Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-19T01:47:30.129Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Extending the positive bias in Williams syndrome: The influence of biographical information on attention allocation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2019

Kelsie A. Boulton  and
Melanie A. Porter
Kelsie A. Boulton*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Centre for Atypical Neurodevelopment, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Melanie A. Porter
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Centre for Atypical Neurodevelopment, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Kelsie A. Boulton, Department of Psychology, C3A, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia, 2109; E-mail: kelsie.boulton@mq.edu.au.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is evidence that individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) show an attention bias toward positive social-perceptual (happy) faces. Research has not yet considered whether this attention bias extends beyond social-perceptual stimuli to perceptually neutral stimuli that are paired with positive (trustworthy) biographical information. Fourteen participants with WS (mean age = 21 years, 1 month) learned to associate perceptually neutral faces with trustworthy (positive), neutral, or untrustworthy (negative) biographical information, before completing a dot-probe task where the same biographical faces were presented. The performance of the WS group was compared to two typically developing control groups, individually matched to the WS individuals on chronological age and mental age, respectively. No between-group bias toward untrustworthy characters was observed. The WS group displayed a selective attention bias toward trustworthy characters compared to both control groups (who did not show such a bias). Results support previous findings that indicate WS individuals show a preference for positive social-perceptual stimuli (happy faces) at the neurological, physiological, and attentional levels. The current findings extend this work to include a “top-down” positive bias. The implications of a positive bias that extends beyond social-perceptual stimuli (or “bottom-up” processes) in this syndrome are discussed.

