A gender difference in the false recall of negative words: women DRM more than men

Gender differences in susceptibility to associative memory illusions in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm were investigated using negative and neutral word lists. Women (n=50) and men (n=50) studied 20 lists of 12 words that were associates of a non-presented critical lure. Ten lists were associates of negatively valenced lures (e.g., cry, evil) and ten were associates of neutral lures (e.g., chair, slow). When asked to recall the words after each list, women falsely recalled more negative lures than men, but there was no gender difference in the false recall of neutral lures. These findings suggest that women reflect on associations within negative lists to a greater degree than men and are thereby more likely to generate the negative critical lures.     

Cognitive vulnerability to depression: a comparison of the weakest link, keystone and additive models

Multiple theories of cognitive vulnerability to depression have been proposed, each focusing on different aspects of negative cognition and utilising different measures of risk. Various methods of integrating such multiple indices of risk have been examined in the literature, and each demonstrates some promise. Yet little is known about the interrelations among these methods, or their incremental validity in predicting changes in depression. The present study compared three integrative models of cognitive vulnerability: the additive, weakest link, and keystone models. Support was found for each model as predictive of depression over time, but only the weakest link model demonstrated incremental utility in predicting changes in depression over the other models. We also explore the correlation between these models and each model's unique contribution to predicting onset of depressive symptoms.     

Shared cognitive processes underlying past and future thinking: the impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on event specificity

Recent literature has argued that whereas remembering the past and imagining the future make use of shared cognitive substrates, simulating future events places heavier demands on executive resources. These propositions were explored in 3 experiments comparing the impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on speed and accuracy of past event retrieval and future event simulation. Results provide support for the suggestion that both past and future episodes can be constructed through 2 mechanisms: a noneffortful "direct" pathway and a controlled, effortful "generative" pathway. However, limited evidence emerged for the suggestion that simulating of future, compared with retrieving past, episodes places heavier demands on executive resources; only under certain conditions did it emerge as a more error prone and lengthier process. The findings are discussed in terms of how retrieval and simulation make use of the same cognitive substrates in subtly different ways.     

Collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations: ideas for a relationally responsive practice

The author presents a set of philosophical assumptions that provide a different language for thinking about and responding to the persistent questions: “How can our therapy practices have relevance for people's everyday lives in our fast changing world, what is this relevance, and who determines it?” “Why do some shapes of relationships and forms of talk engage while others alienate? Why do some invite possibilities and ways forward not imagined before and others imprison us?” The author then translates the assumptions to inform a therapist's philosophical stance: a way of being. Next, she discusses the distinguishing features of the stance and how it facilitates collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations that offer fertile means to creative ends for therapists and their clients.     

Developmental changes in inspection time: what a difference a year makes

This paper provides a partial replication and extension of a classic longitudinal study by Nettelbeck and Wilson [J. Exp. Child Psychol. 40 (1985) 1] that compared the relative influence of maturation and task experience on developmental changes in inspection time (IT). In the study reported in this paper 226 children aged between 6 and 9 were tested on an IT task in Year 1 and immediately retested to assess the importance of task familiarity. They were also retested 1 year and 2 years later. Counter to Nettelbeck and Wilson's conclusion, analyses of these data comparing the relative difference made by age maturation and by task experience revealed that task experience has a much bigger effect on children's IT than maturation. The implications of this for wider theoretical interpretations of the relationship between IT and development are discussed.     

The flip side of perception-action coupling: locomotor experience and the ontogeny of visual-postural coupling.

