Words and Drugs: Same Mechanisms of Action?

The therapeutic effects of words, rituals and, more in general, of the whole psychosocial context around the patient, have been investigated over the past few years by using the placebo response as a model. Today we are in a good position to study all these complex psychological factors by using a physiological and neuroscientific approach that uses modern neurobiological tools to probe different brain functions. Since a placebo is represented by the whole ritual of the therapeutic act, the main concept that has emerged today is that words and rituals may modulate the same biochemical pathways that are modulated by drugs. Most of our knowledge about these mechanisms comes from the field of pain, and represents a biomedical, psychological and philosophical enterprise that is changing the way we approach and interpret medicine, psychology and human biology. If on the one hand we know some of the mechanisms of drug action in the central nervous system, on the other we can now understand how the therapist’s words may affect different physiological functions. In fact, the placebo effect and the therapist–patient relationship can be approached by using the same biochemical, cellular and physiological tools of the materia medica. Although the responses to the therapist’s words cannot be reduced merely to the action of a single drug, this represents an epochal transition, in which the distinction between psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is progressively getting thinner, and which helps us overcome the old dichotomy between psychology and biology.     

Development of sensitivity to spacing versus feature changes in pictures of houses: Evidence for slow development of a general spacing detection mechanism?

Adults are expert at recognizing faces, in part because of exquisite sensitivity to the spacing of facial features. Children are poorer than adults at recognizing facial identity and less sensitive to spacing differences. Here we examined the specificity of the immaturity by comparing the ability of 8-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and adults to discriminate houses differing in the spacing between features versus those differing in the shape of the features themselves. By 8 years of age, children were more accurate for discriminations involving the feature set compared with the spacing set, and the difference in accuracy compared with adults was greater for the spacing set than for the feature set. Importantly, when sets were matched in difficulty for adults, this greater immaturity on the spacing set than on the feature set remained. The results suggest that, at least by age 8, immaturities in sensitivity to the spacing of features may be related to immaturities in general perceptual mechanisms rather than face-specific mechanisms.     

Motivation to inflate performance ratings: Perceptual bias or response bias?

In a laboratory experiment support was found for the idea that inflated performance evaluations may be due to a self-serving bias — the tendency for raters to highly evaluate subordinates' performance so that they may themselves appear to be successful. Two hundred sixteen students evaluating another's work gave higher ratings of performance quantity and quality to employees they counseled about their work than to others with whom they had either only social contact or no contact at all. This effect remained even when raters were not being evaluated by an authority figure, suggesting that the inflated ratings were the result of an interest in enhancing one's own self-image (a perceptual bias) rather than cultivating the favorable impression of another (a response bias). The conceptual and practical implications of these findings are discussed.The author acknowledges the helpful comments of Robert Heneman on an earlier draft of this article. A preliminary report of this experiment was presented at the meeting of the Academy of Management, San Diego, August 1985. This work was supported, in part, by grant INT-8304375 from the National Science Foundation.     

Learning concepts and categories: is spacing the "enemy of induction"?

Inductive learning -- that is, learning a new concept or category by observing exemplars -- happens constantly, for example, when a baby learns a new word or a doctor classifies x-rays. What influence does the spacing of exemplars have on induction? Compared with massing, spacing enhances long-term recall, but we expected spacing to hamper induction by making the commonalities that define a concept or category less apparent. We asked participants to study multiple paintings by different artists, with a given artist's paintings presented consecutively (massed) or interleaved with other artists' paintings (spaced). We then tested induction by asking participants to indicate which studied artist (Experiments 1a and 1b) or whether any studied artist (Experiment 2) painted each of a series of new paintings. Surprisingly, induction profited from spacing, even though massing apparently created a sense of fluent learning: Participants rated massing as more effective than spacing, even after their own test performance had demonstrated the opposite.     

Role of theoretical bias in therapeutic interventions: to see or not to see?

Considering the role of theory in child psychosocial treatment, it is important to acknowledge some of its associated problems. Among the shortcomings of theory discussed in this article are its potential for biasing what we see and do clinically, the arbitrary nature of some theoretical explanations, and the way that theory-based jargon can interfere with communication. A bottom-up approach to the development of clinical principles is advocated instead, especially when these principles are derived from the convergence of clinical observation and research findings.     

