Impulsivity as a predictor of newly diagnosed depression

Depression is a severe mental disorder, whose onset has been related to environmental, genetic and personality factors. This study examined the association between impulsivity and incidence of depression. Logistic regression models were related to prospective data from two surveys (2-year time lag) conducted in a large cohort of hospital employees (N= 4,505). Only respondents with no history of depression at baseline were included. Impulsivity was predictive of the onset of depression (OR = 1.95, CI 95%= 1.28-2.97) after adjustment for age, sex and education. This association remained statistically significant after additional adjustment for a variety of baseline characteristics, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and size of social network. A measure of mental distress (GHQ-12 responses), which may serve as a proxy measure for undiagnosed depression, was also associated with impulsivity. Impulsivity appears to be a distinct personality factor that may contribute to the onset of depressive illness in adults.     

Relationships between hostility, affective ratings of pictures, and state affects during task-induced stress

The authors examined the relationship of hostility with (a) affective ratings of pictures and (b) state affects evoked by task-induced stress in 95 healthy men and women 22-37 years of age. Pictures were from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; P. J. Lang, M. M. Bradley, & B. N. Cuthbert, 1999). Stressors included a startle task, mental arithmetic task, and choice-deadline reaction time task. The circumplex model of affect was used to structure the self-reported state affects. The authors found that hostility was associated with displeasure, high arousal, and low dominance ratings of IAPS pictures. Hostility was related to unpleasant affect and unactivated unpleasant affect during the experiment, and subscale paranoia was related to activated unpleasant affect. Findings suggest that participants scoring high on hostility are prone to negative emotional reactions.     

The false fame illusion in people with memories about a previous life

The present study examined whether individuals with full-blown memories of highly implausible events are prone to commit source monitoring errors. Participants reporting previous-life memories and those without such memories completed a false fame task. This task provides an index of source monitoring errors (i.e., misclassifying familiar non-famous names as famous names). Participants with previous-life memories had a greater tendency to judge the names of previously presented non-famous people as famous than control participants. The two groups did not differ in terms of correct recognition of new non-famous names and famous names. Although dissociation, cognitive failures, sleep-related experiences, depressive symptoms, and signs of psychological distress were all significantly higher in participants with previous-life memories than in controls, these variables did not predict the false fame illusion.     

Differences between elite,junior and non-rowers in kinematic and kinetic parameters during ergometer rowing

This paper presents an analysis of the rowing parameters of differently skilled rowers. The study focuses on technique dependency on stroke rate. Five elite, five junior and five non-rowers participated, and the biomechanics of rowing on an ergometer was analyzed at stroke rates of 20, 26 and 34 str/min. The results show that elite rowers use a similar, consistent rowing technique at all stroke rates, the technique of junior rowers follows similar principles, while the technique of non-rowers varies. Elite rowers’ stroke length, handle motion and body posture do not change with stroke rate while the ratio of stroke phases, maximum forces, stroke work and joint loadings are constant at the same stroke rate but dependent on stroke rate. Junior rowers with stroke rate change also the stroke length. In non-rowers the differences can be observed in the handle motion and body posture during the stroke, their stroke length changes with stroke rate while the ratio of stroke phases stays constant. Although different movement execution is evident and variable with stroke rate, non-rowers demonstrate a consistent pattern at the same stroke rate. On the basis of the results, the crucial parameters that differentiate elite, junior, and non-rowers are identified.     

Poor working memory predicts false memories

Two studies investigated whether individual differences in simple span verbal working memory and complex working memory capacity are related to memory accuracy and susceptibility to false memory development. In Study 1, undergraduate students (N=60) were given two simple span working memory tests: forward and backward digit span. They also underwent a memory task that is known to elicit false memories of nonpresented words, the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Poor simple span working memory (as reflected by suboptimal backward digit span scores) was related to elevated levels of false recognition. Study 2 (N=65) replicated this finding, in that suboptimal backward digit span performance was found to be predictive of false recognition. However, complex working memory capacity (operation span) was not related to false recognition. This pattern suggests that even in a homogenous sample of undergraduates, poor working memory is associated with the susceptibility to recollect words never presented.     

