Play fighting between kindling-prone (FAST) and kindling-resistant (SLOW) rats

Differences in the play behavior of 2 strains of rats suggest that different components of play fighting can be modified independently. The development of play fighting in cross-strain pairs of familiar and unfamiliar rats was examined to determine whether interacting with a non-congruent pair-mate would alter the pattern of play typical for each strain. In both strains, changes in play fighting were observed throughout development, but partner identity appeared to influence play fighting in different ways depending on age. These data suggest that some components of play may be more impervious to changes in social environment than other components.     

Association between alexithymia, neuroticism, and social desirability scores among Italian graduate students

An inverse correlation between social desirability and alexithymia has been observed in undergraduate students in Japan and Australia. It is not clear how this association is influenced by the personality dimension of neuroticism. This study examined the association of scores on social desirability with those on alexithymia controlled for neuroticism, in a sample of 111 Italian graduate students, with age range of 24 to 58 years. Students completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (short form) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). Social desirability scores inversely correlated with TAS-20 total scores, neuroticism scores, and the TAS-20 subscale, Difficulty identifying feelings. Neuroticism directly correlated with TAS-20 total score, Difficulty identifying feelings, and Difficulty describing feelings. Students with higher alexithymia and neuroticism scores seem to present themselves in less socially desirable ways. The correlation of social desirability with alexithymia was moderated by higher neuroticism scores.     

No dual-task practice effect in Alzheimer's disease

Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) requires evidence of progressive decline in cognitive function. However, many tests used to assess cognitive function suffer from considerable practice effects, reducing their reliability. Several studies have reported that the ability to do two things at once, or dual tasking, is impaired in AD, but unaffected by healthy ageing. The apparent specificity of this impairment suggests that this assessment may be particularly useful in the early diagnosis of AD, but the reliability of this assessment remains unknown. Therefore, this study investigated simultaneous performance of digit recall and tracking tasks across six testing sessions in eight people with AD, eight healthy older adults and eight healthy younger adults. The results found that dual-task performance was unaffected by healthy ageing, but significantly impaired in AD, with no effect of repeated exposure. The absence of any improvements in performance despite increased familiarity with the task's demands suggests that not only is the dual-task assessment well suited for monitoring progression over time, but also that dual tasking involves a specific cognitive function which is impaired in the AD brain.     

Working Memory Capacity and the Development of Quantitative Central Conceptual Structures

Abstract

This article reconsiders Case’s theory of central conceptual structures (CCS), examining the relation between working memory and the acquisition of quantitative CCS. The lead hypothesis is that the development of working memory capacity shapes the development of quantitative concepts (whole and rational numbers). Study I, with 779 children from preschool to grade 5, validated a measure of the whole number CCS and found that children’s understanding of whole number advances by one developmental level per additional unit of working memory capacity. Study II, with 92 sixth- and seventh-graders, found that a test of the rational number CCS was predicted by working memory capacity and, to a lesser extent, by intrusion errors in the listening span. We also identified 2 subsets of items that demand a capacity of 4 or 5 units, respectively. Overall, the results support Case’s CCS theory and clarify the role of working memory in the acquisition of numerical concepts. The relevance of these results in relation to the current debate is discussed, with extensive connections to other current theories of whole or rational number comprehension.     

Do as you’re told! Facets of agreeableness and early adult outcomes for inner-city boys

With data from the middle cohort of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a prospective longitudinal study of inner-city boys, we examined whether Big Five agreeableness facets could be reliably recovered in this sample, and whether facets predicted educational, occupational, social, and antisocial life outcomes assessed a decade later. Caregivers described their adolescent boys’ personalities using the Common California Q-Set; twelve years later, participants were interviewed and court records were obtained. Factor analyses recovered two facets: compliance and compassion. Compliance predicted more schooling and lower risk of unemployment, teenage fatherhood, and crime; compassion related to longer committed relationships. Findings highlight the value of studying personality at the facet level.     

Social comparison,coping and depression in people with spinal cord injury

The present study among 70 people with spinal cord injury examined the prevalence and correlates of identification (seeing others as a potential future) and contrast (seeing others in competitive terms) in social comparison as related to coping and depression. The most prevalent social comparison strategy was downward contrast (a positive response to seeing others who were worse-off), followed by upward identification (a positive response to perceiving better-off others as a potential future), downward identification (a negative response to perceiving worse-off others as a potential future), and upward contrast (a negative response to seeing others who were better-off). Those with less severe lesions reported the highest levels of upward contrast, coping through blaming others, and depression. Downward contrast was particularly related to constructive coping, and upward identification to wishful thinking. The less adaptive social comparison strategies, i.e., upward contrast and downward identification, were quite strongly related to wishful thinking and blaming others. Particularly upward contrast, i.e., feeling bad as response to seeing that others are better-off, was related to depression.     

