Opposite reactions to loss incentive by young and older adults: Insights from diffusion modeling.

The prospect of loss becomes more salient in later life, and the opportunity to avoid loss is often used to motivate older adults. We examined the effect of loss incentive on working memory in young and older adults. Diffusion-modeling analyses, manipulation of task parameters, and self-report measures identified which aspects of cognitive-motivational processing were most affected within each group. As predicted, loss incentive increased working memory performance and self-reported motivation in young adults, but, consistent with prior work, had the opposite effect in older adults. Diffusion-modeling analyses suggested the primary effect was on the quality of the memory representation (drift rate). Incentive did not interact with retention interval or the number of items in the memory set. Instead, longer retention intervals led to better performance, potentially by improved differentiation between studied items and the unstudied probe as a function of temporal context. Overall, the results do not support theories suggesting that older adults are either more motivated by loss or that they ignore it. Instead, the loss incentive increased young adults' performance and subjective motivation, with opposite effects for older adults. The specific impact on drift rate and lack of interactions with set size or retention interval suggest that rather than affecting load-dependent or strategic processes, the effects occur at a relatively global level related to overall task engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Interactions between methodological and interindividual variability: How Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task contrast maps vary and impact associations with behavior.

INTRODUCTION: Phenomena related to reward responsiveness have been extensively studied in their associations with substance use and socioemotional functioning. One important task in this literature is the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task. By cueing and delivering performance-contingent reward, the MID task has been demonstrated to elicit robust activation of neural circuits involved in different phases of reward responsiveness. However, systematic evaluations of common MID task contrasts have been limited to between-study comparisons of group-level activation maps, limiting their ability to directly evaluate how researchers' choice of contrasts impacts conclusions about individual differences in reward responsiveness or brain-behavior associations. METHODS: In a sample of 104 participants (Age Mean = 19.3, SD = 1.3), we evaluate similarities and differences between contrasts in: group- and individual-level activation maps using Jaccard's similarity index, region of interest (ROI) mean signal intensities using Pearson's r, and associations between ROI mean signal intensity and psychological measures using Bayesian correlation. RESULTS: Our findings demonstrate more similarities than differences between win and loss cues during the anticipation contrast, dissimilarity between some win anticipation contrasts, an apparent deactivation effect in the outcome phase, likely stemming from the blood oxygen level-dependent undershoot, and behavioral associations that are less robust than previously reported. CONCLUSION: Consistent with recent empirical findings, this work has practical implications for helping researchers interpret prior MID studies and make more informed a priori decisions about how their contrast choices may modify results.

Losing Money and Motivation: Effects of Loss Incentives on Motivation and Metacognition in Younger and Older Adults.

Incentives are usually expected to increase motivation and cognitive control and to thereby improve performance. A small but growing number of studies have begun to investigate whether the effects of incentive on cognitive performance differ for younger vs. older adults. Most have used attention and cognitive control paradigms, trial-wise implementation of incentive condition, and gain incentives (reward), with only a very few investigating the effects of loss incentives. The present study takes a complementary approach: We tested younger and older adults in a working memory paradigm with loss incentives implemented session-wide (between subjects). We also included self-report measures to ask how loss incentive affected participants' perceptions of the mental demand of the task, as well as their perceived effort, frustration, motivation, distraction, and metacognitive judgments of how well they had performed. This allowed us to test the disparate predictions of different theoretical views: the intuitive hypothesis that incentive should increase motivation and performance, the motivational shift proposal that older adults are especially motivated to avoid losses (Freund and Ebner, 2005), a heuristic "positivity effect" perspective that older adults ignore losses (Brassen et al., 2012; Williams et al., 2017), and a more nuanced view that suggests that when negative information is unavoidable and increases perceived costs, older adults may instead disengage from the situation (Charles, 2010; Hess, 2014). The results seemed most consistent with the more nuanced view of the positivity effect. While neither group showed incentive-related performance differences, both younger and older adults reported greater perceived demand and frustration under loss incentive, especially in the most challenging conditions. Loss incentive increased the accuracy of immediate metacognitive judgments, but reduced the accuracy of later, more global judgments of competency for older adults. Self-report measures suggested that the loss incentive manipulation was distracting to young adults and demotivating for older adults. The results suggest a need for caution in generalizing from existing studies to everyday life, and that additional studies parameterizing critical aspects of task design and incentive manipulation are needed to fully understand how incentives affect cognition and motivation in younger and older adults.

