The analysis of intuition: Processing fluency and affect in judgements of semantic coherence

In semantic coherence judgements individuals are able to intuitively discriminate whether a word triad has a common remote associate (coherent) or not (incoherent) without consciously retrieving the common associate. A processing-fluency account for these intuitions is proposed, which assumes that (a) coherent triads are processed more fluently than incoherent triads, (b) this high fluency triggers a subtle positive affect, and (c) this affect may be experienced as a cognitive feeling and used in explicit judgement. In line with this account, it was shown that coherent triads (a) are processed faster than incoherent triads (Study 1), (b) serve as positive affective primes (Study 2), and (c) are liked more than incoherent triads (Study 3). When participants were provided with an irrelevant source of their affective reactions, they lost the ability to intuitively discriminate between coherent and incoherent triads (Study 4). Finally, an item-based analysis found that triads that are processed faster are liked more and are more likely to be judged coherent, irrespective of their actual coherence (Study 5).     

Scanning the "Fringe" of consciousness: what is felt and what is not felt in intuitions about semantic coherence

In intuitions concerning semantic coherence participants are able to discriminate above chance whether a word triad has a common remote associate (coherent triad) or not (incoherent triad). These intuitions are driven by increased fluency in processing coherent triads compared to incoherent triads, which in turn triggers a brief and short positive affect. The present work investigates which of these internal cues, fluency or positive affect, is the actual cue underlying coherence intuitions. In Experiment 1, participants liked coherent word triads more than incoherent triads, but did not rate them as being more fluent in processing. In Experiment 2, participants could intuitively detect coherence when they misattributed fluency to an external source, but lost this intuitive ability when they misattributed affect. It is concluded that the coherence-induced fluency by itself is not consciously experienced and not used in the coherence intuitions, but the fluency-triggered affective consequences.     

Sleep quality in healthy and mood-disordered persons predicts daily life emotional reactivity

Disordered sleep has been linked to impaired emotional functioning in healthy and depressed individuals. Little is known, however, about how chronic sleep problems influence emotional reactivity in everyday life. Participants with major or minor unipolar depressive disorder (n?=?60) and healthy controls (n?=?35) reported on sleep and emotional responses to daily life events using a computerised Experience Sampling Method. We examined whether impaired sleep quality influenced emotional reactivity to daily events, and if this relationship was altered by unipolar mood disorders. Among healthy individuals, sleep difficulties were associated with enhanced negative affect (NA) to unpleasant events and a dulled response to neutral events. However, among mood-disordered persons, sleep difficulties were associated with higher NA across all types of everyday life events. Impaired sleep quality differentially affects daily life emotional reactions as a function of depression.     

Does solving distant analogies facilitate relational integration?

Relational processing underpins many forms of human thinking. This research addressed whether relational integration in the n-term task (linear syllogisms with three and four premises) can be facilitated. We hypothesised that solving distant analogies (e.g. furnace : coal :: stomach : ______) but not near analogies (e.g. furnace : coal :: woodstove :______) would facilitate n-term performance of undergraduates (N?=?120). Participants generated solutions to near analogies (near condition), to distant analogies (distant condition) while participants in the control condition completed a word rating task. Participants then completed the n-term task with items at two levels of complexity (ternary, quaternary), and a fluid intelligence test. Solving distant analogies facilitated relational integration on the more complex quaternary-relational items. It eliminated the complexity effect in the n-term task and the association between quaternary-relational reasoning and fluid intelligence.     

Differential impacts of age of acquisition on letter and semantic fluency in Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy older adults

The degree to which the typical age of acquisition (AoA) of words and word frequency have separable influences on verbal production tasks has been strongly debated. To examine the overlap between these factors in verbal fluency tasks, the performance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (N?=?34) and normal elderly controls (N?=?36) was compared on semantic (e.g., vegetables) and letter (e.g., words that begin with F) fluency tasks. These comparisons revealed that words generated for the semantic fluency task had an earlier AoA while words generated for the letter fluency task had a higher word frequency. Differences in AoA between AD patients and controls were larger for semantic than letter fluency. These results suggest that AoA has an effect on verbal production that is independent of word frequency and that AoA has a semantic locus.     

Egocentrism in sub-clinical depression

Depression is marked by rigid thinking and the inability to generate different and more positive views on the self. The current study conceptualises this a perspective-taking deficit, which is defined as a deficit in the ability to overcome one’s egocentrism. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with depression are impaired in Theory of Mind reasoning and empathy – two social cognitions that involve cognitive and affective perspective-taking. Here, it was investigated whether these deficits generalise to visuo-spatial perspective-taking. To test this, a convenience sample (N?=?268; n?=?62 high depressive symptoms; n?=?206 healthy control participants) completed a test-battery including measures of cognitive and visuo-spatial perspective-taking and closely matched cognitive and visuo-spatial control tasks. The results showed that individuals exhibiting high levels of depressive symptoms were specifically impaired on both perspective-taking tasks but performed equally well on the control tasks. Interventions to combat rigid thinking in depression are discussed.     

