Cognitive Mechanisms Research Articles

Investigation of the mental health and cognitive correlates of psychological decentering in adolescence

ABSTRACT The ability to notice and reflect on distressing internal experiences from an objective perspective, often called psychological decentering, has been posited to be protective against mental health difficulties. However, little is known about how this skill relates to age across adolescence, its relationship with mental health, and how it may impact key domains such as affective executive control and social cognition. This study analysed a pre-existing dataset including mental health measures and cognitive tasks, administered to adolescents in Greater London and Cambridge (mean age (SD) = 14.4 (1.77) years, N = 553). A self-report index of decentering based on available questionnaire items in the dataset was developed. Multiple linear regression was used to examine associations between decentering and mental health, affective executive control (measured using an affective Stroop Task, affective Working Memory Task, and affective Sustained Attention to Response Task) and social cognition. Higher decentering was significantly associated with lower depression and anxiety scores and higher psychological wellbeing. Results did not indicate significant relationships between decentering, affective executive control and social cognition. Further research is needed to discover cognitive mechanisms associated with this process, which could allow for optimisation of existing psychological therapy and reveal new avenues of intervention.

Reward processing in young people with self-harm behaviour

Twenty percent of young people report a lifetime presence of self-harm (SH) behaviour, associated with negative health and functional outcomes. Understanding the underlying cognitive mechanisms is needed to develop targeted early interventions. Reward processing biases may underlie SH, aligning with accounts of the behaviour acquiring “addictive” characteristics. However, the specific nature of such biases remains unclear, particularly its relationship with negative affect (NA) that frequently triggers SH. In Study 1, we compared young people (aged 16–25) with SH to a group with NA but no SH history and a healthy control group on performance of a novel Incentive Delay Task (IDT), with SH-related (SH trials), positive social (social trials) or monetary images (money trials) as stimuli. In Study 2, a different sample of SH and HC participants completed the same IDT following NA induction via an online Trier Social Stress Test. For both studies, we hypothesised faster and more correct responses in the SH group than control groups on SH trials. Contradicting our hypothesis, there were no significant between-group differences in IDT performance on SH, social and money trials in either study. Certain SH characteristics (positive reinforcement, SH mental imagery, urge) were significantly correlated with better performance on SH trials in SH participants. Thus, broadly SH behaviour may not be underpinned by motivational biases towards SH-related cues or naturalistic rewards. Future studies should clarify whether incentivisation of SH-related cues instead explains individual differences in SH behaviour and its relation with treatment and prognosis.

Individual differences in categorization development: The mediation of executive functions and factual knowledge, the case of food.

Cognitive mechanisms underpinning categorization development are still debated, either resulting from knowledge accretion or an increase in cognitive control. To disentangle the respective influence of accumulated factual knowledge and executive functions (inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) on (a) the development of categorization abilities in the food domain and (b) differences in this development by child characteristics (i.e., food neophobia), we conducted two experiments. The first experiment assessed 4-6-year-old children's (n = 122) ability to taxonomically categorize food at the superordinate level of categorization. The second experiment tested 3-6-year-old children's (n = 100) ability to cross-categorize the same food according to two different relationships alternatively (i.e., taxonomic and thematic). Results indicate that accumulated factual knowledge and executive functions mediated both the effect of age and the effect of food neophobia on categorization performance. Notably, the specific executive functions involved may vary depending on the categorization abilities tested, whereas world knowledge was always a prerequisite. Overall, this research highlights the complex interplay between accumulated factual knowledge, executive functions, and child characteristics in shaping the development of categorization abilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Non-single dating app use and the cognitive and psychological mechanisms of infidelity: gender differences

