Research Blogging - Psychology - English

The mindbus technique for resisting chocolate - should we climb aboard?

2013-05-23T04:37:05Z

Imagine you are the driver & your chocolate cravings are unruly passengers If someone gave you a bag of 14 chocolates to carry around for five days, would you be able to resist eating them and any other chocolate? That was challenge faced by 135 undergrads in a new study that compared the effectiveness of two different "mindfulness" resistance techniques. To help them, Kim Jenkins and Katy Tapper taught 45 of their participants "cognitive diffusion", the essence being that "you are not your thoughts". The students were told to imagine that they are the driver of a mindbus and any difficult thoughts about chocolate are to be seen as awkward passengers. The students chose a specific method for dealing with these difficult thoughts/passengers and practised it for five minutes - either describing them, letting them know who is in charge, making them talk with a different accent, or singing what they are saying. Another group of students were taught an acceptance technique known as "urge surfing". They were instructed to ride the wave of their chocolate cravings, rather than to sink them or give in to them. A final group of students acted as controls and were taught a relaxation technique. As well as trying to resist the bag of chocolates, the students in all conditions were asked to avoid eating any other chocolate as far as possible, and to keep a diary of any chocolate they did eat over the five days. The key finding is that the mindbus group ate fewer chocolates from their bag as compared with students in the control group. By contrast, the urge surfing group ate just as many of their chocolates as the controls. Diary records showed the differences between groups in their other chocolate consumption was not statistically significant, although there was a trend for the mindbus group to eat less (13g vs. 52g in the urge surfing group and 44g in the control condition). Another way of describing the results is to say that 27 per cent of the mindbus group ate some chocolate over the five-day period, compared with 45 per cent of the urge surfers and 45 per cent of controls. A habits questionnaire suggested the mindbus technique was more effective because it reduced the students' mindless, automatic consumption of chocolate more than the other interventions. Jenkins and Tapper said their results show the mindbus "cognitive diffusion" technique is a "promising brief intervention strategy" for boosting self-control over an extended time period. The serious chocaholics among you may not be so convinced. Although the students were recruited on the basis that they wanted to reduce their chocolate consumption, they appeared to show saintly levels of abstinence. On average, even the control group participants ate just 0.69 chocolates from their bag over the five day period (compared with an average of 0.02 chocolates in the mindbus condition; 0.27 in the urge surfing condition). The controls other chocolate consumption amounted to the equivalent of little more than four individual chocolates over five days. You've got to wonder - how serious were these participants about chocolate and just how tasty were the chocolates in that bag? Another thing - the researchers included a measure of "behavioural rebound". After the students returned to the lab on day five, they were presented with a bowl of chocolates and invited to eat as many as they liked. The groups didn't differ in the amount of chocolates they consumed, which the researchers interpreted as a good sign - after all, the mindbus group hadn't compensated for their restricted intake during the week. But hang on, they also showed no evidence of greater resistance to the chocolate. Sounds to me like the passengers had taken over the bus. _________________________________ Jenkins, K., and Tapper, K. (2013). Resisting chocolate temptation using a brief mindfulness strategy. British Journal of Health Psychology DOI: 10.1111/bjhp.12050 Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest....

Jenkins, K., & Tapper, K. (2013) Resisting chocolate temptation using a brief mindfulness strategy. British Journal of Health Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/bjhp.12050

