PREGNANCY: AN UNTHINKABLE REALITY

A therapist's pregnancy is bound to provoke profound conflicts in all patients, particularly those relating to envy, exclusion and loss as infantile aspects of the patient and their relation to the maternal object are revived. This paper explores the impact of the therapist's pregnancy on two patients for whom the experience was felt to be catastrophic. I suggest that in their early efforts to adapt to an inaccessible, disturbed and disturbing object who could not face reality or cope with life, these patients were compromised in their own ability to accept the facts of life and moreover to bear the frustration of exclusion, representing for them as it did, total inaccessibility. The pregnancy was so hated and distorted that it seemed to take on the meaning for them of a cruel ‘mad’ idea.     

Can humans perceive their brain states?

Although the brain enables us to perceive the external world and our body, it remains unknown whether brain processes themselves can be perceived. Brain tissue does not have receptors for its own activity. However, the ability of humans to acquire self-control of brain processes indicates that the perception of these processes may also be achieved by learning. In this study patients learned to control low-frequency components of their EEG: the so-called slow cortical potentials (SCPs). In particular "probe" sessions, the patients estimated the quality of the SCP shift they had produced in the preceding trial. The correspondence between the recorded SCP amplitudes and the subjective estimates increased with training. The ability to perceive the SCPs was related to the ability to control them; this perception was not mediated by peripheral variables such as changes in muscle tonus and cannot be reduced to simple vigilance monitoring. These data provide evidence that humans can learn to perceive the neural activity of their brain. Alternative interpretations are discussed.     

Children’s prior experiences of their successes and failures modulate belief alignment

ABSTRACT

An ability to flexibly learn from others while at other times relying upon one’s own judgements is an important adaptive human capacity. The present research investigated how others’ epistemic states and prior experience of their own independent ability in a given task modulate young children’s selective learning. In particular, we asked whether 4-year-old children’s judgement concerning the location of a hidden object is modulated both by an informant’s knowledge states and by the absence/presence of a prior experience with a particular task. We found that the children were more likely to align their judgement according to the informant’s verbal report when the informant was knowledgeable than when she was ignorant – but only when they had explicitly experienced their own incapability to accurately guess an object’s location. The findings suggest that 4-year-old children are able to combine their own experience with others’ input to make their judgement.     

Capitalizing on the Self-Referencing Effect in General Psychology: A Preliminary Study

After reviewing the literature on the effect of personal relevance (self-schema, self-referencing effect, autobiographical significance, etc.), I implemented a constructivist narrative assignment for general psychology students. I hoped the assignment would enhance learning of and memory for psychological principles. Students wrote personal relevance papers in which they described psychological principles in their own words and provided examples of how the principles they chose were relevant in their own lives. Students assigned to write the papers produced higher exam scores. Moreover, student feedback revealed other benefits, including improved writing quality, higher grades, and increased motivation to learn.     

Causal learning from probabilistic events in 24‐month‐olds: an action measure

How do young children learn about causal structure in an uncertain and variable world? We tested whether they can use observed probabilistic information to solve causal learning problems. In two experiments, 24‐month‐olds observed an adult produce a probabilistic pattern of causal evidence. The toddlers then were given an opportunity to design their own intervention. In Experiment 1, toddlers saw one object bring about an effect with a higher probability than a second object. In Experiment 2, the frequency of the effect was held constant, though its probability differed. After observing the probabilistic evidence, toddlers in both experiments chose to act on the object that was more likely to produce the effect. The results demonstrate that toddlers can learn about cause and effect without trial‐and‐error or linguistic instruction on the task, simply by observing the probabilistic patterns of evidence resulting from the imperfect actions of other social agents. Such observational causal learning from probabilistic displays supports human children's rapid cultural learning.     

