Effortful Information Processing Research Articles

A neurocognitive model of early onset persistent and desistant antisocial behavior in early adulthood.

It remains unclear which functional and neurobiological mechanisms are associated with persistent and desistant antisocial behavior in early adulthood. We reviewed the empirical literature and propose a neurocognitive social information processing model for early onset persistent and desistant antisocial behavior in early adulthood, focusing on how young adults evaluate, act upon, monitor, and learn about their goals and self traits. Based on the reviewed literature, we propose that persistent antisocial behavior is characterized by domain-general impairments in self-relevant and goal-related information processing, regulation, and learning, which is accompanied by altered activity in fronto-limbic brain areas. We propose that desistant antisocial development is associated with more effortful information processing, regulation and learning, that possibly balances self-relevant goals and specific situational characteristics. The proposed framework advances insights by considering individual differences such as psychopathic personality traits, and specific emotional characteristics (e.g., valence of social cues), to further illuminate functional and neural mechanisms underlying heterogenous developmental pathways. Finally, we address important open questions and offer suggestions for future research to improve scientific knowledge on general and context-specific expression and development of antisocial behavior in early adulthood.

Issue Importance and the Correction of Misinformation

ABSTRACT The study of misinformation – and its correction – has proliferated in recent years. Yet the empirical record includes instances where corrective messages do and do not work, even on similar issues. Despite intense scholarly attention to this topic, it remains unclear when people will revise false beliefs. Our study examines a factor with a long history in the study of public opinion: the importance a person attaches to an issue. The subjective state of issue importance has complex effects. It can increase an individual’s motivation to engage in effortful information processing while also leading them to defend existing beliefs and opinions. In a series of experiments administered in national surveys, we examine whether issue importance is implicated in the failure to correct false beliefs. The analyses show that on the topic of GM foods, the effects of a corrective message are smallest among misinformed people who rated the issue as personally important. By contrast, framing GM foods in terms of partisan identity engendered little resistance to a corrective message. Our findings illustrate the value of adopting a broader perspective on misinformation because people may resist corrections for reasons that are unrelated to their partisanship.

The Effect of Heuristic Cues on Jurors’ Systematic Information Processing in Rape Trials

There is concern that jurors’ decisions in rape trials might be influenced by misleading cues (e.g., victim stereotypes) potentially explaining disproportionately low conviction rates. We investigated the bias hypothesis from the heuristic–systematic model as an explanation for how jurors may be influenced by misleading stereotypes even while they are effortfully processing rape trial evidence. We expected that when case evidence was ambiguous, stereotypes would guide motivated participants’ effortful information processing, but not when case evidence was strong. Mock jurors ( N = 901) were asked to make decisions about a rape trial with either ambiguous or strong evidence in which the complainant was either stereotypically distressed or unemotional giving evidence. Participants were either placed under high motivation conditions to encourage effortful information processing or in a control condition with low motivation instructions to encourage less effortful processing as a comparison. Participants’ information processing and case decisions were measured as key dependent variables. We found partial support for the hypothesized interaction and the bias hypothesis, suggesting that the types of evidence participants attended to in decision-making were influenced by misleading stereotypical cues. Our findings have implications for interventions to reduce the effect of misleading stereotypes on decisions in rape trials. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843221118018 .

Thinking like a patriot: Criticising the country and the nation is linked to the differences in thinking style and cognitive ability

Some forms of national identification facilitate criticism of one's own country and nation, whereas others prevent it. The critical form of national identification – constructive patriotism – is characterized by the willingness to criticise the group in order to improve it. The uncritical form of national identification – glorification – is characterized by seeing the group as superior to others and by intolerance of criticism of the group. We used dual-process theories to examine whether differences in thinking style and cognitive ability help predict the emergence of the critical and uncritical form of national identification. We ran three correlational studies (total N = 2509) in Poland including two samples representative of Polish society. We ran an internal meta-analysis to summarise the obtained results from all studies. We found that constructive patriotism was positively linked with need for cognition (i.e., the willingness to engage in slow, effortful information processing; for the random effect model r = 0.18). Constructive patriotism was also positively linked with cognitive ability (r = 0.07). In contrast, glorification was negatively associated with need for cognition (r = -0.26) and cognitive ability (r = -0.09). Glorification was also positively linked with faith in intuition (r = 0.14).