Health Behaviors, Physical Health, and Health Care Utilization in Children With ADHD.

Objective: To compare health behaviors, physical health outcomes, and health care utilization between children with and without ADHD. Method: In this cross-sectional study, we obtained data for children with and without ADHD from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. To investigate the association between ADHD and health outcomes, we estimated the adjusted prevalence ratios (APRs) in these groups. Results: Among 10,838 children aged 7 to 18 years with and without ADHD, those with ADHD had significantly higher APRs for overall health problems, physical illness, and injuries than those without ADHD. Despite having health care needs, children with ADHD were less likely than those without ADHD to use health care services. However, there were no significant associations between most health behaviors and ADHD. Conclusion: Increased efforts are needed to provide quality health care services to address the medical conditions of children with ADHD and to enhance their health care utilization when needed.

Major Stressors among Korean Adolescents According to Gender, Educational Level, Residential Area, and Socioeconomic Status.

Adolescents are exposed to many stressors which have been associated with poor mental health. Using data from the 2015 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey, we identified the major stressors among Korean adolescents based on gender, current educational level, residential area, and socioeconomic status (SES). The major stressors among girls were relationship- and appraisal-related factors, whereas boys more often reported health- and conflict-related factors. High school students more often reported academic performance and family circumstances as major stressors, whereas middle school students tended to report conflict-related factors. Urban adolescents reported academic performance and conflicts with parents as major stressors while rural adolescents reported conflicts with teachers and peer relationship problems. Finally, adolescents of lower SES reported multiple factors, including relational and family problems, as major stressors; contrarily, among those of higher SES, the primary stressor was uniquely related to academic performance. This result is significant in that adolescents' stress levels, as well as the types of major stressors, vary depending on individual factors. It could also be beneficial for developing and implementing individualized and thus more efficient stress-management strategies.

Differential effects of completed and incomplete pregnancies on the risk of Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of completed pregnancy with childbirth and incomplete pregnancy without childbirth on the late-life cognition and the risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) in women. METHODS: Using the pooled data of 3,549 women provided by 2 population-based cohort studies, we conducted logistic regression analyses to examine retrospectively the associations of completed and incomplete pregnancy with the risks of mild cognitive impairment and AD. For women without dementia, we also conducted analyses of covariance to examine the associations of completed and incomplete pregnancy with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. RESULTS: Grand multiparous women who experienced ≥5 completed pregnancies showed an ≈1.7-fold higher risk of AD than those who experienced 1 to 4 completed pregnancies (odds ratio [OR] 1.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04-2.72), while those who had incomplete pregnancies showed half the level of AD risk compared with those who never experienced an incomplete pregnancy (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.24-0.76 for 1 incomplete pregnancy; OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.34-0.92 for ≥2 incomplete pregnancies). In women without dementia, the grand multiparous had worse MMSE scores than those with 1 to 4 completed pregnancies (p < 0.001), while those who experienced ≥1 incomplete pregnancies had better MMSE scores than those who never experienced an incomplete pregnancy (p = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: Grand multiparity was associated with high risk of AD, while incomplete pregnancy was associated with low risk of AD in late life.

The Prevalence of Chronic Physical Diseases Comorbid with Depression among Different Sex and Age Groups in South Korea: A Population-Based Study, 2007-2014.

OBJECTIVE: People with depression often suffer from comorbid, chronic physical diseases. Little is known about how demographic characteristics such as age and sex influence the prevalence of chronic physical diseases comorbid with depression. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the age and sex differences in the prevalence of diverse, chronic physical diseases comorbid with depression. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey were conducted with the participants (n=45,598) of the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Using log-binomial regression, age adjusted prevalence ratios (APR) of chronic physical diseases of participants with depression and those without depression were estimated for each sex and age group. RESULTS: The APR of most chronic physical diseases were significantly higher among respondents with depression than those without depression. Chronic physical diseases that showed the highest APR were asthma in adult male respondents (APR=3.46) and adult female respondents (APR=2.19) and chronic renal failure in elderly male respondents (APR=8.36) and elderly female respondents (APR=1.94). CONCLUSION: Prevalence ratios of the chronic physical diseases comorbid with depression differed according to sex and age groups. Collaborative care strategies should be designed according to demographic characteristics of the population.

