Dissociable yet tied inhibitory processes: The structure of inhibitory control

Cognitive and neural models have proposed the existence of a single inhibitory process that regulates behavior and depends on the right frontal operculum (rFO). The aim of this study was to make a contribution to the ongoing debate as to whether inhibition is a single process or is composed of multiple, independent processes. Here, within a single paradigm, we assessed the links between two inhibitory phenomena—namely, resistance to involuntary visual capture by abrupt onsets and resolving of spatial stimulus–response conflict. We did so by conducting three experiments, two involving healthy volunteers (Exps. 1 and 3), and one with the help of a well-documented patient, R.J., with selectively weakened inhibition following a lesion of the rFO. The results suggest that resistance to capture and stimulus–response conflict are independent, because (a) additive effects were found (Exps. 1 and 3), (b) capture did not correlate with compatibility effects (Exp. 1), (c) dual tasking affected the two phenomena differently (Exp. 3), and (d) a dissociation was found between the two in patient R.J. (Exp. 2). However, the results also show that these two phenomena may share some processing components, given that (a) both were affected in patient R.J., but to different degrees (Exp. 2), and (b) increasing the difficulty of dual tasking produced an increasingly negative correlation between capture and compatibility (Exp. 3), which suggests that when resources are withdrawn from the control of the former, they are used to control the latter.     

The role of inhibitory processes in part-list cuing

Providing a subset of studied items as retrieval cues can have detrimental effects on recall of the remaining items. In 2 experiments, the authors examined such part-list cuing impairment in a repeated testing situation. Participants studied exemplars from several semantic categories and were given 2 successive cued-recall tests separated by a distractor task of several minutes. Part-list cues were provided in the 1st test but not the 2nd. Noncue item recall was tested with the studied category cues (same probes) in the 1st test, but novel, unstudied retrieval cues (independent probes) in the 2nd test. The authors found detrimental effects of part-list cues in both the 1st (same-probe) test and the 2nd (independent-probe) test. These results show that part-list cuing impairment can be lasting and is not eliminated with independent probes. The findings support the view that the impairment was caused by retrieval inhibition.     

The duality of selection: excitatory and inhibitory processes in auditory selective attention

Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements were made in an auditory selective-attention paradigm, both before and after a series of inhibition or discrimination training sessions. The presence of distractors caused poor perceptual sensitivity, weak P3 responses, conservative responding, and slow reaction times relative to baseline. Distraction prompted a frontal enhancement of ERP components occurring 100-250 ms after the onset of attended signals (N1, P2, and N2). Training ameliorated behavioral interference from distraction. Participants receiving inhibition training acquired improved inhibitory processing of distractors, an effect that peaked 200 ms after distractor onset. In a proposed model, distinct excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms work interactively to maintain sensitivity to environmental change in the face of disruption from the contextual integration of irrelevant events.     

The psychophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis of 58 resting baseline studies, 25 startle studies, 17 standardized trauma cue studies, and 22 idiographic trauma cue studies compared adults with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on psychophysiological variables: facial electromyography (EMG), heart rate (HR), skin conductance (SC), and blood pressure. Significant weighted mean effects of PTSD were observed for HR (r = .18) and SC (r = .08) in resting baseline studies; eyeblink EMG (r = .13), HR (r = .23), and SC habituation slope (r = .21) in startle studies; HR (r = .27) in standardized trauma cue studies; and frontalis EMG (r = .21), corrugator EMG (r = .34), HR (r = .22), and SC (r = .19) in idiographic trauma cue studies. The most robust correlates of PTSD were SC habituation slope, facial EMG during idiographic trauma cues, and HR during all study types. Overall, the results support the view that PTSD is associated with elevated psychophysiology. However, the generalizability of these findings is limited by characteristics of the published literature, including its disproportionate focus on male veterans and neglect of potential PTSD subtypes.     

