Early individual differences in temperamental reactivity and regulation: implications for effortful control in early childhood

This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that early temperament is associated with later effortful control. Fear reactivity and object orientation was assessed in a sample of 53 children at 8, 12, and 16 months during a stranger-approach paradigm and at 4.5 or 5.5 years on a battery of effortful control tasks. A latent growth curve analysis was used to model change in reactivity and object orientation across infancy and the prediction of each on later effortful control. Infants who increased in fear reactivity were significantly more likely to show poor performance on effortful control tasks in early childhood. Findings are discussed with respect to the importance of examining early temperamental precursors that contribute to the development of regulation.     

积极情绪加速心血管反应恢复的自主神经活动机制

通过对不同情绪唤醒状态下的心率变异性（HRV）和呼吸性窦性心率不齐（RSA）分析,探讨了积极情绪加速高唤醒消极情绪引起的心血管反应向基线恢复的自主神经活动机制。实验表明：与在观看高唤醒恐惧影片结束后观看悲伤影片和中性视频比较,观看高唤醒恐惧影片结束后观看快乐影片加速了高唤醒恐惧影片引起的心率、指脉等心血管反应向基线的恢复;与在观看高唤醒恐惧影片结束后观看悲伤视频和中性视频材料比较,观看高唤醒恐惧影片结束观看快乐影片后的恢复期,被试的迷走神经激活水平迅速增强,迷走神经激活水平甚至超过基线期。因此,积极情绪加速高唤醒消极情绪刺激引起的心血管反应向基线恢复,其自主神经活动机制是在积极情绪状态下个体有更强的迷走神经激活。     

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.     

Predicting athletic performance from cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat

This study examined the relationship between pre-performance motivational states (challenge vs. threat) and subsequent performance in athletic competition. Prior to the season, college baseball and softball players imagined and gave a speech about a specific baseball/softball playing situation while cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat were recorded. These physiological challenge/threat indexes significantly predicted athletic performance during the subsequent season, such that players who experienced challenge in the laboratory performed better relative to those who experienced threat. The implications for personnel selection and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat are discussed.     

From Cognitive Neuroscience to Geriatric Neuropsychology: What Do Current Conceptualizations of the Action Error Handling Process Mean for Older Adults?

The fields of cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology have contributed an extensive corpus of research to the study of error monitoring processes in younger adults; however, less is known about error handling in older adults. This paper highlights current conceptualizations of error detection and correction in healthy and impaired older adult populations. The literature suggests that some error handling processes require fewer processing resources than others and may be performed relatively automatically. Compared with young adults, older adults demonstrate a reduced ability to recognize errors, but exhibit similar rates of correction. Older adults diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease) show a reduced ability to detect and correct their action errors. Thus, neurodegenerative disease processes amplify the impairments in error identification associated with normal aging by disrupting both automatic and controlled error corrections. The clinical implications of our current knowledge are discussed, and directions for future neuropsychological research are offered.

Judgment of line orientation depends on gender, education, and type of error

Visuospatial tasks are particularly proficient at eliciting gender differences during neuropsychological performance. Here we tested the hypothesis that gender and education are related to different types of visuospatial errors on a task of line orientation that allowed the independent scoring of correct responses ("hits", or H) and one type of incorrect responses ("commission errors", or CE). We studied 343 volunteers of roughly comparable ages and with different levels of education. Education and gender were significantly associated with H scores, which were higher in men and in the groups with higher education. In contrast, the differences between men and women on CE depended on education. We concluded that (I) the ability to find the correct responses differs from the ability to avoid the wrong responses amidst an array of possible alternatives, and that (II) education interacts with gender to promote a stable performance on CE earlier in men than in women.     

Intermale aggression in rats selected for emotional reactivity and their reciprocal F1 and F2 hybrids

The aggressive behavior of two selectively bred rat strains (high “H” and low “L” emotional reactivity) and their reciprocal F1 and F2 hybrids were measured during three consecutive days in home-cage intruder tests. In terms of biting, bite latency, on-top-of and aggressive grooming, L males were more aggressive than H and F1 males. There was no difference between H and F1, nor between HLF1 and LHF1 with the exception that LHF1 showed more on-top-of. About one fourth of F2 males were equal to or more aggressive than L in terms of bite latency and number of bites. These findings suggest that aggressiveness was inherited as a recessive, monogenic trait in these rats.     

THE EFFECTS OF OBSERVER PRESENCE ON THE ACTIVITY LEVEL OF FAMILIES1

In the present study, the possibility that the act of observing behavior may result in changes in those behaviors was investigated. An investigation of reactivity is important to the validity of research findings because the result obtained when observers are present may not generalize to situations when observers are absent. The effects of observer presence were assessed with five families, each consisting of a mother and two children, in a laboratory setting designed to resemble a typical family living room, containing a table, couch, chairs, toys, books, and a bathroom and kitchen area. The families were each exposed to a sequence of four 30-minute conditions during which an observer was alternatively physically present or absent from the room. From behind an unobtrusive one-way mirror, family members' locations were recorded every 15 seconds on gridded floor-plan diagrams drawn to the scale of the room. After all data were collected, lines were drawn for each family member connecting the numbers sequentially and a map-reading device was then used to measure the distance covered during each minute of observation. The presence of observers markedly reduced the activity level of all families, with the average reduction approximating 50%. However, more extended observations in natural family settings may reveal that families habituate to observer presence in a relatively short period of time. If so, the solution to the reactivity problem would involve extending the observation sessions. However, if families do not habituate, new forms of data collection might be required to guarantee the validity and generalizability of data collected by obtrusive observers.     

Methodological problems in the use of participant observers

A multiple baseline design across observed students and teachers was used to investigate the relationship between observations by participant observers and changes in the behavior of those observed ("observee" reactivity) and the observers (observer-mediator reactivity). Two teachers recorded consecutively the appropriate student verbalizations of four students and two teachers recorded the inappropriate student verbalizations of four students. Independent observers simultaneously recorded student verbalizations (appropriate and inappropriate) as well as teacher behaviors (positive, negative, and instruction) throughout all phases of the study. The results substantiated the prediction of "observee" reactivity and observer-mediator reactivity in one of four classrooms. The results of the present study suggest that in some instances, observations by participant observers may result in changes in the behavior of those being observed ("observee" reactivity) and/or the observers (observer-mediator reactivity).