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[Speed of information processing and fluid intelligence in advanced age. A secondary analysis of data of the Bonn Longitudinal Study of Aging based on "latent growth curve models"].

According to the "speed"-hypothesis of cognitive development, the slowing of information processing in old age is at the core of negative age differences in psychometric intelligence. The present study investigates the "speed"-hypothesis for fluid intelligence at the individual level using Latent Growth Curve Methodology. Data on 4 measurement points come from the Bonn Longitudinal Study of aging (N = 127, mean age 67.2, 53% women). Based on principal factor analysis, markers of mental speed were the WAIS Digit Symbol Test and a simple psychomotor task. As indicators of fluid intelligence the WAIS Object Assembly and Block Design were used. After separately fitting Latent Growth Curve Models for the trajectory of mental speed and fluid intelligence, a combined model showed no statistically significant improvement of fit for freeing the covariance between the two slope-factors. Interpreting this result, contrary to the "speed"-hypothesis the intraindividual change of fluid intelligence does not relate to the according change of mental speed.

Aged↗

Electrophysiological indices of automatic and controlled auditory information processing in first-episode, recent-onset and chronic schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Deficits in amplitudes of auditory event-related potentials (ERP) indexing preattentive, automatic (mismatch negativity, MMN) and controlled, attention-dependent (N2, P3) auditory information processing have been well described in chronic schizophrenia. Normal MMN, but deficient N2 and P3 have been reported in first-episode patients. No study has investigated these ERPs concurrently in first-episode patients; thus, reported differences in MMN, N2 and P3 generation may reflect differences in patient samples rather than genuine differences in abnormal generation of these ERPs. METHODS: We recorded MMN, N2 and P3 in 26 first-episode patients, 25 recent-onset patients within 1.5 to 5 years after first admission, 25 chronic patients and 39 healthy controls. RESULTS: Recent-onset and chronic, but not first-episode patients showed reduced MMN. However, among first-episode patients those with low premorbid educational achievement demonstrated significantly reduced MMN. All patient groups showed pronounced N2 deficits and, to a variable extent, abnormalities in P3 generation. CONCLUSIONS: Abnormalities in N2 and P3 generation appear to reflect premorbid neuropathology, whereas MMN deficits may index both ongoing disease processes associated with illness progression as well as premorbid neurocognitive impairment. ERPs may provide tools to assess static and progressive neuropathology in schizophrenia. These findings need confirmation in longitudinal studies.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Auditory event-related potential indices of fronto-temporal information processing in schizophrenia syndromes: valid outcome prediction of clozapine therapy in a three-year follow-up.

Reliability, specificity, and validity of three event-related potential (ERP) indices of non-attended and attended auditory information processing [the mismatch negativity (MMN), the novelty-P3a and the target-P3b] were assessed in 21 healthy subjects and 25 schizophrenic patients while performing a visual discrimination task (Ignore condition) and, subsequently, an auditory discrimination task (Attend condition). Re-test reliability, as measured in a subset of 10 healthy subjects and 9 patients respectively, ranged from r=0.4 to r=0.8. In both groups P3a was found to be smaller in the Ignore than in the Attend condition. Patients had significantly larger P3a amplitudes than healthy subjects while their MMN and P3b amplitudes were smaller. Two ERP factors were extracted in healthy subjects: (1) 'novelty reaction' with high loading scores for P3a and (2) 'deviant detection' with high loading scores for MMN. P3b was predominantly loading on the first factor thus confirming partly overlapping P3a and P3b generators. However, considerable variance was also shared by the second factor, particularly in patients. External validity of the ERP factors was confirmed post hoc. Particularly ERP indices of deviant detection were found to be associated with negative symptoms. In order to assess further clinical relevance, therapy response to clozapine was followed-up over 3 yr in a sub-sample of 17 patients. Poor treatment response was associated with high Novelty Factor scores and large P3a amplitudes whereas good response was associated with high Deviant Factor scores and relatively intact MMN. It is concluded that ERP abnormalities provide a severity index of brain impairment and a measure of predicting therapeutic outcome.

Journal Article↗

Test-retest reliability of information-processing measures among chronic schizophrenics.