The value of confession and forgiveness according to Jung

This article represents a broad survey of the views of C. G. Jung regarding confession and for giveness. Man, a naturally religious being, has a need to confess his wrong and to gain forgiveness of one sanctioned to absolve. The curative effect of confession has been known for centuries. Without confession, man remains in moral isolation. Priests, ministers, and rabbis, as well as psychotherapists, attest to the universality of this human phenomenon. Confession is located in that place where psychology and religion meet-guilt. Jung's views on confession bridge the chasm between psychology and religion.     

How money buys happiness: genetic and environmental processes linking finances and life satisfaction

Measures of wealth such as income and assets are commonly considered to be objective measures of environmental circumstances, making direct contributions to life satisfaction. Here, the authors explored the accuracy of this assumption. Using a nationwide sample of 719 twin pairs from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, the authors first noted the relative independence of most perceptions about financial status from measures of actual wealth. They then demonstrated that perceived financial situation and control over life completely mediated the association between measures of actual wealth and life satisfaction. Finally, they showed that financial resources appeared to protect life satisfaction from environmental shocks. In addition, control appeared to act as a mechanism translating life circumstances into life satisfaction.     

Personality research and psychophysiology: General considerations

A general discussion of psychophysiological methods in relationship to personality research is presented for the investigator without an extensive knowledge of psychophysiology. The paper is organized in four sections: (a) advantages inherent in the use of psychophysiological measures (e.g., continuous measurement, sensitivity to sublimal responses); (b) psychophysiological constructs that are particularly well suited to personality research (e.g., different kinds of physiological arousal, normal/pathological distinctions, perceptual states); (c) how to choose a set of psychophysiological measures and special considerations involved with their use (e.g., obstrusiveness, context and timing of measurement, costs, and capabilities); and (d) whether or not to “psychophysiologize” personality research. Within each section, illustrative applications of psychophysiology to personality research are described.     

Language selection in bilingual speech: evidence for inhibitory processes

Although bilinguals rarely make random errors of language when they speak, research on spoken production provides compelling evidence to suggest that both languages are active when only one language is spoken (e.g., [Poulisse, N. (1999). Slips of the tongue: Speech errors in first and second language production. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins]). Moreover, the parallel activation of the two languages appears to characterize the planning of speech for highly proficient bilinguals as well as second language learners. In this paper, we first review the evidence for cross-language activity during single word production and then consider the two major alternative models of how the intended language is eventually selected. According to language-specific selection models, both languages may be active but bilinguals develop the ability to selectively attend to candidates in the intended language. The alternative model, that candidates from both languages compete for selection, requires that cross-language activity be modulated to allow selection to occur. On the latter view, the selection mechanism may require that candidates in the nontarget language be inhibited. We consider the evidence for such an inhibitory mechanism in a series of recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies.     

The development of automatic and controlled inhibitory retrieval processes in true and false recall

In three experiments, we investigated the role of automatic and controlled inhibitory retrieval processes in true and false memory development in children and adults. Experiment 1 incorporated a directed forgetting task to examine controlled retrieval inhibition. Experiments 2 and 3 used a part-set cue and retrieval practice task to examine automatic retrieval inhibition. In the first experiment, the forget cue had no effect on false recall for adults but reduced false recall for children. In Experiments 2 and 3, both tasks caused retrieval impairments for true and false recall, and this occurred for all age groups. Implicit inhibition, which occurs outside of our conscious control, appears early in childhood. However, because young children do not process false memories as automatically as adults, explicit inhibition can reduce false memory output.     

The psychophysiology of adult attachment relationships: Autonomic reactivity in marital and premarital interactions

To better understand the origins of autonomic reactivity during marital interactions, this study examined the psychophysiological profiles of prototypically secure (vs. insecure) and deactivating (vs. hyperactivating) adults while they talked about areas of disagreement with their (pre)marital partners. Adults who idealized their caregivers and/or normalized harsh childhood experiences during the Adult Attachment Interview (i.e., deactivating adults) manifested heightened electrodermal reactivity, a sign of emotional inhibition, while attempting to resolve conflict in their relationships, whereas individuals who became angrily or passively caught up while discussing their early lives (i.e., hyperactivating adults) later showed increases in heart rate while conversing with their partners, suggesting behavioral activation. In contrast, security was associated with low levels of electrodermal change from baseline in the context of this normatively mild marital stressor. Results were generally consistent for 40 younger engaged and 40 mature married couples.     

