Agents of Change: Geriatrics Workforce Programs Addressing Systemic Racism and Health Equity.

Many factors affect how individuals and populations age, including race, ethnicity, and diversity, which can contribute to increased disease risk, less access to quality healthcare, and increased morbidity and mortality. Systemic racism-a set of institutional policies and practices within a society or organization that perpetuate racial inequalities and discrimination-contributes to health inequities of vulnerable populations, particularly older adults. The National Association for Geriatrics Education (NAGE) recognizes the need to address and eliminate racial disparities in healthcare access and outcomes for older adults who are marginalized due to the intersection of race and age. In this paper, we discuss an anti-racist framework that can be used to identify where an organization is on a continuum to becoming anti-racist and to address organizational change. Examples of NAGE member Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Programs (GWEPs) and Geriatrics Academic Career Awards (GACAs) activities to become anti-racist are provided to illustrate the framework and to guide other workforce development programs and healthcare institutions as they embark on the continuum to become anti-racist and improve the care and health of vulnerable older adults.

Contributions of global and local processing on medical image perception.

Purpose: The influential holistic processing hypothesis attributes expertise in medical image perception to cognitive processing of global gist information. However, it has remained unclear whether or how experts use rapid global impression of images for their subsequent diagnostic decisions based on the focal sign of cancer. We hypothesized that continuous-global and discrete-local processes jointly attribute to radiological experts' detection of mammogram, with different weights and temporal dynamics. Approach: We examined experienced versus inexperienced observers' performance at first (500 ms) versus second (2500 ms) mammogram image presentation in an abnormality detection task. We applied a dual-trace signal detection (DTSD) model of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) to assess the time-varying contributions of global and focal cancer signals on mammogram reading and medical expertise. Results: The hierarchical Bayesian DTSD modeling of empirical ROCs revealed that mammogram expertise (experienced versus inexperienced observers) manifests largely in a continuous-global component for the detection of the gist of abnormality at the early phase of mammogram reading. For the second presentation of the same mammogram images, the experienced participants showed increased task performance that was largely driven by better processing of discrete-local information, whereas the global processing of abnormality remained saturated from the first exposure. Modeling of the mouse trajectory of the confidence rating responses further revealed the temporal dynamics of global and focal processing. Conclusions: These results suggest a joint contribution of continuous-global and discrete-local processes on medical expertise, and these processes could be analytically dissociated.

Detrimental effects of effortful physical exertion on a working memory dual-task in older adults.

Action and cognition often interact in everyday life and are both sensitive to the effects of aging. The present study tested the effects of a simple physical action, effortful handgrip exertion, on working memory (WM) and inhibitory control in younger and older adults. Using a novel dual-task paradigm, participants engaged in a WM task with 0 or 5-distractors under concurrent physical exertion (5% vs. 30% individual maximum voluntary contraction). Effortful physical exertion, although failing to effect WM accuracy in the distractor absent condition for both age groups, reduced WM accuracy for the older, but not young adults, in the distractor-present condition. Similarly, older adults experienced greater distractor interference in the distractor-present condition under high physical exertion, indexed by slower reaction time (RT), confirmed by hierarchical Bayesian modeling of RT distributions. Our finding that a simple but effortful physical task results in impaired cognitive control may be empirically important for understanding everyday functions of older adults. For example, the ability to ignore task-irrelevant items declines with age and this decline is greater when simultaneously performing a physical task, which is a frequent occurrence in daily life. The negative interactions between cognitive and motor tasks may further impair daily functions, beyond the negative consequences of reduced inhibitory control and physical abilities in older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Flow in the time of COVID-19: Findings from China.

In February 2020, the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was raging in Wuhan, China and quickly spreading to the rest of the world. This period was fraught with uncertainty for those in the affected areas. The present investigation examined the role of two potential coping resources during this stressful period of uncertainty: flow and mindfulness. Participants in Wuhan and other major cities affected by COVID-19 (N = 5115) completed an online survey assessing subjective experiences of flow, mindfulness, and well-being. Longer quarantine was associated with poorer well-being; flow and mindfulness were associated with better well-being on some measures. However, flow-but not mindfulness-moderated the link between quarantine length and well-being, such that people who experienced high levels flow showed little or no association between quarantine length and poorer well-being. These findings suggest that experiencing flow (typically by engaging in flow-inducing activities) may be a particularly effective way to protect against potentially deleterious effects of a period of quarantine.

Composite Face Effect Predicts Configural Encoding in Visual Short-Term Memory.

In natural vision, visual scenes consist of individual items (e.g., trees) and global properties of items as a whole (e.g., forest). These different levels of representations can all contribute to perception, natural scene understanding, sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Despite these various hierarchical representations across perception and cognition, the nature of the global representations has received considerably less attention in empirical research on working memory than item representations. The present study aimed to understand the perceptual root of the configural information retained in Visual Short-term Memory (VSTM). Specifically, we assessed whether configural VSTM was related to holistic face processing across participants using an individual differences approach. Configural versus item encoding in VSTM was assessed using Xie and Zhang's (2017) dual-trace Signal Detection Theory model in a change detection task for orientation. Configural face processing was assessed using Le Grand composite face effect (CFE). In addition, overall face recognition was assessed using Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT). Across participants, holistic face encoding, but not face recognition accuracy, predicted configural information, but not item information, retained in VSTM. Together, these findings suggest that configural encoding in VSTM may have a perceptual root.