Cleansing the Attentional Palate: A Preliminary Test of a Novel Approach to Facilitate Disengagement From Rumination

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-139
Author(s):  
Eve A. Rosenfeld ◽  
Katherine Kennedy ◽  
Todd J. Farchione ◽  
John E. Roberts

Resource allocation theory suggests that rumination depletes cognitive resources that could be directed toward task-relevant processes. We propose a new approach to the treatment of rumination that specifically targets this misappropriation of cognitive resources, wherein individuals engage in an attentionally demanding task in order to interrupt the ruminative cycle. We argue that this strategy would serve to free cognitive resources from rumination and facilitate performance on other tasks. Thus, the present study served as an initial test of this novel approach. This study employed a within-subjects design, in which participants were 30 college students who completed self-report measures of baseline mood state, anxiety, depression, and trait rumination. Subsequently, they underwent sad mood and rumination inductions followed by random assignment to either a low attentional demand disengagement strategy (DS) followed by a high attentional demand DS or vice versa. Reading comprehension was assessed at baseline and following each of the two DSs. The high attentional demand DS condition was associated with better performance on the reading comprehension task compared to the low attentional demand DS condition. These results provide initial support for our novel approach to targeting rumination and demonstrate that attentionally demanding DSs may successfully free cognitive resources that might otherwise be consumed by rumination. Thus, future research into attentionally demanding DSs that interrupt ruminative cycles is warranted. This approach could be a useful adjunct for interventions targeting disorders driven by rumination, such as depression.

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate T. Luong ◽  
R. Kelly Garrett ◽  
Michael D. Slater

Motivated reasoning in response to disconfirming science information presents a challenging barrier to science communication. This article presents a novel approach to emphasis framing, in which functionally equivalent information is framed using ideologically consistent values and tailored to the audiences. In contrast to traditional framing approaches, science information is held constant across frames and only interpretations of the information are varied. Results from an experiment provide initial support for this ideology-based framing approach. Persuasive effects are stronger for an ideologically congruent frame than for an incongruent frame, and no boomerang effects were observed. We discuss implications and directions for future research.


Author(s):  
Donald L. Lassiter ◽  
Daniel G. Morrow ◽  
Gary E. Hinson ◽  
Michael Miller ◽  
David Z. Hambrick

This study investigated the effects of expertise and age on cognitive resources relevant to mental workload of pilots engaged in simulated aviation tasks. A secondary task workload assessment methodology was used, with a PC-based flying task as the primary task, and a Sternberg choice reaction time task as the secondary task. A mixed design using repeated measures was employed, with age and expertise as between-subjects factors and workload as the within-subjects factor. Pilots ranging in age from 21 to 79 years and 28 to 11,817 hours of flight time served as subjects. Of interest was whether expertise would mitigate the adverse effect of aging on pilots' mental workload handling ability as defined by two measures of secondary task performance: choice reaction time and accuracy. Results indicated that expertise did mitigate the effects of age regarding secondary task accuracy. Implications of results are discussed, and directions for future research are presented.


Crisis ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Venta ◽  
Carla Sharp

Background: Identifying risk factors for suicide-related thoughts and behaviors (SRTB) is essential among adolescents in whom SRTB remain a leading cause of death. Although many risk factors have already been identified, influential theories now suggest that the domain of interpersonal relationships may play a critical role in the emergence of SRTB. Because attachment has long been seen as the foundation of interpersonal functioning, we suggest that attachment insecurity warrants attention as a risk factor for SRTB. Aims: This study sought to explore relations between attachment organization and suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and self-harm in an inpatient adolescent sample, controlling for demographic and psychopathological covariates. Method: We recruited 194 adolescents from an inpatient unit and assigned them to one of four attachment groups (secure, preoccupied, dismissing, or disorganized attachment). Interview and self-report measures were used to create four variables reflecting the presence or absence of suicidal ideation in the last year, single lifetime suicide attempt, multiple lifetime suicide attempts, and lifetime self-harm. Results: Chi-square and regression analyses did not reveal significant relations between attachment organization and SRTB, although findings did confirm previously established relations between psychopathology and SRTB, such that internalizing disorder was associated with increased self-harm, suicide ideation, and suicide attempt and externalizing disorder was associated with increased self-harm. Conclusion: The severity of this sample and methodological differences from previous studies may explain the nonsignificant findings. Nonsignificant findings may indicate that the relation between attachment organization and SRTB is moderated by other factors that should be explored in future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 292-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Wenzel ◽  
Marina Lind ◽  
Zarah Rowland ◽  
Daniela Zahn ◽  
Thomas Kubiak

