Anxiety as a differentiating variable in emotional recognition in juvenile offenders with high callous-unemotional traits.

BACKGROUND: The presence of so-called callous-unemotional (CU) traits-lack of remorse/empathy, callous use of others and shallow/deficient affect-defines an important subgroup of children and adolescents with more severe and stable antisocial behaviours over time and may be a precursor to so-called psychopathy in adults. There are two main hypotheses to account for such traits, one emphasising deficits in recognition of specific emotions-the distress specific-and the other in aspects of facial recognition-the attention to the eyes hypothesis, but it may be that the manifestation of deficits is affected by the person's own emotional state. AIMS: To test the effect of anxiety scores on emotion recognition among young people high scoring for CU traits. METHODS: 14- to 21-year-olds serving sentences in youth justice institutions across Spain were invited to participate. Only those scoring above the cut-off on the Kimonis Inventory of Callous and Unemotional Traits were included. Anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Emotion recognition was assessed using the Emotional Face and Emotional Gaze Tasks. RESULTS: Of 91 (90% male) eligible participants, 53 had above threshold anxiety scores. The latter group recognised the emotional expressions of sadness, anger and fear earlier than their non-anxious peers, both when only the eye region was presented and when full faces were presented. There was less difference between groups in the case of the emotions of disgust and happiness, with both groups recognising these emotions earlier and more accurately when a full face was presented. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that 14- to 21-year old who struggle with callous emotional traits should not be treated as a homogenous group but that testing for other relevant problems, including anxiety, may inform optimal routes to the emotion recognition training that is likely to help them relate to others more prosocially.

Emotional distraction in working memory: Bayesian-based evidence of the equivalent effect of positive and neutral interference.

Evidence has shown that negative distracting stimuli are most difficult to control when we are focused in a relevant task, while positive and neutral distractors might be equally overcome. Still, recent meta-analytic evidence has pointed out that differences in the ability to cope with positive or neutral distractors may be difficult to detect in healthy people and in laboratory sets. Here we re-analyse memory performance in four already published working memory experiments in which affective and non-affective distractors were used. We focused on the positive versus neutral contrast, which did not reveal differences in the original analysis, with the aim of quantifying evidence for the null hypothesis using a Bayesian approach. Bayes factor (BF) estimates show substantial evidence in favour to the absence of differences in three out of four datasets. Further, BF aggregated from the four studies shows stronger evidence for the null hypothesis. Results from this analysis show that WM performance after positive and neutral interference can be considered equivalent, suggesting that positive distractors can be overcome to the same extent as neutral ones.

Cognitive predictors of self-awareness in patients with acquired brain injury along neuropsychological rehabilitation.

Previous research has identified a critical role of executive function and memory in self-awareness, a metacognitive capacity often impaired in acquired brain injury. Through this observational study, we aimed to explore the effect of cognitive rehabilitation on the predictive value of these variables, as also whether any of them can predict the level of self-awareness once the cognitive rehabilitation is completed. 69 patients underwent a neuropsychological assessment, including self-awareness, at admission to and discharge from a cognitive rehabilitation process. Regression analysis was performed at these two moments and a third one was conducted to evaluate whether any of the variables at admission predicted the level of self-awareness at discharge. Verbal fluency was found to be the best predictor of self-awareness, both at admission and discharge. In addition, inhibition and cognitive flexibility, as well as episodic memory, appeared as significant predictors of post-rehabilitation self-awareness. Finally, verbal fluency was revealed as the unique pre-rehabilitation predictor of subsequent level of self-awareness following rehabilitation. While post-acute self-awareness is predicted by non-specific executive measures, the cognitive improvement putatively induced by neuropsychological rehabilitation reveals the contribution of more specific executive and memory functions. Importantly, pre-rehabilitation verbal fluency scores predicted the level of self-awareness after cognitive rehabilitation.

The Role of Religion and Religiosity in Alcohol Consumption in Adolescents in Spain.

This study explored the relationship between religion, religiosity and alcohol consumption in a sample of 2.890 adolescents (ages 12-18) in Madrid, Spain. Results showed that non-believers were the group that consume and abuse alcohol the most, as opposed to Catholics. Besides, religiosity was related to a lower alcohol use. Therefore, religion and religiosity in Spanish adolescents appear to be related to a low alcohol use. This contribution may help to clarify the risk and protection factors for alcohol consumption by adolescents and contribute to strengthening the preventive actions.

Victim's Perspective of Forgiveness Seeking Behaviors After Transgressions.