Hindsight bias: An interaction of automatic and motivational factors?

If subjects are asked to recollect a former response after having been informed about the correct response, their recollection tends to approach the correct response. This effect has been termedhindsight bias. We studied hindsight bias in an experiment requiring numerical responses to almanac-type questions for physical quantities. We varied (1) the time at which the correct information was provided, (2) the encoding of the original responses by asking/not asking subjects to give a reason for the respective response, and (3) the motivation to recall correctly. We found that hindsight is less biased if reasons are given and if the correct information is provided at an earlier time. Motivation had only interactive effects: (1) With high motivation to recall correctly, the time the correct information was provided had no influence. (2) With reasons given, the variation of motivation showed no effect. These results rule out purely motivational and purely automatic explanations.     

Hope and General Self-efficacy: Two Measures of the Same Construct?

The aim of this study was to test the extent to which hope measure is equivalent to general self-efficacy measure. Questionnaire data on these two constructs and other external variables were collected from 199 Chinese college students. The factor analytic results suggested that hope and self-efficacy items measured the same construct. The unidimensional model combining hope items and GSE items fit the data as well as the bidimensional model, indicating that their corresponding items measured the same underlying construct. Further analyses showed that hope and GSE did not correlate with external variables differently in a systematic manner. Most of these correlational differences were non-significant and negligible. These findings suggested that the literatures studying GSE and hope could be considered to be integrated and that researchers need to recognize and acknowledge the conceptual and operational similarities among these constructs in the literature.     

Fear and Courage in Children: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

This study further investigated the construct of courage in children. Children aged 8–13 years (n = 51) were interviewed about the most courageous action that they had ever performed during their life, and to retrospectively rate their level of fear and courage experienced during that event. On a separate occasion, children also completed the Courage Measure for Children (CM-C) as an index of children’s general level of personal courage, as well as scales for assessing anxiety symptoms and sensation seeking. Results indicated that almost all children (i.e., 94%) indicated that they had carried out a courageous action at some point during their life, although the levels of fear and courage associated with these acts varied considerably. Further, there was no relation between fear and courage reported for the courageous action, but these variables were significantly correlated with respectively anxiety symptoms and personal courage as indexed by the CM-C. Finally, a significant positive correlation was observed between sensation seeking and personal courage, indicating that children who are more thrill and adventure seeking are generally also more courageous. It is concluded that fear and courage in children are largely unrelated and not just two sides of the same coin. The implications of these results for the etiology and treatment of childhood anxiety problems are discussed.     

Further tests of the interactive race model of divided attention: The effects of negative bias and varying stimulus — onset asynchronies

In Go/No-Go detection tasks, responses to redundant targets are typically faster than responses to either of these targets alone. One explanation of this redundant-targets effect is from race models, which assume statistical facilitation due to the activation of more than one processing channel under the redundant-targets condition. J. O. Miller (1982, 1986) has derived an upper boundary for the amount of facilitation these models can predict and has found this boundary to be consistently violated in bimodal divided-attention tasks and in letter-detection tasks. Thus, until recently race models were thought to be unable to predict the amount of facilitation commonly observed.Mordkoff and Yantis (1991) have challenged this conclusion and showed that no facilitation beyond the predictions of race models is observed if certain types of contingency within the experimental design are removed. The present study tries to replicate this basic finding and to generalize it to conditions with (a) nonsimultaneous signal presentation, and (b) negative interstimuius contingency benefit. Several important predictions of Mordkoff and Yantis' interactive race model were found to hold, but for nonsimultaneous signals presentations consistent violations of Miller's upper bound were found under certain conditions. The implications of the present results for models of divided attention are discussed.     

Hindsight bias and outcome bias in judging directors’ liability and the role of free will beliefs

Following a corporate disaster such as bankruptcy, people in general and damaged parties, in particular, want to know what happened and whether the company's directors are to blame. The accurate assessment of directors’ liability can be jeopardized by having to judge in hindsight with full knowledge of the adverse outcome. The present study investigates whether professional legal investigators such as judges and lawyers are affected by hindsight bias and outcome bias when evaluating directors’ conduct in a bankruptcy case. Additionally, to advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying these biases, we also examine whether free will beliefs can predict susceptibility to hindsight bias and outcome bias in this context. In two studies (total N = 1,729), we demonstrate that legal professionals tend to judge a director's actions more negatively and perceive bankruptcy as more foreseeable in hindsight than in foresight and that these effects are significantly stronger for those who endorse the notion that humans have free will. This contribution is particularly timely considering the many companies that are currently going bankrupt or are facing bankruptcy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Individual differences and weight bias: Do people with an anti-fat bias have a pro-thin bias?

