4 research outputs found
Gamma and Beta Oscillations in Human MEG Encode the Contents of Vibrotactile Working Memory
Ample evidence suggests that oscillations in the beta band represent
quantitative information about somatosensory features during stimulus
retention. Visual and auditory working memory (WM) research, on the other
hand, has indicated a predominant role of gamma oscillations for active WM
processing. Here we reconciled these findings by recording whole-head
magnetoencephalography during a vibrotactile frequency comparison task. A
Braille stimulator presented healthy subjects with a vibration to the left
fingertip that was retained in WM for comparison with a second stimulus
presented after a short delay. During this retention interval spectral power
in the beta band from the right intraparietal sulcus and inferior frontal
gyrus (IFG) monotonically increased with the to-be-remembered vibrotactile
frequency. In contrast, induced gamma power showed the inverse of this pattern
and decreased with higher stimulus frequency in the right IFG. Together, these
results expand the previously established role of beta oscillations for
somatosensory WM to the gamma band and give further evidence that quantitative
information may be processed in a fronto-parietal network
Economic predictors of differences in interview faking between countries : economic inequality matters, not the state of economy
Many companies recruit employees from different parts of the globe, and faking behavior by potential employees is a ubiquitous phenomenon. It seems that applicants from some countries are more prone to faking compared to others, but the reasons for these differences are largely unexplored. This study relates country-level economic variables to faking behavior in hiring processes. In a cross-national study across 20 countries, participants (N = 3839) reported their faking behavior in their last job interview. This study used the random response technique (RRT) to ensure participants anonymity and to foster honest answers regarding faking behavior. Results indicate that general economic indicators (gross domestic product per capita [GDP] and unemployment rate) show negligible correlations with faking across the countries, whereas economic inequality is positively related to the extent of applicant faking to a substantial extent. These findings imply that people are sensitive to inequality within countries and that inequality relates to faking, because inequality might actuate other psychological processes (e.g., envy) which in turn increase the probability for unethical behavior in many forms
Attentional Control in Subclinical Anxiety and Depression : Depression Symptoms Are Associated With Deficits in Target Facilitation, Not Distractor Inhibition
Mood and anxiety disorders are associated with deficits in attentional control involving emotive and non-emotive stimuli. Current theories focus on impaired attentional inhibition of distracting stimuli in producing these deficits. However, standard attention tasks struggle to separate distractor inhibition from target facilitation. Here, we investigate whether distractor inhibition underlies these deficits using neutral stimuli in a behavioral task specifically designed to tease apart these two attentional processes. Healthy participants performed a four-location Posner cueing paradigm and completed self-report questionnaires measuring depressive symptoms and trait anxiety. Using regression analyses, we found no relationship between distractor inhibition and mood symptoms or trait anxiety. However, we find a relationship between target facilitation and depression. Specifically, higher depressive symptoms were associated with reduced target facilitation in a task-version in which the target location repeated over a block of trials. We suggest this may relate to findings previously linking depression with deficits in predictive coding in clinical populations