Racial-ethnic self-schemas: Multidimensional identity-based motivation

Prior self-schema research focuses on benefits of being schematic vs. aschematic in stereotyped domains. The current studies build on this work, examining racial-ethnic self-schemas as multidimensional, containing multiple, conflicting, and non-integrated images. A multidimensional perspective captures complexity; examining net effects of dimensions predicts within-group differences in academic engagement and well-being. When racial-ethnicity self-schemas focus attention on membership in both in-group and broader society, engagement with school should increase since school is not seen as out-group defining. When racial-ethnicity self-schemas focus attention on inclusion (not obstacles to inclusion) in broader society, risk of depressive symptoms should decrease. Support for these hypotheses was found in two separate samples (8th graders, n = 213, 9th graders followed to 12th grade n = 141).     

熟练和非熟练中英双语者不同认知控制成分的比较

使用面孔任务考察熟练中英双语者和非熟练中英双语者在不同认知控制成分上的差异。被试为60名大学生。结果表明,熟练中英双语者在抑制控制和转换上的反应时消耗量均显著小于非熟练中英双语者,但在反应抑制上的反应时消耗量与非熟练中英双语者没有显著差异。该结果说明,二语熟练程度越高,中英双语者的认知灵活性(转换)和抑制控制(干扰控制)能力就越强;但是二语熟练程度对反应抑制能力没有明显的影响。由此可以推测,二语学习能促进中英双语者的认知灵活性(转换)和抑制控制(干扰控制)能力,但是,二语学习对中英双语者的反应抑制能力没有明显的促进作用。     

Lifecourse Social Conditions and Racial and Ethnic Patterns of Cognitive Aging

A lifecourse perspective is key for understanding and interpreting racial and ethnic patterns in neuropsychological test performance. In this article, we discuss contextual factors that shape the environmental conditions encountered by racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, in particular African-Americans. These conditions include geographic segregation at the level of regions, metropolitan areas, and neighborhoods; intra- and inter-national migration patterns; socioeconomic position, including financial resources, and occupational and educational opportunities; discrimination; and group resources. Each of these exposures sets in course a cascade of individual mediators that ultimately manifest in neuropsychological outcomes. The physiological and behavioral consequences of these pathways likely accumulate across the lifecourse. We focus on cognitive aging, although the processes discussed here begin in infancy and likely influence cognitive outcomes throughout life from childhood into old age. A lifecourse framework can help inform clinical encounters, neuropsychological research, and surveillance regarding the population prevalence of cognitive impairments.     

Arousal, working memory, and conscious awareness in contingency learning

There are wide individual differences in the ability to detect a stimulus contingency embedded in a complex paradigm. The present study used a cognitive masking paradigm to better understand individual differences related to contingency learning. Participants were assessed on measures of electrodermal arousal and on working memory capacity before engaging in the contingency learning task. Contingency awareness was assessed both by trial-by-trial verbal reports obtained during the task and by a short post-task recognition questionnaire. Participants who became aware had fewer non-specific skin conductance responses and tended to score higher on a digit span assessment. Skin conductance level was not significantly lower in the aware group than in the unaware group. These findings are consistent with studies showing that lower arousal and greater cognitive processing capacity facilitate conscious perception of a greater breadth of information within a scene or a task.     

Catastrophizing as a Cognitive Vulnerability Factor Related to Depression in Workers’ Compensation Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of catastrophizing as a mediator and moderator between life stress and depression in a sample of workers’ compensation patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Pain intensity, life stress (especially work and financial stress), and catastrophizing contributed significantly to depression. Catastrophizing was found to be partially mediating the relationship between life stress and depression and a moderator between social stress and depression. The results supported the role of catastrophizing as a cognitive vulnerability-stress factor related to depression in chronic pain patients. Screening for life stress and intervening early to prevent catastrophizing from occurring in the workers’ compensation rehabilitation process may reduce psychosocial distress and enhance the overall effectiveness of rehabilitation programming for workers’ compensation patients with chronic pain.     