Correlations between suicide rates and the prevalence of suicide risk factors among Korean adolescents.

We examined whether annual changes in the prevalence of suicide risk factors are related to annual changes in suicide rates among male and female adolescents in South Korea. Data from the Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2005-2015) were used to obtain the annual prevalence of psychological and health-related risk factors among Korean adolescents. Mortality data from the Korean National Statistical Office (NSO) were used to obtain annual suicide rates among Korean adolescents aged 15-19 years. For male adolescents, there were significant positive correlations between suicide rate and the rate of depressive mood, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, drinking, and smoking and negative correlations between suicide rate and the rate of self-perceived healthiness, obesity, and being physically active. For female adolescents, suicide rates were positively correlated with rate of being sexually active and negatively correlated with rate of obesity. Overall, our study showed that annual rates of suicide are associated with annual prevalence of suicide risk factors in Korean adolescents, particularly in male adolescents.

Psychometric Properties of the Korean Translation of the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Stigma Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Korean version of the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Stigma Questionnaire (ASQ) and the effect of the source of information about mental health on ADHD stigma. METHODS: The Korean translation of the ASQ was prepared, and 673 participants, 20-64 years of age, completed the questionnaire using an online panel survey in South Korea. The participants also completed questionnaires detailing sociodemographic variables and the source of their mental health knowledge. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to explore the internal consistency of the ASQ. Factor analysis using Varimax rotation was conducted to investigate the structure of the ASQ. RESULTS: The 26-item ASQ demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.940). Factor analysis supported a threefactor structure, including Concerns with Public Attitudes, Negative Self-Image, and Disclosure Concerns. There were no significant differences in the total ASQ scores according to sociodemographic characteristics. Participants who reported the internet as their major source of information about mental health showed higher ASQ scores compared to those who used other sources for mental health information. CONCLUSION: The Korean translation of the ASQ has acceptable psychometric properties among Korean adults. Inaccurate information from the internet could increase the stigma toward ADHD.

Beliefs about the causes of and treatments for depression and bipolar disorder among South Koreans.

Public beliefs about psychiatric disorders are important for understanding help-seeking behaviours. We investigated factors that affect South Koreans' beliefs about the causes and treatment of depression and bipolar disorder. We recruited 654 participants aged 15-54 years using an online panel survey. Participants completed two questionnaires: 34 possible causes of and 33 possible treatments for depression and bipolar disorder. For both disorders, the questionnaires about causes revealed four factors: social-environmental, God/fate, heath/lifestyle, and biological; the questionnaires about treatments revealed five factors: self-help/stress management, physical treatment/health management, seeking mental health services, religious help, and resting. Causes of depression were more recognized as social-environmental, religious, and health/lifestyle compared to bipolar disorder. Participants expressed more beliefs in self-help/stress management, physical treatment/health management, seeking mental health services, and resting for depression, compared to bipolar disorder. Participants' beliefs about the causes of the disorders and their demographic and psychiatric characteristics were closely associated with beliefs about treatment validity. Participants' beliefs about the causes of depression and bipolar disorder significantly affected their beliefs about treatment. Therefore, strategies to improve mental health literacy should provide the aetiology of specific mental disorders. Further research using a representative community sample is needed to generalize our findings.

Violence Victimization in Korean Adolescents: Risk Factors and Psychological Problems.

We examined the risk factors for and psychological problems associated with violence victimization in a nationwide representative sample of Korean adolescents. Data from the 2016 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey was used. Participants were asked about their experience of being a victim of violence that required medical treatment during the past 12 months, as well as their perceived health, happiness, sleep satisfaction, stress, depressed mood, and suicidality. The 12-month prevalence of violence victimization requiring medical treatment was 2.4%. The results indicated that adolescents were at an increased risk for violence victimization if they were male, older, had parents of a foreign nationality, did not reside with their family, worked part time, resided in small cities or rural areas, were high or low in socioeconomic status (SES), exhibited high or low levels of academic performance, used alcohol or tobacco, and were sexually active. In addition, while violence victimization was negatively associated with perceived health and happiness, it was positively associated with perceived stress, depressed mood, and suicidality. The results indicate that a social disadvantage, involvement in risky behavior, and psychological problems are associated with violence victimization. Effective violence prevention efforts should thus target high-risk groups, and clinical attention is needed to address the psychological costs associated with violence victimization.