依恋类型对主动遗忘的影响

成人依恋可以在依恋回避和依恋焦虑两个维度进行分析。不安全依恋的个体在依恋关系中持续感受到一种不安全感,因此个体往往采用心理防御策略来摆脱这种不安全感。对于许多不愉快的事件,个体常常也会采用类似的防御策略进行抑制,以减少自身的消极体验。主动遗忘是指个体有意识地避免回想某一目标对象而导致的遗忘现象,其可能与高回避个体的停用策略十分相似。为探讨对于依恋相关的记忆内容,高回避个体是否能够成功进行主动遗忘以规避负面情绪,或是防御失败引起依恋系统激活,反而更多回忆起相关记忆内容,本实验采用Think/No-Think(TNT)范式进行研究,以依恋相关故事作为对被试的依恋启动操作,设计了2(启动:依恋启动vs.依恋未启动)×3(主动遗忘:Think vs.No-Think vs.Baseline)×2(依恋维度得分:高vs低)混合设计研究不同依恋类型主动遗忘能力的影响。实验结果显示,TNT操作与回避类型与启动操作的交互作用显著,高依恋回避个体在受到依恋相关启动时表现出优秀的主动遗忘能力,而在未受到启动时则不能有效地遗忘依恋相关负性词对; 而低依恋回避个体则表现相反,在受到启动材料威胁时无法成功主动遗忘,而在未受启动条件下可以成功遗忘要求内容。对于不同焦虑类型的被试来说,其主动遗忘能力与启动操作无关,高焦虑类型被试表现出更强的主动遗忘能力,并从依恋内部工作模型角度进行了分析。     

Individual differences in procedures for knowledge acquisition from maps

This study investigated the procedures subjects use to acquire knowledge from maps. In Experiment 1, three experienced and five novice map users provided verbal protocols while attempting to learn a map. The protocols suggested four categories of processes that subjects invoked during learning: attention, encoding, evaluation, and control. Good learners differed from poor learners primarily in their techniques for and success at encoding spatial information, their ability to accurately evaluate their learning progress, and their ability to focus attention on unlearned information. An analysis of the performance of experienced map users suggested that learning depended on particular procedures and not on familiarity with the task. In Experiment 2, subjects were instructed to use (a) six of the effective learning procedures from Experiment 1, (b) six procedures unrelated to learning success, or (c) their own techniques. The effective procedures set comprised three techniques for learning spatial information, two techniques for using self-generated feedback to guide subsequent study behaviors, and a procedure for partitioning the map into sections. Subjects using these procedures performed better than subjects in the other groups. In addition, subjects' visual memory ability predicted the magnitude of the performance differential.     

On a type of heterosexuality, and the fluidity of object relations

This paper delineates a form of heterosexuality whose underlying psychological structure resembles that of perversions. It is characterized by: idealization of instinctual processes, whereby the ego subordinates the object to the actualization of the instinctual event itself; heightened narcissism in an otherwise neurotic ego organization; multiple intrapsychic uses of the object; a special kind of defensive organization; an experienced victory over the superego and associated elevation of certain aspects of the ego ideal; and a resultant alteration in the nature of close interpersonal relationships. I use clinical vignettes from both male and female patients in psychoanalysis to focus on the phenomena in question. The thinking of Chassequet-Smirgel, Freud, Khan, Rangell, Socarides, and others is used in an attempt to gain an encompassing perspective. It is emphasized that patients demonstrating this form of heterosexuality do not possess a perversion per se, but demonstrate a character neurosis which integrates certain perverse mechanisms into its defensive organization. These mechanisms can be isolated and studied in psychoanalytic treatment, with the potential for illuminating their defensive and mood-regulating functions, and eventual working through and resolution of the intrapsychic conflicts underlying them. Some comments on the implications of this form of sexuality for our contemporary culture are included.     

The Hospital Room as Uncanny: Psychoanalytic Observations and Recommendations for Pastors and Chaplains

This essay in applied psychoanalysis is written for the field of pastoral psychology, and it also has obvious affinities with the medical humanities. The author uses Freud’s (The uncanny. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 17, pp. 217–256). Vintage, London, 1919/2001) “The Uncanny” to question the concept of homelike hospital rooms. Instead of making patients feel more comfortable, the authors believes that these rooms could, in some cases, actually increase the anxiety of patients. The author uses Helena Michie’s personal story of her experience of touring a birthing suite to support this argument, as well as some poetry by Billy Collins. The author, however, does not stop with identifying a problem, as he also suggests that pastors and chaplains, when they provide care for their patients, should help them identify and use their own transitional and transformational objects. These objects, of course, will be highly idiosyncratic, and it is precisely this kind of attention—attention to the idiosyncrasies of individuals—that pastors and chaplains should be giving to those in their care. While there is a growing literature on D. W. Winnicott, who coined the term “transitional object,” and Christopher Bollas, who gave us the term “transformational object,” in medical and pastoral circles, the author suggests that attention to and the endorsement of the use of transitional and transformational objects should become a part of hospital policy, if only in chaplaincy handbooks, so as to recognize what many individuals are already doing.     