Evidence of task reliability is critical for use of measures of attention in studies of individual differences among members of clinical populations. Test-retest reliability of several measures of attention and information processing was studied in 14 chronic schizophrenics. Performance was stable over a 6-month period, except for decreases in reaction time.

Adult↗

Facial and jaw-elevator EMG activity in relation to changes in performance level during a sustained information processing task.

This study was undertaken as a further evaluation of spontaneous facial EMG activity as an index of mental effort. We investigated whether concordant alterations in task performance level and EMG amplitude existed during a sustained information processing task. The EMG of six different facial and jaw-elevator muscles was recorded in 21 subjects performing a 20 min externally paced visual two-choice serial reaction task and in 24 other subjects performing a self-paced version of this task. In both conditions, a post-hoc division was made between subjects with stable task performance parameters and subjects with a decline in performance throughout the task period. In all subject groups, there was a gradual increase in EMG activity of frontalis, corrugator, and orbicularis oris inferior muscles following task onset. As in earlier studies, this increase was interpreted as a sign of growing compensatory mental effort. In the subject groups with declining performance, however, the initial EMG increase passed into a decreasing trend towards the end of the task period whereas in the groups with stable performance, EMG increased uninterruptedly. These results were interpreted as further support for the hypothesis that EMG activity in particular facial muscles is related to the mobilization of aspecific energetic resources.

Adult↗

The relation between exposure to violence and social information processing among incarcerated adolescents.

Combining evidence from social learning theory with reports of the association between community violence exposure and aggressive behavior development, the authors examined the link between specific characteristics of violence exposure and social information-processing mechanisms (N. R. Crick & K. A. Dodge, 1994; K. A. Dodge, 1980, 1986) in a sample of highly aggressive, incarcerated adolescent boys (N = 110). Results demonstrated that victimization by severe violence was significantly related to approval of aggression as a social response, problems with the interpretation of social cues, and maladaptive social goals. Witnessing severe violence, in contrast, was related to perceived positive outcomes for the use of aggression. These data suggest the importance of examining the severity and modality of exposure to community violence for understanding patterns of social-cognitive functioning among adolescents exposed to violence.

Adolescent↗

Scopolamine effects on visual information processing, attention, and event-related potential map latencies.

We measured performance and event-related brain potential (ERP) map latencies in 12 subjects during four visual discrimination tasks to compare the timing of scopolamine effects on information processing and attention. "Topographic component recognition" found ERP map latencies at times of best fit with a component model map. This "common topography" criterion minimized topographic differences among conditions to facilitate latency interpretations. Scopolamine slowed N1 latency in all tasks, and P3 and reaction time in some tasks. The drug delayed responses to easy targets more than to hard targets. It also induced a disproportionate N1 delay for unilateral high spatial frequency gratings. Both effects reflect a scopolamine-induced impairment when processing targets that usually capture attention. Scopolamine also impaired accuracy for unilateral high spatial frequency gratings, and for gratings presented at probable locations, confirming and extending previous findings. Scopolamine-induced P1 and N1 delays showed that visual processing was affected. Several results were inconsistent with a serial stage model. We suggest that scopolamine both delays selected processes and impairs a processing mode based on automatic capture of attention, inducing more serial processing.

Adult↗

Age differences in the speed and capacity of information processing: 1. A dual-task approach.

Sixty subjects, spanning the age range from 20 to 65, performed a series of tasks designed to evaluate the effects of aging on the speed and capacity of the human information-processing system. A tracking task was performed alone and concurrently with different versions of a Sternberg memory search task that varied the degree of resource competition with the tracking task. A dichotic-listening task, a tracking-task measure of perceptual-motor speed, and a complex transcription task were also performed. The data revealed a monotonic decrease in processing speed with age but no difference in time-sharing abilities between age groups. The latter conclusion was supported by a factor analysis of the test scores, which revealed that scores on the factor defining time-sharing did not differ with age.

Adult↗

Masking effect of music upon oral information processing.

The masking effect of three types of music and white masking noise upon special audiometric tests was determined in laboratory c. The stimulus-noise (S/N) ratio was found to be the most considerable factor influencing oral information processing in spite of the type of music or noise used as a masking agent. All types of music (modern, classic or modern music records in backwards order) showed no significant differences in masking being in the same way stronger maskers as white noise. Some conclusions are made concerning hygienic and ergonomic aspects of the problem.

