Psychosocial stress evoked by a virtual audience: relation to neuroendocrine activity.

A modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was employed to determine whether exposure to a virtual audience using virtual reality (VR) technology would prompt an increase of neuroendocrine activity comparable to that prompted by a real audience. Following an anticipatory period, participants completed a speech or a speech-plus-math challenge in front of either a virtual audience, a panel of judges they were led to believe was behind a one-way mirror, or an audience comprised of confederates. An additional group that had prepared a speech was simply directed to observe the virtual audience but did not deliver the speech. Finally, a control group completed questionnaires for the duration of the experiment. Cortisol samples were obtained upon arrival to the laboratory, just before the challenge, and 15 and 30 minutes after the task. Participants also completed a measure assessing stressor appraisals of the task before and after the challenge. Anticipation of the task was associated with a modest increase of cortisol levels, and a further rise of cortisol was evident in response to the challenge. The neuroendocrine changes evoked by the virtual audience were comparable to those elicited by the imagined audience (behind the one-way mirror) but less than changes evoked by the panel of confederates. Stressor appraisals were higher post-challenge compared to those reported prior to the task; however, appraisals were similar across each group. These data suggest that VR technology may be amenable to evaluating the impact of psychosocial stressors such as the TSST.     

Observational fear conditioning in the acquisition and extinction of attentional bias for threat: an experimental evaluation

Anxious persons show automatic and strategic attentional biases for threatening information. Yet, the mechanisms and processes that underlie such biases remain unclear. The central aim of the present study was to elucidate the relation between observational threat learning and the acquisition and extinction of biased threat processing by integrating emotional Stroop color naming tasks within an observational differential fear conditioning procedure. Forty-three healthy female participants underwent several consecutive observational fear conditioning phases. During acquisition, participants watched a confederate displaying mock panic attacks (UCS) paired with a verbal stimulus (CS+), but not with a second nonreinforced verbal stimulus (CS-). As expected, participants showed greater magnitude electrodermal and verbal-evaluative (e.g., distress, fear) conditioned responses to the CS+ over the CS- word. Participants also demonstrated slower color-naming latencies to CS+ compared to the CS- word following acquisition and showed attenuation of this preferential processing bias for threat following extinction. Findings are discussed broadly in the context of the interplay between fear learning and processing biases for threat as observed in persons suffering from anxiety disorders.     

Heterophenomenology: Heavy-handed sleight-of-hand

We argue that heterophenomenology both over- and under-populates the intentional realm. For example, when one is involved in coping, one’s mind does not contain beliefs. Since the heterophenomenologist interprets all intentional commitment as belief, he necessarily overgenerates the belief contents of the mind. Since beliefs cannot capture the normative aspect of coping and perceiving, any method, such as heterophenomenology, that allows for only beliefs is guaranteed not only to overgenerate beliefs but also to undergenerate other kinds of intentional phenomena.     

Winter Depression Recurrence One Year After Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Light Therapy, or Combination Treatment

The central public health challenge in the management of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is prevention of depression recurrence each fall/winter season. The need for time-limited treatments with enduring effects is underscored by questionable long-term compliance with clinical practice guidelines recommending daily light therapy during the symptomatic months each year. We previously developed a SAD-tailored group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and tested its acute efficacy in 2 pilot studies. Here, we report an intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis of outcomes during the subsequent winter season (i.e., approximately 1 year after acute treatment) using participants randomized to CBT, light therapy, and combination treatment across our pilot studies (N = 69). We used multiple imputation to estimate next winter outcomes for the 17 individuals who dropped out during treatment, were withdrawn from protocol, or were lost to follow-up. The CBT (7.0%) and combination treatment (5.5%) groups had significantly smaller proportions of winter depression recurrences than the light therapy group (36.7%). CBT alone, but not combination treatment, was also associated with significantly lower interviewer- and patient-rated depression severity at 1 year as compared to light therapy alone. Among completers who provided 1-year data, all statistically significant differences between the CBT and light therapy groups persisted after adjustment for ongoing treatment with light therapy, antidepressants, and psychotherapy. If these findings are replicated, CBT could represent a more effective, practical, and palatable approach to long-term SAD management than light therapy.     

