Psychophysiological Reactivity to Abuse-Related Stimuli in Sexually Revictimized Women

Prior research shows discrepant findings in relation to psychophysiological reactivity to threat in women with histories of sexual victimization. Women ages 18 to 22 (N?=?123) with histories of sexual abuse were categorized into child sexual abuse (CSA), adult sexual victimization, revictimization, or nonvictimization groups. Low- and high-frequency heart rate variability were measured at baseline and during an Emotional Stroop task of abuse-related words. Revictimized women showed a significant decrease from baseline to task in both parasympathetic and sympathetic measures when compared to the CSA group. The CSA group demonstrated chronic sympathetic activation at both baseline and task, relative to the revictimization group. Groups did not differ on performance (i.e., reaction time) on the Emotional Stroop task (i.e., more threatening stimuli, slower performance). Cardiovascular responses reported might point to biological reactivity patterns needed for women with a history of sexual abuse to cope with abuse-related stimuli.     

The help-seeking in career counseling

This study examined help-seeking in career counseling by investigating factors that influence students’ intention to consult a career counseling center. Nine hundred and eighteen participants were given the Attitudes toward Career Counseling Scale (ATCCS), an information brochure about the career counseling center; the Intention to Consult a Career Counseling Center Scale (ICCCS), and the Counselor Rating Form-Phrases (CFR-P). The initial value ascribed by the potential client to career counseling more than the attractiveness of career counseling predicted the intention to consult a career counseling center. Some significant differences between high school and university students emerged. The results provide further incentive to continue to study help-seeking in career counseling.     

The combined effect of gaze direction and facial expression on cueing spatial attention

Empirical evidence shows an effect of gaze direction on cueing spatial attention, regardless of the emotional expression shown by a face, whereas a combined effect of gaze direction and facial expression has been observed on individuals' evaluative judgments. In 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether gaze direction and facial expression affect spatial attention depending upon the presence of an evaluative goal. Disgusted, fearful, happy, or neutral faces gazing left or right were followed by positive or negative target words presented either at the spatial location looked at by the face or at the opposite spatial location. Participants responded to target words based on affective valence (i.e., positive/negative) in Experiment 1 and on letter case (lowercase/uppercase) in Experiment 2. Results showed that participants responded much faster to targets presented at the spatial location looked at by disgusted or fearful faces but only in Experiment 1, when an evaluative task was used. The present findings clearly show that negative facial expressions enhance the attentional shifts due to eye-gaze direction, provided that there was an explicit evaluative goal present.     

Time takes space: selective effects of multitasking on concurrent spatial processing

Many everyday activities require coordination and monitoring of complex relations of future goals and deadlines. Cognitive offloading may provide an efficient strategy for reducing control demands by representing future goals and deadlines as a pattern of spatial relations. We tested the hypothesis that multiple-task monitoring involves time-to-space transformational processes, and that these spatial effects are selective with greater demands on coordinate (metric) than categorical (nonmetric) spatial relation processing. Participants completed a multitasking session in which they monitored four series of deadlines, running on different time scales, while making concurrent coordinate or categorical spatial judgments. We expected and found that multitasking taxes concurrent coordinate, but not categorical, spatial processing. Furthermore, males showed a better multitasking performance than females. These findings provide novel experimental evidence for the hypothesis that efficient multitasking involves metric relational processing.     

Laboratory of functional neuroelectrical imaging and brain–computer interfacing at Fondazione Santa Lucia

The laboratory of functional neuroelectrical imaging and brain–computer interfacing at Fondazione Santa Lucia is based on the joint work of researchers with a bioengineering and clinical neurophysiology background. The activity is mainly devoted to two aims: the non-invasive investigation of the motor cortical function under physiological and pathological conditions, through the development of advanced processing methods of the electroencephalographic signals; the development of a real-time EEG-based brain–computer interface (BCI) and the study of its use as an aid to enhance (or even to allow) the functional independence of persons with different degrees of motor disability.     

The Internalisation of Group Identities in Childhood

This paper provides an account of key findings from a decade-long programme of research on children’s internalisation of social group identities. Our starting point is to note a pervasive failure of previous work to differentiate between categorisation of the self in group terms and subjective identification with a social group. Thus, previous research had sought to cast light on identification with groups but, owing to methodological weaknesses, typically examined only categorisation of the self in group terms. Following a review of relevant literature, we report the findings of our own research which has adapted methods drawn from cognitive social psychology. We conclude that even by the age of 5 years children are capable of subjectively identifying with collectivities. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Causality,emergence, computation and unreasonable expectations

I argue that much of current concern with the role of causality and strong emergence in natural processes is based upon an unreasonable expectation placed on our ability to formalize scientific knowledge. In most disciplines our formalization ability is an expectation rather than a scientific result. This calls for an empirical approach to the study of causation and emergence. Finally, I suggest that for advances in complexity research to occur, attention needs to be paid to understanding what role computation plays in this experimental approach.     

The ecological rationality of delay tolerance: insights from capuchin monkeys

Both human and non-human animals often face decisions between options available at different times, and the capacity of delaying gratification has usually been considered one of the features distinguishing humans from other animals. However, this characteristic can widely vary across individuals, species, and types of task and it is still unclear whether it is accounted for by phylogenetic relatedness, feeding ecology, social structure, or metabolic rate. To disentangle these hypotheses, we evaluated temporal preferences in capuchin monkeys, South-American primates that, despite splitting off from human lineage approximately 35 million years ago, show striking behavioural analogies with the great apes. Then, we compared capuchins’ performance with that of the other primate species tested so far with the same procedure. Overall, capuchins showed a delay tolerance significantly higher than closely related species, such as marmosets and tamarins, and comparable to that shown by great apes. Capuchins’ tool use abilities might explain their comparatively high preference for delayed options in inter-temporal choices. Moreover, as in humans, capuchin females showed a greater delay tolerance than males, possibly because of their less opportunistic foraging style. Thus, our results shed light on the evolutionary origins of self-control supporting explanations of delay tolerance in terms of feeding ecology.     

Appetitive and impulsive components in the Appetitive Motivation Scale

Measures of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) often conflate reward-reactivity (the core of the BAS) and impulsivity-related variance. The Appetitive Motivation Scale (AMS), a recently-developed BAS measure, has been proposed as a one-dimensional scale which deals exclusively with core reward-reactivity. However, we show here how a two-dimensional interpretation of the scale reveals components which are linked with both the core of the BAS and impulsivity. A clear pattern of associations and dissociations with other BAS- and impulsivity-related measures provides support for such a two-dimensional interpretation. The results are discussed, highlighting the parallels between the AMS structure and other BAS-related measures, and emphasizing the theoretical challenges which are inherent in developing reliable BAS-related personality measures.