Early-Career Pedagogical Practice: The Value of Training Undergraduates to Teach.

Pedagogical experiences prior to a career in higher education are limited, particularly for interested undergraduates. We detail here the experience of an undergraduate mentored in pedagogical techniques such as topic and reading selection, assessment creation and grading, and classroom management. Their pedagogical training included co-instructing a course with their mentor. The mentee found the experience to be rewarding, learning the areas in which they excelled and struggled. For the mentor, this was a valuable opportunity to reflect on their own pedagogical choices and techniques. The process provided a new perspective for each of us as we viewed the course through the lens of the other person. More opportunities for undergraduates to undertake similar roles may strengthen teaching in higher education and grant early career experiences to interested individuals. Though rewarding, course construction and implementation is time-consuming and difficult. Balancing time and effort beyond the class is a required skill, and frequent communication between the mentee and mentor is necessary.

Beyond the FN: A spatio-temporal analysis of the neural correlates of feedback processing in a virtual Blackjack game.

Studies using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine feedback processing in gambling tasks have focused almost exclusively on components elicited between 200 and 500ms after feedback over the frontal-central region of the scalp (i.e., P2, feedback negativity (FN), and P3a). In contrast, studies examining the functional neuroanatomy of feedback processing reveal activation in a distributed network that includes the anterior and posterior cingulate, the lateral and medial orbitofrontal cortex, the occipital cortex, and the basal ganglia. In the current study, we used ERPs in combination with spatial principal components-massive univariate analysis and distributed source analysis to examine the time course, topography, and neural generators of ERPs elicited in a virtual Blackjack game from 0 to 2000ms after feedback was delivered. The ERP data revealed the P2-FN-P3a complex, as well as, broadly distributed transient and slow wave activity that was sensitive to the magnitude and valence of an outcome. The ERPs reflected activation in the anterior and posterior cingulate, in addition to the occipital, temporal and medial frontal cortices. These data demonstrate that ERPs can provide valuable insight into the timing of neural recruitment within a distributed cortical network during the first two seconds of feedback processing.

Effects of media use, smart phone addiction, and adult ADHD symptoms on wellbeing of college students during the COVID-19 lockdown: Dispositional hope as a protective factor.

Introduction: The present study investigated the role of dispositional hope as a potential protective factor moderator in the relationship between adult ADHD symptoms, media use/smart phone addiction and wellbeing during the period of isolation because of the COVID-19 pandemic among students in Romania. Methods: A sample of 333 college students (86.8% female and 13.2% male) between the age of 18 and 47 with a mean of 20.6 years old from West University of Timisoara completed online surveys. Mediation and moderation analyses were performed to assess the associations among the variables. Results: Results confirmed the negative associations of both adult ADHD and smartphone addiction with overall wellbeing. The smartphone addiction/ wellbeing association was moderated by dispositional hopefulness, such that high hopefulness served as a protective factor [b = -0.008, 95% percentile CI (-0.0134; -0.0012)]. Discussion: Implications for the educational environment are discussed.

The association between chronic exposure to video game violence and affective picture processing: an ERP study.

Exposure to video game violence (VGV) is known to result in desensitization to violent material and may alter the processing of positive emotion related to facial expressions. The present study was designed to address three questions: (1) Does the association between VGV and positive emotion extend to stimuli other than faces, (2) is the association between VGV and affective picture processing observed with a single presentation of the stimuli, and (3) is the association between VGV and the response to violent stimuli sensitive to the relevance of emotion for task performance? The data revealed that transient modulations of the event-related potentials (ERPs) related to attentional orienting and sustained modulations of the ERPs related to evaluative processing were sensitive to VGV exposure.

The effect of music-induced mood on attentional networks.

