Associations between touchscreen exposure and hot and cool inhibitory control in 10-month-old infants

Touchscreen use amongst young children has proliferated in recent years, yet little is known about the association between daily touchscreen exposure and inhibitory control in the first year of life. Previous research has found a negative association between the amount of television viewing and inhibitory control in early childhood, but it is unclear whether negative associations with screen use extend to touchscreens. The current study presents an exploratory analysis of the cross-sectional associations between inhibitory control and the amount of touchscreen use amongst 10-month-olds (n = 128–156). Touchscreen exposure was assessed via parent-report. In order to include a range of “hot” and “cool” aspects of inhibitory control, these skills were assessed using lab-based response inhibition and prohibition tasks as well as parent-reported observations of infants’ inhibitory control abilities and broader regulatory behaviors. A “Cognitive Executive Function (EEFQ-CEF)” score (encompassing Inhibitory Control, Flexibility, and Working Memory items) was included as a secondary broader executive function construct to examine whether effects showed specificity to inhibitory control rather than executive functions more generally. Correlation analyses indicated no association between touchscreen exposure and the four indices of IC. However, a positive association was found for the amount of touchscreen exposure and EEFQ-CEF once accounting for sociodemographic variables. The implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.     

Cognitive profile of patients with rotated drawing at copy or recall: A controlled group study

When copying or recalling a figure from memory, some patient with dementia or focal brain lesions may rotate the drawing through ±90° or 180°. We have tried to clarify the nature of this phenomenon by investigating the cognitive profile of 22 patients who rotated the copy of the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure and 27 who rotated (only) the recall, and two control groups of cases with the same neuropsychiatric diagnoses, but no misorientation deficit. Brain MRI and FDG-PET images were also analysed. Predictor of rotation at the copy versus rotation at the recall was visuospatial impairment as measured by the copy of the Rey Figure; predictors of rotation at the copy versus no rotation were, again, visuospatial deficits, in addition to an abnormal performance at the task of selective attention. No specific profile of cognitive impairment distinguished patients with and without rotation at the recall. Disproportionate temporo-parieto-occipital atrophy or hypometabolism were evident in cases with misorientation of the copy, while predominant frontal abnormalities were found in cases of rotated recall. Based on these findings, rotated drawing at the copy is interpreted as a dorsal visual stream deficit, whose occurrence is more probable when attentional control is impaired. Rotation at recall seems to have a distinct, more anterior, neural substrate, but its dysexecutive nature has yet to be demonstrated.     

The psychological distance of memories: Examining causal relations with mood and self-esteem in young,middle-aged and older adults

Three studies examined the self-enhancement function of autobiographical memory (measured with subjective temporal distance of memories). Participants recalled a memory of an attained and a failed goal and rated the subjective distance between each memory and the present. Study 1 showed that young adults with higher self-esteem felt closer to memories of attained goals and farther from failure memories than those with lower self-esteem. In Study 2, young, middle-aged and older adults with higher self-esteem felt closer to success memories, whereas self-esteem was unrelated to the temporal distance of failure memories. In both studies, feeling closer to success memories (and far from failure) led to enhanced mood. In Study 3, state self-esteem was experimentally manipulated. The manipulation had no effect on young and older adults, but middle-aged adults whose self-esteem was decreased, felt closer to success memories than failure memories. Results are discussed in relation to the temporal self-appraisal theory.     

Transfer of conditioned fear and avoidance: Concurrent measurement of arousal and operant responding

A reversal design was employed for the analysis of transfer of fear and avoidance through equivalence classes. Two 5-member equivalence classes (A1-B1-C1-D1-E1 and A2-B2-C2-D2-E2) were established. Then B1 and C1 were paired with shock (CS+) and served as S^Ds in avoidance training (B2 and C2 were trained as CS-/S^∆s for avoidance). Further avoidance training followed with D1 and E1 (as S^Ds) and D2 and E2 (as S^∆s), with the first presentation of each of these stimuli serving as the first transfer test. Afterwards, aversive conditioning contingencies were reversed: B2 and D2 were paired with shock and trained as S^Ds for avoidance, B1 and D1 were presented without shock (CS-/S^∆s). Transfer was tested again with C1, E1, C2 and E2. This reversal was implemented to allow for the within-subject replication of transfer effects upon changes in the function of only a subset of each class's elements. Avoidance (key presses) and conditioned fear (skin conductance and heart rate) were simultaneously measured. Results show a clear transfer effect for avoidance, with between- and within-subject replications. For physiological measures, transfer effects in the first test could only be imputed on the basis of group-based inferential statistical analysis. Evidence for between-subject replication was weaker, with only a limited proportion of participants meeting the individual criterion for transfer.     

Age-related hearing loss associated with altered response efficiency and variability on a visual sustained attention task

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the association between age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and differences in response efficiency and variability on a sustained attention task. The study population comprised 32 participants in a hearing loss group (HLG) and 34 controls without hearing loss (CG). Mean reaction time (RT) and accuracy were recorded to assess response efficiency. RT variability was decomposed to examine temporal aspects of variability associated with neural arousal and top-down executive control of vigilant attention. The HLG had a significantly longer mean RT, possibly reflecting a strategic approach to maintain accuracy. The HLG also demonstrated altered variability (indicative of greater decline in neural arousal) but maintained executive control that was significantly predictive of poorer response efficiency. Adults with ARHL may rely on higher-order attention networks to compensate for decline in both peripheral sensory function and in subcortical arousal systems which mediate lower-order automatic neurocognitive processes.     

Children’s Memory for Temporal Information: The Roles of Temporal Language and Executive Function

Abstract

The ability to recall the temporal order of events develops much more slowly than the ability to recall facts about events. To explore what processes facilitate memory for temporal information, we tested 3- to 6-year-old children (N?=?40) for immediate memory of the temporal order of events from a storybook, using a visual timeline task and a yes/no recognition task. In addition, children completed tasks assessing their understanding of before and after and the executive functions of inhibition using the Day/Night Stroop task and cognitive shifting using the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task. Older children (Mage?=?69.25?months) outperformed younger children (Mage?=?52.35?months) on all measures; however, the only significant predictor of memory for the temporal ordering of events was cognitive shifting. The findings suggest that the difficulty in memory for temporal information is related to development of a general cognitive ability, as indexed by the DCCS, rather than specific temporal abilities.