High-lethality status in patients with borderline personality disorder

Recurrent suicidal behaviors in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are often considered communicative gestures; however, 10% complete suicide. This study seeks to identify risk factors for suicide within a BPD sample by comparing patients with High- and Low-Lethality attempts. BPD attempters (n = 113) were assessed on demographic, diagnostic, and personality variables: clinical symptoms, suicidal behaviors; childhood, family, and treatment histories; social adjustment; and recent life events. Forty-four High-Lethality attempters, defined by a score of 4 or more on Beck's Medical Lethality Scale, were compared to 69 Low-Lethality attempters. Discriminating variables were entered in a multivariate logistic regression model to define predictors of High-Lethality status. High-Lethality attempters were older, with children, less education, and lower socioeconomic class (SES) than Low-Lethality attempters. They were more likely to have Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), co-morbid Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), and family histories of substance abuse. They reported greater intent to die, more lifetime attempts, hospitalizations, and time in the hospital. High-Lethality status was best predicted by low SES, co-morbid ASPD, extensive treatment histories, and greater intent to die. These characteristics resemble profiles of patients who complete suicide, are not specific for BPD, and do not include impulsivity, aggression, or severity of BPD criteria.     

No aging bias favoring memory for positive material: evidence from a heterogeneity-homogeneity list paradigm using emotionally toned words

Some authors argue for a memory advantage of older adults for positively toned material. To investigate the contribution of selective processing to a positivity effect, the authors investigated young (n = 72, aged 18 to 31) and older (n = 72, aged 64 to 75) adults' memory for emotionally toned words using a multitrial paradigm that compares performance for heterogeneous (mixed valence) and homogeneous (single valence) lists. Regarding the age comparison, there was no evidence for an aging bias favoring positive material. Moreover, older adults' memory was less affected by emotion-based processing prioritization. Although there was no support for age-specific processing biases in memory for emotionally toned words, the findings are consistent with proposals that negative information receives processing priority in some contexts. Possible limits to the generalizability of the present findings (e.g., to nonverbal material) are discussed.     

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute ethics rounds: life-threatening illness and the desire to adopt

Originally presented during Ethics Rounds at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, this commentary on the case of a patient treated for life-threatening cancer explores the responsibilities of health care providers when addressing the patient's desire to adopt a child.     

An extension of freud and jung’s theory of the relation of dream states to schizophrenia

The central model for both Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung for the generation of schizophrenia’s hallucinations and delusional system is described as the intrusion of nighttime dream states into the waking consciousness. In this theoretical exegesis, a rent or tear is made in the ego instated by strongly repressed aggressive impulses which then create a dream-world for the patient as they subsequently overwhelm ego defenses. A parallel between this mode of knowing and, for example, the regioning of Martin Heidegger in his Discourse on Thinking is brought forward. Since these modes of thought are analogical and metaphorical, analysis based on this similarity may provide for greater insight into the thought and perceptual disorders of schizophrenia. An understanding of this kind of thought process may then provide a bridge towards more effective therapeutic interventions. A distinction is made between thought processes, per se, and those causal factors of a biological nature.     

Values, Framing, and Citizens' Thoughts about Policy Issues: Effects on Content and Quantity

This study examines how frames invoking a core value shape the content and quantity of citizens' thoughts about a policy issue. An experimental study showed that exposure to a pro-school voucher equality frame increased the probability that participants would invoke equality in their open-ended survey responses. Exposure to an anti-school voucher equality frame produced the same effect, as did exposure to both frames. At the same time, participants who received either frame or both frames provided fewer open-ended responses. Thus, the frames appeared to focus participants' thoughts on one value while reducing the overall extent to which they thought about the issue. In broader terms, value framing may have implications for the nature and quality of public deliberation about policy issues—a point that scholars should keep in mind when considering how to define and study framing effects.     

Kaufalit?t, biologie und pfychologie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Der Gestaltbegriff im Lichte der neuen Logik

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Skill transfer through goal-driven representation mapping

In this paper, we present an approach to transfer that involves analogical mapping of symbols across different domains. We relate this mechanism to Icarus, a theory of the human cognitive architecture. Our system can transfer skills across domains hypothesizing maps between representations, improving performance in novel domains. Unlike previous approaches to analogical transfer, our method uses an explanatory analysis that compares how well a new domain theory explains previous solutions under different mapping hypotheses. We present experimental evidence that the new mechanism improves transfer over Icarus’ basic learning processes. Moreover, we argue that the same features which distinguish Icarus from other architectures support representation mapping in a natural way and operate synergistically with it. These features enable our analogy system to translate a map among concepts into a map between skills, and to support transfer even if two domains are only partially analogous. We also discuss our system’s relation to other work on analogy and outline directions for future research.     

Blocking of spatial learning between enclosure geometry and a local landmark

In a virtual environment, blocking of spatial learning to locate an invisible target was found reciprocally between a distinctively shaped enclosure and a local landmark within its walls. The blocking effect was significantly stronger when the shape of the enclosure rather than the landmark served as the blocking cue. However, the extent to which the landmark blocked enclosure-shape learning was not influenced by increasing the physical salience of the landmark. The outcomes are the first to suggest that cue-interaction effects, commonly found in human and animal contingency learning experiments, are also found in human spatial learning based on landmarks and enclosure walls. The data are discussed in terms of spatial reference frames.