Flexing Gender Perception: Brain Potentials Reveal the Cognitive Permeability of Grammatical Information

A growing body of recent research suggests that verbal categories, particularly labels, impact categorization and perception. These findings are commonly interpreted as demonstrating the involvement of language on cognition; however, whether these assumptions hold true for grammatical structures has yet to be investigated. In the present study, we investigated the extent to which linguistic information, namely, grammatical gender categories, structures cognition to subsequently influence categorical judgments and perception. In a nonverbal categorization task, French–English bilinguals and monolingual English speakers made gender-associated judgments about a set of image pairs while event-related potentials were recorded. The image sets were composed of an object paired with either a female or male face, wherein the object was manipulated for their conceptual gender relatedness and grammatical gender congruency to the sex of the following target face. The results showed that grammatical gender modulated the N1 and P2/VPP, as well as the N300 exclusively for the French–English bilinguals, indicating the inclusion of language in the mechanisms associated with attentional bias and categorization. In contrast, conceptual gender information impacted the monolingual English speakers in the later N300 time window given the absence of a comparable grammatical feature. Such effects of grammatical categories in the early perceptual stream have not been found before, and further provide grounds to suggest that language shapes perception.     

Enhanced memory for the wolf in sheep’s clothing:: Facial trustworthiness modulates face-trait associative memory

Our decision about whether to trust and cooperate with someone is influenced by the individual’s facial appearance despite its limited predictive power. Thus, remembering trustworthy-looking cheaters is more important than remembering untrustworthy-looking cheaters because we are more likely to trust and cooperate with the former, resulting in a higher risk of unreciprocated cooperation. The present study investigated whether our mind adaptively copes with this problem by enhancing memory for trustworthy-looking cheaters. Participants played a debt game, wherein they learned to discriminate among good, neutral, and bad lenders, who respectively charged no, moderate, and high interest on the debt. Each lender had either a trustworthy- or untrustworthy-looking face. A subsequent memory test revealed that participants remembered the bad traits of trustworthy-looking lenders more accurately than those of untrustworthy-looking lenders. The results demonstrate enhanced memory for trustworthy-looking cheaters, or wolves in sheep’s clothing, implying that humans are equipped with protective mechanisms against disguised, unfaithful signs of trustworthiness.     

Renewal of Extinguished Lever-Press Responses upon Return to the Training Context

Two experiments with rats explored renewal effects in operant conditioning preparations. When pressing a lever was trained in one context and then extinguished in a second context, the responding was renewed by returning to the original context (ABA renewal) in Experiment 1. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2 with discriminative operant performance signaled by a localized light cue. In spite of the successful demonstration of ABA renewal effect in these experiments, AAB renewal was detected in neither experiment: When the responses had been extinguished in the context of acquisition, testing the rats in a second context did not renew the responses. The demonstration of ABA renewal but no AAB renewal suggests that extinction in another context and/or a return to the original context are critical for renewal of extinguished operant performance.     

Avoidance behavior associated with depressive symptoms in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators

Objective: Many patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators experience depressive symptoms. In addition, avoidance behavior is a common problem among patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. We examined the association between avoidance behaviors and depressive symptoms in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Method: We conducted a single-center, cross-sectional study with self-completed questionnaires between May 2010 and March 2011. We measured avoidance behaviors (avoidance of places, avoidance of objects, and avoidance of situations) and depressive symptoms (using the Beck Depression Inventory, Version II) in 119 participants. An avoidance behaviors instrument was developed for this study and we confirmed its internal consistency reliability. Results: Ninety-two (77.3%) patients were aged older than 50 years, and 86 (72.3%) were men. Fifty-one (42.9%) patients reported “avoidance of places”, 34 (28.6%) reported “avoidance of objects”, and 63 (52.9%) reported “avoidance of activity”. Avoidance behavior was associated with increased odds for the presence of depressive symptoms (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.06–1.62). Conclusions: This was the first study to identify the relationship between avoidance behavior and depressive symptoms among patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators; however, there are a few methodological limitations.     

Assessing Preferences Among Behavioral Interventions With Japanese Parents of Children With Developmental Disabilities

As the cultural dynamic continues to become increasingly complex, it is critical to assess cultural factors that influence practice. The present study considers the treatment preferences of Japanese mothers of children with developmental disabilities. After answering demographic questions, each participant was given four scenarios and asked how they would respond by choosing one of four interventions (differential reinforcement, ignoring, reprimanding, and time-out). Overall, we found that parents preferred differential reinforcement strategies the most. Moreover, parents who reported that their children had a history of involvement with applied behavior analysis were especially likely to choose differential reinforcement. Implications for future research and practice are provided.     

Eye movement during facial affect recognition by patients with schizophrenia, using Japanese pictures of facial affect

A possible relationship between recognition of facial affect and aberrant eye movement was examined in patients with schizophrenia. A Japanese version of standard pictures of facial affect was prepared. These pictures of basic emotions (surprise, anger, happiness, disgust, fear, sadness) were shown to 19 schizophrenic patients and 20 healthy controls who identified emotions while their eye movements were measured. The proportion of correct identifications of 'disgust' was significantly lower for schizophrenic patients, their eye fixation time was significantly longer for all pictures of facial affect, and their eye movement speed was slower for some facial affects (surprise, fear, and sadness). One index, eye fixation time for "happiness," showed a significant difference between the high- and low-dosage antipsychotic drug groups. Some expected facial affect recognition disorder was seen in schizophrenic patients responding to the Japanese version of affect pictures, but there was no correlation between facial affect recognition disorder and aberrant eye movement.     

Evaluation of pharmacological treatment of impulsivity in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

We used an assessment that involved competing reinforcer dimensions in a concurrent-schedules arrangement to examine the effects of stimulant medication on impulsivity (i.e., sensitivity of choices to reinforcer immediacy relative to rate, quality, and effort) with 4 students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The assessments were administered in the context of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced reversal design. Reinforcer immediacy was the most influential dimension for 3 of the students and the second most influential dimension for 1 of the students across placebo and medication conditions; medication did not affect these sensitivities.     

Behavioral assessment of impulsivity: a comparison of children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

We conducted a brief computer-based assessment involving choices of concurrently presented arithmetic problems associated with competing reinforcer dimensions to assess impulsivity (choices controlled primarily by reinforcer immediacy) as well as the relative influence of other dimensions (reinforcer rate, quality, and response effort), with 58 children. Results were compared for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were and were not receiving medication, and with typically developing children without ADHD. Within-subject and between-groups analyses of the ordinal influence of each of the reinforcer dimensions were conducted using both time- and response-allocation measures. In general, the choices of children with ADHD were most influenced by reinforcer immediacy and quality and least by rate and effort, suggesting impulsivity. The choices of children in the non-ADHD group were most influenced by reinforcer quality, and the influence of immediacy relative to the other dimensions was not statistically significant. Results are discussed with respect to the implications for assessment and treatment of ADHD.