Abstracts

 

Clinical-Community Psychology

Michelle Yujin Kang

What are the links among parent emotion regulation, child emotion regulation and child depression?

Keywords: Emotion regulation, suppression, reappraisal, parent-child relationship, child depression

Emotion regulation plays a key role in the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Family context is an important component of emotion regulation because children's emotion regulation and family influences (e.g., observation, parenting practices, emotional climate) may affect each other via bidirectional processes. However, we do not know to what extent parents' own emotion regulation strategies contribute to children's mental health. The present study addresses the following research questions: First, we examine how parent and child (3rd, 6th, 9th grade) emotion regulation strategies, specifically reappraisal and suppression, uniquely predict child depression (N=690). Second, we explore whether child gender and age (grade) interact with parent and child emotion regulation strategies to predict child depression. Third, we investigate how parent and child emotion regulation strategies foreshadow changes in children’s depression 18 months later. A linear regression analysis suggested that child reappraisal (β=-0.30, CI=[-0.38, -0.22], p<0.05) and suppression (β=0.14, CI=[0.06, 0.22], p<0.05) were significantly and uniquely associated with child depression when controlling for parent emotion regulation strategies, whereas parent emotion regulation strategies demonstrated mixed results. Parent reappraisal was significantly, positively, and uniquely associated with child depression whereas parent suppression showed no significant association. Gender and age had no interaction effects except that the negative effect of suppression was stronger for older children. Parent and child emotion regulations strategies had no significant association with changes in depression from baseline to 18 month follow up. Our findings indicate that children's own emotion regulation strategies are more strongly related to depressive outcomes compared to parent’s emotion regulation strategies. These findings suggest future treatment research may benefit from testing the relative effectiveness of individual-focused versus parent-focused interventions.

Juneun (Jay) Park

Effects of Alcohol on Speech Prosody in Social Context 

Keywords: alcohol, social context, speech prosody, multi-level modeling, machine learning

Detecting alcohol intoxication using speech prosody, such as volume and pitch, carries significant implications in applied domains, potentially precluding hazardous actions. Yet, speech prosody has not been thoroughly examined in uncontrolled contexts. The current research leverages a large-scale alcohol administration study to detect alcohol intoxication during unscripted conversations within social groups. In Study 1 (N=144, between-subjects), participants were randomized to consume either alcohol (N=72) or a control beverage (N=72). In Study 2 (N=60, within-subjects), participants underwent both alcohol (N=60) and control (N=60) conditions. Throughout both experiments, participants engaged in free interactions within groups of three during the 36 minutes of beverage administration while aiming for a peak BAC of 0.08%. Speech volume, pitch, and formants were extracted by Praat. Throughout three time periods (36 minutes), a significant interaction was present in Study 1 between the progression of time and alcohol condition, with individuals consuming alcohol speaking an average of 1.50 decibels (dB) louder than those drinking a control beverage, B=1.50, t=3.72, p< 0.001. No significant effects on pitch emerged. In Study 2,  a significant interaction was observed between the alcohol condition and time on volume (B = 1.34, t = 2.82, p <.05) and pitch (B = 4.52, t = 2.24, p < .05). According to the Random Forest Classifier, the overall AUC for Study 1 was 0.80 (TPR = 0.79 and TNR = 0.68), and for Study 2, the overall AUC was 0.82 (TPR = 0.85 and TNR = 0.75). The present findings suggested the usefulness of voice for detecting alcohol intoxication in real-world contexts to potentially preclude hazardous actions. Future studies will be needed to explore various speech traits and alcohol intoxication detection. 

