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Fostering Attention for Human Needs
Decades at the forefront of attention research have convinced APS William James Fellow Michael I. Posner that attention can literally save lives: He witnessed a group of smokers reduce their cigarette consumption by 60% after just 2 weeks of mindfulness training. He confirmed an increase in brain activity in areas related to self-control among these study participants. Posner’s Keynote Address kicked off the the 27th APS Annual Convention in New York City, where 5,300 attendees met to discuss cutting-edge research on behavioral development, attention, clinical interventions, and more.
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Beyond Simple Models of Self-Control
The adolescent brain is more “plastic” than it will ever be again and capable of remarkable adaptability in light of the many challenges that this developmental phase brings. Yet it is a peak time for accidental injury and death, in part because of diminished self-control – the ability to inhibit inappropriate desires, emotions, and actions in favor of appropriate ones. Findings of adolescent-specific changes in self-control and underlying brain circuitry are considered in terms of how evolutionary based biological constraints and experiences shape the brain to adapt to the unique challenges of adolescence.
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Regulation Across the First Decade of Life
Regulation – a multilayered construct defined by the interplay of excitation and inhibition –undergoes substantial development across the first decade of life, is supported by bottom-up processes, and matures in the context of parent-infant synchrony and the neurobiology of affiliation. The talk will chart a biobehavioral perspective on the development of regulation by providing insights from five birth cohorts each followed repeatedly across the first decade of life using careful behavioral observations and neurobiological assessments.
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Self-Control Strategies for School-Age Children
What strategies can children use to facilitate self-control? First, they can choose their physical or social circumstances or change them to their advantage. Next, they can selectively attend to particular features of their situations or represent their situations in particular ways. Using these metacognitive strategies is more efficient than effortful response inhibition.
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Making Sense of Self-Regulation in Early Childhood
The effect of parental supportive emotion socialization on internalizing symptoms (IS) in early childhood is moderated by child executive function (EF). For children with low EF, there is a negative relation between supportive behaviors and IS, but there is no relation for children with high EF.
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Strangers to Ourselves
The study of self-knowledge—how well people know their own attitudes‚ beliefs‚ feelings‚ motives‚ and traits—has had a checkered history in psychology but has become a well-researched topic with important theoretical and practical implications. Researchers have examined three types of self-knowledge: recalling one’s past self (e.g.‚ past attitudes and beliefs)‚ knowing one’s present self (e.g.‚ current internal states)‚ and predicting one’s future self (e.g.‚ emotional reactions to future events). I will discuss the limits of each type of self-knowledge‚ why people sometimes fail to know themselves‚ and the consequences (good and bad) of poor self-knowledge.
