Traits and stories: links between dispositional and narrative features of personality

Dispositional traits and life narratives represent two different levels of personality that have not previously been empirically linked. The current study tested five hypotheses connecting Big-Five traits to life-narrative indices of emotional tone, theme, and structure. Students (Study 1) and adults (Study 2) completed a self-report measure of the Big-Five traits and provided extended written accounts of either ten (students) or eight (adults) key life-narrative scenes, including life high points, low points, and turning points. Content analysis of the narrative data revealed that for both samples Neuroticism was positively associated with an emotionally negative life-narrative tone, Agreeableness was correlated with narrative themes of communion (e.g., friendship, caring for others), and Openness was strongly associated with the structural complexity of life narrative accounts. Contrary to prediction, however, Conscientiousness was not consistently associated with themes of agency (e.g., achievement, self-mastery) and Extraversion was unrelated to positive narrative tone. The results are discussed in the context of contemporary research and theorizing on the narrative study of lives and the relation of narrative research in personality to more conventional, trait-based approaches.     

Psychophysiological mediators of caregiver stress and differential cognitive decline

The authors examined relationships between chronic stress and cognitive decline and whether such relationships were mediated by psychophysiological factors. Ninety-six caregivers of spouses with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were compared with 95 similar noncaregiver spouses. All were free of diabetes. Although the groups started similarly, over 2 years caregivers declined by a small but significant amount (1 raw score point and 4 percentile points, each p<.05) on Shipley Vocabulary. In contrast, noncaregivers did not change. Higher hostile attribution (beta=-.09; p<.05) and metabolic risk (beta=-.10; p<.05) in caregivers mediated the cognitive decline. This is the first study of cognitive decline and mediators in caregivers. This work has implications for caregiver and care-recipient health and for research on cognition, psychophysiology, diabetes, and AD.     

年轻成年人昼夜体温“钟”的研究

年轻成年被试在现代人类觉醒期间“标准环境温度”(standard ambient tem-perature)(～20℃)和人体产生和散发热量保持最佳平衡状态的睡眠期间“热中性”(thermal neutrality)环境温度(～30℃)条件下。24-h昼夜测量体(口腔)和皮肤(中背,耳后,肘,手背,足背)温度。皮肤温度借助特制WMSX-01巡回检测温度仅远距离连续测温和自动打印。结果表明;(1)在“标准环境温度”(～20℃)和“热中性”环境温度[～30℃间可见四肢(特别足部)]皮肤温度呈现显著相位性倒转。(2)“非午睡组”和“午睡组”均可见在14:00左右呈现一个体温“钟”的“次要低谷”(Minor nadir),从而表示成年人的体温“钟”也可能具有“半24-h昼夜节律”(Circasemidian rhythm)的内源性特征。     

The effect of the physical versus mental presence of a high-powered person on consumers' healthy food choices

Consumers make distinct food choices when they see versus when they think about a powerful person. This research identifies two scenarios involving the presence of a high-powered other, physical presence versus mental presence, and examines the effect of the physical and mental presence of a high-powered other on consumers' healthy food choices. Conducting six experiments, we show that the physical presence of a high-powered other increases one's self-enhancement motivation and leads to healthier food choices, while the mental presence of a high-powered other increases one's perceived constraints and leads to unhealthy food choices. We also find that interpersonal closeness moderates the positive effect of the physical presence of a high-powered other on healthy food choices but does not moderate the negative effect of the mental presence of a high-powered other on healthy food choices.     

Looking more masculine among females: Spatial context modulates gender perception of face and biological motion

Perception of visual information highly depends on spatial context. For instance, perception of a low-level visual feature, such as orientation, can be shifted away from its surrounding context, exhibiting a simultaneous contrast effect. Although previous studies have demonstrated the adaptation aftereffect of gender, a high-level visual feature, it remains largely unknown whether gender perception can also be shaped by a simultaneously presented context. In the present study, we found that the gender perception of a central face or a point-light walker was repelled away from the gender of its surrounding faces or walkers. A norm-based opponent model of lateral inhibition, which accounts for the adaptation aftereffect of high-level features, can also excellently fit the simultaneous contrast effect. But different from the reported contextual effect of low-level features, the simultaneous contrast effect of gender cannot be observed when the centre and the surrounding stimuli are from different categories, or when the surrounding stimuli are suppressed from awareness. These findings on one hand reveal a resemblance between the simultaneous contrast effect and the adaptation aftereffect of high-level features, on the other hand highlight different biological mechanisms underlying the contextual effects of low- and high-level visual features.     

