The Sleep Paralysis Nightmare,Wrathful Deities,and the Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious

The sleep paralysis nightmare has been reported from antiquity to modernity across manifold cultures. Many people who experience nocturnal assaults by dark entities, demons, hags, or incubi during sleep paralysis ascribe them to evil spirits with varying degrees of malevolence. The majority report the episodes as terrifying, mysterious, and uncanny. Known in the neurocognitive literature as “isolated sleep paralysis” or “sleep paralysis with hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations,” the phenomenon is fascinating to researchers across disciplines because it occurs when we are both asleep and awake, presenting fundamental questions on the subject of conscious experiences in sleep.

This article considers the nightmare of sleep paralysis to be an archetypal psychic process akin to Jung’s night sea journey and having correspondence to the wrathful deities presented in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. With a Jungian perspective directed at artwork created by a person who has experienced sleep paralysis, archetypal imagery emerges and reveals elements missing from conscious view. Utilizing the interpretive frameworks of Jungian-oriented depth psychology and Tibetan Buddhist psychology, this universally experienced nightmare of terror can also be undergone as a dream of transformation with potential for psychological and spiritual growth.

Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung turned to the stories and images of religion and mythology to explore psychic life, in general, and the religious function of the psyche, in particular. For Jung, both myths and what Jung termed “big dreams” are expressions of psychic content emerging from the collective unconscious, which includes the entire spiritual inheritance of humankind’s evolution. Because dreams contain images that are not created with conscious intent, they provide self-portraits of the psychic life process and can be utilized for their objective insights into the psyche’s teleological directedness. Jung’s psychological theories drew on a vast number of sources, including shamanism, art, religion, alchemy, parapsychology, and Eastern philosophy. Notably, Tibetan Buddhist cosmology strongly influenced his thought (Jung, 1935/1989a Jung, C. G. (1989a). Psychological commentary on “the Tibetan book of the dead.” In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C.G. Jung (R.F.C. Hull, Trans.; Vol. 11, pp. 509–526). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1935, revised 1953) [Google Scholar]).

Whereas Jungian psychology is rooted, albeit loosely, in the philosophies of empiricism that presuppose a subject–object duality, Tibetan Buddhist philosophy emphasizes the empty and illusory nature of the separate self, whether in waking life or nightly dreams. Nevertheless, although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they are, at the same time, pure manifestations of Buddha mind. In this philosophical system, the world of dream occupies an interesting paradox. On the one hand, dreams are considered to be unreal and deceptive, yet they are also a magical art to be mastered by the seeker, and their meanings are deemed of highest importance (Wallace, 2012 Wallace, B. A. (2012). Dreaming yourself awake: Lucid dreaming and Tibetan dream yoga for insight and transformation. Boston, MA: Shambhala. [Google Scholar]; Young, 1999 Young, S. (1999). Dreaming in the lotus: Buddhist dream narrative, imagery and practice. Boston, MA: Wisdom. [Google Scholar]).

Drawing on the dreams and subsequent paintings of one person, this article investigates the sleep paralysis nightmare—a phenomenon that has been recognized universally across time in folklore and myths, as well as by contemporary science—through the lens of both Tibetan Buddhism and Jungian-oriented depth psychology. With its emphasis on image and symbol, Jungian-oriented depth psychology is especially well suited to dialogue with art in the exploration of psyche. Both expressive product (image) and experience (meaning) are essential in this process. Jung (1946/1972 Jung, C. G. (1972). On the nature of the psyche. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.; Vol. 8, pp. 159–234). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1946) [Google Scholar]) stated, “Image and meaning are identical; and as the first takes shape, so the latter becomes clear” (p. 204, par. 402).     

The Moderating Influence of Disorder on Coached Overreporting Using the MMPI-2-RF

Overreporting has always been a concern within psychological evaluations. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (Ben-Porath &; Tellegen, 2008/2011 Ben-Porath, Y. S., &; Tellegen, A. (2008/2011). MMPI-2-RF (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—2 Restructured Form): Manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. [Google Scholar]) contains validity scales designed for detecting noncredible responses. In this study, 270 undergraduates were instructed to feign either schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); some participants were coached on symptoms and validity scales. Results at both the individual protocol and mean validity scale score levels suggest that each feigned disorder moderates the effectiveness of coaching on validity scale detection. One finding of this study suggests that schizophrenia is generally more difficult to successfully feign than PTSD or GAD. Another finding suggests that the majority of individuals able to avoid detection as symptom overreporters are able to successfully endorse at least some disorder-relevant symptoms. We suggest that future research focus on the systematic exploration of other factors influencing the effectiveness of validity scales as well as the development of validity scales designed to detect the overreporting of internalizing forms of psychopathology.     

The role of therapy productiveness on MFT clients’ intentions to persist in therapy

Many clients drop out of therapy before reaching their goals (Bohart &; Wade, 2013 Bohart, A. C., &; Wade, A. M. (2013). The client variables in psychotherapy. In M. Lambert (Ed.) Bergin &; Garfield’s Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change. (p. 219–257). New York: Wiley. [Google Scholar]), though being in therapy produces more change than not being in therapy (Lambert, 1992 Lambert, M. J. (1992). Implications of outcome research for psychotherapy integration. In J. C. Norcross &; M. R. Goldfried (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy integration (pp. 94–129). New York: Basic Books. [Google Scholar]). To investigate the factors that affect clients’ decisions to persist in therapy, we surveyed a convenience sample of 72 clients of MFTs in individual, couple or family therapy currently in treatment in a community-based therapy center. We tested moderation using regression analysis to determine the extent to which productiveness moderates the relationship between therapeutic alliance and intended persistence. Results showed that productiveness moderated the relationship between therapeutic alliance and intended persistence. Specifically, higher levels of therapy productiveness strengthened the relationship between therapeutic alliance and therapy persistence. Implications for future research and practice are presented and discussed.     

