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Two experiments examined the effect of positive and negative priming on implicit approach and avoidance inclinations toward high-fat food stimuli in participants high or low in reward sensitivity, using personalized unipolar variants of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998, "Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The Implicit Association Test," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 74, pp. 1464-1480). Participants high in reward sensitivity showed an automatic processing bias that is characterized by a dual vulnerability of being particularly susceptible to priming of the rewarding aspects of high-fat foods, while being unaffected by priming of the negative aspects of those foods. In contrast, participants low in reward sensitivity generally showed no facilitation of implicit-approach inclinations following positive priming, but consistently showed facilitation of implicit-avoidance inclinations following negative priming. These results are consistent with the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory ( J. A. Gray & N. McNaughton, 2000, The neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of the septo-hippocampal system, 2nd ed., New York, NY, Oxford University Press.) and suggest that the systems mediating reward sensitivity and punishment sensitivity are not orthogonal, as predicted by the separable subsystems hypothesis, but can be interdependent, as predicted by the joint subsystems hypothesis.

Objective This study examined the psychometric properties of the Young’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in 844 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents (37.7% boys) with mean age of 15.9 (standard deviation ¼ 3.5) years. Methods Demographic items, Internet use habits, IAT, and the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) were administered. 3 percent of the participants were classified as addicted and 31.6% as occasional problematic Internet users. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the 18-item second-order three-factor model has the best fit with our data (Satorra–Bentler scaled w 2 ¼ 160.56, df ¼ 132, p < .05, normed fit index ¼ 0.95, non-normed fit index ¼ 0.99, comparative fit index ¼ 0.99, root mean square error of approximation ¼ 0.02). Results IAT demonstrated strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s a ¼ .93). Satisfactory concurrent and convergent validity of IAT were found moderately correlated with CIAS-R (r ¼ .46) and the average online time per day (r ¼ .40 for weekdays; r ¼ .37 for weekends). Conclusion IAT has evidence of being a valid and reliable scale for screening Internet addiction in Chinese adolescents.

Predicting hazardous drinking in college students continues to be a serious priority. Emerging evidence suggests that implicit measures may offer additional insight in predicting unique variance in alcohol outcomes. Implicit drinking identity, in particular, may be a powerful predictor of alcohol use. The current study examined the predictive validity of three alcohol-related associations (e.g., drinking identity, alcohol approach, and alcohol cope) using adaptations of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) in a sample of 243 undergraduates. Confirming previous findings, drinking identity associations were the most consistent predictor of alcohol consumption and alcohol problems. They were the only associations that were unique predictors of alcohol use after controlling for other implicit associations. In comparison, alcohol cope and alcohol approach associations were weak but consistent predictors of alcohol consumption and alcohol problems. Although positively correlated with all drinking outcomes, neither set of associations predicted unique variance in the drinking outcomes when all implicit associations were included in the same model. Collectively, these results extend previous findings that implicit drinking identity may be a uniquely powerful tool for predicting alcohol outcomes and a potential target for clinical intervention and prevention efforts.

There are two contrasting views on the nature of comprehension impairment in semantic dementia: (a) that it stems from degradation of a pan-modal " hub" that represents core conceptual knowledge or (b) that it results from degradation of modality-specific visual feature knowledge. These theories make divergent predictions regarding comprehension of concrete versus abstract words in the disorder. The visual hypothesis predicts that concrete words should be particularly impaired because they depend heavily on visual information. In contrast, the pan-modal hub hypothesis holds that all types of knowledge are affected but predicts less severe impairment of concrete words because they have richer and more detailed semantic representations than abstract words. We investigated concreteness effects in the comprehension of six SD patients. Across nouns, verbs, synonymous and associative relationships, a clear and consistent pattern emerged: concrete words were always comprehended more successfully than abstract words. These findings extend those of previous studies and suggest that conceptual impairment in SD is not confined to concepts that rely on visual information. Instead, all types of knowledge are affected by the progressive deterioration of modality-invariant representations (required for coherent pan-modal concepts). Concrete words succumb less quickly by virtue of their richer and more detailed semantic representations. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Evidence coming from neuropsychological studies has showed the presence of cognitive alterations in fibromyalgia. Such dysfunctions are especially remarkable when the set in motion of executive control processes, such as inhibition, is required to perform successfully; however, neural data related to these mechanisms are very scarce. Present study tried to characterize cognitive inhibition mechanisms, as part of the attentional control functions, in patients with fibromyalgia. Participants (two groups: fibromyalgia patients and healthy control participants) were asked to perform in an emotional Stroop task while event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded. Four different emotional interference conditions were created: fibromyalgia symptom-related words, arousing-negative, arousing-positive and neutral words. Brain activity and behavioral data were analyzed. Principal component analyses were employed to reliably define ERP components along with a source-estimation technique. Symptom-related words elicited greater frontal P450 amplitudes and enhanced activation within right inferior frontal gyrus as compared to the rest of stimuli. This effect was only true for the fibromyalgia group. Behavioral contrasts, however, did not produce significant differences. Scalp and source estimation findings suggest the presence of a specific difficulty in cognitive inhibition in fibromyalgia patients (under conditions intimately linked with the core concerns of their disease). Data point to the involvement of right inferior frontal cortices in this inefficient mechanism, which might cause an enhanced and dysfunctional effort of processing to achieve only a comparable performance to healthy people. Implications of these results are discussed. Nevertheless, further investigations are needed to better understand dysfunctional cognition in fibromyalgia.

