Relation of Repetitive Thinking Styles with Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between the repetitive thinking styles and anxiety and depression in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). One hundred IBD outpatients (39 active and 61 remission) attending the gastroenterology clinic and 100 healthy controls were included.The rumination and worry scores of IBD patients, particularly in their active period, were significantly higher than controls. Additionally, the correlation of rumination and worry with anxiety and depression was statistically significant. Our results suggest that psychological interventions targeting repetitive thinking would alleviate depression and anxiety as well as GI symptoms in people with IBD which should be confirmed by further studies.

     

Active hippocampus during nonconscious memories

The hippocampal formation is known for its importance in conscious, declarative memory. Here, we report neuroimaging evidence in humans for an additional role of the hippocampal formation in nonconscious memory. We maskedly presented combinations of faces and written professions such that subjects were not aware of them. Nevertheless, the masked presentations activated many of the brain regions that unmasked presentations of these stimuli did. To induce a nonconscious retrieval of the faces and face-associated occupational information, subjects were instructed to view the previously masked faces and to guess the professional category of each person--academic, artist, and workman. Guessing the professional category of previously masked versus new faces activated the left and right hippocampal formation and right perirhinal cortex as well as bilateral fusiform areas and fronto-temporal areas known to mediate the retrieval of semantic information. These activations within the semantic processing system suggest that conceptual knowledge acquired during masking was nonconsciously retrieved. Our data provide clues to an analogous role of the hippocampus in conscious and nonconscious memory.     

A matter of time: Antecedents of one-reason decision making based on recognition

The notion of adaptive decision making implies that strategy selection in both inferences and preferences is driven by a trade-off between accuracy and effort. A strategy for probabilistic inferences which is particularly attractive from this point of view is the recognition heuristic (RH). It proposes that judgments rely on recognition in isolation-ignoring any further information that might be available-and thereby allows for substantial effort-reduction. Consequently, it is herein hypothesized that and tested whether increased necessity of effort-reduction-as implemented via time pressure-fosters reliance on the RH. Two experiments corroborated that this was the case, even with relatively mild time pressure. In addition, this result held even when non-compliance with the response deadline did not yield negative monetary consequences. The current investigations are among the first to tackle the largely open question of whether effort-related factors influence the reliance on heuristics in memory-based decisions.     

Collective action control by goals and plans: applying a self-regulation perspective to group performance

In celebration of the 125th anniversary of The American Journal of Psychology, this article discusses a seminal publication by Marjorie Shaw (1932) on small group performance in the rational solution of complex problems. We then propose an approach for the effective regulation of group goal striving based on the collective action control perspective. From this perspective, group performance might be hindered by a collective intention-behavior gap: Groups fail to act on their intentions despite being strongly committed to the collective goal, knowing what the necessary actions are, and being capable of performing them. To reduce this gap, we suggest specific if-then plans (implementation intentions) in which groups specify when, where, and how to act toward their collective goal as an easily applicable self-regulation strategy to automate collective action control. Studies in which implementation intentions improved group performance in hidden profile, escalation of commitment, and cooperation task paradigms are reported and discussed.     

Longitudinal treatment mediation of traditional cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy for anxiety disorders

ObjectiveTo assess the relationship between session-by-session putative mediators and treatment outcomes in traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for mixed anxiety disorders.MethodSession-by-session changes in anxiety sensitivity and cognitive defusion were assessed in 67 adult outpatients randomized to CBT (n = 35) or ACT (n = 32) for a DSM-IV anxiety disorder.ResultsMultilevel mediation analyses revealed significant changes in the proposed mediators during both treatments (p < .001, d = .90–1.93), with ACT showing borderline greater improvements than CBT in cognitive defusion (p = .05, d = .82). Anxiety sensitivity and cognitive defusion both significantly mediated post-treatment worry; cognitive defusion more strongly predicted worry reductions in CBT than in ACT. In addition, cognitive defusion significantly mediated quality of life, behavioral avoidance, and (secondary) depression outcomes across both CBT and ACT (p < .05, R² change = .06–.13), whereas anxiety sensitivity did not significantly mediate other outcomes.ConclusionsCognitive defusion represents an important source of therapeutic change across both CBT and ACT. The data offered little evidence for substantially distinct treatment-related mediation pathways.     

