Sadness and happiness are amplified in solitary listening to music

Previous studies have shown that music is a powerful means to convey affective states, but it remains unclear whether and how social context shape the intensity and quality of emotions perceived in music. Using a within-subject design, we studied this question in two experimental settings, i.e. when subjects were alone versus in company of others without direct social interaction or feedback. Non-vocal musical excerpts of the emotional qualities happiness or sadness were rated on arousal and valence dimensions. We found evidence for an amplification of perceived emotion in the solitary listening condition, i.e. happy music was rated as happier and more arousing when nobody else was around and, in an analogous manner, sad music was perceived as sadder. This difference might be explained by a shift of attention in the presence of others. The observed interaction of perceived emotion and social context did not differ for stimuli of different cultural origin.     

Responses to Conflict and Cooperation in Adolescents with Anxiety and Mood Disorders

This study examined patterns of behavioral and emotional responses to conflict and cooperation in adolescents with anxiety/mood disorders and healthy peers. We compared performance on and emotional responses to the Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) game, an economic exchange task involving conflict and cooperation, between adolescents with anxiety/depressive disorders (A/D) (N=21) and healthy comparisons (n = 29). Participants were deceived to believe their co-player (a pre-programmed computer algorithm) was another study participant. A/D adolescents differed significantly from comparisons in patterns of play and emotional response to the game. Specifically, A/D participants responded more cooperatively to cooperative overtures from their co-players; A/D girls also reported more anger toward co-players than did comparison girls. Our findings indicate that A/D adolescents, particularly females, respond distinctively to stressful social interchanges. These findings offer a first step toward elucidating the mechanisms underlying social impairment in youth with internalizing disorders. This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NIMH.     

Correction of Effects of Memory Valence and Emotionality on Content and Style of Judgements

Research on interactions of emotional and cognitive processes provides evidence for congruency effects in the content and style of cognitive processing. This experiment investigated if and how these two kinds of bias can be compensated for. Participants were 194 undergraduates (mean age 22.58 years, SD = 4.85), who were asked to recall a positive or negative autobiographical memory in either an emotional or detached manner; half of the participants later received a suggestion to compensate for the effects of their moods. All participants then made judgements about the likelihood of future events. Interactions of Memory Valence, Emotionality, and Correction replicated the mood-congruency effects found in other research. Three aspects qualified the results. First, content congruency was found in both emotional and unemotional conditions. Furthermore, this content congruency was corrected for under emotional recall of positive and negative events, although less completely with positive events. Second, the undifferentiated judgement style of positive moods was also corrected for. Third, different correction procedures for styles of judgement were used, depending on whether participants experienced positive or negative moods. The results were discussed with regard to mood congruency and the cognitive-priming and feelings-as-information hypothesis.     

Worrying and rumination are both associated with reduced cognitive control

Persistent negative thought is a hallmark feature of both major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Despite its clinical significance, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of persistent negative thought. Recent studies suggest that reduced cognitive control might be an explanatory factor. We investigated the association between persistent negative thought and switching between internal representations in working memory, using the internal shift task (IST). The IST was administered to a group of undergraduates, classified as high-ruminators versus low-ruminators, or high-worriers versus low-worriers. Results showed that high-ruminators and high-worriers have more difficulties to switch between internal representations in working memory as opposed to low-ruminators and low-worriers. Importantly, results were only significant when the negative stimuli used in the IST reflected personally relevant worry themes for the participants. The results of this study indicate that rumination and worrying are both associated with reduced cognitive control for verbal information that is personally relevant.     

Asymmetries in visuomotor recalibration of time perception: Does causal binding distort the window of integration?

The recalibration of perceived visuomotor simultaneity to vision-lead and movement-lead temporal discrepancies is marked by an underlying causal asymmetry, if the movement (button press) is voluntary and self-initiated; a visual stimulus lagging the button press may be interpreted as causally linked sensory feedback (intentional or causal binding), a leading visual stimulus not. Here, we test whether this underlying causal asymmetry leads to directional asymmetries in the temporal recalibration of visuomotor time perception, using an interval estimation paradigm. Participants were trained to the presence of one of three temporal discrepancies between a motor action (button press) and a visual stimulus (flashed disk): 100 ms vision-lead, simultaneity, and 100 ms movement-lead. By adjusting a point on a visual scale, participants then estimated the interval between the visual stimulus and the button press over a range of discrepancies. Comparing the results across conditions, we found that temporal recalibration appears to be implemented nearly exclusively on the movement-lead side of the range of discrepancies by a uni-lateral lengthening or shortening of the window of temporal integration. Interestingly, this marked asymmetry does not lead to a significantly asymmetrical recalibration of the point of subjective simultaneity or to significant differences in discriminability. This seeming contradiction (symmetrical recalibration of subjective simultaneity and asymmetrical recalibration of interval estimation) poses a challenge to common models of temporal order perception that assume an underlying time measurement process with Gaussian noise. Using a two-criterion model of the window of temporal integration, we illustrate that a compressive bias around perceived simultaneity (temporal integration) even prior to perceptual decisions about temporal order would be very hard to detect given the sensitivity of the psychophysical procedures commonly used.     

Intra-individual variability in task performance after cognitive training is associated with long-term outcomes in children

The potential benefits and mechanistic effects of working memory training (WMT) in children are the subject of much research and debate. We show that after five weeks of school-based, adaptive WMT 6–9 year-old primary school children had greater activity in prefrontal and striatal brain regions, higher task accuracy, and reduced intra-individual variability in response times compared to controls. Using a sequential sampling decision model, we demonstrate that this reduction in intra-individual variability can be explained by changes to the evidence accumulation rates and thresholds. Critically, intra-individual variability is useful in quantifying the immediate impact of cognitive training interventions, being a better predictor of academic skills and well-being 6–12 months after the end of training than task accuracy. Taken together, our results suggest that attention control is the initial mechanism that leads to the long-run benefits from adaptive WMT. Selective and sustained attention abilities may serve as a scaffold for subsequent changes in higher cognitive processes, academic skills, and general well-being. Furthermore, these results highlight that the selection of outcome measures and the timing of the assessments play a crucial role in detecting training efficacy. Thus, evaluating intra-individual variability, during or directly after training could allow for the early tailoring of training interventions in terms of duration or content to maximise their impact.     

Motivational interviewing in health promotion: it sounds like something is changing.

Motivational interviewing (MI), initially developed for addiction counseling, has increasingly been applied in public health, medical, and health promotion settings. This article provides an overview of MI, outlining its philosophic orientation and essential strategies. Major outcome studies are reviewed, nuances associated with the use of MI in health promotion and chronic disease prevention are described, and future directions are offered.     

KNOWLEDGE,VALUES, AND BELIEFS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT SINCE 1948: AN OVERVIEW

In this contribution, an overview of the distinct ways in which the interplay between knowledge, values, and beliefs took shape in the South African context since 1948 is offered. This is framed against the background of the paleontological significance of South Africa and an appreciation of indigenous knowledge systems, but also of the ideological distortion of knowledge and education during the apartheid era through the legacy of neo‐Calvinism. The overview includes references to discourse on human rationality (as an implicit critique against ideology), on the use of social sciences in theological reflection, on the teaching of evolution in public schools, on science and religion, and on religion and ecology. The essay concludes with a survey of some of the major voices regarding the interface between religion and science in South Africa.