Keywords

attention biassocial phenotypeWilliams syndrome
Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 243 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdel Rahman, R. (2011). Facing good and evil: Early brain signatures of affective biographical knowledge in face recognition. Emotion, 11, 1397–1405. doi:10.1037/a0024717CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bantin, T., Stevens, S., Gerlach, A. L., & Hermann, C. (2016). What does the facial dot-probe task tell us about attentional processes in social anxiety? A systematic review. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 50, 40–51. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.04.009CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2007). Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1–24. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron, S. G., Gobbini, M. I., Engell, A. D., & Todorov, A. (2011). Amygdala and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex responses to appearance-based and behavior-based person impressions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6, 572–581. doi:10.1093/scan/nsq086CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bellugi, U., Adolphs, R., Cassady, C., & Chiles, M. (1999). Towards the neural basis for hypersociability in a genetic syndrome. NeuroReport, 10, 1653–1657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brawn, G., & Porter, M. A. (2018). Adaptive functioning in Williams syndrome: A systematic review. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 65, 123–147. doi:10.1080/1034912x.2017.1353680CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassidy, B. S., & Gutchess, A. H. (2015). Influences of appearance-behaviour congruity on memory and social judgements. Memory, 23, 1039–1055. doi:10.1080/09658211.2014.951364CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Charmet-Mougey, L., Rich, A., & Williams, M. (2012). Mud sticks: How biographical knowledge influences facial expression perception. Paper presented at the European Conference on Visual Perception, Alghero, Italy.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davies, M., Udwin, O., & Howlin, P. (1998). Adults with Williams syndrome. Preliminary study of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. British Journal of Psychiatry, 172, 273–276. doi:10.1192/bjp.172.3.273CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodd, H. F., & Porter, M. A. (2010). I see happy people: Attention bias towards happy but not angry facial expressions in Williams syndrome. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 15, 549–567. doi:10.1080/13546801003737157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodd, H. F., Schniering, C. A., & Porter, M. A. (2009). Beyond behaviour: Is social anxiety low in Williams syndrome? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 1673–1681. doi:10.1007/s10803-009-0806-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doyle, T. F., Bellugi, U., Korenberg, J. R., & Graham, J. (2004). “Everybody in the world is my friend” hypersociability in young children with Williams syndrome. America n Journal of Medical Genetics Part A, 124A, 263–273. doi:10.1002/ajmg.a.20416CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ewart, A. K., Morris, C. A., Atkinson, D., Jin, W., Sternes, K., Spallone, P., … Keating, M. T. (1993). Hemizygosity at the elastin locus in a developmental disorder, Williams syndrome. Nature Genetics, 5, 11–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forster, K. I., & Forster, J. C. (2003). DMDX: A Windows display program with millisecond accuracy. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 35(1), 116–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fryssira, H., Palmer, R., Hallidie-Smith, K. A., Taylor, J., Donnai, D., & Reardon, W. (1997). Flourescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) for hemizygous deletion at the elastin locus in patients with isolated supravalvular aortic stenosis. Journal of Medical Genetics, 34, 306–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godbee, K., & Porter, M. A. (2013). Attribution of negative intention in Williams syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34, 1602–1612. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.01.019CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldman, K. J., Shulman, C., Bar-Haim, Y., Abend, R., & Burack, J. A. (2017). Attention allocation to facial expressions of emotion among persons with Williams and Down syndromes. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 1189–1197. doi:10.1017/S0954579416001231CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haas, B. W., Mills, D., Yam, A., Hoeft, F., Bellugi, U., & Reiss, A. (2009). Genetic influences on sociability: Heightened amygdala reactivity and event-related responses to positive social stimuli in Williams syndrome. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 1132–1139. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5324-08.2009CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haas, B. W., & Reiss, A. L. (2012). Social brain development in williams syndrome: The current status and directions for future research. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 186. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00186CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jaffe, L. E. (2009). Development, interpretation, and application of the W score and the relative proficiency index (Woodcock–Johnson III Assessment Service Bulletin No. 11). Rolling Meadows, IL: Riverside Publishing.Google Scholar
Jarvinen, A., & Bellugi, U. (2013). What does Williams syndrome reveal about the determinants of social behavior? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 321. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00321CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jarvinen, A., Korenberg, J. R., & Bellugi, U. (2013). The social phenotype of Williams syndrome. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 23, 414–422. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2012.12.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jarvinen, A., Ng, R., Crivelli, D., Arnold, A. J., Woo-VonHoogenstyn, N., & Bellugi, U. (2015). Relations between social-perceptual ability in multi- and unisensory contexts, autonomic reactivity, and social functioning in individuals with Williams syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 73, 127–140. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.04.035CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, W., Bellugi, U., Lai, L., Chiles, M., Reilly, J., Lincoln, A., & Adolphs, R. (2000). II. Hypersociability in Williams syndrome. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 30–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaufman, A. S., & Kaufman, N. L. (2004). Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (2nd ed.). Bloomington, MN: Pearson.Google Scholar
