I am a psychologist with interests in the biological bases of personality, learning, reward, neurotransmitters, psychopathology, computational and formal models, and statistics.
Agency is the sense that one has control over one’s own actions and the consequences of those act... more Agency is the sense that one has control over one’s own actions and the consequences of those actions. Despite the critical role that agency plays in the human condition, little is known about its neural basis. A novel theory proposes that increases in agency disinhibit the dopamine system and thereby increase the number of tonically active dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area. The theory, called ADDS (Agency Disinhibits the Dopamine System), proposes a specific neural network that mediates these effects. ADDS accurately predicts a variety of relevant neuroscience results, and makes many novel predictions, including that increases in agency will 1) increase motivation, 2) improve executive function, 3) facilitate procedural learning, but only in the presence of immediate trial-by-trial feedback, 4) have little or no effect on learning-related effects of stimulus repetition, 5) facilitate the development of automatic behaviors, but have little or no effect on the production...
Participating in creative activities is associated with increased positive emotions and enhanced ... more Participating in creative activities is associated with increased positive emotions and enhanced subjective well-being in general populations. However, these relationships are less understood in the daily lives of creative individuals who regularly engage in both professional creative behaviors and everyday creative experiences. Therefore, in this study, we recruited a sample of creative adults (N= 290; creative professionals, students studying creative disciplines, and hobbyists engaged in 20 + hours of creative activities per week) who provided daily responses on their creative behaviors, emotions, and flourishing over two weeks. Creative adults were found to be the most creative on days with highly activated positive emotions and increased well-being and were significantly less creative on days with negative emotions. Individuals with higher levels of openness have stronger ties between their emotions and overall daily creativity and everyday creativity than those with lower levels of openness. Increased openness does not appear to have the same moderating effects on professional creativity and emotion relationships. Finally, high conscientiousness and low neuroticism were also found to predict increased levels of creative activity. Overall, these findings provide novel insights into the links between the specific nature of daily creative activities and the personality and subjective well-being of creative individuals.
Trait social anxiety may predict differences in the cognitive control of emotional distraction wh... more Trait social anxiety may predict differences in the cognitive control of emotional distraction when emotional face discrimination is required. This effect can be investigated using an emotional face flanker task. This study addresses an important research gap, as previous studies did not separate the effects of trait social interaction anxiety from the effects of trait social phobia upon emotional face flanker task performance. In this laboratory based behavioural experiment, the 87 participants (mean age 24.3) were university students or staff recruited via departmental adverts. We used an emotional (happy versus fearful) face flanker task, and assessed sub-clinical social anxiety with the SIAS/SPS. Elevated trait social phobia was related to an increased reaction time (RT) congruency effect, whereas trait social interaction anxiety was not. Elevated trait social interaction anxiety was related to a decreased happy face RT advantage for central target faces, but the effect of trait...
In this paper the conceptual nervous system approach to the study of personality is traced back t... more In this paper the conceptual nervous system approach to the study of personality is traced back to the ideas of Pavlov. The links between his ideas and two strands of modern European personality theory ( Eysenck's, 1967 , arousal theory of extraversion; Gray's, 1970 , reinforcement sensitivity theory) are emphasized. Recent data concerning reinforcement sensitivity theory have revealed a diversity of relationships between personality trait measures and the behavioral responses to the signals of reinforcement present. In view of these data, a reappraisal of the basics of reinforcement sensitivity theory are then presented, using neural network techniques to explore the conceptual nervous system features fundamental to reinforcement sensitivity theory. Simulations using these techniques are also presented which provide possible explanations for the variations in the experimental data, thereby suggesting that reinforcement sensitivity theory should be revised, rather than abandoned. One revision proposes that the fundamental brain systems involved may produce their behavioral effects solely via the influences of their outputs on arousal levels, with arousal linked to aspects of performance in a manner resembling Pavlovian transmarginal inhibition.
