The accuracy of abstracts in psychology journals

This article provides an empirically supported reminder of the importance of accuracy in scientific communication. The authors identify common types of inaccuracies in research abstracts and offer suggestions to improve abstract-article agreement. Abstracts accompanying 13% of a random sample of 400 research articles published in 8 American Psychological Association journals during 1997 and 1998 contained data or claims inconsistent with or missing from the body of the article. Error rates ranged from 8% to 18%, although between-journal differences were not significant. Many errors (63%) were unlikely to cause substantive misinterpretations. Unfortunately, 37% of errors found could be seriously misleading with respect to the data or claims presented in the associated article. Although deficient abstracts may be less common in psychology journals than in major medical journals (R. M. Pitkin, M. A. Branagan, & L. F. Burmeister, 1999), there is still cause for concern and need for improvement.     

Depression and its relation to light deprivation

The absence or diminution of light is potentially an anxiety-arousing situation for, perhaps, all of us. Even a cursory look at the origin myths of many cultures reveals the chaotic, destructive, and dangerous aspects of darkness. Additionally, language reflects the same qualities metaphorically and symbolically. Developmentally, the arrival of the darkness of evening potentially signals object loss and ego regression. But factors other than ubiquitous references to a consideration of light and darkness are relevant. Can it be that we are all at least prone to depression due in part to this factor? Questions regarding possible biological causes of depression are perhaps unanswerable at this time. Is the seratonin level really associated with depression and light deprivation? Research is as yet inconclusive. If a relationship exists, another question must be asked: Will certain psychological situations affect a person's seratonin production? The answer to this question of how depression is associated with biological causes is certainly beyond the scope of this paper. Yet the preceding case history reveals at least some psychological causes of depression that were initially seen as biologically based. The SAD proponents would have treated Mr. B with light therapy. The quick solution of light therapy, based on a shaky theoretical base and lacking sturdy research, has too often replaced the psychoanalytic approach. In all too many situations psychoanalysts are being replaced by lightbulbs.     

Positive and negative generation effects,hypermnesia, and total recall time

Self-generated information is typically remembered better than perceived information (the generation effect). Experimental design produces an important limiting condition for this effect: Generation enhances recall in within-subjects designs, but typically not in between-subjects designs. However, Mulligan (2001) found that the generation effect emerged over repeated recall tests in a between-subjects design, calling into question the generality of this limiting condition. Two experiments further delineated the emergent generation effect Experiment 1 demonstrated that this effect does not require multiple discrete recall tests but may emerge on a single recall test of long duration. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the negative generation effect (a reversal of the typical generation effect produced under certain conditions) is abolished by multiple recall tests. In both experiments, the generate condition produced greater hypemnesia (increased recall over tests) than did the read condition.     

Similar effects of medial supramammillary or systemic injection of chlordiazepoxide on both theta frequency and fixed-interval respondin

The frequency of theta activity may be important for hippocampal function. Anxiolytic drugs reduce theta frequency and have behavioral effects that are similar to those of hippocampal lesions. The effect of the anxiolytic benzodiazepine chlordiazepoxide (CDP) on theta frequency is partially mediated by the medial supramammillary nucleus (mSuM), part of an ascending theta-activating system. Rats were trained on the hippocampal-sensitive fixed-interval 60-sec schedule (FI60). CDP (5 mg/kg i.p.) released responding suppressed by nonreward, seen as increased leverpressing, and reduced theta frequency concurrently. Microinfusion of CDP (20 μg in 0.5 μl saline) into mSuM had as large effects on both frequency and behavior. Other nuclei mediate the benzodiazepine reduction of theta frequency in the open field and the water maze. But the mSuM appears to be the major, if not sole, nucleus controlling theta frequency and, so, hippocampal-mediated behavioral inhibition in the FI60 lever task.     

A Psychoanalytic Contribution to Psychic Vampirism: A Case Vignette

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Ruminative coping and post-event processing in social anxiety

Cognitive models of social anxiety implicate various factors in the initiation and maintenance of socially anxious states, including anticipatory processing, self-focused attention and post-event processing. The present study focused on post-event processing, which is a post-mortem analysis following a social event that is described as ruminative in nature and serves to maintain social anxiety. Participants (N=112; 64 women, 48 men) were presented with vignettes that involved making mistakes in public and were instructed to record their thoughts to allow for the examination of the content of post-event processing. Ruminative coping and distraction were assessed via self-report. Results indicated that participants high in social anxiety (n=55) were more likely to ruminate and less likely to distract when faced with socially anxious stressors compared to those low in social anxiety (n=57). Further, as hypothesized, participants high in social anxiety recorded more negative thoughts and more upward counterfactual thoughts ('if only' type thoughts on how things could have been better; associated with negative affect) compared to those low in social anxiety. These results are discussed in terms of cognitive models of social anxiety.