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This randomized controlled trial explored the effects of parental reminiscing training on preschoolers' memory and metacognition among French-speaking White parents and their typically developing children (24 females, 20 males; M[subscript months] = 49.64) in Belgium. Participants were assigned, with age stratification, to the immediate intervention (n = 23) or waiting-list group (n = 21). The assessments were conducted by blind evaluators before the intervention, immediately after, and 6 months later. Resulting specifically from the intervention, parents sustainably improved their reminiscing style (e.g., greater provision of feedback and use of metamemory comments). The effects of the intervention on children's outcomes were, however, less clear. Based on the social-constructivist approach, such effects could be expected to occur later.

Author(s): Marie Geurten [sup.1] , Patrick Lemaire [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.4861.b, 0000 0001 0805 7253, Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Unit, University of Liège, , B33 Trifacultaire - Quartier [...], How specific learning disabilities (SLD) affect metacognition in children? Given the importance of metacognition for cognitive growth during childhood, we aimed at determining whether metacognitive development in children with SLD undergo a shift from domain-specific to domain-general, as found during typical development. Children with SLD (N = 39; 20 females) and matched controls (N = 78; 40 females) aged between 10 and 14 (mean age = 12.2 years; mean parental education = 12.8 years) had to select the better strategy on each item in memory and arithmetic problem-solving tasks. Strategy use and judgments of confidence were assessed on each trial for each individual. We found that both children with SLD and controls had scores higher than chance when judging whether they selected the better strategy on a given item in both the arithmetic and the memory domains. Moreover, children with SLD were less accurate than controls when making their judgments. Furthermore, while our data showed a pattern consistent with domain-general metacognition in the control group, metacognition is bounded by task content in the SLD group. Implications of these findings to further our understanding of differences in metacognition between typically developing children and children with specific learning disabilities are discussed.

We tested whether changes in attribution processes could account for the developmental differences observed in how children's use fluency to guide their memory decisions. Children ranging in age from 4 to 9 years studied a list of familiar or unfamiliar cartoon characters. In Experiment 1 (n = 84), participants completed a recognition test during which the perceptual fluency of some items was enhanced using a prime. In Experiment 2 (n = 96), participants completed a source recollection judgment on their recognition decisions. Primed items were recognized at a higher rate than unprimed items. However, while young children rely on fluency for all items, older children use fluency only for unfamiliar items. This pattern came together with a reduction in familiarity-based--but not recollection-based--memory responses.

Recent research has highlighted the critical role in children's cognitive development of the metacognitive support parents give their children during everyday interactions. Our main goal was to examine whether parents made consistent use of metacognitive talk across different parent – child interaction contexts and to document the effect of this metacognitive talk across contexts on preschoolers' memory. The relation between children's and parents' metacognitive talk was also examined, along with the link between children's metacognitive talk and their own memory performance. 64 Belgian preschooler – parent dyads (Mage = 40.3 months) were invited to play memory games together and to reminisce about a standardized event. In both contexts, parents' and children's utterances were analyzed for their metacognitive content. Children's episodic memory was assessed through a story-recall task. Results revealed that, in terms of frequency of use, parents exhibited a somewhat consistent metacognitive style across contexts. The nature of the metacognitive comments that were produced, however, varied depending on the context. Moreover, parents' consistent production of higher rates of metacognitive comments in both contexts was found to be associated with better memory performance in children. Our data also revealed that children's tendency to make metacognitive comments was related to their parents' metacognitive production and to their own memory performance. By documenting the relations between parents' and children's metacognitive talk and the effect on children's memory, this study provides promising avenues for a better understanding of how metacognitive processes might be involved in early memory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, several studies have suggested that metacognition emerges early in infancy and toddlerhood. However, to date, the developmental trajectory of these early metacognitive monitoring and control processes and their influence on children's later memory functioning remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to longitudinally document the development of metacognition between the ages of 2.5 and 4.5 years and to examine the link between these early metacognitive skills and later memory performance. To