Big data for autism and the promise of newborn bloodspots

2013-05-23T04:33:00Z

An episode of the BBC program Horizon on 'Big Data' recently caught my attention. The content was a fascinating insight into how we are living in a data-rich age and how trawling/mining/dredging such data has the ability to advance medicine, predict crime and even make someone a few quid/dollars/euros on the stock market.Gone (data) fishing @ Wikipedia I'm a big believer in big data. In particular how, with the right sources, technology, techniques and people, big data might be able to open up some real insights into many important areas including mental health research* and very possibly autism research with a specific focus on the science of biomarkers to aid things like early diagnosis. Indeed, I'm not the only one talking about this (see here).I've spoken before on this blog about biomarkers for autism and other conditions - the promises, the problems, the future - and how alongside the various autism research banks (genes, brains, etc.) and systems biology chatter, we are just starting to understand the value of those big data resources such as the archived bloodspot samples which so many neonates provide these days.Indeed with the greatest appreciation for pioneers like Robert Guthrie, I offer a post on an interesting paper by Gerald Mizejewski and colleagues** discussing results suggestive of potential candidate biomarkers for autism based on archived bloodspot samples. I should point out that this is not the first time that Dr Mizejewski has talked about the feasability of biomarkers for autism as per this article*** (open-access) as part of quite a distinguished research career it has to be said (see here) with a specific focus on an interesting molecule called alpha-fetoprotein****.The most recent paper is unfortunately not at the time of writing open-access, so I'll just go through a few summary points about the work:This was a retrospective study based on that tantalising resource of archived bloodspot cards which sit in many a hospital basement. Out of a total case group of 200 families with a child with autism, 40 families with children aged between 3-5 years old were initially contacted for participation. This was eventually whittled down to 16 participants (all diagnosed with autism by the same clinician with the same diagnostic manual) for whom archived neonatal bloodspot cards were available. Two age-matched control specimens located immediately before and after the dried bloodspot card in question in the filing system were also chosen.A small 3mm punch of the Guthrie cards was analysed by immunoassay which in this case, probed for 90 potential biomarkers covering everything from neurotrophins to cytokines, immunoglobulins to more direct inflammatory markers (including C-reactive protein).Some fancy statistical modelling was applied to the obtained results - including Bayesian information criterion (BIC) - which eventually resulted in three models of best-fit based on findings from the bloodspots of those who went to be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The 'best model' of five compounds included some familiar names to this blog: glutathione-S-transferase (GST), IL-7, IL-5, TNF-beta and something called Lp(a) (lipoprotein a). Most were increased in quantity in the autism samples aside from GST which was decreased.There is a very nice illustration in the paper (Figure 3) showing how the potential connections between the biomarkers identified and some of the more biomedical themes of autism research might fit. So we have methionine metabolism mentioned (see here and here), oxidative stress (see here), gastrointestinal comorbidity (see here) and immune activation (see here) to name a few. It's all very systems biology.The authors caution that their results are preliminary and that although said biomarkers were modelled as being related to autism they "have not been confirmed to be causative with autism".Before I get too carried away with this research, there are a few issues worth mentioning. Yes, the sample size was small in this preliminary communication and indeed very little information is provided about participants outside of just them fulfilling the DSM-IV criteria for autism in terms of things like comorbidity. Also why out of 200 families such a small number of participants were eventually included for study.Indeed there is also an assumption from this study that a biomarker for autism is present in the neonatal phase which for example, might not take into account the issue of behavioural regression that seems to cover quite a percentage of cases.Whilst the identified best-fit biomarkers are of potentially real interest to autism research as per other similar studies (see here), it is the method and resources used in this paper which is the real 'big data' story allied to all those lovely -omics which reign supreme these days. Parents in many countries will be acquainted with that bloodspot taken during the earliest days of infancy to test for various inborn errors of metabolism such as phenylketonuria (PKU). Many people don't however give a second thought to what happens to those bloodspot cards, and how valuable a resource they might constitute. Although not usually in the business of crystal-ball gazing, I would hazard a guess that we are one day going to hear big news about the big data from those archived bloodspot cards; if not with autism in mind, then something else. ----------* Ayers JW. et al. Seasonality in seeking mental health information on Google. Am JPrev Med. April 2013.** Mizejewski GJ. et al. Newborn screening for autism: in search of candidate biomarkers. Biomark Med. 2013; 7: 247-260.*** Mizejewski GJ. Biomarker testing for suspected autism spectrum disorder in early childhood: is such testing now feasible? Biomark Med. 2012; 6: 503-506.**** Mizejewski GJ. Biological roles of alpha-fetoprotein during pregnancy and perinatal development. Exp Biol...

Mizejewski GJ, Lindau-Shepard B, & Pass KA. (2013) Newborn screening for autism: in search of candidate biomarkers. Biomarkers in medicine, 7(2), 247-60. PMID: 23547820

What if 501(c)4 Organizations Had to Disclose Their Donors?

2013-05-23T01:48:11Z

The IRS kerfuffle has increased interest in the tax code by about 5700%, and one outcome is that people are starting to put the various exemption groups under a microscope. Dylan Matthews has thoughtful piece on 501(c)4 organizations, the groups at the center of the scandal. Matthews thinks the real issue is disclosure, and it’s [...]...

Dowling, C., & Wichowsky, A. (2013) Does It Matter Who's Behind the Curtain? Anonymity in Political Advertising and the Effects of Campaign Finance Disclosure. American Politics Research. DOI: 10.1177/1532673X13480828

What is Expertise? The Experts Disagree

2013-05-22T16:45:54Z

Everybody’s an expert these days. Pest Control Expert, Plumbing Expert, Weather Expert, and so on. What does it really mean to have expertise? Take a minute to think about what expertise means to you. If ideas like superior intelligence, heightened perceptual skills, and photographic memory come to mind, you may be thinking of superheroes, or [...]...