The brain is able to acquire information about an unknown word's meaning from a highly constraining sentence context with minimal exposure. In this study, we investigate the potential contributions of the cerebral hemispheres to this ability. Undergraduates first read weakly or strongly constraining sentences completed by known or unknown (novel) words. Subsequently, their knowledge of the previously exposed words was assessed via a lexical decision task in which each word served as visual primes for lateralized target words that varied in their semantic relationship to the primes (unrelated, identical or synonymous). As expected, smaller N400 amplitudes were seen for target words preceded by identical (vs. unrelated) known word primes, regardless of visual field of presentation. When Unknown words served as primes, N400 reductions to synonymous target words were observed only if the prime had appeared under High sentential constraint; targets appearing in the LVF/RH elicited a small N400 effect and modulation of a subsequent late positivity whereas those in the RVF/LH elicited modulation on the late positivity only. Unknown words initially seen in Low constraint contexts showed priming effects only in a late positivity and only in the RVF/LH. Strength of contextual constraint clearly seems to impact the hemispheres’ rapid acquisition of novel word meanings. N400 modulation for novel words under strong contextual constraint in the LVH/RH suggests that fast-mapped lexical representations may initially activate meanings that are weakly, distantly, associatively or thematically-related. More extensive and bilateral semantic processing seems to occur at longer processing latencies (post N400).

Purpose To examine the degree of convergence in word association responses produced by bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) in relation to bilingual age peers. Method Thirty-seven Spanish–English bilingual children with PLI, 37 typically developing (TD) controls, and a normative sample of 112 children produced associations to 24 English and Spanish words. The 5 most frequent responses for each stimulus were identified for the normative sample; then the frequency of occurrence of these frequent normative responses was tabulated and compared between the PLI and TD groups. Results Children with PLI generated fewer frequent normative responses than their TD peers. Spearman rank correlations revealed that the rank frequency of responses in the normative group was significantly correlated with that of the TD and PLI groups; however, in English, the correlation was stronger for the TD cohort. Cross-language associations were also revealed in the generation of frequent norming responses. Conclusions Semantic convergence is determined by multiple factors. Reduced production of frequent normative responses and weakened correlation with group association behavior in English suggest that children with PLI were delayed in converging on a central core of semantic knowledge that is characteristic of bilingual children with typical language skills.

As prominently highlighted by Charles Darwin, music is one of the most mysterious aspects of human nature. Despite its ubiquitous presence across cultures and throughout recorded history, the reason humans respond emotionally to music remains unknown. Although many scientists and philosophers have offered hypotheses, there is little direct empirical evidence for any perspective. Here we address this issue, providing data which support the idea that music evolved in service of group living. Using 7 studies, we demonstrate that people's emotional responses to music are intricately tied to the other core social phenomena that bind us together into groups. In sum, this work establishes human musicality as a special form of social cognition and provides the first direct support for the hypothesis that music evolved as a tool of social living. In addition, the findings provide a reason for the intense psychological pull of music in modern life, suggesting that the pleasure we derive from listening to music results from its innate connection to the basic social drives that create our interconnected world.

Natural languages are rife with words that describe feelings, introspective states, and social constructs (e.g., liberty, persuasion) that cannot be directly observed through the senses. Effective communication demands linguistic competence with such abstract words. In clinical neurological settings, abstract words are especially vulnerable to the effects of stroke and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. A parallel literature in cognitive neuroscience suggests that abstract and concrete words are at least partially neuroanatomically dissociable. Much remains to be learned about the nature of lexical-semantic deficits of abstract words and how best to promote their recovery. Here, we review contemporary theoretical approaches to abstract-concrete word representation with an aim toward contextualizing patient-based dissociations for abstract words. We then describe a burgeoning treatment approach for targeting abstract words and suggest a number of potential strategies for future interventions. We argue that a deeper understanding of is essential for informing language rehabilitation.

Child sexual abuse is associated with social anxiety, low self-esteem, and intimacy deficits. This, in combination with the core belief of a dangerous world, might suggest that child abusers are sexually attracted to submissiveness. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to examine this hypothesis. Results indicated that child abusers have a stronger sexual preference for submissiveness than rapists, although there were no differences between child abusers and non-sexual offenders. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that submissive–sexy associations have incremental value over child–sex associations in differentiating child abusers from other offenders. The predictive value of both implicit associations was explored by correlating IAT scores with measures for recidivism risk, aggression, and interpersonal anxiety. Child abusers with stronger child–sex associations reported higher levels of interpersonal anxiety and hostility. More research on implicit cognition in sex offenders is required for a better understanding of what these and similar implicit measures are exactly measuring and what role implicit cognition may play in sexual offending.

Infants develop a lexical-semantic system of associatively and semantically related words by the end of the second year of life. However, the precise nature of the lexical relationships that underpin the structure-building process remains under-determined. We compare two types of lexical-semantic relationship, associative and taxonomic, using a lexical-priming adaption of the intermodal preferential looking task with 21- and 24-month-olds. Prime-target word pairs were either associatively or taxonomically related or unrelated. A further control condition evaluated the facility of a prime word, in the absence of a target word, to promote target preferences. Twenty-four-month-olds, but not 21-month-old infants, exhibited a priming effect in both associative and taxonomic conditions, pointing to the formation of a lexical-semantic network driven by both associative and taxonomic relatedness late in the second year. The pattern of priming in 24-month-olds indicates the operation of inhibitory processes: unrelated primes interfere with target recognition whereas related primes do not. We argue that taxonomic and associative relationships between words are integral to the emergence of a structured lexicon and discuss the importance of inhibitory mechanisms in shaping early lexical-semantic memory.

Graphical abstract Highlights ► Adults and infants show similar effects generated by unexpected word forms. ► 14-Month-olds show an analogue of the adult PMN effect. ► Infants detect mispronounced vowels from 225 ms, and larger changes 75 ms earlier. ► Adult semantic N400 effects are discrete from expectation-related PMN effects. ► Novel data visualisation method integrates spatial and temporal information., We tested 14-month-olds and adults in an event-related potentials (ERPs) study in which pictures of familiar objects generated expectations about upcoming word forms. Expected word forms labelled the picture (word condition), while unexpected word forms mismatched by either a small deviation in word medial vowel height (mispronunciation condition) or a large deviation from the onset of the first speech segment (pseudoword condition). Both infants and adults showed sensitivity to both types of unexpected word form. Adults showed a chain of discrete effects: positivity over the N1 wave, negativity over the P2 wave (PMN effect) and negativity over the N2 wave (N400 effect). Infants showed a similar pattern, including a robust effect similar to the adult P2 effect. These observations were underpinned by a novel visualisation method which shows the dynamics of the ERP within bands of the scalp over time. The results demonstrate shared processing mechanisms across development, as even subtle deviations from expected word forms were indexed in both age groups by a reduction in the amplitude of characteristic waves in the early auditory evoked potential.