The possible role of motor development on psychological function is once again a topic of great theoretical and practical importance. The revival of this issue has stemmed from a different approach to the topic, away from Gesell's interest in the long-term prediction of psychological functions from early motoric assessments, toward an attempt to understand how the acquisition of motor skills orchestrates psychological changes. This paper describes how the acquisition of one motor skill, prone locomotion, has been linked to developmental changes in an infant's ability to regulate posture based on information available in patterns of optic flow. It is argued that the onset of prone locomotion presses the infant to differentiate spatially delimited regions of optic flow to effectively and efficiently control the important subtasks nested within the larger task of locomotion, namely, steering, attending to the surface of support, and maintaining postural control. Following this argument, a research program is described that aims to determine if locomotor experience is causally linked to improvements in the ability to functionalize peripheral optic flow for postural control or whether locomotor experience is merely a maturational forecaster of such improvements. Finally, a hypothesis is put forward that links the emergence of wariness of heights to infants' ability to regulate posture on the basis of peripheral optic flow. The paper's overarching theoretical point is the principle of probabilistic epigenesis, which states that one developmental acquisition produces experiences that bring about a host of new developmental changes in the same and different domains.     

Task preparation and task repetition: two-component model of task switching.

The switch cost (the disadvantage of performing a new task vs. a repeated task) has been attributed to lack of preparation for the switched task or priming of the repeated task. These sources were examined by manipulating foreknowledge of task transition (repeat or switch), response-to-stimulus interval (RSI), and practice level. Regardless of foreknowledge, the cost decreased with RSI and practice. The reduction was greater with foreknowledge than with no foreknowledge, and the amount of switch cost did not depend on foreknowledge. These results suggest that the switch cost with foreknowledge may consist of both inadequate preparation and repetition benefit but the switch cost with no foreknowledge may reflect repetition benefit only. An ACT-R (adaptive control of thought-rational) model was proposed, accommodating both preparation and priming effect with 2 independent processes: conflict resolution among productions and decay of chunk activation.     

Religious Involvement and Domestic Violence Among U.S. Couples

A small but growing literature focuses on the links between religion and family violence. Several recent studies report that regular religious attendance is inversely related to abuse among both men and women. After outlining a series of theoretical arguments regarding possible direct and indirect links between religious involvement and domestic violence, we analyze these relationships using data from Wave 1 of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH-1). Among the key findings: (1) regular religious attendance is inversely associated with the perpetration of domestic violence; (2) among men, this protective effect is evident only among weekly attenders, whereas among women, the protective effect also surfaces among monthly attenders; (3) although the estimated net effects of religious attendance are generally somewhat larger in models of self-reports of domestic violence, this link also remains strong and statistically significant in models of partner reports of violence; and (4) moreover, the inverse association between religious attendance and abuse persists even with statistical controls for measures of (a) social integration and social support, (b) alcohol and substance abuse, and (c) low self-esteem and depression. We conclude by discussing a number of implications of these findings, and by identifying several promising directions for future research.     

Postmodern collaborative and person‐centred therapies: what would Carl Rogers say?

Among the most frequent comments and questions about my postmodern collaborative approach to therapy are ‘It sounds Rogerian’ and ‘Is it any different from Carl Rogers' client‐centred therapy?’‘Yes,’ I usually say, ‘there are similarities and differences.’ Here I overview the Collaborative and Rogerian approaches, highlight selected similarities and distinct differences, and comment on the relationship of each to family therapy as I see them.     

Effects of emotional arousal on multiple memory systems: evidence from declarative and procedural learning

Extensive evidence documents emotional modulation of hippocampus-dependent declarative memory in humans. However, little is known about the emotional modulation of striatum-dependent procedural memory. To address how emotional arousal influences declarative and procedural memory, the current study utilized (1) a picture recognition and (2) a weather prediction (WP) task (a probabilistic classification learning task), which have been shown to rely on hippocampal- and striatum-based memory systems, respectively. Observers viewed arousing or neutral pictures after (Experiment 1) or during (Experiment 2) WP training trials. A 1-wk delayed picture recognition memory test revealed enhanced declarative memory for arousing compared with neutral pictures. Arousal during encoding impaired initial WP acquisition but did not influence retention when tested after a 1-wk delay. Data from a subsequent 3-mo delayed test, however, suggested that arousal during acquisition may enhance remote WP retention. These results suggest a potential dissociation between how readily emotional arousal influences hippocampus-dependent and striatum-dependent memory systems in humans.