To Fear is to Gain? The Role of Fear Recognition in Risky Decision Making in TBI Patients and Healthy Controls

Fear is an important emotional reaction that guides decision making in situations of ambiguity or uncertainty. Both recognition of facial expressions of fear and decision making ability can be impaired after traumatic brain injury (TBI), in particular when the frontal lobe is damaged. So far, it has not been investigated how recognition of fear influences risk behavior in healthy subjects and TBI patients. The ability to recognize fear is thought to be related to the ability to experience fear and to use it as a warning signal to guide decision making. We hypothesized that a better ability to recognize fear would be related to a better regulation of risk behavior, with healthy controls outperforming TBI patients. To investigate this, 59 healthy subjects and 49 TBI patients were assessed with a test for emotion recognition (Facial Expression of Emotion: Stimuli and Tests) and a gambling task (Iowa Gambling Task (IGT)). The results showed that, regardless of post traumatic amnesia duration or the presence of frontal lesions, patients were more impaired than healthy controls on both fear recognition and decision making. In both groups, a significant relationship was found between better fear recognition, the development of an advantageous strategy across the IGT and less risk behavior in the last blocks of the IGT. Educational level moderated this relationship in the final block of the IGT. This study has important clinical implications, indicating that impaired decision making and risk behavior after TBI can be preceded by deficits in the processing of fear

Perimenopausal risk factors and future health

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle changes around the time of menopause have the potential to impact on morbidity and eventual mortality. Here we review this topic to identify how such changes may improve health at perimenopause and beyond. METHODS: Searches were performed in Medline and other databases. Each subject summary was presented to the ESHRE Workshop Group, where omissions or disagreements were resolved by discussion. RESULTS: Body weight increases because the decline in physical activity during the perimenopause is greater than the concomitant decline in energy intake. It is imperative to stop smoking before menopause because the risk of acute myocardial infarction rises sharply thereafter. Cardiovascular events can be reduced by managing risk factors, such as hypertension and increased lipids and body weight. Breast cancer risk is increased to a similar extent by hormone use, decreased physical activity, increased calorie intake and alcohol use, all reflecting lifestyle decisions. Smoking, alcohol and exercise may increase or decrease risk of aging brain disorders, especially dementia and Parkinson's disease, while stress is consistently associated with increased risk and a prudent diet is consistently associated with reduced risk. Osteoarthritis frequency increases after 50 years of age and risk is elevated 3-fold by obesity, while risk of osteoporosis can be minimized by smoking cessation, adequate vitamin D intake and regular weight-bearing exercise. CONCLUSIONS: Lifestyle changes around the time of the perimenopause can reduce the likelihood and severity of heart disease and chronic illness in later years and the cost of care of elderly women

Students' overuse of proportionality on missing-value problems: How numbers may change solutions

Previous research has shown that when confronted with missing-value word problems, primary school students strongly tend to use proportional solution approaches, even if these approaches are inappropriate. We investigated whether (besides the missing-value formation of word problems) the numbers appearing in word problems are part of the superficial cues that lead students to (over)use proportionality. A test containing proportional and nonproportional word problems was given to 508 4th, 5th and 6th graders. Numbers in these problems were experimentally manipulated so that the internal and external ratios were either integer or not. For proportional problems, performances decreased as a result of noninteger rations. For nonproportional problems, noninteger ratios led to a decrease in the overuse of proportionality; only in the case of additive nonproportional problems was this decrease accompanied by an increase in correct answers. This effect decreased from 4th grade to 6th grade. Implications of this study for research and practice are discussed.status: publishe

Pupils’ over-use of proportionality on missing-value problems: How numbers may change solutions

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Towards an ‘educational protocol’ for stimulating critical thinking in higher education

edition: Book of Abstracts EARLI 2019status: publishe

Healthy diet : Health impact, prevalence, correlates, and interventions

Objective: To discuss healthy diet from a psychological perspective by considering definitions of healthy diet in terms of consumer understanding; the health effects of specific dietary elements in terms of overweight and (chronic) illness; the prevalence of healthy diet; the psychological and environmental determinants of healthy diet; and the psychological interventions that have been designed to promote healthy diet. Design: A systematic review of the psychological literature on healthy diet. Results: Our findings suggest that consumers have a relatively poor understanding of a healthy diet. The literature also demonstrates that there is poor evidence on the health protective effects of single foods or nutrients. We further show that low SES is the single consistent risk factor for not adhering to a healthy diet. Our review of the literature on determinants demonstrates that intentions, habits, self-regulatory skills, and the social and physical environment are the most important determinants of a healthy diet, which are in turn amenable to change by intervention strategies with varying levels of effectiveness. Educational interventions generally show a limited effect on practising a healthy diet whereas interventions targeting habitual behaviour and/or the physical environment seem more promising. Conclusions: In view of the large number of people who are concerned about their diets and make attempts to change their dietary patterns, we conclude that it is crucial to gain a better understanding of both the automatic and environmental influences that are responsible for people not acting upon their good intentions for diet change

Healthy diet : Health impact, prevalence, correlates, and interventions

Objective: To discuss healthy diet from a psychological perspective by considering definitions of healthy diet in terms of consumer understanding; the health effects of specific dietary elements in terms of overweight and (chronic) illness; the prevalence of healthy diet; the psychological and environmental determinants of healthy diet; and the psychological interventions that have been designed to promote healthy diet. Design: A systematic review of the psychological literature on healthy diet. Results: Our findings suggest that consumers have a relatively poor understanding of a healthy diet. The literature also demonstrates that there is poor evidence on the health protective effects of single foods or nutrients. We further show that low SES is the single consistent risk factor for not adhering to a healthy diet. Our review of the literature on determinants demonstrates that intentions, habits, self-regulatory skills, and the social and physical environment are the most important determinants of a healthy diet, which are in turn amenable to change by intervention strategies with varying levels of effectiveness. Educational interventions generally show a limited effect on practising a healthy diet whereas interventions targeting habitual behaviour and/or the physical environment seem more promising. Conclusions: In view of the large number of people who are concerned about their diets and make attempts to change their dietary patterns, we conclude that it is crucial to gain a better understanding of both the automatic and environmental influences that are responsible for people not acting upon their good intentions for diet change