Attention network theory suggests that there are three separate neural networks that execute the discrete functions of alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Previous research on the influence of mood on attention has shown subtle and inconsistent results. The attention network theory may aid in clarifying the influence of mood on attention. The present study investigated the influence of mood on attentional networks in a normal population. Participants performed the Attention Network Test (ANT), which provides functional measures of alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Positive or negative mood was induced by listening to music with a positive or negative valence, respectively; neutral mood was induced by reading a collection of basic facts about China. The results revealed that negative mood led to a significantly higher alerting efficiency relative to other moods, while there were no significant mood effects on orienting or executive attention efficiency. According to the algorithm underlying the ANT, the higher alerting efficiency in the negative mood condition can be attributed to relatively greater benefits of cueing effects. The findings are discussed in the context of the noradrenergic system and of evolutionary significance. Specifically, the increase in the alerting function during negative mood states may be due to the modulation effect of negative mood on the noradrenergic system, and/or to the survival benefit resulting from an increase in automatic vigilance towards negative information. The current results suggest that as the influence of negative mood on attention appears to specifically consist in an enhanced alerting function, it may not be found in studies where the three attentional networks are not dissociated.

Shooting Your Accuracy in the Foot? Examining the Short-Term Effect of Playing an Action or Strategy Video Game on Cognitive Control.

The current study examined the effects of brief video game exposure on cognitive control using event-related potentials (ERPs). Cognitive control was assessed by ERP components associated with the ability to detect (N2) and resolve (SP) conflict when the conflict was either expected or unexpected. After playing either an action or strategy video game, participants completed a counting Stroop task while ERPs were recorded. The proportion of congruent to incongruent trials was manipulated across blocks to create conditions where conflict was expected or unexpected. While visual inspection of the behavioral and neural data revealed interesting patterns by video game, none of those effects were statistically significant. This is consistent with some previous work and inconsistent with other published data, suggesting that there is still much to learn about the relationship between cognitive control and video game experience.

Transient and sustained ERP activity related to feedback processing in the probabilistic selection task.

Feedback processing represents a fundamental component of adaptive decision-making. Extensive research using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) has explored the medial frontal feedback negativity (FN), P3a, and P3b components in the context of feedback processing. Additionally, recent studies examining the neural correlates of feedback processing in a gambling task revealed transient and sustained ERP activity over the lateral frontal and posterior regions of the scalp. Consistent with the neuroimaging literature, source analysis has localized this ERP activity to the lateral and medial frontal cortex, as well as the temporal-occipital and medial occipital cortices. The current experiments examine whether the pattern of transient medial frontal and sustained lateral frontal and posterior ERP activity extend to a reinforcement learning task, and may thereby represent a general property of feedback processing. Consistent with a large literature, the ERP data revealed the FN-P3a and P3b. In addition, these data revealed sustained ERP activity over the lateral frontal and posterior regions. These findings contribute to our understanding of the temporal dynamics of feedback processing across broadly distributed cortical and subcortical networks that are sensitive to the valence and probability of positive and negative outcomes.

Midfrontal Theta and Posterior Parietal Alpha Band Oscillations Support Conflict Resolution in a Masked Affective Priming Task.

Past attempts to characterize the neural mechanisms of affective priming have conceptualized it in terms of classic cognitive conflict, but have not examined the neural oscillatory mechanisms of subliminal affective priming. Using behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG) time frequency (TF) analysis, the current study examines the oscillatory dynamics of unconsciously triggered conflict in an emotional facial expressions version of the masked affective priming task. The results demonstrate that the power dynamics of conflict are characterized by increased midfrontal theta activity and suppressed parieto-occipital alpha activity. Across-subject and within-trial correlation analyses further confirmed this pattern. Phase synchrony and Granger causality analyses (GCAs) revealed that the fronto-parietal network was involved in unconscious conflict detection and resolution. Our findings support a response conflict account of affective priming, and reveal the role of the fronto-parietal network in unconscious conflict control.

Media Multitasking and Cognitive, Psychological, Neural, and Learning Differences.

