Altered Emotional Processing in Pediatric Anxiety,Depression, and Comorbid Anxiety-Depression

The goal of this study was to examine some of the mechanisms underlying emotion regulation in childhood affective disorders by examining the impact of distracting emotional information during performance on a working memory task (Emotional n-back or E-n-back). The sample included 75 children (38 girls and 37 boys) between 8 and 16 years of age meeting criteria for: Anxiety disorder (ANX, n = 17), Major depressive disorder (MDD, n = 16), Comorbid anxiety and depression (CAD, n = 24), or Low-risk normal control (LRNC, n = 18). Results showed that the MDD and CAD groups had significantly longer reaction times on negative emotional backgrounds compared to neutral backgrounds, whereas the LRNC group had significantly longer reaction times on positive backgrounds. These results suggest altered processing of emotional information particularly associated with depression. Because the E-n-back task engages higher-order cognitive processes, these results suggest that these alterations in processing emotional information also interfere with the cognitive processes that govern how attentional resources are allocated. Further, research is needed to replicate this study and delineate underlying neural mechanisms.     

Predictive validity of an Implicit Association Test for assessing anxiety

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was adapted to measure anxiety by assessing associations of self (vs. other) with anxiety-related (vs. calmness-related) words. Study 1 showed that the IAT-Anxiety exhibited good internal consistency and adequate stability. Study 2 revealed that the IAT-Anxiety was unaffected by a faking instruction. Study 3 examined the predictive validity of implicit and explicit measures and showed that the IAT-Anxiety was related to changes in experimenter-rated anxiety and performance decrements after failure. Study 4 found that several behavioral indicators of anxiety during a stressful speech were predicted by the IAT. Taken together, these studies show that the IAT-Anxiety is a reliable measure that is able to predict criterion variables above questionnaire measures of anxiety and social desirability.     

Heterarchy of cognition: the depths and the highs of a framework for memory research

To celebrate the levels-of-processing approach, I describe a multilevel evolutionary architecture for human behaviour and cognition. New experimental data on human eye movements are presented that demonstrate a possibility of splitting visual perceptual activity at least on two hierarchical but closely interrelated levels of processing. Furthermore, data from behavioural studies of human memory and neuroimaging testify that within the domain of cognition proper two higher levels can be differentiated. I call them "conceptual structures" and "metacognitive coordinations" and provide evidence that the latter may residue in the phylogenetically new structures of prefrontal and particularly right prefrontal cortices. From this point of few, the most natural framework for an analysis of the levels-of-processing effects on human memory is to consider them as interactions within the main gradients of evolution and development of the corresponding neurophysiological mechanisms. Finally, several new, still unanswered questions for the future research are formulated.     

The Machines Take Over: A Comparison of Various Supervised Learning Approaches for Automated Scoring of Divergent Thinking Tasks

Traditionally, researchers employ human raters for scoring responses to creative thinking tasks. Apart from the associated costs this approach entails two potential risks. First, human raters can be subjective in their scoring behavior (inter-rater-variance). Second, individual raters are prone to inconsistent scoring patterns (intra-rater-variance). In light of these issues, we present an approach for automated scoring of Divergent Thinking (DT) Tasks. We implemented a pipeline aiming to generate accurate rating predictions for DT responses using text mining and machine learning methods. Based on two existing data sets from two different laboratories, we constructed several prediction models incorporating features representing meta information of the response or features engineered from the response’s word embeddings that were obtained using pre-trained GloVe and Word2Vec word vector spaces. Out of these features, word embeddings and features derived from them proved to be particularly effective. Overall, longer responses tended to achieve higher ratings as well as responses that were semantically distant from the stimulus object. In our comparison of three state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, Random Forest and XGBoost tended to slightly outperform the Support Vector Regression.     

Accurate Judgments of Neuroticism at Zero Acquaintance: A Question of Relevance

Prior studies have consistently found a surprising inaccuracy of people's neuroticism judgments at zero acquaintance. Based on the Realistic Accuracy Model (Funder, 1995), we hypothesize that this is due to a lack of relevance of the situation in which targets are typically observed. Fifty participants were videotaped in a highly trait‐relevant (i.e., socially stressful) situation as well as three less relevant situations. An aggregate of self‐reports and informant reports was used as the accuracy criterion. Four independent groups of unacquainted observers judged participants' neuroticism based on these short video sequences. Results showed that neuroticism judgments were significantly more accurate for the most trait‐relevant situation compared with the other three situations. This finding can be explained using lens model analyses: Only in the most relevant situation did neuroticism predict both visual nervousness and vocal nervousness, both of which in turn predicted neuroticism judgments by lay observers. Our findings show that strangers are sensitive to interindividual differences in neuroticism as long as targets are observed in a trait‐relevant situation.     

