Does Attentional Style Moderate the Relationship between Time Perspective and Social Network Addiction? A Cross-Sectional Study on a Sample of Social Networking Sites Users

The present study investigates the role of attentional style as a moderator variable between temporal perspective and social network addiction, since little is known about users’ cognitive variables involved in this kind of addictive behavior. To achieve this goal, a sample of 186 volunteers and anonymous social networking sites users (M = 34%; F = 66%; Mage = 22.54 years; SD = 3.94; range: 18 ÷ 45 years) participated in a cross-sectional study. All participants filled out self-report instruments measuring temporal perspective, internal vs. external attentional style, and social network addiction. The results align with the previous literature and show that present fatalistic and past negative time orientations are associated with social network addiction, whereas the future is a negative precursor. Moreover, a four-step hierarchical regression analysis showed that internal attentional style is a significant moderator of the relationship between high levels of temporal perspective and a high level of social network addiction. This result suggests that social network-addicted users are oriented toward internal stimuli such as their intrusive thoughts or feelings and that social network addiction is similar to obsessive compulsive disorders, depression, or anxiety. Despite its limitations, the present study could contribute to the efforts of clinicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, teachers, and all those who seek to combat social network addiction in developing treatment programs to reduce its harmful effects.

Perceptual processing links autism and synesthesia: a twin study

Background. Synesthesia occurs more commonly in individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) and is associated with autistic traits and autism-related perceptual processing characteristics, including a more detail-focused attentional style and altered sensory sensitivity. Furthermore, autistic traits and autism-like sensory sensitivity show a synesthesia-dosage effect, since they increase with the amount of synesthesia types in synesthetes and with the degree of synesthesia (how consistently colors are associated with graphemes) in non-synesthetes.Methods. Here we investigated a predominantly non-synesthetic twin sample, enriched for ASC and other neurodevelopmental disorders (n=65, 14-34 years, 60% female). We modelled the linear relationships between the degree of synesthesia and autistic traits, sensory sensitivity, and visual perception, both within-twin pairs (22 pairs) where all factors shared by twins are implicitly controlled (including 50-100% genetics), and across the entire cohort.Results. Our results indicate that the degree of synesthesia is associated with autistic traits only within the attention to details domain and with sensory hyper-, but not hypo-sensitivity. These associations were stronger within-twin pairs compared to across the sample. Further, twins with a higher degree of synesthesia were better than their co-twins in identifying fragmented images in the Fragmented Pictures Test (FPT).Conclusions. This study is the first twin study on the association between synesthesia and autism-related perceptual and clinical features, and the results suggest that a twin design can be more sensitive for detecting these associations. Consistent with previous findings, the results support an association between the degree of synesthesia and autism-related perceptual features, while utilizing a different self-report measure for sensory sensitivity. The novel finding of enhanced feature integration in the FPT in twins with a higher degree of synesthesia challenges the view of a generally more detail-focused attentional style in synesthesia and might be related to enhanced memory or mental imagery in more synesthetic individuals.

Moderating Influence of Dominant Attentional Style and Exercise Intensity on Responses to Asynchronous Music

We examined independent and combined influences of asynchronous music and dominant attentional style (DAS) on psychological and psychophysical variables during exercise using mixed methods. Participants (N = 34) were grouped according to DAS and completed treadmill runs at three intensities (low, moderate, high) crossed with three music conditions (motivational, oudeterous, no-music control). State attentional focus shifted from dissociative to associative with increasing intensity and was most aligned with DAS during moderate-intensity exercise. Both music conditions facilitated dissociation at low-to-moderate intensities. At high exercise intensity, both music conditions were associated with reduced RPE among participants with an associative DAS. Dissociators reported higher RPE overall during moderate and high intensities. Psychological responses were most positive in the motivational condition, followed by oudeterous and control. Findings illustrate the relevance of individual differences in DAS as well as task intensity and duration when selecting music for exercise.