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the cognitive structures of classroom teacher candidates on some basic science concepts. Word association test (WAT) technique was used to gather data. Twelve keywords related to basic physics, chemistry, and biology concepts were determined and used in the formation of WAT’s. Forty-three classroom teacher candidates studying at 2nd classes at an education faculty were the participants of this study. Data obtained by WAT were examined by using number of different responses given to each keyword, and by drawing concept maps according to both frequencies and relatedness coefficients. A cut-off point technique was used when drawing the concept maps. Because of this study, it can be said that participants have moderate cognitive structures on the investigated science concepts and their cognitive structure was strongest on chemistry concepts and weakest on biology concepts.&nbsp

Self-report measurements are ubiquitous in psychology, but they carry the potential of altering processes they are meant to measure. We assessed whether a common metamemory measure, judgments of learning, can change the ongoing process of memorizing and subsequent memory performance. Judgments of learning are a form of metamemory monitoring described as conscious reflection on one's own memory performance or encoding activities for the purpose of exerting strategic control over one's study and retrieval activities (T. O. Nelson & Narens, 1990). Much of the work examining the conscious monitoring of encoding relies heavily on a paradigm in which participants are asked to estimate the probability that they will recall a given item in a judgment of learning. In 5 experiments, we find effects of measuring judgments of learning on how people allocate their study time to difficult versus easy items, and on what they will recall. These results suggest that judgments of learning are partially constructed in response to the measurement question. The tendency of judgments of learning to alter performance places them in the company of other reactive verbal reporting methods, counseling researchers to consider incorporating control groups, creating alternative scales, and exploring other verbal reporting methods. Less directive methods of accessing participants' metacognition and other judgments should be considered as an alternative to response scales.

Background Interpretation bias, the tendency to interpret ambiguous situations negatively (or to lack a positive bias), is a cognitive vulnerability associated with psychopathology. However, there is a lack of research characterizing this bias in psychiatric samples, including whether it is also a risk factor for suicidality. This study characterized interpretation bias in a psychiatric sample at risk for suicide and examined the relationship between interpretation bias and suicidality cross-sectionally and prospectively. Methods Patients ( N =65) attending a partial hospital program completed the Word-Sentence Association Paradigm (WSAP), which results in four variables reflecting different types of interpretation bias: endorsement rates and reaction time bias scores for negative and benign interpretations. We conducted logistic regression models to predict high suicidality (ideation, plans, attempts, etc. assessed via a structured interview at admission) and suicidal ideation (assessed via self-report at admission and discharge). Results Logistic regression models predicting suicide outcomes upon admission and discharge indicated that benign interpretation endorsement was the most robust predictor of suicidality concurrently and prospectively, controlling for baseline suicidal ideation. Limitations Lack of gold standard self-report suicide assessment. Unable to assess additional constructs such as hopelessness or perfectionism, which may better elucidate how lacking a benign bias influences suicidality. Modest sample size. Conclusions A lower endorsement of positive interpretations was the strongest predictor of prospective suicidal ideation, even after controlling for baseline suicidal ideation. Future research should examine how targeting interpretation bias influences suicidality.

Abstract. Since its first publication in 1998, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has been used repeatedly to measure implicit attitudes and other automatic associations. Although there have also been a few studies critical of the IAT, there now exists substantial evidence for the IAT's convergent and discriminant validity, including new evidence reported in several of the articles in this special issue. IAT attitude measures have often correlated only weakly with explicit (self-report) measures of the same associations. It therefore seems appropriate to conclude that the IAT assesses constructs that are often (but not always) distinct from the corresponding constructs measured by self-report.

Why do people take longer to associate the word "love" with outgroup words (incongruent condition) than with ingroup words (congruent condition)? Despite the widespread use of the implicit association test (IAT), it has remained unclear whether this IAT effect is due to additional mental processes in the incongruent condition, or due to longer duration of the same processes. Here, we addressed this previously insoluble issue by assessing the spatiotemporal evolution of brain electrical activity in 83 participants. From stimulus presentation until response production, we identified seven processes. Crucially, all seven processes occurred in the same temporal sequence in both conditions, but participants needed more time to perform one early occurring process (perceptual processing) and one late occurring process (implementing cognitive control to select the motor response) in the incongruent compared with the congruent condition. We also found that the latter process contributed to individual differences in implicit bias. These results advance understanding of the neural mechanics of response time differences in the IAT: They speak against theories that explain the IAT effect as due to additional processes in the incongruent condition and speak in favor of theories that assume a longer duration of specific processes in the incongruent condition. More broadly, our data analysis approach illustrates the potential of electrical neuroimaging to illuminate the temporal organization of mental processes involved in social cognition.

Previous studies found associations between children and sex in child sex offenders (CSOs) using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). We used a modification of this task, the Single Category–Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) to unravel child-sex associations in CSOs. Using the SC-IAT, we were able to test whether CSOs indeed hold stronger child-sex associations relative to adult-sex associations, compared to adult sex offenders and nonoffenders. Furthermore, we examined whether contact CSOs differed from noncontact CSOs in their child-sex associations. The hypothesis that CSOs would have stronger child-sex associations, relative to their adult-sex associations, than adult sex offenders and nonoffenders was confirmed. No difference between contact CSOs and noncontact CSOs was found. Although the Sex SC-IAT was able to distinguish CSOs from nonoffenders, the sensitivity and specificity of the test was poor (AUC of .65) and needs refinement. The results of this study support the existence of a child-sex association as a distinctive characteristic of CSOs. These findings are discussed in the context of theories on deviant cognitions in CSOs and risk for sexual offending.

