Associations Between Psychopathic Traits and Laboratory-Based Aggression: Moderating Effects of Provocation and Distraction

There are two distinct combinations of psychopathic traits (primary and secondary) that have been proposed to be a function of unique cognitive-affective deficits. This study sought to use theories of psychopathy to understand the factors that exacerbate (i.e., provocation) and attenuate (i.e., distraction) aggression in individuals high in psychopathic traits in a controlled laboratory task. Male undergraduates, who scored across the range of primary and secondary psychopathic traits, completed the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP; Taylor, 1967 ) under conditions of low and high provocation. Participants were also randomly assigned to either a distraction condition, in which they completed a distracting concurrent task, or a control condition, in which no such task was completed. Inconsistent with our prediction, results showed that regardless of condition, primary psychopathic traits were positively related to laboratory aggression. Consistent with our hypothesis, a positive association between secondary psychopathic traits and laboratory physical aggression was observed following high provocation among nondistracted participants; this association was significantly reduced among distracted participants. These results clarify the factors that contribute to aggression for individuals high in psychopathic traits and may provide directions for future intervention development.

Testing for Depressive Realism in a Clinically Depressed Sample

The depressive-realism effect refers to a phenomenon in which depressed individuals are more realistic at assessing the relationship between two events than non-depressed individuals. Recent evidence suggests that the depressive realism hypothesis is weaker than first thought. Thus, we sought evidence for depressive-realism under conditions that we hypothesised would maximise the effect. We tested a clinically depressed sample of participants who were administered a rumination induction. Twenty-eight clinically depressed and 39 non-depressed participants were randomly allocated to either a rumination condition (focused on the causes, consequences, and meaning of their mood) or a distraction condition (focused on external objects/events such as a classroom). Participants then completed a contingency task in which there was no relationship between their responses and an outcome, and they were asked to make a judgment of how much control they had over an outcome. Both groups and conditions did not differ in their judgments of control; participants in all conditions showed a non-normative judgment of control. The depressive-realism effect was not observed in this study, even when depressed participants were encouraged to ruminate. Rather, the present study clearly demonstrates the robustness of the illusion of control.

The effect of background music and noise on the cognitive test performance of Chinese introverts and extraverts

Previous research has shown that background auditory distractors (music and sound/noise) have a more severe impact on introverts’ performances on complex cognitive tasks than extraverts (Dobbs, Furnham, & McClelland, 2011). The present study is a partial replication of Dobbs et al., but involving Chinese rather than English participants. Ninety-two Chinese participants (59 female) carried out three cognitive tasks with the presence of Chinese pop songs, background office noise, and silence. The results did not reveal any differences in performance as a function of the distraction condition, nor was there a difference in performance between extraverts and introverts. The failure to replicate is explained in terms of habituation to noisy environments among Chinese participants.

Sex Differences in Working Memory

In two separate studies, sex differences in modal-specific elements of working memory were investigated by utilizing words and pictures as stimuli. Groups of men and women performed a free-recall task of words or pictures in which 20 items were presented concurrently and the number of correct items recalled was measured. Following stimulus presentation, half of the participants were presented a verbal-based distraction task. On the verbal working-memory task, performance of men and women was not significantly different in the no-distraction condition. However, in the distraction condition, women's recall was significantly lower than their performance in the no-distraction condition and men's performance in the distraction condition. These findings are consistent with previous research and point to sex differences in cognitive ability putatively resulting from functional neuroanatomical dissimilarities. On the visual working-memory task, women showed significantly greater recall than men. These findings are inconsistent with previous research and underscore the need for further research.

P50 Gating is Not Affected by Selective Attention

The influence of selective attention on P50 gating - the decline of the amplitude of the P50 component of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) to the second of a pair of clicks - was examined. Three conditions were presented in counterbalanced order to 29 healthy volunteers: a baseline condition, in which the double click was presented and no specific task was required, an attention condition in which attention to the clicks was required, and a distraction condition in which paired clicks were presented during rehearsal time of a reversed digit span task. P50 gating, as measured with ratio and difference scores, did not differ across the three conditions. However, the amplitude of the N100 showed an increase in the attention condition compared to the two nonattention conditions, supporting the validity of our task manipulations. The data on P50 demonstrate that P50 gating is not affected by attentional manipulations.

Effects of Imagery Ability and Instructions on Recall of Information on Spatial Location

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of ability to image visually and imagery instructions on recall of information on spatial locations. 18 high and 18 low visual-imagers reproduced six spatial locations in each of six conditions of reproduction: immediate reproduction, 10-sec, 20-sec., 30-sec., and 40-sec. unfilled retention intervals and a 30-sec. distraction condition in which subjects performed a competing visualization task. Half of the high and low visual-imagers received instructions to use visual imagery as a retention strategy, while the others received no instructions. Analysis indicated that high visual-imagers reproduced spatial locations with less error than low visual-imagers. In addition, the distraction condition disrupted recall for all subjects. However, instructions for imagery did not influence recall.

POLARIZATION OF RESPONSE AS A FUNCTION OF COGNITIVE TUNING SET AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

The present paper examines the thesis that the opportunity to think about an issue or object polarizes subjects' evaluation of that issue. Two variables hypothesized to affect the thought/polarization relationship were examined: the cognitive tuning set (Zajonc, 1960) given to the person prior to thinking, and individual differences in the ability to generate associations. It was hypothesized that an expectation to provide information to another would, by the required structuring of the material, induce more polarization with thought than would a set which induced an expectation to receive information. It was also hypothesized that subjects able to generate more associations would be less influenced by the tuning set. The data showed that thinking did not produce a polarization of evaluation compared with a distraction condition, contrary to hypothesis, but that the tuning sets enabled the subjects who were relatively more capable of generating associations to avoid depolarization after thought. For the less capable subjects, however, reception tuning aided polarization, contrary to hypothesis.