Emotion-induced retrograde amnesia and trait anxiety

Emotional arousal can both enhance and impair memory. Considering that both emotional memory and trait anxiety (TA) have been associated with adrenergic activity, the authors investigated whether there is an association between 2 opposite emotional memory biases and the TA. The authors used a procedure recently put forward by B. A. Strange, R. Hurlemann, and R. J. Dolan (2003) to elicit an emotion-induced retrograde amnesia (ERA) coupled to an emotional memory enhancement (EME). The authors contrasted the association between these emotional memory biases and the TA in several conditions involving different levels of encoding and types of recall. The results presented here indicated a significant interaction of the TA with EME and ERA and the dependency of these biases on the consciously controlled use of memory.     

Mobilizing cause supporters through group‐based interaction

Collective action expresses group‐based identities, formed by supporters seeking to further particular social causes. While the development of groups linked to action necessitates interaction among supporters, little research has examined how these groups form. Utilizing responses of supporters who participated in 1 of 29 action‐planning sessions, this research presents an initial attempt to identify the ingredients important to this process. It shows that to the extent that the actions agreed on in the course of group interactions were seen as capable of making a difference (action efficacy), and worthy of public expression (action voice), supporters’ group‐based identification was enhanced. This in turn increased their willingness to engage in collective action. Practical implications and avenues for future research to understand the mobilization process are discussed.     

Self-serving biases: The role of perspective-taking

This research explores the role of perspective taking in self-serving biases. Assisted by a confederate, 80 subjects performed an impression-formation task and were given either success or failure bogus feedback. One week later, half of the subjects watched their performance on videotape and provided causal attributions (‘observers’). The other half simply gave causal attributions (‘actors’). Thus, the experiment employed a modified version of the actor/observer paradigm with one group of subjects taking the perspective of observers (‘observers’) and one group of subjects keeping their original perspective (‘actors’). The aim of this study was to test whether the change of perspective would increase dispositional causal attributions both in success and failure conditions. Results showed that subjects gave greater causal weight to internal factors (ability, effort) and less causal weight to external factors (task characteristics, collaboration with the partner) in the success than in the failure condition. Moreover, in a direct comparison task, subjects attributed a greater percentage of responsibility to themselves than to their partner in the success than in the failure condition. However, the type of perspective produced no significant effects, but showed an attenuation of self-serving biases for observers as compared to actors. A motivational explanation of the results is proposed.     

Executive Functions in School‐age Children: Influence of Age,Gender, School Type and Parental Education

Summary: This study aimed to evaluate whether age, gender, type of school and parental education could predict executive performance in school‐age children. Unconstrained, phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks (n = 402), as well as the Hayling Sentence Completion Test (n = 275) and the Random Number Generation task (n = 274) were administered to typically developing 6‐to‐12‐year‐old children. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed (p ≤ 0.05). The most significant explanatory models involved child age and parental education, as well as these two variables in addition to the type of school attended by the child. The main individual predictors of executive performance were age and school type. These results may be related to structural and functional alterations in the brain, an increased repertoire of cognitive strategies, the effects of education and the intensity of environmental cognitive stimulation. These findings may contribute to the development of stimulation and intervention programs for EF in clinical and educational settings.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy on psychological difficulties and perceived quality of life

Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy on psychological difficulties and perceived quality of life of clients who came for psychotherapy during free practice. Method: A total of 106 psychotherapy clients were randomly assigned to a therapy group or a control group. The outcome was assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID II) with respect to clinical symptoms and by the Croatian Scale of Quality of Life (KVZ) with respect to Quality of Life. The therapy group received the measures at pre-, post- and five-months follow-up occasions, whereas the control group received them initially and after a period of three months. Results: In the therapy group, as compared to the control group, there was a significant decrease of clinical symptoms and increase in the quality of life. With respect to clinical symptoms, effect sizes were 0.65 at post-measurement and 1.09 at follow-up, indicating a substantial reduction of symptom strain, which is comparable to the well established effects of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. We also found a significant increase in perceived quality of life after therapy, as compared to the wait-list control group, with effect sizes between 0.51 and 0.73. Therapeutic improvements were still present five months after the end of therapy, showing further development in the same direction. Conclusions: Neuro-linguistic psychotherapy is an efficient intervention, which is on a par with other, well-established psychotherapeutic techniques.     

Ipsilesional Arm Motor Sequence Performance After Right and Left Hemisphere Damage

Aiming movements are part of daily activities but the brain hemispheres’ role in targeted aiming sequential movements is not fully clear. Start and execution of discrete and sequential tasks toward targets were analyzed in 10 individuals with left-hemisphere damage, 10 right-hemisphere–damaged, and 10 healthy ones. Arm movements were performed over a digitizing tablet, following stimuli on a monitor, from initial position toward right and left-positioned targets. Poststroke individuals used their ipsilesional arm and healthy individuals, both arms. Right-hemisphere–damaged individuals showed higher reaction time and left-hemisphere–damaged individuals, lower smoothness. Due to spatial demand of tasks, the right hemisphere played a major role in movement planning, while the left, in movement execution.     

Exploring Maternal Representations During Pregnancy in Normal and At‐Risk Samples: The Use of the Interview of Maternal Representations During Pregnancy

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potentiality of the Interview of Maternal Representations during Pregnancy‐Revised Version (IRMAG‐R; M. Ammaniti & R. Tambelli, 2010) in exploring maternal representations in at‐risk and nonrisk conditions. Maternal representations were assessed during the last trimester of pregnancy in 411 nonrisk women and in 255 depressed and/or psychosocially at‐risk women. The results showed a prevalence of Integrated/Balanced representations in nonrisk women and a higher frequency of Not Integrated/Ambivalent representations in at‐risk women. Data obtained confirm that the IRMAG‐R is a valid instrument for exploring maternal representation during the last trimester of pregnancy in both the absence and presence of risk conditions.     

Tower of London test: a comparison between conventional statistic approach and modelling based on artificial neural network in differentiating fronto-temporal dementia from Alzheimer's disease

The early differentiation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) from frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may be difficult. The Tower of London (ToL), thought to assess executive functions such as planning and visuo-spatial working memory, could help in this purpose. Twentytwo Dementia Centers consecutively recruited patients with early FTD or AD. ToL performances of these groups were analyzed using both the conventional statistical approaches and the Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) modelling. Ninety-four non aphasic FTD and 160 AD patients were recruited. ToL Accuracy Score (AS) significantly (p < 0.05) differentiated FTD from AD patients. However, the discriminant validity of AS checked by ROC curve analysis, yielded no significant results in terms of sensitivity and specificity (AUC 0.63). The performances of the 12 Success Subscores (SS) together with age, gender and schooling years were entered into advanced ANNs developed by Semeion Institute. The best ANNs were selected and submitted to ROC curves. The non-linear model was able to discriminate FTD from AD with an average AUC for 7 independent trials of 0.82. The use of hidden information contained in the different items of ToL and the non linear processing of the data through ANNs allows a high discrimination between FTD and AD in individual patients.