Imagination inflation for action events: Repeated imaginings lead to illusory recollections

In two experiments, subjects heard simple action statements (e.g., “Break the toothpick”), and, in some conditions, they also performed the action or imagined performing the action. In a second session that occurred at a later point (10 min, 24 h, 1 week, or 2 weeks later), subjects imagined performing actions one, three, or five times. Some imagined actions represented statements heard, imagined, or performed in the first session, whereas other statements were new in the second session. During a third (test) phase, subjects were instructed to recognize statements only if they had occurred during the first session and, if recognized, to tell whether the action statement had been carried out, imagined, or merely heard. The primary finding was that increasing the number of imaginings during the second session caused subjects to remember later that they had performed an action during the first session when in fact they had not (imagination inflation). This outcome occurred both for statements that subjects had heard but not performed during the first session and for statements that had never been heard during the first session. The results are generally consistent with Johnson, Hashtroudi, and Lindsay’s (1993) source monitoring framework and reveal a powerful memory illusion: Imagining performance of an action can cause its recollection as actually having been carried out.     

Social skill in third and sixth grade children: A moderator of lifetime stressful life events and behavior problems?

We investigated relationships among stressful lifetime life events, social skill, and behavior problems in children. Participants were 159 third graders, 138 sixth graders, and their mothers. Mothers reported on their children's life events, social skill, and behavior problems. Children self-reported on their social skill and behavior problems. Increased numbers of stressful life events significantly predicted increased behavior problems in third and sixth graders. Increased social skill significantly predicted decreased behavior problems in third and sixth graders. Social skill served a stress-protective role for third but not sixth graders; third graders with increased life events and better social skill had fewer behavior problems than their less socially skilled peers. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed, and suggestions for future resilience research are presented.     

Prospective incidence of first onsets and recurrences of depression in individuals at high and low cognitive risk for depression

Do negative cognitive styles provide similar vulnerability to first onsets versus recurrences of depressive disorders, and are these associations specific to depression? The authors followed for 2.5 years prospectively college freshmen (N = 347) with no initial psychiatric disorders at high-risk (HR) versus low-risk (LR) for depression on the basis of their cognitive styles. HR participants had odds of major, minor, and hopelessness depression that were 3.5-6.8 times greater than the odds for LR individuals. Negative cognitive styles were similarly predictive of first onsets and recurrences of major depression and hopelessness depression but predicted first onsets of minor depression more strongly than recurrences. The risk groups did not differ in incidence of anxiety disorders not comorbid with depression or other disorders, but HR participants were more likely to have an onset of anxiety comorbid with depression.     

Revisiting Viktor Frankl: his contributions to the contemporary interest in spirituality and health care

The case is made for location of spirituality to be in the body, and at the same time for the power of the spirit to transcend the body when it is afflicted. The author highlights Viktor Frankl's strongest convictions that one can survive through the shear power of one's spirit. Correspondingly, the promise of resurrection can help a Christian to maintain a vision of life, stay courageous though there may be no hope of tomorrow as we have known it. The author asserts the role of the hospital chaplain in helping the sick person to draw upon his or her spiritual strength to cope with their physical illness or affliction.     

Applying the concept of lifestyle in association with aggression and violence in Greek cohabitating couples

The current study investigated the role of lifestyle as a significant factor related to the aggression and violence between cohabitating partners. Based on previous research, lifestyle was defined as a special reflection of socialization into society and working life, where different lifestyles should also be able to produce different patterns of socialization into people's roles as partners. It was found that gender and years of cohabitating were significantly related to Emotional aggression and Sexual violence; lifestyle patterns were associated with specific forms of violence. More specifically, the lifestyles of Pleasure & Elegance and the one of Culture-Intellectualism were found to promote Emotional aggression. Also, the lifestyle of Yuppies/Workaholic and that of Physical activities stimulated the appearance of Sexual violence between partners. Moreover, individuals with Tradition-Religiousness lifestyle were more likely to show lower levels of Physical & Sexual violence while the adherents of the Substance abuse lifestyle pattern appeared to have an inclination towards Physical & Sexual Violence. Finally, the occurrence of one form of violent behaviour was likely to be related to the other forms of violent behaviour.     

