Anxiety and cognitive efficiency: Differential modulation of transient and sustained neural activity during a working memory task

According to the processing-efficiency hypothesis (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007), anxious individuals are thought to require greater activation of brain systems supporting cognitive control (e.g.,dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; DLPFC) in order to maintain equivalent performance to nonanxious subjects. A recent theory of cognitive control (Braver, Gray, & Burgess, 2007) has proposed that reduced cognitive efficiency might occur as a result of changes in the temporal dynamics of DLPFC recruitment. In this study, we used a mixed blocked/ event-related fMRI design to track transient and sustained activity in DLPFC while high- and low-anxious participants performed a working memory task. The task was performed after the participants viewed videos designed to induce neutral or anxiety-related moods. After the neutral video, the high-anxious participants had reduced sustained but increased transient activation in working memory areas, in comparison with low-anxious participants. The high-anxious group also showed extensive reductions in sustained activation of "default-network" areas (possible deactivation). After the negative video,the low-anxiety group shifted their activation dynamics in cognitive control regions to resemble those of the high-anxious group. These results suggest that reduced cognitive control in anxiety might be due to a transient, rather than sustained, pattern of working memory recruitment. Supplementary information for this study may be found at www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

Development and initial validation of public domain Basic Interest Markers

Goldberg (Goldberg, L. R. (1999). A broad-bandwidth, public-domain, personality inventory measuring the lower-level facets of several five-factor models. In: I. Mervielde, I. Deary, F. De Fruyt, & F. Ostendorf (Eds.), Personality psychology in Europe (Vol. 7, pp. 7-28). Tilburg, The Netherlands: Tilburg University Press) has argued that the commercialization of personality measures limits the range of questions investigated in empirical research. We propose that the commercialization of interest measures has had a similar effect on research in vocational psychology. Following Goldberg’s example of developing public-domain personality markers, we also propose that the development of public-domain interest markers would facilitate new directions in career-related research. The present study outlines the development and validation of a set of public-domain Basic Interest Markers (BIMs) that are freely available on a website. Using Day and Rounds’ (Day, Susan. X, & Rounds, J. (1997). A little more than kin, and less than kind: Basic interests in vocational research and career counseling. Career Development Quarterly, 45, 207-220) basic interest taxonomy, 343 items and 31 BIM scales were generated. Validity evidence is presented from correlations with the General Occupational Themes and Basic Interest Scales of the Strong Interest Inventory (Harmon, L. W., Hansen, J. C., Borgen, F. H., & Hammer, A. L. (1994). Strong Interest Inventory applications and technical guide. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press). Discriminant validity is demonstrated by the capacity for the BIMs to differentiate major field of education or training. Implications for research and use in applied settings are discussed.     

Re-conceptualizing the past: Historical data in vocational interest research

Noteworthy progress has been made in the development of statistical models for evaluating the structure of vocational interests over the past three decades. It is proposed that historically significant interest datasets, when combined with modern structural methods of data analysis, provide an opportunity to re-examine the underlying assumptions of J.L. Holland’s [Holland, J. L. (1959). A theory of vocational choice. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 6, 35–45; Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources] RIASEC model. To illustrate this potential, data obtained from J. P. Guilford’s study of interest structure were re-analyzed using modern circumplex and hierarchical clustering techniques to evaluate Holland’s and I. Gati’s [Gati, I. (1979). A hierarchical model for the structure of interests. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 15, 90–106; Gati, I. (1991). The structure of vocational interests. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 309–324] interest structures. Obtained results indicate that a circumplex model can be used to effectively represent the structure underlying Guilford’s interest measures. However, hierarchical clustering results suggest that Holland’s RIASEC types may not be the most effective categories for grouping specific interest measures into broader interest areas. The current findings provide support for the continued investigation of alternatives to Holland’s interest categories using modern measures of basic interests.     

Choice Models of Deterrence: Another Look

Choice models of deterrence emphasize the importance of including rewards and costs for both crime and noncrime in capturing the process whereby criminal decisions are made. A review of the literature indicates that these models also include probabilities as well as magnitudes for both rewards and costs of crime, but exclude probabilities for law-abiding behavior, treating rewards for noncrime as opportunity costs while eschewing their chance of occurrence. Here we provide experimental data comparing the explanatory power of 2 choice models, one that includes probabilities for rewards and costs for noncrime and another that omits these probabilities altogether. Findings show that the more inclusive model explains approximately twice as much variation in the dependent variable, thereby providing additional support for earlier findings.     

Construct validity of Wechsler factor scores.

