Control over speeded actions: a common processing locus for micro- and macro-trade-offs?

Cognitive control processes associated with long- and short-term adjustments of human behaviour have attracted much interest recently. It is still unclear, however, whether the mechanisms underlying these adjustments share a common locus within the chain of stimulus-response processing. In order to address this issue, the present study employed a speed-accuracy instruction producing a macro-trade-off, whereas micro-trade-off was studied by means of posterror slowing in reaction time (RT). Participants performed a spatially compatible or incompatible four-stimuli-to-two-response alternative choice RT task. Reliable variations in micro-and macro-trade-off as well as effects of spatial compatibility were found in RT and error rate. Most importantly, posterror slowing was larger when instruction stressed accuracy rather than speed, an effect being independent of spatial compatibility. Because the influence of speed-accuracy instruction and posterror slowing on performance was strongest for response alternations, together present findings suggest that the mechanisms underlying micro- and macro-trade-offs have one common locus at the level of motor processing. Additional influences of macro-trade-off on premotoric processing are likely.     

Stria Terminalis Lesions Attenuate Memory Enhancement Produced by Intracaudate Nucleus Injections of Oxotremorine

The present study examined the role of the stria terminalis in modulating the memory enhancement produced by posttraining intracaudate nucleus injection of oxotremorine. Male Sprague–Dawley rats with either sham operations or bilateral lesions of the stria terminalis (ST) were trained on a one-trial inhibitory-avoidance task and received a unilateral posttraining intracaudate injection of either a buffer vehicle or the cholinergic agonist oxotremorine (0.3 μg/0.5 μl) into a medial region of the caudate nucleus innervated by the ST. Intracaudate injection of oxotremorine improved memory in sham-operated rats. Although ST lesions did not affect retention in rats given intracaudate injections of the buffer vehicle, ST lesions attenuated the memory enhancement produced by posttraining intracaudate injection of oxotremorine. In view of anatomical evidence indicating that amygdalostriatal projections are nonreciprocol, the present findings suggest that amygdalaoutputvia the ST is essential for memory enhancement produced by intracaudate injection of oxotremorine.     

Obligatory and optional personal life investments in old and very old age: Validation and functional relations

Personal life investment (PLI) measures motivational energy invested in central life domains. We distinguished between obligatory PLIs, that is, required investments, and optional PLIs, that is, investments that are possible but not necessary. Data from the Berlin Aging Study (N = 516; 70–103 years) were employed to investigate the validity of this distinction. We further explored how both PLI types relate to aging satisfaction and whether associations with validation variables and satisfaction differed depending on resource limitations (poor health). As expected based on conceptual affinities between the distinctions of obligatory-optional PLI and approach-avoidance tendencies, both PLI types showed positive relations with extraversion (a correlate of approach), but only obligatory PLI was positively related to neuroticism (a correlate of avoidance). Optional PLI (not obligatory PLI) was related to higher aging satisfaction, but only in fairly healthy people. This underscores differential functional relations of optional PLI depending on resource availability.

How Do People Change their Lives? The Role of the Narrative Interview and the Biographical Trajectory for Social Work and Pastoral Care in the United States

Pastoral Psychology - Qualitative methods, and specifically narrative interviews, have received increasing attention in recent years in the United States and the English-speaking world in general....     

Behavioural automaticity moderates and mediates the relationship of trait self-control and physical activity behaviour

Objectives: Trait self-control has been shown to be associated with physical activity behaviour. However, in contrast with the theoretical assumption underlying the strength model of self-control, self-control seems to be more important for automatic compared with controlled behaviours. It is argued that self-control might facilitate the formation of adaptive habits (behavioural automaticity) and therefore enhance health behaviour through an indirect effect. The credibility of this hypothesis was empirically assessed in a proof-of-concept study.

Methods: In a prospective design study with two laboratory sessions, participants (N = 124) completed standardised questionnaires assessing trait self-control and behavioural automaticity as predictors (1st session) and actual physical activity behaviour (after one week) as the dependent variable (2nd session).

Results: The predictive power of self-control was stronger for participants with high behavioural automaticity compared with participants with low behavioural automaticity. Furthermore, automaticity mediated the relationship between self-control and behaviour.

Discussion: Behavioural automaticity appears to be a helpful construct for specifying the relationship between self-control and physical activity. Our results support the approach of effortless self-control and self-control success, an extension of the strength model of self-control which assumes that self-control is helpful in creating effective routines. In future studies, causal relationships should be examined using more robust and rigorous research designs.     

The Lazarus Project and Grace Ministries: The Role of Religious Nonprofits in Addressing Personal and Social Problems

This review essay of Williamson and Hood’s (2016) Psychology and Spiritual Transformation in a Substance Abuse Program: The Lazarus Project examines spiritual transformation in the context of substance abuse and homelessness. The essay first tackles the question of whether change results mostly from individual spiritual transformation experiences or from the social surroundings the converts are part of, based on the author’s research on spiritual transformation and homelessness as well as Williamson and Hood’s work, and then it examines the debate surrounding the application of Foucault’s “technologies of the self” to programs that are similar to the Lazarus Project. The last part of the essay offers a few methodological suggestions for studies of similar projects.     

Self-projection in middle childhood: a study on the relationship between theory of mind and episodic future thinking

Cognitive Processing - Growing evidence suggests that theory of mind (ToM) and episodic future thinking (EFT) are closely related at both brain and functional level. This study explored the...     

Twenty Years Post‐genocide: The Creation of Mental Health Competence among Rwandan Survivors Through Community‐based Healing Workshops

Twenty years after the genocide, many Rwandans still suffer from the psychological wounds of the past. The country's mental health agenda is based on individualised and psychiatric approaches that help some but cannot be provided on a large scale. Further, many reconciliation initiatives have been based on public testimonies, which have been shown to be potentially re‐traumatising, leading to calls for small‐scale community‐based approaches to healing, which constitute a middle way between individualised and public approaches. Drawing on the concept of ‘mental health competence’ (Campbell and Burgess, 2012), this study evaluates one such approach: the Life Wounds Healing workshops offered by the African Institute for Integral Psychology. Twenty‐one semi‐structured interviews were conducted with former workshop participants, staff members and the institute's founder to investigate their views on how these workshops can help genocide survivors. The results suggest that the workshops succeed in creating mental health competence by establishing a safe social space for people to open up, increasing people's critical understandings of the processes of pain — and potential for healing — that informs behaviour change, generating bonding social capital and offering participants' income‐generating possibilities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.