Brief training in mindfulness may normalize a blunted error-related negativity in chronically depressed patients

The error-related negativity (ERN), an evoked-potential that arises in response to the commission of errors, is an important early indicator of self-regulatory capacities. In this study we investigated whether brief mindfulness training can reverse ERN deficits in chronically depressed patients. The ERN was assessed in a sustained attention task. Chronically depressed patients (n = 59) showed significantly blunted expression of the ERN in frontocentral and frontal regions, relative to healthy controls (n = 18). Following two weeks of training, the patients (n = 24) in the mindfulness condition showed a significantly increased ERN magnitude in the frontal region, but there were no significant changes in patients who had received a resting control (n = 22). The findings suggest that brief training in mindfulness may help normalize aberrations in the ERN in chronically depressed patients, providing preliminary evidence for the responsiveness of this parameter to mental training.     

A discrete emotions approach to positive emotion disturbance in depression

Converging findings suggest that depressed individuals exhibit disturbances in positive emotion. No study, however, has ascertained which specific positive emotions are implicated in depression. We report two studies that compare how depressive symptoms relate to distinct positive emotions at both trait and state levels of assessment. In Study 1 (N=185), we examined associations between depressive symptoms and three trait positive emotions (pride, happy, amusement). Study 2 compared experiential and autonomic reactivity to pride, happy, and amusement film stimuli between depressive (n=24; DS) and non-depressive (n=31; NDS) symptom groups. Results indicate that symptoms of depression were most strongly associated with decreased trait pride and decreased positive emotion experience to pride-eliciting films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for understanding emotion deficits in depression as well as for the general study of positive emotion.     

The role of controlled attention on recall in major depression

Information processing biases are hallmark features of major depressive disorder (MDD). Depressed individuals display biased memory and attention for negative material. Given that memory is highly dependent on attention for initial encoding, understanding the interplay of these processes may provide important insight into mechanisms that produce memory biases in depression. In particular, attentional control—the ability to selectively attend to task-relevant information by both inhibiting the processing of irrelevant information and disengaging attention from irrelevant material—may be one area of impairment in MDD. In the current study, clinically depressed (MDD: n = 15) and never depressed (non-MDD: n = 22) participants' line of visual gaze was assessed while participants viewed positive and negative word pairs. For each word pair, participants were instructed to attend to one word (target) and ignore one word (distracter). Free recall of study stimuli was then assessed. Depressed individuals displayed greater recall of negatively valenced target words following the task. Although there were no group differences in attentional control in the context of negative words, attention to negative targets mediated the relationship between depression status and recall of negative words. Results suggest a stronger link between attention and memory for negative material in MDD.     

A Test of the Habit-Goal Framework of Depressive Rumination and Its Relevance to Cognitive Reactivity

The aim of the present study was to test predictions derived from the habit-goal framework of depressive rumination and investigate its relevance to cognitive reactivity—another well-known vulnerability factor to depression. Formerly depressed (FD; n = 20) and never depressed (ND; n = 22) participants completed self-report measures of rumination, cognitive reactivity, and habitual characteristics of rumination (e.g., lack of awareness, control, intent). A standard mood-induction task was also used to measure cognitive reactivity and an outcome-devaluation task to measure general habit vs. goal-directed behavior control. Habitual characteristics of ruminative thoughts were greater in the FD group and were related to depressive brooding and cognitive reactivity, but not reflective pondering. Reliance on habit on the outcome-devaluation task was strongly correlated with number of depression episodes, although group differences were not observed in general habit vs. goal-directed control. Habitual characteristics of rumination (e.g., greater automaticity) may explain reactivity and persistence of negative thoughts in depression. Habitual behavior control may contribute to inflexible responding and vulnerability for depression episodes.     

Anterior temporal cortex and semantic memory: Reconciling findings from neuropsychology and functional imaging

Studies of semantic impairment arising from brain disease suggest that the anterior temporal lobes are critical for semantic abilities in humans; yet activation of these regions is rarely reported in functional imaging studies of healthy controls performing semantic tasks. Here, we combined neuropsychological and PE T functional imaging data to show that when healthy subjects identify concepts at a specific level, the regions activated correspond to the site of maximal atrophy in patients with relatively pure semantic impairment. The stimuli were color photographs of common animals or vehicles, and the task was category verification at specific (e.g., robin), intermediate (e.g., bird), or general (e.g., animal) levels. Specific, relative to general, categorization activated the antero-lateral temporal cortices bilaterally, despite matching of these experimental conditions for difficulty. Critically, in patients with atrophy in precisely these areas, the most pronounced deficit was in the retrieval of specific semantic information.     

