Attempts to control unwanted thoughts in the night: development of the thought control questionnaire-insomnia revised (TCQI-R)

The attempted control of intrusive, uncontrollable thoughts has been implicated in the maintenance of a range of psychological disorders. The current paper describes the refinement of the Thought Control Questionnaire Insomnia (TCQI; Behav. Cogn. Psychoth. 29 (2001)) through its administration to a sample (n=385) including good sleepers and individuals with insomnia. Several items with poor psychometric properties were discarded, resulting in a 35-item revised TCQI. Factor analysis revealed six factors; aggressive suppression, cognitive distraction, reappraisal, social avoidance, behavioural distraction, and worry. The attempted management of unwanted thoughts was compared across individuals with insomnia and good sleepers, and the impact of these strategies on sleep quality, anxiety and depression was investigated. With the exception of cognitive distraction, individuals with insomnia, relative to good sleepers, more frequently used every thought control strategy. The strategies of aggressive suppression and worry, in particular, appeared to be unhelpful, with the use of these strategies predicting sleep impairment, anxiety and depression. The strategy of cognitive distraction appeared to be helpful, with the use of this strategy predicting better sleep quality.     

The Relationship of the Self of the Therapist to Therapy Process and Outcome: are Some Questions Better Left Unanswered?

Gurman (1987) has challenged the field of marital and family therapy to answer questions concerning the relationship of the therapist to outcome. An examination of conceptual and empirical literature regarding the relationship of the self of the therapist to process and outcome in marital and family therapy discloses that empirical evidence for such relationship is not persuasive. The author constructs a crucible for the field of marital and family therapy.     

Binocular Rivalry Disrupts Visual Priming

Many results implicate perceptual processing in repetition priming, but little is known of potential mechanisms for priming. A new method was used to help determine the processing stage at which priming occurs. Priming pictures were presented under dominance or suppression generated by binocular rivalry. Although low-level, sensory attributes can be processed under rivalry suppression, there is no evidence that repetition priming can be supported by such low-level processing. Priming was found only for stimuli that were processed sufficiently to be identified in the priming stage. The results demonstrate that repetition priming requires processing of stimulus attributes into relatively high-level representations.     

The visual system of the cat

So much of our current knowledge about the neurophysiology of vision has come from studying the visual system of the cat. Using microelectrode techniques, neurophysiologists have examined in great detail the spatial properties of receptive fields of neurons at various levels of the feline nervous system, and headway is now being made in discovering the patterns of neural connections which give rise to the remarkable degree of stimulus selectivity characteristic of these neurons. This paper reviews the major findings concerning the visual system of the normal adult cat, from optics to visual cortex, and summarizes the physiological consequences of early visual deprivation on the visual nervous system of the cat. The review concludes with remarks about the validity of generalizing from cat neurophysiology to human vision.     

Counselor Sex Role Orientation,Flexibility, and Working Alliance Formation

The authors examined the hypothesized relationship among counselor androgyny, counselor flexibility, and the establishment of client-rated working alliances. In Study 1, 41 counseling students completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1981a) and the Counselor Behavior Analysis Inventory (Gabbard, Howard, & Dunfee, 1986). Contrary to the hypothesis, there was no relationship between androgyny and counseling flexibility. In Study 2, 42 counseling students completed the BSRI and videotaped counseling sessions with a recruited client. Analyses revealed a significant relationship between counselor flexibility and client ratings of working alliance, but no relationship between counselor androgyny and counselor flexibility. Research and clinical implications are discussed.     

A macintosh interface to teach 3-D perception cues

I present an interface between a Macintosh computer and a pair of glasses with liquid crystal shutter lenses that allow interactive demonstration and investigation of the visual system. This equipment allows a graphic image to be presented to a subject’s eyes in a variety of ways. A primary application of this apparatus has been to create binocular disparity that results in a convincing illusion of depth. Other possible applications include tachistoscopic functions and monocular visual presentations.     

How context influences predominance during binocular rivalry

Variations in the predominance of an object engaged in binocular rivalry may arise from variations in the durations of dominance phases, suppression phases, or both. Earlier work has shown that the predominance of a binocular rival target is enhanced if that target fits well-via common color, orientation, or motion-with its surrounding objects. In the present experiments, the global context outside of the region of rivalry was changed during rivalry, to learn whether contextual information alters the ability to detect changes in a suppressed target itself. Results indicate that context will maintain the dominance of a rival target, but will not encourage a suppressed target to escape from suppression. Evidently, the fate of the suppressed stimulus is determined by neural events distinct from those responsible for global organization during dominance. To reconcile diverse findings concerning rivalry, it may be important to distinguish between processes responsible for selection of one eye's input for dominance from processes responsible for the implementation and maintenance of suppression.     

Psychophysical magic: rendering the visible 'invisible'

What are the neural correlates of conscious visual awareness? Tackling this question requires contrasting neural correlates of stimulus processing culminating in visual awareness with neural correlates of stimulus processing unaccompanied by awareness. To produce these two neural states, one must be able to erase an otherwise visible stimulus from awareness. This article describes and assesses visual phenomena involving dissociation of physical stimulation and conscious awareness: degraded stimulation, visual masking, visual crowding, bistable figures, binocular rivalry, motion-induced blindness, inattentional blindness, change blindness and attentional blink. No single approach stands above the others, but those producing changing visual awareness despite invariant physical stimulation are clearly preferable. Such phenomena can help lead us ultimately to a comprehensive account of the neural correlates of conscious awareness.