Agency is the sense that one has control over one's own actions and the consequences of those act... more Agency is the sense that one has control over one's own actions and the consequences of those actions. Despite the critical role that agency plays in the human condition, little is known about its neural basis. A novel theory proposes that increases in agency disinhibit the dopamine system and thereby increase the number of tonically active dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area. The theory, called ADDS (Agency Disinhibits the Dopamine System), proposes a specific neural network that mediates these effects. ADDS accurately predicts a variety of relevant neuroscience results, and makes many novel predictions, including that increases in agency will 1) increase motivation, 2) improve executive function, 3) facilitate procedural learning, but only in the presence of immediate trial-by-trial feedback, 4) have little or no effect on learning-related effects of stimulus repetition, 5) facilitate the development of automatic behaviors, but have little or no effect on the production of behaviors that are already automatized, 6) amplify the cognitive benefits of positive mood, and 7) reduce pain. The implications of this new theory are considered for several purely psychological theories that assign prominent roles to agency, including self-efficacy theory, hope theory, and goal-focused positive psychotherapy.
Jeffrey Gray (Gray 1970, 1981, 1987) developed a ‘bottom-up’ approach to personality which began ... more Jeffrey Gray (Gray 1970, 1981, 1987) developed a ‘bottom-up’ approach to personality which began with the identification of large-scale brain-behavioural systems in animals (based on lesion and psychopharmacological evidence). The systems which he emphasized were: a reward system (later termed the Behavioural Activation System or BAS); a punishment system; an arousal system; and a Fight-Flight System. His view of personality was that inter-individual differences in the functioning of each discrete system should give rise, in human beings, to a major dimension (or trait) of personality. The theory also talked particularly about the sensitivity (i.e., reactivity) of each system to its characteristic inputs (i.e., the inputs which activated that system rather than any of the others). Inter-individual differences in the sensitivities of the systems were taken to be the causal basis of human personality traits. As the names ‘reward system’ and ‘punishment system’ implied, the characteristic inputs of the systems were reinforcing stimuli. To capture these aspects of the theory, I suggested the name Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) for the personality theory which he developed. Basic tenets of the original RST In the original version of the theory (which I shall call ‘old RST’ in this chapter), the personality trait corresponding to variations in functioning of the BAS was suggested to be impulsivity. The punishment system (so-called because it was thought that this system responded to conditioned stimuli signalling impending punishment) was referred to as the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS): the personality trait corresponding to variations in functioning of the BIS was suggested to be anxiety.
Rationale: Smokers may show abnormal functioning in prefrontal cortex during acute abstinence, re... more Rationale: Smokers may show abnormal functioning in prefrontal cortex during acute abstinence, reflecting deficient activity in mesocorticolimbic circuitry. Cognitive correlates of this putatively include impaired response inhibition and other aspects of executive functioning. Objectives: To investigate whether inhibitory control and other executive functions in smokers are impaired during acute abstinence relative to post-nicotine. Methods: 145 smokers were tested twice following overnight abstinence, once after nicotine and once after placebo lozenges (order counterbalanced, double-blind), on: an antisaccade task; a Continuous Performance Task (CPT); a delayed response Spatial Working Memory (SWM) task; and a verbal fluency test. Results: Compared with placebo, nicotine was associated with better inhibitory control on the antisaccade task and fewer impulsive responses to filler stimuli (motor errors) on the CPT; at the first assessment only, nicotine also reduced impulsive responses to 'catch' stimuli on the CPT. However, it did not affect CPT response bias (an index of impulsive vs. cautious decision-making), spatial working memory, or verbal fluency.
Approaching rewards and avoiding punishments are fundamental aspects of reinforcement learning (S... more Approaching rewards and avoiding punishments are fundamental aspects of reinforcement learning (Sutton & Barto, 1998) and action monitoring (Ullsperger et al., 2014). Activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been proposed to be centrally involved in a neural action monitoring network (Badre & Nee, 2018; Ridderinkhof et al., 2004). Particularly, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been identified as a neural hub that implicates a wide range of processes including cognitive control, conflict processing, action selection (Rushworth et al.,
This paper represents the outcome of a multidisciplinary discussion on what works, what doesn't, ... more This paper represents the outcome of a multidisciplinary discussion on what works, what doesn't, and what can be improved, in ongoing work on bio-behavioural taxonomies and their biomarkers. The authors of this paper, representing a wide spectrum of bio-behavioural disciplines (clinical, developmental, differential psychology, neurophysiology, endocrinology, psychiatry, neurochemistry, neurosciences), have contributed more extensive opinions to the Theme Issue "Neurobiology of temperament, personality and psychopathology: what's next?". The authors identified ten directions in international and multidisciplinary cooperation, and multiple insights for "what is next" for each of these directions.