Associations Between Peer Pressure and Adolescents’ Binge Behaviors: The Role of Basic Needs and Coping

Framed from a framework based on the integration of self-determination theory (Ryan &; Deci, 2000 Ryan, R. M., &; Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Endler and Parker’s (1990) conception of coping strategies, the authors analyzed the relationships between peer pressure and binge behaviors (binge eating and binge drinking) in adolescence. Moreover, the authors explored the mediating role of satisfaction/frustration of basic psychological needs and coping strategies in these associations. Participants were 570 high school students (M?=?15.75 years, SD?=?1.14 years) living in Italy. The study design was cross-sectional and adolescents were administered self-report questionnaires. Path analysis showed significant and positive direct associations of peer pressure with both binge eating and binge drinking. Moreover, findings show that there is an indirect path in which peer pressure is positively associated with need frustration that is related to the use of emotion-oriented coping strategies that, on their turn, are associated with binge eating. Differently, binge drinking seems to be only directly related to peer pressure. The authors put light to the complex nature of the relationships between peer pressure and binge behaviors in adolescence, taking into account the separate contribution of need satisfaction and need frustration, as well as of coping strategies. Finally, practical implications of the study are discussed.     

Dinergy: The Primordial Meta-Pattern in Nature

In Answer to Job, Jung quotes Tertullian from his De Testimonio Animae: “What you allow to the mistress you will assign to the disciples.” Nature is the mistress and we are all potential disciples.

If we look carefully and sympathetically at nature, we see that she is a process with one main overlying meta-pattern. All stable patterns in nature contain a balance of forces, a kind of reconciliation of opposites. This is true from the formation of hydrogen soon after the Big Bang, through the process of star formation and in the biological functions of living systems. One of the more beautiful ways to understand this concept of dinergy is to look at the pattern formations on the surface of seashells. Just as the telescope has enabled us to understand the process and pattern of planetary motions, so has the computer enabled a better understanding of weather patterns and the patterning on seashells.

Although the neo-Darwinists would have us believe that such intricate and beautiful designs must have some survival benefit, I think that the deeper insight into nature comes from Thomas Mann (1947/1999 Mann, T. (1999). Doctor Faustus. New York: Vintage. (Original work published 1947) [Google Scholar]) in his novel Doctor Faustus, in which he wrote that “meaning and design always run alongside one another” (p. v). These patterns are a manifestation of process and emergence. But most importantly, these patterns represent an essential feature in all dynamic systems: that is, a positive feedback that self-enhances the initial deviation from the mean. However, sooner or later, self-enhancing processes evoke antagonistic (opposing) reactions. Of course, Jung understood this long before systems theory, as enantiodromia.     

The Not-Forgotten Child: Alienated Adult Children’s Experience of Parental Alienation

Abstract

This study explored the experience of adults who had experienced parental alienation during childhood. Ten alienated adult children participated in 60 to 90-minute semi-structured interviews about their experience of parental alienation. Using Braun and Clarke (2006 Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) thematic analysis framework, seven themes were identified. Participants described experiencing abuse perpetrated by the alienating parent. They described experiencing anxiety, depression, low self-worth, guilt, attachment problems, difficulty in other relationships, and reduced or delayed educational and career attainment that they attributed to their experience of parental alienation. These results demonstrated that children’s exposure to parental alienation may have lifelong ramifications for their psychological well-being.     

Side Streets and U-Turns: Effects of Context Switching,Direction Switching,and Factor Switching on Interitem Correlations and Misresponse Rates

This study tested implications of the context switching perspective proposed by Hamby, Ickes, and Babcock (2016 Hamby, T., Ickes, W., &; Babcock, M. (2016). Evidence for context switching in the effects of average item length and item-length variability on internal consistency. Journal of Personality Assessment, 98, 491–502. doi:10.1080/00223891.2016.1147044[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Using trained raters to assess the amount of reframing required to interpret the meaning of the subsequent (second) item within all adjacent item pairs, we first established that this process variable could be measured reliably. Then, in the data for 18 personality measures drawn from 3 individual-difference domains, we found that the amount of reframing (i.e., context switching) needed to interpret successive items predicted both lower interitem correlations and a greater percentage of misresponders. Similarly, item pairs that were mismatched in “directional” wording also predicted both lower interitem correlations and more misresponders. Finally, item pairs representing different factors predicted lower interitem correlations. Although the effects of direction switching and factor switching were partially mediated by the amount of reframing required, they remained significant even when the mediating effect of reframing was statistically controlled. These results indicate that interpreting the meaning of test items is a task for which the level of difficulty can vary with each successive item, as a function of how the current item compares to the previous item in aspects such as its context generality or specificity, directional wording, and content domain.     

Investigating the Reliability of the Sentence Verification Technique

Reading comprehension plays an important role in achievement for all academic domains. The purpose of this study is to describe the sentence verification technique (SVT) (Royer, Hastings, &; Hook, 1979 Royer, J. M., Hastings, C. N., &; Hook, C. (1979). A sentence verification technique for measuring reading comprehension. Journal of Reading Behavior, 11(4), 355–363. doi:10.1080/10862967909547341[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) as an alternative method of assessing reading comprehension, which can be used with a variety of texts and across diverse populations and educational contexts. Additionally, this study adds a unique contribution to the extant literature on the SVT through an investigation of the precision of the instrument across proficiency levels. Data were gathered from a sample of 464 fourth-grade students from the Northeast region of the United States. Reliability was estimated using one, two, three, and four passage test forms. Two or three passages provided sufficient reliability. The conditional reliability analyses revealed that the SVT test scores were reliable for readers with average to below average proficiency, but did not provide reliable information for students who were very poor or strong readers.     

Uses and Misuses of Ted Kaczynski's MMPI

Although case studies can be a helpful didactic aid when teaching personality assessment and illustrating use of a test, they can, of course, not be used as “evidence” that a test “works” or does not work. This article, however, reviews and discusses the far more problematic uses instantiated in a case study of Ted Kaczynski's Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). A series of errors of omission and commission are identified in Butcher, Hass, Greene, and Nelson's (2015 Butcher, J. N., Hass, G. A., Greene, R. L., & Nelson, L. D. (2015). Using the MMPI-2 in forensic assessment. Washington, DC, American Psychological Association.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) effort to criticize the MMPI–2–RF. These include not disclosing that Butcher's interpretive Minnesota Report for Forensic Settings indicates that the protocol is invalid, not including most of the MMPI–2 and MMPI–2–RF scores that contradict the authors' assertions, and mischaracterizing the MMPI–2–RF findings. Proper use of a case study is then illustrated by a discussion of diagnostic considerations indicated by the MMPI–2–RF findings.     

Depolarization-initiated endogenous cannabinoid release and underlying retrograde neurotransmission in interneurons of amygdala

The depolarization is also important for the short-term synaptic plasticity, known as depolarization-induced suppression of excitation (DSE). The two major types of neurons and their synapses in the lateral nucleus of amygdala (LA) are prone to plasticity. However, DSE in interneurons has not been reported in amygdala in general and in LA in particular. Therefore, we conducted the patch-clamp experiments with LA interneurons. These neurons were identified by lack of adaptation in firing rate of action potentials. In this study, we show for the first time a transient suppression of neurotransmission at synapses both within the local network and between cortical inputs and interneurons of the LA. The retrograde neurotransmission from GABAergic interneurons were comparable with that of glutamatergic pyramidal cells. That is the axonal terminals of cortical inputs do not posses selectivity toward two neuronal subtypes. However, the DSE of both types of neurons involve an increase in intracellular Ca²⁺ and the release of endogenous cannabinoids (eCB) and activation of presynaptic CB1 receptors. The magnitude of DSE was significantly higher in interneurons compared with pyramidal cells, though developed with some latency.

…I made experiments on myself and my assistant, using smaller doses, and not repeating them so often… — Clouston 1870

The biological actions of endogenous cannabinoids (eCB) occur by binding to the CB₁ and CB₂ receptors throughout the whole body (Ameri 1999; Pertwee 2006; Hill et al. 2007; Yoshida et al. 2011). The density of CB₁ receptors in the amygdala is comparably high in mammals (Herkenham et al. 1990).Amygdala similar to hippocampus is important for memory formation and often studied to elucidate plasticity at cellular level using the classical paradigm of Pavlov that continuously serves as a substrate (Pavlov 1927; Bliss and Lomo 1973; Rogan et al. 1997). The amygdala not only receives, but also sends behavior underlying signals into other regions (Racine et al. 1983; Aggleton and Mishkin 1984). While the role of hippocampus is crucial for memory formation, those associated with many different kinds of emotions are mainly modulated by the amygdala (Bucherelli et al. 2006; Fujii et al. 2020). The memory enabling substrate is a long-term potentiation (LTP) of neurotransmission into the postsynaptic neurons (Rogan et al. 1997; Kodirov et al. 2006).The short-term synaptic plasticity in the form of depolarization-induced suppression of either excitation or inhibition (DSE and DSI) has been reported in several regions of the brain (Alger et al. 1996; Kano et al. 2009; Ivanova and Storozhuk 2011). We have discovered DSE in the lateral amygdala (LA), specifically at cortical inputs into the pyramidal neurons (Kodirov et al. 2010).Despite the extensive studies on DSE and DSI, there are only three papers on interneurons that we are aware of. Two of them describe the presence of these phenomena: One study was carried out on parvalbumin immunoreactive interneurons of the stratum radiatum in the hippocampus (Ali 2007) and another on cerebellar stellate and basket cells (Beierlein and Regehr 2006). However, none of the cortical interneurons exhibited DSI despite the presence of a functional and cannabinoid-sensitive inhibitory inputs (Lemtiri-Chlieh and Levine 2007). The retrograde neurotransmission (Llano et al. 1991) takes place via the release of two natural ligands of endogenous cannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonoyl-glycerol (Urbanski et al. 2009). These ligands also suppress the evoked excitatory neurotransmission when applied exogenously in vitro (Ameri et al. 1999; Ameri and Simmet 2000; Lemak et al. 2007).Since DSE in interneurons has not been reported in amygdala and we demonstrated the existence of DSE in pyramidal cells of LA (Kodirov et al. 2010), we then studied the same phenomenon in regard to interneurons; the main question was whether or not does depolarization-induced mobilization of eCBs from the two types of postsynaptic LA neurons cause similar retrograde modulation of cortical inputs? Subsequently, DSE between the presynaptic terminals and interneurons was shown, and we found that its properties are similar to those in pyramidal cells of LA. Our study documents the participation of endogenous cannabinoids of interneurons in DSE.     

