Normal executive attention but abnormal orienting attention in individuals with sluggish cognitive tempo

Background/objective: Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) is an attentional disorder characterized by the symptoms of slowness in behavior or thinking, a lack of en.ergy, difficulty initiating and sustaining effort, daydreaming, and drowsiness. The aim of the present study was to investigate the distinctive attentional characteristics of SCT as compared to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Method: A total of 110 adults were recruited and divided into four groups: SCT+ADHD, SCT, ADHD, and healthy controls. The Revised version of Attention Networks Test was used to investigate each group’s attentional profile. Results: The results revealed that the two SCT groups (SCT+ADHD and SCT) showed a significantly weaker orienting network due to the problems of engaging and disengaging attention than the other two groups. Additionally, the two ADHD groups (SCT+ADHD and ADHD) showed a significantly weaker executive control network than the other two groups. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate an attentional distinction between the SCT and the ADHD groups with a greater dysfunction in the orienting network in the SCT group as compared to the ADHD group. Furthermore, a greater executive control dysfunction was observed in the ADHD group as compared to the SCT group.     

The effect of repetitive saccade execution on the attention network test: Enhancing executive function with a flick of the eyes

The simple act of repeatedly looking left and right can enhance subsequent cognition, including divergent thinking, detection of matching letters from visual arrays, and memory retrieval. One hypothesis is that saccade execution enhances subsequent cognition by altering attentional control. To test this hypothesis, we compared performance following repetitive bilateral saccades or central fixation on the revised attention network test, which measures the operation of three distinct attentional networks: alerting, orienting, and executive function. The primary finding was that saccade execution increased the subsequent operation of the executive function network, which encompasses attentional control. Specifically, saccade execution decreased response time to target stimuli in the presence of response-incongruent flankers. A secondary finding was that saccade execution decreased response time to targets when an invalid location was cued prior to target onset. These findings suggest that saccades are an effective means of improving attentional control. Of greater theoretical importance, the study establishes attentional enhancement as a potential mechanism by which saccades enhance other aspects of cognition. Although some saccade execution effects have been found to depend on consistency of handedness (i.e., the consistency with which an individual uses one hand over the other), saccade-induced enhancement of attentional control occurred independently of handedness consistency.     

Greater efficiency in attentional processing related to mindfulness meditation

In this study, attentional processing in relation to mindfulness meditation was investigated. Since recent studies have suggested that mindfulness meditation may induce improvements in attentional processing, we have tested 20 expert mindfulness meditators in the attention network test. Their performance was compared to that of 20 age- and gender-matched controls. In addition to attentional network analyses, overall attentional processing was analysed by means of efficiency scores (i.e., accuracy controlled for reaction time). Better orienting and executive attention (reflected by smaller differences in either reaction time or error score, respectively) were observed in the mindfulness meditation group. Furthermore, extensive mindfulness meditation appeared to be related to a reduction of the fraction of errors for responses with the same reaction time. These results provide new insights into differences in attentional processing related to mindfulness meditation and suggest the possibility of increasing the efficiency in attentional processing by extensive mental training.     

The Future of Public Policy

This article reports the results of research that uses policy network theory and advocacy coalition theory to deduce the implications for the future of public policy in EU Member States of king trends: all those technological, economic, environmental, and social trends that can be empirically verified, affect the lives of large numbers of people and are expected by relevant experts to continue for at least the next 20 years. The resulting policy implications can be summarized as more assertive security policies, more business-friendly economic policies, more liberal social policies, and increased public spending.     

The Attitudinal Entropy (AE) Framework as a General Theory of Individual Attitudes

Abstract

This article introduces the Attitudinal Entropy (AE) framework, which builds on the Causal Attitude Network model that conceptualizes attitudes as Ising networks. The AE framework rests on three propositions. First, attitude inconsistency and instability are two related indications of attitudinal entropy, a measure of randomness derived from thermodynamics. Second, energy of attitude configurations serves as a local processing strategy to reduce the global entropy of attitude networks. Third, directing attention to and thinking about attitude objects reduces attitudinal entropy. We first discuss several determinants of attitudinal entropy reduction and show that several findings in the attitude literature, such as the mere thought effect on attitude polarization and the effects of heuristic versus systematic processing of arguments, follow from the AE framework. Second, we discuss the AE framework’s implications for ambivalence and cognitive dissonance.     

基于知识异质性团队的异质性知识网络运行机制

基于知识异质性团队的异质性知识网络是指团队内每个异质性知识成员因原来的学习经历或工作经历所建立起来的跨组织异质性知识网络.本研究旨在探明这一异质性知识网络的互动机制、创新路径与双向动态演变过程.努力将知识管理、社会网络、认知心理学理论结合起来,选择典型的高管团队,研发团队,以现场研究为主,综合运用实验研究和问卷调查等方法对异质性知识网络的三种基本形态、知识流运行特征和模式进行研究.同时考察基于网络交互记忆系统、知识冲突和个人图式拓展的多重创新路径,并在此基础上考察异质性知识网络的双向动态演变过程和相应的结网与优化策略.     

中国青少年抑郁的核心症状及性别、抑郁程度间的比较：基于网络分析方法

基于精神障碍网络理论,采用中文版流动调查中心抑郁量表对3634名青少年进行调查,使用网络分析方法考察了我国青少年抑郁的核心症状,比较不同性别和抑郁程度青少年的抑郁症状特征网络。结果发现：（1）我国青少年抑郁的核心症状为压抑情绪、失败感、悲伤和乏力;（2）不同性别青少年的抑郁症状网络结构、网络连接强度和核心症状不存在显著差异;（3）不同抑郁程度青少年的抑郁症状网络结构、网络连接强度、核心症状存在显著差异。