Marek et al. analyzed three very large magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets and concluded th... more Marek et al. analyzed three very large magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets and concluded that thousands of participants are necessary to ensure replicable results in “brain-wide associations studies,” which they defined as “studies of the associations between common inter-individual variability in human brain structure/function and cognition or psychiatric symptomatology.” This conclusion overgeneralizes the implications of their findings and is likely to have an unwarranted chilling effect on neuroimaging research focused on individual differences, preventing good research with samples in the hundreds from being funded and conducted. To fend off these negative consequences, we explain why their conclusion is not fully justified, discuss methods that can yield larger effects, and suggest practical guidelines for sample size, recognizing the potential utility of samples in the hundreds.
. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is widely used to measure anxiety in academic, psychia... more . The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is widely used to measure anxiety in academic, psychiatric, and medical settings. However, it has been proposed that the trait scale does not measure pure anxiety but contains subscales that measure either anxiety or depression. As this may have implications for the interpretation of research, we investigated the differential correlates of these two subscales. Participants ( N = 171; Mage = 23.6 years) completed measures of attentional control (attentional focusing; attentional shifting), behavioral approach sensitivity (BAS), trait anger, and interpersonal fear. STAI-anxiety was predicted by interpersonal fear, and trait anger when STAI-depression was held constant. By contrast, STAI-depression was predicted by BAS and attentional shifting when STAI-anxiety was held constant. To further illustrate the functional significance of these results, we reanalyzed a published study that originally showed that total STAI scores predicted affective cognitive control in the emotional face Stroop task. Results showed that STAI-anxiety and STAI-depression differentially predicted the cognitive control of distraction. The significance of our results is discussed in relation to interpreting the STAI in academic and neuropsychiatric/clinical settings.
The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go ... more The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information.
Agency is the sense that one has control over one’s own actions and the consequences of those act... more Agency is the sense that one has control over one’s own actions and the consequences of those actions. Despite the critical role that agency plays in the human condition, little is known about its neural basis. A novel theory proposes that increases in agency disinhibit the dopamine system and thereby increase the number of tonically active dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area. The theory, called ADDS (Agency Disinhibits the Dopamine System), proposes a specific neural network that mediates these effects. ADDS accurately predicts a variety of relevant neuroscience results, and makes many novel predictions, including that increases in agency will 1) increase motivation, 2) improve executive function, 3) facilitate procedural learning, but only in the presence of immediate trial-by-trial feedback, 4) have little or no effect on learning-related effects of stimulus repetition, 5) facilitate the development of automatic behaviors, but have little or no effect on the production...
Participating in creative activities is associated with increased positive emotions and enhanced ... more Participating in creative activities is associated with increased positive emotions and enhanced subjective well-being in general populations. However, these relationships are less understood in the daily lives of creative individuals who regularly engage in both professional creative behaviors and everyday creative experiences. Therefore, in this study, we recruited a sample of creative adults (N= 290; creative professionals, students studying creative disciplines, and hobbyists engaged in 20 + hours of creative activities per week) who provided daily responses on their creative behaviors, emotions, and flourishing over two weeks. Creative adults were found to be the most creative on days with highly activated positive emotions and increased well-being and were significantly less creative on days with negative emotions. Individuals with higher levels of openness have stronger ties between their emotions and overall daily creativity and everyday creativity than those with lower levels of openness. Increased openness does not appear to have the same moderating effects on professional creativity and emotion relationships. Finally, high conscientiousness and low neuroticism were also found to predict increased levels of creative activity. Overall, these findings provide novel insights into the links between the specific nature of daily creative activities and the personality and subjective well-being of creative individuals.
