The effects of incorrect pain expectations on acquired fear and pain responses

Previous experimental research on the effects of incorrect intensity expectations of aversive events can be criticized because intensity expectations were not manipulated independently from changes in objective intensity. The present study aims at investigating the effects of incorrect intensity expectations on the immediate and later responses to a painful stimulus, and on the acquisition of anticipatory responses, with proper experimental control. Subjects (n = 62) received 20 painful stimuli of varying intensity. In the control group intensities were correctly signalled on all trials by an analogue signal. On 3 trials the signal was too large in the overprediction condition, and too small in the underestimation condition. Underpredicted painful experiences were related to subsequent higher pain responses on the physiological level, but not on the subjective level; and to increased anticipatory responses (increased pain expectations, uncertainty, subjective fear, skin conductance responses). Skin conductance level also indicated increased fear after underpredicted experiences. Overpredicted painful experiences were related to a faster decrease in subjective fear compared to the control group, but did not influence other variables. The findings support the notion that underpredictions contribute to the acquistion of fear and disrupt habituation processes. The asymmetrical processing of the two kinds of incorrectly predicted experiences is discussed.     

What has happened to Pr?gnanz? Coding, stability, or resonance.

Three theoretical measures of Pr?gnanz were compared with four data sets. The theoretical measures were a stimulus-coding one (structural information load, SIL), a measure related to within memory processes (stability), and one based on the interaction of perception and memory (resonance). The four data sets were obtained in two experiments and involved goodness rating, grouping, and immediate and delayed recall. A complete set of seven-element binary serial patterns was used in each experiment. Both SIL and resonance were shown to correlate reliably with the data sets across tasks. The resonance measure, however, performed best. Pr?gnanz thus appears to be explained better by resonance than by stimulus coding or memory storage. Resonance explained all systematic variance in the recall tasks, but not in the other tasks. Regarding these, partial-correlation analyses showed that the effect of stability could be fully reduced to resonance. SIL could not be similarly reduced. Therefore, additional perceptual constraints, other than resonance, would be needed for a complete account of goodness in the judging or grouping tasks.     

Pre-departure language requirements for family reunification

This paper argues that pre-departure language requirements for family reunification are unjustified. Such requirements are assumed to safeguard (1) the non-instrumental cultural interests of citizens of the receiving society and (2) the instrumental language interests of both citizens and immigrants, for democratic life and political participation. The paper explores nationalist and multiculturalist arguments for implementing post-arrival integration to ensure a shared public language but contends that such arguments cannot justify pre-departure language requirements. In addition, instrumental language interests for democratic political life fall empirically short and place undue burdens on immigrants. The case of family reunification poses a unique moral problem, given the vital interest in living with one's family. The paper argues that the linguistic interests of the receiving state, in general, do not outweigh the claim to family reunification.     

Effects of quantity and quality of home proximal processes on Dutch,Surinamese–Dutch and Turkish–Dutch pre‐schoolers’ cognitive development

This study examines the effects of mother–child literacy and problem solving interactions on 3–4‐year‐old children's cognitive development in a sample of Dutch middle‐class, Dutch lower‐class, Surinamese and Turkish immigrant families (n=130). Following the bioecological model of Bronfenbrenner and Ceci, mother–child book reading and problem solving interactions are viewed as proximal processes actualizing genetic cognitive potential. Interactions are studied from a quantitative perspective, based on questionnaire data, concerning frequency of exposure to these interactions, and a qualitative perspective, based on observational data, concerning affective quality and cognitive content. The study was designed as a 1 year longitudinal study. It was found that effects of mother–child interactions on cognitive development differed across the groups, controlling for earlier cognitive competence and family's SES. The findings are interpreted within the frame of the bioecological model and the behavioral genetic research paradigm. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A clinical comparative study evaluating the effect of epilepsy versus ADHD on timed cognitive tasks in children.

Both children with epilepsy and children with ADHD may be characterized by slowing on reaction-time measurement. This is of particular interest, as neuropsychological assessment is often requested in the differential diagnosis between children with short non-convulsive epileptic seizures and children with ADHD. In this study we attempt to identify patterns of impairment on timed tasks that are specific for epilepsy, relative to ADHD. This study was an open, controlled parallel-group clinical investigation which included two groups of patients: 60 children with ADHD and 60 children with epilepsy. These children were compared with a control group (n=30) on two types of timed cognitive tasks: tasks with low information load (simple reaction-time measurement) and tasks with high information load (multiple decision reaction-time measurement). The simple reaction-time measurements show significant differences between ADHD and controls (all except for visual RT non-dominant hand) and between epilepsy and controls (only one test). No significant differences were found between epilepsy and ADHD. The two tests with high information load show significant slowing compared with the controls for epilepsy on the Binary Choice Reaction-Time Test and for ADHD on the Visual Searching Test. On both tests also the differences between epilepsy and ADHD are significant. The two tests in combination have a relatively satisfactory potential to classify the children with ADHD (75% correct classification) and the children with epilepsy (55% correct classification). We may conclude that complex reaction-time tests (i.e., timed tasks with high information load) have potential for assessing the differential impact of ADHD and epilepsy on attentional function. These tasks specifically reveal general slowing for children with epilepsy and slowing as an effect of failures of inhibitory self control on unstructured tasks for ADHD.     

It's not just what you say,it's how you say it too. Adolescents' hostile attribution of intent and emotional responses to social comments

A highly prevalent and relevant situation in which adolescents have to interpret the intentions of others is when they interact with peers. We therefore successfully introduced a new paradigm to measure hostile attribution bias (HAB) and emotional responses to such social interactions and examined how it related to youth's aggressiveness. We presented 881 adolescents (M_age = 14.35 years; SD = 1.23; 48.1% male) with audio fragments of age-mates expressing social comments that varied in content (e.g., what the person says) and tone of voice (e.g., how the person says it). Participants' peers also reported on their aggressiveness. In general, added negativity of content and tone was driving the youth's intent attribution and emotional responses to the comments. In line with the Social Information Processing model, we found more hostile attribution of intent and more negative emotional responses of aggressive youth to ambiguous stimuli. Aggression was also related to more hostile intent attributions when both content and tone were negative. Unlike most studies on HAB, the aggression effects in the current study emerged for girls, but not boys. Implications of these results and future use of the experimental paradigm are discussed.     

The Effects of Cognitive Training on Brain Network Activity and Connectivity in Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases: a Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - Cognitive training (CT) is an increasingly popular, non-pharmacological intervention for improving cognitive functioning in neurodegenerative diseases and healthy aging....     

Suggestions to Improve the Comprehensibility of Current Definitions of Scientific Authorship for International Authors

Science and Engineering Ethics - Much has been said about the need for improving the current definitions of scientific authorship, but an aspect that is often overlooked is how to formulate and...