Somatic androgyny and cognitive abilities.

Examined somatic androgyny and IQ in 3 longitudinal studies, conducted at the Institute of Human Development, in order to determine how robust the androgyny–ability relationships reported in recent studies are, and whether these relationships are found after sexual maturity is attained. Results do not reveal significant relationships between androgyny and abilities at either adolescence or middle adulthood, although trends are in the predicted directions. There were no systematic findings from analyses separating aspects of somatic androgyny that are more likely to be primarily under control of the sex hormones as opposed to those that are probably subject to other genetic and/or environmental influences. These results are discussed in terms of factors that might moderate androgyny–ability relationships. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent egocentrism and cognitive functioning during late adolescence

The relationship between adolescent egocentrism and post-formal thinking was examined in 163 college undergraduates. Participants were administered the Imaginary Audience Scale and the Social Paradigm Belief Inventory. Results showed that females had higher levels of adolescent egocentrism than did males. A weak negative correlation between egocentrism and cognitive reasoning was found for females during late adolescence. The findings are consistent with Peterson and Roscoe's (1991) study of egocentrism in older adolescent females.     

Physical maturation rate and cognitive performance in early adolescence: A longitudinal examination.

A longitudinal experiment examined (1) the development of the relationship between physical maturation rate and cognitive performance as children reach adolescence and (2) the specific components of cognitive processing that are most closely linked to physical maturation rate. 78 3rd-grade girls and 67 5th-grade boys were examined prepubertally on a battery of cognitive ability and perceptual asymmetry measures (including the PPVT) and reexamined 2 yrs later when secondary sex characteristics could be evaluated as a measure of pubertal status. At that time, extreme groups of 10 early and 10 late maturers for each sex were selected for examination on a more detailed battery (including the WISC—R Coding and Block Design subtests and the Stroop Color-Word test) designed to assess specific components of cognitive processing. Although there were no maturation-related differences in performance on the cognitive-ability tasks, differences were detected on the cognitive-process tasks: Early and late maturers of both sexes exhibited differences in their use of visual information, phonemic perception, and presence of a recency effect in the serial-memory task. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Association between hyperactivity and executive cognitive functioning in childhood and substance use in early adolescence

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether deficient executive cognitive functioning (ECF) in association with high behavioral activity level comprise components of the liability to substance abuse. METHOD: A high-risk (HR) group having fathers with a lifetime DSM-III-R diagnosis of a psychoactive substance use disorder was compared with a low-average-risk (LAR) group whose fathers had neither psychoactive substance use disorder nor another adult Axis I psychiatric disorder. ECF and behavioral activity were measured using neuropsychological tests, activity monitor, diagnostic interview, and informant ratings when the subjects were 10 to 12 years of age. Alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use were measured at 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: At baseline, the HR group had a significantly higher behavioral activity level and exhibited poorer performance on ECF tests than the LAR group. By early adolescence, HR subjects had a higher lifetime rate of tobacco and cannabis use and earlier age at onset of cannabis use. ECF capacity, but not behavioral activity level, predicted tobacco and cannabis use, total number of drugs ever tried, and severity of drug involvement. ECF accounted for additional variance beyond the effects of conduct problems on these outcomes. CONCLUSION: Whereas behavioral activity and ECF capacity in late childhood distinguishes HR from LAR youth, childhood ECF capacity is the more salient predictor of drug use in early adolescence.     

A longitudinal study of the relation between representations of attachment in childhood and cognitive functioning in childhood and adolescence.

85 Icelandic children (41 girls and 44 boys) participated in a study on the relations among attachment representations (AREP), self-confidence (SEC), and cognitive functioning (COF) in childhood and adolescence. AREP and SEC were assessed at age 7 on the basis of children's responses to a separation story and observations made by independent observers. COF was measured at ages 7, 9, 12, 15, and 17 yrs based on a battery of Piagetian tasks assessing concrete and formal reasoning. Children with a secure attachment representation were favored in their cognitive performance in childhood and adolescence. Children with an insecure–disorganized attachment representation were particularly disadvantaged on deductive reasoning tasks. SEC played a significant but varying role in mediating the effects of AREP on COF. The study controlled for IQ and attention difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Masculinity, femininity, androgyny, and cognitive performance: A meta-analysis.

