Early childhood investment impacts social decision-making four decades later. Yi Luo, Sébastien Hétu, Terry Lohrenz, Andreas Hula, Peter Dayan, Sharon Landesman Ramey, Libbie Sonnier-Netto, Jonathan Lisinski, Stephen LaConte, Tobias Nolte, Peter Fonagy, Elham Rahmani, P. Read Montague & Craig Ramey. Nature Communications, volume 9, Article number: 4705 (2018). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07138-5
Abstract: Early childhood educational investment produces positive effects on cognitive and non-cognitive skills, health, and socio-economic success. However, the effects of such interventions on social decision-making later in life are unknown. We recalled participants from one of the oldest randomized controlled studies of early childhood investment—the Abecedarian Project (ABC)—to participate in well-validated interactive economic games that probe social norm enforcement and planning. We show that in a repeated-play ultimatum game, ABC participants who received high-quality early interventions strongly reject unequal division of money across players (disadvantageous or advantageous) even at significant cost to themselves. Using a multi-round trust game and computational modeling of social exchange, we show that the same intervention participants also plan further into the future. These findings suggest that high quality early childhood investment can result in long-term changes in social decision-making and promote social norm enforcement in order to reap future benefits.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Practicing cognitive-training programs or intellectually demanding activities do not enhance any cognitive skill; at best, such interventions boost one’s performance in tasks similar to the trained task
Cognitive Training Does Not Enhance General Cognition. Giovanni Sala, Fernand Gobet. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.10.004
Highlights
* General cognitive ability (GCA) has been consistently found to correlate with performance in cognitive tasks and complex activities such as playing music, board games, and video games.
* In the past two decades, researchers have thus extensively investigated the effects of engaging in cognitive-training programs and intellectually demanding activities on GCA. The results have been mixed.
* Several independent researchers have noticed that the between-study variability can be accounted for by the quality of the experimental design and statistical artifacts. Those studies including large samples and active control groups often report no training-related effects.
* These findings show that practicing cognitive-training programs or intellectually demanding activities do not enhance GCA or any cognitive skill. At best, such interventions boost one’s performance in tasks similar to the trained task.
Abstract: Due to potential theoretical and societal implications, cognitive training has been one of the most influential topics in psychology and neuroscience. The assumption behind cognitive training is that one’s general cognitive ability can be enhanced by practicing cognitive tasks or intellectually demanding activities. The hundreds of studies published so far have provided mixed findings and systematic reviews have reached inconsistent conclusions. To resolve these discrepancies, we carried out several meta-analytic reviews. The results are highly consistent across all the reviewed domains: minimal effect on domain-general cognitive skills. Crucially, the observed between-study variability is accounted for by design quality and statistical artefacts. The cognitive-training program of research has showed no appreciable benefits, and other more plausible practices to enhance cognitive performance should be pursued.
Highlights
* General cognitive ability (GCA) has been consistently found to correlate with performance in cognitive tasks and complex activities such as playing music, board games, and video games.
* In the past two decades, researchers have thus extensively investigated the effects of engaging in cognitive-training programs and intellectually demanding activities on GCA. The results have been mixed.
* Several independent researchers have noticed that the between-study variability can be accounted for by the quality of the experimental design and statistical artifacts. Those studies including large samples and active control groups often report no training-related effects.
* These findings show that practicing cognitive-training programs or intellectually demanding activities do not enhance GCA or any cognitive skill. At best, such interventions boost one’s performance in tasks similar to the trained task.
Abstract: Due to potential theoretical and societal implications, cognitive training has been one of the most influential topics in psychology and neuroscience. The assumption behind cognitive training is that one’s general cognitive ability can be enhanced by practicing cognitive tasks or intellectually demanding activities. The hundreds of studies published so far have provided mixed findings and systematic reviews have reached inconsistent conclusions. To resolve these discrepancies, we carried out several meta-analytic reviews. The results are highly consistent across all the reviewed domains: minimal effect on domain-general cognitive skills. Crucially, the observed between-study variability is accounted for by design quality and statistical artefacts. The cognitive-training program of research has showed no appreciable benefits, and other more plausible practices to enhance cognitive performance should be pursued.
