Does self-control improve with practice? Evidence from a 6-week training program

Can self-control be improved through practice? Several studies have found that repeated practice of tasks involving self-control improves performance on other tasks relevant to self-control. However, in many of these studies, improvements after training could be attributable to methodological factors (e.g., passive control conditions). Moreover, the extent to which the effects of training transfer to real-life settings is not yet clear. In the present research, participants (N = 174) completed a 6-week training program of either cognitive or behavioral self-control tasks. We then tested the effects of practice on a range of measures of self-control, including lab-based and real-world tasks. Training was compared to both active and no-contact control conditions. Despite high levels of adherence to the training tasks, there was no effect of training on any measure of self-control. Trained participants did not, for example, show reduced ego depletion effects, become better at overcoming their habits, or report exerting more self-control in everyday life. Moderation analyses found no evidence that training was effective only among particular groups of participants. Bayesian analyses suggested that the data was more consistent with a null effect of training on self-control than with previous estimates of the effect of practice. The implication is that training self-control through repeated practice does not result in generalized improvements in self-control

Shifting attention between modalities: revisiting the modality-shift effect in autism

Selective attention to a sensory modality has been observed experimentally in studies of the modality-shift effect – a relative performance benefit for targets preceded by a target in the same modality, compared to a different modality. Differences in selective attention are commonly observed in autism and we investigated whether exogenous (automatic) shift costs between modalities are increased. Autistic adults and neurotypical controls made speeded discrimination responses to simple visual, tactile and auditory targets. Shift costs were observed for each target modality in participant response times and were largest for auditory targets, reflective of fast responses on auditory repeat trials. Critically, shift costs were similar between the groups. However, integrating speed and accuracy data using drift-diffusion modelling revealed that shift costs in drift rates (reflecting the quality of information extracted from the stimulus) were reduced for autistic participants compared with neurotypicals. It may be that, unlike neurotypicals, there is little difference between attention within and between sensory modalities for autistic people. This finding also highlights the benefit of combining reaction time and accuracy data using decision models to better characterise selective attention in autism

The neural correlates of emotion regulation by implementation intentions

Several studies have investigated the neural basis of effortful emotion regulation (ER) but the neural basis of automatic ER has been less comprehensively explored. The present study investigated the neural basis of automatic ER supported by ‘implementation intentions’. 40 healthy participants underwent fMRI while viewing emotion-eliciting images and used either a previously-taught effortful ER strategy, in the form of a goal intention (e.g., try to take a detached perspective), or a more automatic ER strategy, in the form of an implementation intention (e.g., “If I see something disgusting, then I will think these are just pixels on the screen!”), to regulate their emotional response. Whereas goal intention ER strategies were associated with activation of brain areas previously reported to be involved in effortful ER (including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), ER strategies based on an implementation intention strategy were associated with activation of right inferior frontal gyrus and ventro-parietal cortex, which may reflect the attentional control processes automatically captured by the cue for action contained within the implementation intention. Goal intentions were also associated with less effective modulation of left amygdala, supporting the increased efficacy of ER under implementation intention instructions, which showed coupling of orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. The findings support previous behavioural studies in suggesting that forming an implementation intention enables people to enact goal-directed responses with less effort and more efficiency

Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness

People are known to engage in behaviours aimed at replenishing social connectedness after their sense of belonging is threatened. We explored whether the mental strategy of daydreaming about significant others could have similar effects by acting as an imaginary substitute when loved ones are unavailable. Following a loneliness induction, participants (N = 126) were asked to either daydream about a significant other, daydream about a non-social scenario or complete a control task. Social daydreamers showed significantly increased feelings of connection, love and belonging compared to non-social daydreamers and control participants. Consistent with the proposition that social daydreaming replenished connectedness, social daydreamers also behaved more pro-socially and expressed less of a desire to interact with others after daydreaming. These findings demonstrate that through imagination, social daydreaming can replenish connectedness providing a potential strategy for enhancing socioemotional well-being

The impact of changing attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy on health-related intentions and behavior: a meta-analysis