Shuo (Iris) Yan

An Exploration of the Common Vulnerabilities of Autism Spectrum Condition and Schizotypy

Keywords: autism spectrum condition, schizotypy, common vulnerability mode

There are shared symptoms and risks for autism spectrum condition (ASC) and schizotypy. Several alternative models have been proposed to account for these similarities. Using factor analyses on three large samples gathered in the US and China, Chirica et al. (in press) showed that the features of ASC and schizotypy loaded in the same direction, supporting a common vulnerability model. The goal of the present research was to examine possible vulnerabilities, specifically aberrant salience and sensory sensitivity, that may account for the phenotypic similarities. 422 college students completed measures regarding ASC, schizotypy, aberrant salience, and sensory sensitivity. We replicated the finding that a small number of dimensions that cut across both ASC and schizotypy accounted for much of their phenotypic variance. Sensory sensitivity was positively and moderately associated with all dimensions of ASC and schizotypy. In contrast, aberrant salience was differentially associated with these dimensions. 

Chenhao Zhao

Asian/Asian American College Students’ Internalization of Cultural Constructs, Help-seeking Stigma, and Anxiety Symptoms 

Keywords: Asian/Asian American college students, culture, help-seeking stigma, anxiety symptoms, path analysis

Anxiety symptoms of Asian/Asian American college students (A/AA) were positively associated with their help-seeking stigma. A/AA’s help-seeking stigma might be a result of the internalization of certain cultural constructs (e.g., loss of face). To investigate the role of culture and help-seeking stigma on the psychological well-being of racial minorities, cultural help-seeking model were developed based on the theory of reasoned action and planned behavior. However, none of them focused on anxiety symptoms among A/AA. The current study proposed a new model to investigate the role of cultural constructs related to A/AA (i.e., loss of face and the model minority myth) and help-seeking stigma (i.e., self and public) on A/AA’s anxiety symptoms. Path analysis was employed to examine the proposed new model among 369 A/AA college students attending a large Midwestern university. The proposed new model showed a poor fit (RMSEA = .14, SRMR = .05, CFI = 0.84, TLI = 0.37). Based on the modification indices, a revised model was developed to reflect the significant path between loss of face and anxiety. The revised model showed a good fit (RMSEA = .00, SRMR = .01, CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.03). We found loss of face was associated with higher public stigma and anxiety symptoms; the model minority myth (social mobility) was associated with higher self-stigma; public stigma was associated with higher self-stigma and anxiety symptoms. For the benefit of A/AA’s mental health, we propose future research to enhance the current cultural help-seeking model. 

Social-Personality-Organizational Psychology

Kristina Howell

Can We Separate the Character From the Creator?: An Exploratory Study on Parasocial Relationships

Keywords: relationship psychology, media psychology, moral contamination, cancellation, cancel culture, parasocial relationships, parasocial breakups, media figures, scandal

People often form parasocial relationships with actors, media figures, and fictional characters. Much like in traditional interpersonal relationships, people may disengage from a parasocial figure following a transgression. This process can happen directly – where the object of controversy is also the target of separation – but the same phenomenon might occur indirectly. For example, when a character’s creator receives negative attention, that negativity might undermine the parasocial relationships people have with that character. To explore this possibility, we used J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. Rowling has faced criticism for insensitive Twitter comments about the trans community. In Study 1 we asked participants (N = 157) to self-report whether and how their relationship with Harry Potter characters changed based on their knowledge of these comments. A quarter of participants reported that their relationship changed after learning of her views. In Study 2 we asked participants (N = 790) to rate the strength of their parasocial relationship with their favorite Harry Potter character either before (control condition) or after (experimental condition) viewing additional controversial material concerning Rowling. Participants who were exposed to the controversy reported weaker relationships with Rowling’s characters than those in the control condition, suggesting some impact of controversy on parasocial relationships. Taken together, these studies show that, for some, parasocial relationships with characters can be harmed when the creators of those characters adopt controversial positions. 

