Memory and time

The purpose of this essay is to clarify the notion of mnemonic content. Memories have content. However, it is not clear whether memories are about past events in the world, past states of our own minds, or some combination of those two elements. I suggest that any proposal about mnemonic content should help us understand why events are presented to us in memory as being in the past. I discuss three proposals about mnemonic content and, eventually, I put forward a positive view. According to this view, when a subject seems to remember a certain event, that event is presented to her as making true a perceptual experience that caused the very memory experience that she is having.

Age differences in the rejection of false memories: The effects of giving warning instructions and slowing the presentation rate

Two experiments were conducted to examine whether children of different ages differ in their ability to reject associative false memories with the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Two different types of manipulations that are thought to facilitate false memory rejection in adults—slowing the presentation rate and issuing explicit warnings—were analyzed in younger and older children. The results showed that older children were more able than younger children to reject associative false memories through warnings and by slowing the presentation rate. We conclude that although older children are, in general, more prone to produce false memories with the DRM paradigm, they are also more able to reject them when certain conditions facilitate the editing process.     

“Identify-to-reject”: A specific strategy to avoid false memories in the DRM paradigm

Previous research using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm has shown that lists of associates in which the critical words were easily identified as the themes of the lists produce lower levels of false memories in adults. In an attempt to analyze whether this effect is due to the application of a specific memory-editing process (the identify-to-reject strategy), two experiments manipulated variables that are likely to disrupt this strategy either at encoding or at retrieval. In Experiment 1, lists were presented at a very fast presentation rate to reduce the possibility of identifying the missing critical word as the theme of the list, and in Experiment 2, participants were pressed to give yes/no recognition answers within a very short time. The results showed that both of these manipulations disrupted the identifiability effect, indicating that the identify-to-reject strategy and theme identifiability play a major role in the rejection of false memories in the DRM paradigm.     

Transdiagnostic assessment of temporal experience (TATE) a tool for assessing abnormal time experiences

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - Currently, anomalous lived temporality is not included in the main diagnostic criteria or standard symptom checklists. In this article, we present the...     

Forgiveness aversion: developing a motivational state measure of perceived forgiveness risks

Given the demonstrated psychological, physical, and social benefits of forgiveness, it is striking that there are still strong impediments to its attainment. In this paper, we introduce the multi-dimensional construct of forgiveness aversion, an offense-specific motivational state based on perceived forgiveness risks. The construct and our proposed measure (the Forgiveness Aversion Scale) are composed of three related dimensions: unreadiness, self-protection, and face concerns. Unreadiness refers to the ongoing emotional turmoil that keeps victims from sincerely forgiving. Self-protection refers to the concerns about how offenders will interpret forgiveness. Finally, face concerns reflect victims’ concerns for their reputation. Four studies were completed to develop a state measure of forgiveness aversion through correlation, structural equations modeling, longitudinal analysis, and a hypothetical scenario experiment. Results of four studies reveal differential predictors of the three dimensions of forgiveness aversion and demonstrate that our understanding of the forgiveness process and impediments thereto is enhanced by addressing situation-specific impediments to forgiveness.     

Personalizing Behavioral Interventions Through Single‐Patient (N‐of‐1) Trials

Behavioral interventions are typically studied with the use of a conventional between‐subject randomized controlled trial (RCT) design. In this design, the effect of an intervention on one group of patients is compared with the effect of a control condition on another group of patients, such that a between‐subject change is tested. A between‐subject design has an underlying assumption that there is a homogenous treatment effect for a behavioral intervention, drug, or psychotherapy and that the way the intervention operates in the study will tend to operate in the same way in many other patients. We review some of the philosophical and practical problems with the use of this design when a clinician is attempting to decide on a course of behavioral treatment aimed at within‐subject change in patients who are likely to have heterogeneous or unique responses to behavioral treatment. We also review the biases inherent in our current clinical practice model, which does not use any empirical data collection or design for testing if a treatment is useful, and also in the conventional between‐subject personalized medicine RCT designs. We propose increased use of single‐patient (also known as N‐of‐1) trials that employ within‐subject designs, in cases where treatment response is heterogeneous – as is the case for most psychological and behavioral treatments. Limitations of such designs include that they can only be used when the treatment is potentially reversible, the patient can act as their own control, and the outcome can be measured repeatedly. Increased use of within‐subject trials may address in many more instances the more clinically relevant question of how a specific patient will respond to a specific treatment and could introduce a more harmonious scientific approach into the way we treat our patients. We have incorporated a case presentation that illustrates the complexities of applying evidence drawn from these different designs to selecting and evaluating treatments for the behavioral issues commonly faced by clinicians and patients.     