do so, 69 children initially aged 29–33 months old (NT0 = 69; 32 females; Mage = 32.3 months; SD = 1.6) were tested at three time points (12-month intervals) with a recognition memory paradigm designed to assess both metacognitive monitoring, through retrospective confidence judgment, and metacognitive control, through a cue selection task (i.e., children had the opportunity to ask for a cue to help them change their memory decision). In addition, at the last session, an episodic memory task (story recall) was also administered. Our results revealed an improvement in monitoring and control processes between 2.5 and 4.5 years with above-chance performance from around age 3.5. Mixed-effects modeling also indicated that metacognitive monitoring at ages 2.5 and 4.5, but not—unexpectedly—metacognitive control, was related to children's memory performance at age 4.5. Overall, our results provide evidence to enhance our understanding of the developmental course of metacognition from toddlerhood to early childhood and suggest that metacognitive processes are involved in memory performance much earlier than had previously been shown. Public Significance Statement: Metacognition is a key factor for successful learning. Here, by studying how early metacognitive skills improve in toddlers and young children, we found evidence suggesting that early metacognitive skills could be related to children's memory functioning up to two years later. Such results suggest that early metacognition could be linked to children's later cognitive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has suggested that fluency does not influence memory decisions until ages 7-8. In two experiments (n = 96 and n = 64, respectively), children, aged 4, 6, and 8 years (Experiments 1 and 2), and adults (Experiment 2) studied a list of pictures. Participants completed a recognition test during which each study item was preceded by a sound providing either a highly predictive or mildly predictive context in order to make some test items more conceptually fluent. Overall, highly predictive items were recognized at a higher rate than mildly predictive items demonstrating an earlier development of the fluency heuristic than previously observed. The study provides insight into how children develop metacognitive expectations and when they start to use them to guide their memory responses.

It is well established that negative emotions influence a range of cognitive processes. How these emotions influence the metacognitive judgement individuals make about their own performance and whether this influence is similar depending on the conditions under which metacognition is assessed, however, is far less understood. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether exposure to emotional stimuli could influence metacognitive judgements made under short or long time constraints. A total sample of 144 young adults (aged 18–35 years) was recruited and asked to complete an arithmetic strategy selection task under emotional or neutral condition. Following each strategy selection trial, participants also provided a retrospective confidence judgement (RCJ). Both strategy selection and RCJ were collected under short or long time constraints (1,500 vs. 2,500 ms for strategy selection and 800 vs. 1,500 ms for RCJ). In addition to replicating previous findings showing lower rates of better strategy selection under negative emotions compared with neutral condition, an effect of negative stimuli on the accuracy of participants' confidence judgements was found, but only if participants had a short time limit to make their second-level evaluation. Such findings are consistent with the hypothesis that exposure to emotional stimuli disturbs early, but not late metacognitive processes and have important implications to further our understanding of the role of emotions on metacognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of parental reminiscing style – how parents discuss past events with their child – on preschoolers' independent memory skills (outside of parent–child conversations) and the processes involved in this effect (memory consolidation vs. development of strategies) is far from clear. To test this, 50 parent–child dyads (MChildAge = 52.12) were recruited. Parents' level of elaboration during reminiscing was measured while children completed tasks assessing their memories about two standardized events, one they had discussed with their parent and one they had not discussed, and an episodic task requiring the memorization of new information. Children of high‐elaborative parents performed better than children of low‐elaborative parents on the recognition test for the non‐discussed event and for the episodic memory task. This suggests that parental elaboration is related to preschoolers' independent memory skills and that its effect might exceed memory consolidation and depend on processes like the acquisition of strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdown in March 2020 have led to changes in lifestyle and increased levels of anxiety, depression, and fatigue. This survey examined a number of factors (anxiety state, sleep quality, daily activities, mental load, work-related variables) influencing mental and physical fatigue during lockdown and how these relations have evolved one year later. A cohort of 430 workers and 124 retirees were recruited in April-May 2020 (lockdown period, data set 1), and a subsample (133 workers and 40 retirees) completed the same questionnaire in April-May 2021 (data set 2). Linear regression