An Examination of Network Position and Childhood Relational Aggression: Integrating Resource Control and Social Exchange Theories

Applying resource control theory and social exchange theory, we examined the social network conditions under which elementary age children were likely to engage in relational aggression. Data on classroom peer networks and peer‐nominated behaviors were collected on 671 second‐ through fourth‐grade children in 34 urban, low‐income classrooms. Nested regression models with robust cluster standard errors demonstrated that the association between children's number of relationships and their levels of relational aggression was moderated by the number of relationships that their affiliates had. Children with more peer relationships (i.e., higher network centrality) exhibited higher levels of relational aggression, but only when these relationships were with peers who had fewer connections themselves (i.e., poorly connected peers). This finding remained significant even when controlling for common predictors of relational aggression including gender, overt aggression, prosocial behavior, victimization, social preference, and perceived popularity. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for advancing the literature on childhood relational aggression and their practical applications for identifying children at risk for these behaviors.     

Neural activation underlying cognitive control in the context of neutral and affectively charged pictures in children

The neural correlates of cognitive control for typically developing 9-year-old children were examined using dense-array ERPs and estimates of cortical activation (LORETA) during a go/no-go task with two conditions: a neutral picture condition and an affectively charged picture condition. Activation was estimated for the entire cortex after which data were exported for four regions of interests (ROIs): ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (OFC/VMPFC). Results revealed faster reaction times, greater N2 activation, and greater prefrontal activation for the affectively charged picture condition than the neutral picture condition. The findings are discussed in reference to the impact of affective stimuli on recruitment of specific brain regions involved in cognitive control.     

Insights into spared memory capacity in amnestic MCI and Alzheimer's Disease via minimal interference

Impairment on standard tests of delayed recall is often already maximal in the aMCI stage of Alzheimer's Disease. Neuropathological work shows that the neural substrates of memory function continue to deteriorate throughout the progression of the disease, hinting that further changes in memory performance could be tracked by a more sensitive test of delayed recall. Recent work shows that retention in aMCI patients can be raised well above floor when the delay period is devoid of further material - 'Minimal Interference'. This memory enhancement is thought to be the result of improved memory consolidation. Here we used the minimal interference/interference paradigm (word list retention following 10 min of quiet resting vs. picture naming) in a group of 17 AD patients, 25 aMCI patients and 25 controls. We found (1) that retention can be improved significantly by minimal interference in patients with aMCI and patients with mild to moderate AD; (2) that the minimal interference paradigm is sensitive to decline in memory function with disease severity, even when performance on standard tests has reached floor; and (3) that this paradigm can differentiate well (80% sensitivity and 100% specificity) between aMCI patients who progress and do not progress to AD within 2 years. Our findings support the notion that the early memory dysfunction in AD is associated with an increased susceptibility to memory interference and are suggestive of a gradual decline in consolidation capacity with disease progression.     

RACE/A: an architectural account of the interactions between learning, task control, and retrieval dynamics

This article discusses how sequential sampling models can be integrated in a cognitive architecture. The new theory Retrieval by Accumulating Evidence in an Architecture (RACE/A) combines the level of detail typically provided by sequential sampling models with the level of task complexity typically provided by cognitive architectures. We will use RACE/A to model data from two variants of a picture-word interference task in a psychological refractory period design. These models will demonstrate how RACE/A enables interactions between sequential sampling and long-term declarative learning, and between sequential sampling and task control. In a traditional sequential sampling model, the onset of the process within the task is unclear, as is the number of sampling processes. RACE/A provides a theoretical basis for estimating the onset of sequential sampling processes during task execution and allows for easy modeling of multiple sequential sampling processes within a task.     

"Princess Alice is watching you": children's belief in an invisible person inhibits cheating

Two child groups (5-6 and 8-9 years of age) participated in a challenging rule-following task while they were (a) told that they were in the presence of a watchful invisible person (“Princess Alice”), (b) observed by a real adult, or (c) unsupervised. Children were covertly videotaped performing the task in the experimenter’s absence. Older children had an easier time at following the rules but engaged in equal levels of purposeful cheating as the younger children. Importantly, children’s expressed belief in the invisible person significantly determined their cheating latency, and this was true even after controlling for individual differences in temperament. When “skeptical” children were omitted from the analysis, the inhibitory effects of being told about Princess Alice were equivalent to having a real adult present. Furthermore, skeptical children cheated only after having first behaviorally disconfirmed the “presence” of Princess Alice. The findings suggest that children’s belief in a watchful invisible person tends to deter cheating.     

