scholarly journals Alexithymia is associated with lower confidence in both perceptual and emotion recognition tasks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Torunsky ◽  
Iris Vilares
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Emotional Awareness ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Affective Component ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Task Types ◽  
Metacognitive Ability

Emotions play an important role in everyday decision-making, but emotional awareness can vary greatly between people. Alexithymia, a trait characterized by little or no awareness of one’s emotions, is broadly associated with poor mental health and increased risk of suicide. Alexithymia is fairly common, affecting as much as 10% of people in Western cultures. Understanding how alexithymia relates to decision-making may therefore have wide-reaching impacts on the quality of life for many individuals. We designed and preregistered a study that examined the relationship between alexithymia and decision-making across different task-types. Data were collected from a community sample (N = 123) and participants completed a social, an emotional, and a perceptual decision-making task, as well as a short alexithymia questionnaire. For each task, we considered multiple aspects of the decision-making process, examining participants’ accuracy, confidence, and metacognitive ability (i.e. the ability to retrospectively distinguish between correct and incorrect responses). We found no relationship between alexithymia and performance or metacognitive ability in any task. However, alexithymia was negatively correlated with confidence in both the perceptual and emotional tasks. Furthermore, confidence in one’s decision was strongly, positively correlated across task types, but both accuracy and metacognitive ability showed no relationship between tasks. These results suggest that confidence may be a trait-like, affective component of decision-making, while performance and metacognitive sensitivity appear more task-specific. Furthermore, our results challenge the current limitations of the alexithymia construct, suggesting that alexithymia may have consequences on cognitive processes beyond emotion recognition alone.

The nature of metacognitive inefficiency in perceptual decision making

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Medha Shekhar ◽  
Dobromir Rahnev
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Mechanistic Model ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Large Dataset ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Confidence Levels ◽  
Continuous Scale ◽  
Competing Models ◽  
Metacognitive Ability ◽  
Confidence Ratings

Humans have the metacognitive ability to judge the accuracy of their own decisions via confidence ratings. A substantial body of research has demonstrated that human metacognition is fallible but it remains unclear how metacognitive inefficiency should be incorporated into a mechanistic model of confidence generation. Here we show that, contrary to what is typically assumed, metacognitive inefficiency depends on the level of confidence. We found that, across five different datasets and four different measures of metacognition, metacognitive ability decreased with higher confidence ratings. To understand the nature of this effect, we collected a large dataset of 20 subjects completing 2,800 trials each and providing confidence ratings on a continuous scale. The results demonstrated a robustly nonlinear zROC curve with downward curvature, despite a decades-old assumption of linearity. This pattern of results was reproduced by a new mechanistic model of confidence generation, which assumes the existence of lognormally-distributed metacognitive noise. The model outperformed competing models either lacking metacognitive noise altogether or featuring Gaussian metacognitive noise. Further, the model could generate a measure of metacognitive ability which was independent of confidence levels. These findings establish an empirically-validated model of confidence generation, have significant implications about measures of metacognitive ability, and begin to reveal the underlying nature of metacognitive inefficiency.

scholarly journals Transient emotional events and individual affective traits affect emotion recognition in a perceptual decision-making task

PLoS ONE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. e0171375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Qiao-Tasserit ◽  
Maria Garcia Quesada ◽  
Lia Antico ◽  
Daphne Bavelier ◽  
Patrik Vuilleumier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Affective Traits ◽  
Emotional Events

scholarly journals COVID-19-Related Changes in Potential Risk Factors for Elder Mistreatment Reported by Caregivers of Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 940-940
Author(s):  
Lena Makaroun ◽  
Scott Beach ◽  
Tony Rosen ◽  
Ann-Marie Rosland
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Elder Mistreatment ◽  
Care Recipients ◽  
Increased Risk

