Predicting the biological variability of environmental rhythms: Weak or strong anticipation for sensorimotor synchronization?

The internal processes involved in synchronizing our movements with environmental stimuli have traditionally been addressed using regular metronomic sequences. Regarding real-life environments, however, biological rhythms are known to have intrinsic variability, ubiquitously characterized as fractal long-range correlations. In our research we thus investigate to what extent the synchronization processes drawn from regular metronome paradigms can be generalized to other (biologically) variable rhythms. Participants performed synchronized finger tapping under five conditions of long-range and/or short-range correlated, randomly variable, and regular auditory sequences. Combining experimental data analysis and numerical simulation, we found that synchronizing with biologically variable rhythms involves the same internal processes as with other variable rhythms (whether totally random or comprising lawful regularities), but different from those involved with a regular metronome. This challenges both the generalizability of conclusions drawn from regular-metronome paradigms, and recent research assuming that biologically variable rhythms may trigger specific strong anticipatory processes to achieve synchronization.     

Separating goals from behavioral control: Implications from learning predictive modularizations

The brain may be regarded as an anticipatory machine whose behavior strongly depends on its current predictive knowledge. Behavioral decision making depends on anticipated goal states as well as on the current internal motivations of the organism. Behavioral control, on the other hand, is guided by the goals currently chosen along with additional constraints. Both, decision making and control are thus anticipatory processes. Moreover, they are mutually dependent: while action control depends on currently selected goals, goal selection depends on achievability estimates, which must be based on the system's current action control competence. An autonomous, adaptive system thus faces the challenge of learning goal representations that are suitable for both, action selection and action control. We propose that a goal processing pathway should be separated from but also strongly interact with a sensorimotor control pathway. We investigate the encoding structures expectable along these two pathways for realizing effective and flexible action decision making and control. While the goal processing pathway needs to be able to distinguish motivation-oriented relevancies for decision making, the sensorimotor pathway needs to provide control-oriented encodings. We use an evolutionary machine learning technique to investigate how important modularity may be for realizing particular sensorimotor mappings. Next, we survey the results obtained by a neural network architecture, which show that enforcing multiplicative interactions between self-organizing sensorimotor control-oriented encodings and goal-oriented interaction selection encodings enables the learning of highly flexible decision making and action control structures. Furthermore, we show that the emerging goal-oriented encodings exhibit pre-linguistic compositional structures. We conclude that for bootstrapping higher-level cognitive capabilities it may be essential on the one hand to separate sensorimotor, anticipatory, control-oriented spatial encodings from compositional, goal-oriented spaces, and on the other hand to enable bidirectional, multiplicative interactions between these two sets of spatial encodings.     

Self-regulation,health, and behavior: A perceptual-cognitive approach

Abstract

Self-regulation systems are designed to adapt to threats via coping procedures that make efficient use of resources based upon valid representations of the environment. We discuss two components of the common-sense model of health threats: illness representations (e.g., content and organization) and coping procedures (e.g., classes of procedure and their attributes - outcome expectancies, time-lines, dose-efficacy beliefs, etc.). Characteristics of each of these domains, and the connection between the two, are critical to understanding human adaptation to problems of physical health. Rather than posing a barrier to factors outside the person that control behavior, an emphasis on subjective construal involves a view of the person as an active problem-solver embedded in a bidirectional system of sensitivity and responsiveness vis á vis the social, physical, and institutional environments in which health threats occur and through which intervention efforts may be directed.     

Illness representations predict adherence in adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes

Objective: Most adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with type 1 diabetes struggle with diabetes self-management and exhibit suboptimal glycemic control. This study examined two models of association between illness representations, a modifiable predictor of suboptimal outcomes, and adherence and glycemic control in AYAs with type 1 diabetes.

Design and main outcome measures: Ninety-nine AYAs (ages 15–20?years) completed measures of illness representations and adherence at two visits. Blood glucose monitoring frequency and haemoglobin A1c were obtained via chart review. Relationships were examined using structural equation modelling.

