Intramodal and crossmodal pairing and anchoring in comparisons of successive stimuli

Two experiments were conducted to study effects of modality, temporal position, and their interaction on comparisons of successive stimuli. In Experiment 1, intramodal (tone–tone and line–line) and crossmodal (tone–line and line–tone) stimulus pairs, with two interstimulus intervals (ISIs), 400 and 2,000 ms, were presented. Participants indicated which stimulus was the “stronger.” Time-order errors (TOEs) were assessed using the D% measure and were found in all types of pairs. Variation in TOEs across conditions was well accounted for by changes in parameters (stimulus weights, reference levels) in an extended version of Hellström’s sensation weighting (SW) model. With an ISI of 2,000 ms, the first stimulus had a lower weight (less impact on the response) than did the second stimulus. More negative TOEs were found with the longer ISI in all pair types except tone–line. In Experiment 2, participants indicated which of two lines was the longer or which of two tones was the louder. An intra- or crossmodal anchor, or no anchor, was interpolated between the stimuli. Anchoring tended to reduce the weight of the first stimulus, suggesting interference with memory, and to yield negative TOEs. Intramodal anchors yielded reduced weights of both stimuli, most dramatically for tones, suggesting an additional effect of stimulus interference. Response times decreased with crossmodal anchors. For line–line pairs, strong negative TOEs were found. In both experiments, the variation in TOE across conditions was well accounted for by the SW model.     

The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work

Hauge, L. J., Skogstad, A. & Einarsen, S. (2010). The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 426–433. Exposure to workplace bullying has been argued to be a severe social stressor and a more crippling and devastating problem for affected individuals than the effects of all other work‐related stressors put together. However, few studies have explicitly investigated this assumption. In a representative sample of the Norwegian working population, the present study investigated the relative contribution of workplace bullying as a predictor of individual and organizational related outcomes after controlling for the well‐documented job stressors of job demands, decision authority, role ambiguity and role conflict. Bullying was found to be a significant predictor of all the outcomes included, showing a substantial relative contribution in relation to anxiety and depression, while for job satisfaction, turnover intention and absenteeism, more modest relative contributions were identified. Workplace bullying is indeed a potent social stressor with consequences similar to, or even more severe than, the effects of other stressors frequently encountered within organizations. Thus, the finding that bullying has a considerable effect on exposed individuals also when controlling for the effects of other job stressors demonstrates bullying as a serious problem at workplaces that needs to be actively prevented and managed in its own right.     

Narrative exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in tortured refugees: A preliminary uncontrolled trial

Halvorsen, J.Ø. & Stenmark, H. (2010). Narrative exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in tortured refugees: A preliminary uncontrolled trial. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51, 495–502. Torture has severe mental health effects, especially in terms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. However, there is still a lack of empirical treatment studies. The present paper presents data on 16 torture survivors receiving 10 sessions of narrative exposure therapy (NET). Symptoms of PTSD and depression, assessed by Clinician‐Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), decreased significantly from pre‐treatment to 6‐month follow‐up, with Cohen’s d effect sizes of 1.16 and 0.84, respectively. Although treatment gains were moderate, further research on evidence‐based treatments for PTSD and depression in refugee torture survivors is warranted.     

The effects of preexposure-test and conditioning-test intervals on the magnitude of latent inhibition

Using the conditioned taste aversion paradigm, two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of the interval between preexposure and test and that between conditioning and test on the magnitude of latent inhibition. Experiment 1 revealed that the degree of latent inhibition was attenuated when rats were given a 21‐day interval between preexposure and test. It was also found that this attenuation was more marked in subjects which were given conditioning immediately after preexposure than those which were conditioned shortly before the test. Retention interval between preexposure and test was reduced to 12 days in Experiment 2, and exactly the same pattern of results as those found in Experiment 1 was obtained. These findings suggest that the memory of conditioning as well as that of preexposure decreases its retrievability after a long retention interval, although the former is more retainable than the latter.     

Psychological correlates of salivary cortisol secretion among unemployed men and women

The aim of the present study was to examine the association between psychological factors and salivary cortisol secretion (baseline level, reactivity to laboratory stressors) in a sample of 59 long-term unemployed men and women (mean age 42±10 years). Subjects were divided into four groups according to their basal levels of salivary cortisol as well as their reactivity to experimental stress (stress level minus baseline): (1) low base/low reactivity; (2) high base/low reactivity; (3) low base/high reactivity; and (4) high base/high reactivity. The low base/low reactivity group was characterized by significantly higher somatic anxiety, muscular tension, irritability, and depression (Beck’s Depression Inventory) and lower perceived control (mastery) than the other groups. The low base/high reactivity group was also characterized by depression and low perceived control. The high base/low reactivity group was higher in terms of monotony avoidance, Type-A behavior (JAS) and mastery, but lower in depression. The results indicate that (1) individuals with personality traits reflecting emotional distress are more vulnerable to exhaustion of the HPA-axis following long-term unemployment and (2) monotony avoidance and Type-A behavior, at least temporarily, seem to exert a beneficial influence on mental well-being among long-term unemployed individuals.     

Sex Differences in Perception: Exploring the Integration of Sensory Information with Respect to Vision and Proprioception

Inter- and intra-modal matching by right hand preferred Norwegian adults were tested using a matching task. The task required them to locate target pins visually, proprioceptively or in combination, while matching was always carried out without vision. When combined scores for both hands were analysed, the females showed superior performance in the intra-modal matching condition. For both groups, when the scores for the two hands were treated separately, superior performance was obtained in using the right hand to match under the visual condition. The only significant sex difference relative to hand preference was that the females matched the target more accurately with the right hand in the intra-modal matching condition. These findings are discussed relative to inter-hemispheric processing