Leveraging individual differences to understand grounded procedures

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam K. Fetterman ◽  
Michael D. Robinson ◽  
Brian P. Meier
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Theory Testing ◽  
Target Article

Abstract We applaud the goals and execution of the target article, but note that individual differences do not receive much attention. This is a shortcoming because individual differences can play a vital role in theory testing. In our commentary, we describe programs of research of this type and also apply similar thinking to the mechanisms proposed in the target article.

Inter-individual variation shapes the human microbiome

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily F. Wissel ◽  
Leigh K. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Human Microbiome ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Microbiota Composition ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Microbiome Research

Abstract The target article suggests inter-individual variability is a weakness of microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) research, but we discuss why it is actually a strength. We comment on how accounting for individual differences can help researchers systematically understand the observed variance in microbiota composition, interpret null findings, and potentially improve the efficacy of therapeutic treatments in future clinical microbiome research.

Individual differences, affective and social factors

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Furnham
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Biological Theory ◽  
Behavioural Economics ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Affective Associations

The target article overestimates the power of money as a motive/incentive in order to justify trying to provide a biological theory. A great deal of the article is spent trying to force-fit other explanations into this course categorization. Lea & Webley's (L&W's) account seems to ignore systematic, individual differences, as well as the literature on many negative affective associations of money and behavioural economics, which is a cognitive account of money motivation.

Cost-benefit models as the next, best option for understanding subjective effort

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 707-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kurzban ◽  
Angela Duckworth ◽  
Joseph W. Kable ◽  
Justus Myers
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Cost Model ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Target Article

AbstractThe commentaries on our target article are surprisingly sympathetic to our overall approach to explaining subjective effort, though disagreement with particulars inevitably emerged. Here, in our response, we first review the few disagreements concerning the basic structure of our proposal, highlighting areas in which little or no resistance was voiced. Opposition to the assumptions that underlie our opportunity cost model is noticeably limited. Areas of genuine disagreement, however, include: (1) the inputs to and outputs of the relevant decision-making systems; (2) how to interpret data regarding individual differences in performance; (3) how to explain persistence on tasks that give rise to the sensation of subjective effort; and (4) the details of the relevant neuropsychological systems. Throughout we point to empirical issues raised by the commentaries and suggest research that will be useful in arbitrating points of disagreement.

Modeling, simulating, and simplifying links between stress, attachment, and reproduction

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Petters ◽  
Everett Waters
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Stress ◽  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Adaptive Behavior ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Target Article

AbstractJohn Bowlby's use of evolutionary theory as a cornerstone of his attachment theory was innovative in its day and remains useful. Del Giudice's target article extends Belsky et al.'s and Chisholm's efforts to integrate attachment theory with more current thinking about evolution, ecology, and neuroscience. His analysis would be strengthened by (1) using computer simulation to clarify and simulate the effects of early environmental stress, (2) incorporating information about non-stress related sources of individual differences, (3) considering the possibility of adaptive behavior without specific evolutionary adaptations, and (4) considering whether the attachment construct is critical to his analysis.

scholarly journals Individual Differences in Face Recognition: A Decade of Discovery

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy B. Wilmer
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Potential Consequence ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Cognitive Specificity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Remote Testing ◽  
Naturally Occurring

Given the vital role face recognition plays in human social interaction, variations in this ability hold inherent interest and potential consequence. Yet the science of such differences has long lagged behind that of differences in other cognitive domains. In particular, although scattered case reports of catastrophic face-recognition deficits due to brain damage date back more than a century, for many decades, virtually no attention was paid to naturally occurring individual differences in face recognition. This past decade, in contrast, has seen a remarkable acceleration of research into these naturally occurring differences, spurred by the creation and validation of high-quality measures, open sharing of these measures, new options for remote testing, and a concerted move toward larger and more multivariate investigations. In this article, I recount six fundamental insights gained during the past decade about individual differences in face recognition—concerning their broad range, cognitive specificity, strong heritability, resilience to change, life-span trajectory, and practical relevance. Insights like these support a richer understanding of individual social experience and could enable more informed individual and institutional decision making.

scholarly journals The Bright and the Dark Side of Peer Relationships: Differential Effects of Relatedness Satisfaction and Frustration at School on Affective Well-Being in Children’s Daily Lives

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Schmidt ◽  
Andreas B. Neubauer ◽  
Judith Dirk ◽  
Florian Schmiedek
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Peer Relationships ◽  
Fourth Graders ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sixth Graders ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Psychological Need