On the relationship between negative affective priming and prefrontal cognitive control mechanisms

Although several studies have examined inhibition of affective stimuli, valence-dependent cognitive control effects remain poorly understood. Behavioural and functional imaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging) data were collected from 17 healthy participants to examine neural correlates of the Negative Affective Priming (NAP) task. We created relative ratio scores considering the reaction times of prime trials in order to assess the amount of interference after the presentation of negative and positive distracter words. Behavioural results showed an attenuated NAP effect for negative distracters compared to neutral stimuli. Furthermore, priming negative distracters generated more interference by reacting to the probe target than positive distracters. Neuroimaging data revealed a stronger prefrontal activation during negative NAP trials compared to positive NAP and neutral control trials, which was reflected in a heightened activation of superior and middle frontal gyrus as well as parietal cortex. The findings show the impact of negative distracters on prefrontal response, contributing to the understanding of NAP effects in healthy subjects.     

All Anxiety is not Created Equal: Correlates of Parent/Youth Agreement Vary Across Subtypes of Anxiety

Research has examined patterns and correlates of parent/youth informant discrepancies in the reporting of youth anxiety. However, little work has examined whether it is better to conceptualize patterns and correlates of informant disagreement across anxiety broadly, or more useful to consider disagreement on specific symptom clusters. Using data from the Child Adolescent/Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS; N?=?488; Walkup et al. The New England Journal of Medicine, 359(26), 2753-2766. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa0804633, 2008), the current study applied the most recent recommended analytic strategies to study informant discrepancies and examined differences in the magnitude and patterns of disagreement for: (a) broadband anxiety symptoms, versus (b) symptoms of specific anxiety diagnoses (or anxiety subtypes; e.g., separation, social anxiety). Correlates of informant discrepancies were also examined. Results indicated that there was variability in agreement across anxiety subtypes, with parent/youth agreement higher on separation anxiety and school refusal symptoms relative to other domains. Parental psychopathology was associated with disagreement on broadband anxiety symptoms, such that parental psychopathology was highest when parents reported higher symptoms than their children; however, this finding was largely driven by a relationship between parental psychopathology and disagreement on separation anxiety symptoms. Age was associated with disagreement on total and separation anxiety symptoms. Gender was not associated with disagreement. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Personality Expression and Impression Formation in Online Social Networks: An Integrative Approach to Understanding the Processes of Accuracy,Impression Management and Meta‐accuracy

In this paper, we investigate personality expression and impression formation processes in online social networks (OSNs). We explore whether, when and why people accurately judge others' personalities (accuracy), successfully manage the impressions that others form of them (impression management) and accurately infer others' impressions of them (meta‐accuracy) at zero acquaintance. On the basis of targets' OSN profiles (N = 103), overall perceiver impressions were collected and compared with targets' self‐view, desired impression and meta‐perception. In addition, independent groups of thin‐slice perceivers based their personality impressions solely on one of four kinds of information within the OSN profiles (profile picture, interests field, group list and notice board), and more than 300 OSN cues (e.g. attractive person and number of friends) were coded. Results showed evidence of accuracy, impression management and meta‐accuracy, but their extent was moderated by the trait (e.g. Big Five and self‐esteem), the kind of information and the interplay of trait and information. Findings could be explained by cue expression and cue utilization processes (lens model analyses). Future prospects for studying personality impressions in online and offline environments are discussed. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology.     

Strategies for Coping with Work Stressors and Family Stressors: Scale Development and Validation

Purpose

Both individuals and organizations benefit when workers can effectively cope with stressors in the work and family domains. This study takes an inductive approach to the development of a work stressor coping scale and a family stressor coping scale.

Design/Methodology/Approach

In phase one, a comprehensive list of coping strategies was generated through a multi-step content analysis of qualitative interviews. In phase two, the content validity of the work stressor and family stressor coping strategy scales was established using data from three samples; and in phase three, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity evidence were obtained using data from two samples.

Findings

A multi-step content analysis of qualitative interview data was used to develop a list of 365 coping strategy statements (182 work and 183 family) representing 11 work and 14 family stressor coping strategies. Multiple samples were used to reduce the number of scale items, and establish evidence for the scales’ content, construct, and criterion-related validity. The final work stressor coping scale consisted of 36 items assessing 12 different strategies, and the final family stressor coping scale consisted of 45 items assessing 15 different strategies.

Implications

Findings from the present study suggest that individuals may use a wider variety of strategies to cope with work stressors and family stressors than previously thought, and these strategies may be differentially effective depending on the stressor domain (i.e., work or family) and outcome (e.g., work-to-family conflict vs. family-to-work conflict).

Originality/Value

The inductive nature of our study resulted in a comprehensive and domain-specific scales assessing how individuals cope with work stressors and family stressors.