The synergy of working memory and inhibitory control: behavioral, pharmacological and neural functional evidences

Concomitant deficits in working memory and behavioral inhibition in several psychiatric disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, addiction or mania, suggest that common brain mechanisms may underlie their etiologies. Based on the theoretical assumption that a continuum exists between health and mental disorders, we explored the relationship between working memory and inhibition in healthy individuals, through spontaneous inter individual differences in behavior, and tested the hypothesis of a functional link through the fronto-striatal dopaminergic system. Rats were classified into three groups, showing good, intermediate and poor working memory and were compared for their inhibitory abilities. These two functions were simultaneously modulated by a dose-effect of d-amphetamine and in situ hybridization was used to quantify dopaminergic receptor (RD1) mRNAs in prefrontal cortex and striatal areas. A functional relationship between working memory and inhibition abilities was revealed. Both functions were similarly modulated by d-amphetamine according to an inverted-U shaped relationship and depending on initial individual performances. D-amphetamine selectively improved working memory and inhibition of poor and intermediate performers at low doses whereas it impaired both processes in good performers at a higher dose. D1 receptors were less expressed in prelimbic, infralimbic and anterior cingulate cortices of good compared to intermediate and poor performers, whereas no difference was observed between groups in striatal areas. The synergy of working memory and inhibitory abilities, observed in both healthy and psychiatric populations, may originate from endogenous variability in dopaminergic prefrontal cortex activity. Such findings confirm the validity of a dimensional approach, based on the concept of continuity between health and mental disorders for identifying endophenotypes of mental disorders.     

Collaborative partner or social tool? New evidence for young children’s understanding of joint intentions in collaborative activities

Some children’s social activities are structured by joint goals. In previous research, the criterion used to determine this was relatively weak: if the partner stopped interacting, did the child attempt to re‐engage her? But re‐engagement attempts could easily result from the child simply realizing that she needs the partner to reach her own goal in the activity (social tool explanation). In two experiments, 21‐ and 27‐month‐old children interacted with an adult in games in which they either did or did not physically need the partner to reach a concrete goal. Moreover, when the partner stopped interacting, she did so because she was either unwilling to continue (breaking off from the joint goal) or unable to continue (presumably still maintaining the joint goal). Children of both age groups encouraged the recalcitrant partner equally often whether she was or was not physically needed for goal attainment. In addition, they did so more often when the partner was unable to continue than when she was unwilling to continue. These findings suggest that young children do not just view their collaborative partners as mindless social tools, but rather as intentional, cooperative agents with whom they must coordinate intentional states.     

Modal preferences in creative problem solving

Embodied cognitive science appeals to the idea that cognition depends on the body as well as on the brain. This study looks at whether we are more likely to engage just the brain or enlist the body for complex cognitive functioning such as creative problem solving. Participants were presented with a puzzle based on De Bono's lateral thinking puzzles. The puzzle consisted of rotating and joining two-dimensional shapes to make a three-dimensional one. In one condition, participants were given the choice of either solving the puzzle mentally or through manipulation of the images on a computer screen. In another condition, the subjects had to solve the puzzle first mentally and then report which mode they would have preferred to solve the puzzle. Two more conditions were applied with slight variations. In all conditions, an overwhelming majority of participants chose to solve the puzzle by manipulation, even though there was not a significant increase on performance. It appeared that participants were making a conscious choice for the body to play a feedback-driven role in creative cognitive processing. This strong preference for manual manipulation over just mental representation, regardless of the impact on performance, would seem to suggest that it is our natural tendency to involve the body in complex cognitive functioning. This would support the theory that cognition may be more than just a neural process, and that it is a dynamic interplay between body, brain and world. The experiential feedback of the body moving through space and time may be an inherently important factor in creative cognition.     

