Personality correlates of individual differences in the recruitment of cognitive mechanisms when rewards are at stake

A personality measure of individual differences in sex-role stereotyping and sex discrimination was developed. The “Macho” scale fulfills satisfactory psychometric criteria of internal consistency and reliability, and the 28 items are controlled for social desirability. Personality correlates of macho include sex-role orientation among males, and authoritarianism, and the scale discriminates between criterion groups selected from different ethnic and educational subcultures. Research applications of the scale to experimental and correlational studies in personality, social psychology, and sociology are proposed.

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Chimpanzee ‘folk physics’: bringing failures into focus

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2012.0222 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 367 (1603) ◽

pp. 2743-2752 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Amanda Seed ◽

Eleanor Seddon ◽

Bláthnaid Greene ◽

Josep Call

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Developmental Psychology ◽

Raw Material ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms ◽

Folk Physics ◽

The Third

Differences between individuals are the raw material from which theories of the evolution and ontogeny of cognition are built. For example, when 4-year-old children pass a test requiring them to communicate the content of another's falsely held belief, while 3-year-olds fail, we know that something must change over the course of the third year of life. In the search for what develops or evolves, the typical route is to probe the extents and limits of successful individuals' ability. Another is to focus on those that failed, and find out what difference or lack prevented them from passing the task. Recent research in developmental psychology has harnessed individual differences to illuminate the cognitive mechanisms that emerge to enable success. We apply this approach to explaining some of the failures made by chimpanzees when using tools to solve problems. Twelve of 16 chimpanzees failed to discriminate between a complete and a broken tool when, after being set down, the ends of the broken one were aligned in front of them. There was a correlation between performance on this aligned task and another in which after being set down, the centre of both tools was covered , suggesting that the limiting factor was not the representation of connection, but memory or attention. Some chimpanzees that passed the aligned task passed a task in which the location of the broken tool was never visible but had to be inferred.

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Verbal fluency deficits in Parkinson's disease: individual differences in underlying cognitive mechanisms

Journal of Neurolinguistics ◽

10.1016/s0911-6044(99)00011-1 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 47-55 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

J.M Gurd

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Verbal Fluency ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms

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PERSONALITY CORRELATES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN ELECTRODERMAL LABILITY

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.1995.23.1.93 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 93-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Maribel H. Cruz ◽

Randy J. Larsen

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Electrodermal Activity ◽

Broad Band ◽

Cognitive Correlates ◽

Personality Correlates ◽

Nervous System Activity ◽

Skin Conductance Responses ◽

Fluctuation Rate ◽

Specific Emotion ◽

The Subject

This study examined relationships between individual differences in the spontaneous fluctuation rate of electrodermal activity (EDA lability) and a battery of personality measures. In contrast to previous work, which emphasizes cognitive correlates of EDA lability, in this study a broad-band personality inventory and specific emotion-relevant personality dispositions were administered. A sample of 62 male and female undergraduates completed a battery of personality questionnaires and a laboratory session where spontaneous, nonspecific skin conductance responses were recorded while the subject was at rest in a sound attenuated and dimly lit room. The strongest personality correlate of resting EDA lability, consistent across sexes, was neuroticism (N), with a high N Ss exhibiting more spontaneous sympathetic nervous system activity than low N Ss. Beyond Neuroticism, other results reveal a different pattern of personality correlates of EDA lability in men and women. Discussion focuses on possible sources for this sex difference.

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Answering Cronbach's Call: Searching for the Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Individual Differences in Intelligence

PsycCRITIQUES ◽

10.1037/051315 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 50 (10) ◽

Author(s):

Richard E. Mayer

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms

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The Role of Processing Speed and Cognitive Control on Word Retrieval in Aging and Aphasia

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00326 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

