Components of generalized anxiety: the role of intrusive thoughts vs worry

This study explored possible mechanisms involved with the maintenance of generalized anxiety. While several general anxiety-related variables were investigated, the relationship between worry and intrusive thoughts was of primary interest. We postulated that anxious persons continue to worry in order to avoid recollections of distressing life events. Accordingly, we hypothesized that worry can be distinguished from intrusive thoughts and that the experience of worry would be preferred to intrusive thoughts. Results of a factor analysis indicated that worry and intrusive thought items loaded on separate factors, which supports the hypothesis that worry can be distinguished from intrusive thoughts. The study also examined whether different patterns of worry and intrusive thoughts distinguish between high-anxious, panic, and low-anxious persons and how anxiety sensitivity and self-consciousness are related to generalized anxiety and panic. Finally, we discussed the implications of our results for understanding the psychopathology base of Generalized Anxiety Disorder.     

The Biconditional Doctrine: Contra K?lbel on a “Dogma” of Davidsonian Semantics

Should a theory of meaning state what sentences mean, and can a Davidsonian theory of meaning in particular do so? Max Kölbel answers both questions affirmatively. I argue, however, that the phenomena of non-homophony, non-truth-conditional aspects of meaning, semantic mood, and context-sensitivity provide prima facie obstacles for extending Davidsonian truth-theories to yield meaning-stating theorems. Assessing some natural moves in reply requires a more fully developed conception of the task of such theories than Kölbel provides. A more developed conception is also required to defend his positive answer to the first question above. I argue that, however Kölbel might elaborate his position, it can’t be by embracing the sort of cognitivist account of Davidsonian semantics to which he sometimes alludes.     

Neuroimaging Measures to Assess the Effectiveness of a Two-Day Marathon Group of Individuals with Early Developmental Trauma: A Pilot Study

Group therapy can be effective with individuals with developmental trauma who re-experience intense physiological traumatic distress and struggle with terror and despair. This modality can address the long-term ramifications of developmental trauma, including problems with perceptions, trust, emotional regulation, and loss of sense of self. Neuroimaging techniques can be combined with group therapy interventions as a way to empirically validate the effectiveness of group psychotherapy on brain structures and networks impacted by trauma. The neuroscience explaining overpowering traumatic responses and related emotions will be reviewed. Results of a pilot study combining group therapy with neuroimaging are presented.     

The effect of mood on false memory for emotional DRM word lists

In the present study, we investigated the effect of participants’ mood on true and false memories of emotional word lists in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. In Experiment 1, we constructed DRM word lists in which all the studied words and corresponding critical lures reflected a specified emotional valence. In Experiment 2, we used these lists to assess mood-congruent true and false memory. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three induced-mood conditions (positive, negative, or neutral) and were presented with word lists comprised of positive, negative, or neutral words. For both true and false memory, there was a mood-congruent effect in the negative mood condition; this effect was due to a decrease in true and false recognition of the positive and neutral words. These findings are consistent with both spreading-activation and fuzzy-trace theories of DRM performance and have practical implications for our understanding of the effect of mood on memory.     

Sleep deprivation and sustained attention performance: integrating mathematical and cognitive modeling

A long history of research has revealed many neurophysiological changes and concomitant behavioral impacts of sleep deprivation, sleep restriction, and circadian rhythms. Little research, however, has been conducted in the area of computational cognitive modeling to understand the information processing mechanisms through which neurobehavioral factors operate to produce degradations in human performance. Our approach to understanding this relationship is to link predictions of overall cognitive functioning, or alertness, from existing biomathematical models to information processing parameters in a cognitive architecture, leveraging the strengths from each to develop a more comprehensive explanation. The integration of these methodologies is used to account for changes in human performance on a sustained attention task across 88 h of total sleep deprivation. The integrated model captures changes due to time awake and circadian rhythms, and it also provides an account for underlying changes in the cognitive processes that give rise to those effects. The results show the potential for developing mechanistic accounts of how fatigue impacts cognition, and they illustrate the increased explanatory power that is possible by combining theoretical insights from multiple methodologies.     

Crisis Management: Looking Back to Look Forward

Alexander George made a seminal contribution to theories of preventive diplomacy, crisis management, deterrence, and coercive diplomacy. Although he made his contribution in the highly structured environment of the Cold War, his analysis of the close connections between positive and negative inducements, the importance of interests in shaping outcomes, and the dangers of threat-based strategies as substitutes for policy speaks to the central challenges of contemporary global politics.     

Defining the boundary of childhood amnesia

When adults are asked to recall their earliest autobiographical memories most can recall nothing about their infancy and early childhood, a phenomenon commonly referred to as childhood amnesia. There is general consensus regarding the existence of childhood amnesia, but there remains considerable debate over its boundary. Most researchers have argued that the boundary of childhood amnesia occurs between the ages of 3 and 4 years, but in 1993 Usher and Neisser published a highly influential paper, which has subsequently been used to argue that the boundary may be as low as 2 years. In the present experiment we examined how changes in scoring criteria influence our estimates of the age of adults' earliest memories. We conclude that some coding criteria are more valid than others and that the best estimates of childhood amnesia will include measures of free recall in addition to the specific questions that have dominated prior research in this area.