Premiums Paid for What You Believe In: The Interactive Roles of Price Promotion and Cause Involvement on Consumer Response

Building on the persuasion knowledge model, the present research suggests that price discounts have divergent effects on consumer response to fairtrade products depending on the level of personal relevance to fairtrade (i.e., cause involvement). More- (vs. less-) involved consumers are engaged in more effortful processing of information to evaluate fairtrade products. For this reason, in response to a price discount, more-involved consumers access persuasion knowledge that entails suspicion of the brand’s ulterior motive for offering the discount and its fairtrade claim. Thus, they are likely to perceive the brand as less credible and show decreased purchase intention and brand attitude. Conversely, less-involved consumers are likely to infer the brand’s persuasion motive by trusting the brand and believing its claim. By accessing persuasion knowledge that involves trust and belief, less-involved consumers perceive the brand as more credible, exhibiting a favorable response to fairtrade products on price promotion. The present research also discusses how to mitigate the negative effects of price discounts for more-involved consumers: When a justifiable reason for a promotion is provided, the negative effect of the price discount disappears among more-involved consumers.

Practice variability promotes an external focus of attention and enhances motor skill learning

Variability in practice has been shown to enhance motor skill learning. Benefits of practice variability have been attributed to motor schema formation (variable versus constant practice), or more effortful information processing (random versus blocked practice). We hypothesized that, among other mechanisms, greater practice variability might promote an external focus of attention on the intended movement effect, while less variability would be more conducive to a less effective internal focus on body movements. In Experiment 1, the learning of a throwing task was enhanced by variable versus constant practice, and variable group participants reported focusing more on the distance to the target (external focus), while constant group participants focused more on their posture (internal focus). In Experiment 2, golf putting was learned more effectively with a random compared with a blocked practice schedule. Furthermore, random group learners reported using a more effective distal external focus (i.e., distance to the target) to a greater extent, whereas blocked group participants used a less effective proximal focus (i.e., putter) more often. While attentional focus was assessed through questionnaires in the first two experiments, learners in Experiment 3 were asked to report their current attentional focus at any time during practice. Again, the learning of a throwing task was more effective after random relative to blocked practice. Also, random practice learners reported using more external focus cues, while in blocked practice participants used more internal focus cues. The findings suggest that the attentional foci induced by different practice schedules might be at least partially responsible for the learning differences.

Aging, effort, and stereotyping: The evidence for the moderating role of self-involvement

A study with young and older adults (N = 91) investigated the effect of self-involvement on stereotyping tendency and effort mobilization. We hypothesized that the impact of self-involvement varies as a function of age: increased self-involvement should lead older adults to engage in more effortful information processing and decreased stereotyping, whereas increased self-involvement should have no impact on effort mobilization and stereotyping tendency in young adults. Young and older adults read narratives under low and high-self-involvement conditions before performing a recognition test that measured their stereotyping tendency. Effort was assessed as cardiovascular responses. We found that older adults in the high-self-involvement condition presented low stereotyping tendency (similar to that of young people) in comparison to older adults in the low-self-involvement condition. Furthermore, older adults in the high-self-involvement condition had decreased high-frequency heart rate variability in comparison to the other conditions, but only during the recognition test; this suggests increased effort mobilization. These findings indicate that self-involvement decreases older adults' stereotyping tendency, possibly through effort mobilization.

Inspirational leadership, positive mood, and team innovation: A moderated mediation investigation into the pivotal role of professional salience

Multidisciplinary teams are increasingly advocated for in healthcare policy consequent to their capacity to develop innovative solutions to seemingly intractable service and care challenges. Recent arguments that inspirational leadership styles may foster innovation in multidisciplinary teams point to their potential value in this effort. However, inconsistency in the capacity of such leaders to engender innovation highlights the need to understand the mechanisms and boundary conditions that determine when such leadership generates positive effects. We argue that follower positive mood acts to mediate the path between inspirational leadership and innovation and may account for its variable effects. By increasing positive team mood, inspirational leaders can potentially bring about more flexible thinking and enhance innovation but can also increase reliance on less effortful information processing, undermining innovative potential. In an effort to address the dilemma posed by these contrasting effects, we propose that professional salience acts as an important boundary condition of this relationship such that only when profession is salient do inspirational leaders enhance multidisciplinary team innovation through positive mood. An analysis of survey data from 60 UK‐based multidisciplinary healthcare teams, investigating the inspirational leadership of practice‐based innovation, supports our moderated mediation model. Finally, the implications for HRM are considered, specifically for leader development and work team design.

Active and Passive Information Acquisition: Application to Financial Markets

Investors overreact to salient information and neglect nonsalient information. I conjecture that this is the result of cognitively effortful information processing with limited processing capacity and heterogeneous processing costs. On the one hand, the allocation of the limited information-processing capacities is subject to the means and objectives of the decision maker, that is, (active) goal-driven attention. On the other, the salience or visibility of news affecting the processing cost, that is, external (passive) stimulus-driven attention. I model this by extending the framework of rational inattention by heterogeneous marginal costs of the information processing, which are dependent on the visibility of the piece of information. This model of information processing is applied to a simple asset-pricing model. The main findings are that higher visibility of a piece of information leads to a lower risk premium, more informativeness, and a stronger reaction of the asset price to the piece of information. Furthermore, there exists a visibility threshold beyond which the investor decreases the attention capacities spent on a piece of information. Finally, investors will neglect a piece of information if it is below a threshold of visibility. Explicitly modeling the relevant aspects of information acquisition of a decision maker helps make sense of contradictory empirical results and can be useful for more structural estimations in the future.

The Effects of Useful Field of View Training on Brain Activity and Connectivity.

Useful Field of View training (UFOVt) is an adaptive computerized cognitive intervention that improves visual attention and transfers to maintained health and everyday functioning in older adults. Although its efficacy is well established, the neural mechanisms underlying this intervention are unknown. This pilot study used functional MRI (fMRI) to explore neural changes following UFOVt. Task-driven and resting-state fMRI were used to examine changes in brain activity and connectivity in healthy older adults randomized to 10 hr of UFOVt (n = 13), 10 hr of cognitively stimulating activities (CSA; n = 11), or a no-contact control (NC; n = 10). UFOVt resulted in reduced task-driven activity in the majority of regions of interest (ROIs) associated with task performance, CSA resulted in reduced activity in one ROI, and there were no changes within the NC group. Relative to NC, UFOVt reduced activity in ROIs involved in effortful information processing. There were no other significant between-group task-based differences. Resting-state functional connectivity between ROIs involved in executive function and visual attention was strengthened following UFOVt compared with CSA and NC. UFOVt enhances connections needed for visual attention. Together with prior work, this study provides evidence that improvement of the brain's visual attention efficiency is one mechanism underlying UFOVt.

The double‐edged sword of diversity: Toward a dual pathway model

AbstractWilliams and O'Reilly (1998) published a seminal review of diversity research that has become a classic resource for researchers and practitioners alike. In the current review, we update the theoretical record by discussing traditional views of, as well as recent developments to, the 3 prominent frameworks used to understand diversity: social categorization, similarity‐attraction, and information and decision‐making. Furthermore, we propose a dual pathway model of diversity's effects that integrates all 3 frameworks. In our model, both positive and detrimental effects of diversity stem from processes of social categorization. Whereas these processes disrupt group functioning when intergroup bias is activated, when bias is not activated, we propose that social categorization and reduced attraction to dissimilar others will allow individuals in diverse rather than homogeneous groups to focus more on the task, anticipate differences in task‐relevant opinions and perspectives, and engage in more effortful information processing. Finding the balance is key.

The adaptation of Causal Uncertainty Scale into Turkish

Objective: Causal uncertainty is being uncertain about the causes of social events. Causal uncertainty is related with effortful information processing, attributional processes, depression, anxiety, and negative affect. Although causal uncertainty is implicated in relation to many psychiatric as well as clinical and social psychological constructs, a Turkish version of Causal Uncertainty Scale is missing. The present study was carried out in order to translate the Causal Uncertainty Scale into Turkish, and examine its validity and reliability. Methods: It was translated into Turkish by three English-Turkish bilinguals who first worked independently, then worked together. Once a version was agreed upon, the scale was back-translated into English and was found to be equivalent. The final Turkish scale was tested upon 138 university students. Results: Item analysis, factor analysis, and internal reliability tests showed that the Turkish scale was internally reliable. Discriminant and predictive validity tests indicated that the Turkish scale was valid. There were no sex or age differences in Turkish scale, attesting further to its reliability and validity. Discussion: Future studies can use the validated Turkish Causal Uncertainty Scale both to replicate the findings found in other countries and to venture into new research areas.