When local processing increases the appeal of healthy options

People often encounter self-control challenges in complex everyday environments in which objects that promote a given goal (e.g., to eat healthily) are mixed together with objects that obstruct that goal. For example, healthy and unhealthy food choices are often mixed together in restaurant menus. Because local processing facilitates attention to low-level details, we expect that it may play an important role in these complex situations. In the present studies, we test the hypothesis that local processing supports self-control when goal items and temptations are contextually paired. As predicted, our findings revealed that local processing (relative to global processing) increased evaluations of healthy items when those items were presented together with unhealthy items. As hypothesized, this effect of local processing only occurred when healthy and unhealthy foods were presented as complementary – not competing – options, suggesting that local processing may increase evaluations of healthy options by decreasing the extent to which individuals accept environmental cues that healthy and unhealthy foods belong together. These findings support recent research demonstrating that despite strong evidence of the advantages of global processing for self-control, local processing may also support self-control efforts in some important everyday situations.     

Current negative mood encourages changes in end-of-life treatment decisions and is associated with false memories

To investigate the effects of mood on people's end-of-life treatment decisions and their false memories of those decisions, participants took part in two sessions. At Time 1, participants were experimentally induced into positive or negative moods. They decided whether they would want to receive or refuse treatments in a range of hypothetical medical scenarios, such as tube feeding while in a coma. Four weeks later, at Time 2, participants were induced into the same or the opposite mood and made these decisions a second time. They also recalled their previous decisions. Participants in negative moods at Time 2 changed more of their current decisions and falsely remembered more of their previous decisions than participants in positive moods. These findings suggest that people's current moods influence whether they change their treatment decisions; current decisions in turn bias recall of past decisions.     

Lunacy and Scepticism: Notes on the Logic of Doubt Concerning the Existence of an External World

This article develops a logical (or semantic) response to scepticism about the existence of an external world. Specifically, it is argued that any doubt about the existence of an external world can be proved to be false, but whatever appears to be doubt about the existence of an external world that cannot be proved to be false is nonsense, insofar as it must rely on the assertion of something that is logically impossible. The article further suggests that both G. E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein worked towards the same solution but left their work unfinished.

     

Correction to: A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Motivation and Emotion - Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study...     

The interplay of math anxiety and math competence for later performance

Social Psychology of Education - Math anxiety’s negative effects on performance are well-documented. The interplay of math anxiety and mathematical competence regarding later performance is...     

A Gricean approach to the use of consensus and distinctiveness in causal attributions of verbally described interpersonal events

Various causal attribution theories, starting with the covariation model, argue that people use consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information to causally explain events and behaviors. Yet, the visual presentation of the covariation model in the form of a cube is based on the assumptions that these dimensions generally affect attributions independently, symmetrically, and equally. A Gricean analysis suggests that these assumptions may not generally hold in the case of causal judgments for verbally communicated interpersonal events. We had participants judge the causal role of an actor and a patient in interpersonal events that were described through actor‐verb‐patient sentences under high versus low consensus and distinctiveness (Studies 1, 2, and 3) or without such information (Studies 2 and 3). As predicted by Gricean logic, consensus and distinctiveness effects on causality ratings depended on the target whose causal role participants assessed, on the information about the alternative dimension, and, most consistently, on consensus and distinctiveness being high versus low. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring Differential Subgroup Functioning on SAT Writing Items: What Happens When English Is Not a Test Taker's Best Language?

The purpose of this study is to explore patterns in model-data fit related to subgroups of test takers from a large-scale writing assessment. Using data from the SAT, a calibration group was randomly selected to represent test takers who reported that English was their best language from the total population of test takers (N = 322,011). A reference scale for the items was constructed based on EBL responses. Response behaviors of test takers who reported that English was not their best language (ENBL) were examined in relationship to this reference scale. This study illustrates the use of differential subgroup analyses to identify patterns related to person misfit within subgroups, as well as subsets of items, that may affect the validity of writing scores for ENBL test takers. The methodology described here offers an approach that can be used to explore, understand, and improve the validity of scores obtained from ENBL test takers in large-scale writing assessments.