Adult age differences in categorization and multiple-cue judgment

We often need to infer unknown properties of objects from observable ones, just like detectives must infer guilt from observable clues and behavior. But how do inferential processes change with age? We examined young and older adults' reliance on rule-based and similarity-based processes in an inference task that can be considered either a categorization or a multiple-cue judgment task, depending on the nature of the criterion (binary vs. continuous). Both older and young adults relied on rule-based processes in the multiple-cue judgment task. In the categorization task, however, the majority of older adults relied on rule-based processes while young adults preferred similarity-based processes. Moreover, older adults who relied on rule-based processes performed poorly compared with young adults who relied on the same process, suggesting that aging is associated with deficits in applying rule-based processes.     

Acoustic variability and individual distinctiveness in the vocal repertoire of red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus)

Acoustic variability and individual distinctiveness of vocal signals are expected to vary with both their communicative function and the need for individual recognition during social interactions. So far, few attempts have been made to comparatively study these features across the different call types within a species' vocal repertoire. We collected recordings of the six most common call types from 14 red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus) to assess intra- and interindividual acoustic variability, using a range of temporal and frequency parameters. Acoustic variability was highest in contact and threat calls, intermediate in food calls, and lowest in loud and alarm calls. Individual distinctiveness was high in contact, threat, loud and alarm calls, and low in food calls. In sum, calls mediating intragroup social interactions were structurally most variable and individually most distinctive, highlighting the key role that social factors must have played in the evolution of the vocal repertoire in this species. We discuss these findings in light of existing hypotheses of acoustic variability in primate vocal behavior.     

How central is the alliance in psychotherapy? A multilevel longitudinal meta-analysis

Prior meta-analyses have found a moderate but robust relationship between alliance and outcome across a broad spectrum of treatments, presenting concerns, contexts, and measurements. However, there continues to be a lively debate about the therapeutic role of the alliance, particularly in treatments that are tested using randomized clinical trial (RCT) designs. The purpose of this present study was to examine whether research design, type of treatment, or author's allegiance variables, alone or in combination, moderate the relationship between alliance and outcome. Multilevel longitudinal analysis was used to investigate the following moderators of the alliance-outcome correlation: (a) research design (RCT or other), (b) use of disorder-specific manuals, (c) specificity of outcomes, (d) cognitive and/or behavioral therapy (CBT) or other types of treatments, (e) researcher allegiance, and (f) time of alliance assessment. RCT, disorder-specific manual use, specificity of primary and secondary outcomes, and CBT did not moderate the alliance-outcome correlation. Early alliance-outcome correlations were slightly higher in studies conducted by investigators with specific interest in alliance than were those in studies conducted by researchers without such an allegiance. Over the course of therapy, these initial differences disappeared. Apart from this trend, none of the variables previously proposed as potential moderators or mediators of the alliance-outcome relation, alone or in combination, were found to have a mediating impact.     

Valuing clients' perspective and the effects on the therapeutic alliance: a randomized controlled study of an adjunctive instruction

The patterns of growth and development of the therapeutic alliance over the course of therapy have been of continued interest to psychotherapy researchers. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a simple institutional metacommunication intervention with clients had an effect on the development of the alliance. This adjunctive instruction involved inviting therapy clients to take a proactive role in their treatment by encouraging feedback to their therapist about various aspects of the therapy process. In this randomized controlled study (N = 94), clients were assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: (a) an institutional adjunctive instruction condition in which patients were contacted by clinic personnel at the beginning of the remediation phase (Session 5) and encouraged to take a proactive role in their treatment and (b) a control condition that contained no institutional adjunctive instruction. Between-condition differences in the alliance were tested, controlling for baseline influences and the early therapeutic alliance. Clients' postsession reports from Sessions 1 to 24 indicated that the adjunctive instruction increased the alliance over the course of therapy vis-à-vis the control condition. The adjunctive instruction appeared to have fostered clients' evaluation of their therapists' interest in their welfare. The results indicate that interventions, even brief or subtle, can produce lasting benefits in the alliance when targeted at specific psychological processes. Systematic metacommunication from the institutional level appeared to reinforce clients' therapeutic alliance with their therapists in individual treatment.