Intuitive (in)coherence judgments are guided by processing fluency, mood and affect

Recently proposed accounts of intuitive judgments of semantic coherence assume that processing fluency results in a positive affective response leading to successful assessment of semantic coherence. The present paper investigates whether processing fluency may indicate semantic incoherence as well. In two studies, we employ a new paradigm in which participants have to detect an incoherent item among semantically coherent words. In Study 1, we show participants accurately indicating an incoherent item despite not being able to provide an accurate solution to coherent words. Further, this effect is modified by affective valence of solution words that are not retrieved from memory. Study 2 replicates those results and extend them by showing that mood moderates incoherence judgments independently of affective valence of solutions. The results support processing fluency account of intuitive semantic coherence judgments and show that it is not fluency per se but fluency variations that drive judgments.     

Intrusion-based reasoning and depression: Cross-sectional and prospective relationships

Intrusion-based reasoning refers to the tendency to form interpretations about oneself or a situation based on the occurrence of a negative intrusive autobiographical memory. Intrusion-based reasoning characterises post-traumatic stress disorder, but has not yet been investigated in depression. We report two studies that aimed to investigate this. In Study 1 both high (n = 42) and low (n = 28) dysphoric participants demonstrated intrusion-based reasoning. High-dysphoric individuals engaged in self-referent intrusion-based reasoning to a greater extent than did low-dysphoric participants. In Study 2 there were no significant differences in intrusion-based reasoning between currently depressed (n = 27) and non-depressed (n = 51) participants, and intrusion-based reasoning did not predict depressive symptoms at 6-month follow-up. Interestingly, previously (n = 26) but not currently (n = 27) depressed participants engaged in intrusion-based reasoning to a greater extent than never-depressed participants (n = 25), indicating the possibility that intrusion-based reasoning may serve as a “scar” from previous episodes. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Effects of Age,Sex and Alzheimer's Disease on Strategy Use During Verbal Fluency Tasks

ABSTRACT

Clustering and switching strategies during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks were investigated in healthy adults (n = 193, 86 males, 20–90 years) in young, middle-aged, young–old, and old–old age groups (Study 1). Older groups produced fewer total words and lower switching scores; males relied more on clustering and females on switching to produce equivalent output. In Study 2, early Alzheimer's disease participants, compared to healthy older adults, (n = 26 per group) produced fewer total words and smaller average clusters. Sex, age, and clinical differences on switching and clustering strategies support a dual processing model of verbal fluency.     

Where,O death,is thy sting? The meaning-providing function of beliefs in literal immortality

Terror management theory suggests that humans invest in cultural worldviews that allay mortality-related anxiety by promising death transcendence. Many religious individuals adhere to belief in literal immortality – believing that one will live on after death. Across two studies (n?=?1137), we explored the terror management function of such beliefs by exploring whether these beliefs are associated with lower death anxiety and greater meaning among individuals of varying religiousness. In both Study 1 (n?=?236) and Study 2 (n?=?901), belief in literal immortality was related to lower death anxiety only among intrinsically religious participants. Moreover, meaning in life mediated the relationship between belief in literal immortality and death anxiety. Study 2 clarified that this mediational relationship was only present for intrinsically religious individuals. We discuss the importance of particular religious beliefs in the provision of meaning in order to manage existential concerns.     

Associations Among Smoking,Anhedonia, and Reward Learning in Depression

Depression and cigarette smoking co-occur at high rates. However, the etiological mechanisms that contribute to this relationship remain unclear. Anhedonia and associated impairments in reward learning are key features of depression, which also have been linked to the onset and maintenance of cigarette smoking. However, few studies have investigated differences in anhedonia and reward learning among depressed smokers and depressed nonsmokers. The goal of this study was to examine putative differences in anhedonia and reward learning in depressed smokers (n = 36) and depressed nonsmokers (n = 44). To this end, participants completed self-report measures of anhedonia and behavioral activation (BAS reward responsiveness scores) and as well as a probabilistic reward task rooted in signal detection theory, which measures reward learning (Pizzagalli, Jahn, & O'Shea, 2005). When considering self-report measures, depressed smokers reported higher trait anhedonia and reduced BAS reward responsiveness scores compared to depressed nonsmokers. In contrast to self-report measures, nicotine-satiated depressed smokers demonstrated greater acquisition of reward-based learning compared to depressed nonsmokers as indexed by the probabilistic reward task. Findings may point to a potential mechanism underlying the frequent co-occurrence of smoking and depression. These results highlight the importance of continued investigation of the role of anhedonia and reward system functioning in the co-occurrence of depression and nicotine abuse. Results also may support the use of treatments targeting reward learning (e.g., behavioral activation) to enhance smoking cessation among individuals with depression.     