Ericsson, K., & Ward, P. (2007) Capturing the Naturally Occurring Superior Performance of Experts in the Laboratory: Toward a Science of Expert and Exceptional Performance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(6), 346-350. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00533.x

Hatano, G., & Inagaki, K. (1984) Two courses of expertise. Research and Clinical Center for Child Development Annual Report, 27-36. info:/

Decision Theory Journal Club: Our brains are perfect machines

2013-05-22T13:01:37Z

A few of us have started a Decision Theory journal club where we plan on reading papers from a variety of fields that examine how decisions are made. We have people from neuroscience, economics, and cognitive science participating (so far), including people participating through Google+ hangouts!, which will hopefully make lead to some productive discussions. […]...

Brunton, B., Botvinick, M., & Brody, C. (2013) Rats and Humans Can Optimally Accumulate Evidence for Decision-Making. Science, 340(6128), 95-98. DOI: 10.1126/science.1233912

Znamenskiy, P., & Zador, A. (2013) Corticostriatal neurons in auditory cortex drive decisions during auditory discrimination. Nature, 497(7450), 482-485. DOI: 10.1038/nature12077

Dogs can haz brainscanz and EEG?

2013-05-22T08:30:00Z

Canine cognition is a hot topic these days, using experiments and brain imaging as research tools. The trouble with brain imaging work is that it is invasive, to the extent that animals may have to be sedated or anaesthetized for the study. All that changed with the amazing work of Gregory Berns et al and the first-ever fMRI study on awake, unrestrained dogs last year. Now Miiamaaria Kujala et al in Finland have shown that it is also possible to do a non-invasive EEG with dogs.An EEG measures brain activity by placing electrodes across the scalp. These pick up oscillations in electrical activity, which can be measured for changes. One common use of EEG is in assessing epilepsy in dogs (and people). We aren’t talking about veterinary EEGs here, however, but those designed to learn something about how a healthy brain works.If animals have to be anaesthetized for an EEG to occur, it’s a problem because a drowsy brain does not function in the same way as an alert brain. Awake animals are typically restrained. For example, Hanlu Ma et al (2013) anaesthetized cats and surgically implanted metal tubes through which electrodes could be inserted. After the cats were given a couple of weeks to recover from surgery, the electrodes were used to test the cats’ responses to meows and to human voices making vowel sounds. The cat’s body was wrapped in a cotton bag and its head was immobilized while the sounds were played. The cats were trained for this (though the paper doesn't say how) and monitored for signs of distress. The results showed which parts of the brain were activated, and found no significant difference in response to meows and vowels. In this study, the cats were awake. But it is still invasive, since they had to be operated on and were restrained for several hours at a time. Could there be another way?Since dogs are easily trainable using operant conditioning, Kujala et al in Finland thought it might be possible to train dogs for EEG. Using positive reinforcement, they trained eight beagles to take part in their study. The beagles were purpose-bred for laboratory work and live in a group kennel environment. First of all they took part in training. For the study, their heads had to be shaved, cleaned and prepped so that electrodes could be applied. They wore seven electrodes on the head, one in each ear, and a ground electrode on the back. Then they had to lie still and look at a TV screen while measurements were taken. At the same time, they also wore eye-tracking equipment. A beagle in the study. Source: PLoS OneThe experiment itself took place in twenty-minute sessions over four days for each dog, so that they did not get too tired. Of course, it took much longer to train the dogs to get used to the laboratory and the equipment in the first place, with twice-weekly training sessions over one and a half years.The dogs were shown photographs of human and dog faces, mostly the right way up but with some upside-down. They were shown a batch of photos, then had a short break in which they were rewarded with some food, then led to settle down and watch another batch. The authors point out that the experimental set-up is very similar to that used in human studies. The results showed a change in a type of electrical activity called the beta range (15-30Hz); oscillations in this band were suppressed when the dog was looking at a face, compared to the rest period. This probably reflects the activity of a part of the brain called the occipital cortex. In addition, the researchers found a suppression of activity at the 2-6Hz range. This coincided with the beginning of looking at an image, and was noticed most in the sensors at the front of the head. The authors say this may relate to eye movements as the dog looks at an image that has just appeared on the TV.There were individual differences between the dogs which is not surprising, as this is also the case for humans. The authors conclude that “the study opens the possibility to implement cognitive neuroscience studies with dogs and to examine the evolutionary background and divergence of brain function associated with cognition.”This is similar to the study by Gregory Berns et al that was published last year. They trained two dogs – Callie the rescue feist and McKenzie the agility-loving border collie – to take part in an fMRI. They began training the dogs using a mock-up of the equipment before moving on to the real version. After two months, they were able to take part in the fMRI study. Each dog had to keep absolutely still; if they moved by as little as 3mm, it would make the data useless. Source: PLoS OneThe picture shows Callie during a training session (A) and McKenzie during the study itself (B). The study found that the reward centre of the brain lit up when the dog saw a hand signal that meant a treat would soon be forthcoming. These EEG and fMRI studies are a tremendous achievement on the part of both the humans and dogs that took part. So how were the dogs trained? They did not use electric shocks or ‘corrections’ or punishment. Instead they relied on positive reinforcement. (You will have noticed ongoing positive reinforcement in the EEG study, with pauses in which the dog was given a treat before returning to the experiment).These two studies were designed to find out about the canine brain, but they also show the effectiveness of training using positive reinforcement.Some people (even some dog trainers) try to argue that positive reinforcement is not the right way to train a dog. And yet, it has been used to train dogs to take part in an EEG study and in fMRI without the need for sedation or restraint. Isn’t that amazing?! ReferencesBerns, G., Brooks, A., & Spivak, M. (2012). Functional MRI in Awake Unrestrained Dogs...

