Religious involvement and the forgiving personality

The relationship between religious involvement and forgiveness was assessed in three samples of Western Europeans living in a social environment dominated by the Catholic tradition. The samples comprised nonbelievers/nonattendees, believers/nonattendees, believers/regular attendees, and religious people. Age and religious involvement were shown to affect the willingness to forgive in an interactive way: The effect of religious involvement was stronger for the elderly group. We also found that what made the difference in the willingness to forgive was mainly the social commitment to religion (attendance in church and the taking of vows), not mere personal beliefs. In addition, age and religious involvement were found to affect blockage towards forgiveness in an additive way.     

Perceptual and positional saliencies influence children’s sequence learning differently with age and instructions at test

There is growing evidence that, faced with a complex environment, participants subdivide the incoming information into small perceptual units, called chunks. Although statistical properties have been identified as playing a key role in chunking, we wanted to determine whether perceptual (repetitions) and positional (initial units) features might provide immediate guidance for the parsing of information into chunks. Children aged 5 and 8 years were exposed to sequences of 3, 4, or 5 colours. Sequence learning was assessed either through an explicit generation test (Experiment 1) or through a recognition test (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 showed that perceptual and positional saliencies benefited learning and that sensitivity to repetitions was age dependent and permitted the formation of longer chunks (trigrams) in the oldest children. Experiment 2 suggested that children became sensitive to perceptual and positional saliencies regardless of age and that the both types of saliencies supported the formation of longer chunks in the oldest children. The discussion focuses on the multiple factors intervening in sequence learning and their differential effects as a function of the instructions used at test to assess sequence learning.     

Cognitive function and depression in symptom resolution in schizophrenia patients treated with an atypical antipsychotic

OBJECTIVE: To investigate which cognitive and affective features contribute most to responder/non-responder group separation during a switching trial with atypical antipsychotic. DESIGN: A prospective open trial with an atypical antipsychotic (olanzapine). PATIENTS: One hundred and thirty-four patients meeting diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, schizophreniform or schizoaffective disorder began an 8-week open-label olanzapine treatment at a dose of 5 mg/day which was increased to 10 mg/day after one week. INTERVENTIONS: Olanzapine during 8 weeks. Patients were considered as responders if their BPRS score decreased of at least 20% (n = 96) and non-responders if it did not (n = 38). Neuropsychological assessments were carried out at baseline, at four and at eight weeks. RESULTS: Neurocognitive measures were analyzed for discriminate factors between responder and non-responder groups. A regression analysis was applied to explain the effects of depression on each cognitive variable. Depression was found to be a weak discriminant factor, however this finding could not firmly establish that depression is a potential factor in explaining deficits and improvements in cognition.     

Dialectical behaviour therapy skills training compared to standard group therapy in borderline personality disorder: A 3-month randomised controlled clinical trial

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) has proven to be an effective treatment in borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, the effectiveness in BPD of DBT skills training (DBT-ST) alone is not known. This study aimed at comparing the efficacy of DBT-ST and standard group therapy (SGT) for outpatients with BPD. Sixty patients meeting the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for BPD, as assessed by two semi-structured diagnostic interviews, were included in a 3-month, single-blind randomised controlled trial. A total of 13 weekly group psychotherapy sessions of 120 min of either SGT or DBT-ST were conducted. Assessments were carried out every 2 weeks by two blinded evaluators. Observer-rater, self-report scales and behavioural reports were used as outcome measures. DBT-ST was associated with lower dropout rates, 34.5% compared to 63.4% with SGT. It was superior to SGT in improving several mood and emotion areas, such as: depression, anxiety, irritability, anger and affect instability. A reduction in general psychiatric symptoms was also observed. Three-months weekly DBT-ST proved useful. This therapy was associated with greater clinical improvements and lower dropout rates than SGT. DBT-ST seems to play a role in the overall improvement of BPD seen with standard DBT intervention. It allows straightforward implementation in a wide range of mental health settings and provides the additional advantage that it is cost effective.