Adolescents in Transition to Adulthood: Parental Support, Relationship Satisfaction, and Post-transition Adjustment

The transition from high school is a pivotal period for intergenerational relations, as the asymmetry characterizing pre-transition relations with parents is reconfigured. Changes in adolescent–parent relations across this transition have potentially important implications for post-transition adjustment. A prospective study was conducted with an ethnically diverse sample that included adolescents who were not college-bound. Maternal, but not paternal, relations improved across the transition from high school to adult life. Changes in support from both mothers and fathers were associated with changes in relationship satisfaction and changes in satisfaction predicted post-transition adjustment. The results verify the importance of parental support to the quality of relational bonds between young adults and their parents. They also affirm the significance of these bonds for post-transition adjustment.     

Computerized stroop test to assess selective attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Research shows abnormal function of the pre-frontal cortex in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This cortex is involved in the control of executive functions related to planning and execution of goal-oriented strategies, working memory, inhibitions, cognitive flexibility, and selective attention. Selective attention involves focus on the target stimulus, ignoring competing distractions. The Stroop Test (Stroop, 1935) is usually used to evaluate selective attention. This study investigated whether children with ADHD could exhibit modified performance in the Stroop Test. Using a computerized version of this test (Capovilla, Montiel, Macedo, & Charin, 2005), the study compared the reaction times (RTs) of 62 Brazilian children, between 8 and 12 years of age, 31 of whom were diagnosed with ADHD and sent to psychiatric clinics, and 31 without ADHD studying in regular schools. All children with ADHD satisfied the criteria of the DSM-IV-TR and were evaluated with the Conners Abbreviated Questionnaire (Goyette, Conners, & Ulrich, 1978), completed by parents and teachers. The results revealed that children with ADHD exhibit greater interference in RT than children without ADHD. This corroborated the hypothesis that children with ADHD exhibit a deficit in selective attention, consisting in augmented RTs, as measured by the Computerized Stroop Test.     

Illness behavior: prediction by symptoms, the Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck Personality Types, neuroticism, life events, coping, health locus of control, social support, and attribution style

A study was carried out with 501 persons to analyze the predictive capacity of various psychosocial variables-symptom perception, neuroticism, Personality Types 2 and 4 of Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck, beliefs about health, social support, or certain coping styles-on two health-related behaviors: the frequency of visits to the doctor and self-medication. The results were analyzed by two structural equation models that revealed that some of the variables have direct effects on the behaviors, whereas other variables, such as attribution style, coping styles, or the impact of the stressors, have indirect effects via the reported symptoms or neuroticism. In addition, self-medication and the frequency of health service visits are independent of each other, which shows that their determinants are different. It is concluded that to address these factors in the two health indicators, it is also necessary to take in account the psychosocial variables considered herein.     

Anxiety and cognitive performance: attentional control theory

Attentional control theory is an approach to anxiety and cognition representing a major development of Eysenck and Calvo's (1992) processing efficiency theory. It is assumed that anxiety impairs efficient functioning of the goal-directed attentional system and increases the extent to which processing is influenced by the stimulus-driven attentional system. In addition to decreasing attentional control, anxiety increases attention to threat-related stimuli. Adverse effects of anxiety on processing efficiency depend on two central executive functions involving attentional control: inhibition and shifting. However, anxiety may not impair performance effectiveness (quality of performance) when it leads to the use of compensatory strategies (e.g., enhanced effort; increased use of processing resources). Directions for future research are discussed.     

Oceans of stimuli: an individual-based model to assess the role of olfactory cues and local enhancement in seabirds’ foraging behaviour

Animal Cognition - Oceans are extremely dynamic environments, which poses challenges for top-predators such as seabirds to find food resources. Yet, seabirds evolved sensorial abilities (olfactory...     