Cardiophobia: a paradigmatic behavioural model of heart-focused anxiety and non-anginal chest pain.

Cardiophobia is defined as an anxiety disorder of persons characterized by repeated complaints of chest pain, heart palpitations, and other somatic sensations accompanied by fears of having a heart attack and of dying. Persons with cardiophobia focus attention on their heart when experiencing stress and arousal, perceive its function in a phobic manner, and continue to believe that they suffer from an organic heart problem despite repeated negative medical tests. In order to reduce anxiety, they seek continuous reassurance, make excessive use of medical facilities, and avoid activities believed to elicit symptoms. The relationship of cardiophobia to illness phobia, health anxiety, and panic disorder is discussed. An integrative psychobiological model of cardiophobia is presented which includes previous learning conditions relating to experiences of separation and cardiac disease; deficient and inappropriate behavioural repertoires which constitute a psychological vulnerability for cardiophobic problems; negative life events, stressors, and conflicts in the person's present situation that trigger and contribute to the symptoms; current affective, cognitive, and behavioural symptoms and their stimulus properties; and genetic and acquired biological vulnerability factors. Finally, recommendations for the treatment of cardiophobia are derived from the model and areas of future research are outlined.     

View-invariant object category learning, recognition, and search: how spatial and object attention are coordinated using surface-based attentional shrouds

How does the brain learn to recognize an object from multiple viewpoints while scanning a scene with eye movements? How does the brain avoid the problem of erroneously classifying parts of different objects together? How are attention and eye movements intelligently coordinated to facilitate object learning? A neural model provides a unified mechanistic explanation of how spatial and object attention work together to search a scene and learn what is in it. The ARTSCAN model predicts how an object's surface representation generates a form-fitting distribution of spatial attention, or "attentional shroud". All surface representations dynamically compete for spatial attention to form a shroud. The winning shroud persists during active scanning of the object. The shroud maintains sustained activity of an emerging view-invariant category representation while multiple view-specific category representations are learned and are linked through associative learning to the view-invariant object category. The shroud also helps to restrict scanning eye movements to salient features on the attended object. Object attention plays a role in controlling and stabilizing the learning of view-specific object categories. Spatial attention hereby coordinates the deployment of object attention during object category learning. Shroud collapse releases a reset signal that inhibits the active view-invariant category in the What cortical processing stream. Then a new shroud, corresponding to a different object, forms in the Where cortical processing stream, and search using attention shifts and eye movements continues to learn new objects throughout a scene. The model mechanistically clarifies basic properties of attention shifts (engage, move, disengage) and inhibition of return. It simulates human reaction time data about object-based spatial attention shifts, and learns with 98.1% accuracy and a compression of 430 on a letter database whose letters vary in size, position, and orientation. The model provides a powerful framework for unifying many data about spatial and object attention, and their interactions during perception, cognition, and action.     

Object name learning provides on-the-job training for attention

By the age of 3, children easily learn to name new objects, extending new names for unfamiliar objects by similarity in shape. Two experiments tested the proposal that experience in learning object names tunes children's attention to the properties relevant for naming—in the present case, to the property of shape—and thus facilitates the learning of more object names. In Experiment 1, a 9-week longitudinal study, 17-month-old children who repeatedly played with and heard names for members of unfamiliar object categories well organized by shape formed the generalization that only objects with similar shapes have the same name. Trained children also showed a dramatic increase in acquisition of new object names outside of the laboratory during the course of the study. Experiment 2 replicated these findings and showed that they depended on children's learning both a coherent category structure and object names. Thus, children who learn specific names for specific things in categories with a common organizing property—in this case, shape—also learn to attend to just the right property—in this case, shape—for learning more object names.     