Satisfaction and frustration of the basic psychological need for relatedness have been postulated to play a vital role for affective well-being. Yet, this prediction has not been thoroughly tested in school children’s everyday lives. In this work, we examined the association between relatedness satisfaction and frustration at school on daily and average positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) using ambulatory assessment in three intensive longitudinal studies with children aged 9-12. In Study 1, fourth to sixth graders reported their PA and NA two times daily and their relatedness satisfaction and frustration once a day for two weeks. In Study 2 (Study 3), fourth graders (fifth graders) reported their PA and NA four times daily and their relatedness satisfaction and frustration once a day for four weeks. Across the three studies, relatedness satisfaction and frustration were psychometrically separable and exhibited differential effects such that relatedness satisfaction was significantly associated primarily with PA, and relatedness frustration was significantly associated only with NA at between- and within-person levels. Explaining inter-individual differences suggested that the association between daily relatedness and affective well-being was weaker for generally highly integrated children and stronger for usually rather excluded children.

scholarly journals Opportunities for emotion and mental health research in the resource-rationality framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan M. Russek ◽  
Rani Moran ◽  
Daniel McNamee ◽  
Andrea Reiter ◽  
Yunzhe Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Answering Questions

Abstract We discuss opportunities in applying the resource-rationality framework toward answering questions in emotion and mental health research. These opportunities rely on characterization of individual differences in cognitive strategies; an endeavor that may be at odds with the normative approach outlined in the target article. We consider ways individual differences might enter the framework and the translational opportunities offered by each.

Species and individual differences in communication based on private states

1993 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lubinski ◽  
Travis Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Metabolic Factors ◽  
Animal Modeling ◽  
Discriminative Stimulus Effects ◽  
Feeling States ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Stimulus Effects

AbstractThe way people come to report private stimulation (e.g., feeling states) arising within their own bodies is not well understood. Although the Darwinian assumption of biological continuity has been the basis of extensive animal modeling for many human biological and behavioral phenomena, few have attempted to model human communication based on private stimulation. This target article discusses such an animal model using concepts and methods derived from the study of discriminative stimulus effects of drugs and recent research on interanimal communication. We discuss how humans acquire the capacity to identify and report private stimulation and we analyze intra- and interspecies differences in neurochemical mechanisms for transducing interoceptive stimuli, enzymatic and other metabolic factors, learning ability, and discrimination learning histories and their relation to psychiatric and developmental disabilities.

scholarly journals Non-genetic maternal effects shape individual differences in cortisol phenotypes in wild chimpanzees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick J Tkaczynski ◽  
Fabrizio Mafessoni ◽  
Cedric Girard-Buttoz ◽  
Liran Samuni ◽  
Corinne Y Ackermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Maternal Effects ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Homeostatic Function ◽  
Cortisol Responses ◽  
Cortisol Levels

Glucocorticoids, such as cortisol, mediate homeostatic processes, allowing individuals to adjust to fluctuating environments. The regulation of circadian cortisol responses, a key homeostatic function, has been shown to be heritable. However, to understand better the role of parental care in shaping physiological functioning in long-lived mammals with protracted parental care, there is a need to disentangle genetic and non-genetic parental contributions to variation in glucocorticoid phenotypes. We used a dataset of 6,123 cortisol measures from urine samples from 170 wild chimpanzees spanning 18 years of data collection. We found consistent inter-individual differences in circadian cortisol phenotypes, with differences most apparent when considering average cortisol levels given the effect of time of day. Maternal effects explained around 10% (2-18%) variation in these average cortisol levels, while variation attributable to genetic factors was not distinguishable from zero. Our results indicate, relative to genetic effects, a qualitatively stronger influence of mothers, whether via epigenetic processes or via behavioral priming for coping with stressors, in shaping cortisol phenotypes in this species. This provides novel insight into the vital role of mothers in the developmental plasticity of long-lived mammals and, more generally, the selective pressures shaping physiological plasticity.

The link between deprivation and its behavioural constellation is confounded by genetic factors

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Sherlock ◽  
Brendan P. Zietsch
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Species Differences ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Target Article

AbstractMost research cited throughout Pepper & Nettle's (P&N's) target article is correlational and suffers from a serious genetic confound that renders it of little evidentiary value. Of correlational findings that are not confounded, P&N ignore examples that contradict their model. Further, P&N's claim that evolutionary models explaining between-species differences in behaviour can be used to understand that corresponding individual differences lack any evidence.

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