Attention: The grounds of self-regulated cognition

National Research Agency of Spain, Grant/Award Number: PSI2017-82670-PEveryone knows what paying attention is, yet not everybody knows what this means in cognitive and brain function terms. The attentive state can be defined as a state of optimal activation that allows selecting the sources of information and courses of action in order to optimize our interaction with the environment in accordance with either the saliency of the stimulation or internal goals and intentions. In this article we argue that paying attention consists in tuning the mind with the environment in a conscious and controlled mode in order to enable the strategic and flexible adaptation of responses in accordance with internal motivations and goals. We discuss the anatomy and neural mechanisms involved in attention functions and present a brief overview of the neurocognitive development of this seminal cognitive function on the grounds of self-regulated behavior. This article is categorized under: • Psychology > Attention (BEAB) • Brain Function and Dysfunction (BEAC) • Cognitive Development (BAAD)National Research Agency of Spain PSI2017-82670-

Empowerment, job satisfaction and organizational identification in andalucian civil servants

Recepción: 20 de mayo de 2016 | Revisión: 21 de mayo de 2016 | Aceptado: 30 de mayo de 2016En el presente estudio se ha intentado comprobar cómo interactúan el empowerment psicológico, la satisfacción laboral y la identificación laboral. Además, se exploraron las consecuencias de la disminución de la retribución económica en el empowerment. Para ello, seleccionamos una muestra de diferentes grupos laborales que se habían visto afectados de manera desigual tras la crisis, concretamente: docentes, sanitarios y cuerpos de seguridad del estado. A partir de los datos obtenidos comprobamos que el componente económico del apoyo socio-político no es suficiente para predecir variaciones en el empowerment, así como tampoco variabilidad en la satisfacción e identificación de cada grupo. No obstante, sí que encontramos una relación significativa positiva entre satisfacción-empowerment e identificación-empowerment, tal y como se esperaba, pero no entre identificación-satisfacción.The aim of this study was to determine how psychological empowerment, work satisfaction and organizational identification interact. In addition, we explored how reduction in wages and benefits affected empowerment. To this end, we selected a sample of teachers, public health and law enforcement workers, who were affected in different ways by the financial crisis. The results obtained show that the economic aspect of socio-political support is not sufficient to predict the variability of empowerment, satisfaction nor identification for each group. However, we did find a significant positive relationship between satisfaction-empowerment and identification-empowerment, as expected, but not between identification-satisfaction.Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Psicología Social. Proyecto de Innovación Docente ReiDoCre

Early development of electrophysiological activity: Contribution of periodic and aperiodic components of the EEG signal

This study was funded by two grants from the MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (ref. PID2020-113996GB- I00 and PSI2017-82670-P) awarded to MMR.Brain function rapidly changes in the first 2 years of life. In the last decades, resting-state EEG has been widely used to explore those changes. Previous studies have focused on the relative power of the signal in established frequency bands (i.e., theta, alpha, and beta). However, EEG power is a mixture of a 1/f-like background power (aperiodic) in combination with narrow peaks that appear over that curve (periodic activity, e.g., alpha peak). Therefore, it is possible that relative power captures both, aperiodic and periodic brain activity, contributing to changes in electrophysiological activity observed in infancy. For this reason, we explored the early developmental trajectory of the relative power in theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands from infancy to toddlerhood and compared it with changes in periodic activity in a longitudinal study with three waves at age 6, 9, and 16 to 18 months. Finally, we tested the contribution of periodic activity and aperiodic components of the EEG to age changes in relative power. We found that relative power and periodic activity trajectories differed in this period in all the frequency bands but alpha. Furthermore, aperiodic EEG activity flattened between 6 and 18 months. More importantly, only alpha relative power was exclusively related to periodic activity, whereas aperiodic components of the signal significantly contributed to the relative power of activity in theta and beta bands. Thus, relative power in these frequencies is influenced by developmental changes of the aperiodic activity, which should be considered for future studies.Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, Predoctoral Fellowship in Neuroscience (2019)National Research Agency of Spain, PID2020-113996GB-I00, PSI2017- 82670-PMCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, PID2020-113996GB-I00, PSI2017-82670-P, MMR

