Decision Strategies while Intoxicated relate to Alcohol-Impaired Driving Attitudes and Intentions

Objective: Approximately 28 million individuals engage in alcohol-impaired driving (AID) every year. This study investigated individuals’ AID decision making strategies under intoxication, their variability across the breath alcohol concentration curve (BrAC), and the association between strategy and AID attitudes and intentions. Method: 79 adults (23.9 years, 57% women) who drank alcohol ≥2 days per week and lived >2 miles away from their typical drinking locations completed an alcohol administration protocol and AID decision making task. AID attitudes, intentions, and behaviors were assessed repeatedly across the BrAC curve. Bayesian cognitive modeling identified decision strategies used by individuals on the AID decision making task, revealing whether alcohol consumption level and/or ride service cost factored into individuals’ decisions to drive while impaired or obtain a ride. Additional analyses tested whether AID attitudes and intentions were related to individuals’ decision strategies. Results: Two decision strategies were examined on the ascending and descending limb of the BrAC curve: compensatory (both consumption level and ride service cost factored into AID decisions) and non-compensatory (only consumption level factored into AID decisions). Switching to a compensatory strategy on the descending limb was associated with lower perceived intoxication, perceiving AID as less dangerous, and being willing to drive above the legal BrAC limit. Conclusions: Results suggest that risk for engaging in AID is higher for those using a cost-sensitive, compensatory strategy when making AID decisions under intoxication. Future research is needed to test whether AID countermeasures (e.g., subsidized ride services) are differentially effective according to decision strategy type.

Exploring the subjective experience and neural correlates of self-conscious emotion processing in autistic adolescents: Over-reliance on learned social rules during heightened perspective-taking demands may serve as compensatory strategy for less reflexive mentalizing

Autistic individuals experience a secondary wave of social cognitive challenges during adolescence, which impact interpersonal success (Picci & Scherf, 2015). To better understand these challenges, we investigated the subjective experience and neural correlates of self-conscious emotion (SCE) processing in autistic adolescent males compared to age- and IQ-matched neurotypical (NT) adolescents (ages 11-17). Study I investigated group differences in SCE attributions (the ability to recognize SCEs) and empathic SCEs (the ability/tendency to feel empathic SCEs) and the potential modulatory role of heightened perspective-taking (PT) demands. Furthermore, Study I explored associations between SCE processing, a triad of social cognitive abilities (self-awareness/introspection, perspective-taking/cognitive empathy, and affective empathy), and autistic features. Study II investigated group differences in neural activation patterns recruited during SCE processing and the potential modulatory role of heightened PT demands.During an MRI scan, participants completed the Self-Conscious Emotions Task (SCET), which featured salient, ecological video clips of adolescents in a singing competition. Videos represented two factors: emotion (embarrassment, pride) and PT demands (low, high). In low PT clips, singers’ emotions matched the situational context (singing quality; sing poorly, act embarrassed); in high PT clips, they did not (sing well, act embarrassed). Participants rated how intensely embarrassed and proud each singer felt. They also rated how empathically embarrassed and proud they felt for each singer. The ASD group recognized SCEs and felt empathic SCEs, and they did so with similar intensity as the NT group. However, the ASD group made atypical emotion attributions when PT demands were high, which more strongly reflected the situational context. Atypical attributions correlated with greater perspective-taking difficulties, more intense autistic features, and reduced social competence. An over-reliance on contextual cues may reflect a strict adherence to learned social rules, possibly compensating for less reflexive mentalizing, which may underlie real-world interpersonal challenges.Neuroimaging results support this interpretation. While the ASD and NT groups recruited strikingly similar neural patterns, there were group differences within social cognition regions, visual perception regions, salience regions, and sensorimotor regions, which were modulated by changes in PT demands/the situational context. These findings similarly suggest that greater social norm referencing may serve as a compensatory strategy for less reflexive mentalizing or for difficulties integrating discrepant mental state and contextual information. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Discourse Marker Na (那) as an Interpersonal-Level Compensatory Strategy in Clinical Interviews