The increasing prevalence of dating apps has reshaped the dynamics of romantic relationships, with many users already in committed partnerships. However, the link between encountering a large pool of potential alternatives and predicting current relationship outcomes, particularly infidelity and possible gender differences, has not been fully explored. Drawing on the investment model framework, this study examines the cognitive and psychological mechanisms underlying online and offline infidelity tendencies among dating app users in relationships. Data from non-single dating app users in Taiwan reveal a positive relationship between the quantity and quality of alternatives, suggesting that exposure to many profiles may prompt users to rely on heuristics and focus on distinctive characteristics to quickly assess potential alternatives. Furthermore, having many choices may satisfy the need for short-term encounters. The quality of alternatives is positively linked to partner choice regret, which negatively impacts commitment. Gender differences emerge, with males showing a higher likelihood of infidelity due to partner choice regrets, particularly in offline contexts. Despite maintaining a strong commitment to their primary partner, males exhibit a greater inclination towards offline infidelity, highlighting a scenario where commitment and infidelity may coexist for male dating app users. Theoretical implications of digital matchmaking in contemporary relationships are discussed.

A Corpus-Based Study on Grammaticalization and Lexicalization in Medical English

Medical English, as a specialized form of English, has attracted considerable attention due to its unique linguistic features. Grammaticalization and lexicalization represent critical mechanisms in the evolution of language and are essential for understanding and mastering medical English. This study, drawing on the MEDLINE corpus, investigates the characteristics of grammaticalization and lexicalization in medical English from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, aiming to unveil its underlying cognitive foundations. The findings suggest that the processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization in medical English reflect cognitive mechanisms such as categorization, inferential processing, and pragmatic strategies. These insights provide novel approaches and methodologies for the teaching of medical English.

The Application of Semantic Cognitive Mechanism of English Idioms in Idiom Teaching

This article takes the perspective of cognitive linguistics and applies the semantic cognitive mechanism of English idioms to analyze the motivation between the generation and meaning of idioms. It explores the teaching of English idioms based on motivation analysis and proposes several suggestions and strategies for idiom teaching, hoping to benefit English idiom teaching.

Decreased inter-hemispheric connectivity predicts a coherent retrieval of auditory symbolic material

Investigating the transmission of information between individuals is essential to better understand how humans communicate. Coherent information transmission (i.e., transmission without significant modifications or loss of fidelity) helps preserving cultural traits and traditions over time, while innovation may lead to new cultural variants. Although much research has focused on the cognitive mechanisms underlying cultural transmission, little is known on the brain features which correlates with coherent transmission of information. To address this gap, we combined structural (from high-resolution diffusion imaging) and functional connectivity (from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]) with a laboratory model of cultural transmission, the signalling games, implemented outside the MRI scanner. We found that individuals who exhibited more coherence in the transmission of auditory symbolic information were characterized by lower levels of both structural and functional inter-hemispheric connectivity. Specifically, higher coherence negatively correlated with the strength of bilateral structural connections between frontal and subcortical, insular and temporal brain regions. Similarly, we observed increased inter-hemispheric functional connectivity between inferior frontal brain regions derived from structural connectivity analysis in individuals who exhibited lower transmission coherence. Our results suggest that lateralization of cognitive processes involved in semantic mappings in the brain may be related to the stability over time of auditory symbolic systems.

Autistic and non-autistic adults use discourse context to determine a speaker's intention to request.

The current study focuses on how autistic adults utilize context to determine whether ambiguous utterances (e.g., "I'm thirsty") are intended as indirect requests or as literal comment/questions. Two questions are addressed: (1) How do autistic adults compare to neurotypical adults in using context to interpret an utterance's intention as either literal or a request? (2) What cognitive mechanisms correlate with indirect request interpretation, and are these different for participants in each group? Twenty-six autistic and 26 neurotypical college students participated, engaging in an online experiment where they read narratives that ended with utterances open to literal or request interpretations, based on context. After each narrative, participants selected the best paraphrase of the utterance from two options, literal versus request. Following this task, participants completed two mentalizing measures (a false belief and emotion-identification task) and several executive functioning tests. The best model for predicting paraphrase choice included scores on the emotion-identification task and context as main effects, along with the interaction between both. Participants with higher emotion-identification test scores were more likely to provide correct paraphrases. Models including group as a main effect and/or interaction were not better at fitting the data, nor were any models that included executive functioning measures as main effects or interactions. Emotion-identification test scores, but not autism diagnosis, predict how adults infer whether an utterance is a request. Findings suggest that autistic adults use context similarly to neurotypical adults when interpreting requests, and that similar processes underlie performance for each group.

