Previous studies suggest that cues predicting the outcome of attentional shifts provide a measure of anticipatory alcohol-related attentional bias that is correlated with risky drinking and has high reliability. However, this is complicated by potential contributions of visual features of cues to reliability, unrelated to their predictive value. Further, little is known of the sensitivity of the bias to variations in cue-outcome mapping manipulations, limiting our theoretical and methodological knowledge: Does the bias robustly follow varying cueoutcome mappings, or are there automatic cue-related associative processes involved? The current studies aimed to address these issues. Participants performed variations of the cued Visual Probe Task (cVPT) in which cues were non-predictive; in which there were multiple cue pairs, used simultaneously and serially; and in which the cue-outcome mapping was reversed. The major findings were, first, that previously found reliability cannot be attributed to aspects of the cues not related to outcome-prediction; second, that reliability of the bias does not survive deviations from a simple, consistent cue-outcome mapping; third, that all predictive versions of the task showed a bias towards alcohol; fourth, that the bias did not simply follow awareness of the cue-outcome mapping; and finally, that only in the case of simultaneous multiple cue pairs, an association with risky drinking was replicated. The results provide support for the reliability of the anticipatory attentional bias for alcohol, suggest that relatively persistent associative processes underlie the bias in the alcohol context, and provide a foundation for future work using the cVPT.
Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to execute future intended actions and may be negatively affected by impulsivity. The current study aimed to address questions on (1) relationships of PM with facets of impulsivity; (2) psychometric properties of a PM task, in particular convergent validity with self-reported PM; and (3) whether external support of the encoding process would improve PM or affect relationships with impulsivity. 245 participants performed the experiment online.Participants completed either a baseline version of the task, which combined blocks of an ongoing working memory task with PM trials involving a varying stimulus requiring an alternative response; or a version that provided external support of encoding by requesting that participants visualize and execute the intended prospective action before each block. The Prospective-Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) and Short Version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale (SUPPS) were used to assess self-reported prospective memory and facets of impulsivity. Reliability of PM performance was good and remained acceptable even with the exclusion of participants with low scores. PM performance was associated with self-reported PM, explaining variance in addition to that explained by working memory performance. PM performance was also negatively associated with impulsivity, in particular sensation seeking and positive urgency, but only in the baseline task. Support did not cause overall improvements in performance. In conclusion, results provided further evidence for a relationship between facets of impulsivity and PM. PM as assessed via the current task has good psychometric properties.
The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of simple-stomached animals and humans harbours microbes from the mouth (Chen et al., 2010; Dewhirst et al., 2010) to the rectum (Stearns et al., 2011), and these microbial populations have recently received much attention for their effects on nutrition and health (Fan & Pedersen, 2020; Valdes et al., 2018).The amounts and types of bacteria found at a GIT location are influenced by among other factors, the O 2 concentration of the chyme and/or digesta, with strict anaerobes considered to be found exclusively in the most distal GIT regions which have digesta with low O 2 concentration (He et al., 1999). For example, a hyperbaric oxygen therapy in mice (2 h, daily for 9 days) (Albenberg et al., 2014) reduced the presence in faeces of Anaerostipes (an obligate anaerobic
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