Abstract In previous studies, caregiver (CG) stress, substance use, poor physical health, poor mental health, financial problems, and social isolation have been associated with increased risk of elder mistreatment (EM) for older care recipients (CR). This study aimed to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted these CG-related risk factors for EM in a community sample of CGs. A non-probability sample of 433 CGs caring for adult CRs age ≥60 years with physical (76%), cognitive (34%) and mental health (14%) conditions completed a survey on COVID-19 impacts in April-May 2020. CGs had mean age 61 (range 21 – 91), were 75% female and 92% non-Hispanic White. Over 40% of CGs reported doing worse financially since COVID-19. Compared to before COVID-19, 15% reported drinking more alcohol and 64% reported somewhat or greatly increased feelings of social isolation and loneliness. CGs reported that COVID-19 had made caregiving more physically (18.7%), emotionally (48.5%) and financially (14.5%) difficult, interfered with their own healthcare (19%), and led to family conflict over caring for CR (13.2%). Younger CGs (age <65) and those with annual income <$50,000 were more likely to report negative COVID-19 impacts. This study suggests CGs of older adults may be experiencing increased stress, alcohol use, social isolation and negative impacts on their own health and financial situation. Healthcare and social service providers should assess for these EM risk-factors in caregivers and connect them and their care recipients with resources and services to address these stressors to reduce risk of EM during the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Metacognitive impairments extend perceptual decision making weaknesses in compulsivity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias U. Hauser ◽  
Micah Allen ◽  
Geraint Rees ◽  
Raymond J. Dolan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Metacognitive Abilities ◽  
Adaptive Decision Making ◽  
Metacognitive Ability

AbstractAwareness of one’s own abilities is of paramount importance in adaptive decision making. Psychotherapeutic theories assume such metacognitive insight is impaired in compulsivity, though this is supported by scant empirical evidence. In this study, we investigate metacognitive abilities in compulsive participants using computational models, where these enable a segregation between metacognitive and perceptual decision making impairments. We examined twenty low-compulsive and twenty high-compulsive participants, recruited from a large population-based sample, and matched for other psychiatric and cognitive dimensions. Hierarchical computational modelling of the participants’ metacognitive abilities on a visual global motion detection paradigm revealed that high-compulsive participants had a reduced metacognitive ability. This impairment was accompanied by a perceptual decision making deficit whereby motion-related evidence was accumulated more slowly in high compulsive participants. Our study shows that the compulsivity spectrum is associated with a reduced ability to monitor one’s own performance, over and above any perceptual decision making difficulty.

scholarly journals Early childhood stress exposure, reward pathways, and adult decision making

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (51) ◽  
pp. 13549-13554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasmus M. Birn ◽  
Barbara J. Roeber ◽  
Seth D. Pollak
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Stress Exposure ◽  
Childhood Stress ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Life Circumstances

Individuals who have experienced chronic and high levels of stress during their childhoods are at increased risk for a wide range of behavioral problems, yet the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this association are poorly understood. We measured the life circumstances of a community sample of school-aged children and then followed these children for a decade. Those from the highest and lowest quintiles of childhood stress exposure were invited to return to our laboratory as young adults, at which time we reassessed their life circumstances, acquired fMRI data during a reward-processing task, and tested their judgment and decision making. Individuals who experienced high levels of early life stress showed lower levels of brain activation when processing cues signaling potential loss and increased responsivity when actually experiencing losses. Specifically, those with high childhood stress had reduced activation in the posterior cingulate/precuneus, middle temporal gyrus, and superior occipital cortex during the anticipation of potential rewards; reduced activation in putamen and insula during the anticipation of potential losses; and increased left inferior frontal gyrus activation when experiencing an actual loss. These patterns of brain activity were associated with both laboratory and real-world measures of individuals’ risk taking in adulthood. Importantly, these effects were predicated only by childhood stress exposure and not by current levels of life stress.

Discarding optimality: Throwing out the baby with the bathwater?

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Simen ◽  
Fuat Balcı
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Reward Rate ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Standard Observer ◽  
Rate Maximization ◽  
Reward Rate Maximization ◽  
Descriptive Standard ◽  
Observer Model

AbstractRahnev & Denison (R&D) argue against normative theories and in favor of a more descriptive “standard observer model” of perceptual decision making. We agree with the authors in many respects, but we argue that optimality (specifically, reward-rate maximization) has proved demonstrably useful as a hypothesis, contrary to the authors’ claims.

LPCD framework: Analytical tool or psychological model?

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Danks
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Bayesian Decision ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Psychological Model ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Bayesian Decision Making

AbstractThe target article uses a mathematical framework derived from Bayesian decision making to demonstrate suboptimal decision making but then attributes psychological reality to the framework components. Rahnev & Denison's (R&D) positive proposal thus risks ignoring plausible psychological theories that could implement complex perceptual decision making. We must be careful not to slide from success with an analytical tool to the reality of the tool components.

scholarly journals Behavioral measures of impulsivity and compulsivity in adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Nina M. Lutz ◽  
Samuel R. Chamberlain ◽  
Ian M. Goodyer ◽  
Anupam Bhardwaj ◽  
Barbara J. Sahakian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Reversal Task ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Self Injury ◽  
Neurocognitive Measures ◽  
Nonsuicidal Self Injury