Trait social anxiety may predict differences in the cognitive control of emotional distraction wh... more Trait social anxiety may predict differences in the cognitive control of emotional distraction when emotional face discrimination is required. This effect can be investigated using an emotional face flanker task. This study addresses an important research gap, as previous studies did not separate the effects of trait social interaction anxiety from the effects of trait social phobia upon emotional face flanker task performance. In this laboratory based behavioural experiment, the 87 participants (mean age 24.3) were university students or staff recruited via departmental adverts. We used an emotional (happy versus fearful) face flanker task, and assessed sub-clinical social anxiety with the SIAS/SPS. Elevated trait social phobia was related to an increased reaction time (RT) congruency effect, whereas trait social interaction anxiety was not. Elevated trait social interaction anxiety was related to a decreased happy face RT advantage for central target faces, but the effect of trait...
In this paper the conceptual nervous system approach to the study of personality is traced back t... more In this paper the conceptual nervous system approach to the study of personality is traced back to the ideas of Pavlov. The links between his ideas and two strands of modern European personality theory ( Eysenck's, 1967 , arousal theory of extraversion; Gray's, 1970 , reinforcement sensitivity theory) are emphasized. Recent data concerning reinforcement sensitivity theory have revealed a diversity of relationships between personality trait measures and the behavioral responses to the signals of reinforcement present. In view of these data, a reappraisal of the basics of reinforcement sensitivity theory are then presented, using neural network techniques to explore the conceptual nervous system features fundamental to reinforcement sensitivity theory. Simulations using these techniques are also presented which provide possible explanations for the variations in the experimental data, thereby suggesting that reinforcement sensitivity theory should be revised, rather than abandoned. One revision proposes that the fundamental brain systems involved may produce their behavioral effects solely via the influences of their outputs on arousal levels, with arousal linked to aspects of performance in a manner resembling Pavlovian transmarginal inhibition.
Agency is the sense that one has control over one's own actions and the consequences of those act... more Agency is the sense that one has control over one's own actions and the consequences of those actions. Despite the critical role that agency plays in the human condition, little is known about its neural basis. A novel theory proposes that increases in agency disinhibit the dopamine system and thereby increase the number of tonically active dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area. The theory, called ADDS (Agency Disinhibits the Dopamine System), proposes a specific neural network that mediates these effects. ADDS accurately predicts a variety of relevant neuroscience results, and makes many novel predictions, including that increases in agency will 1) increase motivation, 2) improve executive function, 3) facilitate procedural learning, but only in the presence of immediate trial-by-trial feedback, 4) have little or no effect on learning-related effects of stimulus repetition, 5) facilitate the development of automatic behaviors, but have little or no effect on the production of behaviors that are already automatized, 6) amplify the cognitive benefits of positive mood, and 7) reduce pain. The implications of this new theory are considered for several purely psychological theories that assign prominent roles to agency, including self-efficacy theory, hope theory, and goal-focused positive psychotherapy.
Jeffrey Gray (Gray 1970, 1981, 1987) developed a ‘bottom-up’ approach to personality which began ... more Jeffrey Gray (Gray 1970, 1981, 1987) developed a ‘bottom-up’ approach to personality which began with the identification of large-scale brain-behavioural systems in animals (based on lesion and psychopharmacological evidence). The systems which he emphasized were: a reward system (later termed the Behavioural Activation System or BAS); a punishment system; an arousal system; and a Fight-Flight System. His view of personality was that inter-individual differences in the functioning of each discrete system should give rise, in human beings, to a major dimension (or trait) of personality. The theory also talked particularly about the sensitivity (i.e., reactivity) of each system to its characteristic inputs (i.e., the inputs which activated that system rather than any of the others). Inter-individual differences in the sensitivities of the systems were taken to be the causal basis of human personality traits. As the names ‘reward system’ and ‘punishment system’ implied, the characteristic inputs of the systems were reinforcing stimuli. To capture these aspects of the theory, I suggested the name Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) for the personality theory which he developed. Basic tenets of the original RST In the original version of the theory (which I shall call ‘old RST’ in this chapter), the personality trait corresponding to variations in functioning of the BAS was suggested to be impulsivity. The punishment system (so-called because it was thought that this system responded to conditioned stimuli signalling impending punishment) was referred to as the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS): the personality trait corresponding to variations in functioning of the BIS was suggested to be anxiety.
