More than a matter of getting ‘unstuck’: flexible thinkers use more abstract representations than perseverators

Why do people perseverate, repeating prior behaviours that are no longer appropriate? Many accounts point to isolated deficits in processes such as inhibition or attention. We instead posit a fundamental difference in rule representations: flexible switchers use active representations that rely on later‐developing prefrontal cortical areas and are more abstract, whereas perseverators use latent representations that rely on earlier‐developing posterior cortical and subcortical areas and are more stimulus‐specific. Thus, although switchers and perseverators should apply the rules they use to familiar stimuli equally reliably, perseverators should show unique limitations in generalizing their rules to novel stimuli, a process that requires abstract representations. Two behavioural experiments confirmed this counterintuitive prediction early in development. Three‐year‐old children sorted cards by one rule, were asked to switch to another rule, and then were asked simply to continue their behaviour, with novel cards. Perseverators applied the rule they were using (the first rule) just as reliably as switchers applied the rule they were using (the second rule) with familiar cards; however, only switchers generalized their rule to novel cards. This finding supports an early link between active representations that support switching and abstract representations that support generalization. We interpret this synergy in terms of prefrontal cortical development.     

An experimental investigation of a psychoeducational strategy designed to reduce men's endorsement of societal ideals of women's attractiveness

The current study evaluated whether a psychoeducational manipulation, focused on reducing an unrealistic view of women's attractiveness, might affect men's ratings of the attractiveness of females. The participants were 159 male undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to four conditions: psychoeducational message (beauty ideals; marketing strategies) and photo exposure (attractive females; household products). The results indicated that males pre-exposed to attractive female images subsequently evaluated average females as less attractive than those exposed to household products. However, a psychoeducational information condition designed to challenge "beauty ideals" did not reduce the adverse exposure effect and was comparable in effectiveness to the "marketing strategies" manipulation. The limitations of the findings are discussed and avenues for future research in this area offered.     

Attention level and negative priming in hierarchical patterns1

Abstract: This study explored object processing associated with attention level dependent on task, using a paradigm of negative priming. Participants were required to identify target characters that appeared at either the global or local level in hierarchically structured patterns. Two experiments were conducted to examine how the global and local characters were processed in the attended and unattended levels. In the results of Experiment 1, where stimuli were presented for 10 ms, negative priming was observed in a local‐directed task, but not in a global‐directed one. These results suggested that the inhibition of local characters in the unattended level did not occur during global attention. The results of Experiment 2 revealed that negative priming was observed in both global‐ and local‐directed tasks in the 500 ms presentation, showing that inhibition in the unattended level occurred. As a result, the exposure duration influences inhibition in the unattended, especially the local level. At short exposure duration, the local characters are not inhibited when one directs attention to the global characters, whereas these are inhibited at long exposure duration.     

Are you listening? Exploring a developmental knowledge–action dissociation in a speech interpretation task

Young children sometimes act inappropriately despite appearing to know what to do. Dissociations of this kind raise important questions about the organization and development of knowledge and action systems. The present study investigated a knowledge–action dissociation in 6–year–olds performing a speech interpretation task and tested the hypothesis that knowledge–action dissociations stem from a general difficulty resolving conflicting cues. When knowledge and action measures were equated in terms of the amount of conflict that needed to be resolved for a correct response, children’s knowledge no longer appeared to outstrip their ability to act appropriately. Implications of the findings for competing views of knowledge representation and knowledge–action system organization are discussed.     

Recognition and position information in working memory for visual textures

In three experiments, we examined connections between item-recognition memory and memory for item-position information. With sequences of compound gratings as study and probe items, subjects made either item-position judgments (Experiments 1 and 2), by identifying the serial position of the study item that matched the probe, or recognition judgments (Experiment 3), by judging whether the probe had or had not been presented in the study series. Integrating a summed-similarity account of recognition into a signal detection framework shows that the variance of summed similarities on lure trials (probe not present in the study series) exceeds the variance on target trials (probe present in the study series). This prediction is borne out by the empirical zROC functions, all of which had slopes that were greater than 1. Additionally, about 25% of correct recognitions were accompanied by incorrect item position identification. Misidentifications of item position arose from two sources--structural similarity and positional similarity-which combined in an approximately additive fashion.     

