Emotional mimicry: underlying mechanisms and individual differences

The ability to control one’s thoughts is crucial for attention, focus, ideation, and mental well-being. Although there is a long history of research into thought control, the inherent subjectivity of thoughts has made objective examination, and thus mechanistic understanding, difficult. Here, we report a novel method to objectively investigate thought-control success and failure by measuring the sensory strength of visual thoughts using binocular rivalry, a perceptual illusion. Across five experiments ( N = 67), we found that thought-control failure may occur because of the involuntary and antithetical formation of nonreportable sensory representations during attempts at thought suppression but not during thought substitution. Notably, thought control was worse in individuals with high levels of anxiety and schizotypy but more successful in mindful individuals. Overall, our study offers insight into the underlying mechanisms of thought control and suggests that individual differences play an important role in the ability to control thoughts.

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Expertise as a unifying framework for individual differences in the mental representation of emotional experience

10.31234/osf.io/grkcm ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Katie Hoemann ◽

Catherine Nielson ◽

Ashley Yuen ◽

Jacob Gurera ◽

Karen Quigley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Emotional Experience ◽

Scientific Progress ◽

Well Being ◽

Emotional Awareness ◽

Future Research ◽

Psychological Constructs ◽

Theoretical Perspectives ◽

Review Procedure ◽

Underlying Mechanisms

Expertise refers to outstanding skill or ability in a particular domain. In the domain of emotion, expertise refers to the observation that some people are better at a range of competencies related to understanding, experiencing and managing emotions, and these competencies may help them lead healthier lives. Individual differences in emotional expertise are represented by a wide variety of psychological constructs, including emotional awareness, emotional clarity, emotional complexity, emotional granularity, and emotional intelligence. These constructs derive from different theoretical perspectives, highlight different competencies, and are operationalized and measured in different ways. The full set of relationships between these constructs has not yet been considered, hindering scientific progress and the translation of these findings to aid mental and physical well-being. In this paper, we use a scoping review procedure to integrate these constructs within a shared conceptual space. Using domain-general accounts of expertise as a guide, we build a unifying framework for emotional expertise, and apply this to constructs that describe how people understand and experience their own emotions. Our approach offers opportunities to identify potential underlying mechanisms of individual differences in emotion, thereby encouraging future research on those mechanisms as well as on educational or clinical interventions.

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Indulgent Foods Can Paradoxically Promote Disciplined Dietary Choices

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797618817509 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 273-287 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Nicolette J. Sullivan ◽

Gavan J. Fitzsimons ◽

Michael L. Platt ◽

Scott A. Huettel

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Behavioral Bias ◽

A Value ◽

Dietary Choices ◽

Binary Choices ◽

The Common ◽

Underlying Mechanisms

As obesity rates continue to rise, interventions promoting healthful choices will become increasingly important. Here, participants ( N = 79) made binary choices between familiar foods; some trials contained a common consequence that had a constant probability of receipt regardless of the participant’s choice. We theorized—on the basis of simulations using a value-normalization model—that indulgent common consequences potentiated disciplined choices by shaping other options’ perceived healthfulness and tastiness. Our experimental results confirmed these predictions: An indulgent common consequence more than doubled the rate of disciplined choices. We used eye-gaze data to provide insights into the underlying mechanisms, finding that an indulgent common consequence biased eye gaze toward healthful foods. Furthermore, attention toward the common consequence predicted individual differences in behavioral bias. Results were replicated across two independent samples receiving distinct goal primes. These results demonstrate that introducing an irrelevant indulgent food can alter processing of healthier items—and thus promote disciplined choices.

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How reinforcement shapes the binding of stimulus-control associations

10.31234/osf.io/cdpxh ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Christina Bejjani ◽

Tobias Egner

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Performance Feedback ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Memory Task ◽

