Assessing inhibitory control: a revised approach to the stop signal task

The stop signal task (stop task) is designed to assess inhibitory control and is a frequently used research tool in clinical disorders such as ADHD and schizophrenia. Previous methods of setting stop signal delay and of assessing inhibitory control are problematic. The current study reports two modifications that improve the task as a measure of inhibitory control. The first modification was to set stop signal delays proportional to go mean reaction time (go MRT) to better account for inter-subject variability in go MRT. Twenty-eight normal children were tested, and all standard, stop task dependent measures were obtained when delays were set by this method. The second modification was to calculate a novel dependent measure called the area of inhibition (AOI) which provides a more complete measure of inhibitory control than the slope of the relative finishing time z-scores (ZRFT-slope). Implications for the assessment of inhibitory control in clinical populations are discussed.     

Overactive action monitoring in obsessive-compulsive disorder: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been found to be hyperactive at rest, during symptom provocation, and after commission of errors in cognitive tasks. This hyperactivity might reflect an abnormality in conflict detection, a hypothesized basic mechanism for the action-monitoring function of the ACC. This hypothesis was tested using functional magnetic resonance imaging, by scanning 11 OCD patients and 13 matched control subjects while they performed a version of the continuous-performance task with four trial types that induced graded levels of response conflict. Although a behavioral index of conflict (i.e., accuracy) was similar for patients and control subjects, the ACC activation was increased in patients during high-conflict trials. The error-related activity in the same brain region was also higher in patients, consistent with previous electrophysiological findings. Both conflict- and error-related activity showed trends for positive correlations with severity of OCD symptoms, but not with anxiety. These findings suggest that as part of an overactive action-monitoring system, the ACC is more directly involved in the pathophysiology of OCD than previously thought.     

What was yours is (for now) mine: Prior user knowledge reduces product satisfaction but can improve experiential satisfaction in access-based consumption

With the rise of the sharing economy, more consumers than ever are thinking about products not in terms of ownership, but in terms of access necessary to facilitate experiences. In this paper, we build on prior literature, which distinguished product from experiential satisfaction to explore the role that knowledge of a prior user plays in shaping these two types of satisfaction in access-based consumption experiences. Across three studies, we demonstrate that product and experiential satisfaction can be affected differently when consumers are provided with information about previous users of products. We find that information about the previous user of a product consistently negatively impacts product satisfaction. However, we find that when the previous user has positive and experientially relevant traits, experiential satisfaction is increased. When the information about the previous user is negative or experientially irrelevant, experiential satisfaction is decreased. In cases in which we find a positive effect of prior user information on experiential satisfaction, we find it is mediated by transfer of the previous user's traits and that the effectiveness of this mechanism depends on the relevance of traits and the stability of the self-concept of the consumer.     

Political animals and social animals as biologically meaningful categories

This paper addresses itself to the question as to whether Homo is properly to be considered as a political animal, or whether Homo is best understood as merely a form of social animal which has evolved particularly complex survival stratagems. We will proceed primarily on the basis of the published work of the contemporary Swiss zoologist, Adolf Portmann, and argue for the view that there are solid grounds for distinguishing between social and political animals, and that Homo inhabits the realm of the political animal.     

Social isolation inhibits male-like sexual behavior in female hamsters

In the female golden hamster, Mesocricetus auratus, group housing permits the expression of male-like behavioral patterns including mounting and pelvic thrusting toward an estrous stimulus female. Sixty percent of females housed in groups of five showed these behaviors, while singly housed females were rarely observed to show mounting or thrusting. Females weaned at 19 or 35 days of age did not differ in their tendencies to show male-like behavioral patterns. Virtually all observations of mounting and pelvic thrusting behaviors were made on days when the females being tested were in behavioral estrus. These findings differ from previous studies which have reported that masculine behavioral patterns are rare in normal female hamsters. In previous studies females that were evaluated were typically not in behavioral estrus and were not housed for long periods of time with other intact females. Social factors interact with hormonal state to contribute to the expression of male-like behaviors in female hamsters.     

Assessing daily management in childhood diabetes

One hundred sixty-eight patients with childhood diabetes (6 to 19 years of age) and their parents participated in 24-hr recall interviews concerning daily diabetes management behavior. Each patient and parent was interviewed independently on three separate occasions. The information obtained was used to construct measures of 13 different adherence behaviors. Parent-patient agreement was good to excellent for most of the 13 behaviors. Agreement was influenced by the patient's age, with the most consistently high parent-child agreement found in the 10- to 15-year-old age group. Factor analysis of the 13 adherence behaviors resulted in a five-factor solution accounting for 70.6% of the variance. Adherence in childhood diabetes appears to be a complex construct, consisting of at least five different components unrelated to each other. Teenagers in this sample were less adherent than their younger counterparts on most of the adherence measures studied.     

The Downsides of Extreme Conscientiousness for Psychological Well‐being: The Role of Obsessive Compulsive Tendencies

Although conscientiousness exhibits positive relations with psychological well‐being, theoretical and empirical work suggests individuals can be too conscientious, resulting in obsessive‐compulsiveness, and therein less positive individual outcomes. However, the potential for curvilinearity between conscientiousness and well‐being has been underexplored. We measured 912 subjects on facets of conscientiousness, obsessive‐compulsive personality, and well‐being variables (life satisfaction, job satisfaction, self‐esteem, positive affect, negative affect, work stress). Methods of scoring included traditional sum‐scoring, traditional item response theory (IRT), and a relatively new IRT approach. Structural models were estimated to evaluate curvilinearity. Results confirmed the curvilinear relationship between conscientiousness and well‐being, and demonstrated that differential facet‐level relationships underlie weaker curvilinearity at the general trait level. Consistency was found in the strength of relation between conscientiousness facets with their obsessive‐compulsive variants and their contribution to decreased well‐being. The most common association was that higher standing on conscientiousness facets was positively related to negative affect. Findings support the idea that extreme standing on facets of conscientiousness more strongly linked to their obsessive‐compulsive variants contributed to lower well‐being, highlighting the importance of considering alternative functional representations of the relationship between personality and other constructs. Future work should seek to further clarify the link between conscientiousness and negative affect.     

Psychological adjustment of children in the pretransplant phase of bone marrow transplantation: Relationships with parent distress,parent stress,and child coping

Families of 22 children preparing to undergo bone marrow transplantation (BMT) provided information concerning parent-reported major negative life stress, child coping strategies, parental psychological symptomatology, and child adjustment. Immediately prior to BMT, children and families are confronted with multiple stresses which challenge the child's coping and strain the parents' ability to assist the child with coping. Hence, stress, parental adjustment (distress), and child coping may be important factors affecting the child's overall psychological adjustment. Results showed that 15–25% of children and parents experienced clinically significant levels of psychological distress. Parent and child psychological distress were closely related. Major negative life stresses experienced by the parent and use of avoidant coping by the child significantly predicted child adjustment problems in the pretransplant period. Coping skills interventions targeting avoidant coping and management of parental stress/distress may reduce child psychosocial risk prior to BMT.