Reciprocal altruism: It’s relationship to locus of control and dispositional optimism among Nigerian undergraduates

The study examined locus of control and dispositional optimism influences on reciprocal altruism among Nigerian university undergraduate students. Participants consisted of 253 undergraduate students in their second year of study (males = 151 (60%), females = 102 (40%); mean age = 21.2, SD = 9.10). They completed the Dispositional Optimism Test-Revised (Scheier, Carver, &; Bridges, 1994 Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., &; Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem: A re-evaluation of the Life Orientation Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(6), 1063–1078. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1063[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the Altruistic Personality Scale (Rushton, Chrisjohn &; Fekken, 1981 Rushton, J. P., Chrisjohn, R. D., &; Fekken, G. C. (1981). The altruistic personality and the self-report altruism scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 1, 292–302. [Google Scholar]), and the Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966 Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0092976[Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]). Multiple regression analysis indicated that internal locus of control positively predicted reciprocal altruism; while dispositional optimism did not. Future research should examine other dimensions of optimism such as adaptive utility, comparative and strategic dispositional optimism involved that may provide more insight into the understanding of reciprocal altruism in Nigeria.     

The Relationship between Response-Time Effort and Accuracy in PISA Science Multiple Choice Items

The study examined the relationship between examinees’ test-taking effort and their accuracy rate on items from the PISA 2015 assessment. The 10% normative threshold method was applied on Science multiple-choice items in the Cyprus sample to detect rapid guessing behavior. Results showed that the extent of rapid guessing across simple and complex multiple-choice items was on average less than 6% per item. Rapid guessers were identified, and for most items their accuracy was lower than the accuracy for students engaging in solution-based behavior. A number of plausible explanations were graphically evaluated for items for which accuracy was higher for the rapid guessing subgroup. Overall, this empirical investigation presents original evidence on test-taking effort as measured by response time in PISA items and tests propositions of Wise’s (2017 Wise, S. L. (2017). Rapid‐guessing behavior: Its identification, interpretation, and implications. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 36(4), 52–61. doi:10.1111/emip.12165[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Test-Taking Theory.     

CS as an effect: action-based evaluative conditioning depends on temporal contiguity

ABSTRACT

In this study, we analysed Evaluative Conditioning (EC) with a recently introduced S-R paradigm [Blask et al., 2016 Blask, K. , Frings, C. , & Walther, E. (2016). Doing is for feeling. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 145 (10), 1263–1268. https://doi.org/ 10.1037/xge0000211 [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. Doing is for feeling. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(10), 1263–1268], in which valence first transfers from an affective US to a response and then from this valence-laden response to a novel CS. Based on action control research, the CS in this procedure could be interpreted as an effect of the response. Hence, temporal contiguity of the valence-laden response and the CS should determine whether EC occurs. We tested this hypothesis in an experiment, in which we varied the time interval between the response and the subsequent CS. Results show that EC effects occurred only under conditions of high temporal contiguity thus supporting our assumptions. This finding sheds light on the processes underlying action-based EC in particular and evaluative learning in general.     

Emotional arousal impairs association memory: roles of prefrontal cortex regions

The brain processes underlying impairing effects of emotional arousal on associative memory were previously attributed to two dissociable routes using high-resolution fMRI of the MTL (Madan et al. 2017). Extrahippocampal MTL regions supporting associative encoding of neutral pairs suggested unitization; conversely, associative encoding of negative pairs involved compensatory hippocampal activity. Here, whole-brain fMRI revealed prefrontal contributions: dmPFC was more involved in hippocampal-dependent negative pair learning and vmPFC in extrahippocampal neutral pair learning. Successful encoding of emotional memory associations may require emotion regulation/conflict resolution (dmPFC), while neutral memory associations may be accomplished by anchoring new information to prior knowledge (vmPFC).