Functional imaging of implicit marijuana associations during performance on an Implicit Association Test (IAT)

This research evaluated the neural correlates of implicit associative memory processes (habit-based processes) through the imaging (fMRI) of a marijuana Implicit Association Test. Drug-related associative memory effects have been shown to consistently predict level of drug use. To observe differences in neural activity of associative memory effects, this study compared 13 heavy marijuana users and 15 non-using controls, ranging in age from 18 to 25, during performance of a marijuana Implicit Association Test (IAT). Group by condition interactions in the putamen, caudate, and right inferior frontal gyrus were observed. Relative to non-users, marijuana users showed greater bilateral activity in the dorsal striatum (caudate and putamen) during compatible trials focused on perceived positive outcomes of use. Alternatively, relative to the marijuana-using group, the non-users showed greater activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus during incompatible trials, which require more effortful processing of information. Further, relative to fixation, heavy users showed bilateral activity in the caudate and putamen, hippocampus and some frontal regions during compatible trials and no significant activity during incompatible trials. The non-using group showed greater activity in frontal regions during incompatible trials relative to fixation and no significant activity during compatible trials. These findings are consistent with a dual process framework of appetitive behaviors proposing that (1) implicit associations underlying habit are mediated through neural circuitry dependent on the striatum, and (2) deliberative/controlled behaviors are mediated through circuitry more dependent on the prefrontal cortex.

Information processing in patients with first episode major depression

Few studies have investigated cognitive functioning in a group of patients experiencing a first episode of depression. The aim of this study was to investigate how patients diagnosed with a first episode of depression perform in effortful and non-effortful information processing compared to healthy controls. An experimental paradigm based on a visual search test was applied. Thirty-one patients and thirty-one healthy controls were included in the study. All patients experienced a severe level of symptom load at the time of testing. Results showed no significant differences between groups under any of the conditions. Findings in the present study indicate that patients with a first episode of depression perform equally to healthy controls in tasks requiring visual attention in both effortful and non-effortful information processing.

The relationship between residual symptoms of depression and emotional information processing

Introduction: Depression is associated with cognitive deficits, social withdrawal and high risk of relapse. Several factors have been proposed as pertaining to increasing the risk of relapse, including a bias in emotional information processing. This study was carried out to examine the relationships between major depressive disorder (MDD), level of depressive symptoms and bias in emotional effortful information processing. Method: Nineteen patients diagnosed with recurrent MDD and 19 matched controls were tested with an experimental visual face-in-the-crowd paradigm including sad, happy and neutral information. The patients were tested on average 9 months after hospitalization. At testing, the patient group showed an overall decrease in depression severity symptom load as measured on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), but with variable symptom load. Results: Reaction time (RT) did not vary between patients and controls in the visual face-in-the-crowd task or on a measure of psychomotor speed. In the patient group, symptom load was related to longer RTs when negative targets were shown against positive distractors. The results revealed a specific bias in response to negative emotional information. Conclusions: Symptom load in the patient group is related to a negative bias in emotional information processing that cannot be explained by psychomotor retardation.

Effortful information processing in patients with major depression — A 10-year follow-up study

The aim of the present study was to longitudinally investigate effortful cognitive functioning in a group of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) in a 10-year follow-up period. Results at inclusion in the acute phase of MDD showed impaired effortful processing and that this impairment prevailed at a 6-month follow-up, despite significant symptom reduction. Non-effortful processing was normal as compared to healthy controls. Sixteen patients along with 16 healthy controls were included in the 10-year follow-up. They all participated in the original study and were matched for age and educational length. The mean symptom load at the time of testing at the 10-year follow-up indicated that the patients as a group were in remission. All participants were examined with a visual search paradigm, with demands for effortful and non-effortful processing. Results showed that the patient group had normalized their performance for effortful information processing and no longer differed significantly from the healthy controls at the 10-year follow-up, and the lack of difference between the groups for non-effortful processing remained the same. These results indicate that short-term effortful cognitive impairments normalize over the course of long-term recovery that goes together with clinical improvement and remission.