Abstract Background Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is prevalent among adolescents and research is needed to clarify the mechanisms which contribute to the behavior. Here, the authors relate behavioral neurocognitive measures of impulsivity and compulsivity to repetitive and sporadic NSSI in a community sample of adolescents. Methods Computerized laboratory tasks (Affective Go/No-Go, Cambridge Gambling Task, and Probabilistic Reversal Task) were used to evaluate cognitive performance. Participants were adolescents aged 15 to 17 with (n = 50) and without (n = 190) NSSI history, sampled from the ROOTS project which recruited adolescents from secondary schools in Cambridgeshire, UK. NSSI was categorized as sporadic (1-3 instances per year) or repetitive (4 or more instances per year). Analyses were carried out in a series of linear and negative binomial regressions, controlling for age, gender, intelligence, and recent depressive symptoms. Results Adolescents with lifetime NSSI, and repetitive NSSI specifically, made significantly more perseverative errors on the Probabilistic Reversal Task and exhibited significantly lower quality of decision making on the Cambridge Gambling Task compared to no-NSSI controls. Those with sporadic NSSI did not significantly differ from no-NSSI controls on task performance. NSSI was not associated with behavioral measures of impulsivity. Conclusions Repetitive NSSI is associated with increased behavioral compulsivity and disadvantageous decision making, but not with behavioral impulsivity. Future research should continue to investigate how neurocognitive phenotypes contribute to the onset and maintenance of NSSI, and determine whether compulsivity and addictive features of NSSI are potential targets for treatment.

scholarly journals Age is just a number: Is frailty being ignored in vascular access planning for dialysis?

2021 ◽  
pp. 112972982198990
Author(s):  
Kulli Kuningas ◽  
Nicholas Inston
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Kidney Disease ◽  
Vascular Access ◽  
Clinical Condition ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Dialysis Access ◽  
Adverse Health Outcomes ◽  
Risk Of Mortality ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
First Choice

Current international guidelines advocate fistula creation as first choice for vascular access in haemodialysis patients, however, there have been suggestions that in certain groups of patients, in particular the elderly, a more tailored approach is needed. The prevalence of more senior individuals receiving renal replacement therapy has increased in recent years and therefore including patient age in decision making regarding choice of vascular access for dialysis has gained more relevance. However, it seems that age is being used as a surrogate for overall clinical condition and it can be proposed that frailty may be a better basis to considering when advising and counselling patients with regard to vascular access for dialysis. Frailty is a clinical condition in which the person is in a vulnerable state with reduced functional capacity and has a higher risk of adverse health outcomes when exposed to stress inducing events. Prevalence of frailty increases with age and has been associated with an increased risk of mortality, hospitalisation, disability and falls. Chronic kidney disease is associated with premature ageing and therefore patients with kidney disease are prone to be frailer irrespective of age and the risk increases further with declining kidney function. Limited data exists on the relationship between frailty and vascular access, but it appears that frailty may have an association with poorer outcomes from vascular access. However, further research is warranted. Due to complexity in decision making in dialysis access, frailty assessment could be a key element in providing patient-centred approach in planning and maintaining vascular access for dialysis.

scholarly journals Depression-related weight change and incident diabetes in a community sample

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Graham ◽  
Tristan Watson ◽  
Sonya S. Deschênes ◽  
Kristian B. Filion ◽  
Mélanie Henderson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Type 2 Diabetes ◽  
Weight Loss ◽  
Weight Gain ◽  
Weight Change ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Increased Risk

AbstractThis cohort study aimed to compare the incidence of type 2 diabetes in adults with depression-related weight gain, depression-related weight loss, depression with no weight change, and no depression. The study sample included 59,315 community-dwelling adults in Ontario, Canada. Depression-related weight change in the past 12 months was measured using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview—Short Form. Participants were followed for up to 20 years using administrative health data. Cox proportional hazards models compared the incidence of type 2 diabetes in adults with depression-related weight change and in adults with no depression. Adults with depression-related weight gain had an increased risk of type 2 diabetes compared to adults no depression (HR 1.70, 95% CI 1.32–2.20), adults with depression-related weight loss (HR 1.62, 95% CI 1.09–2.42), and adults with depression with no weight change (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.03–1.86). Adults with depression with no weight change also had an increased risk of type 2 diabetes compared to those with no depression (HR 1.23, 95% CI 1.04–1.45). Associations were stronger among women and persisted after adjusting for attained overweight and obesity. Identifying symptoms of weight change in depression may aid in identifying adults at higher risk of type 2 diabetes and in developing tailored prevention strategies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document