Longitudinal Associations Between Personality Profile Stability and Adjustment in College Students: Distinguishing Among Overall Stability,Distinctive Stability,and Within‐Time Normativeness

ABSTRACT In the present study, longitudinal associations of 3 aspects of personality profile stability (i.e., overall stability, distinctive stability, and within‐time normativeness) with 3 adjustment measures (i.e., depressive symptoms, self‐esteem, and delinquency) were examined, using 4 waves of longitudinal data on a Belgian college sample (N=565). Longitudinal path models revealed strong longitudinal associations between adjustment and overall stability. Subsequent analyses showed that it is not the degree to which one's personality profile consistently diverges from the average personality profile within a population (i.e., distinctive stability) that is related to adjustment but the degree to which a personality profile of an individual matches the average personality profile within the sample at a certain point in time (i.e., within‐time normativeness). The current study thereby underscores the importance of distinguishing normativeness and distinctiveness when examining personality profile stability.     

A compensatory approach to optimal selection with mastery scores

A Bayesian approach for simultaneous optimization of test-based decisions is presented using the example of a selection decision for a treatment followed by a mastery decision. A distinction is made between weak and strong rules where, as opposed to strong rules, weak rules use prior test scores as collateral data. Conditions for monotonicity of optimal weak and strong rules are presented. It is shown that under mild conditions on the test score distributions and utility functions, weak rules are always compensatory by nature. The authors are indebted to Wilbert Kallenberg for his valuable comments and to Jan Gulmans for providing the data for the empirical example. The names of the authors are alphabetical; they are equally responsible for the contents of this paper.     

An injection olfactometer for humans and a new method for the measurement of the shape of the olfactory pulse

An injection olfactometer for human psychophysical experiments is described. The olfactometer is capable of presenting, either mono- or birhinally, single odorants and binary mixtures. The pulse form of the olfactory stimulus at the exit of the olfactometer approaches a rectangular form, which makes the olfactometer well suited for olfactory reaction time measurements. Since stimulation periods are independent of the subject’s inhalation, time-intensity measurements over prolonged periods of time are possible as well. In the second part of this paper, a new technique is described for the measurement of the stimulus pulse form at the exit of the olfactometer.     

Sustained efficacy of dialectical behaviour therapy for borderline personality disorder

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is considered one of the most promising treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD). Recently, we reported significantly positive effects of 12 months DBT on parasuicidal behaviour and impulsivity in a mixed group of female BPD patients with and without substance abuse. Fifty-eight women with BPD were randomly assigned to either 52 weeks of DBT or treatment as usual (TAU). Follow-up assessment took place at 78 weeks, i.e., 6 months after discontinuation of DBT. Participants were clinical referrals from addiction treatment and psychiatric services. Outcome measures included parasuicidal behaviour, impulsivity and substance abuse. Six months after treatment discontinuation, the benefits of DBT over TAU in terms of lower levels of parasuicidal and impulsive behaviours, and in alcohol use, sustained. No differences between the treatment conditions were found for drug abuse. In conclusion, DBT seems to have a sustained effect on some of the core symptoms of BPD and on alcohol problems in a mixed population of female borderline patients with and without substance abuse problems.     

Smarter than we think: when our brains detect that we are biased

Human reasoning is often biased by stereotypical intuitions. The nature of such bias is not clear. Some authors claim that people are mere heuristic thinkers and are not aware that cued stereotypes might be inappropriate. Other authors claim that people always detect the conflict between their stereotypical thinking and normative reasoning, but simply fail to inhibit stereotypical thinking. Hence, it is unclear whether heuristic bias should be attributed to a lack of conflict detection or a failure of inhibition. We introduce a neuroscientific approach that bears on this issue. Participants answered a classic decision-making problem (the "lawyer-engineer" problem) while the activation of brain regions believed to be involved in conflict detection (anterior cingulate) and response inhibition (lateral prefrontal cortex) was monitored. Results showed that although the inhibition area was specifically activated when stereotypical responses were avoided, the conflict-detection area was activated even when people reasoned stereotypically. The findings suggest that people detect their bias when they give intuitive responses.     

