Gender differences in spatial navigation: Characterizing wayfinding behaviors.

Men show a consistent spatial navigation advantage over women, which is often attributed to their increased use of survey spatial strategies. But what about men's navigation gives them an advantage? One possibility is that the way in which men explore environments is fundamentally different, leading to better navigational performance. To test this possibility, this study investigated whether there are gender differences in wayfinding behaviors during navigation that relate to navigational success in a real-world, large-scale, unconstrained navigation task. West Point cadets were given a masked GPS tracker and sent into a large-scale, natural environment to locate targets indicated on maps. We assessed how they explored the environment by computing three measures from the GPS tracks and related these measures to their ability to find the assigned target locations. We also tested whether their self-reported spatial ability related to navigational success. Results showed that males performed better than females, which replicates prior work. Further, traveling longer distances without changing course, pausing less, and fewer returns to previously visited locations were significantly related to the ability to locate the correct target. Consistent with full mediation, the significant relationship between gender and navigational success is fully accounted for by men and women producing different wayfinding behaviors, which in turn predict differences in navigational success. Further, there was no unique relationship between self-reported spatial skills and navigational success. This study is a first step toward showing the relationship between gender, wayfinding behaviors, and navigational success in a natural, real-world navigation task.

A role for attention during wilderness navigation: Comparing effects of BDNF, KIBRA, and CHRNA4.

OBJECTIVE: To better understand what influences interindividual differences in ability to navigate in the wilderness, we hypothesized that better performance would be seen in (a) BDNF (rs6265) Val/Val homozygotes increased use of a spatial strategy, (b) KIBRA rs17070145 T/T homozygotes superior episodic memory, (c) CHRNA4 (rs1044396) T allele carriers better ability to focus visuospatial attention. METHOD: Military cadets (n = 382) genotyped for BDNF, KIBRA, and CHRNA4 SNPs used a map and compass to navigate in unmarked woods. Participants completed a morning course within 3.0 km and an afternoon course within 7.0 km. RESULTS: Success or failure in finding each point was analyzed in a logistic regression model with KIBRA, BDNF, and CHRNA4 genotypes as fixed effects. For the morning course, the adjusted odds ratio for the effect of KIBRA T/T over KIBRA C/C was 2.58 (95% CI of 1.31, 5.06) demonstrating a statistical benefit of the KIBRA T/T genotype over individuals with KIBRA C/C genotype. BDNF did not have an independent association with navigational success. For the afternoon course, the adjusted odds ratio for the effect of CHRNA4 C/T over C/C was 1.67 (95% CI of 1.24, 2.25) demonstrating a statistical benefit of CHRNA4 T allele carriers over the C/C genotype. CONCLUSIONS: Ability to navigate in the wilderness benefits less from sense of direction (BDNF and Santa Barbara Sense of Direction) and more from episodic memory (KIBRA) in the first course and heightened ability to focus attention (CHRNA4) after experience in the 2nd course. (PsycINFO Database Record

Children's beliefs about causes of childhood depression and ADHD: a study of stigmatization.

OBJECTIVE: Children's causal attributions about childhood mental health problems were examined in a national sample for prevalence; relative stigmatization; variation by age, race and ethnicity, and gender; and self-report of a diagnosis of depression or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: A national sample of 1,091 children were randomly assigned to read vignettes about a peer with depression, ADHD, or asthma and respond to an online survey. Causal attributions and social distance were assessed, and correlations were examined. Logistic regression models for each causal item tested main effects and interaction terms for conditions, demographic characteristics, and self-reported diagnosis. RESULTS: The beliefs that parenting, substance abuse, and low effort caused the condition were all strongly intercorrelated and were moderately correlated with social distance. The depression condition was the strongest predictor of endorsement of the most stigmatizing causal beliefs. Stigmatizing causal beliefs were evident for ADHD, but with more modest effects. Children who reported a diagnosis were more likely to endorse parenting and substance abuse as causes (attenuated for ADHD). Modest to moderate effects were found for variation in causal beliefs across ethnic groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated a consistent presence of stigmatization in children's beliefs about the causes of childhood mental health problems. Low effort, parenting, and substance abuse together tapped a moralistic and blaming view of mental health problems. The results reinforce the need to address stigmatization of mental disorders and the relative stigmatization of different causal beliefs. The findings of variation by ethnicity and diagnosis can inform and target antistigmatization efforts.

Children's stigmatization of childhood depression and ADHD: magnitude and demographic variation in a national sample.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the magnitude of stigmatizing attitudes toward peers with depression or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a national sample of children ages 8 to 18 and to examine variation in level of stigma by school location, region of the United States, grade level, race/ethnicity, or sex. METHOD: Surveys were administered to 1,318 children and adolescents. Respondents were randomly assigned to depression, ADHD, or asthma conditions and were presented with a vignette about a peer with one of the conditions. Participants responded to items assessing positive and negative attributions, social distance, and family attitudes. Mean differences were tested for statistical significance and effect sizes were computed. RESULTS: Respondents were more likely to make negative attributions about peers with ADHD and depression versus asthma, particularly regarding the likelihood of antisocial behavior and violence (Cohen d range 0.78-1.35, large effect sizes). Moderate effect sizes were found for preferences for social distance from peers with ADHD(d = 0.37) and depression (d = 0.45). Effects were found for perceptions of negative family attitudes toward both mental health conditions, with depression (d = 0.78) seen as even more stigmatized than ADHD (d = 0.47). The level of stigmatization was relatively constant across demographic variables, with the exception of greater stigmatization evident in Asian/Pacific Islander youths. CONCLUSIONS: Across most items, both depression and ADHD were more stigmatized than asthma, with depression more stigmatized than ADHD. The perception of likelihood of violence and antisocial behavior was particularly high for both ADHD and depression, greatly exceeding the real-world association for depression.

When and where perceptual load interacts with voluntary visuospatial attention: an event-related potential and dipole modeling study.

Perceptual load is recognized to affect visual selective attention, but at an unknown spatiotemporal locus in the brain. To examine this issue, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed an orientation discrimination task, under conditions of low or high perceptual load. Participants were required to respond to targets (10% of trials) presented in the attended visual field while ignoring all stimuli in the unattended visual field. The interaction between voluntary attention and perceptual load was significant for the posterior N1 component (190 ms) but not for the earlier C1 (84 ms) or P1 (100 ms) components. This load by attention interaction for N1 was localized to the temporoparietal-occipital (TPO) gyrus by dipole modeling analysis. Dipole modeling also showed that a reversed attentional effect in the C1 time range was due to ERP overlap from the subsequent attention-sensitive P1 component. Results suggest that perceptual load affects voluntary visuospatial attention at an early (but not the earliest) processing stage and that the TPO gyrus mediates target selection at the discrimination stage.