Spontaneous Mentalizing Predicts the Fundamental Attribution Error

When explaining the reasons for others' behavior, perceivers often overemphasize underlying dispositions and personality traits over the power of the situation, a tendency known as the fundamental attribution error. One possibility is that this bias results from the spontaneous processing of others' mental states, such as their momentary feelings or more enduring personality characteristics. Here, we use fMRI to test this hypothesis. Participants read a series of stories that described a target's ambiguous behavior in response to a specific social situation and later judged whether that act was attributable to the target's internal dispositions or to external situational factors. Neural regions consistently associated with mental state inference—especially, the medial pFC—strongly predicted whether participants later made dispositional attributions. These results suggest that the spontaneous engagement of mentalizing may underlie the biased tendency to attribute behavior to dispositional over situational forces.Psycholog

Preseason Functional Test Scores are Associated with Future Sports Injury in Female Collegiate Athletes

Brumitt, J, Heiderscheit, B, Manske, R, Niemuth, PE, Mattocks, A, and Rauh, MJ. Preseason functional test scores are associated with future sports injury in female collegiate athletes. J Strength Cond Res 32(6): 1692–1701, 2018—Recent prospective cohort studies have reported preseason functional performance test (FPT) measures and associations with future risk of injury; however, the findings associated with these studies have been equivocal. The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of a battery of FPTs as a preseason screening tool to identify female Division III (D III) collegiate athletes who may be at risk for a noncontact time-loss injury to the lower quadrant (LQ = low back and lower extremities). One hundred six female D III athletes were recruited for this study. Athletes performed 3 FPTs: standing long jump (SLJ), single-leg hop (SLH) for distance, and the lower extremity functional test (LEFT). Time-loss sport-related injuries were tracked during the season. Thirty-two (24 initial and 8 subsequent) time-loss LQ injuries were sustained during the study. Ten of the 24 initial injuries occurred at the thigh and knee. At-risk athletes with suboptimal FPT measures (SLJ #79% ht; (B) SLH #64% ht; LEFT $118 seconds) had significantly greater rates of initial (7.2 per 1,000 athletic exposures [AEs]) and total (7.6 per 1,000 AEs) time-loss thigh or knee injuries than the referent group (0.9 per 1,000 AEs; 1.0 per 1,000 AEs, respectively). At-risk athletes were 9 times more likely to experience a thigh or knee injury (odds ratio [OR] = 9.7, confidence interval [CI]: 2.3–39.9; p = 0.002) than athletes in the referent group. At-risk athletes with a history of LQ sports injury and lower off-season training habits had an 18-fold increased risk of a time-loss thigh or knee injury during the season (adjusted OR = 18.7, CI: 3.0–118.1; p = 0.002). This battery of FPTs appears useful as a tool for identifying female D III athletes at risk of an LQ injury, especially to the thigh or knee region

fMRI Evidence for the Role of Recollection in Suppressing Misattribution Errors: The Illusory Truth Effect

Misattribution refers to the act of attributing a memory or idea to an incorrect source, such as successfully remembering a bit of information but linking it to an inappropriate person or time [Jacoby, L. L., Kelley, C., Brown, J., & Jasechko, J. (1989). Becoming famous overnight: Limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 326–338; Schacter, D. L. (1999). The seven sins of memory: Insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience. American Psychologist, 54, 182–203; Schacter, D. L. (2001). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin]. Cognitive studies have suggested that misattribution errors may occur in the absence of recollection for the details of an initial encounter with a stimulus, but little is known about the neural basis of this memory phenomenon. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the hypothesized role of recollection in counteracting the illusory truth effect, a misattribution error whereby perceivers systematically overrate the truth of previously presented information. Imaging was conducted during the encoding and subsequent judgment of unfamiliar statements that were presented as true or false. Event-related fMRI analyses were conditionalized as a function of subsequent performance. Results demonstrated that encoding activation in regions previously associated with successful recollection—including the hippocampus and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC)—correlated with the successful avoidance of misattribution errors, providing initial neuroimaging support for earlier cognitive accounts of misattribution.Psycholog

