The costs of curiosity and creativity: Minimizing the downsides while maximizing the upsides.

The unbridled positivity toward curiosity and creativity may be excessive. Both aid species survival through exploration and advancement. These beneficial effects are well documented.

Swimming with a head-mounted display: dual-task costs.

Head-up displays (HUDs) have the potential to change work in operation environments by providing hands-free information to wearers. However, these benefits may be accompanied by trade-offs, primarily by increasing cognitive load due to dividing attention. Previous studies have attempted to understand the trade-offs of HUD usage; however, all of which were focused on land-based tasks.

Purpose in life: A resolution on the definition, conceptual model, and optimal measurement.

Theoretically, purpose serves as a basic dimension of healthy psychological functioning and an important protective factor from psychopathology. Theory alone, however, is insufficient to answer critical questions about human behavior and functioning; we require empirical evidence that explores the parameters of purpose with respect to measurement, prediction, and modification. Here, we provide empirically supported insights about how purpose can operate as a beneficial outcome (e.

The Role of State and Trait Self-Control on the Sustained Attention to Response Task.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the plausibility of self-control depletion, or ego-depletion, as the underlying cognitive resource responsible for performance decrements on the sustained attention to response task.

Background: Researchers suggested that self-control is a limited cognitive resource used to complete a myriad of processes, including sustained attention. Past research showed that self-control affects some sustained attention tasks.

Factors that affect dentists' use of antibiotic prophylaxis: Findings from The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network questionnaire.

Background: Little is known about factors that influence dentists' decision making concerning antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) prescribing. The objective of this study was to determine factors that influence dentists' AP prescribing habits in patients at risk of developing infective endocarditis and prosthetic joint infections.

Methods: A questionnaire was administered to 3,584 dentist members of The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network.

High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability and Emotion-Driven Impulse Control Difficulties During Adolescence: Examining Experienced and Expressed Negative Emotion as Moderators.

Emotion-driven impulse control difficulties are associated with negative psychological outcomes. Extant research suggests that high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) may be indicative of emotion-driven impulse control difficulties and potentially moderated by negative emotion. In the current study, 248 eleven- to 14-year-olds and their parent engaged in a negatively emotionally arousing conflict task at Time 1.

Prophylactic antibiotic prescribing in dental practice: Findings from a National Dental Practice-Based Research Network questionnaire.

Background: Little is known about antibiotic prescribing practices of dentists. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of dentists' beliefs and behaviors regarding the use of antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) before invasive dental procedures.

Methods: A multidisciplinary team developed and disseminated a questionnaire to 3,584 dentist members of the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network.

Understanding psychological flexibility: A multimethod exploration of pursuing valued goals despite the presence of distress.

Psychological flexibility (PF), defined as the ability to pursue valued life aims despite the presence of distress, is a fundamental contributor to health (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). Existing measures of PF have failed to consider the valued goals that give context for why people are willing to manage distress. Using 4 independent samples and 3 follow-up samples, we examined the role of PF in well-being, emotional experience and regulation, resilience, goal pursuit, and daily functioning.

Methodology for the development of a national Dental Practice-Based Research Network survey on dentist's beliefs and behaviors concerning antibiotic prophylaxis.

Background: Dentists are high prescribers of antibiotics for both treatment and prevention of infection, although there are few guidelines to aid clinicians. Given the worldwide concerns about unnecessary use of antibiotics, there is a need for a better understanding of dentists' use of these drugs for antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) to prevent distant site infections (i.e.

Patterning, Reading, and Executive Functions.

Detecting a pattern within a sequence of ordered units, defined as patterning, is a cognitive ability that is important in learning mathematics and influential in learning to read. The present study was designed to examine relations between first-grade children's executive functions, patterning, and reading abilities, and to examine whether these relations differ by the type of pattern. The results showed that working memory correlated with reading fluency, and comprehension measures.

Predicting treatment course and outcome using a promotion and prevention framework in a community sample of arthritis sufferers.

Objective: The present study examined the proposition that patients need to focus on something beyond simply "getting better". In a sample of arthritis sufferers, we distinguished individuals by the goals that motivated them - moving toward aspirational goals and maximizing gains (promotion focus) rather than obligations and minimizing losses (prevention focus) - and how these motivational styles influenced treatment.

Methods: Patients (N=254) participated in a randomized controlled trial of resistance training and self-management, providing 6 time points of data over 2 years.

High risk, high reward: Daily perceptions of social challenge and performance in social anxiety disorder.

Individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) have difficulty engaging in social situations because their actions are predicated on minimizing the subjectively biased high potential for rejection. That is, individuals with SAD frequently perceive social situations as challenging, and their performance as subpar. Yet when individuals perceive themselves as succeeding in challenging situations, they typically report these situations as enjoyable and rewarding.

Sexuality leads to boosts in mood and meaning in life with no evidence for the reverse direction: A daily diary investigation.