Preference for local or general anesthesia,coping dispositions,learned resourcefulness and coping with surgery

Abstract

People were found to differ in their coping dispositions (as measured with the MBSS, Miller, 1987): those who habitually attend to threatening cues (“monitors”) and those who distract themselves from these cues (“blunters”). However, some people are equally high on both coping dispositions and they were considered to be in a “dispositional conflict”. Furthermore, under certain circumstances people may prefer to act in a way that is inconsistent with their coping disposition; monitors who prefer blunting strategies and blunters who prefer monitoring strategies (labeled here as “disposition-behavior conflict”). Both conflicts were hypothesized to be associated with higher levels of trait anxiety and poorer coping. 59 men scheduled for surgery were assessed as to their coping disposition (monitors or blunters) and their preference for local or general anesthesia, and their learned resourcefulness (selfantrol skills). Monitors who chose general anesthesia (and thus were unable to monitor their own surgery) and blunters who chose local anesthesia (and thus were unable to blunt) were defined as being in a disposition-behavior conflict. Re- and post-surgery measures of anxiety and dysphoria and post-surgery nurses' ratings were used for assessing coping with surgery. Patients who were either high on dispositional conflict or showed a disposition-behavior conflict were higher on trait anxiety and showed poorer post-surgery coping in comparison to patients without such conflicts. Learned resourcefulness was not related to better coping nor to the two conflicts with the exception that patients with a disposition-behavior conflict reported less confidence in their self-control abilities. Overall, preference for local anesthesia predicted better post-surgery coping.     

Self-motion impairs multiple-object tracking

Investigations of multiple-object tracking aim to further our understanding of how people perform common activities such as driving in traffic. However, tracking tasks in the laboratory have overlooked a crucial component of much real-world object tracking: self-motion. We investigated the hypothesis that keeping track of one’s own movement impairs the ability to keep track of other moving objects. Participants attempted to track multiple targets while either moving around the tracking area or remaining in a fixed location. Participants’ tracking performance was impaired when they moved to a new location during tracking, even when they were passively moved and when they did not see a shift in viewpoint. Self-motion impaired multiple-object tracking in both an immersive virtual environment and a real-world analog, but did not interfere with a difficult non-spatial tracking task. These results suggest that people use a common mechanism to track changes both to the location of moving objects around them and to keep track of their own location.     

Grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) show a feature-negative effect specific to social learning

Previous laboratory studies on social learning suggest that some animals can learn more readily if they first observe a conspecific demonstrator perform the task unsuccessfully and so fail to obtain a food reward than if they observe a successful demonstrator that obtains the food. This effect may indicate a difference in how easily animals are able to associate different outcomes with the conspecific or could simply be the result of having food present in only some of the demonstrations. To investigate we tested a scatter-hoarding mammal, the eastern grey squirrel, on its ability to learn to choose between two pots of food after watching a conspecific remove a nut from one of them on every trial. Squirrels that were rewarded for choosing the opposite pot to the conspecific chose correctly more frequently than squirrels rewarded for choosing the same pot (a feature-negative effect). Another group of squirrels was tested on their ability to choose between the two pots when the rewarded option was indicated by a piece of card. This time, squirrels showed no significant difference in their ability to learn to choose the same or the opposite pot. The results add to anecdotal reports that grey squirrels can learn by observing a conspecific and suggest that even when all subjects are provided with demonstrations with the same content, not all learning occurs equally. Prior experience or expectations of the association between a cue (a conspecific) and food influences what can be learned through observation whilst previously unfamiliar cues (the card) can be associated more readily with any outcome.     

The Decision to Continue a Pregnancy Affected by Down Syndrome: Timing of Decision and Satisfaction with Receiving a Prenatal Diagnosis

In order to provide the best genetic counseling possible for women who learn of a diagnosis of Down syndrome prenatally, we sought to assess the timing of the decision to continue a pregnancy and the satisfaction these women had with learning this information. Fifty-six mothers of children with Down syndrome diagnosed prenatally between 2007 and 2010 completed a survey regarding their experience with decision-making after prenatal diagnosis. Approximately one third (17/56) of participants reported they knew before getting pregnant that they would not terminate for any reason, and almost half of the participants (24/56) reported they did not decide to continue their pregnancy until after the diagnosis. Many participants (82 %; 42/56) stated that learning the diagnosis during pregnancy increased their anxiety. The majority (88 %; 45/56) also reported that if they could do it over again, they would undergo prenatal testing for preparation purposes, despite increased anxiety. Religious and spiritual beliefs as well as feeling attached to the baby were the personal factors that had the greatest impact on most women’s decision-making. Despite increased anxiety caused by learning the diagnosis prenatally, most women favored prenatal diagnosis as it allowed them time to process the information and prepare for the birth of their child.     

