Modelling decisions to undergo genetic testing for susceptibility to common health conditions: an ancillary study of the Multiplex Initiative

New genetic tests reveal risks for multiple conditions simultaneously, although little is understood about the psychological factors that affect testing uptake. We assessed a conceptual model called the multiplex genetic testing model (MGTM) using structural equation modelling. The MGTM delineates worry, perceived severity, perceived risk, response efficacy and attitudes towards testing as predictors of intentions and behaviour. Participants were 270 healthy insured adults aged 25-40 from the Multiplex Initiative conducted within a health care system in Detroit, MI, USA. Participants were offered a genetic test that assessed risk for eight common health conditions. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that worry, perceived risk and severity clustered into two disease domains: cancer or metabolic conditions. Only perceived severity of metabolic conditions was correlated with general response efficacy (β?=?0.13, p<0.05), which predicted general attitudes towards testing (β?=?0.24, p<0.01). Consistent with our hypothesised model, attitudes towards testing were the strongest predictors of intentions to undergo testing (β?=?0.49, p<0.01), which in turn predicted testing uptake (OR 17.7, β?=?0.97, p<0.01). The MGTM explained a striking 48% of the variance in intentions and 94% of the variation in uptake. These findings support use of the MGTM to explain psychological predictors of testing for multiple health conditions.     

On the relation between theory of mind and executive functioning: A developmental cognitive neuroscience perspective

Theory of mind (ToM) and executive functioning (EF) show marked interrelatedness across childhood, and developmental psychologists have long been interested in understanding the nature of this association. The present review addresses this issue from a cognitive neuroscience perspective by exploring three hypotheses regarding their functional overlap: (1) ToM relies on EF (EF→ToM); (2) EF relies on ToM (ToM→EF); and (3) ToM and EF are mutually related, owing to shared neural structures or networks (ToM?EF). Drawing on evidence from normative brain development, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, patient lesion studies, and brain-imaging studies, we suggest that only a strict version of the ToM?EF proposal of complete neural overlap can be confidently ruled out on the basis of existing evidence. The balance of evidence suggests that separable neurobiological mechanisms likely underlie ToM and EF, with shared mechanisms for domain-general processing that support both abilities. We highlight how future studies may empirically substantiate the nature of the ToM–EF relationship using various biobehavioral approaches.     

Do Disagreeable Political Discussion Networks Undermine Attitude Strength?

How attitudes change and affect behavior depends, in large part, on their strength. Strong attitudes are more resistant to persuasion and are more likely to produce attitude‐consistent behavior. But what influences attitude strength? In this article, we explore a widely discussed, but rarely investigated, factor: an individual's political discussion network. What prior work exists offers a somewhat mixed picture, finding sometimes that disagreeable networks weaken attitudes and other times that they strengthen attitudes. We use a novel national representative dataset to explore the relationship between disagreeable networks and attitude strength. We find, perhaps surprisingly, no evidence that disagreements in networks affect political attitude strength. We conclude by discussing likely reasons for our findings, which, in turn, provide a research agenda for the study of networks and attitude strength.     

Tracking working memory maintenance with pupillometry

Phasic pupillary responses were used to track the active maintenance of information in working memory (WM). In seven experiments participants performed various change detection tasks while their pupils were continuously recorded. Across the experiments phasic pupillary responses increased as the number of maintained items increased up to around 4–5 items consistent with behavioral estimates of capacity. Combining data across experiments demonstrated that phasic pupillary responses were related to behavioral estimates of capacity. Furthermore, phasic pupillary responses demonstrated WM load-dependent relations only when active maintenance was required. When instructed to passively stare at the items or to drop items from WM, the pupil remained near baseline levels. These phasic pupillary responses also tracked the time course of maintenance demonstrating sustained responses early in the delay period, but declined thereafter. Finally, phasic pupillary responses tracked selection processes at encoding (filtering and pre-cues), but did not suggest evidence for item removal following retro-cues. These results are consistent with the notion that maintaining items in WM requires the allocation of effortful attention and further suggest that phasic pupillary responses can be used to track the active maintenance of items in WM.     

Working Memory Capacity Offers Resistance to Mind‐Wandering and External Distraction in a Context‐Specific Manner

The present study examined the impact of mind‐wandering and distraction in silent and noisy studying environments and how individual differences in working memory capacity offered resistance to these two distinct forms of attention failure. Two groups of participants read a text in different environments and answered reading comprehension questions. While reading, thought probes asked participants to indicate the current focus of their attention. Results showed that the relationship between working memory capacity and reading comprehension was partially driven by resistance to mind‐wandering in the silent condition and by resistance to external distraction in the noise condition. The findings support the distinction between mind‐wandering and external distraction, two separate yet related types of attention failure that impact task performance. Further, executive abilities seem to offer resistance to these two types of attention failure differentially depending on the context. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Structure of Female Subgroups: An Exploration of Ambivalent Stereotypes

The present research concerns the stereotypes associated with subgroups of women. Previous researchers have considered the ambivalent nature of stereotypes, particularly along the dimensions of warmth and competence (Glick, Diebold, Bailey-Werner, & Zhu, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23:1323–1334, 1997). In Study 1, we looked at the degree to which the superordinate social category of “women” is differentiated into distinct subgroups and whether warmth and competence are the primary dimensions of this differentiation. In Study 2, we assessed the degree to which businesswomen and homemakers are automatically associated with warmth and competence. Results showed that men and women differ in the valence associated with specific subgroups, and it is this valence, rather than stereotype content, that is automatically associated with these female subgroups.