Evidence for the role of self-priming in epistemic action: expertise and the effective use of memory

Epistemic actions are physical actions people take to simplify internal problem solving rather than to move closer to an external goal. When playing the video game Tetris, for instance, experts routinely rotate falling shapes more than is strictly needed to place the shapes. Maglio and Kirsh [Kirsh, D., & Maglio, P. (1994). On distinguishing epistemic from pragmatic action. Cognitive Science, 18, 513-549; Maglio, P. P. (1995). The computational basis of interactive skill. PhD thesis, University of California, San Diego] proposed that such actions might serve the purpose of priming memory by external means, reducing the need for internal computation (e.g., mental rotation), and resulting in performance improvements that exceed the cost of taking additional actions. The present study tests this priming hypothesis in a set of four experiments. The first three explored precisely the conditions under which priming produces benefits. Results showed that presentation of multiple orientations of a shape led to faster responses than did presentation of a single orientation, and that this effect depended on the interval between preview and test. The fourth explored whether the benefit of seeing shapes in multiple orientations outweighs the cost of taking the extra actions to rotate shapes physically. Benefits were measured using a novel statistical method for mapping reaction-time data onto an estimate of the increase in processing capacity afforded by seeing multiple orientations. Cost was measured using an empirical estimate of time needed to take action in Tetris. Results showed that indeed the increase in internal processing capacity obtained from seeing shapes in multiple orientations outweighed the time to take extra actions.     

Decisions among time saving options: when intuition is strong and wrong

When people judge the time that can be saved by increasing the speed of an activity, they are often victims of a time saving bias. That is, they overestimate the time that can be saved by increasing the speed. Judgments of time savings following speed increase when driving follow the Proportion heuristic [Svenson, O. (1970). A functional measurement approach to intuitive estimation as exemplified by estimated time savings. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 86, 204-210]. In a choice between time saving options, this heuristic simplifies to the Ratio rule. The first study tested this rule and found that the Ratio rule predicted incorrect decisions when planning to save traveling time in road traffic. The second study showed that the time saving bias was also present in planning of health care; to specify, in decisions about which one of two clinics to reorganize to save more of the doctors' time for personal contacts with patients. To further test the Ratio rule, Study 3 used a matching procedure in which two decision alternatives were made equal by the participants. The results supported the Ratio rule. Practical implications of the results are discussed including the Planning fallacy. In conclusion, the present set of studies have illustrated a time saving bias and provided evidence explaining why people make systematic errors when judging and deciding about time saved following a speed increase.     

Immediate source-monitoring, self-focused attention and the positive symptoms of schizophrenia

Previous research suggests that tendencies to misattribute one's own thoughts to an external source, as assessed by an immediate source-monitoring test, are associated with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). However, recent research suggests that such tendencies are associated instead with symptoms of thought interference. The main aim of the present study was to examine whether such tendencies are differentially associated with different types of thought interference, with AVHs, or with both. It has also been suggested that external misattributions are especially likely to occur with emotionally salient material and if the individual's focus is on the self. These suggestions were also tested. The positive psychotic symptoms of 57 individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were assessed and they then completed the Self-Focus Sentence Completion blank. Immediately after completing each sentence they were asked to indicate to what extent the sentence was their own. The number of sentences that were not rated as completely their own served as their externalisation score. Externalisation scores correlated significantly with the severity of three symptoms: voices commenting, delusions of being controlled, and thought insertion. In a logistic regression analysis, all three of these symptoms were significantly and independently related to externalisation. Externalisation was not associated with either a negative or a neutral self-focus. Thus tendencies to misattribute one's own thoughts to an external source are associated with AVHs and some, but not all, symptoms of thought interference. The importance for externalisation of self-focused attention and of the emotional salience of the elicited thoughts was not supported.     

Mood induced cognitive and emotional reactivity, life stress, and the prediction of depressive relapse

This study examined a group of participants who were fully remitted from a previous episode of major depressive disorder, and evaluated the role of cognitive and emotional reactivity to a mood challenge, and life stress in the prediction of relapse. Fifty-two participants were evaluated during remission, and their reactivity (i.e., change in dysfunctional attitudes and emotional state) to a depressed mood induction was evaluated. The cohort was followed up 12 months after the initial assessment. Thirty-five percent of the sample experienced a relapse during the follow-up period. Relapse was predicted by higher rates of life stress, and lower levels of emotional reactivity (specifically less reduction in happiness) to the mood induction during the initial assessment. Cognitive reactivity to the mood induction did not predict relapse, nor did the interaction between cognitive reactivity and life stress. These findings are discussed in terms of recent literature suggesting that depression is associated with insensitivity to emotion context, such that depressed individuals display blunted emotional responses to affective stimuli, including sadness-inducing stimuli. These findings suggest that insensitivity to emotional context may also be a characteristic of euthymic individuals at risk of relapse.     

Interpretations and judgments regarding positive and negative social scenarios in childhood social anxiety

The present study extended our understanding of cognitive biases in childhood social anxiety. A non-clinical sample of 11-13-year olds completed social anxiety and depression scales and were presented with scenarios depicting positive and mildly negative social events. Social anxiety was associated with tendencies to interpret positive social events in a discounting fashion, to catastrophize in response to mildly negative social events, and to anticipate more negative emotional reactions to the negative events. Implications for understanding and treating social anxiety are discussed.