Stability in alexithymia levels: A longitudinal analysis on various emotional answers

Alexithymia refers to a specific disturbance in emotional processing that is manifested through difficulties in identifying and verbalizing feelings, and a tendency to focus and amplify the somatic sensations accompanying emotional arousal. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the stability levels of alexithymia related to changes in emotional distress levels caused by university exams at two different times: after and during the exams. We carried out a 17-week follow-up on 36 university students, alexithymic features and self-reported emotional distress (anxiety, depression and somatic illness) were measured. Whereas emotional distress measures changed significantly during the follow-up period, the degree of alexithymia remained unchanged. We conclude therefore that alexithymia presents a constant trait in non-clinical samples, in contrast to anxiety and depression, which are state phenomena, influenced by stress levels.     

Intellectual,academic, and adaptive functioning of Tourette syndrome children with and without attention deficit disorder

The intellectual, academic, and adaptive strengths and weaknesses of 30, medication-free children (M = 10.5 years) with Tourette syndrome (TS) were assessed with a battery of standardized psychoeducational measures and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Results indicated significant relative weaknesses in mental and written arithmetic, and relative strengths in reading achievement and abstract, logical thinking. Socialization skills emerged as a significant weakness in adaptive functioning. Comparisons between TS children with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADD-H) (n = 19) weakness in both groups in all areas assessed, but significantly lower performance IQs in TS subjects with ADD-H. These findings are discussed in relation to future research with TS children.     

Psychological Distress,Anxiety, and Depression of Cancer-Affected BRCA1/2 Mutation Carriers: a Systematic Review

Understanding the intermediate- and long-term psychological consequences of genetic testing for cancer patients has led to encouraging research, but a clear consensus of the psychosocial impact and clinical routine for cancer-affected BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers is still missing. We performed a systematic review of intermediate- and long-term studies investigating the psychological impact like psychological distress, anxiety, and depression in cancer-affected BRCA mutation carriers compared to unaffected mutation carriers. This review included the screening of 1243 studies. Eight intermediate- and long-term studies focusing on distress, anxiety, and depression symptoms among cancer-affected mutation carriers at least six months after the disclosure of genetic testing results were included. Studies reported a great variety of designs, methods, and patient outcomes. We found evidence indicating that cancer-affected mutation carriers experienced a negative effect in relation to psychological well-being in terms of an increase in symptoms of distress, anxiety, and depression in the first months after test disclosure. In the intermediate- and long-term, no significant clinical relevant symptoms occurred. However, none of the included studies used specific measurements, which can clearly identify psychological burdens of cancer-affected mutation carriers. We concluded that current well-implemented distress screening instruments are not sufficient for precisely identifying the psychological burden of genetic testing. Therefore, future studies should implement coping strategies, specific personality structures, the impact of genetic testing, supportive care needs and disease management behaviour to clearly screen for the possible intermediate- and long-term psychological impact of a positive test disclosure.     

Morpho-orthographic segmentation without semantics

Masked priming studies have repeatedly provided evidence for a form-based morpho-orthographic segmentation mechanism that blindly decomposes any word with the mere appearance of morphological complexity (e.g., corn + er). This account has been called into question by Baayen et al. Psychological Review, 118, 438–482 (2011), who pointed out that the prime words previously tested in the morpho-orthographic condition vary in the extent to which the suffix conveys regular meaning. In the present study, we investigated whether evidence for morpho-orthographic segmentation can be obtained with a set of tightly controlled prime words that are entirely semantically opaque. Using a visual lexical decision task, we compared priming from truly suffixed primes (hunter-HUNT), completely opaque pseudo-suffixed primes (corner-CORN), and non-suffixed primes (cashew-CASH). The results show comparable magnitudes of priming for the truly suffixed and pseudo-suffixed primes, and no priming from non-suffixed primes, and therefore provide further important evidence in support of morpho-orthographic segmentation processes operating in the absence of any possible role for semantics.     

The effects of generation on item and order retention in immediate and delayed recall

Recent research has shown that generating words from fragments, relative to simply reading them, inhibits processing of order information. Nairne, Riegler, and Serra (1991) showed that this reduction in processing of order information leads to deficits in recall performance. In three experiments, we generally replicate Nairne et al.'s results and demonstrate that the deficit in recall for the generated items is dependent on the easy distractor task and the relatively short (30-sec) retention interval they used. When a difficult distractor task was used, generating produced a deficit in amount of order information processed, but actually facilitated recall when recall was delayed 80 sec. The results are consistent with the hypothesisthat generating words inhibits order processing, but they do not support the contention that the reduction in order pro~ cessing isresponsible for the deficit in recall that is sometimes observed for the generated items.     