Emotional arousal is well known to enhance memory for individual items (Schümann and Sommer 2018), but can have impairing effects on associative memory, particularly when items cannot be easily unitized and interitem associations have to be formed (Madan et al. 2012; Murray and Kensinger 2013; Bisby and Burgess 2017). The neural substrates of the impairing effect of emotional arousal on associative memory have only begun to be explored (Bisby et al. 2016; Madan et al. 2017). Emotional arousal may disrupt hippocampal functions that are critical to promote binding and thereby lead to reduced associative memory for emotionally arousing items (“disruption hypothesis”) (Bisby et al. 2016). Conversely, encoding of neutral items may engage extrahippocampal medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions, areas we interpreted to promote better incidental unitization of neutral than negative items, leading to a net-decrease in associative memory for negative items (“bypassing hypothesis”) (Madan et al. 2017).Specifically, in our previous high-resolution fMRI study focussing on MTL regions (Madan et al. 2017), extrahippocampal MTL cortex was more active during encoding of neutral than negative picture pairs, showed a subsequent memory effect (SME) for neutral picture pairs, and neutral pair encoding was accompanied by more between-picture saccadic eye movements compared with negative pairs. In line with previous findings of extrahippocampal MTL areas involved in association memory formation of merged or unitized items (Giovanello et al. 2006; Quamme et al. 2007; Diana et al. 2008; Delhaye et al. 2019), we interpreted our fMRI and eye movement findings to suggest better incidental unitization of neutral picture pairs than negative pictures pairs. A behavioral follow-up study confirmed that unitization, that is, imagining the two pictures as one (“interactive imagery”), was indeed rated as higher for neutral than negative pairs, and this advantage in interactive imagery was linked to better associative memory for neutral pairs, lending further support to the bypassing hypothesis (Caplan et al. 2019).What would prevent emotional pairs from being as easily merged as neutral pairs? We observed that during negative pair encoding, each individual picture was fixated longer compared with neutral pictures. These longer fixation durations for negative pictures were related to greater activity during negative than neutral pair encoding in the dorsal amygdala (likely the centromedial group) (Hrybouski et al. 2016), an activation which was functionally coupled to the more ventral amygdala (likely the lateral nucleus) (Hrybouski et al. 2016). This ventral amygdala activation exhibited a subsequent forgetting effect specifically for negative pairs. Given that emotional items attract more attention to themselves and are more likely processed as individual items (Markovic et al. 2014; Mather et al. 2016), we conjectured that this may make pairs of emotional items harder to unitize and to benefit from extrahippocampal unitization-related processes such as interactive imagery. Interestingly, the hippocampus revealed a subsequent memory effect specifically for negative pairs in Madan et al. (2017). We concluded that when sufficiently arousing information precludes extrahippocampal unitization-based encoding, an alternative, compensatory, and effortful relational hippocampus-dependent encoding strategy may be used.Both findings, extrahippocampal MTL encoding for neutral pairs and compensatory hippocampal encoding for negative pairs, raise the question of which cortical areas could be involved in these two dissociable associative encoding processes. Conceivably, successful associative encoding of negative information may require participants to evaluate the emotional content, and regulate emotional arousal/conflict, functions primarily associated with dorso-medial PFC regions (dmPFC; Dixon et al. 2017), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Botvinick 2007), and posterior areas of the ventro-medial PFC (vmPFC) (Yang et al. 2020). To unitize two pictures through interactive imagery, retrieval of semantic memories and prior knowledge regarding the contents of the two pictures is likely helpful. Semantic memory processes have been attributed to the left inferior frontal gyrus (left IFG) (Binder and Desai 2011). The vmPFC (more anterior portions) could also be involved, owing to its role in relating new information during encoding to prior knowledge, that is, a “unitization-like” process (Gilboa and Marlatte 2017; Sommer 2017). Motivated by our previous discovery and interpretation of the two distinct encoding processes in the MTL (Madan et al. 2017), the potential contribution of these cortical areas in neutral and negative association memory was explored here by using a whole-brain scan and overcoming the limitations of our previous high-resolution fMRI sequence focused only on the MTL in Madan et al. (2017).In the current study, we therefore acquired standard-resolution whole-brain fMRI (3 Tesla Siemens Trio scanner, 3-mm thickness, TR 2.21 sec, TE 30 msec) of 22 male participants during exactly the same task as in Madan et al. (2017). Only male participants were recruited because of known sex-dependent lateralization of amygdala activity (Cahill et al. 2004; Mackiewicz et al. 2006), limiting the conclusions of the current study to males. Eye movements were assessed as a proxy for overt attention (EyeLink 1000, SR Research, 17 participants with usable eye-tracking data). In each of three encoding-retrieval cycles, 25 neutral and 25 negative picture pairs were intentionally encoded. Pictures (e.g., objects, scenes, humans, and animals) were selected from the International Affective Picture System (Lang et al. 2008) and the internet, and confirmed to have different valence and arousal through independent raters (details in Madan et al. 2017). Each encoding round was followed by a two-step memory test for each pair: In a judgement of memory (JoM) task one picture served as retrieval cue and volunteers indicated their memory (yes/no) for the other picture of the original pair. Then the same picture was centrally presented again, surrounded by five same-valence pictures (one correct target, four lures) in a five-alternative forced-choice associative recognition test. Participants chose the target picture from the array with an MR-compatible joystick.As in our previous studies, associative recognition was less accurate for negative (NN) (M = 0.47) than neutral (nn) pairs (M = 0.51; t(22) = 2.49, P = 0.02). Subjective memory confidence (JoM) for neutral pairs (M = 0.41) was not significantly different from confidence for negative pairs (M = 0.43; t(22) = 1.19, P = 0.25) (Fig. 1A; Madan et al. 2017; Caplan et al. 2019).Open in a separate windowFigure 1.Behavioral and eye tracking results. (A) Accuracy in the associative recognition task (5-AFC) for all negative (NN) and neutral (nn) pairs. Chance level in the 5-AFC associative recognition task was 1/5 = 0.20. (B) Mean number of saccades between the two pictures of a pair for remembered (Hit) and forgotten (Miss) negative (NN) and neutral (nn) pairs. (C) Mean number of saccades within pictures. Error bars are 95% confidence intervals around the mean, corrected for interindividual differences (Loftus and Mason 1994).Average fixation duration (a proxy for the depth of processing of individual pictures) was longer for negative than neutral pictures (F_(1,16) = 9.59, P = 0.007), with no main effect of memory (F_(1,16) = 0.11, P = 0.75), nor emotion–memory interaction (F_(1,16) = 1.27, P = 0.28). The number of fixations was also higher