The Critical Point to Step into a Hole is Similar in Young and Older Adults

Abstract

The avoidance of a hole in the pathway while walking has been systematically investigated; however, depending on the dimensions of the hole, the option to avoid it is infeasible, and it is necessary to use the so-called accommodation strategy to step into the hole. We investigated the critical point between the avoidance and accommodation strategies when dealing with a hole in the ground during locomotion of young and older adults. Young and older adults performed two tasks: verbal estimation and walking. We used holes of different lengths and constant depth (12?cm). In the verbal estimation task, participants stood and looked at each hole and verbally respond if they would step into or avoid it. In the walking task, they walked and chose to either step or avoid the hole. Both age groups preferred to step into the hole when it was larger than 1.3 times their foot length in both tasks. The perception of affordances of young and older adults to step into a hole was similar, and it was unaffected by the investigated tasks. Thus, our participants preferred to have a safety margin that was large enough to guarantee that the whole foot would accommodate within the hole.     

Cooperative responding in rats: II. Performance on fixed-ratio schedules of mutual reinforcement

Coordinated responses of 5 dyads of rats were investigated under fixed-ratio (FR) schedules of mutual water reinforcement. Coordinated responding was defined as 2 consecutive lever-presses, 1 from each of 2 rats, occurring <.5 s apart. In the FR schedules, each coordinated episode was defined as 1 response in the FR sequence. The size of FR schedules was parametrically manipulated assuming the values of FR 1, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 50, and 9, in this order. Each FR remained in effect until responding reached stability. Under all conditions, pairs of rats received access to water simultaneously (mutual reinforcement). Rates and proportions of coordinated responding showed a bitonic inverted U-shaped function of ratio size. Postreinforcement pauses increased systematically as the interreinforcement interval increased. Local rates and proportions increased as a function of response location within ratios. Results of a control condition with relaxed temporal constraints for mutual reinforcement showed decreases in rates and proportion of coordinated responses, suggesting that the coordinated responses were controlled by the mutual reinforcement contingencies. The present experiment showed that coordinated responding is quantitatively affected by 3 properties of FR schedules: response requirement, reinforcement rates, and proximity to reinforcement.     

Step changes in the intertrial interval in the midsession reversal task: Predicting pigeons' performance with the learning-to-time model

Our goal was to assess the role of timing in pigeons' performance in the midsession reversal task. In discrete-trial sessions, pigeons learned to discriminate between 2 stimuli, S1 and S2. Choices of S1 were reinforced only in the first half of the session and choices of S2 were reinforced only in the second half. Typically, pigeons choose S2 before the contingency reverses (anticipatory errors) and S1 after (perseverative errors), suggesting that they time the interval from the beginning of the session to the contingency reversal. To test this hypothesis, we exposed pigeons to a midsession reversal task and, depending on the group, either increased or decreased the ITI duration. We then contrasted the pigeons' performance with the predictions of the Learning-to-Time (LeT) model: In both conditions, preference was expected to reverse at the same time as in the previous sessions. When the ITI was doubled, pigeons' preference reversal occurred at half the trial number but at the same time as in the previous sessions. When the ITI was halved, pigeons' preference reversal occurred at a later trial but at an earlier time than in the previous sessions. Hence, pigeons' performance was only partially consistent with the predictions of LeT, suggesting that besides timing, other sources of control, such as the outcome of previous trials, seem to influence choice.     

Virtual reality and acrophobia: one-year follow-up and case study.

We present a study with 10 subjects being exposed to three sessions of simulated heights in a virtual reality (VR) system. Among the participants we highlight a 66-year-old man blind in his left eye. The participants show significant progress in anxiety, avoidance, and behavior measurements when confronted with real height circumstances. The results obtained 1 year later at follow-up are statistically significant in the Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT) and the Attitudes Toward Heights Questionnaire (ATHQ), but not the Acrophobia Questionnaire (AQ).     

Children's and adults' judgments of equitable resource distributions

This study explored the criteria that children and adults use when evaluating the niceness of a character who is distributing resources. Four- and five-year-olds played the 'Giving Game', in which two puppets with different amounts of chips each gave some portion of these chips to the children. Adults played an analogous task that mimicked the situations presented to children in the Giving Game. For all groups of participants, we manipulated the absolute amount and proportion of chips given away. We found that children and adults used different cues to establish which puppet was nicer: 4-year-olds focused exclusively on absolute amount, 5-year-olds showed some sensitivity to proportion, and adults focused exclusively on proportion. These results are discussed in light of their implications for equity theory and for theories of the development of social evaluation.