Further Evidence of the Reliability and Validity of the Multidimensional Anxiety

The psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) were examined in adolescent psychiatric inpatient samples. In Study 1 (n = 287), confirmatory factor analyses provided satisfactory fit for the four-factor (comparative fit index; CFI = 0.856) and higher-order (CFI = 0.854) solutions. Using parcels as items, the fit of the four-factor model was improved substantially (CFI = 0.935). Next, in the bifactor analyses, support was attained for a model that included a general factor and four domain specific subfactors. In Study 2 (n = 195 inpatient youths), the MASC showed good scale reliability and concurrent validity. Results of the receiver operating characteristic curve and binary logistic regression analyses provided adequate evidence for discriminative validity. In Study 3 (n = 40), test–retest reliability of scores on the MASC-10 scale over a 3-week period was adequate (r _tt = 0.83, p < 0.001) for children ages 8 to 11 years.     

Brief Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Disruptive Behaviors

Parent reported behavioral difficulties in young children are relatively common. Without adequate intervention, some children will later present with more severe problem behaviors. Parent management training is one of the best methods of treatment for behavior problems; however, existing treatments can be lengthy and difficult to conduct outside of a research setting. The Brief Behavioral Intervention was designed as a briefer version of a manualized parent management training treatment package. Thirty-one parents of children aged 2–6.5 presenting with behavior problems were included in this initial study of treatment effectiveness. Based on parent and teacher report, treatment was effective in a mean of 7.2 sessions.     

Facilitation of learning spatial relations among locations by visual cues: Implications for theoretical accounts of spatial learning

Human participants searched in a real environment or interactive 3-D virtual environment open field for four hidden goal locations arranged in a 2 × 2 square configuration in a 5 × 5 matrix of raised bins. The participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: cues 1 pattern or pattern only. The participants experienced a training phase, followed by a testing phase. Visual cues specified the goal locations during training only for the cues 1 pattern group. Both groups were then tested in the absence of visual cues. The results in both environments indicated that the participants learned the spatial relations among goal locations. However, visual cues during training facilitated learning of the spatial relations among goal locations: In both environments, the participants trained with the visual cues made fewer errors during testing than did those trained only with the pattern. The results suggest that learning based on the spatial relations among locations may not be susceptible to cue competition effects and have implications for standard associative and dual-system accounts of spatial learning.     

THERAPIST‐ AND SELF‐MONITORED DRO CONTINGENCIES AS A TREATMENT FOR THE SELF‐INJURIOUS SKIN PICKING OF A YOUNG MAN WITH ASPERGER SYNDROME

The use of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) has decreased, at least partially due to the development of less effortful alternative behavioral interventions (e.g., noncontingent reinforcement; Vollmer, Iwata, Zarcone, Smith, & Mazaleski, 1993). The effort associated with DRO contingencies may be lessened by incorporating self‐monitoring components in which clients are responsible for the delivery of reinforcers for their own behavior. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of DRO in the treatment of self‐injury when implemented first by the therapist and subsequently by the client.     

Development of the other-race effect during infancy: Evidence toward universality?

The other-race effect in face processing develops within the first year of life in Caucasian infants. It is currently unknown whether the developmental trajectory observed in Caucasian infants can be extended to other cultures. This is an important issue to investigate because recent findings from cross-cultural psychology have suggested that individuals from Eastern and Western backgrounds tend to perceive the world in fundamentally different ways. To this end, the current study investigated 3-, 6-, and 9-month-old Chinese infants’ ability to discriminate faces within their own racial group and within two other racial groups (African and Caucasian). The 3-month-olds demonstrated recognition in all conditions, whereas the 6-month-olds recognized Chinese faces and displayed marginal recognition for Caucasian faces but did not recognize African faces. The 9-month-olds’ recognition was limited to Chinese faces. This pattern of development is consistent with the perceptual narrowing hypothesis that our perceptual systems are shaped by experience to be optimally sensitive to stimuli most commonly encountered in one’s unique cultural environment.     

WITHIN‐SESSION TRANSITIONS IN CHOICE: A STRUCTURAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

The present study used within‐session transitions between two concurrent schedules to evaluate choice in transition. Eight female Long‐Evans rats were trained to respond under concurrent schedules of reinforcement during experimental sessions that lasted 22 hr. The generalized matching equation was used to model steady‐state behavior at the end of each session, while transitional behavior that emerged following the change in reinforcement schedules was modeled using a logistic equation. The generalized matching and logistic equations were appropriate models for behavior generated during single‐session transitions. A local analysis of behavior on the two response alternatives during acquisition was used to determine the source of preference as revealed in response ratios. The number of “low‐response” visits, those containing three to five responses, remained stable. Preference ratios largely reflected a sharp increase in the number of visits with long response bouts on the rich alternative and a decrease in the number of such visits to the leaner alternative.