In this article, we describe the most extensive set of word associations collected to date. The database contains over 12,000 cue words for which more than 70,000 participants generated three responses in a multiple-response free association task. The goal of this study was (1) to create a semantic network that covers a large part of the human lexicon, (2) to investigate the implications of a multiple-response procedure by deriving a weighted directed network, and (3) to show how measures of centrality and relatedness derived from this network predict both lexical access in a lexical decision task and semantic relatedness in similarity judgment tasks. First, our results show that the multiple-response procedure results in a more heterogeneous set of responses, which lead to better predictions of lexical access and semantic relatedness than do single-response procedures. Second, the directed nature of the network leads to a decomposition of centrality that primarily depends on the number of incoming links or in-degree of each node, rather than its set size or number of outgoing links. Both studies indicate that adequate representation formats and sufficiently rich data derived from word associations represent a valuable type of information in both lexical and semantic processing.

Tracy and Robins proposed that pride has authentic and hubristic facets. Cheng, Tracy, and Henrich reported these two facets were based on prestige and dominance, respectively. Nine experiments were conducted in the current study to examine the implicit associations between words related to authentic and hubristic pride and those related to prestige and dominance. Implicit language association between authentic pride and high prestige status was strong, but that between hubristic pride and high dominance status was weak, suggesting that the authentic pride words might automatically convey a strong signal of high prestige status, whereas hubristic pride words might convey a weak signal of high dominance status.

Previous research in terror management theory has shown that when individuals are reminded of their mortality, negative evaluations of out-group members increase. This previous research has used a variety of methods to investigate the change in attitudes toward out-group members. These methods generally permit participants time to consciously reflect during responding In the present study, the authors hypothesized that reminding individuals of their mortality would increase implicit bias toward out-group members when measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In the experiment, White participants were randomly assigned to complete a written essay about imagining their own death (i.e., mortality salience condition) or an essay regarding an upcoming exam (i.e., control condition), and then participants completed an evaluative IAT. The results revealed that participants who had been reminded of their mortality took longer to associate names of Black individuals with positive words when compared to a control group. The implications of these findings are considered.

Embedded symptom validity measures facilitate the detection of below-capacity performance in neuropsychological assessment. A number of such indicators have been proposed for the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), a widely used test of word generation. However, several of these embedded indicators have not been cross-validated and it is currently unclear which represent the optimal combination of predictors. This study used Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to determine the set of predictors that best differentiate between patients presenting with (n = 46) and without (n = 55) malingered neurocognitive dysfunction (MND). Mild traumatic brain injury was the most common diagnosis in the MND group (96%). BMA selected the COWAT total score and a measure of change in output over time. A logistic regression model combining these variables yielded good discriminability, with an AUC of. 774, (95% confidence interval = .679 to. 869), 78% of cases were classified correctly, with 67% sensitivity and 88% specificity. Two alternative models performed similarly, but the variables involved required slightly longer administration and/or calculation time, making them somewhat less desirable. These results support the use of a weighted combination of embedded symptom validity measures in the COWAT.

This article presents norms of valence/pleasantness, activity/arousal, power/dominance, and age of acquisition for 4,300 Dutch words, mainly nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. The norms are based on ratings with a 7-point Likert scale by independent groups of students from two Belgian (Ghent and Leuven) and two Dutch (Rotterdam and Leiden-Amsterdam) samples. For each variable, we obtained high split-half reliabilities within each sample and high correlations between samples. In addition, the valence ratings of a previous, more limited study (Hermans & De Houwer, Psychologica Belgica, 34:115-139, 1994) correlated highly with those of the present study. Therefore, the new norms are a valuable source of information for affective research in the Dutch language.

Sensory experience ratings (SERs) reflect the extent to which a word evokes a sensory and/or perceptual experience in the mind of the reader. Juhasz, Yap, Dicke, Taylor, and Gullick (Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 64:1683–1691, 2011) demonstrated that SERs predict a significant amount of variance in lexical-decision response times in two megastudies of lexical processing when a large number of established psycholinguistic variables are controlled for. Here we provide the SERs for the 2,857 monosyllabic words used in the Juhasz et al. study, as well as newly collected ratings on 3,000 disyllabic words. New analyses with the combined set of words confirmed that SERs predict a reliable amount of variance in the lexical-decision response times and naming times from the English Lexicon Project (Balota, Yap, Cortese, Hutchison, Kessler, Loftus, & Treiman, Behavior Research Methods 39:445–459, 2007) when a large number of surface, lexical, and semantic variables are statistically controlled for. The results suggest that the relative availability of sensory/perceptual information associated with a word contributes to lexical–semantic processing.

Previous research has found that executive functioning plays a role in memory performance. This study sought to determine the amount of variance accounted for in the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) by a global executive-functioning factor score. Archival data were extracted from 285 outpatients in a mixed neurologic sample. Measures used included: CVLT-II, Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test (Perseverative Errors), Trail-Making Test-Part B, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Animal Naming, and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition Similarities. Executive data were reduced to a single executive-functioning factor score for each individual. Regression was used to determine the amount of variance accounted for by executive functioning in CVLT-II performance. Executive functioning accounted for minimal variance (0%-10%) in the following CVLT-II indexes: Total Learning (Trials 1-5), Semantic Clustering, Repetitions, Intrusions, and False Positives. However, executive functioning accounted for substantial variance (24%-31%) in CVLT-II performance for both Short- and Long-Delay Recall indexes and most discriminability indexes. CVLT-II indexes that would intuitively be associated with executive functioning accounted for a smaller-than-expected amount of variance. Additionally, level of executive functioning was related to level of CVLT-II performance. These results suggest that clinicians should consider executive deficits when interpreting mild-to-moderate memory impairments in recall and discriminability functions but that executive abilities have little effect on other aspects of memory.

OBJECTIVE: Contemporary theories of child physical abuse (CPA) emphasize the proximal role of social cognitive processes (many of which are implicit in nature) in the occurrence of parental aggression. However, methods that allow for the systematic examination of implicit cognitive processes during the course of aggressive interactions are needed. To address this need, the present study was designed to examine the utility of the Word Game, an innovative procedure designed to assess implicit changes in schema accessibility during the course of an interpersonal exchange involving aggressive response options. METHODS: The game involves a series of competitive reaction time trials which are actually lexical decision making trials designed to determine the accessibility of schema throughout the game. Each parent was led to believe that they were competing against another player with whom they exchanged sound blasts of varying intensities. Participants in the present study were parents who were either low (n=50) or high (n=20) risk for CPA. RESULTS: Results revealed that high CPA risk parents behaved more aggressively than low CPA risk parents and that provocation augmented the aggressiveness of all participants. Among high CPA risk parents, positive schema became less accessible (whereas negative schema became more accessible) following lost rounds. At the conclusion of the game, high CPA risk parents reported more aggressive motives than low CPA risk parents. Further, aggressive motives significantly mediated the association between CPA risk status and aggressiveness (i.e., mean sound blast selections). CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, results support the potential utility of the Word Game as a means of advancing the study of social cognitive processes involved in parental aggression. Language: en

Performing two tasks concurrently is difficult, which has been taken to imply the existence of a structural processing bottleneck. Here we sought to assess whether and to what degree one's multitasking abilities depend on the cognitive-control style one engages in. Participants were primed with creativity tasks that either called for divergent thinking-which were suspected to induce a holistic, flexible task processing mode, or convergent thinking-which were assumed to induce a systematic, focused processing mode. Participants showed reduced cross-talk between tasks and increased task-component switching costs (dual-task costs) for the convergent-thinking group compared to both, a divergent-thinking group and a neutral control group. The results suggest that the cognitive-control style people engage in prior to the task predicts their multitasking performance.

In this study we focused on direct comparison between the spatial distributions of activation detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and localization of sources detected by magnetoencephalography (MEG) during identical language tasks. We examined the spatial concordance between MEG and fMRI results in 16 adolescents performing a three-phase verb generation task that involves repeating the auditorily presented concrete noun and generating verbs either overtly or covertly in response to the auditorily presented noun. MEG analysis was completed using a synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) technique, while the fMRI data were analyzed using the general linear model approach with random-effects. To quantify the agreement between the two modalities, we implemented voxel-wise concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and identified the left inferior frontal gyrus and the bilateral motor cortex with high CCC values. At the group level, MEG and fMRI data showed spatial convergence in the left inferior frontal gyrus for covert or overt generation versus overt repetition, and the bilateral motor cortex when overt generation versus covert generation. These findings demonstrate the utility of the CCC as a quantitative measure of spatial convergence between two neuroimaging techniques.

Objectives: Japanese-speaking children in a standard sample were subjected to a test battery (ALADJIN: Assessment Package for Language Development in Japanese Hearing-Impaired Children) to evaluate the effect of language development on both interpersonal communication skills and academic achievement. Methods: A total of 414 preschool and school-age children without hearing impairment were included in this study. The following tests make up the ALADJIN: The Test of Question-Answer Interaction Development (TQAID), the Japanese Language by Criterion Referenced Test–II (CRT-II) for measuring academic achievement, the Picture Vocabulary Test–Revised (PVT-R), the Standardized Comprehension Test of Abstract Words (SCTAW), both parts of the Syntactic Processing Test for Aphasia (STA), and the Word Fluency Test (WFT). Means and standard deviations at each academic grade level were calculated, and a multiple regression analysis was performed. Results: A ceiling effect was observed for the TQAID and the STA in children in grade 3 of elementary school, and the scores for the PVT-R, SCTAW, and WFT increased incrementally according to grade level. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the PVT-R, WFT, and STA (production) have predictive power for the results of the TQAID (R = 0.59; R2 = 0.58; p < 0.0001), whereas the SCTAW and STA (comprehension) have predictive power for the results of the CRT-II. Conclusions: Both vocabulary and syntax are important in communication development among children. The results of our multiple regression analysis suggest that different language domains may play different roles in the development of interpersonal communication skills and in academic achievement. The development of interpersonal communication skills is largely based on productive vocabulary and syntax abilities, whereas academic achievement is largely based on comprehensive vocabulary and syntax abilities. Children who have difficulties in either area should be evaluated with detailed language assessment tools such as the ALADJIN in an effort to aid in the selection of appropriate intervention.

Objectives: This study examined syntactic development of auditory comprehension of sentences in Japanese-speaking school-age children with and without hearing impairment. Methods: In total, 592 preschool and school-age children (421 normal-hearing and 171 hearing-impaired) were included in this cross-sectional observation study conducted using the Syntactic Processing Test for Aphasia for Japanese language users. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the estimated age at which each syntactic structure was acquired. Results: Acquisition of syntactic structures was observed in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children. Basic word order sentences of agent-object-verb and the goal benefactive construction were acquired at preschool age (earlier group), whereas reverse word order sentences of object-agent-verb, source benefactive construction, passive voice, and relative clauses were acquired at school age (later group). The results showed that many hearing-impaired children may not acquire Japanese grammatical structures until the age of 12 years. Conclusions: Adequate screening for language development for school-age hearing-impaired children is required for an effective intervention.

It is proposed that the prodromal phase of Alzheimer's disease is associated with additional brain activation in key regions involved in memory, reflecting compensatory brain plasticity. Very little is known, however, about the evolution of these compensatory mechanisms as the brain acquires more damages. We conducted an fMRI memory study measuring brain activation related to old/new (item recognition) and intact/rearranged (associative recognition) word-pair recognition paradigms in 26 persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 14 healthy older adults. The Mattis Dementia Rating Scale was used to divide persons with MCI into those with higher and lower cognitive performances. Results indicated more brain activation in MCIs than in controls but disease severity determined which cognitive process was associated with larger activation: Persons with less severe MCI showed hyperactivation during associative recognition only, whereas persons with more severe MCI showed hyperactivation during item recognition only. These hyperactivations were found mainly in brain areas that are typically associated with retrieval mode (e.g., bilateral prefrontal cortex). These findings indicate that neural plasticity occurs during the entire MCI phase but that it is associated with different cognitive components. As they progress in the disease, individuals with MCI will experience a breakdown in the compensatory mechanisms for associative recognition accompanied by emergence of compensatory mechanisms for item recognition.

That alcohol provides a benefit to creative processes has long been assumed by popular culture, but to date has not been tested. The current experiment tested the effects of moderate alcohol intoxication on a common creative problem solving task, the Remote Associates Test (RAT). Individuals were brought to a blood alcohol content of approximately .075, and, after reaching peak intoxication, completed a battery of RAT items. Intoxicated individuals solved more RAT items, in less time, and were more likely to perceive their solutions as the result of a sudden insight. Results are interpreted from an attentional control perspective.

The misinformation effect is a well-established phenomenon in the false memory literature, although the mechanisms that underlie it are debated. In the present study, we explored one aspect of the controversy, the fate of the original memory. We began from an activation-based view of memory, capitalizing on the well-understood processes of associative priming and spreading activation, to test the hypothesis that true and suggested information can coexist in memory. After exposure to misinformation, participants were unknowingly primed with associates of either the true or a suggested item. Misled participants who were primed for the true item performed better on a final memory test than did misled participants primed for neutral information. The results indicated that true and suggested information coexist and that retrieval is influenced by each concept's activation level at test. Implications for theories of the misinformation effect were discussed.

To investigate individual differences in creativity as measured with a complex problem-solving task, we developed a computational model of the remote associates test (RAT). For 50 years, the RAT has been used to measure creativity. Each RAT question presents three cue words that are linked by a fourth word, which is the correct answer. We hypothesized that individuals perform poorly on the RAT when they are biased to consider high-frequency candidate answers. To assess this hypothesis, we tested individuals with 48 RAT questions and required speeded responding to encourage guessing. Results supported our hypothesis. We generated a norm-based model of the RAT using a high-dimensional semantic space, and this model accurately identified correct answers. A frequency-biased model that included different levels of bias for high-frequency candidate answers explained variance for both correct and incorrect responses. Providing new insight into the nature of creativity, the model explains why some RAT questions are more difficult than others, and why some people perform better than others on the RAT.

Behavioral studies have shown that verbal information is better retained when it is self-generated rather than read (learned passively). We used fMRI and a paired associates task to examine brain networks underlying self-generated memory encoding. Subjects were 49 healthy English speakers ages 19–62 (30 female). In the fMRI task, related word pairs were presented in a “read” condition, where subjects viewed both words and read the second word aloud, or a “generate” condition, where the second word was presented with only the first letter and the subject was required to generate the word. Thirty word pairs were presented in each condition. After the fMRI scan, words that were read or generated were presented, each with two foils, in a forced-choice recognition task. On the recognition post-test, words from the “generate” condition were more correctly recognized than from the “read” condition (80.0% for generated words versus 72.0% for read words; t(48) = 5.17, p < 0.001). FMRI revealed increased activation for generate>read in inferior/middle frontal gyri bilaterally (L>R), anterior cingulate, and caudate nucleus and the temporo-parietal-occipital junction bilaterally. For the “read” condition, better subsequent memory performance across individual subjects was positively correlated with activation in the cuneus bilaterally. In the “generate” condition, better subsequent memory performance was positively correlated with activation in the left superior temporal gyrus. These results suggest that self-generation improves memory performance, that enhanced cortical activation accompanies self-generated encoding, and that recruitment of a specific brain network underlies self-generated encoding. The findings may have implications for the development of procedures to enhance memory performance.

Purpose To examine the nature and extent of semantic deficits in bilingual children with language impairment (LI). Method Thirty-seven Spanish–English bilingual children with LI (ranging from age 7;0 [years;months] to 9;10) and 37 typically developing (TD) age-matched peers generated 3 associations to 12 pairs of translation equivalents in English and Spanish. Responses were coded as paradigmatic (e.g., dinner – lunch, cena–desayuno [ dinner – breakfast ]), syntagmatic (e.g., delicious – pizza, delicioso – frijoles [ delicious – beans ]), and errors (e.g., wearing – where, vestirse – mal [ to get dressed–bad ]). A semantic depth score was derived in each language and conceptually by combining children’s performance in both languages. Results The LI group achieved significantly lower semantic depth scores than the TD group after controlling for group differences in vocabulary size. Children showed higher conceptual scores than single-language scores. Both groups showed decreases in semantic depth scores across multiple elicitations. Analyses of individual performances indicated that semantic deficits (1 SD below the TD mean semantic depth score) were manifested in 65% of the children with LI and in 14% of the TD children. Conclusion School-age bilingual children with and without LI demonstrated spreading activation of semantic networks. Consistent with the literature on monolingual children with LI, sparsely linked semantic networks characterize a considerable proportion of bilingual children with LI.

