Beyond cognition: predicting health risk behaviors from instrumental and affective beliefs.

OBJECTIVE: Two studies assessed the relative contribution of affective and instrumental beliefs to the prediction of 2 risk behaviors: driving above the speed limit and smoking. DESIGN: Both studies took the form of large-scale questionnaire surveys (Study 1, N=292; Study 2, N=500) measuring instrumental and affective beliefs and self-reported behavior. In both cases, behavior was also measured objectively. OUTCOME MEASURES: In Study 1, speeding behavior was measured via infrared camera along sections of road with 30 mph, 40 mph, and 60 mph speed limits. Self-reports of speeding in these same contexts represented a 2nd dependent variable. In Study 2, level of smoking was measured via a carbon monoxide monitor, and participants were asked to indicate the number of cigarettes they smoked in a week. RESULTS: In Study 1, positive and negative instrumental and affective beliefs were significant predictors of self-reported speed. The most powerful predictor was negative affective beliefs. Observed speed was predicted by negative affective beliefs only. In Study 2, the significant predictors of self-reported smoking and objective measures of smoking were positive and negative affective beliefs. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate the importance of affective beliefs across 2 health risk behaviors. Implications for social cognition models and interventions are discussed.     

Dissociating mere exposure and repetition priming as a function of word type

The mere exposure effect is defined as enhanced attitude toward a stimulus that has been repeatedly exposed. Repetition priming is defined as facilitated processing of a previously exposed stimulus. We conducted a direct comparison between the two phenomena to test the assumption that the mere exposure effect represents an example of repetition priming. In two experiments, having studied a set of words or nonwords, participants were given a repetition priming task (perceptual identification) or one of two mere exposure (affective liking or preference judgment) tasks. Repetition priming was obtained for both words and nonwords, but only nonwords produced a mere exposure effect. This demonstrates a key boundary for observing the mere exposure effect, one not readily accommodated by a perceptual representation systems (Tulving & Schacter, 1990) account, which assumes that both phenomena should show some sensitivity to nonwords and words.     

Learning in a simple motor system

Motor learning is a very basic, essential form of learning that appears to share common mechanisms across different motor systems. We evaluate and compare a few conceptual models for learning in a relatively simple neural system, the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) of vertebrates. We also compare the different animal models that have been used to study the VOR. In the VOR, a sensory signal from the semicircular canals is transformed into a motor signal that moves the eyes. The VOR can modify the transformation under the guidance of vision. The changes are persistent and share some characteristics with other types of associative learning. The cerebellar cortex is directly linked to the VOR reflex circuitry in a partnership that is present in all vertebrates, and which is necessary for motor learning. Early theories of Marr, Albus, and Ito, in which motor memories are stored solely in the cerebellar cortex, have not explained the bulk of the experimental data. Many studies appear to indicate a site of learning in the vestibular nuclei, and the most successful models have incorporated long-term memory storage in both the cerebellar cortex and the brainstem. Plausible cellular mechanisms for learning have been identified in both structures. We propose that short-term motor memory is initially stored in the cerebellar cortex, and that during consolidation of the motor memory the locus of storage shifts to include a brainstem site. We present experimental results that support our hypothesis.     

The relationship of relatives' attributions to their expressed emotion and to patients' improvement in treatment for anxiety disorders

In a test of Hooley's (1987) attributional model of expressed emotion (EE), attributions for negative behaviors and events in patients' lives were examined in relatives of 74 outpatients with panic disorder with agoraphobia or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Attributions were extracted from 10-minute problem-solving interactions between relatives and patients, whereas EE was assessed during a separate interview with the relative. Consistent with prior findings in relatives of individuals with other disorders, relatives who made greater proportions of attributions of patient responsibility demonstrated significantly higher levels of EE-hostility. In addition, nonspousal relatives (mostly parents) who attributed any negative behaviors or events to a patient's disorder were significantly higher in emotional overinvolvement (EOI); no such relationship was found for spouses. Finally, patients with relatives who made attributions to the patient's disorder received less benefit from behavior therapy than did those whose relatives made no such attributions, even when EE variables were controlled.     

