Studying dream content using the archive and search engine on DreamBank.net

This paper shows how the dream archive and search engine on DreamBank.net, a Web site containing over 22,000 dream reports, can be used to generate new findings on dream content, some of which raise interesting questions about the relationship between dreaming and various forms of waking thought. It begins with studies that draw dream reports from DreamBank.net for studies of social networks in dreams, and then demonstrates the usefulness of the search engine by employing word strings relating to religious and sexual elements. Examples from two lengthy individual dream series are used to show how the dreams of one person can be studied for characters, activities, and emotions. A final example shows that accurate inferences about a person’s religious beliefs can be made on the basis of reading through dreams retrieved with a few keywords. The overall findings are similar to those in studies using traditional forms of content analysis.     

Psychiatric Disorders in Clinical Genetics II: Individualizing Recurrence Risks

This is the second article of a two-part professional development series on genetic counseling for personal and family histories of psychiatric disorders. It is based on an Educational Breakout Session presented by The Psychiatric Special Interest Group of the National Society of Genetic Counselors at the 2006 Annual Education Conference. While the first article in this two part series dealt with addressing family histories of psychiatric disorders in clinical practice, the following discussion deals with the generation and provision of individualized recurrence risks for psychiatric disorders, based on empiric risk data. We present four cases that illustrate important components of and process for generating individualized risk assessment for family histories of psychiatric disorders.     

Learning and generalization on asynchrony and order tasks at sound offset: implications for underlying neural circuitry

Normal auditory perception relies on accurate judgments about the temporal relationships between sounds. Previously, we used a perceptual-learning paradigm to investigate the neural substrates of two such relative-timing judgments made at sound onset: detecting stimulus asynchrony and discriminating stimulus order. Here, we conducted parallel experiments at sound offset. Human adults practiced approximately 1 h/d for 6-8 d on either asynchrony detection or order discrimination at sound offset with tones at 0.25 and 4.0 kHz. As at sound onset, learning on order-offset discrimination did not generalize to the other task (asynchrony), an untrained temporal position (onset), or untrained frequency pairs, indicating that this training affected a quite specialized neural circuit. In contrast, learning on asynchrony-offset detection generalized to the other task (order) and temporal position (onset), though not to untrained frequency pairs, implying that the training on this condition influenced a less specialized, or more interdependent, circuit. Finally, the learning patterns induced by single-session exposure to asynchrony and order tasks differed depending on whether these tasks were performed primarily at sound onset or offset, suggesting that this exposure modified circuitry specialized to separately process relative-timing tasks at these two temporal positions. Overall, it appears that the neural processes underlying relative-timing judgments are malleable, and that the nature of the affected circuitry depends on the duration of exposure (multihour or single-session) and the parameters of the judgment(s) made during that exposure.     

How children describe their shy/withdrawn peers

In individual interviews, 227 children from the first, third, fifth, and seventh grades described the behaviours that characterize shyness in their peers. The categories of behaviour most frequently described included the following: doesn't talk, stays by self, doesn't play, walks/runs away from others, hides, looks away/avoids eye contact, physical signs of anxiety, stays near familiar people, cries, blushes, and gets mixed up when talking/stutters. The number of children mentioning hides, stays near familiar people, and cries decreased significantly across grade level, whereas the number mentioning doesn't talk, stays by self, blushes, and gets mixed up when talking/stutters increased across grade level. The situations in which children described the shy behaviours as occurring were classified as entailing either fearful shyness or self‐conscious shyness. The number of children who mentioned contexts involving fearful shyness declined across grade level grade, whereas the number mentioning contexts involving self‐conscious shyness increased with increasing grade level. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Catastrophic associations predict level of change in anxiety sensitivity in response to cognitive-behavioural treatment for panic

The aim of the present study was to elucidate one of the factors that might be responsible for the maintenance of panic patients' harmful beliefs about anxiety. Specifically, it was hypothesized that harmful beliefs about anxiety, i.e. anxiety sensitivity, is maintained in panic patients by automatic activation of idiographic catastrophic cognitions. To test this prediction, panic patients participated in a one-session cognitive-behavioural treatment of 4-8h to reduce anxiety sensitivity. The strength of automatic catastrophic cognitions in response to idiographic anxiety symptoms, measured with a modified semantic priming task, as well as the strength of the consciously accessible catastrophic meaning of these symptoms were assessed before treatment. In accordance with the hypothesis, stronger automatic catastrophic cognitions predicted a smaller reduction of anxiety sensitivity independently of the strength of conscious catastrophic cognitions. Moreover, in a first exploration, the strength of catastrophic associations was also shown to have an incremental predictive value for change in anxiety sensitivity beyond that of a number of demographic, clinical, treatment and assessment variables. The theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.     

Women's Cognitive,Affective, and Physiological Reactions to a Male Coworker's Sexist Behavior1

Empirical research has documented the attitudinal and behavioral consequences of sexual harassment, but has not examined the physiological consequences. In the present study, we monitored women's autonomic physiological activity while they performed a word‐association task with a male confederate who was either harassing, egalitarian, or submissive. Subsequently, we examined the women's cognitive, affective, and physiological reactions as they prepared and delivered a speech to the same confederate. Results indicate that harassment led to greater cardiovascular reactivity during the word‐association task and to greater cognitive, negative affective, and cardiovascular reactions during the subsequent speech compared with other conditions. Subgroups of harassed women who confronted their coworker, or who blamed themselves for his behavior, also exhibited greater cardiovascular reactivity during both tasks compared to women who did not use these coping responses. We integrate our laboratory results with those obtained in field settings.     

Zur Validität der Operationalisierten Psychodynamischen Diagnostik (OPD)

In this paper the validity of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis System is discussed. The discussion for each OPD axis is guided by the common scientific criteria like content-, criterion-, and construct validity. Reliability studies on OPD are summarized as an introduction to the validity issue. The studies show good to satisfying scores for interrater agreement for the research context. The results derived from the validity studies support the validity of the OPD system. There are also hints for improvements of multiple categories or items within each axis. For clinical routine OPD should become even more practice oriented. Therefore the OPD task force intends to construct a shorter version which will base on the results discussed in this article.     

Differential outcomes training facilitates memory in people with Korsakoff and Prader-Willi syndromes

This article presents evidence that a teaching procedure called differential outcomes training enhances learning and memory. Differential outcomes training reinforces correct responses with outcomes that are unique and specific to the stimuli that are to be remembered. Teaching with this method enhances performance in people with Korsakoff syndrome and people with Prader-Willi syndrome, populations known to have lerning and working memory deficits. This initial evidence that persons with learning and memory deficits benefit from differential outcomes training should encourage future work on the development of an intervention using this type of training to aide daily functioning by people with learning and memory impairments.     

The Orthogenetic Principle in the Perception of “Forests” and “Trees”?

This study explores possible links between ontogenetic and microgenetic change (Werner, 1948, 1957) in the perception of stimuli with multiple levels of structure. Visual search for targets defined by local versus global structure was examined in observers aged 6, 8, 10, and 22 years. Perceptual access to each level of structure was varied by using pattern elements of same (easy) or opposite contrast polarity (hard); attentional processes were isolated from sensory processes by varying the number of display items. The results showed large improvements with age in search rates for global targets, with search rates for local targets being more constant over age. This pattern held regardless of whether perceptual access to a target was easy or hard. These results support the view that the perception of local and global structure involves different underlying processes.