models showed a significant subjective increase in both physical and mental fatigue in both worker and retiree groups during lockdown, and a supplementary increase in physical fatigue and anxiety level in spring 2021 compared to the lockdown period. During lockdown, anxiety level, concerns about COVID-19, work flexibility, mental load, and sleep metrics were associated with the evolution of fatigue among workers. For retirees, only anxiety and physical activity levels were linked to changes in physical fatigue. In April-May 2021, the only associations which remained significant were those in workers between fatigue and anxiety level and workload. These findings suggest that the increased fatigue levels during the lockdown are likely due to the swift and significant changes in daily routines (such as sleep patterns and work dynamics) and psychological states (including increased anxiety and concerns) prompted by the sanitary crisis. On the other hand, the increase in fatigue observed one year after the beginning of the pandemic seems to result from more psychological factors associated with the health situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-nine parent–child dyads were recruited to examine the link between parental conversational style and preschoolers' recognition memory and metacognition (i.e., confidence judgment and use of the memorability heuristic). Each dyad participated in a shared staged activity and then discussed about it. Parental conversational style was analyzed focusing on both the interactions' structure and the content addressed. Then, separately from the parent–child conversation, children's memory and metacognition were assessed through a story-recall task (i.e., true–false recognition for both memorable and less memorable story items while rating their level of confidence). Results showed that some components of structure (concretizations with few repetitions) and content (interaction between metamemory talk and episodic richness) were related to preschoolers' accuracy of memory decisions and confidence judgments (i.e., metacognitive monitoring). By documenting the relation between parental conversational style and preschoolers' metacognitive skills, this study provides promising avenues for explaining the processes whereby preschoolers' memory is influenced. General Audience Summary: Right from the preschool years, memory is essential because it contributes to the development of identity (e.g., children know they are sociable because they remember their interactions with their peers). The way parents discuss past events with their child promotes child's development of memory of personal experiences. This study aimed to document this relation by further exploring which components of parental conversational style are associated with children's memory performance as well as some outcomes known to support memory. Specifically, we investigated whether parental conversational style could be linked to how children monitor their memory and use strategies to improve their performance (i.e., metacognitive skills). To determine parental conversational style, parent–child dyads participated in a shared staged event and, immediately afterward, discussed freely about it. To assess children's memory performance and metacognitive abilities, children listened to a story and answered true–false questions about it. We found that some specific components of parental conversational style—such as the ability to deepen information without repeating itself or the ability to comment child's memory performance while addressing episodic information—are related to both children's memory performance and their ability to evaluate their own performance. These results further support that parents play a critical role in their child's memory and metacognitive development. The identification of specific parental components related to children's outcomes is an important first step for the creation of interventions aimed at improving parental conversational style that could be useful in populations at risk of developing cognitive difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2020, the Belgian government ordered a complete lockdown as an attempt to decrease the progression of the COVID‐19. The aim of the present study was to examine lockdown‐related changes in psycho‐affective states as well as their relations with experiential diversity and autobiographical memory. A total of 186 Belgian citizens completed an online survey assessing lockdown‐related changes in various dimensions: work, leisure activities, affective state, sleep quality, fatigue, and autobiographical memory. Results revealed that well‐being during the lockdown was related to changes in experiential diversity and to the richness of participants' memories. Moreover, the content and the phenomenology of memories were more negative when memories pertained to the lockdown situation. These findings provide new evidence that mental well‐being of Belgian citizens during the first lockdown was related to how pandemic‐related sanitary constraints affected the diversity of activities that they could undertake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to validate a French version of the Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART), a 21-item self-report questionnaire developed by Berntsen, D., Hoyle, R. H., & Rubin, D. C. (2019; The Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART): A measure of individual differences in autobiographical memory. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 8(3), 305–318) examining the subjective quality people attribute to their autobiographical memories. It measures seven distinct but correlated dimensions of memories' quality varying between individuals: vividness, narrative coherence, reliving, rehearsal, visual imagery, scene, and life-story relevance. 373 participants aged from 18 to 87 years old were invited to complete the questionnaire by rating on a 7-point Likert scale the degree to which they agree with each item. Demographic data and information about their perception of their memory functioning and satisfaction were also collected. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the initial seven-factor structure of the ART. Moreover, results showed desirable psychometric properties, with good internal consistency (.94) and test-retest reliability (.83). This scale was also correlated with participants' perception of memory functioning in daily life. However, there was no correlation with age, confirming prior studies showing that the subjective quality of autobiographical memories does not decline with age. This study thus provides proof of the good psychometric properties of the French version of the ART and promotes its use to explore the subjective quality of autobiographical memories in clinical populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of parental reminiscing style (the way parents discuss past events with their children) on the development of children's autobiographical memory has been well documented. The specific mechanisms involved in this effect, however, remain unknown. We explored the association between specific components of parental reminiscing and preschoolers' episodic memory. Fifty-three parent–child dyads (MChild Age = 53.13 months, 29 females) from Belgium were tested twice within a delay of about nine months. At the first time point, parental reminiscing style was assessed via a parent–child discussion of a prior standardised event (a museum visit) focusing on both the structure of parental interactions and the addressed content. At each time point, children were administered with story–recall tasks in the form of true–false recognition about previously heard stories. Generalised linear mixed-effect models were conducted on an item-by-item basis. Results indicated that parental reminiscing is associated with preschoolers' recognition memory performance at both time points, but not all reminiscing components equally influence children's performance. Specifically, parents' concretisations and metamemory talk were found to impact children's memory. The identification of these components provided insights for exploring the processes underlying the reminiscing–memory influence (in-depth encoding of information, binding processes, and metacognition). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study tested whether the combination of BATD and Attention Training Technique (ATT) is effective to reduce depressive symptomatology and investigate the mechanisms of action underlying the effectiveness of treatment with a multiple N-of-1 trials. Methods: Nine adults with depressive symptoms were randomly included in three different combinations of BATD and ATT, concurrent in Condition 1 and sequential in Conditions 2 and 3 (ATT followed by BATD and BATD followed by ATT, respectively). The sequential components allow investigating the specific changes that occur during the two distinct treatment phases. Multiple self-report and pre-post-assessments were conducted on generic mental health measures (depressive symptoms, life functioning, mood, and wellbeing) and intervention-specific measures (behavioral activation, behavioral avoidance, self-focused attention, cognitive control and rumination), with two-week and three-month follow-up assessments. We also measured treatment adherence with treatment attendance, homework compliance and a clinical interview. Results: Participants' attendance, homework compliance and satisfaction were acceptable in the three conditions, with higher adherence in Condition 1 and Condition 3. Eight participants out of nine reported a reduction in depressive symptomatology and five an improvement in well-being. Most of their progress was maintained 2 weeks after the intervention but not 3 months later. Conditions 1 and 2 seemed to be associated with a higher response to generic mental health measures in comparison with Condition 3. The three conditions were not associated with consistent changes in interventionspecific measures, except for rumination with five participants out of nine reporting an improvement in rumination immediately after the intervention and eight participants 2 weeks after the intervention. The concurrent format was associated with a better improvement in rumination immediately after the intervention. No specific changes of self-focused attention and rumination characterized ATT, and no specific changes of behavioral activation, behavioral avoidance and rumination characterized BATD. Conclusion: Our three interventions were judged acceptable and showed positive short-term benefit for generic mental health measures and rumination maintained 2 weeks later, but not 3 months later. Results suggest that five sessions of concurrent treatment could be a better option than sequential formats. However, our data did not support the specificity of ATT and BATD treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the evolution observed in amnesic patients' use of motor fluency when making recognition memory decisions. In this experiment, 9 patients with amnesia and 18 