Effects of maternal negativity and of early and recent recurrent depressive disorder on children's false belief understanding

Research has shown that children of depressed mothers are at risk for problems in a variety of developmental domains; however, little is known about the effects of maternal depression on children's emerging understanding of false beliefs. In this study, 3 false belief tasks were administered to 5-year-old children whose mothers had either met criteria for major depressive disorder within the first 20 months of the child's life (n = 91) or had never been depressed (n = 50). Significant difficulties in performance were found among the children of depressed mothers, especially those whose mothers had experienced early and recent recurrent depressive disorder. Regardless of diagnostic status, children whose mothers exhibited negativity during problem-solving tasks administered at an earlier developmental period also were less likely to demonstrate false belief understanding. These effects remained even after child verbal ability was controlled.     

Unpredictable chronic stress in juvenile or adult rats has opposite effects, respectively, promoting and impairing resilience

We evaluated the effects of early maternal deprivation (MD; age 7-14 days) alone or in combination with unpredictable chronic stress (UCS; MDUN; 28-84 days) on anxiety and learning in 90 days old adult rats. We hypothesized that exposure to both stressors (MDUN) would be more detrimental than exposure to one or neither. Unexpectedly, adult rats from the MDUN group did not differ from control animals, whereas adult MD animals exhibited impaired avoidance learning. We next investigated the effect of juvenile-onset (30-90 days) versus adult-onset (60-90 days) stress on avoidance learning in adulthood (90 days). We found that adult-onset chronic stress impaired avoidance learning and memory whereas juvenile-onset stress did not. Thus, the results again indicate that juvenile exposure to UCS induces resilience rather than impairment.     

Dissociation of Processes Underlying Spatial S-R Compatibility: Evidence for the Independent Influence of What and Where

The process-dissociation procedure was used to estimate the influence of spatial and form-based processing in the Simon task. Subjects made manual (left/right) responses to the direction of arrows (> or <) presented to the left or right of fixation. Manipulating the proportion of incongruent trails (e.g., a right-pointing arrow presented to the left of fixation) affected both the size and direction of the Simon effect. To account for this pattern of data, we compared process estimates based on three possible relationships between spatial and form-based processing: independence, redundancy, and exclusivity. The independence model provided the best account of the data. Most telling was that independent form-based estimates were superior at predicting observed performance on arrows presented at fixation and did so consistently across conditions (r′s > .80). The results provide evidence that the form ("what") and spatial location ("where") of a single stimulus can have functionally independent effects on performance. They also indicate the existence of two kinds of automaticity—an associative ("implicit learning") component that reflects prior S-R mappings and a nonassociative component that reflects the correspondence between stimulus and response codes.     

Variation and selection: The evolutionary analogy and the convergence of cognitive and behavioral psychology

The empirical and theoretical work of both operant and cognitive researchers has increasingly appealed to evolutionary concepts. In particular, both traditional operant studies of extinction-induced behavior and cognitive investigations of creativity and problem solving converge on the fundamental evolutionary principles of variation and selection. These contemporary developments and their implications for the alleged preparadigmatic status of psychology are discussed.     

Early social attention impairments in autism: social orienting, joint attention, and attention to distress

This study investigated social attention impairments in autism (social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress) and their relations to language ability. Three- to four-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 72), 3- to 4-year-old developmentally delayed children (n = 34), and 12- to 46-month-old typically developing children (n = 39), matched on mental age, were compared on measures of social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress. Children with autism performed significantly worse than the comparison groups in all of these domains. Combined impairments in joint attention and social orienting were found to best distinguish young children with ASD from those without ASD. Structural equation modeling indicated that joint attention was the best predictor of concurrent language ability. Social orienting and attention to distress were indirectly related to language through their relations with joint attention. These results help to clarify the nature of social attention impairments in autism, offer clues to developmental mechanisms, and suggest targets for early intervention.     

Aging, subjective experience, and cognitive control: dramatic false remembering by older adults

Recent research suggests that older adults are more susceptible to interference effects than are young adults; however, that research has failed to equate differences in original learning. In 4 experiments, the authors show that older adults are more susceptible to interference effects produced by a misleading prime. Even when original learning was equated, older adults were 10 times as likely to falsely remember misleading information and were much less likely to increase their accuracy by opting not to answer under conditions of free responding. The results are well described by a multinomial model that postulates multiple modes of cognitive control. According to that model, older adults are likely to be captured by misleading information, a form of goal neglect or deficit in inhibitory functions.     

Representational bias does not affect bisection of lines with a pictorially or semantically defined top by patients with left hemispatial neglect

Normal subjects may have both representational and visual-based components determining bias in bisection of horizontal, vertical, and radial lines. The influence of these components is less clear in patients with neglect. We asked 25 patients with right hemisphere stroke and clinical features of neglect to bisect lines oriented horizontally, vertically, and radially above and below eye level. Objects including human silhouette figures, arrowheads, and the words 'TOP' and 'BOTTOM' were placed at either end of each line. These figures were presented either upright or upside down in some orientations, and presented rightward and leftward in other orientations, to pictorially or semantically define a "top" to each line independent of the actual top of the visual field. Patients demonstrated a rightward bias on all horizontal line bisections, with similar bias and greater magnitude than normal subjects. Patients also demonstrated visual-based biases on some of the vertical, radial down, and radial up lines presented. However, patients did not demonstrate a significant representational bias with any of the visual cues presented on any of the line orientations. Patients with acute right hemisphere stroke demonstrate a rightward bias when asked to perform line bisection in the horizontal line orientation, as well as an upward bias in vertical line bisection. The lack of representational bias in patients with neglect may be due to a greater degree of visual-based neglect as compared to representational neglect, or it may be due to an absence of representational bias in patients with right hemisphere stroke.     

Bullying and cyberbullying in adulthood and the workplace

Two studies generated profiles of cyberbullying/cyberincivility and traditional bullying/incivility in adults, particularly within the workplace. In Study 1, 20% of 3,699 participants had the majority of cyberbullying victimization and 7.5% had the majority of traditional bullying victimization occur in adulthood, with 30% saying they were bullied at work. Relationships between bullying and negative outcomes were found. Because of the clear evidence of bullying and cyberbullying in the workplace in Study 1, Study 2 addressed the relationship of these constructs to workplace incivility. Workplace face-to-face incivility and bullying were related among 321 participants, as were workplace cyberbullying and cyberincivility. Face-to-face incivility was more common than online incivility, face-to-face bullying, or online bullying, yet all four behaviors were associated with negative outcomes. Differences in intentionality, acceptability, and severity were observed, with workplace face-to-face bullying perceived as the most severe and having the greatest intentionality to harm. These results emphasize the importance of studying bullying among adults, and highlight the conceptual independence of bullying and incivility. Correlates of workplace aggression are discussed using job demands-resources theory.     

Cardiovascular reactivity and central adiposity in older African Americans.

This study examined central adiposity, as measured by waist circumference (WC), in relation to mental-stress induced systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) responses, body composition, the metabolic syndrome, and health practices in 22 older, African American men and women (ages 52-79 years). The high WC (> 100 cm) group showed significantly greater SBP, DBP, and HR reactivity, greater fasting insulin levels, lower high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, greater fat mass in both truncal and peripheral regions, and greater body mass index as compared to the low WC (< 100 cm) group. Groups were comparable with respect to fat-free mass, peak oxygen consumption (VO2), leisure time activity, dietary intake, resting blood pressure, and other metabolic variables. The findings support a clustering of metabolic and mental stress risk factors that may predispose older African Americans to increased cardiovascular and metabolic disease.