Effects of a food supplement containing phosphatidylserine on cognitive function in Chinese older adults with mild cognitive impairment: A randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

BackgroundPhosphatidylserine (PS) and α-Linolenic acid (ALA), are positively associated with cognitive function, but their combination effects and possible mechanisms remain unclear. We aimed to explore the effects on cognition and potential mechanism of the supplements. MethodsThis randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial recruited 190 MCI patients in Tianjin, China, and randomly assigned in intervention group and placebo group. Each group consumed two capsules every day for 12 months. Each capsule for intervention group contains 144 mg ALA, 31.5 mg PS and 3.6 mg Ginkgo total flavonoids as main functional components, with 0.48 mg Vitamin B1 (as thiamine hydrochloride), 0.48 mg Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine hydrochloride) and 90 μg folic acid as supplement. Capsules for placebo group were identical but contain no active ingredients. Cognitive function, serum n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and neurotransmitters were assessed at baseline and 12 months. Linear mixed effects model and causal mediation analysis were conducted to explore the effects and potential mechanism of the intervention. ResultsA total of 190 participants (mean [SD] age, 67.95 [5.62] years; 70 (36.8 %) male and 120 (63.2 %) female) were randomized to the placebo group (n = 95) and intervention group (n = 95). Compared with placebo group, the intervention group had statistically significant improvements in arithmetic testing (β, 0.688; 95 % CI, 0.103–1.274), the similarity test (β, 1.070; 95 % CI, 0.472–1.667) and short-term memory (β, 0.600; 95 % CI, 0.399–0.800). Besides, the intervention group had statistically significant increases in serum ALA (β, 1.620; 95 % CI, 0.967–2.265), DHA (β, 2.797; 95 % CI, 1.075–4.532), EPA (β, 1.472; 95 % CI, 0.296–2.643), acetylcholine (β, 0.441; 95 % CI, 0.415–0.468), GABA (β, 0.009; 95 % CI, 0.001–0.016) and 5-HT (β, 0.160; 95 % CI, 0.081–0.238) compared to the placebo group. And the intervention may improve short-term memory by increasing serum ALA levels (average causal mediation effect = 0.132, 95 % CI, 0.053–0.225) with 19.7 % mediation proportion. ConclusionsThis food supplement containing phosphatidylserine could improve different cognitive functions of MCI patients, especially short-term memory, and increase serum n-3 PUFAs and neurotransmitters levels. Serum ALA level might play a mediation role.

Distinct neural correlates of accuracy and bias in the perception of facial emotion expressions

ABSTRACT We investigated neural correlates of Emotion Recognition Accuracy (ERA) using the Assessment of Contextualized Emotions (ACE). ACE infuses context by presenting emotion expressions in a naturalistic group setting and distinguishes between accurately perceiving intended emotions (signal), and bias due to perceiving additional, secondary emotions (noise). This social perception process is argued to induce perspective taking in addition to pattern matching in ERA. Thirty participants were presented with an fMRI-compatible adaptation of the ACE consisting of blocks of neutral and emotional faces in single and group-embedded settings. Participants rated the central character’s expressions categorically or using scalar scales in consequent fMRI scans. Distinct brain activations were associated with the perception of emotional vs. neutral faces in the four conditions. Moreover, accuracy and bias scores from the original ACE task performed on another day were associated with brain activation during the scalar (vs. categorical) condition for emotional (vs. neutral) faces embedded in group. These findings suggest distinct cognitive mechanisms linked to each type of emotional rating and highlight the importance of considering cognitive bias in the assessment of social emotion perception.