American youth spend more time with media than any other waking activity: an average of 7.5 hours per day, every day. On average, 29% of that time is spent juggling multiple media streams simultaneously (ie, media multitasking). This phenomenon is not limited to American youth but is paralleled across the globe. Given that a large number of media multitaskers (MMTs) are children and young adults whose brains are still developing, there is great urgency to understand the neurocognitive profiles of MMTs. It is critical to understand the relation between the relevant cognitive domains and underlying neural structure and function. Of equal importance is understanding the types of information processing that are necessary in 21st century learning environments. The present review surveys the growing body of evidence demonstrating that heavy MMTs show differences in cognition (eg, poorer memory), psychosocial behavior (eg, increased impulsivity), and neural structure (eg, reduced volume in anterior cingulate cortex). Furthermore, research indicates that multitasking with media during learning (in class or at home) can negatively affect academic outcomes. Until the direction of causality is understood (whether media multitasking causes such behavioral and neural differences or whether individuals with such differences tend to multitask with media more often), the data suggest that engagement with concurrent media streams should be thoughtfully considered. Findings from such research promise to inform policy and practice on an increasingly urgent societal issue while significantly advancing our understanding of the intersections between cognitive, psychosocial, neural, and academic factors.

Internet Gaming Disorder in Children and Adolescents.

The American Psychiatric Association recently included Internet gaming disorder (IGD) as a potential diagnosis, recommending that further study be conducted to help illuminate it more clearly. This paper is a summary of the review undertaken by the IGD Working Group as part of the 2015 National Academy of Sciences Sackler Colloquium on Digital Media and Developing Minds. By using measures based on or similar to the IGD definition, we found that prevalence rates range between ∼1% and 9%, depending on age, country, and other sample characteristics. The etiology of IGD is not well-understood at this time, although it appears that impulsiveness and high amounts of time gaming may be risk factors. Estimates for the length of time the disorder can last vary widely, but it is unclear why. Although the authors of several studies have demonstrated that IGD can be treated, no randomized controlled trials have yet been published, making any definitive statements about treatment impossible. IGD does, therefore, appear to be an area in which additional research is clearly needed. We discuss several of the critical questions that future research should address and provide recommendations for clinicians, policy makers, and educators on the basis of what we know at this time.

Alcohol words elicit reactive cognitive control in low-sensitivity drinkers.

Previous ERP studies shown support for the idea that alcohol-related stimuli are particularly salient to individuals who report low sensitivity (LS) to alcohol's effects (a known risk factor for alcohol-related problems), leading such stimuli to spontaneously capture their attention and interfere with self-regulatory goal pursuit. The current study investigated LS individuals' use of reactive and proactive cognitive control in response to alcohol-related stimuli. Participants performed an alcohol Stroop task in which they indicated the font color of alcohol- and nonalcohol-related words while ERPs were recorded. The probability of alcohol and nonalcohol words was manipulated to test predictions derived from Dual Mechanisms of Control theory. Among LS individuals, infrequent alcohol-related words elicited slower responses and larger N2 amplitude, consistent with these stimuli eliciting enhanced reactive control responses. Amplitude of the frontal slow wave (FSW) component, associated with proactive control, was marginally larger among LS individuals when alcohol words were more frequent, but response accuracy was lower. These findings demonstrate that LS individuals experience conflict when presented with task-irrelevant alcohol-related stimuli, even in a context where conflict arguably should not be present. Findings further suggest that LS individuals can effectively implement reactive control to deal with this conflict when it is infrequent but have difficulty implementing proactive control in the context of more frequent conflict.

Comparing the Neural Correlates of Conscious and Unconscious Conflict Control in a Masked Stroop Priming Task.

Although previous studies have suggested that conflict control can occur in the absence of consciousness, the brain mechanisms underlying unconscious and conscious conflict control remain unclear. The current study used a rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging design to collect data from 24 participants while they performed a masked Stroop priming task under both conscious and unconscious conditions. The results revealed that the fronto-parietal conflict network, including medial frontal cortex (MFC), left and right dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), was activated by both conscious and unconscious Stroop priming, even though in MFC and left DLPFC the activations elicited by unconscious Stroop priming were smaller than conscious Stroop priming. The findings provide evidence for the existence of quantitative differences between the neural substrates of conscious and unconscious conflict control.

Separate and joint effects of alcohol and caffeine on conflict monitoring and adaptation.