While levels of weight bias vary among individuals, it is not clear why one person possesses stronger anti-fat attitudes than another person. This investigation examined whether individual differences commonly associated with greater anti-fat bias are also associated with a greater preference for thinness among people of varying levels of weight. Young adults (62% women; 84% Caucasian) recruited from psychology classes (N = 308) rated four male and female figures with approximate BMIs of 18.5, 25, 30, and 40, on measures of dislike and personality characteristics and completed measures assessing weight controllability, attitudes toward the obese, and perceptual reliance. Greater negative attitudes, weight controllability beliefs, and perceptual reliance were positively associated with greater dislike and negative personality attributes among obese/severely obese figures, but inversely related among low normal weight figures. Individuals who judge others based on physical features or who view obesity as controllable evidence greater weight bias and a stronger preference for thin body types.     

Triangles in ROC space: History and theory of “nonparametric” measures of sensitivity and response bias

Can accuracy and response bias in two-stimulus, two-response recognition or detection experiments be measured nonparametrically? Pollack and Norman (1964) answered this question affirmatively for sensitivity, Hodos (1970) for bias: Both proposed measures based on triangular areas in receiver-operating characteristic space. Their papers, and especially a paper by Grier (1971) that provided computing formulas for the measures, continue to be heavily cited in a wide range of content areas. In our sample of articles, most authors described triangle-based measures as making fewer assumptions than measures associated with detection theory. However, we show that statistics based on products or ratios of right triangle areas, including a recently proposed bias index and a not-yetproposed but apparently plausible sensitivity index, are consistent with a decision process based on logistic distributions. Even the Pollack and Norman measure, which is based on non-right triangles, is approximately logistic for low values of sensitivity. Simple geometric models for sensitivity and bias are not nonparametric, even if their implications are not acknowledged in the defining publications.     

Does anxiety-linked attentional bias to threatening information reflect bias in the setting of attentional goals,or bias in the execution of attentional goals?

Heightened anxiety vulnerability is characterised by an attentional bias that favours the processing of negative information. However, this anxiety-linked attentional bias is amenable to two quite different explanations. One possibility is that it reflects anxiety-linked bias in the setting of attentional goals that favours setting the goal of attending towards negative information over the alternative goal of attending away from such information. Another possibility is that it reflects anxiety-linked bias in the execution of attentional goals that enhances the execution of the former attentional goal compared to the latter. The present study introduces a novel methodology designed to discriminate the validity of these competing hypotheses, by examining anxiety-linked attentional bias under two conditions. One condition left attentional goals unconstrained. The other condition imposed the attentional goal of either attending towards more negative or more benign emotional stimuli. The finding that anxiety-linked attentional bias was observed only under the former condition supported the hypothesis that anxiety is characterised by a bias favouring the setting attentional goals involving vigilance rather than avoidance of negative information, while giving no support to the hypothesis that anxiety is characterised by a bias reflecting enhanced execution of the former attentional goal compared to the latter.     

Adaptation to altered visual—vestibular feedback: Mechanisms of maintenance and recovery

Adaptation of perceived movement during head motion (apparent concomitant motion, ACM) and the subsequent elimination of adaptation were studied in two experiments. During the adaptation phase of both experiments, subjects performed voluntary 1-Hz head oscillations for 6 min while fixating a stimulus moving either in the same (with) direction as or the opposite (against) direction of head movements. In Experiment 1, ACM adaptation was measured following either a 1- or a 4-min delay after the adaptation phase. Results indicated some loss of adaptation during the additional 3-min delay, demonstrating a tendency of the system linking head and image to return to its preadaptation state following removal of an adaptation stimulus. In Experiment 2, subjects viewed a stimulus after adaptation that appeared to move minimally in the same manner as the adaptation stimulus during 3 min of head oscillations. No loss of adaptation was measured in these subjects between the beginning and the end of the 3-min interval. In another condition, subjects viewed a stimulus that appeared to move alternately in the same direction as and in the opposite direction of the adaptation stimulus during a similar 3-min interval following adaptation. ACM adaptation was substantially reduced during this 3-min interval. These results implicate two mechanisms that operate to either maintain or eliminate ACM adaptation. One is passive and operates in the absence of visual feedback to eliminate the short-term adapted state, and the other responds to postadaptation visual feedback.     