Reward Sensitivity ◽

Control Learning ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

Relevant Word ◽

And Control

Cognitive control describes the ability to use internal goals to strategically guide how we process and respond to our environment. Changes in the environment lead to adaptation in control strategies. This type of control-learning can be observed in performance adjustments in response to varying proportions of easy to hard trials over blocks of trials on classic cognitive control tasks. Known as the list-wide proportion congruent (LWPC) effect, here, increased difficulty is met with enhanced attentional control. Recent research has shown that reinforcement events, in the form of performance feedback, enhance the LWPC effect, but the underlying mechanisms are not yet understood. To assess different hypotheses of how feedback is processed in the LWPC, we manipulated proportion congruency in a Stroop task over blocks of trials and provided trial-by-trial task-relevant word and task-irrelevant, trial-unique image performance feedback. The LWPC task was followed by a surprise recognition memory task for feedback images, which allowed us to test whether attention to feedback (incidental memory for the images) varies as a function of proportion congruency, time, and individual differences in reward sensitivity. We replicated a robust LWPC effect. Importantly, the memory data revealed better encoding of feedback images from context-defining trials (e.g., congruent trials in a mostly congruent block), especially early on in a new context, and in congruent conditions. Individual differences in reward sensitivity were not strongly associated with control-learning effects. These results suggest that reinforcement promotes the rapid forming of associations between stimuli and control demands, or context binding.

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Individual Differences in Personality Masculinity-Femininity: Examining the Effects of Genes, Environment, and Prenatal Hormone Transfer

Twin Research and Human Genetics ◽

10.1017/thg.2016.8 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 87-96 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Karin J. H. Verweij ◽

Miriam A. Mosing ◽

Fredrik Ullén ◽

Guy Madison

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Environmental Factors ◽

Big Five Personality ◽

Same Sex ◽

Personality Score ◽

Opposite Sex ◽

Males And Females ◽

Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

The Individual

Males and females score differently on some personality traits, but the underlying etiology of these differences is not well understood. This study examined genetic, environmental, and prenatal hormonal influences on individual differences in personality masculinity–femininity (M-F). We used Big-Five personality inventory data of 9,520 Swedish twins (aged 27 to 54) to create a bipolar M-F personality scale. Using biometrical twin modeling, we estimated the influence of genetic and environmental factors on individual differences in a M-F personality score. Furthermore, we tested whether prenatal hormone transfer may influence individuals’ M-F scores by comparing the scores of twins with a same-sex versus those with an opposite-sex co-twin. On average, males scored 1.09 standard deviations higher than females on the created M-F scale. Around a third of the variation in M-F personality score was attributable to genetic factors, while family environmental factors had no influence. Males and females from opposite-sex pairs scored significantly more masculine (both approximately 0.1 SD) than those from same-sex pairs. In conclusion, genetic influences explain part of the individual differences in personality M-F, and hormone transfer from the male to the female twin during pregnancy may increase the level of masculinization in females. Additional well-powered studies are needed to clarify this association and determine the underlying mechanisms in both sexes.

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Neurobiology and the development of violence: common assumptions and controversies

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2008.0032 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 363 (1503) ◽

pp. 2491-2503 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Rolf Loeber ◽

Dustin Pardini

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Environmental Factors ◽

Life Course ◽

Longitudinal Analyses ◽

Youth Study ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

The Life Course ◽

Over Time

This paper addresses four common assumptions and related controversies regarding neurobiological factors explaining violence: (i) scholars often assume stability of individual differences in neurobiological factors pertaining to violence, yet much change occurs in aggression/violence during the life course, (ii) individual differences in aggression/violence reflect one or more underlying mechanisms that are believed to have neurobiological origins, yet there is little agreement about which underlying mechanisms apply best, (iii) the development of aggression/violence to some degree can be explained by social, individual, economic and environmental factors, yet it is unclear to what extent neurobiological factors can explain the escalation to, and desistance from, violence over and above social, individual, economic and environmental factors, and (iv) violence waxes and wanes in society over time, yet the explanation of secular differences in violence by means of neurobiological and other factors is not clear. Longitudinal analyses from the Pittsburgh Youth Study are used to illustrate several of these issues.

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Immediate Self-information is Prioritized over Expanded Self-information across Temporal, Social, Spatial, and Probability Domains

10.31234/osf.io/thu3j ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Hyunji Kim ◽

Arnd Florack

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Basic Structure ◽

The Self ◽

Self Concept ◽

Time Points ◽

Distant Location ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

Over Time

People construct self-representation beyond the experiential self and the self-concept can expand to interpersonal as well as intrapersonal dimensions. The cognitive ability to project oneself onto expanded selves in different time points and places plays a crucial role in planning and decision making situations. However, no research to date has shown evidence explaining the early mechanism of how processing the experiential self-information differs from processing the expanded self-information across temporal, social, spatial, and probability domains. We report novel effects showing a systematic information prioritization towards the experiential selves (i.e., The self that is now, here, and with highest certainty) compared to the expanded selves (i.e., The self that is in the future, at a distant location, and with lower certainty; Experiments 1a, 2, and 3). Implicit prioritization biases lasted over time (Experiment 1b; i.e., 4 months) indicating a trait-like more than a state-like measure of individual differences. Different biases, however, did not consistently correlate with each other (Experiments 1a to 3) suggesting separate underlying mechanisms. We discuss potential links to the basic structure of self-representation and individual differences for implications.

