The frequency of actions and thoughts scale: development and psychometric validation of a measure of adaptive behaviours and cognitions

This paper describes the development and preliminary psychometric evaluation of an instrument that measures the frequency of adaptive behaviours and cognitions related to therapeutic change during cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), for symptoms of anxiety and depression. Two studies were conducted. In study one, 661 participants completed an online survey with 28 items targeting adaptive behaviours and cognitions. Exploratory factor analysis performed on part of the sample (n = 451) revealed that a four-factor solution ‘characterised’ the data. This led to the development of a 12-item instrument, the Frequency of Actions and Thoughts Scale (FATS). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to confirm the factor structure of the FATS using the remaining sample (n = 210), which revealed an acceptable model fit. In study two, 125 participants with clinically significant symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both were recruited to an Internet-delivered CBT (iCBT) treatment course. Participants completed the FATS and other measures throughout treatment, after treatment, and at three-month follow-up. Correlations and residual change scores of the FATS and its subscales with measures of anxiety, depression, behavioural activation, and CBT-related skills usage supported the construct validity of the FATS. A significant increase in FATS scores over treatment was also observed. The findings provide preliminary support for the psychometric properties of the FATS, which appears to have utility in research investigating mechanisms of change in CBT.     

Processes and outcomes in prevention-focused time-limited groups for girls

Processes and outcomes in 8-week prevention-focused, school-based groups for preadolescent girls were assessed in a naturalistic study. Specifically, whether such groups would facilitate their social-emotional development and whether affiliative processes in the groups were related to outcome were explored. In addition to expecting the groups to be effective, it was hypothesized that affiliative processes would be directly related to outcome and, more particularly, that increased positive affiliative feelings from the group toward the individual would be more predictive of positive treatment outcome than increased positive feelings from the individual toward the group. While findings did not support these hypotheses linking process to outcome, ancillary analyses revealed that different patterns of affiliation over time (i.e., U-shape pattern versus inverted U-shape pattern) distinguished the high- versus low-outcome participants, respectively.     

General self-efficacy and health-related quality of life after myocardial infarction

Fatigue after myocardial infarction (MI) has been found to be distressing. A person's self-efficacy will influence his/her health behavior and plays an active role in tackling illness consequences. This study investigated associations between fatigue, disturbed sleep, general self-efficacy, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of 145 respondents admitted to hospital for MI two years earlier. The aim was to identify the predictive value of general self-efficacy and to elucidate mediating factors between self-efficacy and HRQoL. General self-efficacy measured four months after MI was positively related to HRQoL after two years. In tests of indirect effects, fatigue meditated the effects between self-efficacy and the physical and the mental dimension of HRQoL, respectively. The indirect effect of disturbed sleep went through that of fatigue. To conclude, patients who suffer from post-MI fatigue may need support aimed at helping them increase their self-efficacy as well as helping them adapt to sleep hygiene principles and cope with fatigue, both of which will have positive influences on HRQoL.     

Estimating discrimination performance in two-alternative forced choice tasks: Routines for MATLAB and R

Ulrich and Vorberg (Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 71: 1219–1227, 2009) introduced a novel approach for estimating discrimination performance in two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) tasks. This approach avoids pitfalls that are inherent when the order of the standard and the comparison is neglected in estimating the difference limen (DL), as in traditional approaches. The present article provides MATLAB and R routines that implement this novel procedure for estimating DLs. These routines also allow to account for processing failures such as lapses or finger errors and can be applied to experimental designs in which the standard and comparison differ only along the task-relevant dimension, as well as to designs in which the stimuli differ in more than one dimension. In addition, Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to check the quality of our routines.     

Variation in individuals' semantic networks for common knowledge is associated with false memory

Three experiments assessed the relationships between false memories of words and their degree of connectedness within individual semantic networks. In the first two experiments, participants studied associated word lists (e.g., hot, winter, ice), completed a recognition test that included related nonstudied words (e.g., cold, snow), and then rated the semantic relatedness of all word pairs including studied and nonstudied words. In the third experiment, the task order was reversed; participants completed pairwise ratings and then, two weeks later, completed the false memory task. The relatedness ratings were analysed using the Pathfinder scaling algorithm. In all experiments, items that an individual falsely recognized had higher semantic Pathfinder node densities than those items correctly rejected.     