The construct validity of the Verbal Comprehension. Perceptual Organization, and Freedom from Distractibility factor scores was examined in a sample of school-aged referred children. Examination of correlations between factor scores and neuropsychological and achievement tests generally supported the construct validity of the factors. The Verbal Comprehension factor was associated with verbal, quantitative, and concept-formation abilities. The Perceptual Organization factor was related to nonverbal concept formation, tactual performance, and visual attention. The Freedom from Distractibility factor demonstrated a complex pattern of correlations and appeared to reflect a range of abilities including quantitative, language, attentional, and concept formation.     

Relation‐based intervention with at‐risk mothers: Outcome in the second year of life

It has been shown that the UCLA home visiting/mother–infant group intervention made a significant positive impact during the child's first 2 years of life on two indices of the mother's support and on three areas of mother–child and child development: (1) The mother's responsiveness to the needs of her child and the related development of his or her security of attachment; (2) the mother's encouragement of her child's autonomy and the related development of his or her autonomy; and (3) the mother's encouragement of her child's task involvement and the related development of his or her task orientation. By child age 2 years, the mothers experiencing the intervention, in comparison with those that did not, also used verbally persuasive as opposed to coercive intrusive methods of control and their children responded more positively to these controls. Mothers who did not experience the help of the intervention had significantly more difficulty controlling their child if it was a boy as opposed to a girl. They used the least appropriate methods of control, and the boys responded more negatively to these controls. The nature of the development of the mother's use of appropriate controls and the child's response to that control was elucidated by determining on the total sample where 12‐month antecedents influenced the indices of control either independently of or in interaction with the intervention status. The child's endurance in the test situation was an independent predictor of mother‐appropriate control and the child's positive response to that control, while the absence of maternal intrusiveness further enhanced the impact of the intervention on that control. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Bridging the Gap between Explicative and Treatment Research: A Model and Practical Implications

The recent move toward the recognition of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) within numerous facets of the field of clinical psychology has been met with general enthusiasm. The EST movement would not have been possible without the efforts of earlier treatment researchers. Paradoxically, this is also a time when some of the leaders in clinical psychology are recognizing that there is a paucity of experimental treatment research being conducted today relative to the high volume of correlationally based, explicative research, which examines the associations among variables. In this paper we present numerous reasons for the relative excess of explicative research and the paucity of treatment outcome research. Clinical practice is used to exemplify how assessment-oriented, explicative activities and the design of treatment can be integrated. A research-based example in which explicative research is used directly to inform the design of the intervention in treatment outcome research is presented as one model for emulation. Specific recommendations are made to help guide professionals and students entering the field who wish to conduct treatment research. An expansion on some of the themes highlighted in this paper can be found in the chapter from which it was in part derived (Blount, Bunke, & Zaff, 1999).     

Examining the hemispheric distribution of semantic information using lateralised priming of familiar faces

The way in which the semantic information associated with people is organised in the brain is still unclear. Most evidence suggests either bilateral or left hemisphere lateralisation. In this paper we use a lateralised semantic priming paradigm to further examine this neuropsychological organisation. A clear semantic priming effect was found with greater priming occurring when semantically related prime faces were presented to the left visual field than when presented to the right visual field. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed in terms of the bilateral distribution of different classes of semantic information, a possible role of associative processes within semantic priming and interhemispheric transfer.     

The influence of anxiety on the initial selection of emotional faces presented in binocular rivalry

Neurocognitive theories of anxiety predict that threat-related information can be evaluated before attentional selection, and can influence behaviour differentially in high anxious compared to low anxious individuals. We investigate this further by presenting emotional and neutral faces in an adapted binocular rivalry paradigm. We show that the initial selection of emotional faces presented in binocular rivalry is highly influenced by self-reported state and trait anxiety-level. Heightened anxiety was correlated with increased perception of angry and fearful faces, and decreased perception of happy expressions. These results are consistent with recent evidence of involuntary selection of threat in anxiety.     

Rawls on Liberty and Domination

One of the central elements of John Rawls’ argument in support of his two principles of justice is the intuitive normative ideal of citizens as free and equal. But taken in isolation, the claim that citizens are to be treated as free and equal is extremely indeterminate, and has virtually no clear implications for policy. In order to remedy this, the two principles of justice, together with the stipulation that citizens have basic interests in developing their moral capacities and pursuing their conceptions of the good life, are meant to provide a more precise interpretation of what is involved in treating citizens as free and equal. Rawls’ critics, however, have argued that satisfying the two principles of justice is not the most appropriate or plausible way to respect the status of citizens as free and equal. In relation to this debate, the present paper has two aims. The first is to examine Rawls’ account of the type of freedom that a just society must guarantee equally to its citizens. I will argue that those who think of Rawls as a theorist of freedom as non-interference are mistaken, because his notion of liberty resembles in important respects the republican notion of freedom as non-domination. Second, I will consider the extent to which Rawls’ principles of justice successfully protect the freedom as non-domination of all citizens so as to effectively treat them as free and equal.