The Use of the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale in Detecting Substance Abuse and Antisocial Personality

We evaluated the hypothesis that characterological factors, particularly antisocial personality, influence scores on the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC). Using the Washington University research criteria to establish diagnoses, the following subgroups were defined: subjects who received no psychiatric diagnoses; subjects who received diagnoses other than alcoholism, drug dependence, or antisocial personality; and subjects who received a diagnosis of alcoholism, drug dependence, and/or antisocial personality, alone or in combination with other psychiatric diagnoses. The highest MAC scores were obtained by subjects diagnosed as having antisocial personality without alcoholism or drug dependence and subjects diagnosed with antisocial personality, drug dependence, and alcoholism. Alcoholics without antisocial personality or drug dependence, and subjects with other psychiatric diagnoses scored lowest. Although higher MAC scores were obtained by males, MAC scores greater than 24 correctly classified the greatest number of males and females as alcoholic, drug dependent and/or antisocial. These findings are interpreted as consistent with MacAndrew's reinterpretation of the scale as assessing a dimension of personality, rather than solely a tendency to addiction.     

Exploring the origin of the number-size congruency effect: Sensitivity or response bias?

Physical size modulates the efficiency of digit comparison, depending on whether the relation of numerical magnitude and physical size is congruent or incongruent (Besner & Coltheart, Neuropsychologia, 17, 467–472, 1979), the number-size congruency effect (NSCE). In addition, Henik and Tzelgov (Memory & Cognition, 10, 389–395, 1982) first reported an NSCE for the reverse task of comparing the physical size of digits such that the numerical magnitude of digits modulated the time required to compare their physical sizes. Does the NSCE in physical comparisons simply reflect a number-mediated bias mechanism related to making decisions and selecting responses about the digit’s sizes? Alternatively, or in addition, the NSCE might indicate a true increase in the ability to discriminate small and large font sizes when these sizes are congruent with the digit’s symbolic numerical meaning, over and above response bias effects. We present a new research design that permits us to apply signal detection theory to a task that required observers to judge the physical size of digits. Our results clearly demonstrate that the NSCE cannot be reduced to mere response bias effects, and that genuine sensitivity gains for congruent number-size pairings contribute to the NSCE.     

Predicting Romantic Interest at Zero Acquaintance: Evidence of Sex Differences in Trait Perception but Not in Predictors of Interest

We evaluated five competing hypotheses about what predicts romantic interest. Through a half‐block quasi‐experimental design, a large sample of young adults (i.e. responders; n = 335) viewed videos of opposite‐sex persons (i.e. targets) talking about themselves, and responders rated the targets' traits and their romantic interest in the target. We tested whether similarity, dissimilarity or overall trait levels on mate value, physical attractiveness, life history strategy and the Big Five personality factors predicted romantic interest at zero acquaintance and whether sex acted as a moderator. We tested the responders' individual perception of the targets' traits, in addition to the targets' own self‐reported trait levels and a consensus rating of the targets made by the responders. We used polynomial regression with response surface analysis within multilevel modelling to test support for each of the hypotheses. Results suggest a large sex difference in trait perception; when women rated men, they agreed in their perception more often than when men rated women. However, as a predictor of romantic interest, there were no sex differences. Only the responders' perception of the targets' physical attractiveness predicted romantic interest; specifically, responders' who rated the targets' physical attractiveness as higher than themselves reported more romantic interest. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Opposing amygdala and ventral striatum connectivity during emotion identification

Lesion and electrophysiological studies in animals provide evidence of opposing functions for subcortical nuclei such as the amygdala and ventral striatum, but the implications of these findings for emotion identification in humans remain poorly described. Here we report a high-resolution fMRI study in a sample of 39 healthy subjects who performed a well-characterized emotion identification task. As expected, the amygdala responded to THREAT (angry or fearful) faces more than NON-THREAT (sad or happy) faces. A functional connectivity analysis of the time series from an anatomically defined amygdala seed revealed a strong anticorrelation between the amygdala and the ventral striatum/ventral pallidum, consistent with an opposing role for these regions in during emotion identification. A second functional connectivity analysis (psychophysiological interaction) investigating relative connectivity on THREAT vs. NON-THREAT trials demonstrated that the amygdala had increased connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex during THREAT trials, whereas the ventral striatum demonstrated increased connectivity with the posterior hippocampus on NON-THREAT trials. These results indicate that activity in the amygdala and ventral striatum may be inversely related, and that both regions may provide opposing affective bias signals during emotion identification.     

Counseling Outcomes From 1990 to 2008 for School‐Age Youth With Depression: A Meta‐Analysis

Clinical trials exploring the effectiveness of counseling and psychotherapy in treatment of depression in school‐age youth composed this meta‐analysis. Results were synthesized using a random effects model for mean difference and mean gain effect size estimates. No effects of moderating variables were evident. Counseling and psychotherapy are effective for treatment of depression in school‐age youth both at termination and follow‐up, and in school and nonschool settings.     