The role of cluster B and C personality disturbance in the course of depression: a prospective study

The association between personality disturbance and depression has been noted consistently. Prospective tests of personality's impact on the course of depression, however, are lacking. In a sample of 159 undergraduates who experienced at least one prospective depressive episode, dimensional scores for clusters B and C personality disturbance were examined as prospective predictors of four indicators of the course of depression: severity, episode duration, symptomatic chronicity and number of episodes. Cluster C personality disturbance, characterized by anxious and fearful features, predicted depression chronicity. Cluster B, characterized by dramatic, emotional and/or erratic features, predicted severity and duration of depression. The findings are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms underlying the effects of clusters B and C, as well as implications for future research.     

Personality and Intelligence in Business People: A Study of Two Personality and Two Intelligence Measures

This study examined the overlap and correlations among two well-known personality measures (NEO-PI–R; Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI) and two widely used intelligence tests (the Graduate Management Assessment (GMA), Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA)). The GMA measures both fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc), whereas WGCTA mainly assess Gc. A total of over 3,500 participants completed the four measures in a middle management assessment event. Correlational analysis showed that Extraversion on the MBTI tended to be associated with Openness and Stability on the NEO. Intuition was associated with Openness and Introversion. Feeling types tended to be both Agreeable and Neurotic while perceiving types were high on Openness but low on Agreeableness. The NEO Big Five factor of Openness was most consistently and significantly associated with both measures of intelligence (r = .09 to r =.12). Results from the MBTI showed that Intuition and Perceiving scores were positively and significantly associated with both intelligence test scores which were intercorrelated (r = .38). Regressional analysis showed that personality traits are logically and coherently related to intelligence test scores. Implications for selection and assessment are considered.     

Prospective memory and pediatric traumatic brain injury: effects of cognitive demand.

This study investigated the effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) on prospective memory. Fourteen children and 14 adolescents with TBI were compared with 25 and 23 noninjured children and adolescents, respectively. Based on a prefrontal model, the cognitive demand on the ongoing component of a prospective-memory task was manipulated. Overall, those with TBI had poorer prospective-memory performance than their noninjured peers. Performance was worse in a high cognitive-demand condition than a low, and younger children performed worse than adolescents. Decreases in performance from the low- to high-demand conditions were not significantly different between the two children's groups but were between the two adolescents' groups. Furthermore, the age and injury effects were reflected in the performances on executive function tests: the Self-ordered Pointing Task (SOPT), and the Stroop Color Word Interference Test. The Tower of London (TOL), which did not produce age or injury effects, was nevertheless found to be an important predictor of performance on the high-demand task in those with TBI. Although previous research has demonstrated impaired prospective memory performance in children with TBI, this study attempted to explain why this might occur, specifically that the prefrontal regions might be implicated.     

Mental representation of symbols as revealed by vocabulary errors in two bonobos (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pan paniscus</Emphasis>)

Error analysis has been used in humans to detect implicit representations and categories in language use. The present study utilizes the same technique to report on mental representations and categories in symbol use from two bonobos (Pan paniscus). These bonobos have been shown in published reports to comprehend English at the level of a two-and-a-half year old child and to use a keyboard with over 200 visuographic symbols (lexigrams). In this study, vocabulary test errors from over 10 years of data revealed auditory, visual, and spatio-temporal generalizations (errors were more likely items that looked like sounded like, or were frequently associated with the sample item in space or in time), as well as hierarchical and conceptual categorizations. These error data, like those of humans, are a result of spontaneous responding rather than specific training and do not solely depend upon the sample mode (e.g. auditory similarity errors are not universally more frequent with an English sample, nor were visual similarity errors universally more frequent with a photograph sample). However, unlike humans, these bonobos do not make errors based on syntactical confusions (e.g. confusing semantically unrelated nouns), suggesting that they may not separate syntactical and semantic information. These data suggest that apes spontaneously create a complex, hierarchical, web of representations when exposed to a symbol system. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.