for negative than neutral pictures (F_(1,16) = 5.56, P = 0.03), again with no main effect of memory (F₍₁₎ = 1.56, P = 0.23) or interaction (F_(1,16) = 0.26, P = 0.61). The number of saccades within each picture (i.e., visual exploration within but not across items, reflecting intraitem processing) was higher for negative than neutral pairs (Fig. 1B; F_(1,16) = 33.38, P < 0.001), with no main effect of memory (F_(1,16) = 0.02, P = 0.89) nor interaction (F_(1,16) = 0.15, P = 0.71). However, the number of saccades between the two pictures of a pair, which may support associative processing, was substantially lower for negative than neutral pairs (Fig. 1C; F_(1,16) = 7.67, P = 0.01). Importantly, there were more between-picture saccades for pairs that were later remembered than forgotten, that is, a subsequent memory effect based on between-picture saccades (F_(1,16) = 8.43, P = 0.01). This effect did not further interact with emotion (F_(1,16) = 2.64, P = 0.12). Thus, association memory success was driven by interitem saccades, and these were reduced in negative trials. Participants spent more attention to individual negative than neutral pictures (fixation duration and number of within-picture saccades), but this was unrelated to association memory success.The fMRI data were preprocessed (slice timing corrected, realigned and unwarped, normalized using DARTEL and smoothed, FWHM = 8 mm) and analyzed using SPM12. First-level models were created with four regressors that modeled the onsets of the 2 (negative and neutral) × 2 (subsequent hits and misses) conditions of interest. Results of all fMRI analyses were considered significant at P < 0.05, family-wise error (FWE) corrected for multiple comparisons across the entire scan volume or within the a priori anatomical regions of interest (ROIs). ROIs for the hippocampus, amygdala and extrahippocampal MTL were reused from our previous study (Madan et al. 2017). The prefrontal ROIs, that is, dmPFC, ACC, vmPFC and left inferior frontal gyrus ROIs, were manually traced on the mean T1 image using ITK-SNAP 3.6.0 (Yushkevich et al. 2006) following schematic drawings based on meta-analyses (Binder and Desai 2011; Dixon et al. 2017; Gilboa and Marlatte 2017).The second-level analyses based on the resulting individual β images and subject as a random factor replicated a well-established network of brain areas involved in negative emotion processing (Spalek et al. 2015): greater activity during processing negative than neutral picture pairs in the amygdala, insula, right inferior frontal gyrus, mid, and anterior cingulate cortex as well as visual areas (Fig. 2A). As in our previous study, we correlated the difference in left amygdala activity with the difference in eye movements for negative minus neutral trials, showing a significant correlation with the number of within-picture saccades (r = 0.50, P = 0.018). Thus, higher left amygdala activity was associated with increased visual search within negative pictures. We conducted a psychophysiological interaction analysis (PPI) using this amygdala region as seed and contrasted functional coupling during successful versus unsuccessful negative with successful versus unsuccessful neutral pair encoding (i.e., the interaction of valence and subsequent memory success). This PPI revealed stronger coupling during successful encoding of negative compared with neutral pairs with a (nonsignificant) cluster in the dmPFC (Z = 3.01, [−12, 38, 26]). Simple effects showed that the amygdala was more strongly coupled with the dmPFC during successful than unsuccessful negative pair encoding (Z = 3.63, [−2, 16, 42]).Open in a separate windowFigure 2.Main effects of emotion—fMRI results. (A) Greater activity during negative than neutral pair processing irrespective of subsequent memory success. (B) Greater activity during neutral than negative pairs processing. t-maps thresholded at P < 0.001 uncorrected for visualization purposes. t-value color-coded.Neutral-pair processing was associated with greater activity than negative-pair processing in the bilateral extrahippocampal MTL cortex, ventral precuneus (vPC), retrosplenial cortex (RSC), middle occipital gyrus, and putamen (Fig. 2B). In addition, we observed a general SME irrespective of valence in the left hippocampus ([−28, −16, −24], Z = 3.49, P = 0.04).An interaction between pair valence and SME with greater neutral than negative SME was observed in vmPFC (Fig. 3A), together with a (nonsignificant) cluster in right MTL cortex ([26, −24, −28], Z = 3.16, P = 0.11). We conducted a PPI using this vmPFC region as seed and contrasted functional coupling during successful vs. unsuccessful neutral with successful vs. unsuccessful negative pair encoding. This PPI revealed stronger coupling during successful encoding of neutral compared with negative pairs in a cluster at the border of the extrahippocampal MTL cortex reaching into the hippocampus ([−20, −18, −26], Z = 4.61, Fig. 3B).Open in a separate windowFigure 3.SME × Emotion interactions and PPIs. (A) Activity in the vmPFC revealed a SME only for neutral but not negative pairs. (B) This region was stronger coupled during neutral than negative pair encoding with a cluster in the border of left MTL cortex/hippocampus. (C,D) Activity in the right hippocampus and dmPFC revealed a SME only for negative pairs. (E) The dmPFC was stronger coupled during negative than neutral pairs encoding with the bilateral hippocampus. t-maps thresholded at P < 0.001 uncorrected for visualization purposes. Error bars are 95% confidence intervals around the mean, corrected for interindividual differences (Loftus and Mason 1994).Conversely, an interaction between pair valence and SME showing a greater negative than neutral SME was observed in the right hippocampal region (Fig. 3C), replicating our previous finding of compensatory hippocampal encoding, and in the insula (Z = 3.7, [38, 2, 8]). Within prefrontal cortex, the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC, Z = 4.14) (Fig. 3D), also showed this effect. Neutral pairs showed a subsequent forgetting effect, that is, greater activity during unsuccessful encoding of neutral pairs, in these regions (Fig. 3 C,D).Similar to the PPI with the vmPFC seed, we conducted a PPI with the dmPFC cluster as seed. This PPI revealed the bilateral hippocampus to be more strongly coupled with the dmPFC during successful negative than neutral pair encoding (Z = 3.98, [−24, −10, −18], Z = 4.71, [30, −14, −29]) (Fig. 3E). The correlational analyses of activity in the dmPFC and vmPFC (valence × encoding success interactions) with the corresponding eye-tracking measures were nonsignificant, possibly due to low reliability of difference measures (Schümann et al. 2020).The current findings, first, replicated the impairing effects of emotional arousal on association memory previously observed in six experiments across four studies (Madan et al. 2012, 2017; Caplan et al. 2019). We built on these previous findings here by identifying cortical, especially prefrontal areas involved in the associative memory advantage for neutral pairs and those involved in the compensatory mechanism for learning negative pairs. In particular, vmPFC activity more strongly supported successful encoding of neutral than negative pairs and during this process, showed stronger coupling with a cluster at the border between MTL cortex and hippocampus. Conversely, the dmPFC was more engaged and more strongly coupled with the hippocampus during successful negative than neutral pair encoding.We observed more and longer fixations, as well as more within-picture saccades for individual negative pictures compared with neutral