A case study of borderline anxiety andthe process of analytic transformation

Borderline patients present particular treatment problems and require close, devoted understanding of their often chaotic and shifting intrapsychic conflicts. Many of these patients act out, making it difficult to maintain an analytic process. In fact, many terminate early on. When they do stay for longer periods, they exhibit particular constellations of defense, anxiety, and conflict. One extensive case report is used to examine the overlapping cycles of treatment with this population. Frequently, self-destructive acting-out is present in the transference and extratransference. This acting-out is often followed by the self-destructive, antichange attitude of the death instinct. These ways of relating to the self and the object are mobilized within the vehicle of projective identification and are best understood as primitive defenses against core fantasies of loss and persecution. These issues of loss and fear are the final and vital phase of treatment with borderline patients, who are often able to make major fundamental changes in their internal sphere, but only if patient and analyst can tolerate and understand these three levels of intrapsychic experience.     

Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding

How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve rapid object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object attention shifts, inter-object attention shifts, and shifts between visible objects and covertly cued locations? What factors underlie individual differences in the timing and frequency of such attentional shifts? How do transient and sustained spatial attentional mechanisms work and interact? How can volition, mediated via the basal ganglia, influence the span of spatial attention? A neural model is developed of how spatial attention in the where cortical stream coordinates view-invariant object category learning in the what cortical stream under free viewing conditions. The model simulates psychological data about the dynamics of covert attention priming and switching requiring multifocal attention without eye movements. The model predicts how “attentional shrouds” are formed when surface representations in cortical area V4 resonate with spatial attention in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), while shrouds compete among themselves for dominance. Winning shrouds support invariant object category learning, and active surface-shroud resonances support conscious surface perception and recognition. Attentive competition between multiple objects and cues simulates reaction-time data from the two-object cueing paradigm. The relative strength of sustained surface-driven and fast-transient motion-driven spatial attention controls individual differences in reaction time for invalid cues. Competition between surface-driven attentional shrouds controls individual differences in detection rate of peripheral targets in useful-field-of-view tasks. The model proposes how the strength of competition can be mediated, though learning or momentary changes in volition, by the basal ganglia. A new explanation of crowding shows how the cortical magnification factor, among other variables, can cause multiple object surfaces to share a single surface-shroud resonance, thereby preventing recognition of the individual objects.     

Turtles (Pseudemys nelsoni) learn about visual cues indicating food from experienced turtles

We investigated whether turtles (Pseudemys nelsoni) could learn about a visual object cue to obtain food reinforcement by observing conspecifics that had learned the task. This study was designed with a three part task which, if completed by the observer turtles, would provide evidence of their abilities to learn from other turtles using stimulus enhancement, goal emulation, or copying. All four P. nelsoni turtles tested after observation of a trained demonstrator, whom they had direct access to during the demonstrator training trials, learned not only to follow another turtle to the stimulus indicating food, but also, in the absence of the demonstrator, to approach the correct stimulus regardless of spatial position. Therefore, all four P. nelsoni turtles tested showed evidence of stimulus enhancement learning. This is the first experimental study of social learning in any aquatic reptile demonstrating that they have the ability to learn from conspecifics.     

The Psychological Burden Inflicted By Multiple Cancers in Li-Fraumeni Families: Five Case Studies

To gain insight into the psychological, emotional, relational, and family problems of families afflicted by Li-Fraumeni syndrome, we interviewed members of five such families in the Pediatric Oncology Department, Gustave Roussy Institute, where at least one member of the family had been treated. These interviews showed that families were psychologically fragile, that their interactions and thinking patterns were related to a family background plagued by the repeated occurrence of cancer, and was often marked by physical or psychological violence. They had complex imaginary etiologic explanations, and showed an ambivalent willingness to learn about cancer and the risks involved. They expressed their fear of transmitting doom and death, posed questions about whether their parents would have had them had they known the test result, and about what their own attitude would be toward childbearing. Thus genetic testing awoke disconcerting and unsolved questions for them. These first results can contribute to the design of supportive interventions and future clinical research.