Coping With a Health Threat: A Study of Food Safety1

The coping strategies used to respond to the perceived health threat of contaminated food are examined. Six hundred and thirty randomly selected adults in the state of Iowa responded to a mailed questionnaire asking their attitudes and behaviors concerning food safety. A principal component analysis of coping measure identified two distinct coping strategies–problem solving and fatalism/avoidance/ trust. Multiple regression analysis showed that the respondents who tended to be health conscious (i. e., engaged in health protective behaviors and had better quality diets) and perceived unsafe food as a personal threat and a social problem were more likely to select problem solving as a coping mechanism. The respondents who were low in health consciousness were more likely to select the approaches of fatalism/ avoidance. Social class variables did not differentiate coping strategies.     

The Evaluative Factor of Risk Perception

This study was aimed at identifying an evaluative factor in perceived risk that was independent of the previously identified Dread and Knowledge factors. The methodology used was that developed by Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein (1985a) with the addition of four new dimensions: personal position, economic justification, justification through well-being, and beneficial to society. This evaluative factor was identified, and loads the four above-mentioned dimensions while excluding 11 others. This evaluative factor primarily emerges as a major determinant in subjects' demands for risk control legislation.     

Book notes

Lexikon der Sekten, Sondergruppen und Weltanschauungen: Fakten, Hin‐tergründe, Klärungen, 5th edn. Hans Gasper, Joachim Müller, Friederike Valentin, eds., 1997 Freiburg: Herder 1255 pp., DM 29, 80 (pb) ISBN 3–451–04271–1

Islam: A Very Short Introduction. Mause Ruthven, 1997 Oxford: Oxford University Press 162 pp., £4.99 (pb) ISBN 0–19–285334–1

Religion and the Order of Nature. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1996 Oxford: Oxford University Press 310 pp., £53.50 (hb), £15.50 (pb) ISBN 0–19510274–6 (hb), ISBN 0–19–510823‐X (pb)

The Intellectual Foundations of Christian and Jewish Discourse: The Philosophy of Religious Argument. Jacob Neusner & Bruce Chilton, 1997 London, New York: Routledge 184 pp., £13.99 (pb) ISBN 0–415–15399–9

The Way Forward? Christian Voices on Homosexuality and the Church. Timothy Bradshaw, ed., 1997 London: Hodder & Stoughton 229 pp., £8.99 (pb) ISBN 0–340–69393–2

Faith in the Revolution: The Political Theologies of Müntzer and Winstanley. Andrew Bradstock, 1997 London: SPCK 210 pp., £17.50 (pb) ISBN 0–281–05067–8

The Reception of the Faith: Reinterpreting the Gospel for Today. Gillian R. Evans, 1997 London: SPCK 229 pp., £15.99 (pb) ISBN 0–281–05092–9

The Bhagavad Gita: A Verse Translation. Geoffrey Parrinder, 1996 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 134 pp., £6.99 (pb) ISBN 1–85168–117–5     

Plasticity of brain and cognition in older adults

Aging is typically related to changes in brain and cognition, but the aging process is heterogeneous and differs between individuals. Recent research has started investigating the influence of cognitive and physical training on cognitive performance, functional brain activity, and brain structure in old age. The functional relevance of neural changes and the interactions among these changes following interventions is still a matter of debate. Here we selectively review research on structural and functional brain correlates of training-induced performance changes in healthy older adults and present exemplary longitudinal intervention studies sorted by the type of training applied (i.e., strategy-based training, process-specific training, and physical exercise). Although many training studies have been conducted recently, within each task domain, the number of studies that used comparable methods and techniques to assess behavioral and neural changes is limited. We suggest that future studies should include a multimodal approach to enhance the understanding of the relation between different levels of brain changes in aging and those changes that result from training. Investigating inter-individual differences in intervention-induced behavioral and neuronal changes would provide more information about who would benefit from a specific intervention and why. In addition, a more systematic examination of the time course of training-related structural and functional changes would improve the current level of knowledge about how learning is implemented in the brain and facilitate our understanding of contradictory results.     

Responses: Toward an Antiracist Pedagogy

The authors respond here to each other's essays published in this issue of the journal. In “Holding Us Accountable,” Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko respond to Karen Teel's essay, “Getting Out of the Left Lane.” In “Challenges and Convergences,” Karen Teel responds to the essay “Teaching Race” by Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko.