Task concentration training versus applied relaxation, in combination with cognitive therapy, for social phobia patients with fear of blushing, trembling, and sweating

Social phobia patients with fear of blushing, trembling, sweating and/or freezing as main complaint (N = 65) were randomly assigned to either task concentration training (TCT) or applied relaxation (AR) both followed by cognitive therapy (CT). Measurements took place before and after wait-list, after TCT or AR (within-test), after CT (post-test), at 3-months and at 1-year follow-up. Effects were assessed on fear of showing bodily symptoms (the central outcome variable), social phobia, other psychopathology, social skills, self-consciousness, self-focused attention, and dysfunctional beliefs. No changes occurred during wait-list. Both treatments were highly effective. TCT was superior to AR in reducing fear of bodily symptoms and dysfunctional beliefs at within-test. This difference disappeared after CT, at post-test and at 3-months follow-up. However, at 1-year follow-up the combination TCT-CT was superior to AR-CT in reducing fear of bodily symptoms, and effect sizes for TCT-CT reached 3. Furthermore, at all assessment moments TCT or the combination TCT-CT was superior to AR-CT in reducing self-consciousness and self-focused attention. The superior long-term effect of TCT on fear of showing bodily symptoms is explained by lasting changes in attentional focus.     

Spatial frequency processing in schizophrenia: trait or state marker?

B. F. O'Donnell et al. found impaired discrimination performances at low and medium spatial frequencies in patients with schizophrenia. In this study, the authors replicated this finding in a group of remitted, unmedicated, and highly functioning outpatients with spared IQ and attentional functions. However, the deficit was restricted to low spatial frequencies (0.5 cycles/degree), which suggests that this deficit is a trait marker of schizophrenia.     

Remarks on Penrose’s “New Argument”

It is commonly agreed that the well-known Lucas–Penrose arguments and even Penrose’s ‘new argument’ in [Penrose, R. (1994): Shadows of the Mind, Oxford University Press] are inconclusive. It is, perhaps, less clear exactly why at least the latter is inconclusive. This note continues the discussion in [Lindström, P. (2001): Penrose’s new argument, J. Philos. Logic 30, 241–250; Shapiro, S.(2003): Mechanism, truth, and Penrose’s new argument, J. Philos. Logic 32, 19–42] and elsewhere of this question.     

Linking dynamical perceptual decisions at different levels of description in motion pattern formation: computational simulations

A two-level dynamical model of motion pattern formation is developed in which local motion/ nonmotion perceptual decisions are based on inhibitory competition between area V1 detectors responsive to motion-specifying versus motion-independent stimulus information, and pattern-level perceptual decisions are based on inhibitory competition between area MT motion detectors with orthogonal directional selectivity. The model accounts for the effects of luminance perturbations on the relative size of the pattern-level hysteresis effects reported by Hock and Ploeger (2006) and also accounts for related experimental results reported by Hock, Kelso, and Sch?ner (1993). Single-trial simulations demonstrated the crucial role of local motion/nonmotion bistability and activation-dependent future-shaping interactions in stabilizing perceived global motion patterns. Such interactions maintain currently perceived motion patterns by inhibiting the soon-to-be-stimulated motion detectors that otherwise would be the basis for the perception of an alternative pattern.     

Examining psychokinesis: the interaction of human intention with random number generators--a meta-analysis

Séance-room and other large-scale psychokinetic phenomena have fascinated humankind for decades. Experimental research has reduced these phenomena to attempts to influence (a) the fall of dice and, later, (b) the output of random number generators (RNGs). The meta-analysis combined 380 studies that assessed whether RNG output correlated with human intention and found a significant but very small overall effect size. The study effect sizes were strongly and inversely related to sample size and were extremely heterogeneous. A Monte Carlo simulation revealed that the small effect size, the relation between sample size and effect size, and the extreme effect size heterogeneity found could in principle be a result of publication bias.     