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Individual differences in biocompatibility responses to hemodialysis

The International Journal of Artificial Organs ◽

10.1177/039139889401701003 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 17 (10) ◽

pp. 521-530 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

N.R. Skroeder ◽

P. Kjellstrand ◽

B. Holmquist ◽

C.M. Kjellstrand ◽

S.H. Jacobson

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Leukocyte Count ◽

Individual Response ◽

Membrane Area ◽

Dialysis Treatment ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

The Individual ◽

Leukocyte Response ◽

Reaction Patterns

There are very few reports in the literature on individual differences in the response to dialysis treatment. We studied the influence of the individual patient, dialysis membrane quality, blood-flow (Qb) and surface area on leukocyte activation and complement generation (C3a) during 234 hemodialysis treatments using Cuprophan (CU), hemophane (HE) and polyamide (PA) dialyzers. The most common reaction was a decrease in leukocyte count and an increase in C3a after 15 minutes of treatment. Leukocyte overshoot by the end of dialysis was observed at high Qb for all three membranes but at low Qb only during CU treatments. The reaction patterns were influenced by the quality of the membrane, area and Qb. Analysis of each individual patient showed for a large number of treatments reaction patterns corresponding to those described in the literature. However, some patients reacted differently. In four patients (20%), the nadir in leukocyte count and maximum in C3a concentration was reached considerably later during CU-dialysis. Three patients were devoid of pronounced early leukocyte response but presented with the late overshoot during CU-dialysis. Three other patients reacted with an early drop in leukocyte count and a rapid increase in C3a generation during PA treatments but not during HE treatments. Three other patients reacted vice versa. A particular mode of dialysis treatment may thus be biocompatible for some patients but not necessarily for all. In the case biocompatibility is desired the individual response to the particular dialysis mode needs to be identified. The underlying mechanisms warrant further studies.

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Distinct neural substrates of individual differences in components of reading comprehension in adults with or without dyslexia

10.1101/2020.09.02.278267 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

O Ozernov-Palchik ◽

TM Centanni ◽

SD Beach ◽

S May ◽

T Hogan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reading Comprehension ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Language Comprehension ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Decoding Skills ◽

Simple View ◽

Relative Contribution ◽

Posterior Parietal ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

Three Components

AbstractReading comprehension is a complex task that depends on multiple cognitive and linguistic processes. According to the updated Simple View of Reading framework, in adults, individual variation in reading comprehension can be largely explained by combined variance in three component abilities: (1) decoding accuracy, (2) fluency, and (3) language comprehension. Here we asked whether the neural correlates of the three components are different in adults with dyslexia as compared to typically-reading adults and whether the relative contribution of these correlates to reading comprehension is similar in the two groups. We employed a novel naturalistic fMRI reading task to identify the neural correlates of individual differences in the three components using whole-brain and literature-driven regions-of-interest approaches. Across all participants, as predicted by the simple view framework, we found distinct patterns of associations with linguistic and domain-general regions for the three components, and that the left-hemispheric neural correlates of language comprehension in the angular and posterior temporal gyri made the largest contributions to explaining out-of-scanner reading comprehension performance. These patterns differed between the two groups. In typical adult readers, better fluency was associated with greater activation of left occipitotemporal regions, better comprehension with lesser activation in prefrontal and posterior parietal regions, and there were no significant associations with decoding. In adults with dyslexia, better fluency was associated with greater activation of bilateral inferior parietal regions, better comprehension was associated with greater activation in some prefrontal clusters and lower in others, and better decoding skills were associated with lesser activation of bilateral prefrontal and posterior parietal regions. Extending the behavioral findings of skill-level differences in the relative contribution of the three components to reading comprehension, the relative contributions of the neural correlates to reading comprehension differed based on dyslexia status. These findings reveal some of the neural correlates of individual differences in the three components and the underlying mechanisms of reading comprehension deficits in adults with dyslexia.

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