BMI,age, Mate Value,and Intrasexual Competition in Chilean Women

Attractiveness is the most important component of women intrasexual competition and it certainly has an impact in female’s perceived mate value (i.e., the value of an individual to the opposite sex as a potential mate). In the realm of intrasexual competition women are eager to emphasize their attractiveness and compete with rivals displaying these cues. Accordingly, age is an important feature of women’s appeal to the opposite sex; youth is highly valued by men, and is perceived by women as an important component of their attractiveness. Another trait that is a reliable cue of health and fertility is Body Mass Index (BMI). A large body of literature has associated BMI to female attractiveness. However, more information is necessary about the associations of BMI and age with mate value, and female intrasexual competition. In the present research we report two studies that examined the associations of BMI and age with estimates of self-perceived mate value and intrasexual competition in Chilean women (18–39 years). More specifically, we hypothesized inverse relationships of BMI and age with mate value (N?=?234), and intrasexual competition (N?=?308). We found partial support to our propositions. The results revealed inverse associations between BMI, mate value and mating success, but BMI with intrasexual competition were not related. In contrast, age had a strong and negative effect on intrasexual competition. We discuss our results within the framework of Evolutionary Psychology and consider the central role of attractiveness (estimated from BMI and age) in the mating strategies of women.     

Changes in Specialists’ Perspectives on Cancer Genetic Testing,Prophylactic Surgery and Insurance Discrimination: Then and Now

We surveyed cancer genetics specialists in 1998 to learn what they would do if at 50 % risk to carry a BRCA or Lynch syndrome mutation. We chose to repeat our study 14 years later, to examine how perspectives have changed with the extensive data now available. In July 2012 we surveyed the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Cancer Special Interest Group via an internet based survey. We found statistically significant increases in the percentage of specialists who: would undergo BRCA testing (p?=?0.0006), opt for prophylactic bilateral mastectomy (p =0.0001), opt for prophylactic removal of their uterus and ovaries for Lynch syndrome (p =0.0057 and P?=?0.0090, respectively), and bill testing to insurance (p >0.0001). There were also statistically significant decreases in the percentage of participants who would have their colon removed for Lynch syndrome (p?=?0.0002) and use an alias when pursuing testing (p?>?0.0001). Over the past 14 years there has been a major change in perspective amongst cancer genetic specialists regarding genetic testing, prophylactic surgery and insurance discrimination.     

Opening the black box: Presenting a model for evaluating organizational-level interventions

Organizational-level occupational health interventions are often recommended when improvements in working conditions, employee health, and well-being are sought within organizations. Research has revealed that these interventions result in inconsistent effects despite being based on theoretical frameworks. This inconsistency indicates that intervention studies need to be designed to examine directly how and why such interventions bring about change and why they sometimes fail. We argue that intervention studies should include a process evaluation that includes a close examination of the psychological and organizational mechanisms that hinder and facilitate desired intervention outcomes. By drawing on existing intervention literature we present an evidence-based model containing three levels of elements that appear to be crucial in process evaluation. We describe how this model may be applied and developed in future research to identify better the mechanisms that link intervention processes to intervention outcomes.     

Effects of a post-hospitalization group health education programme for patients with coronary heart disease

Abstract

Effects of a post-hospitolization group health education programme for patients with coronary heart disease. A health education programme was offered to groups of coronary heart patients and their partners after discharge from hospital. A randomized pre-test post-test control group design was used to evaluate the effects of this experimental intervention. The health education programme was offered to 109 coronary heart patients in groups of between five and eight patients together with their partners in addition to standard medical care and physical training. A control group of 108 patients received only standard medical care and physical training.

The intervention consisted of eight weekly two-hour group health education sessions and one follow-up session. All sessions focused on the promotion of healthy habits and the reduction of adverse psychosocial consequences of the incident.

In the short term (about four months after the incident) the health education programme showed statistically significant intervention effects on knowledge about coronary heart diseases, smoking cessation, healthy eating habits and the number of consultations with the family physician, but no effects on emotional distress. In the long term (one year after the incident) there was only a significant intervention effect on smoking cessation.

These results suggest that the effects of the programme are modest, especially in terms of maintenance of behavioural change. As a consequence, it is suggested that the programme should not be offered to all coronary patients during cardiac rehabilitation, but only to those who can be expected to profit most from it.