Smartphone use and daily cognitive failures: A critical examination using a daily diary approach with objective smartphone measures

While smartphones have brought many benefits and conveniences to users, there is continuing debate regarding their potential negative consequences on everyday cognition such as daily cognitive failures. A few cross-sectional studies have found positive associations between smartphone use and cognitive failures. However, several research gaps remain, such as the use of cross-sectional designs, confounds related to stable individual differences, the lack of validity in self-report measures of smartphone use, memory biases in retrospective self-reports, and the lack of differentiation between smartphone checking and smartphone screen time. To simultaneously address the aforementioned shortcomings, the current study examined the within-person associations between various objective indicators of smartphone use and daily cognitive failures using a 7-day daily diary study. Multilevel modelling revealed that smartphone checking, but not total smartphone screen time, predicted a greater occurrence of daily cognitive failures at the within-person level. Surprisingly, we also found negative within-person associations between smartphone screen time for social- and tools-related applications and daily cognitive failures, suggesting that some types of smartphone use may temporarily benefit one's cognitive functioning. This finding demonstrates the importance of studying the specific functions of smartphone use and their differential cognitive consequences, as well as highlights the complex relations between smartphone use and cognition.     

Blunted reward responsiveness prospectively predicts emotional distress when exposed to a naturalistic stressor

Both stress and blunted reward responsiveness have been identified as core risk factors of depression. Whether blunted reward responsiveness increases psychological vulnerability to real-life stress from a dynamic perspective (from stress reactivity to recovery) has not been investigated. By utilizing a real-world stressful event (i.e. the final examination), this study aimed to explore the role of reward responsiveness in the stress-emotional distress relationship during stress reactivity and recovery phases. We followed 57 undergraduates with three assessments, from six weeks before examination weeks (T1, baseline), one day before the examinations (T2) to two weeks after the examinations (T3), therefore, covering stress reactivity (T1 to T2) and recovery (T2 to T3) phases. At baseline, reward responsiveness was measured as the Reward Positivity (RewP) in the doors task. Stress and emotional distress (anxiety and depression) were reported at T1, T2 and T3 to capture their dynamic changes. Results showed that self-report stress levels significantly increased from T1 to T2 (stress reactivity phase) and decreased from T2 to T3 (stress recovery phase). Furthermore, blunted reward responsiveness at baseline prospectively predicted emotional distress during the stress reactivity phase but not the recovery phase. Specifically, during the stress reactivity phase, higher perceived stress was associated with greater anxiety and depression only in participants with relatively smaller residual RewP amplitudes but not in participants with relatively larger residual RewP amplitudes. Our study demonstrated that a blunted reward responsiveness is a vulnerable factor of depression, especially when exposed to stress. Our findings provide insights into prevention and intervention for stress-related disturbance.     

Construal level among poor children: Executive function implications

Poverty impedes children's executive function (EF). Therefore, it is necessary to mitigate the negative effect of poverty by developing efficient interventions to improve poor children's cognitive function. In three studies, we examined whether high-level construals can improve EF among poor children in China. In Study 1, we observed a positive relationship between family socioeconomic status and children's EF, which was moderated by construal level (n = 206; M_age = 9.71; 45.6% girls). In Study 2a, we experimentally induced high- versus low-level construals and found that poor children with high-level construals exhibited better EF than those with low-level construals (n = 65; M_age = 11.32; 47.7% girls). However, the same intervention did not affect the performance of affluent children in Study 2b (n = 63; M_age = 10.54; 54% girls). Moreover, we found that the interventional effects of high-level construals improved the ability of children living in poverty to make healthy decisions and delayed gratification in Study 3 (n = 74; M_age = 11.10; 45.9% girls). These findings may have implications for using high-level construals as an effective intervention to improve poor children's EF and cognitive capacity.     

抗血管生成与肿瘤休眠疗法

回顾抗血管生成与肿瘤休眠疗法的进展,研究肿瘤未成熟血管与实体肿瘤的关系,探讨抗血管生成疗法在肿瘤生长和转移中的作用。肿瘤新生血管在肿瘤的生长和转移中均有重要意义。现已证实,肿瘤的生长和转移具有血管依赖性,实体肿瘤生长至一定体积需要通过新生成的血管灌注获得营养,而且新生的未成熟血管结构缺陷,通透性增加,使得肿瘤 容易穿透而发生血行转移。