Perceived Academic Control: mediating the effects of optimism and social support on college students’ psychological health

The first year of college presents numerous challenges experienced as overwhelming by some freshmen who may become overly stressed and depressed. This longitudinal study examined perceived academic control (PAC) as a mediator of optimism and social support’s buffering effects on freshman students’ psychological health. Multiple regressions assessed optimism and social support (at the start of the academic year) as predictors of year-end stress and depression among 288 freshmen. PAC (at the start of the year) was then examined as a mediator of the effects of optimism and support. Lastly, stress and depression were assessed as predictors of year-end degree commitment and cumulative GPA. As expected, optimism and support predicted less stress and depression, yet their beneficial effects were mediated by students’ PAC. Depression subsequently predicted less year-end degree commitment and lower cumulative GPAs. PAC mediates the protective effects of optimism and support, providing additional protection for students against poor psychological health. Findings have implications for shielding students’ health against the demands of the freshman year.

The effect of a collision warning system on the driving performance of young drivers at intersections

This study investigated the manner in which the driving performance of young people was affected by a collision warning system when they encountered a driver running a red light at an intersection. Furthermore, the causal relationship among driving performance, traffic factors and intersection accidents was examined using Path Analysis. Participants drove a driving simulator with an intersection collision warning system (ICWS) in a simulated urban area. The driving performance measures recorded were reaction time, speed, lateral position deviation and crash events. Experimental results indicated that drivers who drove a vehicle with an ICWS audio signal at an intersection had a shorter reaction time, a lower speed and a reduced accident rate than those observed while driving a vehicle without ICWS audio signal. Furthermore, Path Analysis showed that the ICWS had an indirect effect on accident rate reduction through improved driving performance. The location of intersection accident had both direct and indirect effects on the accident rate. The number of driving days per week had a direct effect on accident rate reduction.     

Choking on the Money: Reward-Based Performance Decrements Are Associated With Midbrain Activity

ABSTRACT— A pernicious paradox in human motivation is the occasional reduced performance associated with tasks and situations that involve larger-than-average rewards. Three broad explanations that might account for such performance decrements are attentional competition (distraction theories), inhibition by conscious processes (explicit-monitoring theories), and excessive drive and arousal (overmotivation theories). Here, we report incentive-dependent performance decrements in humans in a reward-pursuit task; subjects were less successful in capturing a more valuable reward in a computerized maze. Concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that increased activity in ventral midbrain, a brain area associated with incentive motivation and basic reward responding, correlated with both reduced number of captures and increased number of near-misses associated with imminent high rewards. These data cast light on the neurobiological basis of choking under pressure and are consistent with overmotivation accounts.     

Development of the letter identity span in reading: evidence from the eye movement moving window paradigm

By means of the moving window paradigm, we examined how many letters can be identified during a single eye fixation and whether this letter identity span changes as a function of reading skill. The results revealed that 8-year-old Finnish readers identify approximately 5 characters, 10-year-old readers identify approximately 7 characters, and 12-year-old and adult readers identify approximately 9 characters to the right of fixation. Comparison with earlier studies revealed that the letter identity span is smaller than the span for identifying letter features and that it is as wide in Finnish as in English. Furthermore, the letter identity span of faster readers of each age group was larger than that of slower readers, indicating that slower readers, unlike faster readers, allocate most of their processing resources to foveally fixated words. Finally, slower second graders were largely not disrupted by smaller windows, suggesting that their word decoding skill is not yet fully automatized.     

EVALUATION OF A COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE PROGRAM AND IN SITU TRAINING BY PARENTS TO TEACH ABDUCTION‐PREVENTION SKILLS TO CHILDREN

Child abduction is a serious problem; therefore, it is essential that researchers evaluate the efficacy of commercially available abduction‐prevention programs. A multiple baseline design across participants (ages 6 to 8 years) was used to evaluate the effects of a training program, The Safe Side. Experimenters assessed safety responses in situ in two different situations (knock on the door and interaction by a stranger in public). Results revealed that participants did not demonstrate the safety skills following Safe Side training. All participants subsequently received in situ training (IST) implemented by the parent. Additional assessments and IST were conducted until each participant performed the skills to criterion. All participants demonstrated criterion performance following IST and maintained the skills over time.     