Mingjia Sherlock Liu

Multiple Identity Mindset: A Potential Pathway to Improve Cross-Race Interactions 

Keywords: self/identity, social cognition, diversity, race/ethnicity, cognitive flexibility, cross-race interaction

As the U.S. population increasingly diversifies, cross-race interactions are becoming more frequent. Research showed that cross-race interactions often lead to negative outcomes such as increased anxiety. Meanwhile, other research found creativity and cognitive flexibility can counteract the activation of stereotypes that are linked to interaction anxiety. Here, we test for the first time whether the use of a multiple-identity mindset, a cognitive framework in which one reflects on one’s own multiple social identities, can buffer anxiety brought on by cross-race interactions by fostering creativity and cognitive flexibility. Participants (target N = 800) will be randomly assigned to a multiple identity mindset or a control condition. Next, they will be asked to participate in an asynchronous cross-racial interaction over Zoom with a confederate interaction partner. Participants will ostensibly be randomly assigned as an interviewee and receive video recordings from another “participant” who ostensibly previously completed the study in the interviewer role. Participants will be asked to respond to interviewer questions regarding diversity through video recordings and be told those recordings will be received and evaluated by the “interviewer” later. We will use two-way ANOVAs and multiple regressions to test whether there are differences between primed participants versus non-primed control participants in terms of cognitive outcomes and impression of the interaction partner. We expect that primed participants will exhibit more cognitive flexibility and more favorable impressions of the interaction partner than non-primed participants. This study can provide important insights into improving cross-race interactions in this increasingly diverse society. 

Hunter Meyers

Leadership Influence Tactics and LMX: Dyadic Effects from a Social Relations Model 

Keywords: leadership, influence tactics, leader member exchange, social relations analysis

Studies of leadership influence tactics typically treat the influence tactics as part of a leader’s style, with the direction of influence flowing from leader to followers. The current study applies a social relations model (Kenny, 1994) to investigate influence tactics in all directions simultaneously. Specifically, we examine soft influence tactics (e.g., rational persuasion, exchange, inspirational appeals, personal appeals, and consultation), hard leadership influence tactics (e.g., pressure tactics, coalitions, and legitimating), and leader member exchange (LMX). We used a round-robin design to decompose the variance and analyze interpersonal reciprocity within project teams at three US universities (individual N = 382, team N = 95, dyadic N = 2,280). Results show that influence tactics have a relatively higher portion of target-level (receiver of influence) variance (i.e., 68%-69% of non-error variance in influence tactic use is attributable to the target of influence). These results suggest that targets largely pull for certain kinds of influence, rather than influence being a chronic style of the leader. In contrast, leader member exchange has a relatively higher portion of dyad-level (relationship) variance (39% of non-error variance), suggesting particular leaders are supportive toward particular followers (consistent with LMX theory). Neither influence tactics nor leader member exchange exhibited generalized reciprocity (e.g., the degree to which individuals who receive influence tend to reciprocate the same kind of influence toward all group members in general). However, both soft influence tactics and LMX exhibited dyadic reciprocity (e.g., a correlation between sending influence to a partner and receiving the same kind of influence from that dyad partner). Hard influence tactics did not show dyadic reciprocity. This work provides a novel application of social relations analysis to leadership influence tactics, by identifying the contributions of each component (target, sender, relationship, and error), enabling us to better understand leader-follower interactions. 

Maggie Palmiero

INSECURITY BIAS IN REMEMBERED TRAJECTORIES OF ATTACHMENT IN ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS 

Keywords: Attachment, Insecurity bias, close relationships, retrospective reports

When people think about their former romantic relationships, they often recall those relationships in an insecure light. This is evident in popular media, such as the TV show, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” the humor of which depends on the relatability of ex-partners being perceived as “crazy.” Music charts are often topped by songs about former partners. But are these appraisals accurate? Is it really the case that former relationships are predominantly insecure? The purpose of the research presented here was to address those questions. We found, first, that people who report greater attachment insecurity when reporting on a past romantic relationship than when reporting on a current one. There were two potential explanations for this: First, that relationships that ultimately end are simply more insecure than those that endure. Alternatively, it might be the case that retrospective reports of attachment are subject to insecurity bias. We found that although relationships that ultimately end are in fact more insecure than those that do not, retrospective reports of attachment to former partners are, in fact, subject to insecurity bias. On the other hand, retrospective reports of attachment to a current romantic partner are, in some cases, biased toward security, rather than insecurity. 

