Self-Control at 220 Miles per Hour: Steering and Braking to Achieve Optimal Outcomes During Adolescence

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by heightened attraction to rewards and risk-taking propensities. Dual-systems models portray the adolescent brain in terms of a maturational mismatch whereby brain systems involved in sensitivity to incentives become potentiated before impulse-control systems have matured. That perspective implies that relying on impulse inhibition to overcome temptation is likely to yield uneven success during adolescence. Using the analogy of practice driving a race car, we propose another process that leads to achieving healthy outcomes: steering aimed at limiting or preventing motivational conflict and thereby lessening reliance on impulse control (termed braking). The focal idea is that the more adolescents can avoid troublesome contexts, the less they will need to depend on their relatively weak impulse-control abilities to avert problems and danger. Recent work links dispositional differences in self-control to indicators of steering, such as situation selection, habit cultivation, and proactive responding. Steering to curb or avoid motivational conflict could be key to promoting healthy outcomes during adolescence, a developmental period characterized by vulnerability to risk, and could have lasting importance given that enduring patterns of unhealthy, dangerous, and self-defeating behaviors often start during this period.

Inducing Amusement in the Laboratory and Its Moderation by Experiential Approach

The relative ability of four comedic sketches to induce amusement in the laboratory and its moderation by dispositional differences in experiential approach as a form of positive emotion regulation were investigated. College student participants reported significant and equivalent diminished levels of negative affect relative to baseline following each sketch, while the level of positive affect induced by The Office exceeded that elicited by two of the three other sketches as well as by a top-ranked French comedic film clip. Regression models indicated that the two subscales of the Experiential Approach Scale and their interaction accounted for significant variability in negative mood reductions following the sketches. Unexpectedly, college student participants who enjoyed the greatest decrement in negative affect reported a regulation style in which anxiously clinging to positive emotions dominates over sustaining and savoring them. The limitations of this project and implications of its findings for laboratory inductions of amusement, as well as further investigations of its possible moderation by experiential approach as form of positive emotion regulation are discussed.

Fiction effects on social cognition

Social cognition, the skillset involved in interpreting the cognitive and affective states of others, is essential for navigating the social world. Research has indicated that reading about fictional social content may support social cognitive abilities; however, the processes underpinning these effects remain unidentified. This study aimed to examine the effect of narrative engagement on social cognition. A text pretest (N = 11), a manipulation pilot (N = 29) and full experiment (N = 93) were conducted. In the full experiment, the manipulation failed to vary levels of narrative engagement (transportation, identification and affective empathy) with a passage from a popular fiction text. A correlation analysis revealed positive associations between narrative engagement dimensions and social cognition. An exploratory between-groups analysis comparing reading to no-reading found a significant gain in explicit mental state attribution in the reading group, when controlling for demographic and dispositional differences.

A Synchrony-Based Classification Approach for Predicting Attitudes Using fNIRS

Social neuroscience research has demonstrated that those who are like-minded are also “like-brained.” Studies have shown that people who share similar viewpoints have greater neural synchrony with one another, and less synchrony with people who “see things differently.” Although these effects have been demonstrated at the group level, little work has been done to predict the viewpoints of specific individuals using neural synchrony measures. Furthermore, the studies that have made predictions using synchrony-based classification at the individual level used expensive and immobile neuroimaging equipment (e.g. fMRI) in highly controlled laboratory settings, which may not generalize to real-world contexts. Thus, this study uses a simple synchrony-based classification method, which we refer to as the neural reference groups approach, to predict individuals’ dispositional attitudes from data collected in a mobile “pop-up neuroscience” lab. Using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data, we predicted individuals’ partisan stances on a sociopolitical issue by comparing their neural timecourses to data from two partisan neural reference groups. We found that partisan stance could be identified at above-chance levels using data from dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). These results indicate that the neural reference groups approach can be used to investigate naturally-occurring, dispositional differences anywhere in the world.