Objective: Several health behavior theories converge on the hypothesis that attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy are important determinants of intentions and behavior. Yet inferences regarding the relation between these cognitions and intention or behavior rest largely on correlational data that preclude causal inferences. To determine whether changing attitudes, norms, or self-efficacy leads to changes in intentions and behavior, investigators need to randomly assign participants to a treatment that significantly increases the respective cognition relative to a control condition, and test for differences in subsequent intentions or behavior. The present review analyzed findings from 204 experimental tests that met these criteria. Methods: Studies were located using computerized searches and informal sources and meta-analyzed using STATA Version 11. Results: Experimentally induced changes in attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy all led to medium-sized changes in intention (d+ = .48, .49, and .51, respectively), and engendered small to medium-sized changes in behavior (attitudes-d+ = .38; norms-d+ = .36; self-efficacy-d+ = .47). These effect sizes generally were not qualified by the moderator variables examined (e.g., study quality, theoretical basis of the intervention, methodological characteristics, features of the targeted behavior), although effects were larger for interventions designed to increase (vs. decrease) behavioral performance. Conclusion: The present review lends novel, experimental support for key predictions from health behavior theories, and demonstrates that interventions that modify attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy are effective in promoting health behavior change

Flight speed and time of day heavily influence rainforest canopy wildlife counts from drone-mounted thermal camera surveys

The payload size and commercial availability of thermal infrared cameras mounted on drones has initiated a new wave in the potential for conservationists and researchers to survey, count and detect wildlife, even the most complex of habitats such as forest canopies. However, several fundamental design and methodological questions remain to be tested before standardized monitoring approaches can be broadly adopted. We test the impact of both the speed of drone flights and diel flight period on tropical rainforest canopy wildlife detections. Detection and identification rates differ between both flight speeds and diel time. Overall ~ 36% more detections were made during slower flight speeds, along with a greater ability to categorize taxonomic groups. Flights conducted at 3am resulted in ~ 67% more detections compared to flights conducted at 7am (the diel period with the lowest detection rate). However, 112% more detections could be identified to taxonomic group in 7am flights compared with 3am flights – due to the types of wildlife being identified and the assistance of the RGB camera. Although, this technology holds great promise for carrying out surveys in structurally complex and poorly known ecosystems like forest canopies, there is more to do in further methodological testing, and building automated post-processing systems. Our results suggest that drone studies in the same habitat types, with the same animal densities, could be off by multiples if flown during different times and/or at different speeds. The difference could be an alarming 5-6x variation in animal detections or identification depending on changes in these two factors alone

The impact of asking intention or self-prediction questions on subsequent behavior: a meta-analysis

The current meta-analysis estimated the magnitude of the impact of asking intention and self-prediction questions on rates of subsequent behavior, and examined mediators and moderators of this question–behavior effect (QBE). Random-effects meta-analysis on 116 published tests of the effect indicated that intention/prediction questions have a small positive effect on behavior (d+ = 0.24). Little support was observed for attitude accessibility, cognitive dissonance, behavioral simulation, or processing fluency explanations of the QBE. Multivariate analyses indicated significant effects of social desirability of behavior/behavior domain (larger effects for more desirable and less risky behaviors), difficulty of behavior (larger effects for easy-to-perform behaviors), and sample type (larger effects among student samples). Although this review controls for co-occurrence of moderators in multivariate analyses, future primary research should systematically vary moderators in fully factorial designs. Further primary research is also needed to unravel the mechanisms underlying different variants of the QBE

Implications of antimicrobial combinations in complex wound biofilms containing fungi

Diabetic foot ulcer treatment currently focuses on targeting bacterial biofilms, while dismissing fungi. To investigate this we used an in vitro biofilm model containing bacteria and fungi, reflective of the wound environment, to test the impact of antimicrobials. Here we showed that while mono-treatment approaches influenced biofilm composition it had no discernible effect on overall quantity. Only by combining bacterial and fungal specific antibiotics were we able to decrease the biofilm bioburden, irrespective of composition

Love is the triumph of the imagination: daydreams about significant others are associated with increased happiness, love and connection

Social relationships and interactions contribute to daily emotional well-being. The emotional benefits that come from engaging with others are known to arise from real events, but do they also come from the imagination during daydreaming activity? Using experience sampling methodology with 101 participants, we obtained 371 reports of naturally occurring daydreams with social and non-social content and self-reported feelings before and after daydreaming. Social, but not non-social, daydreams were associated with increased happiness, love and connection and this effect was not solely attributable to the emotional content of the daydreams. These effects were only present when participants were lacking in these feelings before daydreaming and when the daydream involved imagining others with whom the daydreamer had a high quality relationship. Findings are consistent with the idea that social daydreams may function to regulate emotion: imagining close others may serve the current emotional needs of daydreamers by increasing positive feelings towards themselves and others