The field of nutrition could regain lost credibility by acknowledging the empirical & theoretical refutations of their memory-based methods & ensure use of rigorous methods to study the role of diet in chronic disease; see also comments against
The Failure to Measure Dietary Intake Engendered a Fictional Discourse on Diet-Disease Relations. Edward Archer, Carl J. Lavie and James O. Hill. Front. Nutr., Nov 13 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2018.00105
Abstract: Controversies regarding the putative health effects of dietary sugar, salt, fat, and cholesterol are not driven by legitimate differences in scientific inference from valid evidence, but by a fictional discourse on diet-disease relations driven by decades of deeply flawed and demonstrably misleading epidemiologic research. Over the past 60 years, epidemiologists published tens of thousands of reports asserting that dietary intake was a major contributing factor to chronic non-communicable diseases despite the fact that epidemiologic methods do not measure dietary intake. In lieu of measuring actual dietary intake, epidemiologists collected millions of unverified verbal and textual reports of memories of perceptions of dietary intake. Given that actual dietary intake and reported memories of perceptions of intake are not in the same ontological category, epidemiologists committed the logical fallacy of “Misplaced Concreteness.” This error was exacerbated when the anecdotal (self-reported) data were impermissibly transformed (i.e., pseudo-quantified) into proxy-estimates of nutrient and caloric consumption via the assignment of “reference” values from databases of questionable validity and comprehensiveness. These errors were further compounded when statistical analyses of diet-disease relations were performed using the pseudo-quantified anecdotal data. These fatal measurement, analytic, and inferential flaws were obscured when epidemiologists failed to cite decades of research demonstrating that the proxy-estimates they created were often physiologically implausible (i.e., meaningless) and had no verifiable quantitative relation to the actual nutrient or caloric consumption of participants. In this critical analysis, we present substantial evidence to support our contention that current controversies and public confusion regarding diet-disease relations were generated by tens of thousands of deeply flawed, demonstrably misleading, and pseudoscientific epidemiologic reports. We challenge the field of nutrition to regain lost credibility by acknowledging the empirical and theoretical refutations of their memory-based methods and ensure that rigorous (objective) scientific methods are used to study the role of diet in chronic disease.
Comments on this: Is Nutrition Science Mostly Junk? Alex Berezow. American Council on Science and Health blog, Nov 20 2018. https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/11/19/nutrition-science-mostly-junk-13611
Abstract: Controversies regarding the putative health effects of dietary sugar, salt, fat, and cholesterol are not driven by legitimate differences in scientific inference from valid evidence, but by a fictional discourse on diet-disease relations driven by decades of deeply flawed and demonstrably misleading epidemiologic research. Over the past 60 years, epidemiologists published tens of thousands of reports asserting that dietary intake was a major contributing factor to chronic non-communicable diseases despite the fact that epidemiologic methods do not measure dietary intake. In lieu of measuring actual dietary intake, epidemiologists collected millions of unverified verbal and textual reports of memories of perceptions of dietary intake. Given that actual dietary intake and reported memories of perceptions of intake are not in the same ontological category, epidemiologists committed the logical fallacy of “Misplaced Concreteness.” This error was exacerbated when the anecdotal (self-reported) data were impermissibly transformed (i.e., pseudo-quantified) into proxy-estimates of nutrient and caloric consumption via the assignment of “reference” values from databases of questionable validity and comprehensiveness. These errors were further compounded when statistical analyses of diet-disease relations were performed using the pseudo-quantified anecdotal data. These fatal measurement, analytic, and inferential flaws were obscured when epidemiologists failed to cite decades of research demonstrating that the proxy-estimates they created were often physiologically implausible (i.e., meaningless) and had no verifiable quantitative relation to the actual nutrient or caloric consumption of participants. In this critical analysis, we present substantial evidence to support our contention that current controversies and public confusion regarding diet-disease relations were generated by tens of thousands of deeply flawed, demonstrably misleading, and pseudoscientific epidemiologic reports. We challenge the field of nutrition to regain lost credibility by acknowledging the empirical and theoretical refutations of their memory-based methods and ensure that rigorous (objective) scientific methods are used to study the role of diet in chronic disease.