Cultural Evolutionary Psychology as Generalization by Recursion

AbstractCultural evolutionary psychology (CEP) accounts for the cultural evolution of cognition. It is based on evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory and aims at a synthetic attempt which is achieved by what we want to call ‘generalization by recursion’. We argue in this paper that the evolutionary psychology program as a whole could greatly benefit from CEP’s generalization. As we will show, there is one theoretical element in particular, that CEP relevantly generalizes in contrast to its predecessors. It comes from cultural evolutionary theory and has been referred to as the ‘dual inheritance argument’. CEP’s novelty consists in showing that not only cognitive products (‘grist’) but also cognitive mechanisms (‘mills’) are subject to cultural evolution and provides lots of empirical evidence for this claim. This account is ‘recursive’, because CEP’s generalization of the dual inheritance argument theoretically employs a recursive feedback-loop between cultural learning and cultural evolution. We also argue that this account might be considered to supersede unificatory and reductionistic efforts of its competitors, because it is stronger than purely structural or analogical unification while at the same time it is not too strong in order to fall prey to implausible reductionism.

Highly Oppositional Occupations and Cognitive Behavioral Script-Based Mechanisms of Work–Home Conflict

Highly Oppositional Occupations and Cognitive Behavioral Script-Based Mechanisms of Work–Home Conflict

Responsible leadership and deceptive knowledge hiding: the mediating role of moral reflectiveness and the moderating role of leader-follower value congruence

Purpose The key to preventing employees from engaging in deceptive knowledge hiding is fostering a responsible environment. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study aims to explore the factors that inhibit deceptive knowledge hiding and to construct potential pathways for enhancing individual moral cognition. This study further analyzes the moderating effect of leader–follower value congruence on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Using data from 341 full-time employees in various service industries in China, this study conducted path analysis, the product-of-coefficients method and bootstrapping to test the hypotheses through a three-stage, time-lagged survey. Findings The empirical results show that responsible leadership is negatively associated with employees’ deceptive knowledge hiding. Employee moral reflectiveness mediates this relationship, whereas leader–follower value congruence moderates the indirect effect of responsible leadership on deceptive knowledge hiding through moral reflectiveness. Originality/value First, this study extends field research by introducing positive leadership factors to reduce deceptive knowledge hiding, whereas prior studies focused mainly on negative leadership antecedents. Second, this study sheds light on the underlying moral cognitive mechanisms and explains how responsible leadership can prevent implicit unethical behavior. Third, it reveals how leader–follower value congruence can enhance the impact of responsible leadership on moral reflectiveness, offering novel insights into the role of value-based fit in reducing deceptive knowledge hiding.

Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English

Abstract This study contributes to a growing body of research on the social meanings of linguistic variation with particular interest in the cognitive processes governing their emergence. Our research follows in the tradition of Labov et al.’s (2011) work on the sociolinguistic monitor, a cognitive mechanism hypothesized to track quantitative linguistic variation and prompt social evaluations (Labov et al. 2011. Properties of the sociolinguistic monitor. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(4). 431–463). Previous research shows that L1 English listeners are sensitive to frequency variation, but it is unclear whether this also applies to L2 listeners. This study thus replicates Labov et al.’s (2011) original experiment in a context where English is primarily acquired through L2 instruction. To test the generality of sociolinguistic monitoring, we investigate L2 listeners’ sensitivity to quantitative differences in sociolinguistic variation (ing) as well as proficiency-based variation. Since participants were L1 speakers of (Austrian) German, we tested evaluations of varying realizations of /θ/ ([θ]/[s]), /d/ ([d]/[t]), and /w/ ([w]/[v]). Experiments included 135 participants, who rated several versions of newscaster test passages regarding professionalism. Our data shows that both sociolinguistic and proficiency-based variation are monitored and evaluated by L2 listeners, albeit to different extents. This supports the assumption that the focus of the monitoring process is socially meaningful variation that includes L1 sociolinguistic but also L2 proficiency-based features.