RATIONALE: Caffeine is commonly believed to offset the acute effects of alcohol, but some evidence suggests that cognitive processes remain impaired when caffeine and alcohol are coadministered. OBJECTIVES: No previous study has investigated the separate and joint effects of alcohol and caffeine on conflict monitoring and adaptation, processes thought to be critical for self-regulation. This was the purpose of the current study. METHODS: Healthy, young adult social drinkers recruited from the community completed a flanker task after consuming one of four beverages in a 2 × 2 experimental design: Alcohol + caffeine, alcohol + placebo caffeine, placebo alcohol + caffeine, or placebo alcohol + placebo caffeine. Accuracy, response time, and the amplitude of the N2 component of the event-related potential (ERP), a neural index of conflict monitoring, were examined as a function of whether or not conflict was present (i.e., whether or not flankers were compatible with the target) on both the previous trial and the current trial. RESULTS: Alcohol did not abolish conflict monitoring or adaptation. Caffeine eliminated conflict adaptation in sequential trials but also enhanced neural conflict monitoring. The combined effect of alcohol and caffeine was apparent only in how previous conflict affected the neural conflict monitoring response. CONCLUSIONS: Together, the findings suggest that caffeine leads to exaggeration of attentional resource utilization, which could provide short-term benefits but lead to problems conserving resources for when they are most needed.

Give me just a little more time: effects of alcohol on the failure and recovery of cognitive control.

Numerous externalizing behaviors, from aggression to risk taking to drug abuse, stem from impaired cognitive control, including that brought about by the acute effects of alcohol. Although research generally indicates that alcohol impairs cognitive abilities, a close examination of the literature suggests that alcohol's effects are quite variable and likely depend on a number of contextual factors. The purpose of the current study was to characterize the effects of alcohol on cognitive control in terms of neural and behavioral responses to successful and unsuccessful control attempts. Participants were randomly assigned to consume an alcohol (0.80 g/kg ETOH), placebo, or nonalcoholic control beverage prior to completing a cognitive control (flanker) task while event-related brain potentials were recorded. Alcohol reduced the amplitude of the error-related negativity on error trials and increased the posterror compatibility effect in response time. Of particular interest, neural indices of conflict monitoring and performance adjustment (frontal slow wave) were attenuated by alcohol, but only on trials following errors. These functions had recovered, however, by 2 trials after an error. These findings suggest that alcohol's effects on cognitive control are best characterized as impaired (or delayed) recovery following control failures. Implications of these findings for understanding alcohol's effects on behavioral undercontrol are discussed.

The effects of age on the neural correlates of feedback processing in a naturalistic gambling game.

We examined age-related differences in the spatiotemporal distribution of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) related to feedback processing in a virtual blackjack game. The behavioral data revealed that older adults were less risk seeking than younger adults both within and across trials. Age-related differences were observed in the amplitude of several ERP components (P2-FN-P3a, P3a, slow wave activity) related to feedback processing. These components were localized to the anterior and posterior cingulate, the occipital cortex, and the inferior and medial frontal cortices. The effects of aging on the ERPs ranged from 200-2,000 ms after feedback onset. Our findings indicate that aging affects the activity of a distributed neural network that underpins processing the valence and motivational significance of feedback related to risky decisions.

The effects of an action video game on visual and affective information processing.

Playing action video games can have beneficial effects on visuospatial cognition and negative effects on social information processing. However, these two effects have not been demonstrated in the same individuals in a single study. The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine the effects of playing an action or non-action video game on the processing of emotion in facial expression. The data revealed that 10h of playing an action or non-action video game had differential effects on the ERPs relative to a no-contact control group. Playing an action game resulted in two effects: one that reflected an increase in the amplitude of the ERPs following training over the right frontal and posterior regions that was similar for angry, happy, and neutral faces; and one that reflected a reduction in the allocation of attention to happy faces. In contrast, playing a non-action game resulted in changes in slow wave activity over the central-parietal and frontal regions that were greater for targets (i.e., angry and happy faces) than for non-targets (i.e., neutral faces). These data demonstrate that the contrasting effects of action video games on visuospatial and emotion processing occur in the same individuals following the same level of gaming experience. This observation leads to the suggestion that caution should be exercised when using action video games to modify visual processing, as this experience could also have unintended effects on emotion processing.