Popularizing Islam or Islamizing popular music: new developments in Egypt’s wedding scene

This article discusses the influence of the Islamic Revival on the field of popular art, as well as the influence of market forces on the field of religious art productions, by taking the Egyptian wedding scene from the 1980s onward as a case study. The decline of popular weddings and the emergence of the Islamic alternative, as well as the different styles of weddings, etiquette, and taste cultures of the audiences involved in the substitute wedding scenes, are analyzed. In particular, the latest developmentin which the two scenes, which developed in contradistinction to one another, have come to resemble each other and the rise of respectable, or ??clean,?? formats, rather than overtly religious ones, are investigated. It is argued that the religious?Cclean market can be an asset for the Islamist project, whose aim is to provide an alternative to secular taste cultures, because it is able to cater to diverse pious taste cultures, from strict Islamist to pleasant post-Islamist. Despite the different trends, aims, and content, the various forms of clean?Cpious entertainment sustain or, at least, affirm the general pious taste culture In Egypt.     

Trial-by-trial updating of an internal reference in discrimination tasks: Evidence from effects of stimulus order and trial sequence

In psychophysics, participants are often asked to discriminate between a constant standard and a variable comparison. Previous studies have shown that discrimination performance is better when the comparison follows, rather than precedes, the standard. Prominent difference models of psychophysics and decision making cannot easily explain this order effect. However, a simple extension of this model class involving dynamical updating of an internal reference accounts for this order effect. In addition, this Internal Reference Model (IRM) predicts sequential response effects. We examined the predictions of IRM in two duration discrimination experiments. The obtained results are in agreement with the predictions of IRM, suggesting that participants update their internal reference on every trial. Additional simulations show that IRM also accounts for the negative sequential effects observed in single-stimulus paradigms.     

To not make definite what is indefinite: A phenomenological analysis of perception and its epistemological consequences in human science research

Abstract

This paper explores the basics of human science, namely within the understanding of perception, which in fact is about how we as humans are in relationship to the world. There are several philosophical and psychological traditions trying to explain the nature of perception, the perceived, and the role of the perceiver. An idea that we argue against is that perception is about a changing subject perceiving a constant world, which means that there is a sharp dividing line between subject and object. Instead we argue that subject and object make up a dynamic relationship.     

Event-Related Potential Findings in Healthy Extremely Pre-Term (< Week 29) Children at Age 10

Ten healthy extremely pre-term (EPT) children, born before gestational week 29, were tested at age 10 using mismatch negativity (MMN) and a three-tone odd-ball task; the results were then compared to age-matched full-term controls. We found no difference in MMN. By contrast, EPT children had generally shorter N1 latencies and larger P2 amplitudes, possibly indicating a more stimulus-driven response mode. However, P300 parameters, indicative of controlled attention, were unaffected.     

Covert and overt orienting of attention to emotional faces in anxiety

Attentional biases for emotional faces were investigated in high, medium, and low anxiety groups (N = 54) using a probe detection task. Four types of facial expression (threat, sad, happy, neutral) were used to examine the specificity of the bias. Attentional bias measures were derived from manual reaction times (RTs) to probes and the direction of initial eye movement (EM) to the faces. The RT data indicated enhanced vigilance for threat rather than neutral faces in high and medium, but not low, state anxiety. The bias for negative faces appeared to be a combined function of stimulus threat value and the individual's anxiety level. The RT bias did not seem to depend on overt orienting, as many participants made few EMs. However, those who made frequent EMs to the faces showed concordance between the RT and EM bias measures, and so the RT measure of attentional bias for negative versus positive faces at 500 ms appears to provide a valid index of the direction of initial orienting to emotional stimuli. There was no evidence of an anxiety - related bias for happy faces (predicted by the emotionality hypothesis), nor a dysphoria - related bias for sad faces. However, increased dysphoria scores were associated with reduced attentiveness to happy faces.