Follow your heart: Emotion adaptively influences perception

The current review introduces a new program of research that suggests the perception of spatial layout is influenced by emotions. Though perceptual systems are often described as closed and insulated, this review presents research suggesting that a variety of induced emotions (e.g., fear, disgust, sadness) can produce changes in vision and audition. Thus, the perceptual system may be highly interconnected, allowing emotional information to influence perceptions that, in turn, influence cognition. The body of work presented here also suggests that emotion-based changes in perception help us solve particular adaptive problems because emotion does not change all perceptions of the world. Taking the adaptive significance of emotion into account allows us to make predictions about when and how emotion influences perception.     

Strategies used with intrusive thoughts: a comparison of OCD patients with anxious and community controls

Models of intrusive thoughts attribute a key role to strategies used by people to cope with their unwanted cognitions. In an extension of previous work, the authors conducted structured interviews with 38 people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, 38 people with another anxiety disorder, and 19 healthy volunteers. The interview identified the repertoire of strategies used with the participant's most troubling thought. The 2 clinical groups reported significantly more strategies than the nonclinical group. The clinical groups also reported significantly greater intensity of the thought and their emotional response and lower efficacy for the strategies. People with OCD reported a significantly higher proportion of strategies that were specifically linked to the thought content (as distinct from nonspecific strategies that were only linked sequentially in time). The results identify both common and differential characteristics of intrusive cognition in anxiety disorders.     

Spatial encoding of hidden objects in dogs (Canis familiaris)

The authors investigated the type of spatial information that controls domestic dogs' (Canis familiaris) search behavior in a situation in which they have to locate a spatial position where they saw an object move and disappear. In Experiments 1 and 2, the authors manipulated all local and global sources of allocentric spatial information surrounding the hiding location. The results revealed that dogs relied on an egocentric frame of reference. Experiment 3 showed that dogs also encoded allocentric information when egocentric information was irrelevant. The authors conclude that dogs simultaneously encode both egocentric and allocentric spatial information to locate a spatial position, but they primarily base their search behavior on an egocentric frame of reference. The authors discuss under which natural conditions dogs might use these 2 sources of spatial information and detail the nature of spatial egocentric information and the circumstances underlying its use by dogs.     

Processing of metaphoric and non-metaphoric alternative meanings of words after right- and left-hemispheric lesion

This study examines the specificity of the contribution of the right hemisphere to the processing of metaphoric meaning of words. Ten right- and 10 left-hemisphere-damaged subjects, and 20 normal control subjects were submitted to: (1) a word-triad task where they had to associate alternative metaphoric and non-metaphoric words to a target word, and to (2) a word-dyad task where they had to decide whether or not there was a semantic relationship between two words. The two tasks aimed at differentiating between the subjects' preference for a given semantic meaning versus a genuine semantic deficit for a particular meaning. Results revealed that both right- and left-hemisphere-damaged groups presented a genuine semantic deficit for the processing of metaphoric meaning. The absence of a double dissociation between the two brain-damaged groups does not support the hypothesis of a specific contribution of the right-hemisphere to the processing of metaphoric meaning of words.     

Validation française d'un inventaire de micro-stresseurs de la vie quotidienne: combinaison du “Daily Hassles Scale” et du “Uplifts Scale”

Ce travail présente les résultats d'une étude de validité de la version française d'un instrument d'auto-évaluation des micro-stresseurs de la vie quotidienne (“Daily Hassles Scale”; “Uplifts Scale”; Lazarus & Folkman, 1989). Les informations de validité reposent sur des structures factorielles ainsi que des analyses de cohérence interne et de convergence avec une mesure de stress psychologique (MSP: Lemyre, Tessier, & Fillion, 1990). Auprès d'une communauté universitaire (N = 265), six facteurs d'embětements quotidiens et cinq facteurs d'encouragements journaliers ont été isolés. Comme prévu, le score d'intensité aux différents facteurs d'embětements corrèle positivement et significativement avec l'état d'ětre stressé ce qui n'est pas le cas des encouragements quotidiens. La discussion soulève la nécessité d'utiliser différents groupes de micro-stresseurs plutôt qu'un facteur général. Elle évalue également le rôle ambigu des encouragements quotidiens comme facteur de protection dans l'expérience du stress.     

