Memory for Angry Faces, Impulsivity, and Problematic Behavior in Adolescence

Research has shown that cognitive processes like the attribution of hostile intention or angry emotion to others contribute to the development and maintenance of conduct problems. However, the role of memory has been understudied in comparison with attribution biases. The aim of this study was thus to test if a memory bias for angry faces was related to conduct problems in youth. Adolescents from a junior secondary school were presented with angry and happy faces and were later asked to recognize the same faces with a neutral expression. They also completed an impulsivity questionnaire. A teacher assessed their behavior. The results showed that a better recognition of angry faces than happy faces predicted conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention as reported by the teacher. The memory bias effect was more pronounced for impulsive adolescents. It is suggested that a memory bias for angry faces favors disruptive behavior but that a good ability to control impulses may moderate the negative impact of this bia

Brain imaging of the central executive component of working memory

This review presents neuroimaging studies which have explored the cerebral substrates of the central executive component of the working memory model proposed by Baddeley and Hitch [working memory (1986); Recent advances in learning and motivation (1974)]. These studies have demonstrated that different executive functions (manipulating and updating of information, dual-task coordination, inhibition and shifting processes) not only recruit various frontal areas, but also depend upon posterior (mainly parietal) regions. Such results are in agreement with the hypothesis that executive functions rely on a distributed cerebral network not restricted to anterior cerebral areas. Moreover, the intervention of similar prefrontal regions in a large number of executive tasks suggests that the central executive functioning must be understood in terms of different interactions between a network of regions rather than in terms of a specific association between one region and one higher-level cognitive proces

Emotional aspects of mental time travel

We consider three possible reasons why humans might accord a privileged status to emotional information when mentally traveling backward or forward in time. First, mental simulation of emotional situations helps one to make adaptive decisions. Second, it can serve an emotion regulation function. Third, it helps people to construct and maintain a positive view of the sel

The use of perceptual fluency in patients with Alzheimer disease: the role of expectation

peer reviewedWe investigated whether the use of perceptual fluency as recognition cue by patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) depends on whether fluency is perceived as relevant to the recognition decision. In normal subjects, enhanced perceptual fluency increased positive recognition responses when study and test stimuli were presented in the same sensory modality but not when stimuli were presented in different modalities (Westerman et al., J. of Mem. & Lang., 47, 2002). These results suggest that the use of perceptual fluency as a heuristic in recognition memory depends on the correspondence between study and test modalities and thus on the perceived usefulness of fluency. We investigated this change of sensory modality between study and test phases in 16 AD patients and 16 matched normal controls by using a verbal recognition task. The perceptual fluency of recognition test items was enhanced by briefly presenting a prime that matched the subsequent test item. We observed that changes in modality attenuated the contribution of fluency to the recognition decision in both subjects groups. In addition, we noted a positive correlation between fluency use and metamemory self-evaluation. These results suggest that the fluency heuristic is subject to metacognitive control in AD patients, exactly in the same way as normal subject, since patients’ attributions of perceptual fluency depend on expectations about relevance of fluency as memory cue

Influence of affective meaning on memory for contextual information

peer reviewedIn 4 experiments, the authors investigated the influence of the affective meaning of words on memory for 2 kinds of contextual features that differ in the amount of effortful processes they require to be encoded in memory (i.e., color and spatial location). The main results showed that memory for color, in which words were typed, was better for emotional than for neutral words, but only when color information was learned incidentally. In contrast, spatial location of the words was better remembered for emotional than for neutral words whatever the encoding conditions (intentional vs. incidental). It is suggested that the influence of affective meaning on context memory may involve an automatic attraction of attention to contextual features associated with emotional words

Identity but not expression memory for unfamiliar faces is affected by ageing

We examined age-related differences in memory for identity and emotional expression of unfamiliar faces. Younger and older adults were presented with happy and angry faces and were later asked to recognise the same faces displaying a neutral expression. When a face was recognised, they also had to remember what the initial expression of the face had been. In addition, states of awareness associated with both identity and expression memory were assessed with the remember/know/guess paradigm. Older adults showed less recollective experience than younger adults for identity but not for emotional expressions of the faces. This evidence indicates that age-related differences in memory may depend on the nature of the to-be-remembered information, with emotional/social information being remembered as well in older as in younger adults

The Relationship Between Internal Encoding Style and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in a Subclinical Sample

This study examined the relationships between obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCs) and encoding style in a subclinical sample, by using a questionnaire that evaluates the extent to which preexisting schemata (versus cues from the outside world) affect encoding processes (Lewicki, 2005). Research on encoding style has revealed on one hand the existence of individual differences in the tendency to impose interpretive schemata in the process of encoding, and on the other hand the fact that an extremely internal mode of encoding has been found to be related to an increased propensity to self-perpetuate preexisting schemata. Furthermore, internal encoding may contribute to the development of psychopathological symptoms, through the self-perpetuation of dysfunctional schemata. The results confirmed that OCs are connected with an internal encoding style; specific relationships between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) dimensions and internal encoding style were also found. These results are discussed in terms of the role of encoding style in the perpetuation of OCs, and its relationship to the dysfunctional beliefs characterising OC

Commentary on: Are we overpathologizing everyday life? A tenable blueprint for behavioral addiction research : Addictions as a psychosocial and cultural construction

This commentary proposes a complementary perspective to that developed by Billieux, Schimmenti, Khazaal, Maurage and Heeren (2015). The addiction-as-disease approach tends to sideline explanatory factors of a psychosocial, cultural, political, or historical nature. I therefore suggest taking into account not only the personal characteristics (loss of self-control, impulsivity) related to the disease model, but also the social determinants of addictive behaviors (weak social ties, social exclusion, hyperindividualism, poverty, unemployment, etc.). Moreover, the disease model of addiction removes addictive behaviors from the cultural and historical contexts that shape them. I argue that the cultural and historical reasons for which certain factors (such as loss of self-control) became so important in the explanation of addictive behaviors should be more thoroughly considered

Working memory, long-term memory and language processing : issues and future directions

We examined different views of the relationships between working memory, long-term memory and language processing : working memory considered as a gateway between sensory input and long-term memory or rather as a workspace; working memory considered as not strictly tied to any particular cognitive system (and consequently viewed as separated from the language system) or rather as drawing on the operation and storage capacities of a subset of components involved in language processing. It is argued that functional imagery studies (along with neuropsychological researches) could contribute to decide between these conceptions

Embodiment effects in memory for facial identity and facial expression

Research suggests that states of the body, such as postures, facial expressions, and arm movements, play central roles in social information processing. This study investigated the effects of approach/avoidance movements on memory for facial information. Faces displaying a happy or a sad expression were presented and participants were induced to perform either an approach (arm flexion) or an avoidance (arm extension) movement. States of awareness associated with memory for facial identity and memory for facial expression were then assessed with the Remember/Know/Guess paradigm. The results showed that performing avoidance movements increased Know responses for the identity, and Know/Guess responses for the expression, of valence-compatible stimuli (i.e., sad faces as compared to happy faces), whereas this was not the case for approach movements. Based on these findings, it is suggested that approach/avoidance motor actions influence memory encoding by increasing the ease of processing for valence-compatible information