matched controls were presented with two recognition memory tasks composed of 3 types of items: (1) natural words, (2) nonwords difficult to pronounce, and (3) nonwords easy to pronounce, the latter having been shown to be processed in a surprisingly fluent manner as long as participants can articulate them at a subvocal level (i.e., oral motor fluency). Our results provide evidence that the motor‐movement manipulation was successful to induce a fluency effect. More specifically, data revealed that both amnesic patients and control participants showed a pattern of response consistent with the use of fluency as a cue to memory for studied items. However, only control participants relied on fluency to increase their rate of "yes" responses for unstudied items. These results suggest that patients with amnesia set a more conservative response criterion before relying on oral motor fluency, showing a pattern consistent with the idea that fluency is only used as a cue to memory when it exceeds a certain threshold. These findings are discussed in terms of adaptative metacognition strategies implemented by amnesic patients to reduce fluency‐based memory errors as well as in terms of the variations that seem to occur in these strategies depending on the type of fluency that is experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Recent studies in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have suggested that AD patients are not always able to rely on their feeling of familiarity to improve their memory decisions to the same extent as healthy participants. This underuse of familiarity in AD could result from a learned reinterpretation of fluency as a poor cue for memory that would prevent them to attribute a feeling of fluency to a previous encounter. The primary goal of this study was to determine whether AD patients could relearn the association between processing fluency and past exposure after being repeatedly exposed to situations where using this association improves the accuracy of their memory decisions. Method: Thirty-nine patients with probable AD were recruited and asked to complete several recognition tests. During these tests, participants were put either in a condition where the positive contingency between fluent processing and previous encounters with an item was systematically confirmed (intervention condition) or in a condition where there was no correlation between fluency and prior exposure (control condition). The efficacy of the intervention was evaluated at three time points (baseline, posttest, and 3-month follow-up). Results: Our results indicated that all AD patients do not benefit to the same extent from the training. Two variables appeared to influence the likelihood that participants increase and maintain their reliance on the fluency cues after the intervention: the ability to detect the fluency manipulation and the preservation of implicit metacognitive skills. Conclusion: These findings indicate the importance of metacognition for inferential attribution processes in memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impairments of metacognitive skills represent a critical symptom in Alzheimer Disease (AD) because it frequently results in a lack of self-awareness. However, recent findings suggest that, despite an inability to explicitly estimate their own cognitive functioning, patients might demonstrate some implicit recognition of difficulties. In this study, we tested whether a behavioral dissociation between explicit and implicit measures of metacognition can be found in both healthy older controls (n = 20) and AD patients (n = 20). Our two groups of participants (AD vs. Controls) were asked to complete a forced-choice perceptual identification test and to explicitly rate their confidence in each decision (i.e. explicit measure of metacognition). Moreover, they also had the opportunity to ask for a cue to help them decide if their response was correct (i.e. implicit measure of metacognition). Data revealed that all participants asked for a cue more often after an incorrect response than after a correct response in the forced-choice identification test, indicating a good ability to implicitly introspect on the results of their cognitive operations. On the contrary, only healthy participants displayed metacognitive sensitivity when making explicit confidence judgments. Our findings suggest that implicit metacognition may be less affected than explicit metacognition in Alzheimer's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct known to play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of a wide range of problematic behaviors and psychological disorders in children. Method: In this study, we adapted the short French adult version of the UPPS-P (urgency-premeditation-perseverance-sensation seeking-positive urgency) Impulsive Behaviors Scale for use with children (short UPPS-P-C) and tested its psychometric properties. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses conducted on a sample of 425 children (aged 8-14 years) supported the five-factor structure of the scale. Additional analyses emphasized the good internal and test-retest reliability of the short UPPS-P-C. Furthermore, our results also revealed that lack of premeditation, positive urgency, and negative urgency subscales were able to discriminate between children diagnosed with ADHD and their matched controls. Conclusion: These results suggest that the short UPPS-P-C may be considered as a promising time-saving tool to assess impulsivity traits in healthy children and in children with psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined participants' strategy choices and metacognitive judgments during arithmetic problem-solving. Metacognitive judgments were collected either prospectively or retrospectively. We tested whether metacognitive judgments are related to strategy choices on the current problems and on the immediately following problems, and age-related differences in relations between metacognition and strategy choices. Data showed that both young and older adults were able to make accurate retrospective, but not prospective, judgments. Moreover, the accuracy of retrospective judgments was comparable in young and older adults when participants had to select and execute the better strategy. Metacognitive accuracy was even higher in older adults when participants had to only select the better strategy. Finally, low-confidence judgments on current items were more frequently followed by better strategy selection on immediately succeeding items than high-confidence judgments in both young and older adults. Implications of these findings to further our understanding of age-related differences and similarities in adults' metacognitive monitoring and metacognitive regulation for strategy selection in the context of arithmetic problem solving are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Neuroblastoma (NBL) is a child neoplasia affecting extracranial tissue of neuroectodermal origin. It accounts for 10% of solid malignancies in children and is characterized by a survival rate approaching 70%, confronting physicians with the emergence of an adult survivor population who have been previously exposed to surgery, cytotoxic drugs, radiation therapy or metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) therapy. All these treatments potentially affect the endocrine system. Our study consists in a retrospective review of late endocrine effects arising in survivors treated for NBL during childhood. Methods: The medical files of 47 patients (M/F = 26/21) treated for NBL were reviewed. Collected data consisted of age, height, weight and biological hormonal values at diagnosis and at the last follow-up consultation. The incidence of late effects in our sample was compared to the data from the literature. Results: Patients were between 0 and 15.8 years of age at diagnosis (median: 1.16 years) and between 1 and 25 years of age at last follow-up (median: 16 years). Twenty-six patients were treated with chemotherapy (CT), 11 underwent CT and radiation therapy and five were treated with CT and MIBG therapy. Ten percent of the patients died before reaching the end of therapy. Late effects occurred in 54% of the patients. Thirty-six percent of patients had non-endocrine complications (musculoskeletal, neurological, hematological or hepatic chronic conditions). Endocrine complications (28%) affected mainly patients treated with CT and consisted of gonadal dysfunction (up to 42% patients of over 12 years of age at follow-up) and hypothyroidism (21%). Our analysis revealed that CT had a significant impact on final height (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Treatment for childhood malignancies exposes children to late effects affecting the endocrine system. In children treated for NBL, hypothyroidism, gonadal failure and impaired growth appear to be the main endocrine complications. Close follow-up of survivors is thus appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Symptom exaggeration and malingering are core issues in forensic and clinical evaluation. Generally, experts use two main types of instruments to assess the credibility of symptoms: performance validity tests that aim to detect underperformance and self-report validity tests that appraise over-reporting of symptoms. However, while many tools can be used to assess underperformance, far fewer instruments are available to evaluate over-reporting of symptoms. Methods: In this study, we adapted the Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) for use with French-speaking participants and tested its psychometric properties on a sample of 575 healthy adults (aged from 18 to 65 years), alongside various smaller subgroups. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor structure for the scale, with a first factor including items questioning genuine symptoms and a second factor including items questioning bizarre or rare symptoms (i.e., pseudosymptoms). Additional analyses emphasized the SRSI's excellent internal reliability and good convergent validity. Furthermore, our results revealed that both the symptom and pseudosymptom subscales were able to discriminate between participants who were asked to feign cognitive impairments (i.e., malingerers), healthy controls, and patients with genuine cognitive symptoms. Conclusion: Overall, these results suggest that the SRSI may be considered a promising tool to assess the credibility of symptoms in patients evaluated in forensic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction:Diagnosis threat has been shown to produce detrimental effects on neuropsychological performance in individuals with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Focusing on contact-sport players who are at great risk of mTBI, our study was designed to examine the moderating role of internal locus of control. Specifically, we predicted that following diagnosis threat (reminder of their risk of sustaining mTBI and of its consequences), low-internal contact-sport players would underperform (assimilation to the stereotype), while their