Temporal Distribution of Attention During a Throwing Motion

A reaction-time measure of attention was employed during five segments of a simultaneous dart throw: premovement decision, immediately after recoil was begun, maximum recoil, immediately after forward movement was begun, and after release of the dart. Reaction time was significantly longer when the stimulus was presented during the first or second segment than during later segments. Reaction time during premovement was not consistently greater than that immediately after movement was begun, indicating that information is being sampled at a high rate after movement commences. It appears that monitoring of proprioceptive feedback after movement has begun, and initiation of corrective submovements, is necessary for skillful performance of dart throwing.     

Gender differences in combat-related stressors and their association with postdeployment mental health in a nationally representative sample of U.S. OEF/OIF veterans

Though the broader literature suggests that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of trauma exposure, most available studies on combat trauma have relied on samples in which women's combat exposure is limited and analyses that do not directly address gender differences in associations between combat exposure and postdeployment mental health. Female service members' increased exposure to combat in Afghanistan and Iraq provides a unique opportunity to evaluate gender differences in different dimensions of combat-related stress and associated consequence for postdeployment mental health. The current study addressed these research questions in a representative sample of female and male U.S. veterans who had returned from deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq within the previous year. As expected, women reported slightly less exposure than men to most combat-related stressors, but higher exposure to other stressors (i.e., prior life stress, deployment sexual harassment). No gender differences were observed in reports of perceived threat in the war zone. Though it was hypothesized that combat-related stressors would demonstrate stronger negative associations with postdeployment mental health for women, only one of 16 stressor × gender interactions achieved statistical significance and an evaluation of the clinical significance of these interactions revealed that effects were trivial. Results suggest that female Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom service members may be as resilient to combat-related stress as men. Future research is needed to evaluate gender differences in the longer-term effects of combat exposure.     

Cognitive Deficits and Positively Biased Self-Perceptions in Children with ADHD

This study examined the relation between cognitive deficits and positive bias in a sample of 272 children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; 7–12 years old). Results indicated that children with ADHD with and without biased self-perceptions exhibit differences in specific cognitive deficits (executive processes, working memory, broad attention, and cognitive fluency) compared to each other and to control children. Further, specific cognitive deficits emerged as partial mediators of the relation between ADHD diagnostic status and positive bias. Interestingly, some differences in results emerged based on the domain considered (academic, social, behavioral competence). Results lend initial support to the role of cognitive deficits in the positive bias of some children with ADHD. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.     

Diagnosing criterion-level effects on memory: what aspects of memory are enhanced by repeated retrieval?

Previous research has shown that increasing the criterion level (i.e., the number of times an item must be correctly retrieved during practice) improves subsequent memory, but which specific components of memory does increased criterion level enhance? In two experiments, we examined the extent to which the criterion level affects associative memory, target memory, and cue memory. Participants studied Lithuanian-English word pairs via cued recall with restudy until items were correctly recalled one to five times. In Experiment 1, participants took one of four recall tests and one of three recognition tests after a 2-day delay. In Experiment 2, participants took only recognition tests after a 1-week delay. In both experiments, increasing the criterion level enhanced associative memory, as indicated by enhanced performance on forward and backward cued-recall tests and on tests of associative recognition. An increased criterion level also improved target memory, as indicated by enhanced free recall and recognition of targets, and improved cue memory, as indicated by enhanced free recall and recognition of cues.     

I only have eyes for you: Ovulation redirects attention (but not memory) to attractive men

A number of studies have found a disjunction between women’s attention to, and memory for, handsome men. Although women pay initial attention to handsome men, they do not remember those men later. The present study examines how ovulation might differentially affect these attentional and memory processes. We found that women near ovulation increased their visual attention to attractive men. However, this increased visual attention did not translate into better memory. Discussion focuses on possible explanations, in the context of an emerging body of findings on disjunctions between attention to, and memory for, other people.     