The distinction between convergent and divergent cognitive processes given by Guilford (1956) had a strong influence on the empirical research on creative thinking. Neuroscientific studies typically find higher event-related synchronization in the EEG alpha rhythm for individuals engaged in creative ideation tasks compared to intelligence-related tasks. This study examined, whether these neurophysiological effects can also be found when both cognitive processing modes (convergent vs. divergent) are assessed by means of the same task employing a simple variation of instruction. A sample of 55 participants performed the alternate uses task as well as a more basic word association task while EEG was recorded. On a trial-by-trial basis, participants were either instructed to find a most common solution (convergent condition) or a most uncommon solution (divergent condition). The answers given in the divergent condition were in both tasks significantly more original than those in the convergent condition. Moreover, divergent processing was found to involve higher task-related EEG alpha power than convergent processing in both the alternate uses task and the word association task. EEG alpha synchronization can hence explicitly be associated with divergent cognitive processing rather than with general task characteristics of creative ideation tasks. Further results point to a differential involvement of frontal and parietal cortical areas by individuals of lower versus higher trait creativity., Highlights ► EEG alpha activity during generation of common vs. uncommon solutions was contrasted. ► Convergent and divergent thinking processes were studied within the same task. ► Divergent thinking induced higher task-related alpha power than convergent thinking. ► Differential effects were observed for lower and higher creative individuals.

Weight bias is evident among normal weight and obese individuals. This weight bias may be associated with comparisons to others, which may enhance feelings of self-worth. However, the ego-enhancing versus ego-diminishing influence of these evaluations may be moderated by the individual's weight status, and the strength of these effects may be moderated by gender. Eight-five participants completed the Implicit Associations Test, questionnaires assessing explicit weight bias, body image, and self-esteem, and height and weight assessments. Implicit weight bias was prevalent among all individuals, p

Contains fulltext : 102395.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Embodied theories hold that cognitive concepts are grounded in our sensorimotor systems. Specifically, a number of behavioral and neuroimaging studies have buttressed the idea that language concepts are represented in areas involved in perception and action [Pulvermueller, F. Brain mechanisms linking language and action. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6, 576-582, 2005; Barsalou, L. W. Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 577-660, 1999]. Proponents of a strong embodied account argue that activity in perception/action areas is triggered automatically upon encountering a word and reflect static semantic representations. In contrast to what would be expected if lexical semantic representations are automatically triggered upon encountering a word, a number of studies failed to find motor-related activity for words with a putative action-semantic component [Raposo, A., Moss, H. E., Stamatakis, E. A., & Tyler, L. K. Modulation of motor and premotor cortices by actions, action words and action sentences. Neuropsychologia, 47, 388-396, 2009; Rueschemeyer, S.-A., Brass, M., & Friederici, A. D. Comprehending prehending: Neural correlates of processing verbs with motor stems. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 855-865, 2007]. In a recent fMRI study, Van Dam and colleagues [Van Dam, W. O., Van Dijk, M., Bekkering, H., & Rueschemeyer, S.-A. Flexibility in embodied lexical-semantic representations. Human Brain Mapping, in press] showed that the degree to which a modality-specific region contributes to a representation considerably changes as a function of context. In the current study, we presented words for which both motor and visual properties (e.g., tennis ball, boxing glove) were important in constituting the concept. Our aim was to corroborate on earlier findings of flexible and context-dependent language representations by testing whether functional integration between auditory brain regions and perception/action areas is modulated by context. Functional connectivity was investigated by means of a psychophysiological interaction analysis, in which we found that bilateral superior temporal gyrus was more strongly connected with brain regions relevant for coding action information: (1) for Action Color words vs. Abstract words, and (2) for Action Color words presented in a context that emphasized action vs. a context that emphasized color properties. 12 p.

This study examined the role of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plasticity in controlling implicit and explicit social biases. Normal controls and patients with varied OFC and DLPFC lesion size and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, which promotes (methionine--valine [Met/Val] SNP) or stifles (valine--valine [Val/Val] SNP) plasticity in damaged PFC regions, completed measures of implicit and explicit social bias. Patients and controls demonstrated comparable levels of implicit bias, but patients with Met/Val SNPs exhibited less implicit bias when they had smaller OFC lesions compared with Val/Val patients with similar size lesions and those with large OFC lesions. Both patients and controls demonstrated patterns of explicit bias consistent with hypotheses. Patients with Met/Val SNPs exhibited less explicit bias when they had smaller DLPFC lesions sizes compared with Val/Val patients with similar size lesions and those with large DLPFC lesions. OFC lesion size and BDNF SNP type did not moderate explicit bias; DLPFC lesion size and BDNF SNP type did not moderate implicit bias (nor did other medial or lateral regions). Findings suggest that plasticity within specific PFC regions modulates the type and degree of social bias that individuals’ exhibit.

Five studies develop and examine the predictive validity of an implicit measure of the preference for physical attractiveness in a romantic partner. Three hypotheses were generally supported. First, 2 variants of the go/no-go association task revealed that participants, on average, demonstrate an implicit preference (i.e., a positive spontaneous affective reaction) for physical attractiveness in a romantic partner. Second, these implicit measures were not redundant with a traditional explicit measure: The correlation between these constructs was .00 on average, and the implicit measures revealed no reliable sex differences, unlike the explicit measure. Third, explicit and implicit measures exhibited a double dissociation in predictive validity. Specifically, explicit preferences predicted the extent to which attractiveness was associated with participants' romantic interest in opposite-sex photographs but not their romantic interest in real-life opposite-sex speed-daters or confederates. Implicit preferences showed the opposite pattern. This research extends prior work on implicit processes in romantic relationships and offers the first demonstration that any measure of a preference for a particular characteristic in a romantic partner (an implicit measure of physical attractiveness, in this case) predicts individuals' evaluation of live potential romantic partners.

The dopaminergic system is implicated in depressive disorders and research has also shown that dopamine constricts lexical/semantic networks by reducing spreading activation. Hence, depression, which is linked to reductions of dopamine, may be associated with increased spreading activation. However, research has generally found no effects of depression on spreading activation, using semantic priming paradigms. We used a different paradigm to investigate the relationship between depression and spreading activation, one based on word frequencies. Our sample included 97 undergraduates who completed the BDI-II and the Controlled Oral Word Association test as well as the Animal Naming test. The results indicated that the group scoring within the depressed ranged evidenced greater spreading activation as compared to those who scored within the normal range on the BDI-II. The implications of these results as they relate to creativity in depression is discussed.

