Slow wave maturation on a visual working memory task

The purpose of the present study is to analyze how the Slow Wave develops in the retention period on a visual Delayed Match-to-Sample task performed by 170 subjects between 6 and 26 years old, divided into 5 age groups. In addition, a neuropsychological test (Working Memory Test Battery for Children) was correlated with this Event Related Potential (ERP) in order to observe possible relationships between Slow Wave maturation and the components of Baddeley and Hitch’s Working Memory model.The results showed a slow negativity during the retention period in the posterior region in all the age groups, possibly resulting from sustained neural activity related to the visual item presented. In the anterior region, a positive slow wave was observed in the youngest subjects. Dipole analysis suggests that this fronto-central positivity in children (6–13 years old) consists of the positive side of the posterior negativity, once these subjects only needed two posterior dipoles to explain almost all the neural activity. Negative correlations were shown between the Slow Wave and the Working Memory Test Battery for Children, indicating a commonality in assessing Working Memory with the Slow Wave and the neuropsychological testing.     

Waiting When Both Certainty and Magnitude Are Increasing: Certainty Overshadows Magnitude

In everyday decision making, people often face decisions with outcomes that differ on multiple dimensions. The trade‐off in preferences between magnitude, temporal proximity, and probability of an outcome is a fundamental concern in the decision‐making literature. Yet, their joint effects on behavior in an experience‐based decision‐making task are understudied. Two experiments examined the relative influences of the magnitude and probability of an outcome when both were increasing over a 10‐second delay. A first‐person shooter video game was adapted for this purpose. Experiment 1 showed that participants waited longer to ensure a higher probability of the outcome than to ensure a greater magnitude when experienced separately and together. Experiment 2 provided a precise method of comparing their relative control on waiting by having each increase at different rates. Both experiments revealed a stronger influence of increasing probability than increasing magnitude. The results were more consistent with hyperbolic discounting of probability than with cumulative prospect theory's decision weight function. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Control your cravings: Self-controlled food choice varies by eating attitudes,sex, and food type among Division I collegiate athletes

Eating attitudes are predictive of disordered eating, which can be quite prevalent among collegiate athletes. The present study tested if disordered eating attitudes and the sex of collegiate athletes are related to “self-controlled food choice” for four food types: a dessert, fried food, fruit, and vegetable. In total, 102 athletes completed a disordered eating attitudes assessment and a delay discounting task. For the delay discounting task, athletes chose between one large delayed reward and one successively smaller immediate reward for four food types, and indifference points were computed with lower indifference points indicating greater self-controlled food choice. In this study female athletes showed greater self-controlled food choice for all three tempting food types (dessert, fried food, and fruit), but not the control food type (vegetable). For males, results were moderated by their level of disordered eating attitudes. Overall, these data show that “self-controlled food choice,” measured using a delay discounting task, is a key factor related to sex differences in disordered eating attitudes among college athletes.     

Hazard function effects on promoting self-control in variable interval time-based interventions in rats

The present experiments investigated properties of time-based interventions used to increase self-control. Rats received impulsive-choice assessments before and after interventions that consisted of different distributions of delays to reinforcement. In Experiment 1, rats received an intervention with an increasing hazard function where delays were more evenly distributed, a decreasing hazard function where delays were mostly short, or a constant hazard function where delays were exponentially distributed. Surprisingly, rats that received the decreasing hazard function made the most self-controlled choices. Response rates during intervention trials showed that rats anticipated reinforcement based on the shape of the distributions they received. In Experiment 2, rats received an intervention with a decreasing hazard function with a steep slope or a shallow slope. Both time-based interventions increased self-control and produced similar response-rate patterns, indicating that the slope of the decreasing hazard function may not play a strong role in intervention efficacy. While this research aligns with previous literature showing that time-based interventions improved self-control, exposure to short delays produced the biggest improvements. Ultimately, exposure to short delays may increase the subjective value of the larger–later choice while occasional long delays may promote the ability to wait, which may have important implications for translational applications.     

Prospective emotion enables episodic prospection to shift time preference

The episodic effect suggests that episodic prospection (imagining future events) can effectively reduce time discounting, the propensity to discount the value of delayed rewards relative to immediate ones. However, less clear is how episodic prospection modulates time preference. As engagement in episodic prospection usually evokes prospective emotions, it was proposed that episodic prospection might work by inducing prospective emotions. Although one previous study has attempted to provide evidence to the emotional account of the episodic effect, shortcomings in its experimental design make its conclusion questionable. In this study, we replicated previous experimental design with improvements to further test the effects of prospective emotion on time preference. By manipulating the emotional valency associated with episodic prospection in a delay discounting task, we found that positive episodic prospection attenuated time discounting; negative episodic prospection exacerbated time discounting; and episodic prospection did not shift time preference when prospective emotion is removed. These results were essentially identical to the result of the previous study. Together, these studies suggested that the effects of episodic prospection depended on prospective emotion. Thus, one cannot ignore prospective emotion if counting on episodic prospection to combat humans’ impulsive behaviours.     