Predicting Everyday Life Behavior by Direct and Indirect Measures of Need for Cognition

Need for Cognition (NFC) as the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors has been a useful predictor of dispositional differences in information processing and task performance in experimental settings. In order to explore the role of NFC in everyday life behavior and to further validate the NFC-IAT, we examined the effects of directly and indirectly assessed NFC on self-reported behavior in a broad variety of situations in daily life where the engagement and joy of thinking could play a role. Accordingly, 95 participants were interviewed with a structured interview about everyday life situations, and direct and indirect measures of NFC were obtained. Both, directly and indirectly assessed NFC independently predicted NFC-related behavior, indicating that the combination of both measures results in a more comprehensive prediction of self-reported behavior. Our results show that NFC can be a helpful predictor of behavior not only concerning academic performance or in experimental paradigms, but also in everyday life.

MUSEBAQ

Music engagement is complex and is influenced by music training, capacity, preferences, and motivations. A multi-modular self-report instrument (the Music Use and Background Questionnaire, or MUSEBAQ) was developed to measure a diverse set of music engagement constructs. Based on earlier work, a hybrid approach of exploratory and confirmatory analyses was conducted across a series of three independent studies to establish reliability and validity of the modular tool. Module 1 (Musicianship) provides a brief assessment of formal and informal music knowledge and practice. Module 2 (Musical capacity) measures emotional sensitivity to music, listening sophistication, music memory and imagery, and personal commitment to music. Module 3 (Music preferences) captures preferences from six broad genres and utilizes adaptive reasoning to selectively expand subgenres when administered online. Module 4 (Motivations for music use) assesses musical transcendence, emotion regulation, social, and musical identity and expression. The MUSEBAQ offers researchers and practitioners a comprehensive, modular instrument that can be used in whole, or by module as required to capture an individual’s level of engagement with music and to serve as a background questionnaire to measure and interpret the effects of dispositional differences in emotional reactions to music.

Daydream believer: Rumination, self-reflection and the temporal focus of mind wandering content

Current research into mind-wandering is beginning to acknowledge that this process is one of heterogeneity. Following on from previous findings highlighting the role of self-focus during mind wandering, the present study aimed to examine individual differences in rumination and self-reflection and the impact such styles of self-focus may have on mind-wandering experiences. Thirty-three participants were required to complete the Sustained Attention Response Task (SART), aimed at inducing mind-wandering episodes, whilst also probing the content of thought in terms of temporal focus. Self-report questionnaires were also administered after the SART to measure dispositional differences in style and beliefs regarding mind-wandering and assessments of individual differences in rumination and self-reflection. Those individuals with reflective self-focus showed a strong positive association with positive and constructive thoughts. Critically, ruminative self-focus was positively associated with a tendency for the mind to wander towards anguished fantasies, failures and aggression, but it was also positively associated with positive and constructive thoughts. Furthermore, while dispositional differences in self-focus showed no relationship with the temporal perspective of thoughts when probed during a cognitive task, performance on the task itself was related to whether participants were thinking about the past, present or future during that activity. Such findings are discussed in line with previous research, and provide a further step towards accounting for the heterogeneous nature of mind-wandering.

Niche- Versus Mainstream-Sport Spectators: An Analysis of Need for Uniqueness and Sport eFANgelism

The sport marketplace is overcrowded, and contemporary sport fans have more choices than ever. This makes it difficult for new teams, leagues, and sports to enter the marketplace. In addition, a cultural oligarchy of mainstream sport leagues currently dominates media coverage. As a result, marketers and managers of emerging sports need to understand the attributes for which sport fans connect with entities. Little is known, however, about the differences between fans of niche (emerging or nonmainstream) sports and their mainstream-sport counterparts. Guided by social-identity theory, this study explored the dispositional and behavioral differences between niche- and mainstream-sport fans as a means of psychometric and behavioral segmentation. In particular, an individual’s need for uniqueness and communication behaviors were compared. The results suggest that dispositional differences between the segments were minimal. However, potentially important behavioral differences were uncovered related to how sport fans assimilate with others and advertise their sport affiliations.