Panic attacks facilitating recall and mastery: implications for psychoanalytic technique

A patient, during the course of a lengthy analysis, experienced several panic attacks. These regressive episodes, occurring only in the analytic setting, provided her with her special means for recalling and eventually mastering repressed elements of her life. This facilitating aspect of her disorganization, when identified and analyzed as such, helped deepen the patient's analytic experience. It was necessary for the analyst to define verbally and clarify her reconstructed past as it emerged as part of her panic state, transferentially, so that the patient could finally recognize, acknowledge, and understand hitherto hidden aspects of her life. The psychiatric literature in regard to panic states is briefly noted, as is the relevance of comparing the present almost exclusively organic, pharmacological orientation, with Freud's discussion of the "actual" or current neuroses of his day, almost a century ago. On the basis of this case report, the importance of understanding the content and meaning of the panic attack, by analytic means, is once again emphasized.     

A technique for facilitating the creation of mind

There are two forces operating in people. One resists pain and violently opposes integration. The other force is slowly bringing coherence and integration to what is inside. There has been a tendency within psychoanalysis to focus on the former. In this paper the author focuses on the latter. The hypothesis here is that if the analyst focuses upon the signs of integration that this assists the process of growing self-awareness. The negative transference emerges as the undeveloped aspects of the psyche are recognized by the patient.     

Sex,sex roles,and response styles for negative affect: Selectivity in a free recall task

Study 1 examined how responses to negative affect may be influenced by sex differences in response styles [S. Nolen-Hoeksema (1987), “Sex Differences in Unipolar Depression: Evidence and Theory,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 101, pp. 259–282] and situational norms. Male and female experimental subjects were led to experience negative affect by reading and rating sad stories, and were then given either nonnormative or normative feedback. Nonnormative subjects were informed that their story ratings were more negative than other participants' ratings. Normative subjects were informed that their ratings were similar to others' ratings. For nonnormative subjects, men recalled less negative material than women, suggesting that response styles are most apparent when negative affect is considered inappropriate. As both sex and sex role orientation are predictive of response styles, Study 2 examined the hypothesis that both sex and sex role orientation are predictive of recall in a manner similar to sex in Study 1. Male and female subjects high and low in masculinity and femininity were assigned to negative-nonnormative and neutral affect conditions. In addition to a marginally significant sex effect consistent with Study 1, results revealed that high-masculinity individuals tended to recall more positive material in the negative-nonnormative condition than in the neutral affect condition. In contrast, low-masculinity individuals recalled less positive material in the negative-nonnormative condition than in the neutral affect condition. The implications of this research for the impact of negative affect on recall are addressed.     

A transfer of technique: From induced song recall to the induced recall of paintings

Conclusions In this paper, I have briefly presented clinical illustrations of both unconsciously and consciously induced evocations of paintings. A supervision case with the unintentional recall of both a painting and a song was also discussed. To test the induced recall technique with paintings, I had decided a priori to apply it with that patient, in that particular session. It was serendipitous that he had read the night before about Goya’s painting (Díaz de Chumaceiro, 1995). Nevertheless, the induced question about any art is powerful, if applied at a moment of rapport, with those who have a background in that particular art form. If self-applied, the answers that surface to consciousness can serve to advance self-understanding of countertransferential binds that may be contributing to patients’ resistances to saying everything that comes to mind. Cora L. Díaz de Chumaceiro, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, Caracas, Venezuela. Editorial Board member ofThe Arts in Psychotherapy Editorial Board member ofThe Arts in Psychotherapy.     

Inhibitory control in memory: Evidence for negative priming in free recall

Cognitive control mechanisms-such as inhibition-decrease the likelihood that goal-directed activity is ceded to irrelevant events. Here, we use the action of auditory distraction to show how retrieval from episodic long-term memory is affected by competitor inhibition. Typically, a sequence of to-be-ignored spoken distracters drawn from the same semantic category as a list of visually presented to-be-recalled items impairs free recall performance. In line with competitor inhibition theory (Anderson, 2003), free recall was worse for items on a probe trial if they were a repeat of distracter items presented during the previous, prime, trial (Experiment 1). This effect was produced only when the distracters were dominant members of the same category as the to-be-recalled items on the prime. For prime trials in which distracters were low-dominant members of the to-be-remembered item category or were unrelated to that category-and hence not strong competitors for retrieval-positive priming was found (Experiments 2 and 3). These results are discussed in terms of inhibitory approaches to negative priming and memory retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Memories affect mood: evidence from covert experimental assignment to positive, neutral, and negative memory recall

