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Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic deletion syndrome characterized by severe visuospatial deficits affecting spatial exploration and navigation abilities in extra-personal space. To date, little is known about spatial elaboration and reaching abilities in the peripersonal space in individuals with WS. The present study is aimed at evaluating the visuospatial abilities in individuals with WS and comparing their performances with those of mental age-matched typically developing (TD) children by using a highly sensitive ecological version of the Radial Arm Maze (table RAM). We evaluated 15 individuals with WS and 15 TD children in two different table RAM paradigms: the free-choice paradigm, mainly to analyze the aspects linked to procedural and memory components, and the forced-choice paradigm, to disentangle the components linked to spatial working memory from the procedural ones. Data show that individuals with WS made significantly more working memory errors as compared to TD children, thus evidencing a marked deficit in resolving the task when the mnesic load increased. Our findings provide new insights on the cognitive profile of WS.

Prospective memory, the ability to remember an intention at the appropriate future moment, is often investigated in the laboratory to maximize experimental control. However, demands of laboratory prospective memory tasks only partly map onto everyday demands. Therefore, it is an open question whether factors which predict prospective memory in the laboratory also predict prospective memory in the real world. We combined diary and ecological momentary assessment methods to investigate which factors, that have been repeatedly shown to predict prospective memory performance in laboratory tasks, are related to the fulfillment of everyday intentions. Results showed that substantial portions of variance in real-world prospective memory performance could be explained with the factors found to be significant in laboratory. The most powerful predictors were perceived intention importance, the use of external memory aids, delay interval, and conscientiousness. However, some meaningful laboratory predictors (e.g., working memory) played only a minor role in natural environments and a large portion of the variance in everyday intention fulfillment remained unexplained. The results substantially extend the understanding of conditions and personality variables most conducive to remembering intentions, but they also suggest that additional factors influencing real-world prospective memory remain to be discovered.

The biological market task – also known as the ephemeral reward task – models the mutualistic cleaning interactions between bluestreak cleaner wrasses and their client fish on coral reefs. In this dichotomous choice paradigm, selecting an “ephemeral” food option first grants access to a “permanent” food option, while choosing the permanent option first makes the ephemeral one unavailable. Cleaner fish have previously outperformed other vertebrates on this task, presumably because the cues to solve it are more ecologically salient for cleaner fish. In this study, we tested whether this advantage extends to non-cleaner fish by assessing the learning and reversal learning performance of three dottyback species ( Pseudochromis spp.) – mesopredator reef fish that do not engage in cleaning mutualisms – on the original task and two derived versions that varied in the cue required for solving it. Dottybacks performed poorly in all versions of the task. Notably, they did worse in the original task than cleaner wrasses tested previously, suggesting that cleaner fish’ success is tied to specific ecological conditions not shared by other species. Further analyses revealed subtle differences in performance between tasks and faster learning in the initial test compared to the reversal test, an indicator of limited cognitive flexibility. Together, these findings help fill a gap in the biological market literature and underscore how species-specific ecological traits and task structure shape cognitive performance.

Animals exhibit considerable and consistent among-individual variation in cognitive abilities, even within a population. Recent studies have attempted to address this variation using insights from the field of animal personality. Generally, it is predicted that animals with “faster” personalities (bolder, explorative, and neophilic) should exhibit faster but less flexible learning. However, the empirical evidence for a link between cognitive style and personality is mixed. One possible reason for such conflicting results may be that personality–cognition covariance changes along ecological conditions, a hypothesis that has rarely been investigated so far. In this study, we tested the effect of habitat complexity on multiple aspects of animal personality and cognition, and how this influenced their relationship, in five populations of the Aegean wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii). Overall, lizards from both habitat types did not differ in average levels of personality or cognition, with the exception that lizards from more complex habitats performed better on a spatial learning task. Nevertheless, we found an intricate interplay between ecology, cognition, and personality, as behavioral associations were often habitat- but also year-dependent. In general, behavioral covariance was either independent of habitat, or found exclusively in the simple, open environments. Our results highlight that valuable insights may be gained by taking ecological variation into account while studying the link between personality and cognition.

We have designed a flexible ecological momentary assessment/intervention smartphone (EMA/EMI) \"app\". We examine the utility of this app for collecting real-time data, and assessing intra-subject variability, by using it to assess how freshman undergraduates spend their time. We also explore whether its use can promote greater self-awareness. Participants were randomly divided into an experimental group, who used the app, and a control group, who did not. We used the app to collect both randomized in-the-moment data as well as end-of-day data to assess time use. Using a posttest survey we asked participants questions about how they spent time throughout the school semester. We also asked the experimental group about their experience with the app. Among other findings, 80.49% participants indicated that they became more aware of how they spent their time using the app. Corroborating this report, among the experimental group, end-of-semester self-assessment of time spent wasted, and time spent using electronics recreationally, predicted semester GPA at a strength comparable to high school GPA and ACT score (two of the best single predictors for first semester college GPA), but had no correlation among controls. We discuss the advantages and limitations of using apps, such as ours, for EMA and/or EMI.

The tendency for individuals to mind wander is often measured using experience sampling methods in which probe questions embedded within computerized cognitive tasks attempt to catch episodes of off-task thought at random intervals during task performance. However, mind-wandering probe questions and response options are often chosen ad hoc and vary between studies with extant little guidance as to the psychometric consequences of these methodological decisions. In the present study, we examined the psychometric properties of several common approaches for assessing mind wandering using methods from item response theory (IRT). IRT latent modeling demonstrated that measurement information was generally distributed across the range of trait estimates according to when probes were presented in time. Probes presented earlier in time provided more information about individuals with greater tendency to mind wandering than probes presented later. Furthermore, mind-wandering ratings made on a continuous scale or using multiple categorical rating options provided more information about individuals’ latent mind-wandering tendency – across a broader range of the trait continuum – than ratings dichotomized into on-task and off-task categories. In addition, IRT provided evidence that reports of “task-related thoughts” contribute to the task-focused dimension of the construct continuum, providing justification for studies conceptualizing these responses as a kind of task-related focus. Together, we hope these findings will help guide researchers hoping to maximize the measurement precision of their mind wandering assessment procedures.

