Contextual interference processing during fast categorisations of facial expressions

We examined interference effects of emotionally associated background colours during fast valence categorisations of negative, neutral and positive expressions. According to implicitly learned colour-emotion associations, facial expressions were presented with colours that either matched the valence of these expressions or not. Experiment 1 included infrequent non-matching trials and Experiment 2 a balanced ratio of matching and non-matching trials. Besides general modulatory effects of contextual features on the processing of facial expressions, we found differential effects depending on the valance of target facial expressions. Whereas performance accuracy was mainly affected for neutral expressions, performance speed was specifically modulated by emotional expressions indicating some susceptibility of emotional expressions to contextual features. Experiment 3 used two further colour-emotion combinations, but revealed only marginal interference effects most likely due to missing colour-emotion associations. The results are discussed with respect to inherent processing demands of emotional and neutral expressions and their susceptibility to contextual interference.     

Revisiting the association of aggression and suicidal behavior in schizophrenic inpatients

Our study investigated the association of aggression and suicidal behavior in schizophrenic inpatients. Eight thousand nine hundred one admissions for schizophrenia (1998-2007) to a psychiatric university hospital were included. Schizophrenic suicides (n = 7)/suicide attempters (n = 40) were compared to suicides (n = 30)/suicide attempters (n = 186) with other diagnoses and to schizophrenic non-attempters regarding aggression. Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore risk factors for attempted suicide. Schizophrenic suicides/suicide attempters did not differ from other suicides/suicide attempters or from schizophrenic non-attempters with regard to aggression. Risk of inpatient suicide attempt was increased for patients with attempted suicide at admission, high school graduation, and disorganized subtype. Aggression could not be found to be a predictor of attempted suicide. Aggression seems to have a minor role for suicidal behavior in schizophrenia.     

The Predictive Validity of Injury Proxies: Predicting Early Adolescent Injuries with Assessments of Minor Injuries

This study offers an initial step in establishing the predictive validity of injury proxies. Proxies are utilized frequently by injury researchers to overcome various methodological and ethical issues inherent in injury research, although psychometric data on proxies are limited. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development we found that minor injuries predicted adolescent injuries longitudinally, even in the context of well-established predictors of injury risk. This study is the first to demonstrate the predictive validity of minor injuries, a common proxy of pediatric injury risk. Findings are discussed with respect to implications for conceptual understanding of injury risk, future research, and prevention efforts.     

Discrepancies Between Implicit and Explicit Self‐concepts of Intelligence Predict Performance on Tests of Intelligence

Three studies investigated the correspondence between implicit and explicit self‐concepts of intelligence and how that correspondence is related to performance on different intelligence tests. Configurations of these two self‐concepts were found to be consistently related to performance on intelligence tests in all three studies. For individuals who self‐reported high intelligence (high explicit self‐concept), a negative implicit self‐concept (measured with the Implicit Association Test) led to a decrease in performance on intelligence tests. For participants whose self‐report indicated a low self‐concept of intelligence, positive automatic associations between the self and intelligence had a similar effect. In line with a stress hypothesis, the results indicate that any discrepant configuration of self‐concepts will impair performance. Importantly, the prediction of performance on intelligence tests by the self‐concept of intelligence was shown to be independent of self‐esteem (Study 3). Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Langzeitergebnisse einer Funktionellen-Magnetresonanztomographie-Studie

In a controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study the effect of psychodynamic short-term psychotherapy on cerebral activation of panic disorder patients was determined. In a linguistic go-no go paradigm behavioral measures and cerebral activation to affective word stimuli with threatening, neutral and positive content were assessed pretreatment and post-treatment in 9 patients with panic disorder. 18 healthy controls were scanned twice at the same intervals. In an additional long-term follow-up after approximately 3 years post-treatment the effect of brain activation changes during treatment on the long-term outcome of core symptoms (panic-related cognition and fear of body sensations) were determined. In accordance with the hypotheses increased limbic (hippocampus and amygdala) activation accompanied by low prefrontal activation to negative words were found. At treatment termination, panic-related symptoms had improved significantly and fronto-limbic activation patterns were normalized. Reduction of activation of the limbic system during treatment was predictive of a favorable long-term outcome. The results indicate that short-term psychodynamic treatment leads to changes in fronto-limbic networks, similar to previous findings on cognitive-behavioural treatment.     

Knowledge structuring and societal well-being: Toward biomedical impact indicators

Advances in science and technology have been credited with improving quality of life, as well as blamed for creating or contributing to a host of problems. This article attempts to establish that a unidirectional, causal perspective of science-society linkages is untenable, that technological knowledge rather than science affects society, and that an action-oriented focus is consistent with the complex dynamics of society. A model relating knowledge structuring to societal well-being, with a special focus on biomedicine, is advanced and utilized for the design of indicators to support policies that shape the impact of knowledge structuring technologies on well-being.     

The influence of misattributions on reactions to inequity: Towards a further understanding of Inequity

An experiment was conducted to investigate the importance of inequity distress. In a 2 x 2 factorial design subjects were paid either in a high or low disadvantageous inequitable manner compared to a male confederate. One half of the subjects were led to believe that fictitious infrasonic sound would have arousing side effects, one half expected no side effects whatsoever. According to the hypotheses, (1) subjects in the misattribution condition restored equity less than subjects in the no side effects control group, (2) strongly inequitable treated subjects restored equity more than mildly inequitable treated ones, (3) the misattribution manipulation only had a significant effect on strongly inequitable treated subjects. Thus, the results show that distress is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the restoration of equity. Consequences of the results for future research are discussed.     

Effect of disparity and viewing distance on perceived depth

It is shown that veridical depth perception presupposes the processing of both the magnitude of retinal disparity and observation distance according to a square-law function specified by the underlying geometrical stimulus relations. In the present study, after testing its existence, this constancy of depth perception was investigated by measuring perceived depth as a function of retinal disparity and observation distance. In addition, the relative effectiveness of convergence and accommodation as possible indicators of distance was examined through a conflicting-cues paradigm. It was shown that in the perception of depth the visual system computes distance by taking into account the convergence parameter only, rather than that of accommodation or of both.     

Hemispheric differences for semantically and phonologically primed nouns: A tachistoscopic study in normals

Normal individuals performed two matching tasks. In one task, semantic processing, synonyms had to be recognized. Half the stimuli were picturable and half were nonpicturable nouns. In this task, recognition of picturable synonyms was found to have hemifield symmetry, whereas recognition of nonpicturable synonyms yielded a left-hemisphere superiority, indicating that semantic matching itself did not reveal equal performance of both hemispheres. It is concluded that picturable synonyms might be recognized either by processes of visual imagery, which pertain to right-hemisphere function, or by their phonological or phonic features, which are processed by the left hemisphere. The other task, shown in previous research to exhibit a left-hemisphere superiority, was to decide if two nouns (homophones) were equally pronounced. Here a distinct left-hemisphere advantage was revealed.