The emotional attentional blink is robust to divided attention

The emotional attentional blink (EAB) refers to a temporary impairment in the ability to identify a target when it is preceded by an emotional distractor. It is thought to occur because the emotional salience of the distractor exogenously captures attention for a brief duration, rendering the target unattended and preventing it from reaching awareness. Here we tested the extent to which the EAB can be attenuated by inducing a diffuse top-down attentional state, which has been shown to improve target identification in an analogous attentional phenomenon, the attentional blink. Rapid sequences of landscape images were presented centrally, and participants reported the orientation of a ± 90° rotation of a landscape target. To induce a diffuse state of attention, participants were given a secondary task of monitoring for the appearance of a colored dot in the periphery. We found that emotional distractors impaired target recognition performance to comparable extents, regardless of whether or not participants concurrently performed the peripheral-monitoring task. Moreover, we found that performance of the secondary task led to an impaired ability to ignore neutral distractors. Subjective ratings of target vividness mirrored the behavioral accuracy, with frequent reports of intermediate levels of vividness suggesting that the EAB might impair target visibility in a graded manner. Our results demonstrate that the EAB is robust to manipulations of top-down attention, suggesting that the temporary capture of attention by emotionally salient stimuli involves processes that are distinct from those that produce the attentional blink.     

Southern Appalachia: Analytical models,social services,and native support systems

Conclusions The model of ethnicity has been applied in this paper to Appalachian natives. The problems suffered by Appalachians in terms of high dropout rates, institutional discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping are familiar to other ethnic minority groups. Yet because the majority of the population in Appalachia are racially indistinct from mainstream Americans, there is resistance to the notion of ethnic difference. This has significant repercussions. Ironically, service providers and others in the region often recognize the distinctive nature of native Appalachians while, at the same time, reaffirming that they are white Americans like anywhere else. This is often said with good intentions. The result, however, justifies a lack of action taken to improve services for native Appalachians. If they are perceived as no different, inequalities go unrecognized and unredressed. If, on the other hand, differences are perceived only on the basis of socioeconomic class and/or rural residence, social services may miss the cultural dimension that may be all-important in identifying problems and potential means of improvement. It is hoped that application of the notion of ethnicity to mountain people will be helpful in the structuring of human services in the region.I am indebted to Mae Reck and Gregory Reck who have greatly contributed to my thinking on Appalachian ethnicity. I also thank two graduate students, Mildred Dunevant and Stephanie Perrin, who read and commented on this paper.     

Psychological interventions for arthritis pain management in adults: a meta-analysis.

CONTEXT: The psychosocial impact of arthritis can be profound. There is growing interest in psychosocial interventions for managing pain and disability in arthritis patients. OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis reports on the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for arthritis pain and disability. DATA SOURCES: Articles evaluating psychosocial interventions for arthritis were identified through Cochrane Controlled Trials, EMBASE, Ovid MEDLINE, and Ovid PsycINFO data sources. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials testing the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in arthritis pain management were reviewed. DATA EXTRACTION: Twenty-seven randomized controlled trials were analyzed. Pain intensity was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included psychological, physical, and biological functioning. DATA SYNTHESIS: An overall effect size of 0.177 (95% CI=0.256-0.094) indicated that patients receiving psychosocial interventions reported significantly lower pain than patients in control conditions (combined p=.01). Meta-analyses also supported the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for the secondary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that psychosocial interventions may have significant effects on pain and other outcomes in arthritis patients. Ample evidence for the additional benefit of such interventions over and above that of standard medical care was found.     

Humor styles impact the relationship between symptoms of social anxiety and depression

Recent research suggests that examining humor styles may contribute to our understanding of clinical problems, such as risk and resiliency. The goal of the current study was to examine whether humor styles moderate the association between social anxiety and depressive symptoms in an unselected sample. Three-hundred and six participants (66% female) at a large Southern US university completed self-report measures of humor styles and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. Regression analyses suggested that affiliative and self-defeating humor styles individually moderated the relationship between social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Clinical implications regarding the monitoring of humor use as a means of understanding the maintenance of depressive symptoms among socially anxious individuals are discussed.     

Shaping achievement goal orientations in a mastery-structured environment and concomitant changes in related contingencies of self-worth

Across three time-points spanning 9 months, changes in achievement goal orientations and contingencies of self-worth were assessed as a function of participating in a mastery-structured academic program for high-ability adolescents (N = 126). Endorsement of mastery goal orientations increased during the program and remained high even after students returned to their home learning environments. In contrast, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations decreased during the summer program, but returned to previous levels when assessed 6 months later. Latent growth curve models assessed the covariation of performance goal orientations and two contingencies of self-worth (outperforming others and others’ approval) hypothesized to represent elements of performance goal orientations. Changes in the contingency of self-worth based on outperforming others positively covaried with observed changes in both performance goal orientations; however, changes in self-worth contingent on others’ approval did not. Results are discussed in terms of mastery-structured environments’ potential to alter achievement goal orientations via their underlying psychological processes. Implications for achievement goal theory and the design of achievement-oriented environments are discussed.     

Fun is more fun when others are involved

Fun activities are commonly sought and highly desired yet their affective side has received little scrutiny. The present research investigated two features of fun in two daily diary studies and one laboratory experiment. First, we examined the affective state associated with fun experiences. Second, we investigated the social context of fun, considering whether shared fun is more enjoyable than solitary fun. Findings from these studies indicated that fun is associated with both high-activation and low-activation positive affects, and that it is enhanced when experienced with others (especially friends). However, social fun was associated with increases in high-activation but not low-activation positive affect, suggesting that social interaction emphasizes energizing affective experiences. We also found that loneliness moderated the latter effects, such that lonely individuals received a weaker boost from shared compared to solitary fun. These results add to what is known about the impact of social contexts on affective experience.     

Memory-Prediction Errors and Their Consequences in Schizophrenia

Cognitive deficits play a central role in the onset of schizophrenia. Cognitive impairment precedes the onset of psychosis in at least a subgroup of patients, and accounts for considerable dysfunction. Yet cognitive deficits as currently measured are not significantly related to hallucinations and delusions. Part of this counterintuitive absence of a relationship may be caused by the lack of an organizing principle of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia research. We review literature suggesting that a system of memory-based prediction is central to human perception, thought and action , and forward the notion that many of the symptoms of schizophrenia are a result of a failure of this system.     

Electrocutaneous stimulation II. The estimation of distance between two points

Using a numerical estimation procedure, subjects judged the perceived distance between pairs of brief electrical stimuli presented over different physical distances, on different body regions, and in different spatial orientations. The skin turns out to be anisotropic, with the same physical separation between electrodes appearing greater on the forehead than on the forearm, greater on the forearm than on the abdomen. Perceived distance also depends on the orientation and, to some extent, on the time relation between the two electrical pulses. Under all conditions, the perceived distance between electrical stimuli was “compressed” as compared with visual distance. These results bear on the design of devices that attempt to transmit information by electrical stimulation of the skin.     

Electrocutaneous stimulation L The effects of stimulus parameters on absolute threshold

Thresholds for detecting electrical stimulation were measured as a function of (1) body locus, (2) electrode configuration, (3) stimulus waveform, and (4) pulse duration. The results were: (1) the forehead gave slightly, but not reliably, lower thresholds than the abdomen; (2) concentric electrodes gave slightly, but not reliably, lower thresholds than unifocal electrodes; (3) cathodal monophasic (?) pulses and biphasic pulses (+/? and ?/+) gave identical thresholds, while anodal monophasic (+) pulses gave higher thresholds; and (4) thresholds decreased as pulse duration increased up to .5 msec, but changed less with longer pulses.