The impact of fatigue on cognitive functioning in patients with multiple sclerosis

Objective: To study the impact of physical and mental fatigue on cognitive complaints and cognitive performance in patients with multiple sclerosis. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: An outpatient neurology clinic. Subjects: Eighty patients diagnosed with clinically definite multiple sclerosis. Measures: The subscales physical and mental fatigue of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory; the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Cognitive Failure Questionnaire. Cognitive performance was assessed by an extensive neuropsychological test battery, including several tasks requiring effortful information processing. Results: Both anxiety and depression and mental fatigue significantly contributed to cognitive complaints, explaining respectively about 9% and 39% of the total variance. The contribution of physical fatigue to cognitive complaints was not significant. Both physical and mental fatigue did not significantly contribute to cognitive performance in terms of mental speed, attention, memory and executive functioning. Conclusions: To refine interventions for those patients with cognitive complaints, we advise adding measurements of anxiety, depression and fatigue to their neuropsychological assessment. Fatigue permits extensive neuropsychological assessment, which is needed to detect cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis.

Automatic and Strategic Representation of the Self in Major Depression: Trait and State Abnormalities

Dysfunctional negative thoughts about the self have long been hypothesized to reflect mood-independent cognitive vulnerability for major depressive disorder. These thoughts are believed to be predominantly automatic, in that they are involuntary and hard to inhibit. However, existing empirical evidence provides limited support for this theory, instead emphasizing the role of intentional ruminative (i.e., effortful) thoughts. To help clarify this theoretical controversy and investigate biased processing of emotional self-referent information in major depression, the authors utilized event-related brain potentials, which are used to index neural engagement during specific stages of cognitive processing. The P2 and late positive event-related brain components were examined during a free recall task in patients with current (N=17) or remitted (N=18) major depression and healthy comparison subjects (N=17). Participants made judgments on whether a word described them (self-referential condition) or former U.S. President Bill Clinton (other-referential condition). Healthy comparison subjects and subjects with remitted, but not current, major depression demonstrated enhanced recall of positive self-referent items. Greater component amplitudes in response to negative relative to positive self-referent items were evident in individuals with current and remitted major depression during the automatic processing stage (indexed by the P2 component) and in individuals with current depression during effortful encoding (indexed by the late positive component). Observed mood-independent abnormalities in automatic processing and mood-dependent abnormalities in effortful processing of emotional self-referent information provide direct support for an integrative theory of cognitive dysfunction in major depression, which amalgamates two main, but largely competing, theories of the disorder.

Enduring cognitive dysfunction in unipolar major depression: A test–retest study using the Stroop paradigm

The aim of the study was to investigate automatic and effortful information processing with the Stroop paradigm in a long term perspective in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Patients were tested at two test occasions: at inclusion with a Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) score >18, and after 6 months, when most patients had experienced symptom reduction. The Stroop paradigm is considered to measure aspects of attention and executive functioning and consists of three conditions/cards: naming the color of the patches (Color), reading of the color-words (Word) and naming the ink color of color-words (Color-Word). The Color-Word condition is proved to be the most cognitive demanding task and requires the proband to actively suppress interference and is therefore considered to require more effortful information processing, whereas naming the color of the patches and reading the color-words are expected to be more automatic and less cognitive demanding. A homogenous group of 19 patients with unipolar recurrent MDD according to DSM-IV and a HDRS score of >18 were included in the study. A control group was individually matched for age, gender and level of education. Depressed patients performed equal to the control group on the Color and Word cards at both test occasions. However, the patients were impaired compared with the control group on the Color-Word card task at both test occasions. Thus, the depressed patients showed no improvement of effortful attention/executive performance as a function of symptom reduction. The results indicate that the depressed patients showed impaired cognitive performance on cognitive demanding tasks when symptomatic and that this impairment prevailed after 6 months, despite significant improvement in their depressive symptoms.

An Information Processing Theory of Ambivalence

This paper analyzes the sources of ambivalence toward political parties and candidates. We propose and test an information‐processing theory of ambivalence in which systematic processing is hypothesized to heighten partisan and candidate ambivalence. We show that ambivalence is linked to several dispositional sources of systematic processing, including individuals' information, motivation, and cognitive style. Specifically, we find that ambivalence tends to be greater among the well informed and those who are high in need for cognition while it tends to be lower among those motivated by directional goals. Collectively, our results suggest that levels of partisan and candidate ambivalence are greatest among those most likely to engage in effortful processing of information and that these effects are independent of value conflict. The results further suggest that the effects of effortful processing on ambivalence are moderated by attitude commitment.