Infant responses to maternal still-face at 4 and 9 months

This study investigated developmental changes in infant responses to maternal still-face (SF) situations. Infants (21 males and 25 females) of Japanese mothers were observed in a face-to-face SF paradigm, comprising four phases (normal/SF/normal/SF), at two infant ages (4 and 9 months). The infants' facial expression, gaze direction, and vocalization were coded in both SF and normal interaction conditions. The results indicated that infants at both ages showed a decrease in displaying positive facial expression and gazing at their mothers during SF conditions. The 4-month-old displayed emotional expression and directed their gaze toward their mothers more frequently than the 9-month-old. However, the 9-month-old vocalized more often in SF situations, attempting to elicit responses from their mothers. The "carry-over" effect was observed only in 9-month-old. The results were discussed in the context of developmental changes in infants' social skills to cope with an emotionally stressful situation.     

Relation between polysomnographic measures during nocturnal sleep and a quotient of behavioral development in infants with developmental disabilities

Polysomnographic features during nocturnal sleep were investigated in 27 infants with developmental disabilities. With the use of a multiple regression analysis, 78% of the variance of a Development Quotient (DQ) measured by a questionnaire on behavioral development for infants was explained by sleep measures. Of 14 sleep measures employed in the study, (1) cumulative awakening time during a nocturnal sleep time, (2) duration of REM stage, and (3) percentage of REM to total sleep time were important in association with the DQ. The findings are consistent with the sleep-cognition hypothesis proposed by Espie, et al.     

Early development of subcortical regions involved in non-cued attention switching

This study examined the cognitive and neural development of attention switching using a simple forced-choice attention task and functional magnetic resonance imaging Fourteen children and adults made discriminations among stimuli based on either shape or color. Performance on these trials was compared to performance during blocked trials requiring all color or all shape discriminations. Magnetic resonance echo planar images were acquired during performance of the task. Both children and adults showed robust bilateral activity of the caudate nucleus when switching attention between color and shape discriminations that correlated negatively with mean response latency on these trials. However, neither switching costs nor caudate activity correlated with age, suggesting early development of the underlying neural circuitry involved in switching between salient stimulus sets. Overall, children and adults differed in performance and patterns of brain activity on the task, with adults responding more accurately and faster than children, and recruiting more prefrontal and parietal regions. These results suggest an important role of subcortical regions (i.e. caudate nucleus) in non-cued attention switching, with increasing recruitment of cortical regions with age.     

Development of eating behavior by Japanese toddlers in a nursery school: relation to independent walking

The eating behavior of 32 toddlers in a nursery school at 10, 12, and 14 months old was observed in relation to the age at onset of independent walking. With increasing age, the frequency at which the toddlers ate food given by a teacher decreased, and the frequency at which the toddlers ate by themselves increased. The toddlers who started walking earlier also advanced faster in the development of eating behavior. The time when the frequency of eating by oneself surpassed the frequency of passive eating coincided with the time when the toddlers started walking.     

When actions speak louder than words: improving children's flexibility in a card-sorting task

People often perseverate, or repeat habitual behaviors when they are no longer appropriate. For example, after sorting cards by one rule, children will reliably perseverate with this rule even when they are clearly and repeatedly instructed to switch to a new rule. Such perseveration may result from limitations in working memory abilities for holding instructions actively in mind. If so, children may switch more readily to a new rule following experiences that are less demanding on working memory, such as guided practice with the new rule. In a study testing this prediction, 3-year-old children received direct instructions to switch to a new rule, guided practice with the new rule, or both. Providing children with guided practice was much more effective than telling them what to do. These findings support theories of perseveration based on competing memory systems, challenge alternative theories, and suggest effective methods for countering prepotent behaviors.