How preferences enslave attention: calling into question the endogenous/exogenous dichotomy from an active inference perspective

AbstractIt is easy to think of attention as a purely sensorimotor, exogenous mechanism divorced from the influence of an agent’s preferences and needs. However, according to the active inference framework, such a strict reduction cannot be straightforwardly invoked, since all cognitive and behavioural processes can at least be described as maximising the evidence for a generative model entailed by the ongoing existence of that agent; that is, the minimisation of variational free energy. As such, active inference models could cast an (embodied) cognitive mechanism like attention, described in this paper as a relevance filter, as constrained (or enslaved) by these prior preferences for which an agent must seek evidence, whether or not such priors are having direct, real-time neurocognitive effects on the sensorimotor loops that couple the attending agent and her surrounding environment. This duality with respect to the role of priors corresponds to a wider, ongoing debate in the active inference community regarding the framework’s explanatory power. More specifically, the debate centres on whether the notion of a generative model and the priors embedded ubiqitously therein act as a purely useful instrumental tool for scientists aiming to model the behaviours of self-organising entities, or, rather, the brain (and body) is genuinely constituted by a predictive hierarchy within which higher-order dynamics constrain and contextualise activity unfolding at lower levels. With a focus on the second (ontologically realist) construal of active inference presented here, this paper argues that in cognitive systems endowed with attentional schema, higher-order preferences do, indeed, impose a demonstrable and powerful modulating effect on the way attention unfolds. Furthermore, these preferences in question transcend the contingent, task-relevant goals that have already been shown to bias attention. Rather, attention is powerfully tuned by the most-deep rooted priors the agent possesses, such that, when sensory evidence against these priors is observed and free energy spikes, the agent attentionally prioritises the homeostatic restoration of these preferred states over their shorter-term desires. This suggests that, at its core, attention is a goal-driven process, which calls into question the putative dichotomy that exists between endogenous (goal-directed) attention and exogenous (stimulus-driven) attention. What emerges in its place is a symbiotic relationship between attention and preferences, whereby the fulfilment of the latter rests on successful application of the former, and the former derives its function from the organismic need to find evidence for the latter.

Bridging the Connection between Fluency in Reading and Arithmetic.

This study examines the contribution of early executive functions (EFs) in the association between fluency in reading and arithmetic. Kindergarten children (N = 1185) were assessed on executive functions skills and on reading and arithmetic fluency in Grade 1 and Grade 3. The analysis revealed that beyond the connection within each domain there is a unidirectional effect between fluency measures, with Grade 1 reading fluency significantly influencing the development of arithmetic fluency in Grade 3. Furthermore, the findings indicate that kindergarten EFs significantly contribute to arithmetic fluency at both time points and to reading fluency in the first grade. Early EF skills also emerged as significant contributors to the associations between fluency performance in reading and arithmetic, suggesting that the influence of EFs extends beyond individual academic domains. These findings have implications for understanding the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the relations between these academic skills.

It’s all about resources: Narcissistic CEOs and entrepreneurial orientation during disruptions

Research regarding the influence of personality traits, such as narcissism, on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is burgeoning, yet the role of affective and cognitive mechanisms is under-examined. Drawing from research on conservation of resources (COR) theory, entrepreneurial cognition and emotion, we examine the narcissism-EO relationship nexus. Specifically, we analyse the mediating role of the resource-induced coping heuristic (RICH) and the moderating influence of fear on the relationship between narcissism and EO. Longitudinal data from CEO-entrepreneurs of SMEs in six countries were collected during the COVID-19 disruptions. Results suggest that the RICH fully mediates the relationship between narcissism and EO. Fear of COVID-19 (FC-19) positively influenced EO and strengthened the narcissism-RICH relationship. Further, pandemic-related disruptions negatively influenced EO and attenuated the positive influence of FC-19 on EO. These findings offer insight into the drivers of entrepreneurial behaviour during times of disruption.

Sensory differentiation of Old World wines from New World wines: Has this become more challenging?