Memory recall has been proposed as a common and effective mood regulation strategy. Although several studies have presented results suggesting that recalling valenced memories affects subsequent mood, their designs allow for alternative interpretations of the observed effects. Two such alternatives include the reverse effect (mood effects on memory due to non-experimental assignment to memory recall condition) and demand characteristics of the experiment. We used covert experimental assignment to memory condition, asking subjects (N=314; 56% female) to recall memories that were primarily positive, neutral, or negative. Results showed the expected effect on mood (p<.002), with reported mood worst in the negative memory condition, better in the neutral condition, and best in the positive condition. These results suggest that valenced memory recall does indeed exert an effect on mood, and may do so even without the individual's awareness.     

The association between rumination and negative affect: A review

A total of 100 experimental, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on the association between rumination and negative affects are reviewed. Experimental and cross-sectional studies support a positive association between rumination and sadness-depression whereas longitudinal studies show more diverse results. Longitudinal studies sampling clinical populations and with treatment during the follow-up display more null results. Concerning the relation between rumination and other negative affects there is strongest evidence for a positive association between rumination and anxiety, but more studies are necessary to illuminate the relation between rumination and other negative affects. The functionality of rumination is discussed along with possible explanations for the associations between rumination and different negative affects. The need for further differentiation of rumination is highlighted in order to distinguish the concept from other types of repetitive, negative thoughts.     

The statistical evidence for negative transfer in part-whole free recall

A series of studies on part-whole free recall led to the conclusion that learning part of a list before learning the entire list produces negative transfer late in learning. The statistical evidence for this conclusion is shown to depend upon assumptions about (1) the asymptotic level reached and (2) the relative magnitude of the variance between conditions as compared to the variance of Ss within conditions. Evidence concerning these assumptions is reviewed, and it is argued that there was insufficient evidence to support a conclusion of negative transfer in part-whole free recall.     

Recall criterion does not affect recall level or hypermnesia: A puzzle for generate/recognize theories

Subjects studied a mixed list of 70 words that varied in imagery value and then received three successive tests. Also varied were instructions given to subjects prior to list presentation (imagery or semantic rehearsal) and the type of recall test (standard free recall, an uninhibited-recall procedure in which subjects were encouraged to free associate and to guess while recalling the list, and a forced-recall condition in which they were also told to write a large number of responses to fill the allotted spaces). Recall improved across the three tests in all conditions, but the improvement was greater for high-than for low-imagery words. In addition, hypermnesia (the improved recall across tests) was shown to occur following semantic rehearsal instructions as well as imagery instructions and to occur with low-imagery words, contrary to the imagery hypothesis of the effect. Most importantly, the large variation in recall criterion produced by manipulating instructions at test (as measured by intrusions) did not affect the overall level of correct recall or the magnitude of improvements across tests. Apparently, the assumption of generate-recognize theories that people generate much more information in free recall than they produce (due to a stringent criterion for recognition of the generated material) is false.     

A little bit louder now: negative affect increases perceived loudness

Traditionally, perception was considered to be an encapsulated process that was unaffected by top-down processes like affect. Recent work in vision draws this framework into question by showing that changes in the affective state of the perceiver can impact many different aspects of visual perception. Here, we extend the relationship between affect and perception into another perceptual modality: audition. Participants were induced into a negative or neutral mood by writing about a frightening or neutral experience in their past. They then listened to a series of short, neutral tones (320 and 640 ms) and rated the loudness and duration of the tones. Participants in a negative mood rated the tones as significantly louder, but not longer, than participants in a neutral mood, suggesting that the difference between the groups was perceptual rather than just a response bias. This research shows for the first time that the role of affect in perceptual processes may be more pervasive than previously considered.     

A gender difference in the false recall of negative words: women DRM more than men

Gender differences in susceptibility to associative memory illusions in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm were investigated using negative and neutral word lists. Women (n=50) and men (n=50) studied 20 lists of 12 words that were associates of a non-presented critical lure. Ten lists were associates of negatively valenced lures (e.g., cry, evil) and ten were associates of neutral lures (e.g., chair, slow). When asked to recall the words after each list, women falsely recalled more negative lures than men, but there was no gender difference in the false recall of neutral lures. These findings suggest that women reflect on associations within negative lists to a greater degree than men and are thereby more likely to generate the negative critical lures.     

