Naturalistic evaluation of suicidal ideation: variability and relation to attempt status

Suicidal ideation has been thought to have a relatively stable course across weeks and months. However, daily changes in levels of ideation have not been adequately examined despite the importance of potential variability clinically and conceptually. For example, it has been suggested that variability in suicidal ideation may become less closely tied to variability in other mood symptoms (e.g., depression, hopelessness) among individuals with multiple suicide attempts. The present report had two related goals: (1) to prospectively evaluate suicidal ideation and related mood symptoms, and (2) to determine whether suicide attempt status predicted a decreased association between ideation and other mood symptoms. Non-clinical participants (N=108) with varying levels of suicidal ideation and number of previous suicide attempts completed the beck hopelessness scale (BHS), beck depression inventory (BDI), and suicide probability scale (SPS) every day for 4 weeks. Findings suggested considerable variability in suicidal ideation, especially for multiple attempters. Multiple attempt status predicted a decreased association between suicidal ideation and depression, although the results were only marginally significant. These findings have implications for conceptual models of suicide risk as well as assessment and treatment of suicidal individuals.     

Does anhedonia in schizophrenia reflect faulty memory for subjectively experienced emotions?

The authors evaluated whether self-reported trait anhedonia in schizophrenia reflects faulty memory, such that patients are capable of experiencing pleasure while engaged in enjoyable activities but underestimate their pleasure in recalling these experiences. Thirty schizophrenia patients and 31 nonpatient control participants rated their emotional responses to pleasant and neutral foods and film clips and completed a surprise recall task for their emotions after a 4-hr delay. Despite reporting elevated trait anhedonia, patients did not significantly differ from control participants in immediate pleasant emotional responses to the stimuli or in delayed recall for these experiences. In-the-moment pleasure and short-term retention for emotional experiences thus appear to be relatively intact in schizophrenia. Alternative explanations for the hedonic deficit in this disorder are discussed.     

Event-related fMRI of category learning: differences in classification and feedback networks

Eighteen healthy young adults underwent event-related (ER) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain while performing a visual category learning task. The specific category learning task required subjects to extract the rules that guide classification of quasi-random patterns of dots into categories. Following each classification choice, visual feedback was presented. The average hemodynamic response was calculated across the eighteen subjects to identify the separate networks associated with both classification and feedback. Random-effects analyses identified the different networks implicated during the classification and feedback phases of each trial. The regions included prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields, supplementary motor and eye fields, thalamus, caudate, superior and inferior parietal lobules, and areas within visual cortex. The differences between classification and feedback were identified as (i) overall higher volumes and signal intensities during classification as compared to feedback, (ii) involvement of the thalamus and superior parietal regions during the classification phase of each trial, and (iii) differential involvement of the caudate head during feedback. The effects of learning were then evaluated for both classification and feedback. Early in learning, subjects showed increased activation in the hippocampal regions during classification and activation in the heads of the caudate nuclei during the corresponding feedback phases. The findings suggest that early stages of prototype-distortion learning are characterized by networks previously associated with strategies of explicit memory and hypothesis testing. However as learning progresses the networks change. This finding suggests that the cognitive strategies also change during prototype-distortion learning.     

Attenuating the link between threatened egotism and aggression

Research has found that narcissists behave aggressively when they receive a blow to their ego. The current studies examined whether narcissistic aggression could be reduced by inducing a unit relation between the target of aggression and the aggressor. Experimental participants were told that they shared either a birthday (Study 1) or a fingerprint type (Study 2) with a partner. Control participants were not given any information indicating similarity to their partner. Before aggression was measured, the partners criticized essays written by the participants. Aggression was measured by allowing participants to give their partner loud blasts of noise through a pair of headphones. In the control groups, narcissists were especially aggressive toward their partner. However, narcissistic aggression was completely attenuated, even under ego threat, when participants believed they shared a key similarity with their partner.     

Previewing the neighborhood: the role of orthographic neighbors as parafoveal previews in reading

In 2 experiments, a boundary technique was used with parafoveal previews that were identical to a target (e.g., sleet), a word orthographic neighbor (sweet), or an orthographically matched nonword (speet). In Experiment 1, low-frequency words in orthographic pairs were targets, and high-frequency words were previews. In Experiment 2, the roles were reversed. In Experiment 1, neighbor words provided as much preview benefit as identical words and greater benefit than nonwords, whereas in Experiment 2, neighbor words provided no greater preview benefit than nonwords. These results indicate that the frequency of a preview influences the extraction of letter information without setting up appreciable competition between previews and targets. This is consistent with a model of word recognition in which early stages largely depend on excitation of letter information, and competition between lexical candidates becomes important only in later stages.     

The effect of word frequency, word predictability, and font difficulty on the eye movements of young and older readers

Young adult and older readers' eye movements were recorded as they read sentences containing target words that varied in frequency or predictability. In addition, half of the sentences were printed in a font that was easy to read (Times New Roman) and the other half were printed in a font that was more difficult to read (Old English). Word frequency, word predictability, and font difficulty effects were apparent in the eye movement data of both groups of readers. In the fixation time data, the pattern of results was the same, but the older readers had larger frequency and predictability effects than the younger readers. The older readers skipped words more often than the younger readers (as indicated by their skipping rate on selected target words), but they made more regressions back to the target words and more regressions overall. The E-Z Reader model was used as a platform to evaluate the results, and simulations using the model suggest that lexical processing is slowed in older readers and that, possibly as a result of this, they adopt a more risky reading strategy.     

Distinctions Between Hostile and Nonhostile Forms of Perceived Criticism From Others

Criticism and hostility from others are related to fluctuations in symptom severity across many disorders, including depression and anxiety. Objective coding systems typically allow for distinctions between criticism and hostility, but the primary self-report measure of perceptions of criticism (the Perceived Criticism Measure) contains no such distinction. This report presents results from two samples regarding the assessment of specific perceptions of hostile and nonhostile criticism. In addition to these specific perceptions, we assessed relationship satisfaction, perceptions of overall criticism, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Perceptions of hostile criticism were similar to ratings of overall criticism, as indicated by a positive correlation between these two and similar correlations with related variables. In contrast, perceptions of nonhostile criticism demonstrated more complex patterns of associations, showing a positive correlation with relationship satisfaction, a negative correlation with perceptions of hostile criticism, and a positive association with general perceptions of criticism only in the context of low depressive symptoms (as depressive symptoms increased, this association became significantly weaker). These results suggest that respondents do distinguish between perceptions of hostile and nonhostile criticism, and these perceptions are not simply different points on the same continuum. Moreover, they suggest that individuals with higher levels of depression may be less likely to incorporate nonhostile criticism into their overall perceptions of criticism from others.     

REJOINDER: Picasso's Guernica Creativity as a Darwinian Process: Definitions,Clarifications, Misconceptions,and Applications

The author responds to four commentaries on Simonton (this issue). The response deals with two sets of issues. First are criticisms of the Darwinian theory of creativity, especially as applied to Picasso's sketches for the Guernica. These criticisms range from the presumed role of associative processes to the essential nature of any Darwinian model. The second set of issues pertains to diverse methodological objections with respect to measurement and data analysis. The author responds to each and every point. The author concludes not only that Picasso's creative process is best described as Darwinian, but also that the Darwinian theory of creativity has been notably strengthened by the current exchange.