Motivation and appraisal in perception of poorly specified speech

Normal-hearing students (n = 72) performed sentence, consonant, and word identification in either A (auditory), V (visual), or AV (audiovisual) modality. The auditory signal had difficult speech-to-noise relations. Talker (human vs. synthetic), topic (no cue vs. cue-words), and emotion (no cue vs. facially displayed vs. cue-words) were varied within groups. After the first block, effects of modality, face, topic, and emotion on initial appraisal and motivation were assessed. After the entire session, effects of modality on longer-term appraisal and motivation were assessed. The results from both assessments showed that V identification was more positively appraised than A identification. Correlations were tentatively interpreted such that evaluation of self-rated performance possibly depends on subjective standard and is reflected on motivation (if below subjective standard, AV group), or on appraisal (if above subjective standard, A group). Suggestions for further research are presented.     

The face you recognize may not be the one you saw: memory conjunction errors in individuals with or without learning disability

Memory conjunction errors, that is, when a combination of two previously presented stimuli is erroneously recognized as previously having been seen, were investigated in a face recognition task with drawings and photographs in 23 individuals with learning disability, and 18 chronologically age-matched controls without learning disability. Compared to the controls, individuals with learning disability committed significantly more conjunction errors, feature errors (one old and one new component), but had lower correct recognition, when the results were adjusted for different guessing levels. A dual-processing approach gained more support than a binding approach. However, neither of the approaches could explain all of the results. The results of the learning disability group were only partly related to non-verbal intelligence.     

Personality traits in women with Turner syndrome

Turner syndrome is caused by the total or partial absence of, or structural abnormalities in, one sex chromosome. A personality style characterized by traits related to low neuroticism and high extroversion has been reported for females with Turner syndrome, indicating possible genetic factors related to personality development. This study examines personality traits in 37 Swedish women with Turner syndrome using the Karolinska Scales of Personality Inventory. Compared to reference data, the subjects rated themselves as more sensation seeking, less detached, less verbally aggressive and less irritated. These results partially support previous findings. The subjects were divided into three karyotype groups: 45,X (n = 13), 45,X/46,XX or 45,X/45,XY (n = 13), and structural abnormalities (n = 11). Contrary to some previous findings, no differences in personality were found between the karyotype groups.     

Comparison of hemispheric activation during mental word and rhyme generation using transcranial Doppler sonography

The Wada test is at present the method of choice for preoperative assessment of patients who require surgery close to cortical language areas. It is, however, an invasive test with an attached morbidity risk. By now, an alternative to the Wada test is to combine a lexical word generation paradigm with non-invasive imaging techniques. However, results of this approach are still not in complete agreement with the findings of the Wada test (r = .92; Knecht, Deppe, Ebner et al., 1998). We attempted to obtain a more distinct language lateralization with the development of a phonological rhyme generation paradigm based on pseudoword stimuli. To examine the predictive value of both paradigms we performed simultaneous bilateral functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography on 19 right-handed male native German subjects. The rhyme generation condition produced a significantly stronger lateralization to the supposed hemisphere of language dominance than the classical word generation condition. The observed differences suggest that the rhyme generation paradigm is more robust in detecting hemispheric language dominance than other neuropsychological paradigms and might be most valuable for preoperative assessment of cortical language areas.     

Conformism moderates the relations between values, anticipated regret, and behavior

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the moderating effect of Conformism values on the relations between other values and behavior. The authors expected people low, but not high, in Conformism to behave in a manner that is consistent with their personal values related to self-transcendence versus self-enhancement. In Study 1 (N = 199), such values predicted actual altruistic behavior, as estimated by other-reports, but only if Conformism values were low. In Study 2 (N = 189), only people who considered Conformism values to be relatively unimportant showed expected connections between self-transcendence values and anticipated regret in hypothetical scenarios having negative consequences. The data are interpreted as supporting the view that (a) anticipated regret motivates value-consistent behavior, (b) self-transcendence values in particular are connected to altruistic behavior and to anticipated regret, but (c) conformity to social norms moderates these connections.