Transitional information in spatial serial memory: path characteristics affect recall performance

This study examined the role of stimulus characteristics in a visuospatial order reconstruction task in which participants were required to recall the order of sequences of spatial locations. The complexity of the to-be-remembered sequences, as measured by path crossing, path length, and angles, was found to affect serial memory, in terms of both recall accuracy and response times. The results demonstrate that not all sequences are remembered equally and that spatial characteristics of the sequences constitute an important variable in the understanding of visuospatial serial memory. More important, the data suggest that spatial path represents transitional information and that, as is the case in verbal serial memory, transitional information is of critical importance in serial memory.     

Dysfunction of attentional networks for non-emotional processing in negative affect

It is unclear whether negative affect is associated with the impairment of attentional networks for non-emotional processing. Using the attention network test (ANT), which assesses the efficiency of alerting, orienting, and executive attention, we attempted to clarify which attentional networks were related to negative affect, i.e., anxiety, depression, and social anxiety. Forty-three participants completed the self-report questionnaires and the ANT. Negative affect was negatively correlated with orienting efficiency but not executive attention. Our results indicate that people with negative emotionality have an impaired orienting network for non-emotional stimuli. It is suggested that attentional bias for threatening stimuli in negative affect is due to the original impairment of the orienting network.     

Retrospective recall of affect in clinically depressed individuals and controls

The current study examined the nature of retrospective recall of affect in depressed participants and nonclinical controls. Utilising the Experience Sampling Method, we compared average momentary affect reports to retrospective summaries of the same period of time. Both groups exhibited exaggerated retrospective summaries of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). Greater bias for PA than NA was found in the controls but not the depressed. Across groups, depressed individuals exhibited more absolute inaccuracy in their recall of NA but not PA. For depressed and nonclinical individuals, retrospective summaries of PA were better predicted by an average of all weekly momentary PA than a combination of the most intense (“peak”) PA and most recent (“end”) PA experiences. For nonclinical participants, retrospective NA was better predicted by an average of all weekly momentary NA. For depressed individuals, however, no clear advantage to predicting retrospective NA by average weekly NA relative to a combination of peak NA and end NA was found. Based on our findings, clinicians should realise that depressive cognition may not lie in recall that is less positive and more negative than “reality” but in retrospective intensifications of all affect that are, compared to normal, relatively greater for negative than for positive affect.     

Gender differences in negative affect and well-being: the case for emotional intensity

Affect intensity (AI) may reconcile 2 seemingly paradoxical findings: Women report more negative affect than men but equal happiness as men. AI describes people's varying response intensity to identical emotional stimuli. A college sample of 66 women and 34 men was assessed on both positive and negative affect using 4 measurement methods: self-report, peer report, daily report, and memory performance. A principal-components analysis revealed an affect balance component and an AI component. Multimeasure affect balance and AI scores were created, and t tests were computed that showed women to be as happy as and more intense than men. Gender accounted for less than 1% of the variance in happiness but over 13% in AI. Thus, depression findings of more negative affect in women do not conflict with well-being findings of equal happiness across gender. Generally, women's more intense positive emotions balance their higher negative affect.     

Intuition,affect, and personality: unconscious coherence judgments and self-regulation of negative affect

According to personality systems interaction theory, a negative mood was expected to reduce access to extended semantic networks and to reduce performance on intuitive judgments of coherence for participants who have an impaired ability to down-regulate negative affect (i.e., state-oriented participants). Consistent with expectations, state-oriented participants reporting higher levels of perseverating negative mood had a reduced discrimination between coherent and incoherent standard word triples (Study 1) and individually derived word triples describing persons (Study 2). Participants who are able to down-regulate negative affect (i.e., action-oriented participants) did not show this tendency. In addition, Study 2 revealed a dissociation between state orientation and Neuroticism that is discussed in terms of a functional difference between the two constructs.     

Within-person variations in self-focused attention and negative affect in depression and anxiety: A diary study

This study examined within-person co-occurrence of self-focus, negative affect, and stress in a community sample of adolescents with or without emotional disorders. As part of a larger study, 278 adolescents were interviewed about emotional disorders. Later, they completed diary measures over three days, six times a day, reporting their current thoughts, affect, and levels of stress. Negative affect was independently related to both concurrent stress and self-focus. Importantly, the association between negative affect and self-focus was stronger among participants with a recent unipolar mood disorder, compared to those with an anxiety disorder, comorbid anxiety and depression, or those without an emotional disorder. The implications of these findings to theories of self-focus and its role in emotional disorders are discussed.