Comments on this: Is Nutrition Science Mostly Junk? Alex Berezow. American Council on Science and Health blog, Nov 20 2018. https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/11/19/nutrition-science-mostly-junk-13611
More psychopathic, narcissistic, & Machiavellian individuals possess a reasonable degree of insight into their trait levels & impairment, against theory, which holds that individuals’ ability to recognize the presence, severity, & impact of pathological traits is low
Sleep, Chelsea, Josh Miller, Donald Lynam, and William K. Campbell. 2018. “Antagonism-related Pds Insight & Impairment 11.13.18.” PsyArXiv. November 21. doi:10.31234/osf.io/597h4
Abstract: Clinical theory is skeptical of individuals’ ability to recognize the presence, severity, and impact of clinical symptoms and pathological traits (Oltmanns & Powers, 2012); however, empirical work has found moderate self-other convergence for reports of pathological traits and for Antagonism-related personality disorder (PD) constructs (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism), which are characterized by low insight. Nevertheless, empirical examinations of insight into perceptions of impairment is scant. Thus, the present study sought to examine individuals’ insight regarding pathological traits and related impairment in two samples. In Sample 1, more psychopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian individuals reported higher levels of pathological traits and were aware of related impairment. In Sample 2, individuals reported higher levels of pathological traits and, albeit to a lesser degree, more Antagonism-related impairment. Thus, more psychopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian individuals possess a reasonable degree of insight into their trait levels and associated impairment.
Abstract: Clinical theory is skeptical of individuals’ ability to recognize the presence, severity, and impact of clinical symptoms and pathological traits (Oltmanns & Powers, 2012); however, empirical work has found moderate self-other convergence for reports of pathological traits and for Antagonism-related personality disorder (PD) constructs (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism), which are characterized by low insight. Nevertheless, empirical examinations of insight into perceptions of impairment is scant. Thus, the present study sought to examine individuals’ insight regarding pathological traits and related impairment in two samples. In Sample 1, more psychopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian individuals reported higher levels of pathological traits and were aware of related impairment. In Sample 2, individuals reported higher levels of pathological traits and, albeit to a lesser degree, more Antagonism-related impairment. Thus, more psychopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian individuals possess a reasonable degree of insight into their trait levels and associated impairment.
Overall, both a women’s and her spouse’s income is significantly negatively associated with the woman’s number of children; probability to remain childless increases with increasing own, but decreases with increasing spouse’s income
Effects of woman’s and husband’s income on woman’s reproduction: Darwinian perspectives on human mating. Martin Fieder and Susanne Huber. Front. Sociol. | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2018.00037
Abstract: From a Darwinian perspective, for women, mate choice may be of crucial importance particularly concerning resources needed for rearing the children. In modern societies, however, resources in terms of income are often provided by both women and men. Nonetheless, the effects of a women’s and her husband’s socio-economic status on woman’s reproduction have not been investigated on a broader level. We therefore aimed to investigate the effects of a women’s and her husband’s income on the women’s number of children and her probability of remaining childless on the basis of census data of 9 contemporary census samples mainly from the developing world, totaling 782,147 women aged 45-54 years and their spouses. Overall, both a women’s and her spouse’s income is significantly negatively associated with the woman’s number of children. Only in Israel, we find a positive association between husband’s income and woman’s offspring number. A woman’s probability to remain childless, however, increases with increasing own, but decreases with increasing spouse’s income. We conclude that in this sample of nearly all developing countries, effects of male social status on woman’s reproduction are acting through childlessness.
Keywords: human, Reproduction, Childlessness, socio-economic status, census
Abstract: From a Darwinian perspective, for women, mate choice may be of crucial importance particularly concerning resources needed for rearing the children. In modern societies, however, resources in terms of income are often provided by both women and men. Nonetheless, the effects of a women’s and her husband’s socio-economic status on woman’s reproduction have not been investigated on a broader level. We therefore aimed to investigate the effects of a women’s and her husband’s income on the women’s number of children and her probability of remaining childless on the basis of census data of 9 contemporary census samples mainly from the developing world, totaling 782,147 women aged 45-54 years and their spouses. Overall, both a women’s and her spouse’s income is significantly negatively associated with the woman’s number of children. Only in Israel, we find a positive association between husband’s income and woman’s offspring number. A woman’s probability to remain childless, however, increases with increasing own, but decreases with increasing spouse’s income. We conclude that in this sample of nearly all developing countries, effects of male social status on woman’s reproduction are acting through childlessness.
Keywords: human, Reproduction, Childlessness, socio-economic status, census
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