomlike have been suggested. However, each of these measures focuses on one feature of randomness, leading researchers to have to use multiple measures. Although algorithmic complexity has been suggested as a means for overcoming this inconvenience, it has never been used, because standard Kolmogorov complexity is inapplicable to short strings (e.g., of length l?≤?50), due to both computational and theoretical limitations. Here, we describe a novel technique (the coding theorem method) based on the calculation of a universal distribution, which yields an objective and universal measure of algorithmic complexity for short strings that approximates Kolmogorov–Chaitin complexity.     

Assessing Specific Discipline Techniques: A Mixed-Methods Approach

This study explored, in a community sample of mothers of toddlers, parenting beliefs and values, to gain insight into the parent–child relationship. Acceptance of specific discipline techniques (DTs), and their actual use in daily life were examined. A mixed-methods approach comprising three different methods was used: (1) parenting beliefs and values were explored with Q-methodology; (2) acceptance of the DTs was assessed with the questionnaire Dimensions of Discipline Inventory; and (3) actual use of those DTs in daily-life incidents of discipline was documented using ecological momentary assessment for ten consecutive days. The results showed the mothers’ parenting beliefs and values reflected a warm parent–child relationship. The mothers rated explaining rules, timeout, removal of privileges, and social reinforcement as moderately to highly acceptable. However, planned ignoring received a low acceptance rating. Mothers’ high acceptability ratings of the DTs contrasted with moderate use when they were faced with their misbehaving child, with the exception of explaining rules, which was always manifested. Yelling and spanking received the lowest acceptance ratings. Nonetheless, in daily life, yelling was employed as often as timeout. These findings suggest the need for more attention to be paid to both acceptance and daily use of specific DTs in order to highlight DTs which parents may have difficulty implementing.     

The Delay Before Recall Changes the Remembered Duration of 15‐minute Video Sequences

The aim of this study was to determine if the passage of time changes the memory of the duration of joyful or sad events. Participants were asked to look at a series of brief videos lasting 15 minutes and to estimate retrospectively and verbally (with chronometric units) the duration of this 15‐minute period. There were two independent variables: the emotion conditions (joy, sadness and neutral) and the recall conditions (immediately after the presentation of videos, 1 week later or 1 month later). The results show that the estimated time is largely overestimated in the 1‐week and 1‐month condition but not when the recall is immediate. This effect applies to each emotional condition, but there was no significant difference between the emotion conditions. The effect of emotion on the estimation of long intervals judged retrospectively seems minimal in comparison with the cognitive effect associated with the passage of time. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Duration and numerical estimation in right brain‐damaged patients with and without neglect: Lack of support for a mental time line

Previous studies have shown that left neglect patients are impaired when they have to orient their attention leftward relative to a standard in numerical comparison tasks. This finding has been accounted for by the idea that numerical magnitudes are represented along a spatial continuum oriented from left to right with small magnitudes on the left and large magnitudes on the right. Similarly, it has been proposed that duration could be represented along a mental time line that shares the properties of the number continuum. By comparing directly duration and numerosity processing, this study investigates whether or not the performance of neglect patients supports the hypothesis of a mental time line. Twenty‐two right brain‐damaged patients (11 with and 11 without left neglect), as well as 11 age‐matched healthy controls, had to judge whether a single dot presented visually lasted shorter or longer than 500 ms and whether a sequence of flashed dots was smaller or larger than 5. Digit spans were also assessed to measure verbal working memory capacities. In duration comparison, no spatial‐duration bias was found in neglect patients. Moreover, a significant correlation between verbal working memory and duration performance was observed in right brain‐damaged patients, irrespective of the presence or absence of neglect. In numerical comparison, only neglect patients showed an enhanced distance effect for numerical magnitude smaller than the standard. These results do not support the hypothesis of the existence of a mental continuum oriented from left to right for duration. We discuss an alternative account to explain the duration impairment observed in right brain‐damaged patients.     

Selflessness Meets Higher and More Stable Happiness: An Experience Sampling Study of the Joint Dynamics of Selflessness and Happiness

Previous studies have demonstrated the existence of a positive relationship between selflessness and happiness. However, none of these studies yet differentiated the between—and within—person levels of analysis. Moreover, the Selflessness/Selfcenteredness Happiness Model (SSHM) suggests that selflessness might stabilize happiness. In this experience sampling study, we explored the relationships between selflessness and happiness—baseline and stability—at both the within and betweenperson levels. During five consecutive days, participants responded seven times a day to short questions about happiness and selflessness. Our results showed that more selfless individuals were happier and that more selfless moments of an individual were also happier moments. Moreover, more selfless individuals were more stable from one day to the other. Finally, people becoming more selfless experienced more happiness stability at the following assessment moment and the next day. This study brings new evidence of the importance of selflessness for happiness.

     

Grit Across Nations: The Cross-National Equivalence of the Grit-O Scale

Journal of Happiness Studies - Despite its popularity in practice, the Grit-O Scale has shown inconsistent factorial structures and differing levels of internal consistency in samples outside the...     

Smiles make it easier and so do frowns: masked affective stimuli influence mental effort

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that exposure to masked emotional expressions during the performance of cognitive tasks influences effort mobilization. In support of the predictions, participants who processed masked sad faces during task performance under "do your best" instructions showed stronger sympathetic nervous system discharge to the heart (shorter pre-ejection period, higher systolic blood pressure) than participants who were exposed to masked smiling faces or angry faces. Assessed task appraisals suggest that these effects on effort-related cardiovascular reactivity occurred because the masked emotional stimuli influenced the level of experienced task difficulty. The findings are compatible with the effects of consciously experienced affect on effort-related cardiovascular response.