No protective effects of education during normal cognitive aging: results from the 6-year follow-up of the Maastricht Aging Study

Recent large-scale longitudinal aging studies question earlier claims that higher education protects against cognitive decline in older age. In the present study, the authors addressed this issue by determining whether educational level had an attenuating effect on the rate of cognitive change assessed with a broad range of neuropsychological tests in a community sample of 872 healthy individuals aged 49 to 81 years at baseline. The participants were followed for 6 years and were tested 3 times (at baseline and at 3 and 6 years after baseline). Results of linear mixed-model analyses showed that education had no significant effect on cognitive change over time. These results are discussed in terms of the age range of the sample, definition and range of education, cognitive measures used, length of the study and number of consecutive assessments, and confounding effect of health. The findings question the extent of the presumed protective effects of higher education on cognitive decline during normal aging.     

Velocity dependence of the interocular transfer of dynamic motion aftereffects

It is well established that motion aftereffects (MAEs) can show interocular transfer (IOT); that is, motion adaptation in one eye can give a MAE in the other eye. Different quantification methods and different test stimuli have been shown to give different IOT magnitudes, varying from no to almost full IOT. In this study, we examine to what extent IOT of the dynamic MAE (dMAE), that is the MAE seen with a dynamic noise test pattern, varies with velocity of the adaptation stimulus. We measured strength of dMAE by a nulling method. The aftereffect induced by adaptation to a moving random-pixel array was compensated (nulled), during a brief dynamic test period, by the same kind of motion stimulus of variable luminance signal-to-noise ratio (LSNR). The LSNR nulling value was determined in a Quest-staircase procedure. We found that velocity has a strong effect on the magnitude of IOT for the dMAE. For increasing speeds from 1.5 deg s(-1) to 24 deg s(-1) average IOT values increased about linearly from 18% to 63% or from 32% to 83%, depending on IOT definition. The finding that dMAEs transfer to an increasing extent as speed increases, suggests that binocular cells play a more dominant role at higher speeds.     

Preparing or executing the wrong task: the influence on switch effects

In a previous study, it was proposed that executing a task leads to task strengthening. In other words, task activation at the moment of response execution determines subsequent switch effects (Steinhauser & Hübner, 2006). The authors investigated this issue by comparing switch effects after task and response errors. However, the use of bivalent stimulus-response mappings might have obscured some of the effects. Therefore, we replicated the experiment using univalent stimulus-response mappings. With this adjusted design, which overcomes some shortcomings of the original study, we were able to replicate the finding of switch benefits after task errors. Closer inspection of the data showed the importance of preexecution processes on subsequent switch effects. In a second experiment, we further elaborated on these preexecution processes. More precisely, we investigated the effect of task preparation on subsequent switch effects. Taken together, our data extend current accounts of task switching by showing that the preparatory processes occurring before the response on trial n influence the switch cost on trial n?+?1.     

The moderating role of empathy in the association between parental support and adolescent aggressive and delinquent behavior

The present two‐wave longitudinal study addressed the role of affective empathy and parental support in aggressive and delinquent behavior in a sample of 323 adolescents (158 boys, 165 girls). Self‐report questionnaires were used to assess affective empathy, perceived support from parents, delinquency, and aggression. Guided by theories on children's differential susceptibility to socialization, we expected adolescents with different levels of empathy to vary in their responsiveness to parental support. In agreement with our hypothesis, empathy moderated the relation of perceived parental support with aggressive and delinquent behavior. Controlling for the effect of gender and for the stability of aggression and delinquency, higher perceived parental support was predictive of lower levels of aggression at age 15, but only for adolescents high in empathy. Remarkably, adolescents low in empathy not only appeared to benefit less from parental support, but even showed more aggression and delinquency at age 15 when they perceived their parents to be more supportive at age 14. Aggr. Behav. 38:368‐377, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.