Background Given the therapeutic potential of Approach-Avoidance interventions (AAIs) in the alcohol domain, research has increasingly applied them to the food domain. In AAIs, harmful stimuli are avoided while healthy ones are approached, for example by respectively moving a phone away from or towards oneself. Methods We administered a phone-based AAI six times over two weeks to 156 participants in a pre-registered randomized-controlled trial to reduce intake of six “decrease-foods” and increase intake of six “increase-foods”, selected according to each participant’s individual dietary goals. The control group received a placebo task in which all stimuli were equally often approached and avoided. Food craving and intake were the outcomes, measured daily during the training period, four days before and after, and once during a follow-up one month after training. Per-food approach bias was recorded before and after training, and at follow-up. Results Compared to placebo, active training reduced the level of decrease-food craving (b = -0.19; 95% HDI [-0.31, -0.05]) without affecting how often craving occurred. Restrained eaters (b = -0.19; 95% HDI [-0.36, -0.03]) and those with low past dietary success (b = 0.13; 95% HDI [0.03, 0.24]) showed the strongest craving strength reduction. Active training also reduced approach bias for decrease-foods, albeit with weaker evidence (b = -38.10; 89% HDI [-73.82, -0.39]). We found no intervention effects on increase-foods on any outcome. There were no interpretable training effects for food intake and no changes were maintained at follow-up. Conclusions A multisession mobile AAI reduced craving intensity for foods that participants wanted to eat less of in the 4 days after the end of the intervention period with reductions bouncing back at 4-week follow-up. It remains to future research how this can be sustained long-term and effectively translated into reduced food intake. Trial registration This study was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register, ID DRKS00030780.

Research generally shows that autonomous forms of motivation are associated with higher performance and job satisfaction, whereas controlled forms of motivation are linked to worse outcomes. These relationships are largely based on between-persons data from cross-sectional studies or longitudinal studies with few measurement points. However, motivation quality, performance, and job satisfaction can vary considerably from day to day and from task to task. It is unclear whether and how these experiences and behaviors covary over time within individuals at work in daily life. The present study assessed this using a diary approach. With a default protocol of 30 working days, an ecological momentary assessment application prompted 19 white-collar workers five times a day to report their autonomous and controlled motivation for work tasks and their productivity and job satisfaction at the end of each day. Fourteen participants gathered sufficient data to compute within-person relations and individual networks. At the between-person level, results were somewhat in line with prior survey-based research, whereas results at the within-person level present more nuanced findings and demonstrate that these will not inherently align with previous between-person findings. Individual network analyses indicated considerable interindividual heterogeneity, especially in the relationships between motivation and job satisfaction. In conclusion, these findings point to significant variability in the observed relations between task-related motivation, performance and job satisfaction in everyday life, and highlight the added value of a within person approach and individual networks in addition to between-persons approaches. The implications of these findings for occupational wellbeing research are discussed.

It is well established that performing multiple tasks simultaneously (dual-tasking) or sequentially (task-switching) degrades performance on one or both tasks. However, it is unknown whether task-switching adds to the effects of dual-tasking in a single setup. We investigated this in a simulated everyday-like car driving scenario. We expected an additive effect of task-switching on dual-tasking, leading to a stronger deterioration of driving performance due to the increased cognitive load required to handle multiple task-sets. Forty-five young adults aged 18 to 30 years (age: 23.62 ± 2.51, 28 females) were instructed to follow a lead car driving at a constant speed of 70 km/h through a rural landscape while concurrently performing additional tasks. The additional tasks were typing and arguing, in response to stimuli presented visually or auditorily. The tasks were presented either in separate blocks or in intermixed order (conditions: repetitive vs. switching). Driving performance was assessed by use of the average velocity and the standard deviation of lateral position, and performance in the additional tasks was assessed by reaction time. Linear-mixed effect models revealed better performance in the repetitive, compared to the switch condition only for the standard deviation of the lateral lane position while performing the additional typing task. This provides limited evidence for the view that task-switching adds to the challenges of dual-tasking. We therefore posit that already dual-tasking alone involves processing demands that are not substantially increased by adding switching demands.

Division of labor in social insects is determinant to their ecological success. Recent models emphasize that division of labor is an emergent property of the interactions among nestmates obeying to simple behavioral rules. However, the role of evolution in shaping these rules has been largely neglected. Here, we investigate a model that integrates the perspectives of self-organization and evolution. Our point of departure is the response threshold model, where we allow thresholds to evolve. We ask whether the thresholds will evolve to a state where division of labor emerges in a form that fits the needs of the colony. We find that division of labor can indeed evolve through the evolutionary branching of thresholds, leading to workers that differ in their tendency to take on a given task. However, the conditions under which division of labor evolves depend on the strength of selection on the two fitness components considered: amount of work performed and on worker distribution over tasks. When selection is strongest on the amount of work performed, division of labor evolves if switching tasks is costly. When selection is strongest on worker distribution, division of labor is less likely to evolve. Furthermore, we show that a biased distribution (like 3:1) of workers over tasks is not easily achievable by a threshold mechanism, even under strong selection. Contrary to expectation, multiple matings of colony foundresses impede the evolution of specialization. Overall, our model sheds light on the importance of considering the interaction between specific mechanisms and ecological requirements to better understand the evolutionary scenarios that lead to division of labor in complex systems.