Abstract. Evidence on the existence of the ego depletion phenomena as well as the size of the effects and potential moderators and mediators are ambiguous. Building on a crossover design that enables superior statistical power within a single study, we investigated the robustness of the ego depletion effect between and within subjects and moderating and mediating influences of the ego depletion manipulation checks. Our results, based on a sample of 187 participants, demonstrated that (a) the between- and within-subject ego depletion effects only had negligible effect sizes and that there was (b) large interindividual variability that (c) could not be explained by differences in ego depletion manipulation checks. We discuss the implications of these results and outline a future research agenda.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly M. Martinez ◽  
LaTasha R Holden ◽  
Sara Ann Hart ◽  
Jeanette Taylor

Non-cognitive factors have gained attention in recent years as potential intervention targets for academic achievement improvement in students. Two notable facets, intelligence mindset and grit, have been of particular interest. Both have been shown to consistently improve educational outcomes, although little work has focused on reading ability. We used a correlational and twin method design to preliminary test if mindset and grit could be potential intervention targets to increase reading ability. As such, we examined the relation between both grit and mindset on current, future, and change in reading comprehension ability in a twin sample. We used data from 422 twin pairs (171 monozygotic pairs, 251 dizygotic pairs) drawn from the Florida Twin Project on Reading, Behavior and Environment (Taylor et al., 2019). Twins were on average 13 years old when the questionnaire and first reading ability measure were collected, and on average 15 years old when the second reading ability measure was collected. Weak and moderate positive correlations were found between both mindset and grit with each reading ability score and neither were significantly related to change in reading ability. Twin modeling suggested little to no common genetic or environmental influences between mindset and grit to reading ability. In total, our results do not lend support to the notion of mindset or grit being a mechanism of change for reading ability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1589
Author(s):  
Juan Sánchez-Fernández ◽  
Luis-Alberto Casado-Aranda ◽  
Ana-Belén Bastidas-Manzano

The limitations of self-report techniques (i.e., questionnaires or surveys) in measuring consumer response to advertising stimuli have necessitated more objective and accurate tools from the fields of neuroscience and psychology for the study of consumer behavior, resulting in the creation of consumer neuroscience. This recent marketing sub-field stems from a wide range of disciplines and applies multiple types of techniques to diverse advertising subdomains (e.g., advertising constructs, media elements, or prediction strategies). Due to its complex nature and continuous growth, this area of research calls for a clear understanding of its evolution, current scope, and potential domains in the field of advertising. Thus, this current research is among the first to apply a bibliometric approach to clarify the main research streams analyzing advertising persuasion using neuroimaging. Particularly, this paper combines a comprehensive review with performance analysis tools of 203 papers published between 1986 and 2019 in outlets indexed by the ISI Web of Science database. Our findings describe the research tools, journals, and themes that are worth considering in future research. The current study also provides an agenda for future research and therefore constitutes a starting point for advertising academics and professionals intending to use neuroimaging techniques.