Defining clinically significant changes in the treatment of child stutterers.

This study established a clinically significant criterion to evaluate outcomes of children's stuttering therapy. 30 stutterers, ages 6 to 15 years, and 30 non-stutterers served as subjects. Speech samples were recorded and the percentage of stuttered syllables and rate of speech analyzed. According to Jacobson and Revenstorf's procedure, 3% of stuttered syllables and 160 syllables per minute should become the target behaviors in the treatment of children's stuttering.     

Disruptive boys with stable and unstable high fighting behavior patterns during junior elementary school

Boys' fighting was assessed at ages six, eight, and nine. The boys (N = 69) had been selected from the 30% most disruptive children in kindergartens from low socioeconomic neighborhoods. Twenty-three percent of these disruptive boys were rated as high fighters on three assessments ("stable high fighters"), and 28% were rated as high fighters on two of the three assessments ("variable high fighters"). Forty-two percent were rated as high fighters only one out of three assessments ("occasional high fighters") and 7% were never rated as high fighters. Only high fighting in two successive years significantly increased the risk of being rated a high fighter in a following year. At age 10, stable high fighters (high fighters at ages 6, 8, 9) were perceived by teachers, peers, mothers, and the boys themselves as more disruptive and more antisocial than occasional high fighters. These results show an impressive self-other agreement in boys who have adopted a physically aggressive life style from an early age. The three groups did not differ on individual family demographic characteristics, but stable high fighters had a higher mean on an index of family socioeconomic disadvantage. Results indicate that the aggression scales which include only a few physical aggression items and many disruptive items (oppositional behavior, rejection, hyperactivity, inattention, etc.) probably aggregate two kinds of disruptive boys, the high-frequency fighters at high risk for stable disruptive, physically aggressive, and antisocial behaviors, and the disruptive low-frequency fighters who are at a lower risk of stable disruptive behavior and at a lower risk of early antisocial behavior.     

Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms that Predict Cognitive Decline or Impairment in Cognitively Normal Middle-Aged or Older Adults: a Meta-Analysis

Neuropsychology Review - Epidemiological studies have revealed that behavioral and psychological (or non-cognitive) symptoms are risk factors for cognitive decline in older adults. This study aimed...     

Desire for euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in palliative cancer care.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the attitudes of terminally ill individuals toward the legalization of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and to identify those who would personally desire such a death. DESIGN: In the Canadian National Palliative Care Survey, semistructured interviews were administered to 379 patients who were receiving palliative care for cancer. Patients who expressed a desire for physician-hastened death were followed prospectively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Attitudes toward the legalization of euthanasia or PAS were determined, as was the personal interest in receiving a hastened death. Demographic and clinical characteristics were also recorded, including a 22-item structured interview of symptoms and concerns. RESULTS: There were 238 participants (62.8%) who believed that euthanasia and/or PAS should be legalized, and 151 (39.8%) who would consider making a future request for a physician-hastened death. However, only 22 (5.8%) reported that, if legally permissible, they would initiate such a request right away, in their current situations. This desire for hastened death was associated with lower religiosity (p=.010), reduced functional status (p=.024), a diagnosis of major depression (p<.001), and greater distress on 12 of 22 individual symptoms and concerns (p<.025). In follow-up interviews with 17 participants, 2 (11.8%) showed instability in their expressed desire. CONCLUSION: Among patients receiving palliative care for cancer, the desire to receive euthanasia or PAS is associated with religious beliefs; functional status; and physical, social, and psychological symptoms and concerns. Although this desire is sometimes transitory, once firmly established, it can be enduring.     

Is the Effect of Behavioral Synchrony on Cooperative Behavior Mediated by Pain Threshold?

Synchronized behavior results in a variety of prosocial behaviors. Research has also implicated that interpersonal synchrony affects pain thresholds, inferred as indicative of endorphin levels. The current study was designed to see if these pain threshold effects mediated the effect of synchrony on interpersonal cooperation. Twenty six individuals were randomly assigned to complete a 30 minute run on a treadmill in either a synchronized or nonsynchronized condition. Pain threshold was measured both before and after exercise as an indicator of endorphin activity. A postrun social investment game measured interpersonal cooperation. Analyses showed that there was a significant direct relationship between condition and cooperation but that this effect was not mediated by pain threshold.