Sex differences in parking are affected by biological and social factors

The stereotype of women’s limited parking skills is deeply anchored in modern culture. Although laboratory tests prove men’s average superiority in visuospatial tasks and parking requires complex, spatial skills, underlying mechanisms remain unexplored. Here, we investigated performance of beginners (nine women, eight men) and more experienced drivers (21 women, 27 men) at different parking manoeuvres. Furthermore, subjects conducted the mental rotation test and self-assessed their parking skills. We show that men park more accurately and especially faster than women. Performance is related to mental rotation skills and self-assessment in beginners, but only to self-assessment in more experienced drivers. We assume that, due to differential feedback, self-assessment incrementally replaces the controlling influence of mental rotation, as parking is trained with increasing experience. Results suggest that sex differences in spatial cognition persist in real-life situations, but that socio-psychological factors modulate the biological causes of sex differences.     

Lipopolysaccharide-induced experimental immune activation does not impair memory functions in humans

Reconsolidation studies have led to the hypothesis that memory, when labile, would be modified in order to incorporate new information. This view has reinstated original propositions suggesting that short-term memory provides the organism with an opportunity to evaluate and rearrange information before storing it, since it is concurrent with the labile state of consolidation. The Chasmagnathus associative memory model is used here to test whether during consolidation it is possible to change some attribute of recently acquired memories. In addition, it is tested whether these changes in behavioral memory features can be explained as modifications on the consolidating memory trace or as a consequence of a new memory trace. We show that short-term memory is, unlike long-term memory, not context specific. During this short period after learning, behavioral memory can be updated in order to incorporate new contextual information. We found that, during this period, the cycloheximide retrograde amnesic effect can be reverted by a single trial in a new context. Finally, by means of memory sensitivity to cycloheximide during consolidation and reconsolidation, we show that the learning of a new context (CS) during this short-term memory period builds up a new memory trace that sustains the behavioral memory update.     

Abstraction and model evaluation in category learning

Thirty previously published data sets, from seminal category learning tasks, are reanalyzed using the varying abstraction model (VAM). Unlike a prototype-versus-exemplar analysis, which focuses on extreme levels of abstraction only, a VAM analysis also considers the possibility of partial abstraction. Whereas most data sets support no abstraction when only the extreme possibilities are considered, we show that evidence for abstraction can be provided using the broader view on abstraction provided by the VAM. The present results generalize earlier demonstrations of partial abstraction (Vanpaemel & Storms, 2008), in which only a small number of data sets was analyzed. Following the dominant modus operandi in category learning research, Vanpaemel and Storms evaluated the models on their best fit, a practice known to ignore the complexity of the models under consideration. In the present study, in contrast, model evaluation not only relies on the maximal likelihood, but also on the marginal likelihood, which is sensitive to model complexity. Finally, using a large recovery study, it is demonstrated that, across the 30 data sets, complexity differences between the models in the VAM family are small. This indicates that a (computationally challenging) complexity-sensitive model evaluation method is uncalled for, and that the use of a (computationally straightforward) complexity-insensitive model evaluation method is justified.     

Rigid Designation and Anaphoric Theories of Reference

Few philosophers today doubt the importance of some notion of rigid designation, as suggested by Kripke and Putnam for names and natural kind terms. At the very least, most of us want our theories to be compatible with the most plausible elements of that account. Anaphoric theories of reference have gained some attention lately, but little attention has been given to how they square with rigid designation. Although the differences between anaphoric theories and many interpretations of the New Theory of reference are substantial, I argue that rigid designation and anaphoric theories can be reconciled with one another and in fact complement one another in important ways.     

Literacy acquisition in multilingual educational contexts: Evidence from Coastal Kenya

Literacy is a powerful tool against poverty, leading to further education and vocational success. In sub‐Saharan Africa, schoolchildren commonly learn in two languages—African and European. Multiple early literacy skills (including phonological awareness and receptive language) support literacy acquisition, but this has yet to be empirically tested in sub‐Saharan Africa, where learning contexts are highly multilingual, and children are often learning to read in a language they do not speak at home. We use longitudinal data from 1,100 schoolchildren spanning three groups of native languages [Mijikenda languages (Digo, Duruma, Chonyi, and Giriama), Kiswahili, Kikamba] in coastal Kenya (language of instruction: Kiswahili and English). We find that baseline phonological awareness and receptive language are differentially important in predicting literacy skills in English and in Kiswahili, and these relations are moderated by the degree of shared cross‐linguistic features between home and school languages. Importantly, the relative importance of these factors changes over development. Implications for language development and literacy acquisition in linguistically diverse contexts are discussed.