Exploring the specificity of age-related differences in theory of mind tasks

Tasks assessing theory of mind (ToM) and non-mental state control tasks were administered to young and older adults to examine previous contradictory findings about age differences in mental state decoding. Age differences were found on a verbal ToM task after controlling for vocabulary levels. Older adults achieved significantly lower scores than did younger adults on static and dynamic visual ToM tasks, and a similar pattern was found on non-ToM control tasks. Rather than a specific ToM deficit, older adults exhibited a more general impairment in the ability to decode cues from verbal and visual information about people.     

The self-regulating brain: Cortical-subcortical feedback and the development of intelligent action

To speak of cognitive regulation versus emotion regulation may be misleading. However, some forms of regulation are carried out by executive processes, subject to voluntary control, while others are carried out by “automatic” processes that are far more primitive. Both sets of processes are in constant interaction, and that interaction gives rise to a stream of activity that is both cognitive and emotional. Studying the brain helps us understand these reciprocal regulatory influences in some detail. Cortical activities regulate subcortical activities through executive modulation of prepotent appraisals and emotional responses. Subcortical systems regulate the cortex by tuning its activities to the demands or opportunities provided by the environment. Cortical controls buy us time, as needed for planning and intelligent action. Subcortical controls provide energy, focus, and direction, as needed for relevant emotion-guided behaviour. We review the neural processes at work in both directions of regulatory activity, looking at the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as a hub of cortical systems mediating downward control, and discussing limbic, hypothalamic, and brainstem systems that mediate upward control. A macrosystem that displays both directions of control includes the ACC and the amygdala within a feedback circuit whose features vary with clinical-personality differences. Developmental changes in ACC-mediated self-regulation support advances in directed attention, response inhibition, and self-monitoring. Developmental changes in amygdala-mediated self-regulation involve the compilation of meanings that direct thought and behaviour, thus consolidating individual differences over the lifespan. In this way, the capacity to exert voluntary control develops alongside the accumulation of associations that trigger the responses that demand control. The balance between these developmental progressions has implications for personality formation and mental health.     

Testing models of the structure and development of future time perspective: maintaining a focus on opportunities in middle age

A core construct in socioemotional selectivity theory is future time perspective (FTP), conceptualized as a unidimensional and bipolar construct ranging from expansive to limited. Change in FTP across adulthood has been treated as linear, with older adults showing more limited FTP. Studies 1 and 2 showed that a 2-factor model fit better, with focus on opportunities and focus on limitations as distinct dimensions. These dimensions changed differentially with age. In cross-sectional Study 3, focus on opportunities was higher in young adulthood than in early middle age but did not drop further in late middle age. Focus on limitations was the same in young adulthood and early middle age but was higher in late middle age. In longitudinal Study 4, focus on limitations increased from early to late middle age, and focus on opportunities was again maintained, rather than showing the decrease one would assume from a 1-factor model of FTP.     

A taxometric analysis of the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV): further evidence of dimensionality

A taxometric analysis of the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995) was performed on a group of 2,250 male and female forensic/psychiatric patients and jail/prison inmates. The 4 PCL:SV facet scores (Interpersonal, Affective, Impulsive Lifestyle, Antisocial Behavior) served as indicators in this study, and the data were analyzed with 3 principal taxometric procedures--mean above minus below a cut, maximum eigenvalue, and latent mode factor analysis. The results show evidence of dimensional structure on the PCL:SV in the full sample as well as in all 8 subsamples (men, women, Whites, Blacks, hospital patients, jail/prison inmates, file review with an interview, file review without an interview). These findings corroborate recent taxometric research on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. D. Hare, 1991, 2003) in which results have been largely dimensional in nature. It is concluded that scores on the PCL:SV differ quantitatively as points on a dimension (high vs. low psychopathy) rather than partitioning into qualitatively distinct categories of behavior (psychopath vs. nonpsychopath).     

Personality,Meta-Mood Experience,Life Satisfaction,and Anxiety in Australian versus Singaporean Students

This study explores two issues concerning the relationships between personality, meta-mood experience, life satisfaction, and anxiety. First, it explored the incremental value of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience in predicting the three components of meta-mood experience (that is, attention to feelings, emotional clarity, clarity of feelings and mood repair), after controlling for demographic variables across Australia and Singapore. Second, it explored the incremental value of the three meta-mood experience components in predicting life satisfaction and anxiety, after controlling for demographic variables and personality variables across the two countries. One hundred and eighty nine tertiary students from Australia and 243 tertiary students from Singapore participated in this study. First, hierarchical regression analyses for both samples suggested that Agreeableness and Neuroticism are the two most important personality predictors of meta-mood experience, emotional attention, and emotional repair. Second, hierarchical regression analyses for both samples suggested that emotional repair was a significant predictor for life satisfaction and anxiety, even after controlling for demographic variables and personality variables. These results have implications for therapeutic interventions with life satisfaction versus anxiety. Funding for this research is facilitated partially by a research grant from the National Institute of Education.     

