A dissociation between selective attention and conscious awareness in the representation of temporal order information

Previous electrophysiological studies have shown that attentional selection processes are highly sensitive to the temporal order of task-relevant visual events. When two successively presented colour-defined target stimuli are separated by a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of only 10 ms, the onset latencies of N2pc components to these stimuli (which reflect their attentional selection) precisely match their objective temporal separation. We tested whether such small onset differences are accessible to conscious awareness by instructing participants to report the category (letter or digit) of the first of two target-colour items that were separated by an SOA of 10, 20, or 30 ms. Performance was at chance level for the 10 ms SOA, demonstrating that temporal order information which is available to attentional control processes cannot be utilized for conscious temporal order judgments. These results provide new evidence that selective attention and conscious awareness are functionally separable, and support the hypothesis that attention and awareness operate at different stages of cognitive processing.     

Longitudinal trajectories of bicultural identity integration in recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents: Links with mental health and family functioning

This study examined, in a sample of recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents in Miami and Los Angeles, the extent to which bicultural identity integration (BII; involving the ability to synthesise one's heritage and receiving cultural streams and to identify as a member of both cultures) is best understood as a developmental construct that changes over time or as an individual‐difference construct that is largely stable over time. We were also interested in the extent to which these trajectories predicted mental health and family functioning. Recent‐immigrant 9th graders (N = 302) were assessed 6 times from 9th to 12th grade. Latent class growth analyses using the first 5 timepoints identified 2 trajectory classes—one with lower BII scores over time and another with higher BII scores over time. Higher heritage and US identity at baseline predicted membership in the higher BII class. At the 6th study timepoint, lower BII adolescents reported significantly poorer self‐esteem, optimism, prosocial behaviour and family relationships compared with their higher BII counterparts. These findings are discussed in terms of further research on the over‐time trajectory of biculturalism, and on the need to develop interventions to promote BII as a way of facilitating well‐being and positive family functioning.     

Categorization and cognitive deficits in compulsive hoarding

According to the cognitive-behavioural model of compulsive hoarding, information-processing deficits in the areas of attention, memory, decision-making, and categorization contribute to hoarding behaviour. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether individuals with compulsive hoarding exhibited impairment on executive functioning and categorization tasks. Three groups of participants were recruited (N = 60): individuals with compulsive hoarding syndrome, individuals with an Axis I mood or anxiety disorder, and non-clinical control participants. All participants completed self-report measures of cognitive difficulties, neuropsychological tests of executive functioning and decision-making, and four categorization tasks. Results suggested that hoarding participants reported more cognitive failures and more problems with attention and decision-making than non-clinical control participants. In addition, hoarding participants performed worse than both control groups on the Stockings of Cambridge (SOC), a neuropsychological test of planning ability, and were slower and more anxious during a categorization task. These findings suggest that specific deficits in executive functioning may be associated with the difficulties hoarding patients have organizing their possessions.     

Comparison of brain mechanisms underlying the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo-characters: an event-related potential study

Most Chinese characters are composed of a semantic radical on the left and a phonetic radical on the right. The semantic radical provides the semantic information; the phonetic radical provides information concerning the pronunciation of the whole character. The pseudo‐characters in the study consisted of different sub‐lexical parts of real Chinese characters and consequently they also had the semantic radical and the phonetic radical. But they were not readable and had no actual meaning. In order to investigate the spatiotemporal cortical activation patterns underlying the orthographic, phonological and semantic processing of Chinese characters, we used event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) to explore the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters when 14 healthy Chinese college students viewed the characters passively. Results showed that both Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters elicited an evident negative potential peaking around 120 ms (N120), which appeared to reflect initial orthographic distinction and evaluation. Then, Chinese pseudo‐characters elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P220) than did Chinese characters 200–250 ms after onset of the stimuli. It was similar to the recognition potential (RP) and might reflect the integration processes of phonological and semantic processing on the basis of early orthographic information. Dipole source analysis of the difference wave (pseudo‐characters minus characters) indicated that a generator localized in the left temporal‐occipital junction contributed to this effect, which was possibly related to phonological and perceptual–semantic information integration. Between 350–450 ms, a greater negativity (N360) in pseudo‐characters as compared to characters was found over midline fronto‐central scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator of N360 in the right parahippocampal cortex. Therefore, the N360 might be an N400 component and reflect the higher‐level semantic activation on the basis of orthographic, phonological and perceptual–semantic processing.     