Reviewed studies on the relation between gender self-concept and performance on spatial, mathematical, and verbal tasks to evaluate S. C. Nash's (1979) hypothesis that individuals will perform better on cognitive tasks when their self-concepts match the gender stereotyping of the tasks. Meta-analytic techniques were used to estimate the average effect sizes and to determine the significance of the combined probabilities. The influence of Ss' sex and age, date of study, type of spatial task, and type of self-concept measure on these associations was also examined. In general, the results from spatial and mathematical tasks, which are usually stereotyped as masculine, support Nash's hypothesis. Higher masculine and lower feminine self-concept scores were associated with better performance. These relations were observed more consistently for females than for males. There was some evidence of better spatial and mathematical performance among adolescent boys who described themselves as feminine. Nash's hypothesis was not supported for verbal tasks. There was no evidence that androgyny, defined either as high masculine and high feminine scores or as a balance between masculine and feminine scores, is associated with better cognitive performance. (3? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prospective memory functioning in mild cognitive impairment.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate prospective memory (PM) in persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Method: Twenty individuals with MCI (10 with an amnestic profile and 10 with a dysexecutive profile of cognitive impairment) and 20 control subjects (CS) were recruited. In the PM tasks, subjects had to execute three actions after 20 min had elapsed (time-based condition) or after a timer rang (event-based condition). Separate scores were computed for correct recall of the intention to perform the actions (prospective component) and for correct execution of the actions (retrospective component). Results: Although individuals with MCI were less accurate than CS in both prospective (Cohen's d ranged from 1.04 to 2.23) and retrospective (Cohen's d ranged from 0.81 to 1.06) components of the experimental task, they were significantly more impaired in the former than the latter component (Cohen's d = 0.42). Moreover, the deficit in the prospective component of the time-based task was particularly evident in MCI participants presenting with a dysexecutive impairment in respect to amnestic MCI individuals (Cohen's d = 0.99). Conclusions: Results of the present study show that the ability of subjects with MCI to comply effectively with a planned delayed intention is impaired and suggest that dysexecutive disorders are likely responsible for this deficit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudinal orientations and cognitive functioning among adolescents.

Examined the pattern of relations of attitudinal orientations to cognitive functioning in 950 Israeli 7th graders. Following the 1966 study by J. S. Coleman et al, attitudinal orientations were represented by measures of locus of control, self-concept, and educational aspirations. Multiple regression analyses showed that 18.1-31.6% of the total variance in 4 measures of cognitive functioning was associated with attitudinal orientations, while only 10.6-18.9% of the total variance in these measures was associated with socioeconomic background variables. In the least economically advantaged group, locus of control was the most potent attitude variable; in the complementary 2 groups of higher socioeconomic status, more of the variance in cognitive functioning was associated with self-concept and aspirations than with locus of control. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex-based models of androgyny: A further cognitive elaboration of competence differences.

Study 1, with 95 undergraduates, examined tolerance for ambiguity, the degree to which people suspend the attribution of meaning to unclear stimulation. Sex-role development was assessed through masculinity and femininity scales derived from the Adjective Check List. Androgynous females were less tolerant of ambiguity than nonandrogynous females, a difference not found for males. Study 2, with 530 undergraduates, confirmed the reliability of these effects. Study 3, with 426 undergraduates, also included the administration of the Chapin Social Insight Test and a measure of ability to read facial expressions. Data suggest that low ambiguity tolerance mediates social competence only in androgynous females. Female androgynes with a lower tolerance for ambiguity (a) showed high facial-affect decoding skill and (b) demonstrated high social cognition that would allow decoded information to be used for competent social action. Low tolerance for ambiguity was found to facilitate a positive relation between facial-decoding skill and social cognition only for androgynous females. (54 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between cognitive and social functioning in preschool children.

