Proactive motor control reduces monetary risk taking in gambling

Less supervision by the executive system after disruption of the right prefrontal cortex leads to increased risk taking in gambling because superficially attractive-but risky-choices are not suppressed. Similarly, people might gamble more in multitask situations than in single-task situations because concurrent executive processes usually interfere with each other. In the study reported here, we used a novel monetary decision-making paradigm to investigate whether multitasking could reduce rather than increase risk taking in gambling. We found that performing a task that induced cautious motor responding reduced gambling in a multitask situation (Experiment 1). We then found that a short period of inhibitory training lessened risk taking in gambling at least 2 hr later (Experiments 2 and 3). Our findings indicate that proactive motor control strongly affects monetary risk taking in gambling. The link between control systems at different cognitive levels might be exploited to develop new methods for rehabilitation of addiction and impulse-control disorders.     

A Korean Feminist Perspective on God Representation

This article investigates the ways in which the patriarchal God image when combined with Confucianism in Korean culture can negatively affect Korean Christian women in their concept of identity and self-worth. In doing so, a few salient constructs of Confucianism that are closely related to the role of Korean women are examined. Engaging in and dialoging with the works of Sigmund Freud and Ana-Maria Rizzuto in their treatments of God representation along with some key research findings in that area, the nature and the various dynamics of God representation are discussed. Finally some practical suggestions are given in dealing with the patriarchal image of God in relation to the lived experiences of Korean Christian women in Korean context.     

Cognitive development and adolescent contraception: integrating theory and practice

The cognitive skills that develop during adolescence are crucial to successful contraceptive practice because most birth control methods require at least a minimal ability to plan for, acquire, and utilize them at the appropriate time. Consequently, we must understand the special developmental setting in which adolescent sexual growth and experimentation occurs in order to have an impact on their contraceptive use. To provide optimal service to adolescents, the developmental and medical aspects should be taken into account in order to determine the best choice for each patient. This article demonstrates how mental health and medical providers can work together to better serve the adolescent population.     

The effects of prosocial and aggressive videogames on children's donating and helping

We investigated the effects of a prosocial and an aggressive videogame on children's prosocial behavior. Third-, fourth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade boys and girls (N = 160) were randomly assigned to either a control condition or one of four treatment conditions. In two of the treatment conditions, children played a videogame with prosocial content either singly or cooperatively with another child. In the other two conditions, children played an aggressive videogame either singly or competitively. Subsequent levels of donating and helping were measured. A three-way analysis of variance indicated that older students donated significantly more than did younger students. Children who played either of the aggressive videogames donated significantly less than did those who played prosocial games by themselves. No significant effects were found for helping. Playing the prosocial videogame did not increase prosocial responding, but playing the aggressive videogame tended to suppress this behavior. The failure of the prosocial game to accelerate prosocial responding might be due to the relatively brief treatments used in this study and/or to the particular prosocial videogame utilized.     

Need associations of male prisoners: a multi-dimensional assessment of Murray needs

Previous studies have revealed quantitative differences between delinquents and nondelinquents in the strength of Murray needs. To provide clarification and elaboration of such past findings, need associations derived from the Picture identification Test were analyzed by t test and discriminant analysis for a group of 112 male prisoners and 112 male nonincracerated normals matched with the prisoners for age and education. Greater than chance (.05 level) numbers of association score differences were obtained between the two groups. Differences in need association scores were interpreted in light of past findings. Need association differences were revealed for the Achievement, Affiliation, Sex, and Order needs among others.     

Evidence for lexical access in a simultaneous matching task

Memory & Cognition - Reaction times in a simultaneous visual matching task were obtained for four types of letter strings: high-frequency words, low-frequency words, orthographically legal...