Working Memory and the Suppression of Reflexive Saccades

Conscious behavioral intentions can frequently fail under conditions of attentional depletion. In attempting to trace the cognitive origin of this effect, we hypothesized that failures of action control—specifically, oculomotor movement—can result from the imposition of fronto-executive load. To evaluate this prediction, participants performed an antisaccade task while simultaneously completing a working-memory task that is known to make variable demands on prefrontal processes (n-back task, see Jonides et al., 1997). The results of two experiments are reported. As expected, antisaccade error rates were increased in accordance with the fronto-executive demands of the n-back task (Experiment 1). In addition, the debilitating effects of working-memory load were restricted to the inhibitory component of the antisaccade task (Experiment 2). These findings corroborate the view that working memory operations play a critical role in the suppression of prepotent behavioral responses.Psycholog

Medial Prefrontal Cortex Predicts Intertemporal Choice

People often make shortsighted decisions to receive small benefits in the present rather than large benefits in the future, that is, to favor their current selves over their future selves. In two studies using fMRI, we demonstrated that people make such decisions in part because they fail to engage in the same degree of self-referential processing when thinking about their future selves. When participants predicted how much they would enjoy an event in the future, they showed less activity in brain regions associated with introspective self-reference—such as the ventromedial pFC (vMPFC)—than when they predicted how much they would enjoy events in the present. Moreover, the magnitude of vMPFC reduction predicted the extent to which participants made shortsighted monetary decisions several weeks later. In light of recent findings that the vMPFC contributes to the ability to simulate future events from a first-person perspective, these data suggest that shortsighted decisions result in part from a failure to fully imagine the subjective experience of one's future self.Psycholog

Lower Extremity Functional Tests and Risk of Injury in Division III Collegiate Athletes

Purpose/Background: Functional tests have been used primarily to assess an athlete’s fitness or readiness to return to sport. The purpose of this prospective cohort study was to determine the ability of the standing long jump (SLJ) test, the single-leg hop (SLH) for distance test, and the lower extremity functional test (LEFT) as preseason screening tools to identify collegiate athletes who may be at increased risk for a time-loss sports-related low back or lower extremity injury. Methods: A total of 193 Division III athletes from 15 university teams (110 females, age 19.1 ± 1.1 y; 83 males, age 19.5 ± 1.3 y) were tested prior to their sports seasons. Athletes performed the functional tests in the following sequence: SLJ, SLH, LEFT. The athletes were then prospectively followed during their sports season for occurrence of low back or LE injury. Results: Female athletes who completed the LEFT in 118 s were 6 times more likely (OR=6.4, 95% CI: 1.3, 31.7) to sustain a thigh or knee injury. Male athletes who completed the LEFT in 100 s were more likely to experience a time-loss injury to the low back or LE (OR=3.2, 95% CI: 1.1, 9.5) or a foot or ankle injury (OR=6.7, 95% CI: 1.5, 29.7) than male athletes who completed the LEFT in 101 s or more. Female athletes with a greater than 10% side-to-side asymmetry between SLH distances had a 4-fold increase in foot or ankle injury (cut point: \u3e10%; OR=4.4, 95% CI: 1.2, 15.4). Male athletes with SLH distances (either leg) at least 75% of their height had at least a 3-fold increase (OR=3.6, 95% CI: 1.2, 11.2 for the right LE; OR=3.6, 95% CI: 1.2, 11.2 for left LE) in low back or LE injury. Conclusions: The LEFT and the SLH tests appear useful in identifying Division III athletes at risk for a low back or lower extremity sports injury. Thus, these tests warrant further consideration as preparticipatory screening examination tools for sport injury in this population. Clinical Relevance: The single-leg hop for distance and the lower extremity functional test, when administered to Division III athletes during the preseason, may help identify those at risk for a time-loss low back or lower extremity injury

The Lower-Extremity Functional Test and Lower-Quadrant Injury in NCAA Division III Athletes: A Descriptive and Epidemiologic Report