First graders' literacy and self-regulation gains: The effect of individualizing student instruction

We examined the effect of individualizing student instruction (ISI; N = 445 students, 46 classrooms) on first graders' self-regulation gains compared to a business-as-usual control group. Self-regulation, conceptualized as a constellation of executive skills, was positively associated with academic development. We hypothesized that the ISI intervention's emphasis on teacher planning and organization, classroom management, and the opportunity for students to work independently and in small groups would promote students' self-regulation. We found no main effect of ISI on self-regulation gains. However, for students with weaker initial self-regulation, ISI was associated with greater self-regulation gains compared to peers in control classrooms. The ISI effect on self-regulation was greater when the intervention was more fully implemented.     

Effects of Accelerated Reading Rate on Processing Words' Syntactic Functions by Normal and Dyslexic Readers: Event Related Potentials Evidence

In the present study, the authors examined differences in brain activity, as measured by amplitudes and latencies of event related potentials (ERP) components, in Hebrew-speaking adult dyslexic and normal readers when processing sentence components with different grammatical functions. Participants were 20 dyslexic and 20 normally reading male college students aged 18–27 years. The authors examined the processing of normal word strings in word–by-word reading of sentences having subject-verb-object (SVO) syntactic structure in self- and fast-paced conditions. Data revealed that in both reading conditions, the N100 and P300 ERP components were sensitive to internal processes such as recognition of words' grammatical functions. However, the results revealed that fast-paced reading rate might affect this process, as was reflected in the systematic changes of amplitudes and latencies of both ERP components. In accelerated reading, a significant decrease of latencies and increase of amplitudes in dyslexics were shown. It was also found that influence of fast-paced reading rate was realized in the full usage of the word-order strategy in sentence processing. In turn, this fact confirmed the hypothesis concerning a syntactic processing “weakness” in dyslexia.     

Family Functioning and Psychological Well-Being,School Adjustment,and Problem Behavior in Chinese Adolescents With and Without Economic Disadvantage

Using an indigenously developed measure of family functioning, the author examined the association between family functioning and adolescent adjustment in 1,519 Chinese adolescents. Results showed that family functioning was significantly related to measures of adolescent psychological well-being (existential well-being, life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of mastery, general psychiatric morbidity), school adjustment (perceived academic performance, satisfaction with academic performance, and school conduct), and problem behavior (delinquent and substance abuse behavior). Family functioning was generally more strongly related to measures of adolescent adjustment for adolescents with economic disadvantage than for adolescents without economic disadvantage.     

Handedness and Hemispheric Asymmetry in the Control Of Movements

This study investigated the influence of hemispheric specialization of function on the motor performance of the hands. Right-handed (n=17), ambidextral (n=21), and ambisinistral (n=12) subjects performed Fitts' (1954) reciprocal tapping task under two conditions with each hand. Conditions had the same index of difficulty but differed in movement precision. The left hand of righthanders was superior in the condition requiring the greatest amount of preprogramming. Conversely, the right hand was not superior in the condition having the greatest demand for feedback control. For ambidextrals, left-hand superiority in the relatively preprogrammed condition was also revealed. Ambisinistrals showed no significant difference between conditions with either hand. The results partially support the hypothesis that the motor performance of the hands mirrors the dominant processing mode of their contralateral hemisphere. Failure to find supportive evidence in ambisinistrals is consistent with the contention that they lack hemispheric specialization of function.