Low Attentional Control Research Articles

Underlying Personality Characteristics of Behavioral Inhibition in Children

Behavioral inhibition refers to the tendency of children to be unusually shy and to react with fear and withdrawal in situations that are novel and/or unfamiliar, and is generally regarded as a vulnerability factor for developing anxiety disorders. The present study investigated the hypothesis that behavioral inhibition is characterized by a specific constellation of two underlying personality characteristics, namely high levels of neuroticism and low levels of effortful control. For this purpose, 71 children completed measures of behavioral inhibition, neuroticism, attention control (which is a key element of effortful control), and insecure attachment. Results showed that children high on behavioral inhibition were indeed characterized by higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of attention control. However, this pattern of personality characteristics was not specific for behavioral inhibition. That is, insecurely attached children were also characterized by high neuroticism and low attention control. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

Within-language attention control in second language processing

This study investigated attention control in tasks involving the processing of relational terms (more highly grammaticized linguistic stimuli: spatial prepositions) and non-relational terms (less highly grammaticized lexical stimuli: nouns) in a first (L1) and second language (L2). Participants were adult bilinguals with greater proficiency in their L1 (English) than in their L2 (French) as determined by self-report and performance on a speeded word classification task. Attention control was operationalized in terms of shift costs obtained in an alternating runs experimental design (Rogers and Monsell, 1995). As hypothesized from consideration of the attention-directing functions of language, participants displayed significantly greater shift costs (lower attention control) for relational terms when performing in the L2 as compared to the L1, but no difference in shift costs for non-relational terms between the two languages. The results are discussed from a cognitive linguistic perspective and in relation to second language proficiency development.

Repression and the anxiety-defensiveness factor: Psychological correlates and manifestations

The study deals with the nature of repression as currently defined by low anxiety (Taylor's MAS) and high defensiveness (Marlowe-Crowne's Social Desirability Scale), and the psychological reality of the 4-group partition based on anxiety and defensiveness. The subjects, 227 men and women about 40 yr old, were administered questionnaires as part of a health survey. Analyses of variance showed that repressors scored low on Eysenck's neuroticism; low on negative emotions but high on positive emotions (MAACL, MACL); low on negative daydreams and low attentional control (Imaginal Processes Inventory); low on references to others and negative self descriptions but high on positive self descriptions and on experimental and actional contents (“Who-Am-I?”); low on somatic complaints (e.g. SUNYA checklist) but high on the motivation for physical health (Cognitive Orientation of Health, Kreitler & Kreitler). There were no differences in positive daydreaming, alexithymia, locus of control, authoritarianism, and somatization. Analyses of variance with anxiety and defensiveness as separate factors showed the two factors were involved in about half of the cases, but only one factor, mostly anxiety, in the other half. Major conclusions are that repression is a coping mechanism directed selectively against negative or unpleasant aspects and that the four groups have a broad-based psychological reality.