The discrepant effect of acute stress on cognitive inhibition and response inhibition

This study aimed to investigate how acute stress impinges on individual’s cognitive inhibition and response inhibition abilities. Electroencephalography was adopted when 35 healthy adult females performing the No Go Flanker task before and after the Trier Social Stress Test. Both inhibition processes evoked N2 and P3 components, but only the response inhibition evoked the late positive potential (LPP), indicating the response inhibition needed continuous cognitive effort to inhibit the prepotent response. The N2 and the P3 amplitudes were decreased, while the LPP amplitudes were increased under acute stress. These results suggested that acute stress caused the detrimental effect by occupying cognitive resources. Contrastingly, individuals actively regulated and made more efforts to counteract the detrimental effect of acute stress on response inhibition. Thus, acute stress impaired cognitive inhibition but did not affect response inhibition.     

群体身份变换性对老年人印象更新的影响：共同内群体认同的中介作用

群体印象更新对于促进群际和谐具有重要的现实意义。本研究采用最简群体再分类范式, 通过4个实验考察了群体身份变换性对老年人外显与内隐印象更新的影响以及共同内群体认同的中介作用。结果发现, 群体身份变换性不仅改变了对最简外群体的印象评价, 而且也提升了年轻人对自然外群体老年人的外显印象评价, 但内隐印象评价的改变不明显; 共同内群体认同在群体身份变换性影响老年人的外显印象更新中起完全中介作用。这些发现不仅从群体身份变换性的视角进一步丰富和拓展了印象更新领域, 而且为群际互动中的偏见消除提供了最简群体再分类新方法。     

Not too little, but not too much: The perceived desirability of responses to personality items

Paradigms typically employed to investigate socially desirable responding in personality assessment implicitly assume linear relationships exist between trait level and desirability but recent research has called this assumption into question. In this study, participants rated the desirability of a hypothetical applicant to one of four jobs on the basis of which five-point Likert-type scale option he/she selected when responding to personality items. Results generally indicated that the most extreme option, on the desirable side of the response scale, was rated as most desirable, but perceived desirability asymptotes with the penultimate option. The middle (neutral) option, however, was consistently regarded as being much less desirable. The occupational context also significantly moderated the patterns of desirability ratings for many items.     

Differential effects of differing intensities of acute exercise on speed and accuracy of cognition: A meta-analytical investigation

The primary purpose of this study was to examine, using meta-analytical techniques, the differential effects of differing intensities of acute exercise on speed and accuracy of cognition. Overall, exercise demonstrated a small, significant mean effect size (g = 0.14, p < 0.01) on cognition. Examination of the comparison between speed and accuracy dependent variables showed that speed accounted for most of the effect. For speed, moderate intensity exercise demonstrated a significantly larger mean effect size than those for low and high intensities. For speed of processing during moderate intensity exercise, central executive tasks showed a larger effect size than recall and alertness/attention tasks; and mean effect size for counterbalanced or randomized studies was significantly greater than for studies in which a pre-exercise followed by during or post-exercise protocol was used. There was no significant difference between mean effect sizes when testing took place post-exercise compared to during exercise for speed but accuracy studies demonstrated a significantly larger mean effect size post-exercise. It was concluded that increased arousal during moderate intensity exercise resulted in faster speed of processing. The very limited effect on accuracy may be due to the failure to choose tests which are complex enough to measure exercise-induced changes in accuracy of performance.     

The effects of questionnaire length and lottery ticket inducement on the response rate in mail surveys

Abstract

As part of a study on functional gastrointestinal disorders in the Australian community, we surveyed 500 subjects to test the effects of questionnaire length and lottery inducement on the response rate in mail surveys. By random allocation, n = 124 subjects received a short form questionnaire (28 pages) with a lottery ticket, n = 126 received a short form with no lottery ticket, n= 124 received a long form (32 pages) with a lottery ticket and n= 126 received a long form with no lottery ticket. The overall response rate for the study was 74%. The response rates for the short (76.8%) versus long (71.2%) form and lottery ticket (74.2%) versus no lottery ticket (73.8%) were not significantly different. Significantly more short forms compared with longer forms were received after each stage of the follow-up protocol. A long questionnaire can however be successfully used in survey research.     

A novel executive function battery for preschoolers: Sensitivity to age differences

The present study investigated sensitivity to age differences in a novel executive function (EF) battery for children aged 18 months to 5 years, and whether the pattern of associations among the measures was consistent with a hierarchical model of EF development. Participants (n = 261, aged 18–67 months) were administered a battery of novel tasks designed to assess 3 key EF components (working memory, inhibition, and shifting). The results indicate that the EF tasks were sensitive to age differences and provide partial support for the hierarchical model of EF development.     

Instructed faking of the HEXACO reduces facet reliability and involves more Gc than Gf

Research on the role of intelligence in the capacity to fake personality tests tends to use the Big Five and g-factor models of personality and intelligence. The current study (N = 185 university students) examines instructed faking on the HEXACO and separately considers the role of fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc). Results demonstrate that: (a) participants can fake the HEXACO domains and facets to about the same extent as the Big Five; (b) faking has little effect on domain reliability but reduces facet reliability; and (c) faking involves Gc to a much greater degree than Gf. Results are discussed in terms of practical applications of facet scores, and process models of faking.     

Stimulus–Response compatibility based on affective arousal

Participants responded by producing weak or strong forces to pictures that varied with respect to affective arousal and horizontal position. The task relevance of these stimulus dimensions was manipulated between different groups of participants, with Stimulus–Response mapping varying between blocks of trials. The combination of the respectively task-irrelevant stimulus features with responses varied unpredictably on a trial-to-trial basis. In addition, the valence of the pictures and the combination of valence with response force were varied. When affective arousal was task relevant, there was an advantage of the pairing arousing→strong, not arousing→weak over the reverse mapping. No such affectively-based compatibility effect emerged when arousal was task irrelevant. In addition, effects of arousal were modulated by valence, but only when arousal was the relevant stimulus dimension.     

Do testing effects change over time? Insights from immediate and delayed retrieval speed

Retrieving information from memory improves recall accuracy more than continued studying, but this testing effect often only becomes visible over time. In contrast, the present study documents testing effects on recall speed both immediately after practice and after a delay. A total of 40 participants learned the translation of 100 Swahili words and then further restudied the words with translations or retrieved the translations from memory during testing. As in previous experiments, recall accuracy was higher for restudied words than for tested words immediately after practice, but higher for tested words after 7 days. Response times for correct answers, however, showed a different result: Learners were faster to recall tested words than restudied words both immediately after practice and after 7 days. These results are interpreted in light of recent suggestions that testing selectively strengthens cue–response associations. An additional outcome was that testing effects on recall accuracy were related to perceived retrieval success during practice. When several practice retrievals were successful, testing effects on recall accuracy were already significant immediately after practice. Together with the reaction time data, this supports recent models that attribute changes in testing effects over time to limited item retrievability during practice.