Archetypes Reconsidered as Emergent Outcomes of Cognitive Complexity and Evolved Motivational Systems

Advances in contemporary cognitive science suggest that our internal representational systems are powerfully shaped by interacting evolutionary, developmental, and neuro-computational processes. Although Jung’s archetypes of the collective unconscious are largely dismissed by modern psychological science, something very much like them emerges from the intersection of these perspectives. Functional analysis suggests that a variety of conserved systems—basic biological ones, like self-protection and mating, as well as more complex social ones, like cheater-detection—need to make use of more general representational systems (like face perception) to simulate and predict adaptive responses to recurring environmental problems. Furthermore, analogous to the capacity to develop language, these systems depend on specific input at critical developmental stages. Archetypes reflect the interaction of domain-specific challenges and domain-general simulations. They are dynamic patterns of perception, memory, and action, resonating with ancient motivational and emotional systems. They shed light on how the symbolic emerges from the subsymbolic. Archetypes are thus the natural consequence of our fundamental social goals playing out in three nested dynamics: the online representation of reality by mental simulation systems, the history of personal experiences that build a particular instantiation of these systems, and the evolutionary dynamics that selected the web of cognitive and affective capacities that all normally developing humans share. This modern elaboration of the idea of archetypes fuses disparate conceptual perspectives, provokes methodological reorientations, generates novel hypotheses, and will likely open whole new lines of integrative inquiry.     

Adaptive Teaching During Reading Instruction: A Multi-Case Study

Adaptive teaching is considered a cornerstone of effective literacy teaching. Research has explored this dynamic aspect of classroom instruction and has found that given recent educational reform efforts implementing adaptive teaching during reading instruction has been particularly difficult. This study examined a yearlong inquiry of teacher adaptability during reading instruction across six classrooms in two school districts in the Pacific Northwest. Guided by theories of social constructivism and teacher metacognition, data analysis occurred in multiple phases to understand teacher adaptations and rationales for adaptations. Analysis yielded specific adaptations during reading instruction consistent with explicit instruction and rationales reflective of students’ instructional needs. Findings contribute to the literature on adaptive teaching.     

Openness to Experience and regulatory focus: Evidence of motivation from fit

Regulatory fit occurs when one’s strategies of goal pursuit sustain one’s interests in an activity, which can enhance motivation [e.g., Higgins, E. T. (2005). Value from regulatory fit. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 209–213]. Because the strategic inclinations of people high (low) in Openness are similar to those of people in a promotion (prevention) focus, regulatory fit should be possible. We found that people higher in Openness were more motivated to pursue promotion-related goals (hopes/aspirations in Study 1 and a gain-framed goal in Study 2) and less motivated to pursue prevention-related goals (duties/obligations in Study 1 and a loss-framed goal in Study 2). We discuss how other traits might relate to motivation to pursue promotion- and prevention-related goals as well as other future research directions for regulatory focus and Openness.     

Retention of high tactile acuity throughout the life span in blindness

Previous studies of tactile acuity on the fingertip, using passive touch, have demonstrated an age-related decline in spatial resolution for both sighted and blind subjects. We have reexamined this age dependence with two newly designed tactile-acuity charts that require active exploration of the test symbols. One chart used dot patterns similar to braille, and the other used embossed Landolt rings. Groups of blind braille readers and sighted subjects ranging from 12 to 85 years old were tested in two experiments. We replicated previous findings for sighted subjects by showing an age-related decrease in tactile acuity by nearly 1% per year. Surprisingly, the blind subjects retained high acuity into old age, showing no age-related decline. For the blind subjects, tactile acuity did not correlate with braille reading speed, the amount of daily reading, or the age at which braille was learned. We conclude that when measured with active touch, blind subjects retain high tactile acuity into old age, unlike their aging sighted peers. We propose that blind people's use of active touch in daily activities, not specifically braille reading, results in preservation of tactile acuity across the life span.