Sex differences in how erotic and painful stimuli impair inhibitory control

Witnessing emotional events such as arousal or pain may impair ongoing cognitive processes such as inhibitory control. We found that this may be true only half of the time. Erotic images and painful video clips were shown to men and women shortly before a stop signal task, which measures cognitive inhibitory control. These stimuli impaired inhibitory control only in men and not in women, suggesting that emotional stimuli may be processed with different weights depending on gender.     

Mobility: Disability and Life in the Spirit

Abstract : The author employs the narrative of his own personal experience of disability as an entry to several large issues: the place of body; the challenge of mobility; the processes of medical treatment, therapy, and fitness training; the network of dependence upon family, friends, and society; and the challenge to actively avail oneself of the resources of this network. The power of the human spirit is affirmed as the prerequisite for moving the body and attaining the possibilities of one's life. This power is the work of God's Spirit. A concept of body‐spiriting is suggested. The argument is framed in two parts: (1) in the world in my own skin, and (2) living in the presence of God.     

How to say "no" to a nonword: a leaky competing accumulator model of lexical decision

We describe a leaky competing accumulator (LCA) model of the lexical decision task that can be used as a response/decision module for any computational model of word recognition. The LCA model uses evidence for a word, operationalized as some measure of lexical activity, as input to the YES decision node. Input to the NO decision node is simply a constant value minus evidence for a word. In this way, evidence for a nonword is a function of time from stimulus onset (as in standard deadline models) modulated by lexical activity via the competitive dynamics of the LCA. We propose a simple mechanism for determining the value of this constant online during the first trials of a lexical decision experiment, such that the model can rapidly optimize speed and accuracy in discriminating words from nonwords. Further optimization is achieved via trial-by-trial adjustments in response criteria as a function of task demands and list context. We show that the LCA model can simulate mean response times and response distributions for correct and incorrect YES and NO decisions for a number of benchmark experiments that have been shown to be fatal for deadline models of lexical decision. Finally, using lexical activity calculated by a computational model of word recognition as input to the LCA decision module, we provide the first item-level simulation of both word and nonword responses in a large-scale database.     

Maximal care considerations when treating patients with end-stage heart failure: ethical and procedural quandaries in management of the very sick

Deciding who should receive maximal technological treatment options and who should not represents an ethical, moral, psychological and medico-legal challenge for health care providers. Especially in patients with chronic heart failure, the ethical and medico-legal issues associated with providing maximal possible care or withholding the same are coming to the forefront. Procedures, such as cardiac transplantation, have strict criteria for adequate candidacy. These criteria for subsequent listing are based on clinical outcome data but also reflect the reality of organ shortage. Lack of compliance and non-adherence to lifestyle changes represent relative contraindications to heart transplant candidacy. Mechanical circulatory support therapy using ventricular assist devices is becoming a more prominent therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart failure who are not candidates for transplantation, which also requires strict criteria to enable beneficial outcome for the patient. Physicians need to critically reflect that in many cases, the patient’s best interest might not always mean pursuing maximal technological options available. This article reflects on the multitude of critical issues that health care providers have to face while caring for patients with end-stage heart failure.     

X-rated material and perpetration of sexually aggressive behavior among children and adolescents: is there a link?

Longitudinal linkages between intentional exposure to x-rated material and sexually aggressive behavior were examined among youth 10-15 year olds surveyed nationally in the United States. At Wave 1 in 2006, participants (n = 1,588) were queried about these exposures and outcomes in the preceding 12 months. Wave 2 data (n = 1,206) were collected approximately 12 months after Wave 1 and Wave 3 data (n = 1,159) were collected approximately 24 months after Wave 1. Thus, data for this project represent a 36-month time frame. A marginal model with generalized estimating equations was used to represent the population-average odds of sexually aggressive behavior over the 36 months as a function of exposure to x-rated material over the same time and to account for clustering in the data within person over time. An average of 5% of youth reported perpetrating sexually aggressive behavior and 23% of youth reported intentional exposure to x-rated material. After adjusting for other potentially influential proximal (i.e., sexual aggression victimization) and distal characteristics (e.g., substance use), we found that intentional exposure to violent x-rated material over time predicted an almost 6-fold increase in the odds of self-reported sexually aggressive behavior (aOR: 5.8, 95% CI: 3.2, 10.5), whereas exposure to nonviolent x-rated material was not statistically significantly related (aOR: 1.7, 95% CI: 0.94, 2.9). Associations were similar for boys and girls (boys nonviolent x-rated material aOR = 2.0, 95% CI: 0.8, 4.7; violent x-rated material aOR = 6.5, 95% CI: 2.7, 15.3; girls nonviolent x-rated material aOR = 1.2, 95% CI: 0.5, 3.2; violet x-rated material aOR = 6.1, 95% CI: 2.5, 14.8).     

