If only I had taken my usual route… : Age-related differences in counter-factual thinking

ABSTRACT

Previous research suggests that young adults can shift between rational and experiential modes of thinking when forming social judgments. The present study examines whether older adults demonstrate this flexibility in thinking. Young and older adults completed an If-only task adapted from Epstein, Lipson, and Huh's (1992 Epstein, S., Lipson, A. and Huh, E. 1992. Irrational reactions to negative outcomes: Evidence for two conceptual systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62: 328–339. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.62.2.328[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 328) examination of individuals' ability to adopt rational or experiential modes of thought while making a judgment about characters who experience a negative event that could have been avoided. Consistent with our expectations for their judgments of the characters, young adults shifted between experiential and rational modes of thought when instructed to do so. Conversely, regardless of the mode of thought being used or the order with which they adopted the different modes of thought (i.e., shifting from experiential to rational in Study 1 and from rational to experiential in Study 2), older adults consistently offered judgments and justifications that reflected a preference for experiential-based thought.     

Four fatal flaws of brain injury assessment in the cross-cultural context

This analytical review serves to highlight pitfalls clinicians in multicultural contexts may encounter when using normed ability tests for the assessment of cognitive dysfunction due to brain injury. Four sources of erroneous practice are: (i) Failure to recognize within-race group heterogeneity on cognitive test performance in association with factors such as quality of education; (ii) Lack of rigorous attention being paid to the exact mode of test administration used in a derived normative base to be used for assessment purposes; (iii) Estimating an expected level of performance for an individual on diverse cognitive tests based on an IQ score; (iv) Adopting a thoroughly rule-bound actuarial approach to test interpretation, over a contextually based clinical approach. Even with locally derived norms, the validity of actuarially based interpretive conclusions in the absence of a conceptually coherent case analysis is not supported.     

A direct comparison of infants' use of featural and spatiotemporal information when individuating objects in a non-occlusion event-monitoring design

A central issue within the field of object individuation concerns the kind of information that infants rely on when they succeed in individuating objects. By means of the violation-of-expectation strategy, the present study reports a comparison of 8.0- and 6.5-month-old infants' use of featural and spatiotemporal information in a new non-occlusion event-monitoring design. Using a mirror setup the memory demands were minimized, because all apparent changes in the unexpected test events took place in full view of the infants. The results indicate that the 8.0- and 6.5-month-old infants individuated objects successfully regardless of whether they were provided with featural or spatiotemporal information. The results are discussed in relation to the relevant literature.     

Can infant self-locomotion and spatial exploration predict spatial memory at school age?

According to an embodied view of development sensorimotor activity plays a central role in cognitive development. Following this idea, we studied whether the age of achieving self-locomotion milestones and spatial exploration during the first years of life predict spatial memory at (pre)school age. Spatial memory was assessed in 51 children at ages four and six years. Parents reported retrospectively about ages of attainment of self-locomotion milestones and about the children's spatial exploration behaviour during infancy and early toddlerhood. Results show that spatial exploration positively predicts spatial memory at both ages. The age of attainment of self- locomotion does not predict spatial memory at ages four and six. These findings extend previous work that showed a relation between exploration and spatial cognition over a short period of time. Results provide preliminary support to the hypothesis, suggesting that spatial exploration predicts spatial memory also over longer periods of time.     

The ideomotor approach to imitative learning (IMAIL) in infancy: Challenges and future perspectives

The article presents the ideomotor approach to imitative learning (IMAIL). According to IMAIL, imitation rests on the acquisition of bidirectional action–effect associations through the observations of others’ actions and their sensory consequences. The article first outlines the challenges and demands that motivated the development of the theory. Then, it describes the theory in greater detail and presents empirical evidence supporting IMAIL. Finally, it concludes by discussing challenges and avenues for further research.     

Predictors of rapid versus thoughtful judgments of meaning in life

As with other measures of subjective well-being, self-reports of meaning in life (MIL) can be influenced by transient, contextual factors. Further, the sources of information used in judging MIL can vary depending on their relevance and cognitive accessibility. This study examined the effects of differing instructions on the sources of information used to judge MIL. Participants (N?=?103) completed measures of positive affect (PA), religious commitment, and the satisfaction of the needs for competency, autonomy, and relatedness and then were randomly assigned to complete a measure of MIL rapidly, thoughtfully, or using typical instructions. Results showed that condition moderated reliance on PA, autonomy and social relatedness need satisfaction: PA was a stronger predictor of MIL in the thoughtful condition while autonomy and relatedness were more strongly related to MIL in the rapid condition. Implications for our understanding of MIL and future directions are discussed.     

Altruism and health outcomes in multiple sclerosis: The effect of cognitive reserve

Despite age-associated decreases in cognitive and physical abilities, age is not associated with a decrease in ratings of well-being; this phenomenon is termed the ‘paradox of well-being.’ One potential explanation for this paradox may be that older adults place less value on cognitive abilities that have been shown to decrease with age (e.g., memory) and more value on cognitive abilities shown to increase with age (e.g., knowledge). Using online methods, 358 individuals between the ages of 18 and 88 completed a survey assessing the values placed on everyday cognitive abilities, self-ratings for those same abilities, and life satisfaction. Results indicated that there were minimal age-related differences in values placed on everyday cognitive abilities and that values generally did not moderate the relationship between perceptions of cognitive functioning and life satisfaction. Of note, values placed on cognition significantly predicted life satisfaction in younger adults, but not in middle-aged and older adults.     

The SNARC effect in the processing of second-language number words: Further evidence for strong lexico-semantic connections

We present new evidence that word translation involves semantic mediation. It has been shown that participants react faster to small numbers with their left hand and to large numbers with their right hand. This SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes) effect is due to the fact that in Western cultures the semantic number line is oriented from left (small) to right (large). We obtained a SNARC effect when participants had to indicate the parity of second-language (L2) number words, but not when they had to indicate whether L2 number words contained a particular sound. Crucially, the SNARC effect was also obtained in a translation verification task, indicating that this task involved the activation of number magnitude.     

Sex differences in mental rotation with polygons of different complexity: Do men utilize holistic processes whereas women prefer piecemeal ones?

Sex differences in mental rotation were investigated as a function of stimulus complexity with a sample size of N = 72. Replicating earlier findings with polygons, mental rotation was faster for males than for females, and reaction time increased with more complex polygons. Additionally, sex differences increased for complex polygons. Most importantly, however, mental rotation speed decreased with increasing complexity for women but did not change for men. Thus, the sex effects reflect a difference in strategy, with women mentally rotating the polygons in an analytic, piecemeal fashion and men using a holistic mode of mental rotation.