How to relax and how not to relax: A re-evaluation of the work of Edmund Jacobson—I

Jacobson's method of progressive relaxation is contrasted with modified techniques that emphasize suggestion, brevity and the feeling of large contrasts between tension and relaxation. The experimental literature is reviewed, and suggests that the modifications may have been premature. The psychophysiological effects of suggestion are weaker than those of progressive relaxation. Tape-recorded instruction appears to be completely ineffective as a method for teaching relaxation as a skill that can be used across situations. Live training contributes more than simple feedback to Ss. Its effectiveness may lie in individualized adaptation of training technique. EMG biofeedback makes taped training more-effective, but contributes nothing to intensive live training. Despite its greater length, Jacobson's original technique is preferred to the modified techniques, particularly for cases where psychophysiological effects are important. Length of training does not, by itself, appear to be a critical factor.     

Two strings to choose from: do ravens pull the easier one?

There are simple co-occurrences as well as functional relationships between events. One may assume that animals detect and use causation rather than mere co-variation. However, understanding causation often requires concepts of hidden forces. In string pulling, obstacles may hamper the access to food. Here, I studied whether ravens have an abstract concept of effort. First, in a competitive situation, ravens (Corvus corax) could choose one out of two strings. The strings differed in whether they were baited with meat and in how far away the meat was. Ravens pulled mainly the string containing meat and where the meat was nearer to the perch, respectively. Second, ravens could choose between two strings that had either a functional obstacle or a non-functional obstacle. Optimal performance required the integration of at least two cues: object and height. In 5 ravens, the model that best matched behaviour took into account only that meat was on a string, ignoring the obstacle. However, 2 ravens' performance was best explained by a model that took into account both an object's identity (meat or wood) and its height on the string. Third, one string out of two was loaded with a heavy meat piece. In this overloaded string condition, 5 out of 7 ravens did not try to pull the heavy meat piece but went straight for pulling the smaller piece. The pattern of results indicated that ravens can judge the effort required to pull a string.     

What causes the spacing effect? Some effects of repetition,duration, and spacing on memory for pictures

Three experiments examined effects of the spacing of repetitions on memory for pictures. In Experiment I, the duration of the first presentation (P(1)) was manipulated, as was P(1)-P(2) spacing. The effect of spacing on judged frequency was independent of P(1) duration. In Experiment II, pictures were given M massed presentations just prior to the P(M)-P(M+1) spacing interval. The form of the spacing curve was independent of M. Neither experiment confirmed the prediction of "overhabituation," derived from the habituation-recovery explanation of the spacing effect. In Experiment III, subjects made both duration and frequency judgments. The duration judgment results were not consistent with the notion that subjects remember multiple massed presentations as single occurrences of especially long duration. Some evidence from Experiments I and III suggests that an interrupted stimulus is recognized better than one that is not interrupted-a finding that, if replicable, would support the habituation-recovery account of the spacing effect.     

Students’ self-evaluation bias of school competence and its link to teacher judgment in elementary school

Social Psychology of Education - Research on the self-evaluation bias of students' school competence has focused mainly on its correlates for students' school adaptation. This study focused...     

Do Self-Ideal Discrepancies and Global Self-Esteem Amount to the Same Thing?: An Empirical Investigation

Measures of self-esteem differ considerably in the assumptions they make about the nature of the construct. These differences are often overlooked in discussions of self-esteem. An examination was accordingly conducted of the relationship between measures of the distance between actual self and ideal self (derived from repertory grids) and an adapted version of Rosenberg's measure of global self-esteem. The stability over periods up to 15 months of both kinds of measure was also examined. Two samples (N = 20 and N = 28) of students and recent graduates provided data as part of a longitudinal study of career development. Results differed between samples, but in general indicated that global self-esteem overlaps with but is not the same as the discrepancy between actual self and ideal self. Scores were generally stable over time. Explanations for the results are discussed, together with their implications for how we should construe self-esteem.