Item does not contain fulltext In two studies, the Single Target Implicit Association Test (STIAT) was used to investigate automatic associations toward spiders. In both experiments, we measured the strength of associations between pictures of spiders and either threat-related words or pleasant words. Unlike previous studies, we administered a STIAT version in which stimulus contents was task-irrelevant: The target spider pictures were categorized according to the label picture, irrespective of what they showed. In Study 1, spider-fearful individuals versus non-fearful controls were tested, Study 2 compared spider enthusiasts to non-fearful controls. Results revealed that the novel STIAT version was sensitive to group differences in automatic associations toward spiders. In Study 1, it successfully distinguished between spider-fearful individuals and non-fearful controls. Moreover, STIAT scores predicted automatic fear responses best, whereas controlled avoidance behavior was best predicted by the FAS (German translation of the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire). The results of Study 2 demonstrated that the novel STIAT version was also able to differentiate between spider enthusiasts and non-fearful controls.

The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated the role of emotion-related (e.g., amygdala) and self-related brain structures (MPFC in particular) in the processing of emotional words varying in stimulus reference. Healthy subjects (N=22) were presented with emotional (pleasant or unpleasant) or neutral words in three different conditions: (1) self (e.g., my fear), (2) other (e.g., his fear) and (3) no reference (e.g., the fear). Processing of unpleasant words was associated with increased amygdala and also insula activation across all conditions. Pleasant stimuli were specifically associated with increased activation of amygdala and insula when related to the self (vs. other and no reference). Activity in the MPFC (vMPFC in particular) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was preferentially increased during processing of self-related emotional words (vs. other and no reference). These results demonstrate that amygdala activation in response to emotional stimuli is modulated by stimulus reference and that brain structures implicated in emotional and self-related processing might be important for the subjective experience of one's own emotions.

We utilised the recently developed continuous word association task (CWAT) to investigate whether attributes of involuntary autobiographical memory, including gender and cue valence effects, were similar to those found for voluntary autobiographical memory, as well as investigating the role of individual differences in memory production. A total of 80 undergraduate volunteers reported involuntary memories that came to mind during the word association task and completed measures of trait dissociation and psychosis-proneness. Involuntary memories showed similar cue valence effects to those typically found with voluntary memories but the usual gender effect was only apparent once participants learned the task involved autobiographical memory. The total number of involuntary autobiographical memories produced in response to negative cue words was related to greater trait dissociation and psychosis-proneness. The implications for differences between voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memory are discussed.

The concept of “monitoring” refers to our ability to control our actions on-line. Monitoring involved in speech production is often described in psycholinguistic models as an inherent part of the language system. We probed the specificity of speech monitoring in two psycholinguistic experiments where electroencephalographic activities were recorded. Our focus was on a component previously reported in nonlinguistic manual tasks and interpreted as a marker of monitoring processes. The error negativity (Ne, or error-related negativity), thought to originate in medial frontal areas, peaks shortly after erroneous responses. A component of seemingly comparable properties has been reported, after errors, in tasks requiring access to linguistic knowledge (e.g., speech production), compatible with a generic error-detection process. However, in contrast to its original name, advanced processing methods later revealed that this component is also present after correct responses in visuomotor tasks. Here, we reported the observation of the same negativity after correct responses across output modalities (manual and vocal responses). This indicates that, in language production too, the Ne reflects on-line response monitoring rather than error detection specifically. Furthermore, the temporal properties of the Ne suggest that this monitoring mechanism is engaged before any auditory feedback. The convergence of our findings with those obtained with nonlinguistic tasks suggests that at least part of the monitoring involved in speech production is subtended by a general-purpose mechanism.

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is an important cognitive phenomenon in depression, but questions remain regarding the underlying mechanisms. The CaR-FA-X model (Williams et al., 2007) proposes three mechanisms that may contribute to OGM, but little work has examined the possible additive and/or interactive effects among them. We examined two mechanisms of CaR-FA-X: capture and rumination, and impaired executive control. We analysed data from undergraduates (N=109) scoring high or low on rumination who were presented with cues of high and low self-relevance on the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). Executive control was operationalised as performance on both the Stroop Colour-Word Task and the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT). Hierarchical generalised linear modelling was used to predict whether participants would generate a specific memory on a trial of the AMT. Higher COWAT scores, lower rumination, and greater cue self-relevance predicted a higher probability of a specific memory. There was also a rumination×cue self-relevance interaction: Higher (vs lower) rumination was associated with a lower probability of a specific memory primarily for low self-relevant cues. We found no evidence of interactions between these mechanisms. Findings are interpreted with respect to current autobiographical memory models. Future directions for OGM mechanism research are discussed.

Research using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has shown that names labeled as Caucasian elicit more positive associations than names labeled as non-Caucasian. One interpretation of this result is that the IAT measures latent racial prejudice. An alternative explanation is that the result is due to differences in in-group/out-group membership. In this study, we conducted three different IATs: one with same-race Dutch names versus racially charged Moroccan names; one with same-race Dutch names versus racially neutral Finnish names; and one with Moroccan names versus Finnish names. Results showed equivalent effects for the Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch-Finnish IATs, but no effect for the Finnish-Moroccan IAT. This suggests that the name-race IAT-effect is not due to racial prejudice. A diffusion model decomposition indicated that the IAT-effects were caused by changes in speed of information accumulation, response conservativeness, and non-decision time.

Empirical examinations of American Indian (AI) mascots have only recently entered into the discourse of mainstream psychology. The present studies examined implicit attitudes of non-AI people towards AI mascots and the extent to which they are related to attitudes towards AI people. Significant concordance was observed between negative bias toward AI mascots and AI people. Negative AI mascot bias also predicted stereotype-consistent expectations of an AI person. The implications of these findings are discussed. Language: en