Worry and the suppression of imagery

This experiment investigates Borkovec's theory that the function of worry is to protect people from potentially distressing emotional imagery. The experiment builds on a previous one of Borkovec and Inz (Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 153–158, 1990) comparing the frequency of thoughts and images in imagery and relaxation. The present experiment confirms the previous finding that worry is associated with less imagery than relaxation, but shows that this is not distinctive to worry. Indeed, an additional control condition, ‘present-oriented mentation’, was associated with even less imagery than worry. The fact that other kinds of thinking are at least as effective as worry in suppressing emotional imagery indicates that this property of worry is not sufficient to explain its occurrence.     

Insomniacs' perceived lack of control over sleep

Abstract

It is widely assumed that insomniacs have poor self-efficacy for sleep and it is known that successful treatment is usually accompanied by improved self-efficacy. However, there has been little detailed investigation of insomniacs perceived lack of control over sleep. Insomniacs' perceived control over sleep itself is affected more than their perceived control over pre-sleep mental activity or physical tension. It was hypothesised that insomniacs would diverge from controls more in their sense that sleep was out of their control than that sleep was under their control, though this was not supported by the data. Also, there was no clear support for the idea that insomniacs' dissatisfaction with their control over sleep was the product of excessive aspirations for control. One factor that seems likely to contribute to insomniacs' lack of perceived control over sleep is that they do not have as lawful a pattern of expectations of sleep, based on their recent pattern of sleep, as normal sleepers do. Insomniacs, like non-insomniacs, were most likely to attribute poor sleep to external stresses and an over-active mind. Insomniacs showed a wide range of heightened emotional reactions to poor sleep. The implications of the results for self-regulation approaches to the treatment of insomnia are discussed.     

Biotech 101: An Educational Outreach Program in Genetics and Biotechnology

Recent advances in research and biotechnology are making genetics and genomics increasingly relevant to the lives and health of the general public. For the public to make informed healthcare and public policy decisions relating to genetic information, there is a need for increased genetic literacy. Biotech 101 is a free, short-course for the local community introducing participants to topics in genetics, genomics, and biotechnology, created at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. This study evaluated the effectiveness of Biotech 101 in increasing the genetic literacy of program participants through pre-and-post surveys. Genetic literacy was measured through increases in self-perceived knowledge for each content area covered through the course and the self-reported impact the course had on various aspects of participants' lives. Three hundred ninety-two individuals attended Biotech 101 during the first three course offerings. Participants reported a significant increase in self-perceived knowledge for each content area (p?相似文献   

On being happy and gullible: Mood effects on skepticism and the detection of deception

Are we more likely to believe or disbelieve another person depending on our mood state? Based on past research on interpersonal communication and recent work on affect and social cognition, we predicted and found that negative mood increased and positive mood decreased people’s skepticism and their ability to detect deception, consistent with the more externally focused, accommodative processing style promoted by negative affect. After a mood induction using positive, neutral or negative films, participants viewed deceptive or truthful interviews with individuals who denied committing a theft. Judgments of the targets’ guilt and their truthfulness were collected. As predicted, negative mood increased judges’ skepticism towards the targets, and improved their accuracy in detecting deceptive communications, while judges in a positive mood were more trusting and gullible. The relevance of these findings for everyday judgments of trust and the detection of deception are considered, and their implications for recent affect-cognition theories are discussed.     

进化论与医学教学

达尔文主义在生物学中是一个很重要的理论,它对医学事实所做的进化论解释同样是不应忽视的。但是由于偶然的原因,它一直不能走上医学院的讲台。尽管要克服许多困难,我们还是应该把一些最重要的进化理论传授给我们的医学生,因为这对于他们未来行医是大有益处的。     

幼儿对人称代词的理解

本研究调查了二岁半至五岁半的儿童理解人称代词‘我’,‘你’,‘他’的指称意义的发展情况。要求被试在不同语言情境下辨别说话者所讲的‘我’,‘你’,‘他’所指的是谁。共有两项实验。实验Ⅰ,被试作为其他三人交谈时的旁观者;实验Ⅱ,被试本人参加三人交谈,并分别担任受话者和第三者的角色。结果表明:(1)二岁半到四岁半的幼儿对人称代词指称意义的理解水平随年龄增长而提高,四岁半和五岁半之间无显著差异;(2)幼儿对三个人称代词的理解水平是‘我’最高,‘你’次之,‘他’最低;(3)幼儿在理解人称代词的指称意义时,还不能灵活地随着语言环境的变化而转换参照点。