The current study utilizes the parametric go/no-go task (PGNG), a task that examines changes in inhibitory performance as executive function load increases, to examine the link between psychopathic traits, impulsivity, and response inhibition in a cohort of healthy participants. The results show that as executive function load increased, inhibitory ability decreased. High scores on the Cognitive Complexity subscale of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) predict poor inhibitory ability in the PGNG. Similarly, high scores on the Psychopathy Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) Blame Externalization subscale predict response inhibition deficits in the PGNG, which loads more on the executive functions than the standard go/no-go task. The remaining BIS-11 as well as PPI-R subscales did not interact with inhibitory performance in the PGNG highlighting the specificity of associations between aspects of personality and impulsivity with inhibitory performance as cognitive load is increased. These data point towards the sensitivity of the PGNG in studying response inhibition in the context of highly impulsive populations and its utility as a measure of impulsivity.

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Auditory stimuli have been shown to alter visual temporal perception. For example, illusory temporal order is perceived when an auditory tone cues one side of space prior to the onset of simultaneously presented visual stimuli. Competing accounts attempt to explain such effects. The spatial gradient account of attention suggests speeded processing of visual stimuli in the cued space, whereas the impletion account suggests a Gestalt-like process where an attempt is made to arrive at a "realistic" representation of an event given ambiguous conditions. Temporal ventriloquismwhere visual temporal order judgment performance is enhanced when a spatially uninformative tone is presented prior to, and after, visual stimuli onset-argues that the temporal relationship of the auditory stimuli to visual stimuli, as well as the number of auditory stimuli equaling the visual stimuli, drives the mechanisms underlying these and related effects. Results from a series of experiments highlight putative inconsistencies in both the spatial gradient account of attention and the classical temporal ventriloquism account. We present novel behavioral effects-illusory temporal order via spatially uninformative tones, and illusory simultaneity via a single tone prior to visual stimuli onset-that can be accounted for by an expanded version of the impletion account. Public Significance StatementThe present study demonstrates novel audio-induced visual-temporal-order effects using spatially neutral tones, while replicating related classic audio-visual effects. We interpret these findings as evidence that audio-visual integration takes evidence from various processes, assigning different weightings to each process dependent upon relative spatial locations, temporal characteristics, relative number of stimuli, and featural characteristics. With this interpretation in mind, we propose a unifying account of the observed effects. In addition, we suggest the use of the paradigms within this article (and the associated effects) should be considered as part of sensory testing when measuring typical audio-visual integration, such as in cases of cochlear implantation.

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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact global psychological wellbeing. To investigate the sustained impact of COVID-19 on wellbeing, the current study longitudinally assessed fear of COVID-19, anxiety, depression, intolerance of uncertainty, worry, sleep quality, loneliness and alcohol use during the pandemic in the United Kingdom. Timepoint 1 (T1; N = 445) took place in February 2021 following the highest number of pandemic-related deaths in the UK. Timepoint 2 (T2, N = 198) took place in June 2021 when pandemic-related deaths had declined considerably, and many had been vaccinated. At T1, COVID-19 fear predicted elevated levels of anxiety, depression, intolerance of uncertainty, worry, sleep quality and loneliness. At T2, we observed that levels of COVID-19 fear, depression, loneliness and sleep quality decreased. However, COVID-19 fear continued to predict elevated intolerance of uncertainty, worry and impaired sleep quality. These findings demonstrate the longitudinal impact of COVID-19 fear on psychological wellbeing.