Forgiveness seeking after a relational transgression is an important aspect of relational repair from an interpersonal perspective, although it has received much less attention than the process of granting forgiveness. This research focuses on the victim's perspective of the transgressor's behaviors and how they are related to forgiveness and offense characteristics. This paper proposes a multidimensional concept of seeking forgiveness that includes four dimensions: apologies, restorative action, relational caring behaviors, and diverting behaviors. A questionnaire for assessing these dimensions was developed and tested with a general population sample of 450 subjects. Participants recalled a specific offense and then answered a questionnaire about the perceived usefulness of different forgiveness-seeking behaviors, a forgiveness inventory, and several questions regarding the characteristics of the offense (severity, intentionality, and frequency). Our results support the four-factor structure of the questionnaire. As the perceived intentionality of the offense increases, behaviors that are directly related to the transgression, such as apologies and restorative actions, are experienced as less useful for forgiveness. The more hurtful the offense, the less useful the diverting behaviors are. Behavior such as apologies and restorative action are related to a lower (less) motivation for revenge, while all forgiveness-seeking behaviors are related to an increase in feelings of benevolence toward the offender.

Change in the center of the distribution and in the individual scores: Relation with heteroskedastic pre- and post-test distributions.

BACKGROUND: Although average-based effect size (ES) and percentage of individual changes (PIC) are quite different, they are not independent: larger ESs lead to higher PICs. However, this association has not been sufficiently explored. METHOD: We analyzed this association based on data simulated in the context of a pre-post design, with and without control groups. We simulated various distributions, sample sizes, degrees of test-retest reliability, effect sizes, and different variances in pre- and post-test. RESULTS: The PIC is closely associated with the ES across a wide variety of empirically frequent scenarios. In the "single group pre-post designs", the linear regression model shows R2 values above 0.90. In the "control group pre-post designs", the linear regression model shows R2 values above 0.80. These results were found even when the post-test variability differed from that of the pre-test, replicating, extending and generalizing the findings in previous studies. CONCLUSIONS: (1) In the absence of information about the PIC, the ES may be used to estimate this percentage. (2) The PIC is useful in interpreting the meaning of ES measures.

Self-Awareness Moderates the Association Between Executive Dysfunction and Functional Independence After Acquired Brain Injury.

OBJECTIVE: Impaired self-awareness (SA) is a common symptom after suffering acquired brain injury (ABI) which interferes with patient's rehabilitation and their functional independence. SA is associated with executive function and declarative memory, two cognitive functions that are related to participants' daily living functionality. Through this observational study, we aim to explore whether SA may play a moderator role in the relation between these two cognitive processes and functional independence. METHOD: A sample of 69 participants with ABI completed a neuropsychological assessment focused on executive function and declarative memory which also included a measure of SA and functional independence. Two separated linear models were performed including functional independence, SA, and two neuropsychological factors (declarative memory and executive function) derived from a previous principal component analysis. RESULTS: Moderation analysis show a significant interaction between SA and executive function, reflecting an association between lower executive functioning and poorer functional outcome, only in participants with low levels of SA. Notwithstanding, declarative memory do not show a significant interaction with SA, even though higher declarative memory scores were associated with better functional independence. CONCLUSIONS: SA seems to play a moderator effect between executive function, but not declarative memory, and functional independence. Accordingly, participants with executive deficits and low levels of SA might benefit from receiving specific SA interventions in the first instance, which would in turn positively impact on their functional independence.

Alcohol consumption in adolescents: The predictive role of drinking motives.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have shown differences in the motivational processes that lead to excessive alcohol consumption among adolescents. The paper focuses on the analysis of the reasons for alcohol consumption among minors, and compare the differences according to sex, age, and level of consumption. METHOD: A representative sample (N = 2,865) of adolescents aged 12 to 18 years (mean age 14.24, dt = 1.33) was collected. The variables abuse, binge drinking and drinking motives were evaluated using a questionnaire designed ad hoc, which identified the Cooper's four categories of motives. RESULTS: The analyses (ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and logistic regression) showed that there were no differences between young men and women regarding consumption or binge drinking. Minors who abused alcohol experience consumption as pleasurable in itself, as an important source of intrinsic reinforcement. Conformity predicted the problematic consumption of alcohol among boys and a decrease in the frequency of binge drinking among girls. In addition, the larger group showed more presence of enhancement and social motives. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that it would not be of interest to focus prevention on the negative consequences of consumption, but rather on the training of specific skills.

Changes in body mass of expectant male cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus).

It has been noted that expectant cotton-top tamarin males in captivity experience a body mass increase during the last months of their mates' pregnancies, and this has been explained as being a male physiological response. We studied the body mass of 4 inexperienced and 4 experienced expectant males, and we expected to observe a larger body mass increase among the experienced ones since they undergo multiple hormonal changes in comparison to inexperienced expectant males. However, while inexperienced expectant males gained body mass during months 4-6 of the pregnancy period by a mean +/-SD of 5.4 +/- 3.1% (i.e. 29 +/- 17 g), the experienced ones did not (mean +/- SD of months 4-6, 0.5 +/- 1.7%, i.e. 5 +/- 12 g). The results suggest that other factors, such as behavioural communication between pairs and feeding and resting behaviour, should be studied in order to clarify the basis of this body mass increase.