Methodological and empirical issues when dissociating cue-related from task-related processes in the explicit task-cuing procedure

In the explicit cuing version of the task-switching paradigm, each individual task is indicated by a unique task cue. Consequently, a task switch is accompanied by a cue switch. Recently, it has been proposed that priming of cue encoding contributes to the empirically observed switch costs. This proposal was experimentally supported by using a 2:1 mapping of cues to tasks, so that a cue switch does not necessarily imply a task switch. The results indeed suggested a substantial contribution of “cue-switch costs” to task-switch costs. Here we argue that the 2:1 mapping potentially leads to an underestimation of “pure” task-switch costs. To support this argument, we report the results of a new study in which we used “transition cues” that indicate the identity of the current task based on the identity of the preceding task. This new type of cue allows a full factorial manipulation of cue switches and task switches because it includes the condition in which a cue repetition can also indicate a task switch (i.e., when the “switch” cue is repeated). We discuss the methodological implications and argue that the present approach has merits relative to the previously used 2:1 mapping of cues to tasks.     

Psychological strain and emotional labor among police-officers: A diary study

The authors examined the relationship between psychological strain, emotional dissonance and emotional job demands during a working day of 65 Dutch (military) police officers, using a 5-day diary design. We hypothesized that emotional dissonance partly mediated the relationship between psychological strain at the start and at the end of a work shift. We also tested the mediating role of emotional dissonance between emotional job demands and psychological strain at the end of a work shift. Results of structural equation modeling analyses showed that psychological strain at the start of a work shift had a positive effect on the experience of emotional dissonance and psychological strain at the end of a work shift. Emotional dissonance partly mediated the relationship between psychological strain at the start and psychological strain at the end of a work shift. Results are discussed in light of conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, S. E. (1988). The ecology of stress. New York: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation).     

Selective attention and threat: quick orienting versus slow disengagement and two versions of the dot probe task

The dot probe task is often used to assess attentional bias in anxiety, but some aspects need clarification. First, the results, which are traditionally summarized in an attentional bias index, do not allow for distinguishing between different selective attention processes; orienting and disengagement. Second, different versions of the dot probe task have been used with unknown relative merits. Participants (N=133) completed two versions of the dot probe task: the detection task (i.e. is there a probe?) and the differentiation task (i.e. what sort of probe is it?). The analysis carried out allowed for a differentiation between orienting and disengagement. The main finding was that trait anxiety is related to disengagement difficulties and not to speed of orienting. Concerning the relative merits of the two dot probe task versions, the results suggest that the detection task may be superior to the differentiation task. Implications for past and future research are discussed.     

Reduced Use of Environmentally Friendly Modes of Transportation Caused by Perceived Mobility Necessities: An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior1

An extended version of the theory of planned behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991 ) was used to explain travel mode choice. As a new predictor, perceived mobility necessities (PMNs) were introduced, which are defined as people's perceptions of mobility‐related consequences of their personal living circumstances. The database consisted of a survey of 1,545 car users in 3 large German cities. Using structural equation modeling, PMNs were integrated into TPB and showed the expected significant negative effect on use of environmentally friendly modes. In‐depth interviews with 82 selected participants indicated that PMN moderates the relationship between public transportation attitude and intention. This moderator effect was confirmed by a regression analysis. The extension of TPB by PMN allows deduction of more differentiated intervention strategies.     

A Theory of Regret Regulation 1.1

We use this opportunity to respond to the issues raised by Inman (2007), and Roese, Summerville, and Fessel (2007) by addressing four broad topics that embrace the most important comments on our regret regulation theory. These topics are the feeling‐is‐for‐doing approach on which regret regulation theory rests, the importance of emotion specificity, factors that modulate the intensity of regret, and the focus on action, inaction and choice in the elicitation of regret. Together this results in a first update, version 1.1.     