Therapeutic and redemptive aspects of religious confession

Religious confession provides a forum for the expression of individual identity and relational needs. As a ritual that gives public sanction to personal transformation and redemption, confession also connects the faithful to the larger community. Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish ways of confession are surveyed to examine their historical and contemporary significance. Religious confession not only reflects meaning; it also creates meaning filtered through our psychological understanding of what constitutes sin. Clinical examples illustrate the need for therapists to become more aware of the relationship of their own values and countertransference in spiritual disclosure.     

The structure of psychosomatic symptoms

1. According to our findings, a psychosomatic structure is not an alternative to neurosis. The syndrome of alexithymia appears to be, in our cases, a transitional phase, the dynamics of which can be understood and treated by psychotherapy. In the course of psychotherapeutic treatment, alexithymia always disappears. 2. However, a special psychotherapeutic technique is advisable, one different from that applied in classical neurosis. 3. For this reason the term psychosomatic structure can be used as a way of expressing a variation of neurosis. 4. Modern concepts of psychosomatic disease describe pathological personalities that are different from the classic pseudoneurotic type because of their narcissistic and pregenital structures. These structures can be concealed underneath a facade of genital and psychoneurotic defense. 5. The old relationship between psychosomatosis and psychosis can be better understood on the basis of our findings, which reveal a borderline structure and splitting mechanisms in many psychosomatic patients. 6. Psychosomatic pathology can be better understood today by relating it to the structure of the psychosomatic family. 7. It appears that if, on the one hand, psychosomatic diseases of a more hysterical picture are frequent among preindustrial cultures and in low-income classes, on the other hand psychosomatic syndromes of a narcissistic and borderline type are characteristic for our civilization.     

Aging, selective attention, and inhibitory processes: a psychophysiological approach.

The present study investigated the efficiency with which younger and older adults allocate attention to relevant and irrelevant stimuli. The model of attention guiding this research links the orienting response with the allocation of attention and habituation with the inhibition of the allocation of attention. We adapted a paradigm developed by Iacono and Lykken (1983) in which subjects are instructed unambiguously either to attend to or to ignore a series of innocuous tones, and the skin conductance orienting response elicited by each tone is measured. Results revealed that young subjects instructed to ignore the tones habituated more quickly than did those instructed to attend to the tones. However, older adults exhibited nondifferential orienting across the 2 instruction conditions. These results suggest an age-related deficit in the ability to inhibit attention to irrelevant stimuli.     

The psychosomatic symptom and the self: a sirens' song

This paper examines the symbolic nature of the psychosomatic symptom. It is suggested that the psychosomatic symptom is an informationally rich symbolic derivative of the Self that serves to focus attention on developmental disturbances in the archetypal processes of constructing body image and interpreting dysphoric somatic sensations. Clinical examples are offered to illustrate the changing nature of the psychomatic symptom in society. The therapeutic importance of monitoring affectual transactions in the transference-countertransference field is stressed.     

Refining the understanding of inhibitory processes: how response prepotency is created and overcome

Understanding (a) how responses become prepotent provides insights into when inhibition is needed in everyday life. Understanding (b) how response prepotency is overcome provides insights for helping children develop strategies for overcoming such tendencies. Concerning (a), on tasks such as the day‐night Stroop‐like task, is the difficulty with inhibiting saying the name of the stimulus due to the name being semantically related to the correct response or to its being a valid response on the task (i.e. a member of the response set) though incorrect for this stimulus? Experiment 1 (with 40 4‐year‐olds) suggests that prepotency is caused by membership in the response set and not semantic relation. Concerning (b), Diamond, Kirkham and Amso (2002) found that 4‐year‐olds could succeed on the day‐night task if the experimenter sang a ditty after showing the stimulus card, before the child was to respond. They concluded that it was because delaying children’s responses gave them time to compute the correct answer. However, Experiment 2 (with 90 3‐year‐olds) suggests that such a delay helps because it gives the incorrect, prepotent response time to passively dissipate, not because of active computation during the delay.