Gloria Sunderland

EMOTION REGULATION, IMPUSIVITY, AND SEPARATION ANXIETY IN ADOLESCENTS

Keywords: emotion regulation, separation anxiety, impulsivity, adolescence, parental monitoring, negative life events, longitudinal

Children with anxiety disorders report higher impulsivity and difficulties with emotion regulation, which have each been found to be risk factors for the development of mental health disorders. Further, children with separation anxiety disorder (SAD) have been found to be at a heightened risk for later psychopathology. The longitudinal associations between impulsivity and emotion regulation are not well understood  for those with SAD. Developing a better understanding of these constructs can help identify specific points of intervention to improve the treatment of SAD in adolescents. The aim of the present research is to examine how changes in emotion regulation are linked with changes in impulsivity across adolescence, and how these associations vary between individuals with and without SAD. Further, we estimate the extent to which environmental factors such as negative life events and parental monitoring moderate changes in emotion regulation and impulsivity. We used data from a sample of 11,880 adolescents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. First, we will evaluate the psychometric properties of the measures by investigating scale reliability and longitudinal measurement invariance. We will then estimate individual-level growth trajectories, correlations among individual differences in longitudinal trajectories, and predictors of individual differences in trajectories. Finally, we will evaluate whether the developmental processes are invariant across youth diagnosed with SAD compared to the remaining sample. We expect to see the group with SAD to have more difficulties with emotion regulation and impulsivity than the non-SAD group across time.  

Attention & Perception, Cognitive, & Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience

Austin Ashley

Tokenism and Stereotype Threat Effects: Exploring Differences in Group Composition during Testing Situations

Keywords: Working Memory, Long Term Memory, Test Performance, Anxiety, Identity

Stereotype Threat (ST) occurs when stigmatized individuals are primed with a negative stereotype and underperform relative to a control group (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Here, we use secondary data to explore ST effects for Black students based on differences in racial/ethnic representation in group testing situations. Tokenism theory (Kanter, 1977) predicts that cultural dynamics influence individuals according to the proportion of minority members in a given group. Using Tokenism theory, we classify groups for minority proportion based on the numerical representation. Groups consisted of 1 to 6 participants and the racial composition of the groups were random (N=613, 151 of which were black). If the minority proportion of the group was lower, we classified it as a skewed/tilted group. If the minority proportion was higher, then we classified those as balanced/uniform groups. We expect that groups with lower minority proportions (i.e. skewed and tilted groups) will have the largest ST effects, exhibiting worse test performance and greatest levels of anxiety. Also, based on prior research (Holden, Goodwin & Conway, 2020; Regner et al., 2010), we predicted that the relationship between ST and numerical representation would be moderated by working memory (WM) capacity. We found evidence to support only the latter hypothesis in that higher WM students exhibited enhanced performance in the face of ST, but only under conditions of greater minority representation (opposite from what we expected). Future research should recruit larger samples and experimentally manipulate group composition to further investigate these questions.

Ethan Hoffman

Impact of noncontingent methamphetamine exposure and female sex hormones on parvalbumin cell expression in the medial prefrontal cortex 

Keywords: development, sex differences, adolescence, puberty, parvalbumin 

As incidence of prescriptions of psychostimulants for disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in adolescents increases, so does recreational use and dependence in teens and young adults. Additionally, progression to dependence is more severe in women, whose average onset of dependence occurs at earlier ages. Sex differences have been observed in the variability of neural structure in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) via changes in expression of parvalbumin, the most common inhibitory cell-type in the region when exposed to methamphetamine. However, the mechanisms of how psychostimulants may impact the integrity of the mPFC in females is uncertain. We aim to determine whether estrogen mediates the role of structural changes of the mPFC after methamphetamine exposure in females. Female sprague-dawley rats will be randomized to ovariectomized or sham condition prior to puberty and exposed to methamphetamine through intraperitoneal injections. Immunohistochemistry and automated quantification identifying parvalbumin will be used to evaluate parvalbumin expression and intensity. Subjects will be sacrificed 24 hours after their final injection. Parvalbumin expression will be determined via drug (METH/saline) x hormonal Status (OVX/sham) ANOVA on number of parvalbumin-expressing cells and parvalbumin intensity of expression for each age group to determine expression. Ovariectomy of female sprague-dawley rats prior to puberty and timed exposure to methamphetamine will provide a better understanding of the biological mechanism underlying the heightened sensitivity of adolescent females toward persistent methamphetamine use, amphetamine use, and psychostimulant dependence overall.  