Effects of immediacy of feedback on estimations and performance

We investigated the role of anticipation of feedback in performance and estimation about own performance. We submitted 155 participants to a test of verbal aptitude, and we requested them to give estimations of their own performance and the performance of other participants. There were two treatments: immediate feedback and delayed feedback. Participants in the immediate‐feedback group were informed that they would receive feedback on their performance immediately after finishing the test, whereas participants in the delayed‐feedback group were informed that they would receive feedback a week after taking the test. The immediate‐feedback group performed better than the delayed‐feedback group. Furthermore, the former underestimated their own performance. On the other hand, participants on the delayed‐feedback group made unbiased estimations. We present a mathematical model based on construal‐level theory, decision affect theory, temporal discounting, and Moore and Healy's model of overestimation. The model suggests that the source of differences in performance and in estimations of own performance is a construal of the feedback situation that modifies the expected utility of the task.     

Social Discounting and Cigarette Smoking During Pregnancy

In this study, we examined the association between social discounting and smoking status in a cohort of pregnant cigarette smokers (n = 91), quitters (n = 27), or never‐smokers (n = 30). The smokers and quitters were participants in clinical trials on smoking cessation and relapse prevention, whereas the never‐smokers were controls in a study on nicotine withdrawal during pregnancy. Social discounting was assessed using a paper‐and‐pencil task that assesses the amount of hypothetical money a person is willing to forgo in order to share with individuals in their social network ranging from the person who is emotionally closest to them to a mere acquaintance. The amount that women were willing to forgo in order to share decreased hyperbolically as a function of social distance, with smokers exhibiting steeper discounting functions (i.e., less generosity) than quitters or never‐smokers; discounting functions of quitters and never‐smokers did not differ significantly. In multivariate analyses controlling for potential sociodemographic and other confounds, social discounting remained a significant predictor of smoking status among smokers versus quitters. Overall, these results suggest that individual differences in social discounting may be a factor influencing the choices that women make about quitting smoking upon learning of a pregnancy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

跨期选择中偏好反转的心理机制

通过直接测量近期和远期选择中备选项激活的情绪、间隔的时间知觉及对备选项金额差异和时间间隔的重视程度,以探究跨期选择中偏好反转产生的心理机制。结果表明：（1）近期选择中,备选项激活的情绪强度差异显著,而远期选择中两者的差异不显著;（2）近期和远期选择中,情绪强度差异和时间知觉差异能够预测偏好反转的发生。研究结果支持了偏好反转的情绪激活差异假说和时间知觉差异假说。     

跨期选择的认知机制与神经基础

跨期选择是指个体对发生在不同时间的成本与收益进行权衡的决策过程。跨期选择的计算模型从经济学的角度用数学模型来建构时间折扣函数,而认知成分模型则从心理学的角度来研究跨期选择中的心理效应与认知成分。跨期选择的神经基础有三种不同的研究取向：双机制加工取向、单机制加工取向、自我控制取向。未来研究应该在跨期选择的认知机制、神经通路及运行机制、跨期选择的应用,以及从进化的角度对人与动物的跨期选择行为进行更深入的研究。     

Executive functioning deficits in preschool children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Executive function (EF) deficit is a hallmark of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), but the vast majority of available evidence comes from school-age children and adolescents. Very little is known about EF during the critical developmental period prior to 6 years of age in FASD. We evaluated EF in 39 children with FASD (3.0–5.5 years) and a comparison group of 50 age-matched, nonexposed controls. Measures included the EF Scale for Early Childhood and a Delay of Gratification task. Compared to age-matched controls, preschool children with FASD had impairments on the EF Scale and showed more impulsivity on the Delay of Gratification task. To confirm the EF Scale finding, FASD group performance was compared to a separate normative dataset (N = 1,400). Those with FASD performed below normal (M = –0.57, SD = 0.92). Within the FASD group, IQ was correlated with the EF Scale (partial r = .60, p = .001) and Delay of Gratification (partial r = .58, p = .005). EF Scale performance did not differ significantly across levels of FASD severity (fetal alcohol syndrome [FAS], partial FAS, or alcohol-related neurobehavioral disorder [ARND]). However, compared to normative data, those with FAS had the largest deficits (M = –0.91 SD from the mean, SE = 0.23), followed by partial FAS (M = –0.66 SD from the mean, SE = 0.26), then ARND (M = –0.36 SD from the mean, SE = 0.20). These novel data show that EF deficits manifest well before the age of 6 years in children with FASD, that they occur across the spectrum, and that EF may be most impaired in children with more severe forms of FASD and/or lower IQs.