Krishnan, S., Bergstrom, L., Alcock, K. J., Dick, F., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2015). Williams syndrome: A surprising deficit in oromotor praxis in a population with proficient language production. Neuropsychologia, 67, 82–90. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.11.032CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, K., Riby, D. M., Janes, E., Clark, F., Fleck, R., & Rodgers, J. (2013). Heterogeneity of social approach behaviour in Williams syndrome: The role of response inhibition. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34, 959–967. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2012.11.020CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martens, M. A., Wilson, S. J., & Reutens, D. C. (2008). Research Review: Williams syndrome: A critical review of the cognitive, behavioral, and neuroanatomical phenotype. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 576–608. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01887.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCarthy, R. J., & Skowronski, J. J. (2011). What will Phil do next? Spontaneously inferred traits influence predictions of behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 321–332. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.10.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGrath, L. M., Oates, J. M., Dai, Y. G., Dodd, H. F., Waxler, J., Clements, C. C., … Smoller, J. W. (2016). Attention bias to emotional faces varies by IQ and anxiety in Williams syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46, 2174–2185. doi:10.1007/s10803-016-2748-yCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mervis, C. B., Morris, C. A., Klein-Tasman, B. P., Bertrand, J., Kwitny, S., Appelbaum, L. G., & Rice, C. E. (2003). Attentional characteristics of infants and toddlers with Williams syndrome during triadic interactions. Developmental Neuropsychology, 23, 243–268. doi:10.1080/87565641.2003.9651894CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Hariri, A. R., Munoz, K. E., Mervis, C. B., Mattay, V. S., Morris, C. A., & Berman, K. F. (2005). Neural correlates of genetically abnormal social cognition in Williams syndrome. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 991–993. doi:10.1038/nn1494CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mimura, M., Hoeft, F., Kato, M., Kobayashi, N., Sheau, K., Piggot, J., … Reiss, A. L. (2010). A preliminary study of orbitofrontal activation and hypersociability in Williams syndrome. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2, 93–98. doi:10.1007/s11689-009-9041-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nauta, M. H., Scholing, A., Rapee, R. M., Abbott, M., Spence, S. H., & Waters, A. (2004). A parent-report measure of children's anxiety: Psychometric properties and comparison with child-report in a clinic and normal sample. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 813–839. doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(03)00200-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plesa Skwerer, D., Ammerman, E., Andre, M. C., Ciciolla, L., Fine, A. B., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2011). A multimeasure approach to investigating affective appraisal of social information in Williams syndrome. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 3, 325–334. doi:10.1007/s11689-011-9100-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plesa Skwerer, D., Borum, L., Verbalis, A., Schofield, C., Crawford, N., Ciciolla, L., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2009). Autonomic responses to dynamic displays of facial expressions in adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 4, 93–100. doi:10.1093/scan/nsn041CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porter, M. A., & Coltheart, M. (2005). Cognitive heterogeneity in Williams syndrome. Developmental Neuropsychology, 27, 275–306. doi:10.1207/s15326942dn2702_5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porter, M. A., Dodd, H., & Cairns, D. (2009). Psychopathological and behavior impairments in Williams-Beuren syndrome: The influence of gender, chronological age, and cognition. Child Neuropsychology, 15, 359–374. doi:10.1080/09297040802577881CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porter, M. A., Shaw, T. A., & Marsh, P. J. (2010). An unusual attraction to the eyes in Williams-Beuren syndrome: A manipulation of facial affect while measuring face scanpaths. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 15, 505–530. doi:10.1080/13546801003644486CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reiss, A. L., Eckert, M. A., Rose, F. E., Karchemskiy, A., Kesler, S., Chang, M., … Galaburda, A. (2004). An experiment of nature: Brain anatomy parallels cognition and behavior in Williams syndrome. Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 5009–5015. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5272-03.2004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Riby, D. M., & Hancock, P. J. (2009). Do faces capture the attention of individuals with Williams syndrome or autism? Evidence from tracking eye movements. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 421–431. doi:10.1007/s10803-008-0641-zCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Riby, D. M., Jones, N., Brown, P. H., Robinson, L. J., Langton, S. R., Bruce, V., & Riby, L. M. (2011). Attention to faces in Williams syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41, 1228–1239. doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1141-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Riby, D. M., Kirk, H., Hanley, M., & Riby, L. M. (2014). Stranger danger awareness in Williams syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 58, 572–582. doi:10.1111/jir.12055CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rossi, N. F., Moretti-Ferreira, D., & Giacheti, C. M. (2006). Genetics and language in Williams-Beuren syndrome: A distinct neurobehavioral disorder. Pró-fono: Revista de atualização científica, 18, 331–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spence, S. H. (1998). A measure of anxiety symptoms among children. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 545–566.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strømme, P., Bjømstad, P. G., & Ramstad, K. (2002). Prevalence estimation of Williams syndrome. Journal of Child Neurology, 17, 269–271. doi:10.1177/088307380201700406CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thurman, A. J., & Fisher, M. H. (2015). The Williams syndrome social phenotype. International Reivew of Research in Developmental Disabilities, 49, 191–227. doi:10.1016/bs.irrdd.2015.06.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tottenham, N., Tanaka, J. W., Leon, A. C., McCarry, T., Nurse, M., Hare, T. A., … Nelson, C. (2009). The NimStim set of facial expressions: Judgments from untrained research participants. Psychiatry Research, 168, 242–249. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2008.05.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waechter, S., Nelson, A. L., Wright, C., Hyatt, A., & Oakman, J. (2013). Measuring attentional bias to threat: Reliability of dot probe and eye movement indices. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 38, 313–333. doi:10.1007/s10608-013-9588-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, R. W., McGrew, K. S., & Mather, N. (2001). Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Boulton and Porter supplementary material

Appendix A

Download Boulton and Porter supplementary material(File)
File 16 KB
Supplementary material: File

Boulton and Porter supplementary material

Appendix B

Download Boulton and Porter supplementary material(File)
File 39.5 KB