Sex is rarely discussed in theories of well-being and rarely empirically examined using methods other than cross-sectional surveys. In the present study, a daily diary approach was used (for 21 days with 152 adults) to explore the relationship between the presence and quality of sexual episodes and well-being (positive affect, negative affect, meaning in life). Time-lagged analyses demonstrated that sexual activity on 1 day was related to greater well-being the next.

Personality strengths in romantic relationships: Measuring perceptions of benefits and costs and their impact on personal and relational well-being.

Three studies using samples of people in romantic relationships were conducted to create a new individual difference measure of partner strengths in couples. The 2 perceptions of partner strengths included (1) appreciation of their use and effectiveness and (2) recognition of costs associated with their use. Factor analyses supported 2-factors and we found that greater appreciation of partner strengths predicted greater relationship satisfaction, commitment, investment, intimacy, self-expansion, and support for goal pursuit; recognizing significant costs with partner strengths was inversely related to several outcomes.

Almost human: Anthropomorphism increases trust resilience in cognitive agents.

We interact daily with computers that appear and behave like humans. Some researchers propose that people apply the same social norms to computers as they do to humans, suggesting that social psychological knowledge can be applied to our interactions with computers. In contrast, theories of human–automation interaction postulate that humans respond to machines in unique and specific ways.

Placebo effects in cognitive training.

Although a large body of research shows that general cognitive ability is heritable and stable in young adults, there is recent evidence that fluid intelligence can be heightened with cognitive training. Many researchers, however, have questioned the methodology of the cognitive-training studies reporting improvements in fluid intelligence: specifically, the role of placebo effects. We designed a procedure to intentionally induce a placebo effect via overt recruitment in an effort to evaluate the role of placebo effects in fluid intelligence gains from cognitive training.

Anxiety symptoms and functional impairment: A systematic review of the correlation between the two measures.

Researchers and clinicians assume a strong, positive correlation between anxiety symptoms and functional impairment. That assumption may be well-justified since diagnostic criteria typically include functional impairment. Still, the relationship remains largely unavailable in any systematic review.

Cerebral hemovelocity reveals differential resource allocation strategies for extraverts and introverts during vigilance.

Extraversion--one of the Big 5 personality factors--correlates negatively with vigilance, but most studies focus on performance outcomes and not the performance process. Previous research has shown that transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD), which measures cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV), can be used to examine resource allocation strategies during vigilance performance. Hence, this study was designed to assess the attentional resource allocation strategies of introverts and extraverts using the CBFV measure.

Grant Peer Review: Improving Inter-Rater Reliability with Training.

This study developed and evaluated a brief training program for grant reviewers that aimed to increase inter-rater reliability, rating scale knowledge, and effort to read the grant review criteria. Enhancing reviewer training may improve the reliability and accuracy of research grant proposal scoring and funding recommendations. Seventy-five Public Health professors from U.

Human ApoE ε4 alters circadian rhythm activity, IL-1β, and GFAP in CRND8 mice.

Disruptions to daily living, inflammation, and astrogliosis are characteristics of Alzheimer's disease. Thus, circadian rhythms, nest construction, IL-1β and TNF-α, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were examined in a mouse model developed to model late-onset Alzheimer's disease-the most common form of the disease. Mice carrying both the mutated human AβPP transgene found in the CRND8 mouse and the human apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (CRND8/E4) were compared with CRND8 mice and wildtype (WT) mice.

Sexual healing: daily diary investigation of the benefits of intimate and pleasurable sexual activity in socially anxious adults.

A growing literature attests to deficits in social and romantic life quality in people with elevated social anxiety, but no research to date has explored how intense intimate encounters influence social anxiety symptoms. This study investigated whether the presence and quality of sexual activity on a given day predicted less social anxiety and negative cognitions on a subsequent day. We also explored whether the benefits of sexual activity would be stronger for more socially anxious individuals.

Failure to capitalize on sharing good news with romantic partners: Exploring positivity deficits of socially anxious people with self-reports, partner-reports, and behavioral observations.

Extending prior work on social anxiety and positivity deficits, we examined whether individual differences in social anxiety alter the ability to share and respond to the good news of romantic partners (i.e., capitalization support) and how this influences romantic relationship satisfaction and commitment.

Distinguishing healthy adults from people with social anxiety disorder: evidence for the value of experiential avoidance and positive emotions in everyday social interactions.

Despite the increased attention that researchers have paid to social anxiety disorder (SAD), compared with other anxiety and mood disorders, relatively little is known about the emotional and social factors that distinguish individuals who meet diagnostic criteria from those who do not. In this study, participants with and without a diagnosis of SAD (generalized subtype) described their daily face-to-face social interactions for 2 weeks using handheld computers. We hypothesized that, compared with healthy controls, individuals diagnosed with SAD would experience fewer positive emotions, rely more on experiential avoidance (of anxiety), and have greater self-control depletion (feeling mentally and physically exhausted after socializing), after accounting for social anxiety, negative emotions, and feelings of belonging during social interactions.