What would my avatar do? Gaming, pathology, and risky decision making.

Recent work has revealed a relationship between pathological video game use and increased impulsivity among children and adolescents. A few studies have also demonstrated increased risk-taking outside of the video game environment following game play, but this work has largely focused on one genre of video games (i.e., racing). Motivated by these findings, the aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between pathological and non-pathological video game use, impulsivity, and risky decision making. The current study also investigated the relationship between experience with two of the most popular genres of video games [i.e., first-person shooter (FPS) and strategy] and risky decision making. Consistent with previous work, ~7% of the current sample of college-aged adults met criteria for pathological video game use. The number of hours spent gaming per week was associated with increased impulsivity on a self-report measure and on the temporal discounting (TD) task. This relationship was sensitive to the genre of video game; specifically, experience with FPS games was positively correlated with impulsivity, while experience with strategy games was negatively correlated with impulsivity. Hours per week and pathological symptoms predicted greater risk-taking in the risk task and the Iowa Gambling task, accompanied by worse overall performance, indicating that even when risky choices did not pay off, individuals who spent more time gaming and endorsed more symptoms of pathological gaming continued to make these choices. Based on these data, we suggest that the presence of pathological symptoms and the genre of video game (e.g., FPS, strategy) may be important factors in determining how the amount of game experience relates to impulsivity and risky-decision making.

Unconsciously triggered emotional conflict by emotional facial expressions.

The present study investigated whether emotional conflict and emotional conflict adaptation could be triggered by unconscious emotional information as assessed in a backward-masked affective priming task. Participants were instructed to identify the valence of a face (e.g., happy or sad) preceded by a masked happy or sad face. The results of two experiments revealed the emotional conflict effect but no emotional conflict adaptation effect. This demonstrates that emotional conflict can be triggered by unconsciously presented emotional information, but participants may not adjust their subsequent performance trial-by trial to reduce this conflict.

Electrophysiological correlates of block-wise strategic adaptations to consciously and unconsciously triggered conflict.

The role of consciousness in conflict adaptation has been a topic of much debate. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the neural correlates of block-wise conflict adaptations elicited by conscious and unconscious conflicting stimuli in a meta-contrast masked priming task. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while individuals responded to prime-target pairs in mostly congruent (80% congruent trials, 20% incongruent trials) and mostly incongruent blocks of trials (20% congruent trials, 80% incongruent trials). Mean response times and error rates revealed that the conflict effect (incongruent trials-congruent trials) was reduced in mostly incongruent blocks relative to mostly congruent blocks. Furthermore, conflict related ERP signals (the amplitude difference between congruent and incongruent trials) for three ERP components (early occipito-parietal negativity, the fronto-central N2 and the centro-parietal P3) were attenuated in mostly incongruent blocks compared to mostly congruent blocks, reflecting block-wise adaptation to the frequency of conflict. The conflict-related frontal N2 component differentiated most strongly between visibility conditions. These results further specify the electrophysiological correlates of block-wise strategic adaptations to consciously and unconsciously elicited conflict.

ERP correlates of dual mechanisms of control in the counting Stroop task.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were used to examine the neural correlates of proactive and reactive cognitive control within the context of the Dual Mechanisms of Control theory. Individuals performed the counting Stroop task and the proportion of congruent and incongruent trials was varied across blocks. The Stroop effect was smaller in the mostly incongruent block than in the mostly congruent block. The ERP data revealed a double dissociation between the medial frontal negativity (MFN) and the medial posterior negativity (MPN), where the amplitude of the MFN was greater in the mostly incongruent block and the amplitude of the MPN was greater in the mostly congruent block. The ERP data also revealed slow wave activity that distinguished the mostly incongruent and mostly congruent blocks. These findings support the idea that different regions of the cingulate and anterior frontal cortex underpin proactive and reactive control.