Zixu (Gavin) Gong

Top-down instructions influence the attentional weight on color and shape dimensions during redundant search

Keywords: visual search, redundant search, attentional modulation

Previous research has shown that targets redundantly characterized by both color and shape dimensions are identified with greater efficiency compared to those delineated solely by color or shape. Further investigation into the enhanced performance attributed to color and shape dimensions suggests that attention allocation varies, with dimensions weighted differently depending on the context. Additionally, color and shape, as separable dimensions, may conform to the city-block metric, wherein target-distractor distinctiveness is the sum of distinctiveness of the two dimensions.  We aim to understand whether the context under different top-down instructions influences the relative weight of color and shape and affects performance efficiency in redundant searches. Our study includes visual search tasks that involve only color or only shape difference between the target and distractors (Experiment 1) and redundant search tasks involving both color and shape dimensions, directed by specific instructions (Experiments 2-4). These redundant experiments include trials featuring targets and distractors differing in color and shape. The main difference in the redundant experiments lies in the instructions: participants are instructed to focus only on color (Experiment 2), including trials with only color differences between the target and distractors to ensure focus on the instructed dimension. Experiment 3 shifts the focus to shape, introducing trials with just shape differences. Experiment 4 requires attention to both color and shape without one dimension difference trials. We used experiments (Experiment 1) with single dimensions to predict outcomes for tasks involving both color and shape (Experiments 2-4), comparing these predictions with actual experiment results. We evaluated search efficiency in redundant scenarios across different instructions. Results suggest that when instructed to focus on a specific dimension, participants utilize and attend the dimension more, evidenced by a heightened weighting of instructed dimension. Our study highlights the significant role of top-down influences and attentional weighting in processing visual information from different dimensions. 

Yinuo Peng

Object Learning with Simultaneous Presentation in Humans and Deep Neural Networks 

Keywords: continual learning, category learning, catastrophic forgetting, deep neural network, learning sequence

The catastrophic forgetting problem in machine learning is that networks readily forget learned information as they encounter new information. In contrast, humans seem to not suffer from catastrophic forgetting and can learn continually. By comparing human and machine learning performance under different learning sequences, our previous study observed that humans who learned novel objects (Greebles) in successive presentations performed significantly worse than a convolutional neural network (CNN) pre-trained with ImageNet when learning a full set of randomized Greebles. The present study examined whether this human full-set disadvantage was due to working memory limitations by adopting a simultaneous presentation method to alleviate memory demand. In this condition, all Greeble training images were simultaneously displayed on the screen in random order, allowing human participants to compare and judge the categories without memorizing any stimuli. Human participants learned to categorize Greebles by guessing and judging category labels and receiving feedback on each Greeble one by one, while the CNN was trained with the same Greeble images with the same settings. A final test was conducted after learning, including all learned Greebles, some novel Greebles with the same viewpoint, and some novel Greebles with a novel viewpoint. The results showed that the simultaneous presentations did not allow humans to perform better than successive presentations, and humans were still less accurate than the CNN when learning a full set of randomized Greebles, suggesting that working memory capacity is insufficient to explain the inferior human category learning relative to CNN in the full set condition. 