high-internal counterparts would outperform (contrast effect). We predicted that effort and anxiety would mediate these effects. Method:Contact-sport players and non-contact-sport players (“control” group) were randomly assigned to one condition (diagnosis threat or neutral) and then completed attention, executive, episodic memory, and working memory tasks. Regarding mediating and moderating variables, participants rated their effort and anxiety (self-report measures) and completed the Levenson (1974) locus of control scale. Regression-based path analyses were carried out to examine the direct and indirect effects. Results:As expected, there was no effect of condition on the control group’s performance. Contact-sport players with moderate and high levels of internal control outperformed (contrast effect) on executive and episodic memory tasks following diagnosis threat compared to the neutral condition. Additionally, the less anxiety moderate- and high-internal contact-sport participants felt, the better they performed on episodic memory and executive tasks. However, contact-sport players low in internal control did not underperform (assimilation effect) under diagnosis threat. Conclusions:Our results suggest that diagnosis threat instructions may have challenged moderate- and high-internal contact-sport participants, leading them to outperform compared to the neutral condition. Individuals who have moderate and high levels of internal locus of control may have higher performance under diagnosis threat compared to the neutral condition because of their feeling of control over their cognitive performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective:Numerous studies have shown that stereotype threat (ST) reduces older people’s cognitive performance, but few have studied its impact on clinical cognitive outcomes. Our study was designed to further examine the impact of ST on the clinical assessment of older subjects’ cognitive functioning, as well as the moderating role of fear of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) (or ‘dementia worry’).Method:Seventy-two neurologically normal (MMSE > 26) participants aged between 59 and 70 completed a set of neuropsychological tasks in either an ST or a positive condition (condition in which negative stereotypes were invalidated).Results:Regression-based path analyses showed that only participants who expressed moderate or high fear of AD underperformed on executive tasks in the ST condition compared to their counterparts in the positive condition. Moreover, in the ST condition, participants’ performance on executive tasks was more impaired (relative to normative data) than in the positive condition. However, ST had no effect on memory and attention performance.Discussion:Our results showed that ST can cause older people to perform at pathological levels on executive tasks. Results highlight the need for clinicians to be cautious when conducting neuropsychological assessments of older people who express high levels of dementia worry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since stereotypes about people with acquired brain injury (ABI) can lead to prejudice, studying these stereotypes is highly important. In two studies, we examined these stereotypes both on idiosyncratic dimensions and on the two dimensions of the Stereotype Content Model. Participants completed a specific questionnaire about ABI and warmth and competence questionnaires regarding people with ABI and other social groups. Specific stereotypes about ABI were found to be underpinned by dimensions of 'cognitive impairments and ADL limitations,' 'catastrophic outcomes,' and 'personal and interpersonal development.' Within the model, people with ABI were seen as being warm but incompetent. The ambivalent ABI stereotype could elicit prejudicial attitudes that may impede rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuropsychological assessment is known to be influenced by expectancy effects, which can either enhance (placebo) or diminish (nocebo) cognitive performance. Research suggests that the response expectancy effect is influenced by various individual and situational factors and that the placebo effect results in an increase in monitoring processes as measured indirectly. However, the impact on monitoring processes has not yet been studied by direct measures such as Judgement Of Learning (JOL). This study aimed to investigate the response expectancy effect on various neuropsychological tasks, including a task that directly assesses monitoring capacities (JOL). In addition to determining which cognitive functions are influenced by the expectancy effect, this study examined the moderating role of the self-transcendence dimension of personality. Eighty healthy subjects were exposed to three bogus conditions presented as allegedly having a positive, negative, or no impact on cognitive capacities. Then they completed, in random order, three blocks of tasks (executive, attentional, and memory), one in each condition. Results showed an effect of negative instructions on flexibility (poorer performance) and memory (better performance) scores. Furthermore, positive instructions led to better explicit monitoring capacities (JOL) than the neutral condition. These effects were moderated by self-transcendence, as only participants with moderate or high self-transcendence exhibited these effects. Overall, our results showed that the response expectancy effect emerges from a combination of individual and cognitive factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]