Who got vaccinated against H1N1 pandemic influenza? A longitudinal study in four U.S. cities

The recent H1N1 pandemic influenza stimulated numerous studies into the attitudes and intentions about the H1N1 vaccine. However, no study has investigated prospective predictors of vaccination behaviour. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal study among residents in four U.S. cities during the course of the H1N1 outbreak, using Internet surveys to assess demographic, cognitive and emotional predictors of H1N1 vaccination behaviour. Surveys were conducted at two time points, before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) the H1N1 vaccine was widely available to the public. Results show that Time 2 vaccination rates, but not Time 1 vaccination intentions, tracked H1N1 prevalence across the four cities. Receipt of seasonal influenza vaccine in the previous year, worry, compliance with recommended interventions, household size and education assessed at Time 1 were significant prospective predictors of vaccination behaviour. Perception of the H1N1 vaccine, social influence and prioritised vaccine recipient status assessed at Time 2 also predicted vaccination behaviour. Critically, worry about H1N1 mediated the effects of both objective risk (prevalence at the city level) and perceived risk on vaccination behaviour. These results suggest that H1N1 vaccination behaviour appropriately reflected objective risk across regions, and worry acted as the mechanism by which vaccination behaviour followed objective risk.     

What Affects Happiness Inequality? Evidence from Japan

This paper examines the determinants of happiness inequality in Japan using unique data from the “Preference Parameters Study” of Osaka University, a nationally representative survey conducted in Japan. By estimating Recentered Influence Function regressions, we find that household income has a negative and significant effect on happiness inequality, as found for other advanced economies, though people’s perception of their relative standing in the income spectrum also matters for the dispersion of happiness. Moreover, the regression results show that the insecurity faced by people about their jobs and life after retirement is also significantly associated with the widening of happiness inequality. Such findings are cause for grave concern given that the share of irregular jobs, which tend to be low paid and insecure, in total employment significantly increased in Japan during the Lost Two Decades and that this increasing trend has not yet been reversed.     

Repeated Measurement of the Components of Attention With Young Children Using the Attention Network Test: Stability,Isolability, Robustness,and Reliability

The current study examined the robustness, stability, reliability, and isolability of the attention network scores (alerting, orienting, and executive control) when young children experienced repeated administrations of the child version of the Attention Network Test (ANT; Rueda et al., 2004 Rueda , M. R. , Fan , J. , McCandliss , B. D. , Halparin , J. D. , Gruber , D. B. , Lercari , L. P. , … Posner , M. I. ( 2004 ). Development of attentional networks in childhood . Neuropsychologia , 42 , 1029 – 1040 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Ten test sessions of the ANT were administered to 12 young children. Participants were asked to indicate the direction of a target fish, flanked by distractors, presented either above or below the fixation cross following different types of visual cues. Network scores, reflecting alerting, orienting, and executive control, were calculated using orthogonal subtractions of performance in selected conditions. Only the alerting network scores remained highly significant across the 10 sessions. The executive network scores showed some practice effects. The reliability of the network scores remained poor regardless of the amount of data. Based on the results, use of the ANT is cautioned against in young children when repeated testing is required.     

Exploring the modulation of attentional capture by attentional control settings using performance and illusory line motion

Modulation of attentional capture by attentional control settings was explored using performance and phenomenology. Trials began with four figure-8s presented above, below, left, and right of fixation. Any figure-8 (or none) brightened uninformatively (cue) before presentation of either a digit target (2 or 5 made from a figure-8 by deletion) calling for a speeded identification, or a line connecting adjacent figure-8s calling for a motion judgement. Such lines are seen drawn away from an adjacent cue. Digit targets appeared only on the horizontal or vertical axes, encouraging voluntary attention to two (target-relevant) of the four figure-8s. Whereas voluntary attention reduced attentional capture from cues at taskirrelevant locations (when lines were unlikely to be presented near the task-irrelevant locations), it had no effect on motion judgements, suggesting that cue-elicited exogenous attention affects perceptual arrival times while voluntary attention prioritizes locations for further processing without affecting arrival times.     

Influence of in utero exposure to maternal depression and natural disaster-related stress on infant temperament at 6 months: The children of Superstorm Sandy

This study examined the effects of in utero exposure to maternal depression and Superstorm Sandy, a hurricane that hit metropolitan New York in 2012, on infant temperament at 6 months. Temperament was assessed using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised. Maternal depression was measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The main effects and the interaction of maternal depression and Sandy exposure on infant temperament were examined using a multivariable generalized linear model. Results show that prenatal maternal depression was associated with lower emotion regulation and greater distress. Stratification and interaction analyses suggested that the adverse effects of prenatal maternal depression on problematic temperament were amplified by in utero Sandy exposure. This study underscores the importance of providing prenatal screening and treatment for maternal depression during pregnancy while also identifying high-risk families who may have suffered from disaster-related traumas to provide necessary services. As the frequency of natural disasters may increase due to climate change, it is important to understand the consequences of in utero stress on child development and to formulate plans for early identification.     

Task set persistence modulates word reading following resolution of picture-word interference

We extend the finding that word reading slows following successful responses to a color-word Stroop interference task (Masson, Bub, Woodward, & Chan, 2003). Word reading was assessed in a picture-word interference task in which subjects alternated between naming a picture (with either a word or a row of Xs superimposed on it) and reading a word. For the word-reading task, words were presented either in isolation or superimposed on a picture. Word reading was slower after subjects responded to a bivalent stimulus that required resolution of conflict (naming a picture with a word superimposed on it) than after they responded to a stimulus that involved no conflict (naming a picture with Xs superimposed on it), indicating modulation of dominant task performance. This effect was found when word-reading targets were superimposed on pictures but not when those targets were presented in isolation. Modulation of word reading, therefore, appears to be the result of interference from a persistent picture-naming task set, cued by a stimulus configuration that invites execution of both competing tasks.