Externalizing problems,internalizing problems,and suicidal ideation in Singaporean adolescents: Sex differences

Adolescent suicide is considered a worldwide problem and an increasing source of concern in Singapore. This study explores the relationships among four factors of maladjustment (that is, emotional distress, negative self, antisocial behavior, and anger control problems) and suicidal ideation in two hundred and seventy-one adolescents from Singapore. Findings from the study indicated that emotional distress, negative self-concept, and antisocial behavior significantly predicted suicidal ideation for the whole sample. Beta weight is largest for emotional distress, followed by negative self, and then antisocial behavior. For females, only emotional distress significantly predicted suicidal ideation. Implications of these findings with regard to working with adolescents with suicidal ideations are discussed. Funding for this research is facilitated by grant RP 1/01 APH.     

Assessing and treating vocal stereotypy in children with autism

Previous research implies that stereotypic behavior tends to be maintained by the sensory consequences produced by engaging in the response. Few investigations, however, have focused on vocal stereotypy. The current study examined the noncommunicative vocalizations of 4 children with an autism spectrum disorder. First, functional analyses were conducted in an attempt to identify the function of each child's behavior. For each of the participants, it was found that vocal stereotypy was likely not maintained by the social consequences. Following assessment, response interruption and redirection (RIRD) was implemented in an ABAB design to determine whether vocal stereotypy could be successfully redirected. RIRD involved a teacher issuing a series of vocal demands the child readily complied with during regular academic programming. Vocal demands were presented contingent on the occurrence of vocal stereotypy and were continuously presented until the child complied with three consecutively issued demands without emitting vocal stereotypy. For each child, RIRD produced levels of vocal stereotypy substantially lower than those observed in baseline. For 3 of the children, an increase in appropriate communication was also observed. The children's teachers were trained to implement RIRD. Brief follow-up probes and anecdotal information implied that the treatment had a positive impact in the natural environment.     

Does repressive coping promote resilience? Affective-autonomic response discrepancy during bereavement

Traditional theories of coping emphasize the value of attending to and expressing negative emotion while recovering from traumatic life events. However, recent evidence suggests that the tendency to direct attention away from negative affective experience (i.e., repressive coping) may promote resilience following extremely aversive events (e.g., the death of a spouse). The current study extends this line of investigation by showing that both bereaved and nonbereaved individuals who exhibited repressive coping behavior--as measured by the discrepancy between affective experience and sympathetic nervous system response--had fewer symptoms of psychopathology, experienced fewer health problems and somatic complaints, and were rated as better adjusted by close friends than those who did not exhibit repressive coping. Results are discussed in terms of recent developments in cognitive and neuroimaging research suggesting that repressive coping may serve a protective function.     

Concurrent validity of the Personality Assessment Inventory Borderline scales in patients seeking dialectical behavior therapy

The purpose of this study was to explore the usefulness of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) Borderline full scale (BOR) and subscales in the assessment of patients being evaluated for dialectical behavior therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993).We administered 67 patients both the PAI and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) Structured Clinical Interview for Axis II disorders (SCID-II; First, Spitzer, Gibbon, Williams, & Benjamin, 1997). Point biserial correlations showed a significant relationship between the presence of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and scores on the BOR and Schizophrenia (SCZ) scales. A regression analysis showed that among the BOR subscales, those measuring identity disturbance, self-harming behavior, and negative relationships were significantly related to the total number of SCID-II BPD criteria. Diagnostic efficiency statistics between the BOR scale and the number of SCID-II BPD criteria indicated that a T score cutoff of 65 optimally differentiates patients who do and do not meet criteria for BPD. The relationship between BOR and SCID-II BPD demonstrates the concurrent validity of the PAI and shows its usefulness in this setting.     

Timing, remembering, and discrimination

Four pigeons were first trained in a timing procedure. In one condition, each trial began with the presentation of an X on the center key, followed by a delay (short or long), after which two side keys were lit. If the delay was short, pecks to the red side key were reinforced. If the delay was long, pecks to the green side key were reinforced. In a second condition, the opposite contingencies applied following presentation of a square on the center key. Choice responses were then tested at 10 time intervals ranging from short to long (1 to 4 s and 4 to 7 s in different conditions). The two timing conditions were combined to create a remembering condition in which correct responding depended upon discrimination of both the sample stimulus (X or square) and the delay interval (short or long). Choices varied systematically across delay in timing conditions, but in remembering conditions, accurate choice at the training delays did not initially generalize to intermediate delays. However, with prolonged training in the remembering task, the response pattern began to resemble that of the timing conditions. Generalization gradients were asymmetrical, in accordance with Weber's Law, in that greater generalization occurred with longer delays than with shorter delays.