Distinguishing non-spatial from spatial biases in visual selection: neuropsychological evidence

Recently, it has been shown that patients with visual extinction can show enhanced awareness of contralesional stimuli that match the contents of working memory [Soto, D., & Humphreys, G.W. (2006). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 103, 4789–4792]. Here we investigate whether these effects extend to cases where the working memory cue is verbal rather than visual (Study 1), and we show that non-spatial cues can overcome problems in spatial disengagement in patients, and this can affect the first eye movement made in search (Study 2). We discuss the implications of the data for understanding the relations between the cueing of attention from visual and conceptual information held in working memory and the cueing of spatial attention, and for understanding the relations between non-spatial and spatial biases in selection.     

Visual object categorization in birds and primates: Integrating behavioral,neurobiological, and computational evidence within a “general process” framework

Previous comparative work has suggested that the mechanisms of object categorization differ importantly for birds and primates. However, behavioral and neurobiological differences do not preclude the possibility that at least some of those mechanisms are shared across these evolutionarily distant groups. The present study integrates behavioral, neurobiological, and computational evidence concerning the “general processes” that are involved in object recognition in vertebrates. We start by reviewing work implicating error-driven learning in object categorization by birds and primates, and also consider neurobiological evidence suggesting that the basal ganglia might implement this process. We then turn to work with a computational model showing that principles of visual processing discovered in the primate brain can account for key behavioral findings in object recognition by pigeons, including cases in which pigeons’ behavior differs from that of people. These results provide a proof of concept that the basic principles of visual shape processing are similar across distantly related vertebrate species, thereby offering important insights into the evolution of visual cognition.     

Tracking the trajectory of shame, guilt, and pride across the life span

The authors examined age differences in shame, guilt, and 2 forms of pride (authentic and hubristic) from age 13 years to age 89 years, using cross-sectional data from 2,611 individuals. Shame decreased from adolescence into middle adulthood, reaching a nadir around age 50 years, and then increased in old age. Guilt increased from adolescence into old age, reaching a plateau at about age 70 years. Authentic pride increased from adolescence into old age, whereas hubristic pride decreased from adolescence into middle adulthood, reaching a minimum around age 65 years, and then increased in old age. On average, women reported experiencing more shame and guilt; Blacks reported experiencing less shame and Asians more hubristic pride than other ethnicities. Across the life span, shame and hubristic pride tended to be negatively related to psychological well-being, and shame-free guilt and authentic pride showed positive relations with well-being. Overall, the findings support the maturity principle of personality development and suggest that as people age they become more prone to experiencing psychologically adaptive self-conscious emotions, such as guilt and authentic pride, and less prone to experiencing psychologically maladaptive ones, such as shame and hubristic pride.     

Cognitive reappraisal in the context of oppression: implications for psychological functioning

Research on emotion regulation has shown cognitive reappraisal to be positively correlated with better psychological functioning. Prior research has failed to account for contextual influences on this important relationship. We examined how this relationship plays out across two United States ethnic groups that represent different contexts of oppression: Puerto Ricans, experiencing distal oppression (societal level) but not proximal oppression (immediate environment), and Latino Americans, experiencing both. We also captured individual beliefs regarding oppression of one's group and implications of that oppression by measuring oppressed minority ideology (OMI). Results confirmed our hypothesis that the relationship between reappraisal and psychological functioning would be moderated by the context of oppression (as measured by ethnic group membership and OMI). For Latino Americans high on OMI, reappraisal was negatively associated with psychological functioning. For Puerto Ricans, regardless of OMI, this relationship remained positive, suggesting a possible benefit for minorities in being surrounded by in-group members.     

Is Happiness Good for Your Personality? Concurrent and Prospective Relations of the Big Five With Subjective Well‐Being

The present research examined longitudinal relations of the Big Five personality traits with three core aspects of subjective well‐being: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Latent growth models and autoregressive models were used to analyze data from a large, nationally representative sample of 16,367 Australian residents. Concurrent and change correlations indicated that higher levels of subjective well‐being were associated with higher levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, and with lower levels of Neuroticism. Moreover, personality traits prospectively predicted change in well‐being, and well‐being levels prospectively predicted personality change. Specifically, prospective trait effects indicated that individuals who were initially extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable subsequently increased in well‐being. Prospective well‐being effects indicated that individuals with high initial levels of well‐being subsequently became more agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, and introverted. These findings challenge the common assumption that associations of personality traits with subjective well‐being are entirely, or almost entirely, due to trait influences on well‐being. They support the alternative hypothesis that personality traits and well‐being aspects reciprocally influence each other over time.     

Executive Functioning and Emotion Regulation in Children with and without ADHD

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Difficulties with emotion regulation affect the majority of youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and predict greater...     

Prevention of Postpartum Depression in Low-Income Women: Development of the Mamás y Bebés/Mothers and Babies Course

A prenatal intervention designed to prevent the onset of major depressive episodes (MDEs) during pregnancy and postpartum was pilot tested at a public sector women’s clinic. The Mamás y Bebés/Mothers and Babies Course is an intervention developed in Spanish and English that uses a cognitive-behavioral mood management framework, and incorporates social learning concepts, attachment theory, and socio-cultural issues. The four goals of this project were to develop the intervention, assess its acceptability, test the feasibility of conducting a randomized trial with public sector patients, and obtain estimates of its effect size. Forty-one pregnant women at high risk for developing MDEs were randomized to the Mothers and Babies Course (n = 21) or a comparison condition (n = 20). Assessments occurred during pregnancy and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postpartum. Differences in terms of depression symptom levels or incidence of MDEs between the two groups did not reach statistical significance in this pilot trial. However, the MDE incidence rates of 14% for the intervention condition versus 25% for the comparison condition represent a small effect size (h = 0.28) that will be further examined in a larger scale study. The intervention was well received by the participants and implementation of a randomized trial appeared quite feasible as indicated by our follow-up rate of 91% at 12 months. Implications for the continuing development of preventive interventions for perinatal depression are discussed.     

Stressing the mind: the effect of cognitive load and articulatory suppression on attentional guidance from working memory

Four experiments explored the effect of cognitive load on the time course of top-down guidance of attention from working memory (WM). Observers had to search for a target presented among several distractors, with the target and distractor stimuli embedded inside different objects. On half of the trials, one of the distractor objects was cued by a matching item held in WM. When a single item was maintained in memory, search performance was impaired relative to a neutral baseline, where the memory and search displays did not match. These effects of WM on subsequent search were reduced by including a verbal suppression task during the WM and search displays, and by varying the WM load. The degree of competition for resources in WM is a key factor in determining the time course and magnitude of the interaction between WM and visual selection.