Contour entropy: a new determinant of perceiving ground or a hole

Figure-ground perception is typically described as seeing one surface occluding another. Figure properties, not ground properties, are considered the significant factors. In scenes, however, a near surface will often occlude multiple contours and surfaces, often at different depths, producing alignments that are improbable except under conditions of occlusion. We thus hypothesized that unrelated (high entropy) lines would tend to appear as ground in a figure-ground paradigm more often than similarly aligned ordered (low entropy) lines. We further hypothesized that for lines spanning a closed area, high line entropy should increase the hole-like appearance of that area. These predictions were confirmed in three experiments. The probability that patterned rectangles were seen as ground when alternated with blank rectangles increased with pattern entropy. A single rectangular shape appeared more hole-like when the entropy of the enclosed contours increased. Furthermore, these same contours, with the outline shape removed, gave rise to bounding illusory contours whose strength increased with contour entropy. We conclude that figure-ground and hole perception can be determined by properties of ground in the absence of any figural shape, or surround, factors.     

The effect of commitment on relative left frontal cortical activity: tests of the action-based model of dissonance

The action-based model of dissonance and recent advances in neuroscience suggest that commitment to action should cause greater relative left frontal cortical activity. Two experiments were conducted in which electroencephalographic activity was recorded following commitment to action, operationalized with a perceived choice manipulation. Perceived high as compared to low choice to engage in the action, regardless of whether it was counterattitudinal or proattitudinal, caused greater relative left frontal cortical activity. Moreover, perceived high as compared to low choice caused attitudes to be more consistent with the action. These results broaden the theoretical reach of the action-based model by suggesting that similar neural and motivational processes are involved in attitudinal responses to counterattitudinal and proattitudinal commitments.     

Epistemology Without History is Blind

In the spirit of James and Dewey, I ask what one might want from a theory of knowledge. Much Anglophone epistemology is centered on questions that were once highly pertinent, but are no longer central to broader human and scientific concerns. The first sense in which epistemology without history is blind lies in the tendency of philosophers to ignore the history of philosophical problems. A second sense consists in the perennial attraction of approaches to knowledge that divorce knowing subjects from their societies and from the tradition of socially assembling a body of transmitted knowledge. When epistemology fails to use the history of inquiry as a laboratory in which methodological claims can be tested, there is a third way in which it becomes blind. Finally, lack of attention to the growth of knowledge in various domains leaves us with puzzles about the character of the knowledge we have. I illustrate this last theme by showing how reflections on the history of mathematics can expand our options for understanding mathematical knowledge.     

Testing Models of Associations Between Depression and Parenting Self-efficacy in Mothers: A Meta-analytic Review

Numerous cross-sectional studies confirm the long-theorized association between mothers’ depression and lower parenting self-efficacy (PSE) beliefs. However, cross-sectional studies leave unanswered the direction of this association: Does depression predict PSE? Does PSE predict depression? Are both true? Does the strength of the association between depression and PSE, regardless of the direction, generalize across participant characteristics and study design features? How stable is PSE over time? And how effective are interventions at enhancing PSE? To answer these questions, we conducted a meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies. With 35 eligible studies (22,698 participants), we found support for both models: there was a significant pooled effect of both depression on PSE and of PSE on depression, with nearly identical effect sizes (d?=?????0.21 and ??0.22, respectively). The association was stronger in samples with mothers’ younger average age and studies that measured PSE among mothers relative to during pregnancy. We found a medium degree of stability in the index of PSE, d?=?0.60. Finally, the estimated pooled effect size between being in an intervention group versus control group and PSE was 0.505. Overall, we found support for (1) bidirectional associations between depression and PSE in mothers, (2) the stability of PSE over time, and (3) the strength of the relationship between PSE and depression with intervention. These results suggest the importance of continuing to develop, test, and disseminate interventions to enhance PSE. We interpret these findings in the context of both depression and low PSE having serious consequences for child outcomes and maladaptive parenting.