Audiometry, Speech↗

Matching health messages to information-processing styles: need for cognition and mammography utilization.

The use of tailored health communications has become a favored technique for persuading individuals to engage in health behaviors, such as screening mammography. This experiment examined the impact of tailoring persuasive health communications to one aspect of individuals' information-processing styles, that of the need for cognition (NFC), the enjoyment of thinking deeply about issues. To determine whether messages matched to an individual's NFC are more influential than mismatched messages, 602 women who called the Cancer Information Service (CIS) of the National Cancer Institute were asked to participate in an experiment at the end of their service call. They were assigned randomly to receive 1 of 2 phone messages promoting mammography use and a similarly tailored pamphlet 1 month later. Messages matched to an individual's NFC were better at motivating mammography 6 months later among high-NFC women. After controlling for prior mammography utilization, age, worry, intentions, perceived norms, suggestions to get a mammogram, and marital status, the interaction between participant NFC and message type also approached statistical significance. The differential influence of these brief, tailored communications diminished after 12 months, however.

Adult↗

Development of visual diagnostic expertise in pathology -- an information-processing study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify key features contributing to trainees' development of expertise in microscopic pathology diagnosis, a complex visual task, and to provide new insights to help create computer-based training systems in pathology. DESIGN: Standard methods of information-processing and cognitive science were used to study diagnostic processes (search, perception, reasoning) of 28 novices, intermediates, and experts. Participants examined cases in breast pathology; each case had a previously established gold standard diagnosis. Videotapes correlated the actual visual data examined by participants with their verbal "think-aloud" protocols. MEASUREMENTS: Investigators measured accuracy, difficulty, certainty, protocol process frequencies, error frequencies, and times to key diagnostic events for each case and subject. Analyses of variance, chi-square tests and post-hoc comparisons were performed with subject as the unit of analysis. RESULTS: Level of expertise corresponded with differences in search, perception, and reasoning components of the tasks. Several discrete steps occur on the path to competence, including development of adequate search strategies, rapid and accurate recognition of anatomic location, acquisition of visual data interpretation skills, and transitory reliance on explicit feature identification. CONCLUSION: Results provide the basis for an empirical cognitive model of competence for the complex tasks of microscopic pathology diagnosis. Results will inform the development of computer-based pedagogy tools in this domain

Analysis of Variance↗

The relationships of some information-processing factors to severely disturbed behavior.

Thirty-five psychiatric inpatients with heterogeneous diagnoses were given four tasks: Mueller-Lyer Illusion, Wisconsin Card Sorting Text, Object Sorting, and Rokeach dogmatism questionnaire. Tasks were chosen to represent a broad sampling of paradigms, spanning levels of information processing, involving perceptual, conceptual and attitudinal processes. Subjects' behavior was assessed by the Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale (IMPS). Each IMPS scale was analyzed in turn as a function of perceptual/cognitive variables, in multiple regression analysis. To provide basis for comparison, traditional clinical measures were included as independent variables (MMPI scales) and dependent variables (intelligence, chronicity, and premorbid adjustment). Results showed that different patterns of disordered behavior were predicted by different perceptual/cognitive variables. MMPI scores were predicted primarily by traditional measures. Interrelationships of all variables suggested three subject groups: chronic, process-type schizophrenics with perceptual abnormalities, paranoid patients with conceptual abnormalities, and affectively disordered patients with predominantly attitudinal abnormalities.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗

Closed head injury-related information processing deficits: an event-related potential analysis.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) can elucidate aspects of sensory and cognitive processing that have been compromised due to closed head injury. We present the results of two investigations, one previously unreported, in which we used ERPs to evaluate information processing in head-injury survivors. In the first study, we used visual and auditory reaction time tasks differing in attentional demands to assess processing after head trauma. We found numerous changes in auditory processing in survivors: longer reaction times (but normal accuracy), longer N200 and P300 latencies, and reduced N100 and N200 amplitudes. In contrast, on visual tasks, only reduced N200 amplitude distinguished survivors and controls. To increase attentional demands, in a second study, we administered the continuous performance test (CPT). Survivors performed with lower accuracy than controls on visual and auditory tasks, and their ERPs were characterized by smaller visual and auditory N200s and P300s and smaller auditory N100s. We also present a synthesis, derived from a review of the literature, of closed head-injury effects on ERPs. Our own findings are in agreement with that synthesis. Namely, cognitive ERP components are more sensitive than sensory components to the effects of trauma. Specifically, in survivors, the amplitudes of N200 and P300 are often reduced, and their latencies prolonged. In general, as compared with visual ERPs, auditory ERPs may be more susceptible to the effects of closed head injury, suggesting that the auditory processing system is more vulnerable than the visual system. We conclude by discussing the potential use of ERPs to monitor clinical course and recovery in survivors of closed head injury.

Adult↗

Personality and self-regulation: trait and information-processing perspectives.

This article introduces the special issue of Journal of Personality on personality and self-regulation. The goal of the issue is to illustrate and inspire research that integrates personality and process-oriented accounts of self-regulation. The article begins by discussing the trait perspective on self-regulation--distinguishing between temperament and personality accounts--and the information-processing perspective. Three approaches to integrating these perspectives are then presented. These range from methodological approaches, in which constructs representing the two perspectives are examined in integrated statistical models, to conceptual approaches, in which the two perspectives are unified in a holistic theoretical model of self-regulation. The article concludes with an overview of the special issue contributions, which are organized in four sections: broad, integrative models of personality and self-regulation; models that examine the developmental origins of self-regulation and self-regulatory styles; focused programs of research that concern specific aspects or applications of self-regulation; and strategies for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of self-regulation.

Ego↗

Indices of slowness of information processing in head injury patients: tests for selective attention related to ERP latencies.

We explored the relation between neuropsychological (attention tests involving time constraints) and neurophysiological (N2 and P3 event-related potential (ERP) latencies) indices of slowness of information processing after closed head injury (CHI). A group of 44 CHI patients performed worse than healthy controls on most neuropsychological indices, and had significantly longer ERP latencies. Significant correlations between neuropsychological measures and ERP latencies were found only for the 3 subtasks of the Stroop test. In additional multiple regression analyses P3 latency appeared the best predictor in Stroop Color only. A possible explanation is that stimulus evaluation processes comprise a relatively large part of performance on this subtask. In Stroop Color-Word, response related processes are supposed to play a greater role, reducing the role of the preceding input related processes. The absence of significant correlations between P3 latency and scores on the other attention tests suggests a relatively small role of stimulus evaluation processes in these tasks, implying that these tasks are not sensitive to slowness of these processes. The Stroop test appears to be the only attention test administered in which slowness in stimulus evaluation processes requiring selective attention contributes significantly to the delay in final performance on the task.

Adolescent↗

Age-related changes in rate of visual information processing.

Each of four groups of 12 subjects performed four psychophysical tasks. The age ranges of the four groups were 19-31, 45-57, 58-70, and 71-83 years, respectively. All four tasks required some form of visual information processing: Two were backward-masking tasks; two were temporal-integration tasks. In all four tasks increasing temporal functions over age were obtained, suggesting slower processing rates as age increased. The results support an active processing model of visual perception that interprets duration of visible persistence and duration of interval in which backward masking is effective as indices of the time course of early stages in the processing of stimulus features. The evidences also suggests that backward masking and visible persistence may be mediated by distinct mechanisms that are affected differently by aging processes. A model that conceptualizes the visual system as a multichannel processor is proposed as an explanation for some of the findings.

Adult↗

Development of a multitechnology field-programmable gate array suitable for photonic information processing.

The architecture of a novel, multitechnology field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is introduced. Based on conventional complementary metal-oxide semiconductor VLSI technology this architecture has demonstrated the feasibility of reconfigurable and programmable hardware for prototyping photonic information processing systems. We report that this new FPGA architecture will enable the design of reconfigurable systems that incorporated technologies outside the traditional electronic domain. The smart photoreceivers monolithically integrated in the new FPGA architecture can receive optically encoded signals in parallel and process them with user programmable logic hardware.

Journal Article↗