Discourse markers (DMs) are characterized by multifunctionality in different contexts. This study addressed the use of the Chinese DM, na (那), as a solution to topical divergence, during clinical interactions with right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) patients. Drawing on data collected from clinical interviews between psychotherapists and RHD patients, this study examined the functions of na in response to RHD topical divergence, focusing on the topic and attitudinal aspects. It was found that na was mainly employed by psychotherapists to mark a reproffer of interview topics (i. e., an attempt to return to earlier topics), and a display of disalignment and disaffiliation with RHD topical divergence. These functions of na reflect the psychotherapists’ attempts to overcome communicative problems arising from RHD topical divergence, so as to ensure the achievement of the communicative goal. Thus, na can be interpreted as a compensatory strategy for dealing with RHD topical divergence on an interpersonal level. These findings not only expand our knowledge about the function spectrum of na, but also offer insights for RHD patients’ interlocutors to enhance conversational communication with RHD patients via the compensatory strategy.

How Self-confidence Moderates the Effect of Two-sided Messages on Purchase Intention

This article seeks to clarify how two-sided messages work by explaining their causal effects on purchase intention moderated by the self-confidence of individuals. Three studies were performed. Study 1 measured individuals’ levels of self-confidence and their purchase intentions in front of one- or two-sided messages. Studies 2 and 3 manipulated individuals’ levels of self-confidence and analysed the strategies used to evaluate alternatives in cognitive decision-making. Both studies elaborated on the underlying mechanisms by which low (study 2) and high (study 3) self-confident individuals process two-sided messages, explaining the results of study 1. Self-confidence is a moderator variable for the effect of two-sided messages on purchase intention. When an individual’s self-confidence level is high (low), exposure to a two-sided message will increase (reduce) purchase intentions compared to exposure to a one-sided message. Low self-confident individuals apply a non-compensatory strategy to evaluate the offer, whereas high self-confident individuals apply a compensatory strategy to evaluate the offer. The findings suggest a communication strategy oriented to inform and increase consumers’ self-confidence. The findings contribute to a more detailed and refined knowledge of the underlying mechanisms by which two-sided messages are processed.

Prospective Memory and Spontaneous Compensatory Mnemonic Strategy Use in the Laboratory and Daily Life in HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders

Objective: Older adults with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are at high risk for deficits in the resource-demanding, strategic aspects of prospective memory (PM) that can adversely affect health outcomes. This study examined the frequency and correlates of spontaneous compensatory strategy use during a laboratory-based PM task and its associations with the use of mnemonic strategies in daily life. Method: Participants included 53 older adults with HAND, 89 older persons with HIV without HAND, and 62 seronegatives who completed the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (CAMPROMPT), on which the type, frequency, and quality of their compensatory strategy use was quantified. Participants also completed self-report measures of PM symptoms and the frequency of mnemonic compensatory strategy use in daily life. Results: There were no significant group-level effects on strategy use during the CAMPROMPT. Persons with HAND had significantly lower time-, but not event-based PM scores. Higher compensatory strategy use was strongly associated with better PM, particularly for time-based cues. Moreover, higher compensatory strategy use on the CAMPROMPT was associated with more frequent general mnemonic strategy use in daily life, and specifically with more frequent use of internal PM strategies (e.g., visualization) for medication adherence. Conclusions: Spontaneous compensatory mnemonic strategy use can support PM performance among older adults with HAND in the laboratory, and this strategy use may parallel the use of similar strategies in daily life. Future studies may examine whether compensatory mnemonic strategies can be taught and used to support PM in the daily lives of older persons with HIV disease.

2D Video Analysis System to Analyze the Performance Model of Figure Roller Skating: A Pilot Study

Figure roller skating is a discipline composed of various movements which involve jumps, artistic figures and spins in a seamless program which has both technical and shapely difficult. A biomechanical analysis of a double salchow was performed using a 2D video analysis of one European and in two Italian roller skaters. On average, the high level (HL) roller skater showed a horizontal velocity of the center of mass higher than the average, especially in the prop stage, whereas the medium level (ML) and low level (LL) athletes reduced their velocity significantly. The spin angular velocity of the ML and LL skaters was always higher than of the HL. This phenomenon would seem to be a compensatory strategy for a lower jump height, with a reduced trunk-thigh angle and less thigh lever arm (coxo-femur/knee joints) during the take-off and landing phases of the double salchow jump.