pictures, resembling previously reported eye movement findings (Bradley et al. 2011; Dietz et al. 2011). We had previously shown that increased attention (fixation duration) to individual negative pictures is linked to centromedial amygdala activity (not measurable here due to the whole-brain scan resolution), and functionally coupled with a negative pair-specific subsequent forgetting effect in the lateral amygdala (Madan et al. 2017). These findings together suggest that increased attention attracted by individual negative pictures does not support associative memory, or may even be detrimental (cf., Hockley and Cristi 1996).The dmPFC contributed more to negative than neutral association memory and was functionally coupled to the hippocampus, which complements our interpretation of possibly compensatory activity in the hippocampus during negative pair encoding (Madan et al. 2017). The amygdala on the other hand was stronger coupled with the dmPFC during successful encoding of negative pairs which might reflect the detection of aversive stimuli by the amygdala. The dmPFC not only plays a role in emotion regulation (Wager et al. 2008; Ochsner et al. 2012; Kohn et al. 2014; Dixon et al. 2017): It is the central node in the cognitive control network. In particular, the dmPFC regulates conflicts between goals and distracting stimuli by boosting attention toward the relevant task (Weissman 2004; Grinband et al. 2011; Ebitz and Platt 2015; Iannaccone et al. 2015). Consistent with this role in the current task, the dmPFC was functionally more strongly coupled with the bilateral hippocampus during successful negative compared with neutral pair learning. The involvement of the dmPFC during successful negative (but unsuccessful neutral) (discussed below) pair encoding may suggest that it resolves conflicts between the prepotent attention to the individual negative pictures and the current task goals, that is, their intentional associative encoding. One way to do so might involve the dmPFC''s role to regulate the negative emotions elicited by the pictures in order to focus on the associative memory task.Neutral pairs elicited more between-picture saccades than negative pairs, as in (Madan et al. 2017). The vmPFC was more strongly involved in successful associative encoding of neutral than negative pairs and more strongly coupled with the extrahippocampal MTL cortex bordering the hippocampus during successful neutral compared with negative pair encoding. Anterior vmPFC regions and their coupling with the MTL have been implicated in retrieval of consolidated memories and in anchoring new information to prior knowledge (Nieuwenhuis and Takashima 2011; van Kesteren et al. 2013; Schlichting and Preston 2015; Gilboa and Marlatte 2017; Sommer 2017; Brod and Shing 2018; Sekeres et al. 2018). We previously observed that interactive imagery (forming one instead of two images to memorize) was higher for neutral than negative pairs (Caplan et al. 2019), perhaps reflected by the increased between-picture saccades in the current study. Assuming that the anterior vmPFC subserves retrieval of prior knowledge, its engagement during successful neutral pair encoding may have supported such incidental unitization processes here as well. Negative pictures are inherently semantically more related (Barnacle et al. 2016), which implies that they may share even more prior knowledge than neutral pictures. However, the retrieval of this prior knowledge may be inhibited by the attraction of attention to individual negative pictures, not their arbitrary pairing as in the current task. Incidental unitization can occur through rather subtle manipulations (Giovanello et al. 2006; Diana et al. 2008; Bader et al. 2010; Ford et al. 2010; Li et al. 2019) or even entirely without any instruction; for example, when the items’ combination is itself meaningful or familiar (Ahmad and Hockley 2014). We suggest that similar incidental unitization processes may have occurred here as well. Memory for unitized associations is independent of hippocampal memory processes and can be based solely on the extrahippocampal MTL (Quamme et al. 2007; Haskins et al. 2008; Staresina and Davachi 2010). Our previous high-resolution fMRI study supported such a bypassing hypothesis, that is, extrahippocampal MTL cortex involvement in the successful associative encoding of neutral but not negative pairs (Madan et al. 2017). Here, this interaction did not reach significance in the MTL cortex, but the P-value of 0.11 can be considered suggestive based on our strong a priori-hypothesis. Notably, in our previous study using a scanning resolution of 1 mm³ the cluster included only 17 voxels, which would correspond to less than one voxel here. Therefore, we assume the lower sensitivity here was due to the lower spatial resolution.Unexpectedly, we observed greater activity during unsuccessful encoding of neutral pairs in the same regions that promoted successful encoding of negative pairs, that is, the dmPFC and hippocampal region. Hockley et al. (2016) previously observed that incidental but not intentional encoding of associations (for word pairs) improved for items with stronger pre-experimental associations. Perhaps using an effortful (dmPFC/hippocampal) learning strategy for neutral pairs, that is, pairs that are already more likely incidentally linked or linkable (e.g., through interactive imagery) may not have helped encoding. The forgotten neutral pairs underlying the SFE in these regions may then have been simply the hardest-to-learn neutral pairs; that is, pairs where both encoding strategies failed. Evidently, future studies should test such speculations directly.Our interpretation of the dmPFC and vmPFC as signifying in emotion regulation and unitization in this task was based on previous studies. Because we did not manipulate unitization and/or emotional regulation, these processes remain hypothetical. However, within this framework, we addressed two hypotheses regarding interactions between hippocampal/extrahippocampal MTL regions and prefrontal cortex during association memory formation. The disruption hypothesis proposes that the hippocampus is equally responsible for encoding of negative and neutral association memory but that for negative memories, hippocampal activity is inhibited by the amygdala via the prefrontal cortex (Murray and Kensinger 2013; Bisby et al. 2016). The vmPFC has known involvement in negative emotion processing (Yang et al. 2020), and the observed activity pattern in the vmPFC could appear to disrupt hippocampal association memory processes for negative pairs. However, according to the bypassing hypothesis (Madan et al. 2017), successful encoding of negative (compared with neutral) pairs requires the hippocampus since fewer extrahippocampal contributions are available. Supporting the bypassing hypothesis, we observed that the vmPFC was negatively functionally coupled with extrahippocampal MTL cortex (bordering the hippocampus), suggesting that the vmPFC decreased extrahippocampal contributions to association memory for negative pairs. The bypassing hypothesis is also supported by our finding that the hippocampus was not less but more involved in negative compared with neutral pair encoding, that is, we observed no evidence for a prefrontally (e.g., vmPFC)-mediated disruption of hippocampal activity by emotion.In conclusion, the two critical prefrontal cortex regions linked to MTL memory processes in the current study were the dmPFC, involved in successful hippocampal-dependent negative pair learning and the vmPFC, supporting successful neutral pair learning that relied on extrahippocampal MTL involvement.     

