Older children, but not younger children, were found to look away more from the face of an interlocutor when answering difficult as opposed to easy questions. Similar results were found in earlier work with adults, who often avert their gaze during cognitively difficult tasks (A.M. Glenberg, J.L. Schroeder, & D.A. Robertson, 1998). Twenty-five 8-year-olds and 26 5-year-olds answered verbal reasoning and arithmetic questions of varying difficulty. The older children increased gaze aversion from the face of the adult questioner in response to both difficult verbal reasoning questions and difficult arithmetic questions. In contrast, younger children (5-year-olds) responded less consistently to cognitive difficulty.It is concluded that adultlike patterns of gaze aversion in response to cognitive difficulty are certainly acquired by 8 years of age. The implications of appropriate gaze aversion for children's management of cognitive resources are considered.Development of Gaze Aversion 3 During difficult cognitive activity, for example remembering information, thinking of an answer to a question, planning what we are going to say, and speaking, we often close our eyes, look up at the sky, or look away from the person we are in conversation with. A number of studies, described below, report ways in which adults switch off from environmental stimulation (both live faces and other sorts of visual displays) in order to concentrate on cognitive tasks. In contrast, there has been little done on gaze aversion as a response to cognitive demands in children. This is a potentially important omission since the efficiency with which children process information influences many aspects of their development, including school progress. This article reports a study of gaze aversion in two age groups of children. In our introduction we first look at the evidence linking visual communication signals and cognitive effort.We then discuss why children might differ from adults in their strategies to deal with this cognitive effort. The final section of the introduction describes the motivations behind the current study. Visual Communication Signals and Cognitive EffortConsiderable research effort has been expended on examining the role played by visual communication signals in human interaction. There is much evidence that visual communication signals (such as eye gaze, gesture and facial expression) are often important sources of information. Indeed many researchers propose that such signals play a facilitatory role in human communication (for example, Clark & Brennan, 1991;Goldin-Meadow, Wein, & Chang, 1992;McNeill, 1985). However, the fact that such signals are informative means that they carry a cognitive load. The processing costs of visual signals are documented. A number of researchers have linked excessive eye gaze with increased cognitive load on interlocutors (Beattie, 1981;Ellyson, Dovidio, & Corson, 1981). In addition, the cognitive difficulty of a task seems to relate to the likelihood that people avert their gaze ...

Weight loss maintenance is a significant challenge in obesity treatment. During maintenance the “costs” of adhering to weight management behaviors may outweigh the “benefits.” This study examined the efficacy of a novel approach to weight loss maintenance based on modifying the cost-benefit ratio. Individuals who achieved a 5% weight loss (N=75) were randomized to one of three, 10-month maintenance interventions. All interventions were delivered primarily via the Internet. The Standard arm received traditional weight maintenance strategies. To increase benefits, or rewards, for maintenance behaviors, the two cost-benefit intervention conditions received weekly monetary rewards for self-monitoring and social reinforcement via e-coaching. To decrease behavioral costs (boredom) and increase novelty, participants in the cost-benefit conditions also monitored different evidence-based behaviors every two weeks (e.g., Weeks 1 & 2: steps; Week 3 & 4: red foods). The primary difference between the cost-benefit interventions was type of e-coach providing social reinforcement: Professional (CB Pro) or Peer (CB Peer). Study procedures took place in Providence, RI from 2013–2014. Retention was 99%. There were significant group differences in weight regain (p=.01). The Standard arm gained 3.5±5.7kg. In contrast, participants in CB Pro and CB Peer lost an additional 1.8±7.0kg and 0.5±6.4kg, respectively. These results suggest that an Internet delivered cost-benefit approach to weight loss maintenance may be effective for long-term weight control. In addition, using peer coaches to provide reinforcement may be a particularly economic alternative to professionals. These data are promising and provide support for a larger, longer trial. Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT01760486

Objective: Epidemiologic data increasingly supports sleep as a determinant of cardiovascular disease risk. Fewer studies have investigated the mechanisms underlying this relationship using objective sleep assessment approaches. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine associations between daily blood pressure and both objectively assessed sleep duration and efficiency.Methods: A diverse community sample of 300 men and women ages 21-70, enrolled in the North Texas Heart Study, participated in the study. Actigraphy assessed sleep was monitored over 2 consecutive nights with ambulatory blood pressure sampled randomly within 45-min blocks on the first and second day as well as the second night.Results: Overall, sleep duration results paralleled those of sleep efficiency. Individuals with lower sleep efficiency had higher daytime systolic (B=−0.35, SE=0.11, p=.0018, R 2 =0.26) but not diastolic BP (B=−0.043, SE=0.068, p=.52, R 2 =0.17) and higher nighttime BP (systolic: B=−0.37, SE=0.10, p<.001, R 2 =.15; diastolic: B=−0.20, SE=0.059, p<.001, R 2 =.14). Moreover, lower sleep efficiency on one night was associated with higher systolic (B=−0.51, SE=0.11, p<.001, R 2 =0.23) and diastolic BP (B=−0.17, SE=0.065, p=.012, R 2 =.16) the following day. When both sleep duration and efficiency were assessed together, sleep efficiency was associated with daytime systolic BP, while sleep duration was associated with nighttime BP.Conclusions: Lower sleep duration and efficiency are associated with higher daytime systolic BP and higher nighttime BP when assessed separately. When assessed together, sleep duration and