Context: The Lower-Extremity Functional Test (LEFT) has been used to assess readiness to return to sport after a lower extremity injury. Current recommendations suggest that women should complete the LEFT in 135 s (average; range 120-150 s) and men should complete the test in 100 s (average; range 90-125 s). However, these estimates are based on limited data and may not be reflective of college athletes. Thus, additional assessment, including normative data, of the LEFT in sport populations is warranted. Objective: To examine LEFT times based on descriptive information and off-season training habits in NCAA Division III (Dill) athletes. In addition, this study prospectively examined the LEFT’S ability to discriminate sport-related injury occurrence. Design: Descriptive epidemiology. Setting: Dill university. Subjects: 189 Dill college athletes (106 women, 83 men) from 15 teams. Main Outcome Measures: LEFT times, preseason questionnaire, and time-loss injuries during the sport season. Results: Men completed the LEFT (105 ± 9 s) significantly faster than their female counterparts (117 ± 10 s) (P \u3c .0001). Female athletes who reported \u3e3-5 h/wk of plyometric training during the off-season had significantly slower LEFT scores than those who performed \u3c3 h/wk of plyometric training (P - -03). The overall incidence of a lower-quadrant (LQ) time-loss injury for female athletes was 4.5/1000 athletic exposures (AEs) and 3.7/1000 AEs for male athletes. Female athletes with slower LEFT scores (\u3e118 s) experienced a higher rate of LQ time-loss injuries than those with faster LEFT scores (\u3c117 s) (P = .03). Conclusion: Only off-season plyometric training practices seem to affect LEFT score times among female athletes. Women with slower LEFT scores are more likely to be injured than those with faster LEFT scores. Injury rates in men were not influenced by performance on the LEFT

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Social Stereotyping

Judging people on the basis of cultural stereotypes is a ubiquitous facet of daily life, yet little is known about how this fundamental inferential strategy is implemented in the brain. Using fMRI, we measured neural activity while participants made judgments about the likely actor (i.e., person-focus) and location (i.e., place-focus) of a series of activities, some of which were associated with prevailing gender stereotypes. Results revealed that stereotyping was underpinned by activity in areas associated with evaluative processing (e.g., ventral medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala) and the representation of action knowledge (e.g., supramarginal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus). In addition, activity accompanying stereotypic judgments was correlated with the strength of participants' explicit and implicit gender stereotypes. These findings elucidate how stereotyping fits within the neuroscience of person understanding.Psycholog

Queensland SharkSmart Drone Trial Final Report

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, commonly called drones, provide a high-definition aerial view of a wide expanse of ocean, allowing the detection of potentially dangerous sharks in real-time, whilst having a negligible impact on the environment and non-target species. In addition, they are capable of spotting a range of marine hazards and can assist in beach rescue operations, thus providing numerous safety benefits for water users. The beaches of South-East Queensland (SEQ) have relatively good water clarity and a high level of visitation, making them an ideal location to test drones for detecting sharks and improving the safety of water users (Cardno, 2019). North Queensland beaches typically have lower water clarity, although it is important to test drones under these conditions to assess whether they can be effective at detecting sharks. The Queensland SharkSmart drone trial commenced on 19 September 2020, as a partnership between the Queensland Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and Surf Life Saving Queensland (SLSQ). The trial was part of the Queensland Government’s commitment to research and trialling alternatives to traditional shark control measures. Drones were operated at two beaches on the Sunshine Coast (Alexandra Headland and Coolum North), two beaches on the Gold Coast (Southport Main Beach and Burleigh Beach) and one beach on North Stradbroke Island (NSI; Ocean beach) between 19 September 2020 and 4 October 2021. Additionally, to assess the effectiveness of drones at detecting sharks under the different environmental conditions found at North Queensland (NQ) beaches, drones were operated at Palm Cove, Cairns and Alma Bay, Magnetic Island, from 26 June 2021 to 31 October 2021. Drones were operated on weekends, public holidays and school holidays by SLSQ pilots, with two flights per hour from approximately 8am until midday. Flights lasted 15 - 20 minutes and followed a 400 m transect behind the surf break. All footage was collected in 4K and securely archived for later analysis with key operational and environmental data collected for every flight. When a shark was sighted, the drone pilot lowered the aircraft to determine the species and size while estimating distance of the animal from water users. Data analysis quantified the numbers of sharks sighted at each beach and the rate of sightings as a percentage across the whole trial from 19 September 2020 to 31 October 2021. Generalised Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) were applied to quantify the influence of environmental and operational factors on the sightability (probability of a shark being sighted) of sharks. The movement tracks of sharks were mapped to analyse their behaviour and identify if there was clustering of movements in certain areas. Sighting rates from drones were also compared with shark catch in adjacent nets and drumlines deployed as part of the Queensland Shark Control Program (SCP)