Perceived cadre behavior,basic psychological need satisfaction,and motivation of US Army ROTC cadets: A self-determination theory perspective

ABSTRACT

Since its inception in 1916 the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) has trained and commissioned more than half a million individuals and, therefore, produced more officers for the United States (US) Army than any other commissioning source (US Army, 2020a US Army . (2020a). Army ROTC. Retrieved from https://www.goarmy.com/rotc/legacy-and-value.html  [Google Scholar]). However, there have been high attrition rates among cadets. While the reasons for people’s engagement in the military are complex and include a multitude of tangible and intangible factors, motivation has been found to be a vital contributor to individuals’ ongoing service in the armed forces. Accordingly, utilizing the framework of self-determination theory, the current research was designed to: (a) examine the validity and reliability of existing instruments in measuring cadets’ perceived cadre behavior, basic psychological need satisfaction, and motivation, (b) assess cadets’ perceived cadre behavior, basic psychological need satisfaction, and motivation, and (c) explore potential differences in cadets’ perceived cadre behavior, basic psychological need satisfaction, and motivation based on their class in the program, age, gender, and race. A total of 728 US Army ROTC cadets participated in this survey-based study. Overall, individuals reported relatively high levels of involvement from their cadre, need fulfillment, and self-determined motivation. In contrast, they perceived limited autonomy support from their cadre. In sum, further research appears warranted to gain an in-depth understanding of cadets’ motivation.     

Assessing Private and Public Need for Uniqueness: Validation of French Versions of the Need for Uniqueness (NfU) and Self-Attributed Need for Uniqueness (SANU) Scales

Need for uniqueness represents the need for people to feel different and distinguish themselves from others. Two major scales exist that measure this need: the Need for Uniqueness scale (NfU; Snyder &; Fromkin, 1977 Snyder, C. R., &; Fromkin, H. L. (1977). Abnormality as a positive characteristic: The development and validation of a scale measuring need for uniqueness. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86, 518–527. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.86.5.518[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the Self-Attributed Need for Uniqueness scale (SANU; Lynn &; Harris, 1997b Lynn, M., &; Harris, J. (1997b). Individual differences in the pursuit of self-uniqueness through consumption. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 1861–1883. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1997.tb01629.x[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We propose here a French version of both scales. Through a dual approach of exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses, we investigated the scales' structure in student samples from two French-speaking countries (France and Switzerland, N = 1,348) as well as measures of internal and external validity. Both scales presented good psychometric properties in French. Additionally, we investigated differences between the scales, as literature suggests that the NfU relies mostly on public and risky displays of uniqueness, whereas the SANU focuses on private and more socially acceptable means to acquire a feeling of uniqueness. Differences arose in the links with several personality characteristics (emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, sensation seeking, and self-consciousness), suggesting that the NfU corresponds rather to a need to demonstrate uniqueness through public displays and the SANU to a need to feel unique through more private means. We discuss implications for research and provide advice on choosing by the scale most appropriate to the researcher's aims.