Uncertainty about perception and dissociation after compulsive-like staring: Time course of effects

Repeated and compulsive-like checking reduces confidence in memory for the last check. Obsessive-compulsive (OC) patients are not only uncertain about memory, but may also be uncertain about perception, while this perceptual uncertainty may be associated with prolonged visual fixation on the object of uncertainty. It was reported earlier that, among healthy participants, prolonged staring at light bulbs or gas rings induces OC-like uncertainty about perception and feelings of dissociation [van den Hout, M. A., Engelhard, I. M., de Boer, C., du Bois, A., & Dek, E. (2008). Perseverative and compulsive-like staring causes uncertainty about perception. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 1300–1304]. In that study, staring continued for 10 min. For patients, however, staring intervals seem to be considerably shorter. To test the clinical credibility of the paradigm as a model of the maintenance of OC perceptual uncertainty, we investigated whether the effects of staring materialize long before 10 min. Five groups of 16 undergraduates participated: one group did not stare at a gas stove while the others stared for 7.5, 15, 30 or 300 s. In the absence of staring, no pre-to-post increase in dissociation/uncertainty was reported, but after staring it was. The larger part of the observed dissociation/uncertainty after 5 min had occurred within 30 s, and around 50% of this maximal increase was reported between 7.5 and 15 s. Thus, even relatively short intervals of staring induce uncertainty about perception and dissociative experiences. Perseverative looking at objects may be a counter-productive OC strategy, which increases uncertainty about perception and may serve to maintain the disorder.     

Concurrent associations between anxiety sensitivity and perceived health and health disability among young adult daily smokers

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the incremental validity of anxiety sensitivity (fear of arousal-related physical and psychological sensations) relative to health factors (smoking variables, alcohol use and exercise level), in predicting perceived health and disability among a sample of 225 young adult daily smokers (102 females; M(age) = 23.9 years, SD = 8.8). Consistent with prediction, anxiety sensitivity, relative to smoking-relevant variables, alcohol consumption (a single frequency by quantity composite) and exercise activity, predicted lower perceived general health and impairments in mental health and social functioning; no incremental effects were evident for anxiety sensitivity for predicting impairments in physical functioning, role functioning, or increased healthcare usage. These findings are discussed with respect to better understanding cognitive factors that affect perceptions of health status and functioning among daily smokers.     

On becoming neutral: effects of experimental neutralizing reconsidered

Behaviour Research and Therapy 34 (1996) 889–898 found that writing out a negative thought produced anxiety and an urge to neutralize the thought, that instructing participants to neutralize the thought reduced anxiety/neutralization urge in the short run (i.e. within 2 min), but that in the control group 20 min without instruction was attended by the same reduction in anxiety/urge to neutralize (“natural decay”). The observations were made with pariticipants who scored high on “thought action fusion” and the experiment was set up as exerimental model of obsessions. We repeated the study with participants that were not selected on thought action fusion. All the findings reported by Behaviour Research and Therapy 34 (1996) 889–898 were replicated. Correlational analysis indicated that the strength of the effect was not related to scores on scales measuring “thought action fusion”. Behaviour Research and Therapy 34 (1996) 889–898 did not assess whether non-neutralizing was followed by immediate reductions in distress. We did assess this and found that the larger part of the immediate reduction of distress after neutralization also occurs when no neutralization instruction is given. The effects of neutralization instructions in the present type of experiment are considerably less powerful than suggested earlier.     

Parent–offspring similarity in personality and adolescents' problem behaviour

Similarity in personality between adolescents and their parents may have considerable implications for adolescent well‐being. We studied how the similarity in personality between 288 adolescents and their parents is linked to adolescent problem behaviour, and whether this link is mediated by warmth and control in the parent–child relationship and moderated by the personality type of the adolescent. Similarity in personality between adolescents and their parents was negatively related to internalizing and externalizing problem behaviour, both concurrently and over time. This relation was not mediated by the parent–child relationship. The effects were present for overcontrolled but not for resilient or undercontrolled adolescents. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.