Psychophysiological evidence for the genuineness of swimming-style colour synaesthesia

Recently, swimming-style colour synaesthesia was introduced as a new form of synaesthesia. A synaesthetic Stroop test was used to establish its genuineness. Since Stroop interference can occur for any type of overlearned association, in the present study we used a modified Stroop test and psychophysiological synaesthetic conditioning to further establish the genuineness of this form of synaesthesia. We compared the performance of a swimming-style colour synaesthete and a control who was trained on swimming-style colour associations. Our results showed that behavioural aspects of swimming-style colour synaesthesia can be mimicked in a trained control. Importantly, however, our results showed a psychophysiological conditioning effect for the synaesthete only. We discuss the theoretical relevance of swimming-style colour synaesthesia according to different models of synaesthesia. We conclude that swimming-style colour synaesthesia is a genuine form of synaesthesia, can be mimicked behaviourally in non-synaesthetes, and is best explained by a re-entrant feedback model.     

Involvement and outcomes in short-term interpersonal cognitive problem solving groups

This study examined the extent to which patterns of involvement in interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS) groups were predictive of improvements in ICPS skills. Thirty-one 7–8-year-old children were assigned to experimental or control groups. Participants in the experimental group participated in six sessions of ICPS group work. All participants were tested for the ICPS skills of alternative solutions thinking (AST) and consequential thinking (CT) immediately before and after the group work period. As predicted, the experimental group showed significantly greater improvements in AST and CT skills than the control group. Means-end thinking was significantly correlated with improvements in AST and CT, level of involvement and positive behaviour within the groups were predictive of improvements in AST but not CT. Findings indicated the importance of group dynamics for ICPS outcomes and are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical implications.     

Intimate relationship development during the transition to adulthood: differences by social class

This article examines differences in young adults' intimate relationships by social class. Lower-class adolescents are more likely to engage in intimate-relationship practices such as cohabitation, early marriage, and sexual activity that may lead to further economic and educational deprivation. Such adolescents have limited access to the special opportunities of emerging adulthood. Social class indirectly shapes the relationships of groups such as prisoners, military personnel, and sexual minorities whose memberships are highly class graded and who are subject to state-controlled relationship constraints. More research is needed on how laws and institutions constrain even the most intimate features of young lives.     

Intrahemispheric differentiation of vowels: Principal component analysis of auditory evoked responses to computer-synthesized vowel sounds

Auditory evoked brain responses (AER) were recorded in response to a series of synthesized vowel sounds which varied in formant bandwidth. Multivariate analyses indicated that changes in AER component structure recorded from different scalp regions over both hemispheres varied as a function of different vowel sounds and formant bandwidth. No interhemispheric differences in scalp AER distributions were noted.     

A study of posttraumatic stress in a student population

The authors examined the incidence of posttraumatic stress (PTS), with respect to levels of exposure to traumatic events, in a British student population. Respondents (N = 700) completed a standard questionnaire booklet that contained a posttraumatic stress disorder interview. The questionnaire collected personal demographic information and was used by researchers to ascertain whether respondents had experienced a traumatic event. Consistent with previous American studies, PTS was found to be relatively common; 23.3% of the sample showed either current or past PTS. Female participants had a significantly higher incidence of PTS than did male participants, although the latter were more likely to report having experienced a traumatic event. The experience of trauma was significantly associated with the likelihood of PTS. The authors discuss implications of their results in terms of long-term consequences of unresolved trauma.     

Traumatherapy 2001, Part II: The Multiphase-Oriented Approach and the Future

This article is the second part of a two-part contribution that incorporates the author's learning-from-the-trauma patient originally reported in a paper, The Reparation of the Self some 17 years ago. The article discusses the most likely trends in trauma theory and practice, and the multiphase-oriented approach to treatment of biopsychic trauma. Because crystal ball-gazing is not a viable approach to predicting the future of traumatherapy, the present article instead approaches the task of prediction through first understanding historical and contemporary treatment conventions spanning several decades in this century, and describes the principles and processes of the multiphase-oriented treatment model, a system of treating psychological trauma beginning with Pierre Janet.     

Traumatic Stress Personality Disorder (TrSPD), Part III: Mental/Physical Trauma Representations—From Focus on PTSD Symptoms to Inquiry into Who the Victim Has Now Become

Many trauma patients are unwittingly led to believe that once their traumatic memory, dreams, irritability, sleep disorder, and intrusive ideation are under greater control that the work of integration is complete. The point of view here is that victims' biopsychobehavioral trauma symptoms contain the nucleus of a damaged identity system that distorts the self-image and relational functioning. This nucleus is linked to a dissociated representational memory system. It is this memory system which is implicated in some incest survivors' profoundly negative self-perception, as seen in the assertion, I am a tragic, soul-destroyer: look at what I've become! Or in a veteran's belief that I am the Devil for what happened in combat. One crime victim described his dissociated identifications and emotional volatility in terms of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde tendency. Cyclical relational pathology seen so pervasively in the lives of victims are related to these self- and other-representational distortions. Though cognitive and behavioral techniques address the narrative trauma memory system and ameliorate associated distress, these may be less useful in integrating the patient's representational memory system. This article argues that in order to foster post-traumatic integration, the representational memory system may require specialized direct therapeutic action, a focus on mutual relational dynamics between patient and therapist.     

Psychometric properties and correlates of three computer aversion scales

Investigators have employed a variety of constructs and measures to examine individuals’ discomfort with computer use. Models and instruments for measuring constructs such as computer anxiety, computer phobia, and computer aversion have been employed to investigate negative reactions that slow individuals’ acceptance and useful application of computers. Using a large college student sample, we sought to compare the psychometric properties of three computer aversion scales and to investigate their relationships to gender, age, cognitive abilities, and experience with computer use. The results indicated good reliability, good validity coefficients, and similar factor structures for the scales. Younger students, female students, and students with lower mathematical skills and less computer experience were more likely to experience discomfort with computers. Implications include the possibility that if software and hardware alter subjects’ expectations about the difficulty of completing tasks, individual differences in computer aversion are likely to become a source of additional unexplained variance. Such differences must be heeded in software design and in the design of experimental research involving computers as stimulus controllers and response recorders.