Examined short-term longitudinal relationships between test measures of cognitive processes and ratings of classroom behaviors observed during free play. Ss were 64 35–57 mo old middle-class preschoolers, 34 boys and 30 girls. Magnification of the same covariation pattern over time was used as an index of reciprocal influences between cognitive and social functioning. Analyses differentiated between the static (individually stable) and linear-change components of social attributes. Verbal-conceptual processes covaried positively with the static measures of socially outgoing and task-oriented behaviors and with positive vs negative affective expressions in girls, but not in boys. A nonverbal cognitive measure did not so relate to the social measures. The linear-change components of certain social attributes exhibited consistent though limited relationships with the cognitive measures. The study yielded little evidence for reciprocity between the cognitive and social domains. Certain cognitive processes facilitated social adaptation, but social adaptation did not influence cognitive growth. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer harassment, psychological adjustment, and school functioning in early adolescence.

The relations between peer harassment, psychological adjustment, and school functioning were investigated with an ethnically diverse sample of middle school students. A conceptual model, which proposed that self-perceived peer harassment predicts psychological adjustment (loneliness, depression, and self-worth), which in turn predicts school outcomes (GPA and attendance), was tested using concurrent data (n?=?244). Structural equation modeling supported the proposed model. Longitudinal analyses with a subsample (n?=?106) of students revealed that subjective self-views of victimization were moderately stable across a 1-year period. Comparisons across stable and unstable victim groups suggested that concurrent (rather than earlier or chronic) perceptions of victimization predicted loneliness and self-worth. Finally, changes in subjective perceptions of victimization, self-worth, and loneliness across the 1-year period predicted subsequent GPA, absenteeism, and teacher-rated social adjustment. Findings are discussed in terms of the short- and long-term effects of peer harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neural underpinnings of within-person variability in cognitive functioning.

Increased intraindividual variability (IIV), reflecting within-person fluctuations in behavioral performance, is commonly observed in aging as well as in select disorders including traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and dementia. Much recent progress has been made toward understanding the functional significance of IIV in cognitive performance (MacDonald, Nyberg, & B?ckman, 2006) and biological information processing (Stein, Gossen, & Jones 2005), with parallel efforts devoted to investigating the links between older adults’ deficient neuromodulation and their more variable neuronal and cognitive functions (B?ckman, Nyberg, Lindenberger, Li, & Farde, 2006). Despite these advances in the study of IIV, there has been little empirical examination of underlying neural correlates and virtually no synthesis of extant findings. The present review summarizes the accumulating empirical evidence linking age-related increases in IIV in cognitive performance to neural correlates at anatomical, functional, neuromodulatory, and genetic levels. Computational theories of neural dynamics (e.g., Li, Lindenberger, & Sikstr?m, 2001) are also introduced to illustrate how age-related neuromodulatory deficiencies may contribute to increased neuronal noise and render information processing in aging neurocognitive systems to be less robust. The potential benefits of stochastic resonance and external noise are also discussed with respect to processing subthreshold stimuli (e.g., Li, von Oertzen, & Lindenberger, 2006). We conclude by highlighting important challenges and outstanding research issues that remain to be answered in the study of IIV. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School functioning in early adolescence: Gender-linked responses to peer victimization.

