Quality of Life (QoL) in a Brazilian Sample of Older Adults: The Role of Sociodemographic Variables and Depression Symptoms

The aim of the present study was to identify relevant variables associated with Quality of Life (QoL) in older adults. Older adults, up to 60 years old, were interviewed. Subjects were recruited through convenience sampling. 339 paticipants, who were stratified by gender, age, and subjective perception of health and illness, answered questions on sociodemographic issues, QoL (WHOQOL-100) and depressive symptomathology (Beck Depression Inventory—BDI). The multiple linear regression analysis showed associations of overall perception of QoL with depression levels, subjective perception of health status and gender. The individual analysis of each domain concluded that depression levels are correlated to all QoL domains, while health status was associated with physical, psychological, independence level and social relationship domains. Other variables were also assessed. The assessment of older adults concerning their QoL perceptions is associated with gender, age, marital status, social class, literacy rate, perception of health, and more substantially associated with depressive symptoms levels. Nevertheless, some limitations of this study and further ones are suggested.     

Adaptation-level theory, opponent process theory, and dispositions: an integrated approach to the stability of job satisfaction

Research suggests that the stability of job satisfaction is partially the result of dispositions (J. J. Connolly & C. Viswesvaran, 2000; C. Dormann & D. Zapf, 2001; T. A. Judge & J. E. Bono, 2001a; T. A. Judge, D. Heller, & M. K. Mount, 2002). Opponent process theory (R. L. Solomon & J. D. Corbit, 1973, 1974) and adaptation-level theory (H. Helson, 1948) are alternative explanations of this stability that explain how environmental effects on job satisfaction dissipate across time. On the basis of an integration of these explanations, the authors propose that dispositions (a) influence employees' equilibrium or adaptation level of job satisfaction, (b) influence employees' sensitivity to workplace events, and (c) influence the speed at which job satisfaction returns to equilibrium after one is exposed to a workplace event. Research and applied implications are discussed.     

Combined expectancy effects: an accumulator model

When participants use cues to prepare for a likely stimulus or a likely response, reaction times are facilitated by valid cues but prolonged by invalid cues. In studies on combined expectancy effects, two cues give information regarding two dimensions of the forthcoming task. When the two cues consist of two separable stimuli their effects are approximately additive. When cues are presented as an integrated stimulus, cueing effects interact. A model is presented that simulates effects like these. The model assumes that cues affect different processing stages. When implicit information suggests that expectancies are unrelated, as for instance with separated cues, cueing effects at early and late levels of processing remain independent. When implicit information suggests that expectancies are related, as with integrated cues, however, a mechanism that is sensitive to the validity of the early stage cue, leads to an adjustment of the cueing effect at the late stage. The model is based on neurophysiologically plausible assumptions, it is given explicitly in mathematical terms, and it provides a good fit to a large body of empirical data.     

Prefrontal and hippocampal contributions to visual associative recognition: interactions between cognitive control and episodic retrieval

The ability to recover episodic associations is thought to depend on medial-temporal lobe mnemonic mechanisms and frontal lobe cognitive control processes. The present study examined the neural circuitry underlying non-verbal associative retrieval, and considered the consequences of successful retrieval on cognitive control demands. Event-related fMRI data were acquired while subjects retrieved strongly or weakly associated pairs of novel visual patterns in a two-alternative forced choice associative recognition paradigm. Behaviorally, successful retrieval of strongly associated relative to weakly associated pairs was more likely to be accompanied by conscious recollection of the pair's prior co-occurrence. At the neural level, right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and hippocampus were more active during successful retrieval of Strong than of Weak associations, consistent with a role in visual associative recollection. By contrast, Weak trials elicited greater activation in right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which may detect conflict between the similarly familiar target and foil stimuli in the absence of recollection. Consistent with this interpretation, stronger ACC activity was associated with weaker hippocampal and stronger right dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) responses. Thus, recollection of relevant visual associations (hippocampus and VLPFC) results in lower levels of mnemonic conflict (ACC) and decreased familiarity-based monitoring demands (DLPFC). These findings highlight the interplay between cognitive control and episodic retrieval.     

How owls structure visual information

Recent studies on perceptual organization in humans claim that the ability to represent a visual scene as a set of coherent surfaces is of central importance for visual cognition. We examined whether this surface representation hypothesis generalizes to a non-mammalian species, the barn owl (Tyto alba). Discrimination transfer combined with random-dot stimuli provided the appropriate means for a series of two behavioural experiments with the specific aims of (1) obtaining psychophysical measurements of figure–ground segmentation in the owl, and (2) determining the nature of the information involved. In experiment 1, two owls were trained to indicate the presence or absence of a central planar surface (figure) among a larger region of random dots (ground) based on differences in texture. Without additional training, the owls could make the same discrimination when figure and ground had reversed luminance, or were camouflaged by the use of uniformly textured random-dot stereograms. In the latter case, the figure stands out in depth from the ground when positional differences of the figure in two retinal images are combined (binocular disparity). In experiment 2, two new owls were trained to distinguish three-dimensional objects from holes using random-dot kinematograms. These birds could make the same discrimination when information on surface segmentation was unexpectedly switched from relative motion to half-occlusion. In the latter case, stereograms were used that provide the impression of stratified surfaces to humans by giving unpairable image features to the eyes. The ability to use image features such as texture, binocular disparity, relative motion, and half-occlusion interchangeably to determine figure–ground relationships suggests that in owls, as in humans, the structuring of the visual scene critically depends on how indirect image information (depth order, occlusion contours) is allocated between different surfaces. Electronic Publication     

Preliminary examination of sex differences in depressive symptoms among adolescent psychiatric inpatients: the role of anxious symptoms and generalized negative affect.

Assessed the emerging view that generalized negative affect and anxious symptoms are important in understanding sex differences in depressive symptoms. Sixty-three adolescent psychiatric inpatients (32 boys, 31 girls), ages 12 to 16 (M = 13.87, SD = 1.36), completed measures of positive and negative affect and anxious and depressive symptoms. Results demonstrated, as predicted, that depressive and anxious symptoms were more highly associated in adolescent girls than boys. Furthermore, girls with depressive symptoms were more likely to have comorbid anxious symptoms than boys with depressive symptoms. Sex differences were not found for adolescents with specific depressive symptoms and specific anxious symptoms (i.e., the absence of comorbidity). Our findings supported the possibility that sex differences in pure forms of depression are overestimated and that comorbid internalizing conditions may be more prevalent in adolescent girls than boys.     

Misadventures In Conditional Expectation: The Two-Envelope Problem

Several fallacies of conditionalization are illustrated, using the two-envelope problem as a case in point This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Facial expression recognition ability among women with borderline personality disorder: implications for emotion regulation?

This study examined recognition of facial expressions of emotion among women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD; n = 21), compared to a group of women with histories of childhood sexual abuse with no current or prior diagnosis of BPD (n = 21) and a group of women with no history of sexual abuse or BPD (n = 20). Facial recognition was assessed by a slide set developed by Ekman and Matsumoto (Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion and Neutral Faces, 1992), expanded and improved from previous slide sets, and utilized a coding system that allowed for free responses rather than the more typical fixed-response format. Results indicated that borderline individuals were primarily accurate perceivers of others' emotions and showed a tendency toward heightened sensitivity on recognition of fear, specifically. Results are discussed in terms of emotional appraisal ability and emotion dysregulation among individuals with BPD.