Results: Illness representations accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in blood glucose monitoring frequency (ΔR^2?=?.23, p?<?.01) and adherence to emergency precautions at Time 1 (ΔR^2?=?.07, p?=?.03). Illness representations also accounted for significant variance in blood glucose monitoring frequency (ΔR^2?=?.08, p?=?.01), adherence to recommendations for insulin and food (ΔR²?=?.08, p?=?.02) and exercise (ΔR^2?=?.10, p?<?.01), and adherence to emergency precautions (ΔR^2?=?.16, p?<?.01) at Time 2.

Conclusion: Illness representations are salient predictors of adherence in this population. Interventions targeting adherence promotion and glycemic control in AYAs with type 1 diabetes may be enhanced by efforts to modify illness representations.     

Composition in distributional models of semantics

Vector-based models of word meaning have become increasingly popular in cognitive science. The appeal of these models lies in their ability to represent meaning simply by using distributional information under the assumption that words occurring within similar contexts are semantically similar. Despite their widespread use, vector-based models are typically directed at representing words in isolation, and methods for constructing representations for phrases or sentences have received little attention in the literature. This is in marked contrast to experimental evidence (e.g., in sentential priming) suggesting that semantic similarity is more complex than simply a relation between isolated words. This article proposes a framework for representing the meaning of word combinations in vector space. Central to our approach is vector composition, which we operationalize in terms of additive and multiplicative functions. Under this framework, we introduce a wide range of composition models that we evaluate empirically on a phrase similarity task.     

Finding words for feelings: The relationship between personality disorders and alexithymia

This study examined whether personality disorders (PDs) are associated with alexithymic features at varying levels of comorbid psychopathology distress. 167 psychiatric outpatients completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) and the General Severity Index (GSI) of the SCL90-revised. Bootstrapping analyses were performed to test whether the PD/alexithymia relationship was moderated by psychopathology distress (GSI). The overall number of PD criteria was associated with cognitive aspects of alexithymia (i.e., Externally Oriented Thinking, EOT) only at low/moderate levels of distress. Borderline criteria predicted EOT only when distress was low, while avoidant and dependent criteria were independently related with EOT. No association was found between other PDs and alexithymia facets. Thus, within clinical samples the alexithymia/PD association is mainly explained by comorbid psychopathology; however, individuals with avoidant, dependent and borderline features might have a specific difficulty with focusing on internal reality, even when their current symptom distress is low.     

‘Should I Circumcise My Daughter?’ Exploring Diversity and Ambivalence in Egyptian Parents' Social Representations of Female Circumcision

Female circumcision is still practiced in different parts of Egypt, impacting women's health and well‐being. Existing studies often portray parents' representations of the practice as positive and homogeneous, with little attention paid to the true diversity of views within a community. This study draws on social representations theory to highlight such nuances, while identifying the psychosocial factors that shape parents' decisions to circumcise or not circumcise their daughters. In‐depth interviews with 11 mothers and five fathers were conducted in rural communities in the Al Qalyoubeya and Benisweif governorates. Thematic analysis revealed the co‐existence of positive, negative and ambivalent representations of female circumcision amongst parents and within the individuals themselves. Although some parents positively represent female circumcision as ensuring the daughter's chastity, safeguarding her femininity and preserving community identity, they feel distress about its potential harms, such as pain, bleeding and terrifying experience on the daughter. Fathers further acknowledge its negative impact on marital sexual relationships. In some cases, parents challenge the ritual and refuse to circumcise their daughters. In light of a theory of change that emphasises the role of community dialogue in renegotiating health‐damaging social practices, along with evidence of diverse views amongst parents, this study argues that sensitively facilitated ‘community conversations’ might provide parents with opportunities to debate their opposing views and allow for the construction of health‐enabling social representations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's number processing is context dependent

The aim of this paper was to test the hypothesis of a context dependence of number processing in children. Fifth-graders were given two numbers presented successively on screen through a self-presentation procedure after being asked either to add or subtract or compare them. We considered the self-presentation time of the first number as reflecting the complexity of the encoding for a given planned processing. In line with Dehaene's triple-code model, self-presentation times were longer for additions and subtractions than for comparisons with two-digit numbers. Alternative interpretations of these results in terms of more cognitive effort or more mental preparation in the case of addition and subtraction than comparison are discussed and ruled out.