Research indicates that peer victimization contributes to poor school functioning in childhood and adolescence, yet the processes by which victimization interferes with school functioning are unclear. This study examined internalizing and externalizing problems as domain-specific mediators of the association between subtypes of peer victimization (relational, physical) and school functioning (engagement, achievement) with a cross-sectional sample of 337 early adolescents. School engagement was examined further as a proximal process that intervenes in the associations between internalizing and externalizing problems and achievement. Gender differences in these associations were assessed. As expected, internalizing problems showed stronger links with relational than with physical victimization and partially mediated the influence of both on engagement for girls but not boys. Externalizing problems partially mediated the influence of both subtypes of victimization on school functioning for girls and physical victimization for boys. Notably, engagement was a robust mediator of the contributions of internalizing problems and physical victimization to achievement for girls and externalizing problems to achievement for girls and boys. Findings also suggest that physical (but not relational) victimization partially mediates the link between internalizing and externalizing problems and school functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of cognitive stimulation on the relations between age and cognitive functioning.

To make a convincing argument that cognitive stimulation moderates age trends in cognition there must be (a) a negative relation between age and level of cognitive stimulation, (b) a positive relation between level of cognitive stimulation and level of cognitive functioning, and (c) evidence of an interaction between age and cognitive stimulation in the prediction of cognitive functioning. These conditions were investigated in a study in which 204 adults between 20 and 91 years of age completed an activity inventory and performed a variety of cognitive tasks. Only the 1st condition received empirical support, and, thus, the results of this study provide little evidence for the hypothesis that cognitive stimulation preserves or enhances cognitive functioning that would otherwise decline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological androgyny and attitudes toward feminism.

Administered the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and Spence and Helm Attitudes toward Women Scale to 50 male and 50 female undergraduates. Only males with a preference for the feminine sex role differed from the other sex and level-of-androgyny groups, in that they exhibited traditional, conservative attitudes toward the rights and roles of women in contemporary society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minimal effects of severe depression on cognitive functioning.

Severe and psychotic depression which grossly disables the patient socially, could be expected to impair his cognitive-perceptual functioning significantly, and is generally considered to do so. To test this hypothesis, 55 depressives and 65 normals were matched for age, sex, education, vocabulary score, and nativity, and were tested on 33 cognitive, perceptual, and psychomotor tests, yielding 82 test scores. The depressives performed more poorly (at the .01 level) on only 4% of the test scores which contrasted dramatically with their rating themselves significantly more negatively on 82% of 77 Clyde Mood Scale items. It is concluded that the actual ability and performance during severe depression is not consistent with the patient's unrealistically low image of himself. His experience of ego helplessness is more subjective than objective, more imaginary than real. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

APOE genotype and cognitive functioning in a large age-stratified population sample.

There is evidence that the cognitive effects of Alzheimer's disease can be seen decades before disease diagnosis. If this is the case, then the apolipoprotein E (APOE) *E4 allele might be expected to have effects on cognitive functioning earlier in the life span. To assess such effects, the authors examined data on the *E4 allele and cognitive functioning from a population sample of 6,560 Caucasians covering the age groups of 20-24, 40-44, and 60-64 years. Participants were assessed on tests of episodic memory, working memory, mental speed, reaction time, and reading vocabulary. Although performance on all tests except reading vocabulary declined across age groups, there was no effect of the APOE *E4 allele at any age. These results indicate that APOE *E4 does not have preclinical effects early in the life span on these cognitive functions. Cognitive aging effects between the ages of 20 and 64 years must not be due to preclinical Alzheimer's disease. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Addressing executive functioning and cognitive rehabilitation in the treatment of schizophrenia.

ABSTRACT. Schizophrenia spectrum disorders are currently viewed as having a neuropsychological basis included in the etiology. Cognitive deficits that occur in schizophrenia are primarily observed in the areas of attention–concentration, memory, and planning. These abilities are commonly viewed under the broader spectrum of executive functioning. Research has shown that these executive functioning skills can be improved through the use of cognitive rehabilitation interventions. This article includes a case study documenting the use of cognitive rehabilitation strategies with a patient diagnosed with schizophrenia who possessed documented deficits in executive functioning. The discussion illustrates the possible progress that may be made in the treatment of schizophrenia when this additional tier of intervention is used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)