The present study aimed to investigate whether, over two recent decades (1997–2018), Old World Wines (OW) and New World Wines (NW) have become more similar or less similar from a sensory perspective. Two 5-year periods were selected within the two-decade period: 1997–2001 (p1) and 2014–2018 (p2). Data comprised descriptors from reviews by seven expert wine critics with descriptors for 31 wines extracted from each review for every year selected. The frequency of citation of descriptors for each of the four wine categories: OW-p1; OW-p2; NW-p1 and NW-p2 was counted. Differences in the citation of descriptors amongst the four categories were calculated by chi-square test. Correspondence analysis (CA) was calculated with the frequency table of descriptors and wine category. In parallel, the level of alcohol was recorded working under the assumption that changing ethanol values might also contribute towards changes in sensory profiles. Significant differences in ethanol content amongst the four categories of wines were calculated with a two-way ANOVA with region (OW or NW) and period (1997–2001; 2014–2018) as fixed factors. The CA demonstrated that time period was a secondary factor after wine region in differentiation of the selected wines by critics. The wines from the latter period showed higher alcohol levels than the wines from the earlier one. The fact that this alcohol increase with time did not result in a convergence in sensory properties amongst wines from the two regions conceivably is due to critics’ perception and judgment of wines being affected by historical notions of OW and NW wine differences. Results are discussed in terms of top-down cognitive mechanisms.

A - 85 Age-Related Differences in Cognitive Mechanisms: Exploring the Role of Processing Speed in Working Memory and Prospective Memory

Abstract Objective Research links working memory (WM) and prospective memory (PM) on cognitively demanding tasks. Older adults demonstrate more frontal lobe activation than young adults during WM and PM tasks; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The current study hypothesized processing speed (PS) as a mediator between WM and PM with age cohort as a possible moderator. Method Healthy older adults (n = 80; age 60–89, M = 72.51, SD = 7.08) and young adults (n = 63; age 18–29, M = 19.27, SD = 2.12) were administered WAIS-IV Digit Span, WAIS-IV Coding, and the Virtual Kitchen Protocol for Prospective Memory. Results A moderated mediation model revealed that WM positively influenced PM (c:B = 0.69, p < 0.001) with a positive indirect relationship through PS among older adults (ab:B = 0.26, 95% CI [0.13, 0.43]), but not young adults (ab:B = −0.08, 95% CI [−0.19, 0.03]). Conclusion PS appears to play a significant role in older adults’ use of WM for PM but not in young adults. This could suggest that older adults recruit additional cognitive resources – those involved in PS – as a compensatory strategy for real-world PM tasks, which would support prior research indicating that diminished functioning in older adults results from reduced ability to redirect neurocognitive networks. Alternatively, age-related declines in PS could be a root cause underlying both worse WM and worse PM in older adults, as postulated by Salthouse. Future research would benefit from further differentiating the direction of influences between WM, PS, and PM in older adults.

Emotions as antecedents of sustainable travel behaviour

Promoting the use of sustainable transport alternatives is critical for reducing carbon emissions. In this paper, we propose a cognitive mechanism that explains the extent to which individuals use different sustainable travel modes (e.g., the bus, train, bicycle, and car-sharing). Specifically, we hypothesise negative emotions related to cars as an antecedent of sustainable travel mode use where emotions such as shame, sadness, and upset are positively associated with the extent to which individuals use sustainable transport modes. These negative emotions are further hypothesised to mediate the effect of car attitudes on sustainable travel mode use. Using a broadly representative sample of the UK population (N = 1294), we test these hypotheses and find, firstly, that car attitudes are negatively associated with the use of all sustainable travel modes. Secondly, we demonstrate that negative emotions related to cars mediate this effect. In other words, negative emotions – and not car attitudes – are (positively) associated with the extent to which individuals use all sustainable travel modes. The more individuals perceive the car as something ‘good’, the less they experience emotions such as shame, sadness, and upset when thinking about cars; and it is these negative emotions that then drive sustainable travel mode use. Our study reveals that emotions can and should also be understood as antecedents of sustainable travel modes. We then discuss implications for practitioners and further research.