Negative priming and sequence learning

Three experiments used a novel sequence learning task, in which participants responded to changes in location of one visual stimulus whilst ignoring another. Experiment 1 demonstrated negative priming effects in this task, in that responses to individual sequence elements were disrupted when the attended stimulus (e.g., red asterisk) appeared at the location taken by the unattended stimulus (e.g., blue asterisk) on the immediately preceding trial. Experiments 2 and 3 found that negative priming effects extended beyond sensitivity to individual items, suggesting that people may be able to learn about sequential features of ignored events as well as about single events in isolation. The results are discussed in relation to current theories of negative priming.     

Examining the Development of Attention and Executive Functions in Children With a Novel Paradigm

The development of attention and executive functions in normal children (7–12 years) was investigated using a novel selective reaching task, which involved reaching as rapidly as possible towards a target, while at times having to ignore a distractor. The information processing paradigm allowed the measurement of various distinct dimensions of behaviour within a single task. The largest improvements in vigilance, set-shifting, response inhibition, selective attention, and impulsive responding were observed to occur between the ages of 8 and 10, with a plateau in performance between 10 and 12 years of age. These findings, consistent with a step-wise model of development, coincide with the observed developmental spurt in frontal brain functions between 7 and 10 years of age, and indicate that attention and executive functions develop in parallel. This task appears to be a useful research tool in the assessment of attention and executive functions, within a single task. Thus it may have a role in determining which cognitive functions are most affected in different childhood disorders.     

The Black Man and the Mermaid: Desire and Disruption in the Analytic Relationship

This paper considers the impact of desexualization of the maternal on the development of female sexuality. A “chance encounter” revealing a desire in the female analyst, previously unsuspected, disrupts a female patient's prior sense of homoerotic immersion with the analyst. I argue that a girl's would-be oedipal competition is encased within a patriarchal structuring of sexuality where the mother is rendered solely reproductive and preoedipal, not erotically sexual. I examine the meanings for a patient of internalizing a female figure, her analyst, who is viewed as both maternal and sexual. I suggest that a female sense of genital inadequacy and inferiority may have a component of not being able to link the mother's (and in the transference, the analyst's) use of her genitals with her use of her mind/maternal function. I unfold a thesis regarding maternal desexualization that I believe, given mother–infant symbiosis, has rather extensive applicability, and that can lead to viewing any third party as a “dark” interloper.     

Weight comments by family and significant others in young adulthood

Weight teasing is common among adolescents, but less is known about the continuation of this experience during young adulthood. The present study uses survey data from a diverse sample of 2287 young adults, who participated in a 10-year longitudinal study of weight-related issues to examine hurtful weight comments by family members or a significant other. Among young adults, 35.9% of females and 22.8% of males reported receiving hurtful weight-related comments by family members, and 21.2% of females and 23.8% of males with a significant other had received hurtful weight-related comments from this source. Hispanic and Asian young adults and overweight/obese young adults were more likely to report receiving comments than those in other groups. Weight teasing during adolescence predicted hurtful weight-related comments in young adulthood, with some differences by gender. Findings suggest that hurtful weight talk continues into young adulthood and is predicted by earlier weight teasing experiences.     

Waiting for the next Shoe to Drop: The Experience of Parents of Children with Fanconi Anemia

Fanconi Anemia (FA) is a rare genetic disease that generally affects children and results in bone marrow failure requiring blood or marrow transplantation for survival. A unique feature of the condition is the long, often many years, waiting period between genetic diagnosis and treatment. This qualitative study looked at the lived experience of parents confronting their child’s diagnosis of FA. We aimed to describe factors which parents found helpful or detrimental during the waiting time period and to recommend strategies to support families who will have these experiences in the future. Categories that emerged were: parents’ emotional responses, thoughts about FA (which occurred daily for most parents), sources of stress, mechanisms of coping, family dynamics and responses that were supportive and non-supportive. We found that most parents experience stress, uncertainty, and active surveillance throughout the course of the illness. Healthcare professionals, and especially physicians, were agents of both the most and least supportive experiences of parents. Parents described family centered team care as helpful throughout the illness and health professional education as a priority need.