Profiles of anger control in second-grade children: examination of self-report, observational, and physiological components

The current study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine anger control in 257 second-grade children (∼8 years of age). Anger was induced through losing a game and prize to a confederate who cheated. Three components of anger control were assessed: self-report of awareness of anger, observed intensity of angry facial expressions, and skin conductance reactivity. These components served as indicators in an LPA conducted to determine whether distinct groups of children who differed in anger control profiles would emerge. Five groups were found: (a) Physiology-and-Expression Controllers (high self-report, low expression, low physiological arousal), (b) Expression-Only Controllers (high self-report, low expression, high physiological arousal), (c) Non-controllers (high self-report, high expression, medium physiological arousal), (d) Non-reactive (low self-report, low expression, low physiological arousal), and (e) Non-reporters (low self-report, medium expression, medium physiological arousal). These findings are discussed in terms of implications for the assessment of children’s anger control skills and intervention programs for children’s anger management.     

The effects of a concurrent task on human optimization and self control

Memory deficits have been shown to hamper decision making in a number of populations. In two experiments, participants were required to select one of three alternatives that varied in reinforcer amount and delay, and the effect of a concurrent task on a behavioral choice task that involved making either an impulsive, self-controlled, or optimal response was studied. The studies aimed to see whether or not individuals were capable of optimizing when confronted with a three-alternative choice paradigm, and if a concurrent task could induce over-selectivity toward a self-controlled, or impulsive, choice, rather than an optimal choice. Various factors which could possibly influence optimization were also explored. The results suggest that some, but not all, individuals are capable of optimizing in a three-alternative choice paradigm, especially when there is a great differential between reinforcement rates of optimal versus non-optimal behaviors. Participants with a concurrent task (continuously subtracting seven from a large number) displayed over-selectivity, evidenced by the high proportion of self-controlled responses.     

Reinforcing saccadic amplitude variability

Saccadic endpoint variability is often viewed as the outcome of neural noise occurring during sensorimotor processing. However, part of this variability might result from operant learning. We tested this hypothesis by reinforcing dispersions of saccadic amplitude distributions, while maintaining constant their medians. In a first experiment we reinforced the least frequent saccadic amplitudes to increase variability, and then reinforced the central part of the amplitude distributions to reduce variability. The target was placed at a constant distance from the fovea after the saccade to maintain the postsaccadic visual signal constant and an auditory reinforcement was delivered depending on saccadic amplitude. The second experiment tested the effects of the contingency. We reinforced high levels of variability in 4 participants, whereas 4 other participants were assigned to a yoked control group. On average, saccadic amplitude standard deviations were doubled while the medians remained mostly unchanged in the experimental participants in both experiments, and variability returned to baseline level when low variability was reinforced. In the control group no consistent changes in amplitude distributions were observed. These results, showing that variability can be reinforced, challenge the idea of a stochastic neural noise. We instead propose that selection processes constrain saccadic amplitude distributions.     

Some determinants of remote behavioral history effects in humans

Undergraduates were exposed to a series of reinforcement schedules: first, to a fixed-ratio (FR) schedule in the presence of one stimulus and to a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedule in the presence of another (multiple FR DRL training), then to a fixed-interval (FI) schedule in the presence of a third stimulus (FI baseline), next to the FI schedule under the stimuli previously correlated with the FR and DRL schedules (multiple FI FI testing), and, finally, to a single session of the multiple FR DRL schedule again (multiple FR DRL testing). Response rates during the multiple FI FI schedule were higher under the former FR stimulus than under the former DRL stimulus. This effect of remote histories was prolonged when either the number of FI-baseline sessions was small or zero, or the time interval between the multiple FR DRL training and the multiple FI FI testing was short. Response rates under these two stimuli converged with continued exposure to the multiple FI FI schedule in most cases, but quickly differentiated when the schedule returned to the multiple FR DRL.     

Delay discounting: I'm a k, you're a k

Delay discounting is the decline in the present value of a reward with delay to its receipt. Across a variety of species, populations, and reward types, value declines hyperbolically with delay. Value declines steeply with shorter delays, but more shallowly with longer delays. Quantitative modeling provides precise measures to characterize the form of the discount function. These measures may be regarded as higher-order dependent variables, intervening variables, or hypothetical constructs. I suggest the degree of delay discounting may be a personality trait. In the end, the ontological status of measures of delay discounting is irrelevant. Whatever delay discounting may be, its study has provided the field of behavior analysis and other areas measures with robust generality and predictive validity for a variety of significant human problems. Research on moderating the degree of delay discounting has the potential to produce substantial societal benefits.