Comprehensive System Rorschach Data on Vietnam Combat Veterans

To better understand and, therefore, treat Vietnam combat veterans with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the Rorschach was administered to 50 patients so diagnosed. The most important findings were that, on average: (a) These patients have a low level of stress tolerance and are, therefore, likely to respond impulsively to stressful situations; (b) this tow stress tolerance appears to be a long-term adjustment problem; and (c) their perception of reality is unconventional and often distorted. A primary therapeutic indication from these data is that the use of structure would be important for successful therapy. Other findings and therapeutic recommendations are also discussed.     

Observing or producing a motor action improves later perception of biological motion: Evidence for a gender effect

Two experiments are presented addressing the issue of whether observing (visual priming) or producing (motor priming) a running activity during a very short period (30 s) facilitates the perception of the direction of a point-light runner embedded in a dense dynamical mask. Experiment 1 showed that perceptual judgements improved and response time increased in the visual priming compared to the neutral priming condition (video of a moving car) in which judgements were at random. Because this effect was observed for male participants only, we performed a second experiment with the aim of evaluating the role of gender congruency in the visual priming condition. Results confirmed the facilitation effect and demonstrated that this effect was strictly dependent on the gender congruency between the perceiver and the priming information. Moreover, we found that actually producing a motor activity similar to the one presented in the video sequence improved to the same extent participants’ judgement of the direction of the point-light runner, without any gender effect. As a whole, these findings argue in favour of common representation for the perception and the production of human movement and showed that the perception of biological motion can be improved by prior motor activity either performed or observed. However, the gender-dependent effect of visual priming suggested that motor repertoire differed in males and females.     

On the costs and benefits of directing attention towards or away from threat-related stimuli: A classical conditioning experiment

In attentional bias modification programs, individuals are trained to attend away from threat in order to reduce emotional reactivity to stressful situations. However, attending towards threat is considered to be a prerequisite for fear reduction in other models of anxiety. We compared both views by manipulating attention towards or away from an acquired signal of threat. The strength of extinction and reacquisition was assessed with threat and US-expectancy ratings. We found more extinction in the attend towards threat group, compared to both the attend away from threat group and a control group in which attention was not manipulated. The results are in line with the Emotional Processing Theory and cognitive accounts of classical conditioning.     

Auditory emotional cues enhance visual perception

Recent studies show that emotional stimuli impair performance to subsequently presented neutral stimuli. Here we show a cross-modal perceptual enhancement caused by emotional cues. Auditory cue words were followed by a visually presented neutral target word. Two-alternative forced-choice identification of the visual target was improved by emotional cues as compared to neutral cues. When the cue was presented visually we replicated the emotion-induced impairment found in other studies. Our results suggest emotional stimuli have a twofold effect on perception. They impair perception by reflexively attracting attention at the expense of competing stimuli. However, emotional stimuli also induce a nonspecific perceptual enhancement that carries over onto other stimuli when competition is reduced, for example, by presenting stimuli in different modalities.     

Greater pressor reactivity in women with pre-eclampsia is not related to specific psychological or emotional stressors

To investigate whether emotional or psychosocial factors could be significantly related with the development of pre-eclampsia, 15 pregnant women with early diagnosis of pre-eclampsia and 15 normotensive pregnant controls of comparable age (23-37 yr.), gestational age (10-37 wk.), parity (70% primiparous), amount of instruction, and marital status underwent a blood pressure monitoring during a specific psychological assessment based on a semistructured interview followed by the administration of three different questionnaires: the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised, the Perceived Stress Questionnaire-Recent, and the Questionnaire about Social Relationships. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were measured at 2-min. intervals by an automatic device both during the interview and the questionnaires' administration. Both systolic and diastolic responses were significantly increased in both groups during the interview (deltaSBP = 15 vs. 10%; deltaDBP=28 vs. 15.8%), whereas no differences were observed in blood pressure while answering questionnaires. Conversely, differences in questionnaire responses between groups were not statistically significant. Present results confirm a greater pressor reactivity in these women with pre-eclampsia but does not specifically support that this was related to psychological or emotional stress.     

THERE ARE BRUTE NECESSITIES

A necessarily true sentence is 'brute' if it does not rigidly refer to anything and if it cannot be reduced to a logical truth. The question of whether there are brute necessities is an extremely natural one. Cian Dorr has recently argued for far-reaching metaphysical claims on the basis of the principle that there are no brute necessities: he initially argued that there are no non-symmetric relations, and later that there are no abstract objects at all. I argue that there are nominalistically acceptable brute necessities, and that Dorr's arguments thus fail. My argument is an application of Gödel's first incompleteness theorem.     

Hearing living symbols and nonliving icons: Category specificities in the cognitive processing of environmental sounds

The neurocognitive processing of environmental sounds and linguistic stimuli shares common semantic resources and can lead to the activation of motor programs for the generation of the passively heard sound or speech. We investigated the extent to which the cognition of environmental sounds, like that of language, relies on symbolic mental representations independent of the acoustic input. In a hierarchical sorting task, we found that evaluation of nonliving sounds is consistently biased toward a focus on acoustical information. However, the evaluation of living sounds focuses spontaneously on sound-independent semantic information, but can rely on acoustical information after exposure to a context consisting of nonliving sounds. We interpret these results as support for a robust iconic processing strategy for nonliving sounds and a flexible symbolic processing strategy for living sounds.     

Long-lasting memory for an odor acquired at the mother's breast

Whether neonatal odor memory can persist into toddlerhood and influence behaviors that tap processes related to cognition (attention and exploration), motivation (choice and consumption), and emotion (hedonic processing) remains under-researched. Using a quasi-experimental longitudinal design, we examined whether an odor experienced at the mother's breast can be retained at 7 and 21 months. The prescribed prophylactic use of a camomile-scented balm defined two groups: infants exposed (CaE) or never exposed (CaNE) to camomile odor. At 7 months, exploratory responses to three similar objects differing in odor (including camomile) were analyzed. At 21 months, three tasks were used to assess toddlers' (i) facial responses; (ii) exploratory responses to three similar, but differently odorized objects; and (iii) choices between two bottles carrying different odors. CaE infants displayed preferential responses for camomile odor at both ages in every task. In contrast, CaNE infants behaved either randomly or more negatively to camomile odor. This study indicates that early odor memories acquired during breastfeeding can be reactivated and influence behavioral processes until at least toddlerhood.