Rationale: Smokers may show abnormal functioning in prefrontal cortex during acute abstinence, re... more Rationale: Smokers may show abnormal functioning in prefrontal cortex during acute abstinence, reflecting deficient activity in mesocorticolimbic circuitry. Cognitive correlates of this putatively include impaired response inhibition and other aspects of executive functioning. Objectives: To investigate whether inhibitory control and other executive functions in smokers are impaired during acute abstinence relative to post-nicotine. Methods: 145 smokers were tested twice following overnight abstinence, once after nicotine and once after placebo lozenges (order counterbalanced, double-blind), on: an antisaccade task; a Continuous Performance Task (CPT); a delayed response Spatial Working Memory (SWM) task; and a verbal fluency test. Results: Compared with placebo, nicotine was associated with better inhibitory control on the antisaccade task and fewer impulsive responses to filler stimuli (motor errors) on the CPT; at the first assessment only, nicotine also reduced impulsive responses to 'catch' stimuli on the CPT. However, it did not affect CPT response bias (an index of impulsive vs. cautious decision-making), spatial working memory, or verbal fluency.
Approaching rewards and avoiding punishments are fundamental aspects of reinforcement learning (S... more Approaching rewards and avoiding punishments are fundamental aspects of reinforcement learning (Sutton & Barto, 1998) and action monitoring (Ullsperger et al., 2014). Activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been proposed to be centrally involved in a neural action monitoring network (Badre & Nee, 2018; Ridderinkhof et al., 2004). Particularly, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been identified as a neural hub that implicates a wide range of processes including cognitive control, conflict processing, action selection (Rushworth et al.,
This paper represents the outcome of a multidisciplinary discussion on what works, what doesn't, ... more This paper represents the outcome of a multidisciplinary discussion on what works, what doesn't, and what can be improved, in ongoing work on bio-behavioural taxonomies and their biomarkers. The authors of this paper, representing a wide spectrum of bio-behavioural disciplines (clinical, developmental, differential psychology, neurophysiology, endocrinology, psychiatry, neurochemistry, neurosciences), have contributed more extensive opinions to the Theme Issue "Neurobiology of temperament, personality and psychopathology: what's next?". The authors identified ten directions in international and multidisciplinary cooperation, and multiple insights for "what is next" for each of these directions.
Marek et al. analyzed three very large magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets and concluded th... more Marek et al. analyzed three very large magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets and concluded that thousands of participants are necessary to ensure replicable results in “brain-wide associations studies,” which they defined as “studies of the associations between common inter-individual variability in human brain structure/function and cognition or psychiatric symptomatology.” This conclusion overgeneralizes the implications of their findings and is likely to have an unwarranted chilling effect on neuroimaging research focused on individual differences, preventing good research with samples in the hundreds from being funded and conducted. To fend off these negative consequences, we explain why their conclusion is not fully justified, discuss methods that can yield larger effects, and suggest practical guidelines for sample size, recognizing the potential utility of samples in the hundreds.
. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is widely used to measure anxiety in academic, psychia... more . The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is widely used to measure anxiety in academic, psychiatric, and medical settings. However, it has been proposed that the trait scale does not measure pure anxiety but contains subscales that measure either anxiety or depression. As this may have implications for the interpretation of research, we investigated the differential correlates of these two subscales. Participants ( N = 171; Mage = 23.6 years) completed measures of attentional control (attentional focusing; attentional shifting), behavioral approach sensitivity (BAS), trait anger, and interpersonal fear. STAI-anxiety was predicted by interpersonal fear, and trait anger when STAI-depression was held constant. By contrast, STAI-depression was predicted by BAS and attentional shifting when STAI-anxiety was held constant. To further illustrate the functional significance of these results, we reanalyzed a published study that originally showed that total STAI scores predicted affective cognitive control in the emotional face Stroop task. Results showed that STAI-anxiety and STAI-depression differentially predicted the cognitive control of distraction. The significance of our results is discussed in relation to interpreting the STAI in academic and neuropsychiatric/clinical settings.
The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go ... more The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information.
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