Berns, G., Brooks, A., & Spivak, M. (2012) Functional MRI in Awake Unrestrained Dogs. PLoS ONE, 7(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038027

Kujala, M., Törnqvist, H., Somppi, S., Hänninen, L., Krause, C., Vainio, O., & Kujala, J. (2013) Reactivity of Dogs' Brain Oscillations to Visual Stimuli Measured with Non-Invasive Electroencephalography. PLoS ONE, 8(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061818

Ma, H., Qin, L., Dong, C., Zhong, R., & Sato, Y. (2013) Comparison of Neural Responses to Cat Meows and Human Vowels in the Anterior and Posterior Auditory Field of Awake Cats. PLoS ONE, 8(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052942

Twitter versus the Grim Reaper: Extraverts but not introverts use Twitter to ward off existential anxiety

2013-05-22T08:23:37Z

A great deal of Twitter content has been described as "pointless babble." However, an experimental study found that Twitter usage can ward off existential anxiety, at least in extraverts. Even banal tweets might serve a deeper psychological purpose....

Qiu L, Leung AK, Ho JH, Yeung QM, Francis KJ, & Chua PF. (2010) Understanding the psychological motives behind microblogging. Studies in health technology and informatics, 140-4. PMID: 20543286

Study Shows How Bilinguals Switch Between Languages

2013-05-22T07:33:42Z

Individuals who learn two languages at an early age seem to switch back and forth between separate “sound systems” for each language, according to new research conducted at the University of Arizona....

Anna Mikulak. (2013) Study Shows How Bilinguals Switch Between Languages. Association for Psychological Science. info:/

The [Lawyer’s] Billable Hour: How Much Does 360 Seconds Cost? Who Pays?

2013-05-22T07:33:06Z

Tick – tock. The “billable hour” determines so much in the lives of many professionals, including lawyers. Many have to “keep time”. Time keeping accounts for how many lawyers spend their time doing their work, factors into how much their clients get charged, directly impacts how most large law firms generate income, and plays [...]The post The [Lawyer’s] Billable Hour: How Much Does 360 Seconds Cost? Who Pays? appeared first on Psycholawlogy....

DeVoe SE, & Pfeffer J. (2010) The stingy hour: how accounting for time affects volunteering. Personality , 36(4), 470-83. PMID: 20363903

“Ethnic-sounding first names” and getting the job

2013-05-22T07:02:25Z

Shuki. Soukias. Raheem. Samir. Jamal. Lakisha. Atholl. Tyronne. Magestic. Did you know that something as simple as a first name makes the difference between whether you even get the interview? Last weekend we were doing a focus group and one of the mock jurors had a very unique first name. One of a kind. She [...] Related posts: Is there a relationship between age and ethnic prejudice? Attractiveness and being fired for poor performance Everyday racism: A comparison of African American and Asian American Women...

Cotton, J., O'Neill, B., & Griffin, A. (2008) The “name game”: affective and hiring reactions to first names. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(1), 18-39. DOI: 10.1108/02683940810849648