Primed to be inflexible: the influence of set size on cognitive flexibility during childhood

One of the hallmarks of human cognition is cognitive flexibility, the ability to adapt thoughts and behaviors according to changing task demands. Previous research has suggested that the number of different exemplars that must be processed within a task (the set size) can influence an individual’s ability to switch flexibly between different tasks. This paper provides evidence that when tasks have a small set size, children’s cognitive flexibility is impaired compared to when tasks have a large set size. This paper also offers insights into the mechanism by which this effect comes about. Understanding how set size interacts with task-switching informs the debate regarding the relative contributions of bottom-up priming and top-down control processes in the development of cognitive flexibility. We tested two accounts for the relationship between set size and cognitive flexibility: the (bottom-up) Stimulus-Task Priming account and the (top-down) Rule Representation account. Our findings offered support for the Stimulus-Task Priming account, but not for the Rule Representation account. They suggest that children are susceptible to bottom-up priming caused by stimulus repetition, and that this priming can impair their ability to switch between tasks. These findings make important theoretical and practical contributions to the executive function literature: Theoretically, they show that the basic features of a task exert a significant influence on children’s ability to flexibly shift between tasks through bottom-up priming effects. Practically, they suggest that children’s cognitive flexibility may have been underestimated relative to adults’, as paradigms used with children typically have a smaller set size than those used with adults. These findings also have applications in education, where they have the potential to inform teaching in key areas where cognitive flexibility is required, such as mathematics and literacy

Effect of lower body negative pressure on physiological, perceptual and affective responses during self regulated exercise

Purpose: Lower body negative pressure (LBNP) treadmill exercise was developed for health maintenance during periods of microgravity. It involves exercising on a treadmill within a waist-high pressure chamber connected to a pump. LBNP treadmill exercise generates a pressure differential between the upper and lower body increasing ground reaction forces (GRFs). This study compared the physiological, perceptual and affective responses in women during 30 min of self-regulated treadmill walking with and without LBNP

Detection of elliptical shapes via cross-entropy clustering

The problem of finding elliptical shapes in an image will be considered. We discuss the solution which uses cross-entropy clustering. The proposed method allows the search for ellipses with predefined sizes and position in the space. Moreover, it works well for search of ellipsoids in higher dimensions

Inhaled corticosteroids and risk of pneumonia in newly diagnosed COPD

SummaryIntroductionThe use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in COPD may be associated with an increased risk of pneumonia. Little is known of this risk in newly diagnosed COPD patients. The objective of this study was to determine if the use of ICS among newly diagnosed COPD patients is associated with an increased risk of pneumonia hospitalizations.MethodsUsing data from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a nested case–control study was performed. We identified patients 65 years of age or older with a new diagnosis of COPD from 1998 to 2002. A total of 145,586 patients were identified. Cases were defined based on hospitalization for pneumonia and exposure was prior use of ICS. Up to 10 controls were matched for each case based on age, sex, month and year of the case. The association between ICS use and pneumonia was evaluated with conditional logistic regression controlling for age, comorbidities, medication classes associated with the risk of pneumonia, and markers of COPD severity.ResultsThere were 13,995 cases of pneumonia. The cohort was predominantly male with an average age of 75.1 (SD=5.4) years. The rate of pneumonia was 6.4 per 100 person-years. After adjustment for covariates, patients with current use of ICS were 1.38 (95% CI, 1.31–1.45) times more likely to have a hospitalization for pneumonia than those without current use of ICS.ConclusionsThe use of ICS among patients with newly diagnosed COPD is associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for pneumonia

Application of the Fisher-Rao metric to ellipse detection

The parameter space for the ellipses in a two dimensional image is a five dimensional manifold, where each point of the manifold corresponds to an ellipse in the image. The parameter space becomes a Riemannian manifold under a Fisher-Rao metric, which is derived from a Gaussian model for the blurring of ellipses in the image. Two points in the parameter space are close together under the Fisher-Rao metric if the corresponding ellipses are close together in the image. The Fisher-Rao metric is accurately approximated by a simpler metric under the assumption that the blurring is small compared with the sizes of the ellipses under consideration. It is shown that the parameter space for the ellipses in the image has a finite volume under the approximation to the Fisher-Rao metric. As a consequence the parameter space can be replaced, for the purpose of ellipse detection, by a finite set of points sampled from it. An efficient algorithm for sampling the parameter space is described. The algorithm uses the fact that the approximating metric is flat, and therefore locally Euclidean, on each three dimensional family of ellipses with a fixed orientation and a fixed eccentricity. Once the sample points have been obtained, ellipses are detected in a given image by checking each sample point in turn to see if the corresponding ellipse is supported by the nearby image pixel values. The resulting algorithm for ellipse detection is implemented. A multiresolution version of the algorithm is also implemented. The experimental results suggest that ellipses can be reliably detected in a given low resolution image and that the number of false detections can be reduced using the multiresolution algorithm

Child's Play: Examining the Association Between Time Spent Playing and Child Mental Health

This is the final version. Available on open access from Springer via the DOI in this recordData Availability; The surveys, data, analysis script and results files that support the findings of this paper are openly available via the UK Data Service: https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/doi/?id=8793#!#0.It is theorised that adventurous play offers learning opportunities that help to prevent mental health problems in children. In this study, data from two samples is used to examine associations between the time that children aged 5-11 years spent playing adventurously and their mental health. For comparison, time spent playing unadventurously and time spent playing outdoors are also examined. Study 1 includes a sample of 417 parents, Study 2 includes data from a nationally representative sample of 1919 parents. Small, significant associations between adventurous play and internalising problems, as well as positive affect during the first UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown, were found; children who spend more time playing adventurously had fewer internalising problems and more positive affect during the Covid-19 lockdown. Study 2 showed that these associations were stronger for children from lower income families than for children from higher income families. The results align with theoretical hypotheses about adventurous play.UKR

The seductive lure of curiosity: information as a motivationally salient reward

Humans are known to seek non-instrumental information, sometimes expending considerable effort or taking risks to receive it, e.g. “curiosity killed the cat”. This suggests that information is highly motivationally salient. In the current article, we first review recent empirical studies that demonstrated the strong motivational lure of curiosity – people will pay and risk electric shocks for non-instrumental information; and request information that has negative emotional consequences. Then we suggest that this seductive lure of curiosity may reflect a motivational mechanism that has been discussed in the literature of reward learning: incentive salience. We present behavioral and neuroscientific evidence in support of this idea and propose two areas requiring further investigation – how incentive salience for information is instigated; and individual differences in motivational vigor

New results on GP Com

We present high resolution optical and UV spectra of the 46 min orbital period, helium binary, GP Com. Our data contains simultaneous photometric correction which confirms the flaring behaviour observed in previous optical and UV data. In this system all lines show a triple peaked structure where the outer two peaks are associated with the accretion disc around the compact object. The main aim of this paper is to constrain the origin of the central peak, also called ``central spike''. We find that the central spike contributes to the flare spectra indicating that its origin is probably the compact object. We also detect that the central spike moves with orbital phase following an S-wave pattern. The radial velocity semiamplitude of the S-wave is ~10 km/s indicating that its origin is near the centre of mass of the system, which in this case lies very close to the white dwarf. Our resolution is higher than that of previous data which allows us to resolve structure in the central peak of the line. The central spike in three of the HeI lines shows another peak blueshifted with respect to the main peak. We propose that one of the peaks is a neutral helium forbidden transition excited in a high electron density region. This forbidden transition is associated with the permitted one (the stronger peak in two of the lines). The presence of a high electron density region again favours the white dwarf as their origin.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in A&