Author(s):  
Han Shi Jocelyn Chew ◽  
Violeta Lopez

Objective: To provide an overview of what is known about the impact of COVID-19 on weight and weight-related behaviors. Methods: Systematic scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley methodology. Results: A total of 19 out of 396 articles were included. All studies were conducted using online self-report surveys. The average age of respondents ranged from 19 to 47 years old, comprised of more females. Almost one-half and one-fifth of the respondents gained and lost weight during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. Among articles that examined weight, diet and physical activity changes concurrently, weight gain was reported alongside a 36.3% to 59.6% increase in total food consumption and a 67.4% to 61.4% decrease in physical activities. Weight gain predictors included female sex, middle-age, increased appetite, snacking after dinner, less physical exercise, sedentary behaviors of ≥6 h/day, low water consumption and less sleep at night. Included articles did not illustrate significant associations between alcohol consumption, screen time, education, place of living and employment status, although sedentary behaviors, including screen time, did increase significantly. Conclusions: Examining behavioral differences alone is insufficient in predicting weight status. Future research could examine differences in personality and coping mechanisms to design more personalized and effective weight management interventions.


Coatings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 758
Author(s):  
Cibi Pranav ◽  
Minh-Tan Do ◽  
Yi-Chang Tsai

High Friction Surfaces (HFS) are applied to increase friction capacity on critical roadway sections, such as horizontal curves. HFS friction deterioration on these sections is a safety concern. This study deals with characterization of the aggregate loss, one of the main failure mechanisms of HFS, using texture parameters to study its relationship with friction. Tests are conducted on selected HFS spots with different aggregate loss severity levels at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) Test Track. Friction tests are performed using a Dynamic Friction Tester (DFT). The surface texture is measured by means of a high-resolution 3D pavement scanning system (0.025 mm vertical resolution). Texture data are processed and analyzed by means of the MountainsMap software. The correlations between the DFT friction coefficient and the texture parameters confirm the impact of change in aggregates’ characteristics (including height, shape, and material volume) on friction. A novel approach to detect the HFS friction coefficient transition based on aggregate loss, inspired by previous works on the tribology of coatings, is proposed. Using the proposed approach, preliminary outcomes show it is possible to observe the rapid friction coefficient transition, similar to observations at NCAT. Perspectives for future research are presented and discussed.


Risks ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Paritosh Navinchandra Jha ◽  
Marco Cucculelli

The paper introduces a novel approach to ensemble modeling as a weighted model average technique. The proposed idea is prudent, simple to understand, and easy to implement compared to the Bayesian and frequentist approach. The paper provides both theoretical and empirical contributions for assessing credit risk (probability of default) effectively in a new way by creating an ensemble model as a weighted linear combination of machine learning models. The idea can be generalized to any classification problems in other domains where ensemble-type modeling is a subject of interest and is not limited to an unbalanced dataset or credit risk assessment. The results suggest a better forecasting performance compared to the single best well-known machine learning of parametric, non-parametric, and other ensemble models. The scope of our approach can be extended to any further improvement in estimating weights differently that may be beneficial to enhance the performance of the model average as a future research direction.


Author(s):  
Majed A. Algarni ◽  
Mohammad S. Alzahrani ◽  
Yasser Alatawi ◽  
Raghad A. Alasmari ◽  
Hashem O. Alsaab ◽  
...  

In the first few months of the pandemic, Makkah region reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases among all regions in Saudi Arabia. More than 80% of these reported cases were non-Saudi residents. In this study, we evaluated the perceived threat from and psychological impact of COVID-19 among non-Saudi residents of Makkah region. This was a cross-sectional analysis of data collected using a standardized self-report questionnaire. A total of 292 expatriates were included in the study, the majority of whom were non-Arabic speakers. The prevalence of self-reported depression was nearly 40%, anxiety was 32%, and stress was 43%. The findings indicated variability in the prevalence of psychological symptoms among expatriates from different ethnic backgrounds. Additionally, work environment and perceived threat were strong predictors of psychological disorders. This suggested that the perceived threat from and psychological burden of COVID-19 among non-Saudis in Makkah region is substantial. Future research should investigate the reasons behind these variations in the psychological impact of the pandemic among different ethnic groups.


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