Overgeneral autobiographical memory recollection in Iranian combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder

This study examined the recollection of autobiographical material in memory among Iranian military veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and healthy non-trauma-exposed control subjects. Participants completed the Autobiographical Memory Test, Autobiographical Memory Interview (counterbalanced), Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Wechsler Memory Scale-III and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised. The PTSD group generated fewer specific episodic and semantic details of autobiographical memory compared to the non-PTSD and control groups. Working memory did not significantly moderate the relationship between PTSD diagnosis and reduced autobiographical memory specificity but did moderate the relationship between PTSD diagnosis and semantic recall; semantic memory recall was not significantly related to working memory ability for those with PTSD but was related to working memory ability for trauma survivors without PTSD. While the data provide some support for the expectation that higher working memory ability is associated with an increased ability to retrieve specific memories (i.e. semantic memory recall in those without PTSD), the findings are also consistent with the view that for those with PTSD the demands on working memory required for affect regulation cancel out this influence of working memory in augmenting access to specific memories.     

The final imperative

THE FINAL IMPERATIVE: AN ISLAMIC THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION. By SHABBIRAKHTAR. London: Bellew, 1991. 117pp. Pb. £9.95. ISBN 0-947792-93-7.     

The Relationship between Religious Coping and Self-Care Behaviors in Iranian Medical Students

In recent years, researchers have identified that coping strategies are an important contributor to an individual’s life satisfaction and ability to manage stress. The positive relationship between religious copings, specifically, with physical and mental health has also been identified in some studies. Spirituality and religion have been discussed rigorously in research, but very few studies exist on religious coping. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between religious coping methods (i.e., positive and negative religious coping) and self-care behaviors in Iranian medical students. This study used a cross-sectional design of 335 randomly selected students from Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. A data collection tool comprised of the standard questionnaire of religious coping methods and questionnaire of self-care behaviors assessment was utilized. Data were analyzed using a two-sample t test assuming equal variances. Adjusted linear regression was used to evaluate the independent association of religious copings with self-care. Adjusted linear regression model indicated an independent significant association between positive (b = 4.616, 95% CI 4.234–4.999) and negative (b = ?3.726, 95% CI ?4.311 to ?3.141) religious coping with self-care behaviors. Findings showed a linear relationship between religious coping and self-care behaviors. Further research with larger sample sizes in diverse populations is recommended.     

Environmental Psychology and Quality of Life Research

Applied Research in Quality of Life -     

Nonequivalence of on-line and paper-and-pencil psychological tests: The case of the prospective memory questionnaire

There is growing evidence that Internet-mediated psychological tests can have satisfactory psychometric properties and can measure the same constructs as traditional versions. However, equivalence cannot be taken for granted. The prospective memory questionnaire (PMQ; Hannon, Adams, Harrington, Fries-Dias, & Gibson, 1995) was used in an on-line study exploring links between drug use and memory (Rodgers et al., 2003). The PMQ has four factor-analytically derived subscales. In a large (N763) sample tested via the Internet, only two factors could be recovered; the other two subscales were essentially meaningless. This demonstration of nonequivalence underlines the importance of on-line test validation. Without examination of its psychometric properties, one cannot be sure that a test administered via the Internet actually measures the intended construct.     

On the labile memory buffer in the attentional blink: masking the T2 representation by onset transients mediates the AB

Report of a second target (T2) is impaired when presented within 500 ms of the first (T1). This attentional blink (AB) is known to cause a delay in T2 processing during which T2 must be stored in a labile memory buffer. We explored the buffer's characteristics using different types of masks after T2. These characteristics were inferred by determining what attributes of T2 are hindered by a given form of masking. In Experiments 1-3, trailing metacontrast and four-dot masks produced ABs of equal magnitudes, implicating the onset-transient triggered by the mask as the mechanism underlying the AB and strongly suggesting a locus in early vision. In Experiment 4, metacontrast and four-dot masks were presented in a common-onset masking (COM) paradigm in which a brief, combined display of T2 and the mask was followed by a longer display of the mask alone. COM is thought to occur late in the sequence of processing events. No AB occurred with COM, confirming the critical role of the mask's onset transients and ruling out a high-level locus for the labile memory buffer.     

Pro- and antisaccades: dissociating stimulus and response influences the online control of saccade trajectories

The authors examined whether the diminished online control of antisaccades is related to a trade-off between movement planning and control or the remapping of target properties to a mirror-symmetrical location (i.e., vector inversion). Pro- and antisaccades were examined in a standard no-delay schedule wherein target onset served as the movement imperative and a delay cuing schedule wherein responses were initiated 2,000 ms following target onset. Importantly, the delay cuing schedule was employed to equate pro- and antisaccade reaction times. Online control was evaluated by indexing the strength of trajectory amendments at normalized increments of movement time. Antisaccades exhibited fewer online corrections than prosaccades, and this result was consistent across cuing schedules. Thus, the diminished online control of antisaccades cannot be tied to a trade-off between movement planning and control. Rather, the authors propose that the intentional nature of dissociating stimulus and response (i.e., vector inversion) engenders a slow mode of cognitive control that is not optimized for fast oculomotor corrections.     

The root cause of the attentional blink: First-target processing or disruption of input control?

Identification of the second of two targets (T2) is impaired when presented shortly after the first (T1). T1-based theories ascribe this attentional blink (AB) to a T1-initiated period of inattention. Distractor-based theories ascribe it to a disruption of input control caused by post-T1 distractors. The finding that an AB occurs without intertarget distractors (Nieuwenstein, Potter, & Theeuwes, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 35:159-169, 2009) seemingly disconfirms distractor-based theories. The present experiments addressed different ways in which distractor-based theories might account for that finding. Intertarget events were varied in four experiments. Experiment 1 replicated Nieuwenstein, Potter, and Theeuwes??s findings. The next two experiments tested two ways (lack of visual stimulation, violation of expectation) in which the blank intertarget interval might cause an AB. Experiment 4 explored whether backward-masking of T1 can account entirely for the larger AB obtained with intervening distractors or whether distractors also disrupt input control. The results disconfirm predictions from distractor-based theories and support the claim of T1-based theories that T1 processing alone is sufficient for the AB. Simulations based on the eSTST (Wyble, Bowman, & Nieuwenstein, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 35:787-807, 2009) and the B&B models (Olivers & Meeter, Psychological Research, 115, 836-863 2008) were compared. Predictions were more accurate from the T1-based theory (eSTST) than from the distractor-based theory (B&B).