Behavioral functions of the CA3 subregion of the hippocampus

From a behavioral perspective, the CA3a,b subregion of the hippocampus plays an important role in the encoding of new spatial information within short-term memory with a duration of seconds and minutes. This can easily be observed in tasks that require rapid encoding, novelty detection, one-trial short-term or working memory, and one-trial cued recall primarily for spatial information. These are tasks that have been assumed to reflect the operations of episodic memory and require interactions between CA3a,b and the dentate gyrus via mossy fiber inputs into the CA3a,b. The CA3a,b is also important for encoding of spatial information requiring multiple trials including the acquisition of arbitrary and relational associations. These tasks tend to be non-episodic and can be mediated by arbitrary and conjunctive operations. All these tasks are assumed to operate within an autoassociative network function of the CA3 region. The output from CA3a,b via the fimbria and the medial and lateral perforant path inputs play a supporting role in the neural circuit that supports the operation of these tasks. The CA3a,b also plays a role in sequential processing of information in cooperation with CA1 based on the Schaffer collateral output from CA3a,b to CA1. The CA3a,b also supports retrieval of short-term memory information based on a spatial pattern completion process. Finally, CA3c may, in cooperation with the dentate gyrus, serve an important role in processing the geometry of the environment.     

The role of the agranular insular cortex in anticipation of reward contrast

Sixteen male Long-Evans rats were tested on a modified version of Flaherty et al.'s [Flaherty, C. F., Turovsky, J., & Krauss, K. L. (1994). Relative hedonic value modulates anticipatory contrast. Physiology and Behavior, 55, 1047-1054.] anticipatory contrast paradigm to assess memory for the anticipation of reward. Prior to testing each rat received either a control or quinolinic acid induced lesion of the agranular insular cortex. In the home cage, each rat was allowed to drink a water solution containing 2% sucrose for 3 min followed by a water solution containing 32% sucrose for 3 min. Across 10 days of testing, the control rats showed significantly increased anticipatory discriminability as a function of days. In contrast, rats with agranular insular cortex lesions failed to show anticipatory discriminability. The results of a preference task revealed that both groups could perceptually discriminate between a 2% and a 32% sucrose solution. The data suggest that the agranular insular cortex may be involved in the anticipation of reward.     

Cholinergic modulation of Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats: differential effects of intrahippocampal infusion of mecamylamine and methyllycaconitine

The cholinergic system has consistently been implicated in Pavlovian fear conditioning. Considerable work has been done to localize specific nicotinic receptor subtypes in the hippocampus and determine their functional importance; however, the specific function of many of these subtypes has yet to be determined. An alpha7 nicotinic antagonist methyllycaconitine (MLA) (35 microg), and a broad spectrum non-alpha7 nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine (35 microg) was injected directly into the dorsal hippocampus or overlying cortex either 15 min pre-, 1 min post-, or 6h post-fear conditioning. One week after conditioning, retention of contextual and cue (tone) conditioning were assessed. A significant impairment in retention of contextual fear was observed when mecamylamine was injected 15 min pre- and 1 min post-conditioning. No significant impairment was observed when mecamylamine was injected 6h post-conditioning. Likewise, a significant impairment in retention of contextual fear was observed when MLA was injected 1 min post-conditioning; however, in contrast, MLA did not show any significant impairments when injected 15 min pre-conditioning, but did show a significant impairment when injected 6h post-conditioning. There were no significant impairments observed when either drug was injected into overlying cortex. No significant impairments were observed in cue conditioning for either drug. In general, specific temporal dynamics involved in nicotinic receptor function were found relative to time of receptor dysfunction. The results indicate that the greatest deficits in long-term retention (1 week) of contextual fear are produced by central infusion of MLA minutes to hours post-conditioning or mecamylamine within minutes of conditioning.     

Brain, emotion and decision making: the paradigmatic example of regret

Human decisions cannot be explained solely by rational imperatives but are strongly influenced by emotion. Theoretical and behavioral studies provide a sound empirical basis to the impact of the emotion of regret in guiding choice behavior. Recent neuropsychological and neuroimaging data have stressed the fundamental role of the orbitofrontal cortex in mediating the experience of regret. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data indicate that reactivation of activity within the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala occurring during the phase of choice, when the brain is anticipating possible future consequences of decisions, characterizes the anticipation of regret. In turn, these patterns reflect learning based on cumulative emotional experience. Moreover, affective consequences can induce specific mechanisms of cognitive control of the choice processes, involving reinforcement or avoidance of the experienced behavior.     

The Perverse Effects of Competition on Scientists’ Work and Relationships

Competition among scientists for funding, positions and prestige, among other things, is often seen as a salutary driving force in U.S. science. Its effects on scientists, their work and their relationships are seldom considered. Focus-group discussions with 51 mid- and early-career scientists, on which this study is based, reveal a dark side of competition in science. According to these scientists, competition contributes to strategic game-playing in science, a decline in free and open sharing of information and methods, sabotage of others’ ability to use one’s work, interference with peer-review processes, deformation of relationships, and careless or questionable research conduct. When competition is pervasive, such effects may jeopardize the progress, efficiency and integrity of science.