Emotional variability and clarity in depression and social anxiety

Recent research has underscored the importance of elucidating specific patterns of emotion that characterise mental disorders. We examined two emotion traits, emotional variability and emotional clarity, in relation to both categorical (diagnostic interview) and dimensional (self-report) measures of major depressive disorder (MDD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in women diagnosed with MDD only (n?=?35), SAD only (n?=?31), MDD and SAD (n?=?26) or no psychiatric disorder (n?=?38). Results of the categorical analyses suggest that elevated emotional variability and diminished emotional clarity are transdiagnostic of MDD and SAD. More specifically, emotional variability was elevated for MDD and SAD diagnoses compared to no diagnosis, showing an additive effect for co-occurring MDD and SAD. Similarly diminished levels of emotional clarity characterised all three clinical groups compared to the healthy control group. Dimensional findings suggest that although emotional variability is associated more consistently with depression than with social anxiety, emotional clarity is associated more consistently with social anxiety than with depression. Results are interpreted using a threshold and dose–response framework.     

Relational spirituality and depression among married couples in Antigua

The World Health Organization indicates depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. At the same time researchers have found religion/spirituality is inversely associated with depression. However, the mechanisms by which spirituality/religion impacts mental health have not been clearly identified particularly in non-western populations. Relational spirituality is a concept that focuses attention on the ways people relate to the sacred. This study examines whether different ways of relating to the sacred are implicated in levels of depression and whether marital partners affect each other’s level of relational spirituality and depression. Ninety-one (n?=?91) married heterosexual couples in the Caribbean Island of Antigua completed measures of relational spirituality and depression. Data were analysed using path analysis and through Actor Partner Interdependence Model methods. Results of the analysis showed wives’ and husbands’ depression scores covaried (COV?=?6.59, Pearson r?=?.28, p?β?=??.24, unstandardised B?=??3.23, se?=?1.30), and higher instability scores (β?=?.49, unstandardised B?=?5.46, se?=?.96). The husbands’ disappointment (β?=?.21, unstandardised B?=?2.17, se?=?.95) and instability (β?=?.54, unstandardised B?=?4.65, se?=?.72) were positively related to their depression scores. The results demonstrate relational spirituality is a useful framework for addressing depression in individuals as well as married couples.     

Semantic processing in aphasia: Evidence from an auditory lexical decision task

W. Milberg and S. E. Blumstein (1981, Brain and Language 14, 371–385) demonstrated semantic facilitation effects in a visual lexical decision task administered to Wernicke and other aphasics with severe comprehension deficits. In an attempt to explore the generalizability of these findings in a task where the acoustic-phonetic system could not be bypassed to access meaning, Wernicke's, Global, Broca's, and Conduction aphasics were administered a lexical decision task in the auditory modality. The patients were also given a simple semantic judgment task using the word pairs from the lexical decision task. The aphasic patients showed evidence of semantic facilitation whether they were categorized by diagnostic group or comprehension level. Performance of the semantic judgment task correlated with the severity of auditory comprehension deficits, whereas the consistency of the semantic facilitation effect did not. Even patients with severe comprehension deficits showed semantic facilitation. These results decrease the likelihood that auditory comprehension deficits are due to semantic organization per se and increase the likelihood that the deficits lie in one of the many processes involved in access to that information.     

Tired,moody and pregnant? Exercise may be the answer

Negative psychological states such as depression, fatigue and anxiety are experienced by many women during pregnancy. This study examined whether engaging in an exercise programme during pregnancy is associated with improvements in psychological well-being among previously inactive women (n?=?56, M age?=?30.34, SD?=?4.57; M weeks pregnant?=?22.58, SD?=?5.32). Participants completed the Profile of Mood States–Short Form and State Trait Anxiety Scale-Trait version at baseline and after four weeks of exercise. Exercise was assessed using accelerometers and these data were used to determine bouts of 30-min of moderate-to-vigorous exercise. Factorial repeated measures ANOVAs demonstrated that participants who met Canadian guidelines for exercise during pregnancy at week four (n?=?17) experienced significant decreases in depression (p?=?.004, η²?=?.13), anger (p?=?.03, η²?=?.08), tension (p?=?.03, η²?=?.08), fatigue (p?=?.01, η²?=?.10), trait anxiety (p?=?.01, η²?=?.12) and increases in vigour (p?=?.001, η²?=?.19) compared to those who were not meeting guidelines (n?=?39). From a psychological health perspective, these findings highlight the importance of continuing to promote exercise during pregnancy.