Yasmeen Faroqi-Shah ◽

Megan Gehman

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Response Times ◽

Control Word ◽

Healthy Adults ◽

Word Retrieval ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms ◽

Language Deficit

Purpose When speakers retrieve words, they do so extremely quickly and accurately—both speed and accuracy of word retrieval are compromised in persons with aphasia (PWA). This study examined the contribution of two domain-general mechanisms: processing speed and cognitive control on word retrieval in PWA. Method Three groups of participants, neurologically healthy young and older adults and PWA ( n = 15 in each group), performed processing speed, cognitive control, lexical decision, and word retrieval tasks on a computer. The relationship between word retrieval speed and other tasks was examined for each group. Results Both aging and aphasia resulted in slower processing speed but did not affect cognitive control. Word retrieval response time delays in PWA were eliminated when processing speed was accounted for. Word retrieval speed was predicted by individual differences in cognitive control in young and older adults and additionally by processing speed in older adults. In PWA, word retrieval speed was predicted by severity of language deficit and cognitive control. Conclusions This study shows that processing speed is compromised in aphasia and could account for their slowed response times. Individual differences in cognitive control predicted word retrieval speed in healthy adults and PWA. These findings highlight the need to include nonlinguistic cognitive mechanisms in future models of word retrieval in healthy adults and word retrieval deficits in aphasia.

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Musical training, individual differences and the cocktail party problem

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/srep11628 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

Jayaganesh Swaminathan ◽

Christine R. Mason ◽

Timothy M. Streeter ◽

Virginia Best ◽

Gerald Kidd, Jr ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Musical Training ◽

Spatial Location ◽

Large Individual ◽

Cocktail Party ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms ◽

Cocktail Party Problem ◽

Speech In Noise ◽

Speech Science ◽

Spatial Locations

Abstract Are musicians better able to understand speech in noise than non-musicians? Recent findings have produced contradictory results. Here we addressed this question by asking musicians and non-musicians to understand target sentences masked by other sentences presented from different spatial locations, the classical ‘cocktail party problem’ in speech science. We found that musicians obtained a substantial benefit in this situation, with thresholds ~6 dB better than non-musicians. Large individual differences in performance were noted particularly for the non-musically trained group. Furthermore, in different conditions we manipulated the spatial location and intelligibility of the masking sentences, thus changing the amount of ‘informational masking’ (IM) while keeping the amount of ‘energetic masking’ (EM) relatively constant. When the maskers were unintelligible and spatially separated from the target (low in IM), musicians and non-musicians performed comparably. These results suggest that the characteristics of speech maskers and the amount of IM can influence the magnitude of the differences found between musicians and non-musicians in multiple-talker “cocktail party” environments. Furthermore, considering the task in terms of the EM-IM distinction provides a conceptual framework for future behavioral and neuroscientific studies which explore the underlying sensory and cognitive mechanisms contributing to enhanced “speech-in-noise” perception by musicians.

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Time perception and patience: individual differences in interval timing precision predict choice impulsivity in European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris

Animal Cognition ◽

10.1007/s10071-020-01456-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Clare Andrews ◽

Jonathon Dunn ◽

Daniel Nettle ◽

Melissa Bateson

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Numerical Model ◽

Intertemporal Choice ◽

Interval Timing ◽

Sturnus Vulgaris ◽

Cognitive Mechanisms ◽

Time Intervals ◽

European Starlings ◽

Temporal Reproduction ◽

Limited Variation

AbstractImpulsivity, in the sense of the extent rewards are devalued as the time until their realization increases, is linked to various negative outcomes in humans, yet understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying it is limited. Variation in the imprecision of interval timing is a possible contributor to variation in impulsivity. We use a numerical model to generate predictions concerning the effect of timing imprecision on impulsivity. We distinguish between fixed imprecision (the imprecision that applies even when timing the very shortest time intervals) and proportional imprecision (the rate at which imprecision increases as the interval becomes longer). The model predicts that impulsivity should increase with increasing fixed imprecision, but decrease with increasing proportional imprecision. We present data from a cohort of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris, n = 28) in which impulsivity had previously been measured through an intertemporal choice paradigm. We tested interval timing imprecision in the same individuals using a tri-peak temporal reproduction procedure. We found repeatable individual differences in both fixed and proportional imprecision. As predicted, birds with greater proportional imprecision in interval timing made fewer impulsive choices, whilst those with greater fixed imprecision tended to make more. Contradictory observations in the literature regarding the direction of association between timing imprecision and impulsivity might be clarified by distinguishing between fixed and proportional components of imprecision.

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