Is dispositional optimism or dispositional pessimism predictive of ideal cardiovascular health? The Young Finns Study

Objective: We examined the independent association between dispositional optimism compared to dispositional pessimism and ideal cardiovascular health (defined by the American Heart Association).

Design: A prospective design with a study sample of 1113 participants aged 24–39 years from the longitudinal Young Finns Study.

Main outcome measures: Ideal cardiovascular health (comprised of seven ideal cardiovascular health metrics) was measured in 2001. The ideal cardiovascular health metrics were reassessed in 2007.

Results: Low pessimism rather than high optimism was a better predictor of ideal cardiovascular health in 2007. When examining the association between optimism and pessimism and the seven ideal cardiovascular health metrics in 2007 (BMI, diet, physical activity, smoking status, blood pressure, total cholesterol and plasma glucose), low pessimism predicted non-smoking status, ideal physical activity and eating a healthy diet, while high optimism was associated with eating a healthy diet.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that low pessimism rather than high optimism is associated with ideal cardiovascular health, especially with health behaviours such as not smoking, being physically active and eating a healthy diet. Socio-economic status was the potential mediating or confounding factor. Future studies should examine the differential meaning of the optimism/pessimism concepts to further clarify their relation to health outcomes.     

Grand Theft Auto IV comes to Singapore: effects of repeated exposure to violent video games on aggression

Given the increasingly dominant role of video games in the mainstream entertainment industry, it is no surprise that the scholarly debate about their impact has been lively and well attended. Although >100 studies have been conducted to examine the impact of violent video games on aggression, no clear consensus has been reached, particularly in terms of their long-term impact on violent behavior and aggressive cognitions. This study employs a first-ever longitudinal laboratory-based experiment to examine longer-term effects of playing a violent video game. One hundred thirty-five participants were assigned either to the treatment condition where they played a violent video game in a controlled laboratory setting for a total of 12 hours or to the control group where they did not play a game. Participants in the treatment group played Grand Theft Auto IV over a period of 3 weeks and were compared with a control group on the posttest measures of trait aggression, attitudes toward violence, and empathy. The findings do not support the assertion that playing a violent video game for a period of 3 weeks increases aggression or reduces empathy, but they suggest a small increase in proviolence attitudes. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Developmental changes in colour constancy in a naturalistic object selection task

When the illumination falling on a surface change, so does the reflected light. Despite this, adult observers are good at perceiving surfaces as relatively unchanging—an ability termed colour constancy. Very few studies have investigated colour constancy in infants, and even fewer in children. Here we asked whether there is a difference in colour constancy between children and adults; what the developmental trajectory is between six and 11 years; and whether the pattern of constancy across illuminations and reflectances differs between adults and children. To this end, we developed a novel, child-friendly computer-based object selection task. In this, observers saw a dragon's favourite sweet under a neutral illumination and picked the matching sweet from an array of eight seen under a different illumination (blue, yellow, red, or green). This set contained a reflectance match (colour constant; perfect performance) and a tristimulus match (colour inconstant). We ran two experiments, with two-dimensional scenes in one and three-dimensional renderings in the other. Twenty-six adults and 33 children took part in the first experiment; 26 adults and 40 children took part in the second. Children performed better than adults on this task, and their performance decreased with age in both experiments. We found differences across illuminations and sweets, but a similar pattern across both age groups. This unexpected finding might reflect a real decrease in colour constancy from childhood to adulthood, explained by developmental changes in the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underpinning colour constancy, or differences in task strategies between children and adults.

Highlights

• Six- to 11-year-old children demonstrated better performance than adults on a colour constancy object selection task.
• Performance decreased with age over childhood.
• These findings may indicate development of cognitive strategies used to overcome automatic colour constancy mechanisms.