A longitudinal study of psychosocial distress in breast cancer: Prevalence and risk factors

This longitudinal study was conducted among 102 women with non-metastasic breast cancer to identify the time evolution and prevalence of distress at specific times through diagnosis and treatment of disease: preliminary diagnosis, surgery, definitive diagnosis and chemotherapy. Additionally, the study aimed to examine the role of demographic, medical and psychosocial factors on distress. The results indicated that prevalence of distress was higher at initial diagnosis (25%) than the following time points (approximately 17%). The differences inter-individuals in the levels of distress were observed over the four assessments. No relation between distress and demographic and medical factors was found. However, psychosocial aspects were significant risk factors. Patterns of emotional suppression and specific coping responses like helplessness/hopelessness, anxious preoccupation, cognitive avoidance and fatalism were positively related to distress, whereas fighting spirit and perceived social support showed a protective role. Moreover, helplessness/hopelessness and anxious preoccupation jointly predicted 75% of cases and 98% non-cases of distress. Finally, a mediational model between emotional suppression and distress through helplessness/hopelessness was tested. Results support the necessity of routine distress screening all through the illness. Implications of data for psychosocial interventions with breast cancer patients are highlighted.     

Brief treatment with alprazolam and behavioral guidance in panic disorder

Abstract

Thirty-two patients with panic disorder, with or without agoraphobic limitations, were treated with alprazolam (mean dose 3.5 mg/d) plus brief behavioral guidance in an open study during eight weeks. The sample had a notorious severity in the frequency of panics and phobic avoidance but was only mildly depressed. Before starting treatment the presence of demoralized mood and extensive avoidance were significant indicators of clinical severity, whereas the presence of dizziness as a relevant somatic complaint was not related to higher severity. After eight weeks of treatment a clinical improvement equal to or exceeding 80% of change was obtained in all cases (29) who completed treatment. Ninety-two percent of the patients were panic free at the end of treatment. There were significant reductions in all the scales with comparable declines in the subgroups formed according to the presence or absence of agoraphobic avoidance and demoralization. The data suggested that moderate doses of alprazolam could be a quick and effective treatment for panic-agoraphobic patients in the short term. The behavioral guidance probably helped in reducing agoraphobic avoidance and in obtaining global good effectiveness although this awaits controlled tests. Finally, the similarity in the response to treatment regardless of the presence of extensive avoidance or demoralized mood argues in favor of not considering the different variants of panic-agoraphobic syndrome differently, at least in samples with similar severity to the present one.     

Working memory in event‐ and time‐based prospective memory tasks: Effects of secondary demand and age

An experiment is reported examining the role of working memory in two laboratory‐based prospective memory (PM) tasks. Participants viewed a film for a later recognition memory task while simultaneously monitoring auditorially presented arithmetic problems for incorrect solutions. The arithmetic verification task was either low demand or high demand. In addition, participants were required either to indicate whenever an animal appeared in the film (event‐based PM task), or whenever 3 min had elapsed (time‐based PM task). PM performance was higher when the arithmetic task was low demand than when it was high demand. Young participants were more successful in both PM tasks than older participants, but only under high demand. Age did not interact with PM task type overall, and the young participants were faster overall in both types of PM task. Taken together, the results indicate that working memory plays an important role in PM tasks.     

Biasing decision making by means of retrieval practice

Decision making requires the recruitment of several cognitive processes. So far, however, few studies have dealt with the role of inhibitory control in this domain. In this study, we aim to examine this issue in a memory-based decision task by using an adaptation of the retrieval practice paradigm (Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994 Anderson, M. C., Bjork, R. A. and Bjork, E. L. 1994. Remembering can cause forgetting: Retrieval dynamics in long-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20: 1063–1087. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The retrieval-induced forgetting found through this task is normally explained in terms of inhibition. Specifically, we analyse how retrieval practice may affect what alternatives are selected as well as the choice probability and attribute recall. Our data show a relation between the recall impairment of the attributes due to retrieval practice and biased decisions.