Ajith Senthil

Integration of Attachment Theory To Computational Psychodynamics

Keywords: Attachment Theory, Big Five Personality Traits, Computational Psychodynamics, Extended Dynamic Cognitive Vector Theory (EDCVT), personality dynamics, observation-based AI psychometrics, video data, narrative text data, behavior simulation, graph theory, Markov chains, AI personality modeling, brain-computer interfaces

This project introduces an integration of Attachment Theory and the Big Five Personality Traits into Computational Psychodynamics, expanding the understanding of personality and cognition dynamics through the Extended Dynamic Cognitive Vector Theory (EDCVT) , a hierarchical framework of behavior for modeling cognition and personality of individuals and groups. The integration extends this formalism to connect computational neuroscience, personality theory, and attachment theory. Recognizing the significance of Attachment Theory for analyzing relational and intragroup dynamics, and the Big Five Personality Traits for studying personality, this research addresses the existing gap in Computational Psychodynamics by formalizing the measurement of attachment processes and personality traits with observation-based AI psychometrics. Currently the observation-based psychometrics include video data, narrative text data, and manually inputted sequences of observations of events between people to analyze and simulate behavior and cognition. The core components of Attachment Theory—Proximity Seeking, Safe Haven, and Secure Base—are modeled using graph theory, where agents are represented as nodes and their pairwise influence as edges with varying strengths, reflecting the dynamics of attachment bond formation and behavior within groups. This model facilitates the quantification of conditional Matrix Transfer Entropy as a result of interactions, offering new insights into how Safe Haven and Secure Base dynamics influence and are influenced by changes in an agent’s personality over time. The objective is to enhance the computational understanding of attachment dynamics and the Big Five Personality Traits, contributing to the field through a novel modeling approach. Methodologically, the project employs Markov transition matrices to analyze behavior, using graph network edge strength to represent the overall influence and statistical dependence an agent has over another agent over time. The implications of this work extend to AI personality modeling, brain-computer interfaces, and observation-based psychometrics, opening avenues for future research on the impact of early secure attachments on relational dynamics through observation-based psychometrics.  

Yuji (Victoria) Yao

Testing the Mind-Wandering Under Fear Emotion

Keywords: mind-wandering, attention, emotion, fear, sadness

Mind wandering is a state where people’s attention shifts away from the current task to internal thoughts. Previous research found that negative mood was associated with more frequent mind wandering. However, not all negative moods are equal. For example, different negative emotions have different impacts on high-level cognition tasks such as decision making. This study aims to examine whether different negative emotions, such as fear and sadness, can have different effects on mind wandering. We first conducted a study to test a new method for inducing distinct negative emotions. Participants completed a go/no-go task in which they pressed a key every time they saw a city image but did nothing when seeing an emotional image. In the fear condition, the emotional images were spiders; In the sadness condition, they were sad scenes (e.g., wars, wounds, and tears, etc.) The sad scenes effectively increased fear and other negative effects, but spider images only increased fear. Given this effective induction effect of images, future research will next examine whether people are less likely to mind-wander under fear condition than the sadness condition.

Zeyi (Daisy) Zang

The Role of Sex Differences in the Link Between Emotion Regulation and Psychological Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Keywords: sex differences, reappraisal and suppression, posttraumatic growth, resilience

The COVID-19 pandemic led people to experience mental distress and inspired researchers to investigate emotion regulation (ER) strategies, including reappraisal and suppression, as a path toward psychological well-being. Former studies suggest that using reappraisal and suppression differentially impact psychological well-being, such as resilience and post-traumatic growth (PTG). Further, both the preference for using particular ER and the psychological well-being differ among males and females. However, previous studies have demonstrated inconsistent findings for the link between ER and psychological well-being, and the role of sex difference within this link. The current study aims to investigate how males and females utilize ER differently during the pandemic, and whether their psychological well-being will differ subsequently. We recruited college students (n=1,254) during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2023) to complete three online questionnaires about their choice of ER and psychological well-being during the pandemic. Results showed that reappraisal was positively associated with both resilience and PTG, which aligned with former findings. However, rather than claiming inconsistent relationships between suppression and psychological well-being, current results indicated a clear negative correlation between two variables. Furthermore, while sex difference in ER and psychological well-being were consistently detected in former research, current results only revealed that females showed lower suppression and stronger PTG than males. Additionally, the moderation model revealed that females with higher level of reappraisal showed stronger PTG than males. In contrast, males with higher suppression showed lower PTG than females. To conclude, the current study not only clarified the relationship between ER and psychological well-being and the role of sex differences, but also provided further evidence in how the effect of ER on psychological well-being differs in males and females.