Learned feature regularities enable suppression of spatially overlapping stimuli.

Contemporary theories of attentional control state that information can be prioritized based on selection history. Even though theories agree that selection history can impact representations of spatial location, which in turn helps guide attention, there remains disagreement on whether nonspatial features (e.g., color) are modulated in a similar way. While previous work has demonstrated color suppression using visual search tasks, it is possible that the location corresponding to the distractor was suppressed, consistent with a spatial mechanism of suppression. Here, we sought to rule out this possibility by testing whether similar suppression of a learned distractor color can occur for spatially overlapping visual stimuli. On a given trial, two spatially superimposed stimuli (line arrays) were tilted either left or right of vertical and presented in one of four distinct colors. Subjects performed a speeded report of the orientation of the "target" array with the most lines. Critically, the distractor array was regularly one color, and this high-probability color was never the color of the target array, which encouraged learned suppression. In two experiments, responses to the target array were fastest when the distractor array was in the high-probability color, suggesting participants suppressed the distractor color. Additionally, when regularities were removed, the high-probability distractor color continued to benefit speeded target identification for individual subjects (E1) but slowed target identification (E2) when presented in the target array. Together, these results indicate that learned suppression of feature-based regularities modulates target detection performance independent of spatial location and persists over time.

The AHK-Wales Report Card 2018: Policy Measures - is it possible to 'score' qualitative data?

Comprehensive and meaningful policy analysis in the field of physical activity is difficult, not least because of the variable influence of other policy domains. However, in 2011 a Policy Assessment Tool (PAT) was developed by members of the WHO European Network for the Promotion of Health-Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA Europe) and tested in several different countries. In 2014, Wales joined a global initiative, active healthy kids (AHK) Global Alliance, that supported the development of country level 'Report Cards' scoring a range of indicators that influence physical activity amongst children and young people, one of which was labelled 'Government Strategies and Investments'. For the first two Report Cards this indicator and its associated 'score' was informed subjectively by expert consensus. In 2018, it was decided to utilize the Policy Audit Tool Version 2 (PAT v2) developed by HEPA Europe to aid analysis and to develop and test a scoring rubric aligned to the tool. The subsequent process indicated that the tool could be applied and translated into a 'grade' that could be used in conjunction with the other indicators of the AHK Report Card to generate overall Report Card grades. The use of both the HEPA PAT v2 and the scoring rubric offers an opportunity to provide greater consistency and potential for developing both comparative and trend data when assessing policy impact on physical activity in children and young people. These tools should be utilized by the AHK Global Alliance in future Report Cards.

Moral decision making, religious strain, and the experience of moral injury.

OBJECTIVE: Moral injury is the lasting psychological, spiritual, and behavioral effects of having perpetrated acts that transgress moral boundaries. Contemporary models of moral injury in military veterans examine the role of transgressive acts, moral appraisals of these acts, and the symptoms of moral injury. However, little research has examined potential pathways between these elements. The current study examined appraisals of one's acts and religious strain as potential mediators of the link between transgressive acts and symptoms of moral injury. Further, given the inherent importance of moral cognitions in the appraisal process, we tested whether the acts to appraisals link was moderated by altruism in military veterans. METHOD: An online survey, distributed using crowdsourcing software, was completed by military veterans. The survey included measures of transgressive acts, appraisals of these acts, religious strain, altruism, and self- and other-directed symptoms of moral injury. Mediation and moderated serial mediation were used to test the hypotheses. RESULTS: Our results indicated appraisals and religious strain significantly mediated the acts to symptoms pathway for both self- and other-directed aspects of moral injury. This pathway was significantly moderated by altruism such that a stronger link exists between acts and appraisals at higher levels of altruism. CONCLUSION: Overall, these findings suggest that religious functioning and moral decision making are important aspects of the experience of moral injury and are worthy of future study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A comparison of the monetized impact of IQ decrements from mercury emissions.

OBJECTIVE: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the upper bound of benefits from removing mercury emissions by U.S. power plants after implementing its Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) is $210 million per year. In contrast, Trasande et al. [Environ Health Perspect 113:590-596 (2005)] estimated that American power plants impose an economic cost of $1.3 billion due to mercury emissions. It is impossible to directly compare these two estimates for a number of reasons, but we are able to compare the assumptions used and how they affect the results. DATA SOURCES AND DATA EXTRACTION: We use Trasande's linear model with a cord/maternal blood ratio of 1.7 and calculate health effects to children whose mothers had blood mercury levels >/= 4.84 microg/L. DATA SYNTHESIS: We introduce the assumptions that the U.S. EPA used in its Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) analysis and discuss the implications. Using this approach, it is possible to illustrate why the U.S. EPA assumptions produce a lower estimate. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of all the U.S. EPA assumptions, except for those related to discounting, decreases the estimated monetized impact of global anthropogenic mercury emissions in the Trasande model by 81%. These assumptions also decrease the estimated impact of U.S. sources (including power plants) by almost 97%. When discounting is included, the U.S. EPA assumptions decrease Trasande's monetized estimate of global impacts by 88% and the impact of U.S. power plants by 98%.