The theory of planned behavior and healthy eating.

Application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to healthy eating in 144 health promotion clinic attendees is reported. Respondents completed self-report TPB measures after the clinic (Time 1) and 6 months later (Time 2) with a measure of perceived past behavior. Intention stability was assessed on Time 1-2 differences. Six years later (Time 3), respondents completed measures of healthy eating intentions and behavior. Intentions were predicted by attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and perceived past behavior (cross-sectionally). Healthy eating behavior (Time 3) was predicted from intentions (Time 2). As intention stability increased, intentions and perceived past behavior became stronger and weaker predictors of behavior, respectively. Implications for understanding health cognitions in long-term performance of health behavior are discussed.     

A Radical Notion of EmbeddednessA Logically Necessary Precondition for Agency and Self-Awareness

The aim of this essay is to establish the logically necessary preconditions for the existence of self-awareness in an artificial or a natural agent. It examines the terms agent , situated , embodied , embedded , and representation as employed ubiquitously in cognitive science, attempting to clarify their meaning and the limits of their use. It discusses the minimal conditions for an agent's environment constituting a 'world' and rejects most, though not all, types of virtual world. It argues that to qualify as genuinely situated an agent should function in real time within the dynamic world we inhabit, or some close simulacrum of it. It shows that embodied agents will possess or evolve local coordinate systems, or points of view, locating, identifying, and interacting with objects relative to their current position in space-time, and it discusses various types of embodiment, arguing that most current situated and embodied systems are too limited to be candidates for even the most minimal claim to self-identity. It argues that a truly autonomous agent has to be active in its participation with the world, able to synthesize and order its internal representations from its own point of view, and that to do this effectively the agent will have to be embedded. To this end it proposes a six-point definition of embeddedness. Ultimately it argues for a philosophical-cum-cognitive-science model of the self that satisfies essential elements of both sets of definitions of the term.     

Spirituality and Health Outcomes in the Elderly

The purpose of this mail survey was to examine the relationship of attitudinal and behavioral measures of spirituality to physical and mental health outcomes in a sample of elderly community residents. Frequency of prayer, importance of faith, and reliance on religion for their coping were compared for their association with eight categories of physical and mental health. All three measures, prayer, faith and religious coping, correlated strongly with positive mental health, but not with the other seven physical health categories. Multiple regression analyses indicated importance of one's faith had the strongest association with positive mental health, even after controlling for the effect of other significant variables, age and education. The behavioral measure of prayer was a component of importance of faith to mental health, with no independent impact. This study highlights attitudes rather than practices, as the stronger spiritual variables related to mental health in the elderly.     

The influence of advance information on the response complexity effect in manual aiming movements

The relation between reaction time and the number of elements in a response has been shown to depend on whether simple or choice RT paradigms are employed. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether advance information about the number of elements is the critical factor mediating the influence between reaction time and response elements. Participants performed aiming movements that varied in terms of the number of elements and movement amplitude. Prior to the stimulus, advance information was given about the number of elements and movement amplitude, movement amplitude only, number of elements only, or no information about the response. Reaction time and movement time to the first target increased as a function of number of elements only when the full response or the number of elements was specified in advance of the stimulus. The implication of these results for current models of motor programming and sequential control of aiming movements are discussed.     

Active learning: effects of core training design elements on self-regulatory processes, learning, and adaptability

This article describes a comprehensive examination of the cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes underlying active learning approaches; their effects on learning and transfer; and the core training design elements (exploration, training frame, emotion control) and individual differences (cognitive ability, trait goal orientation, trait anxiety) that shape these processes. Participants (N = 350) were trained to operate a complex, computer-based simulation. Exploratory learning and error-encouragement framing had a positive effect on adaptive transfer performance and interacted with cognitive ability and dispositional goal orientation to influence trainees' metacognition and state goal orientation. Trainees who received the emotion-control strategy had lower levels of state anxiety. Implications for development of an integrated theory of active learning, learner-centered design, and research extensions are discussed.     

If-then contingencies and the differential effects of the availability of an attractive alternative on relationship maintenance for men and women

In 7 experiments, the causal effects of the availability of an attractive alternative (AA) relationship partner on current relationship thoughts and intentions were tested using confederates, mental simulations, and virtual reality. Men behaved consistent with traditional relationship-commitment theories, showing decreased willingness to tolerate their partner's transgressions after the availability of an AA was made salient. However, consistent with a motivated cognition approach to commitment and work on relational self-construals, women increased their tolerance when presented with the relationship threat of an alternative. Word-fragment and lexical decision data suggested that AAs may activate threat for women, and their ability to dampen threat accessibility is associated with prorelationship responses. Finally, this "if relationship is threatened, then defend the relationship" contingency was induced in men with an implementation intention induction.