Influence of the environment on the early development of attentional control

The control of visual attention is key to learning and has a foundational role in the development of self-regulated behavior. Basic attention control skills emerge early in life and show a protracted development along childhood. Prior research suggests that attentional development is influenced by environmental factors in early and late childhood. Although, much less information is available about the impact of the early environment on emerging endogenous attention skills during infancy. In the current study we aimed to test the impact of parental socioeconomic status (SES) and home environment (chaos) in the emerging control of orienting in a sample of typically-developing infants. A group of 142 (73 female) 6-month-old infants were longitudinally tested at 6, 9 (n = 122; 60 female) and 16–18 (n = 91; 50 female) months of age using the gap-overlap paradigm. Median saccade latency (mdSL) and disengagement failure (DF) were computed as dependent variables for both overlap and gap conditions. Also, composite scores for a Disengagement Cost Index (DCI) and Disengagement Failure Index (DFI) were computed considering mdSL and DF of each condition, respectively. Families reported SES and chaos in the first and last follow-up sessions. Using Linear Mixed Models with Maximum Likelihood estimation (ML) we found a longitudinal decrease in mdSL in the gap but not in the overlap condition, while DF decreased with age independently of the experimental condition. Concerning early environmental factors, an SES index, parental occupation and chaos at 6 months were found to show a negative correlation with DFI at 16–18 months, although in the former case it was only marginally significant. Hierarchical regression models implementing ML showed that both SES and chaos at 6 months significantly predicted a lower DFI at 16–18 months. Results show a longitudinal progression of endogenous orienting between infancy and toddlerhood. With age, an increased endogenous control of orienting is displayed in contexts where visual disengagement is facilitated. Visual orienting involving attention disengagement in contexts of visual competition do not show changes with age. Moreover, these attentional mechanisms of endogenous control seem to be modulated by early experiences of the individual with the environment

Predicting Effortful Control at 3 Years of Age from Measures of Attention and Home Environment in Infancy: A Machine Learning Approach

Effortful control (EC) is a dimension of temperament that encompass individual differences in self-regulation and the control of reactivity. Much research suggests that EC has a strong foundation on the development of executive attention, but increasing evidence also shows a significant contribution of the rearing environment to individual differences in EC. The aim of the current study was to predict the development of EC at 36 months of age from early attentional and environmental measures taken in infancy using a machine learning approach. A sample of 78 infants participated in a longitudinal study running three waves of data collection at 6, 9, and 36 months of age. Attentional tasks were administered at 6 months of age, with two additional measures (i.e., one attentional measure and another self-restraint measure) being collected at 9 months of age. Parents reported household environment variables during wave 1, and their child’s EC at 36 months. A machinelearning algorithm was implemented to identify children with low EC scores at 36 months of age. An “attention only” model showed greater predictive sensitivity than the “environmental only” model. However, a model including both attentional and environmental variables was able to classify the groups (Low-EC vs. Average-to-High EC) with 100% accuracy. Sensitivity analyses indicate that socioeconomic variables together with attention control processes at 6 months, and self-restraint capacity at 9 months, are the most important predictors of EC. Results suggest a foundational role of executive attention processes in the development of EC in complex interactions with household environments and provide a new tool to identify early markers of socio-emotional regulation development.Spanish State Research Agency (Ref: PSI2017-82670-PPID2020-113996GB-I00)PRE2018-083592Maria ZambranoThe Spanish Government through the European Union NextGeneration EU fund

Development of brain electrophysiological activity in relation to the emergence of executive attention from infancy to early childhood: A longitudinal study

Tesis Univ. Granada.Spanish State Agency grants (Ref. PSI2017–82670-P & Ref: PID2020–113996GB- 100)Predoctoral fellowship in Neuroscience (2019

Predicting behavioral and brain markers of inhibitory control at preschool age from early measures of executive attention

Background: Inhibitory control (IC) is the ability to prevent prepotent responses when inappropriate. Longitudinal research on IC development has mainly focused on early childhood and adolescence, while research on IC development in the first years of life is still scarce. To address this gap in the literature, we explored the association between executive attention (EA) and elementary forms of IC in infancy and toddlerhood, with individual differences in IC later at 5 years of age. Method: We conducted a five-wave longitudinal study in which children’s EA and IC (n = 96) were tested at the age of 9 and 16 months and 2, 3, and 5 years. Children performed various age-appropriate EA and IC tasks in each wave, measuring inhibition of attention, endogenous control of attention, inhibition of the response, and conflict inhibition. At 5 years of age, IC was measured with a Go/No-go task while recording event-related potentials. After correlation analyses, structural equation model analyses were performed to predict IC at 5 years of age from EA and early IC measures. Results: The results revealed that EA at 9 months predicted IC measures at 2 years of age. Likewise, measures of IC at 2 years predicted performance on the Go/No-go task at behavioral and neural levels. No direct association was found between EA at 9 months and IC at 5 years of age. We further observed that some EA and IC measures were not associated across time. Conclusion: As we expected, EA skills in infancy and toddlerhood were related to better performance of children on IC tasks, toghether with a more mature inhibition-related brain functioning. Altogether, the results indicate that IC in early childhood could be predicted from EA and IC at 9 months and 2 years of age and suggest that the early emergence of IC relies on the development of particular EA and basic IC skills. However, some discontinuities in the longitudinal development of IC are observed in the first 5 years of life. These findings provide further support for the hierarchical model of IC development.</p

Executive function and theory of mind training: impact on prejudice

This is the registration of the hypotheses and analyses that will be carried out as part of this projec