Disentangling executive functions and memory processes in event‐based prospective remembering after brain damage: A neuropsychological study

Successful prospective remembering (PR) comprises at least two components: one retrospective component that refers to the encoding and retrieval of the content of the intention and a second prospective component that involves the retrieval of the intended action at the appropriate moment. Whereas the retrospective component is very similar to memory skills like learning and retention of new information, the prospective component is thought to rely mainly on executive function. Head injuries can disturb PR during both of these stages. To disentangle the relative impact of executive functions and retrospective memory processes on PR we embedded a PR task in a 2‐back verbal working memory paradigm. Fifty‐six neurological patients with brain damage of various aetiologies were divided pre‐experimentally into four groups on the basis of their delayed recall Index in the Wechsler Memory Scale‐Revised (WMS‐R, indicating absence or presence of deficits in retrospective memory functions) and their age‐corrected score in the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS, indicating absence or presence of deficits in executive functions). Additionally, 19 controls matched for age and education were examined. We found that patients with deficits in executive functions detected fewer cues than any other group irrespective of their retrospective memory performance. However, eight patients with severe anterograde memory deficits could retain neither the intention nor its content. Thus, intactness of the retrospective component seems to be a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for successful prospective remembering. For the execution of the intended action itself executive functions play a critical role.     

Stigma as a barrier to recovery from mental illness

Advances in neuroscience, technology and research sophistication have greatly increased understanding of mental illnesses and improved the treatment of these disorders. However, there are also important psychosocial aspects of mental illness that play a significant role in recovery from these conditions. One set of these factors involves the prejudice and discrimination, often referred to as 'stigma', faced by people when others learn that they have been diagnosed with, and/or treated for, a mental disorder.     

Do emotions have distinct vocal profiles? A study of idiographic patterns of expression

Research on vocal expressions of emotion indicates that persons can identify emotions from voice with relatively high accuracy rates. In addition, fairly consistent vocal profiles for specific emotions have been identified. However, important methodological issues remain to be addressed. In this paper, we address the issue of whether there are individual differences in the manner in which particular emotions may be expressed vocally and whether trained speakers’ portrayals of emotion are in some sense superior to untrained speakers’ portrayals. Consistent support was found for differences across speakers in the manner in which they expressed the same emotions. No accompanying relationship was found between differences in expression and accuracy of identification of those expressions. Little evidence for the superiority of trained speakers was found. Implications of these findings for future studies of vocal expressions of emotion, as well as our understanding of emotions in general, are discussed.     

A Systems Approach to Priority Setting of Interventions in Groups

The author provides an overview of self-help groups in terms of their origins, growth, scope, and effectiveness, and then compares these groups with professionally conducted psychotherapy groups. A framework for evaluating group helping systems is proposed which includes five principal dimensions: the helping group as a social microcosm; technological complexity/simplicity; psychological distance/closeness between helper and helpee; specificity/generality of help methods; and differentiation versus nondifferentiation among participants. The author concludes his article by recommending four strategies for how group therapists can contribute to self-help groups.     

The influence of depression symptoms on exploratory decision-making

People with symptoms of depression show impairments in decision-making. One explanation is that they have difficulty maintaining rich representations of the task environment. We test this hypothesis in the context of exploratory choice. We analyze depressive and non-depressive participants’ exploration strategies by comparing their choices to two computational models: (1) an “Ideal Actor” model that reflectively updates beliefs and plans ahead, employing a rich representation of the environment and (2) a “Naïve Reinforcement Learning” (RL) model that updates beliefs reflexively utilizing a minimal task representation. Relative to non-depressive participants, we find that depressive participants’ choices are better described by the simple RL model. Further, depressive participants were more exploratory than non-depressives in their decision-making. Depressive symptoms appear to influence basic mechanisms supporting choice behavior by reducing use of rich task representations and hindering performance during exploratory decision-making.     

Omnipotence in the transference and in the countertransference

The concept of omnipotence refers to a primitive fantasy, a mechanism of defense, and a pathological psychic structure. Omnipotence and its derivative defensive operation, omnipotent control, are highly prevalent in borderline personality organization. Three clinical vignettes illustrate these mechanisms in the treatment of patients with borderline, narcissistic, and obsessive personality disorders, respectively. These vignettes illustrate the transference developments when omnipotence and omnipotence control are dominant, and the therapeutic approach to these conditions.     

Identifying persons feigning limitations in their competence to proceed in the legal process

Accurate assessment of the response styles criminal defendants adopt when undergoing evaluations of their competence to proceed with the legal process is critical because some feign limitations in their abilities in an attempt to delay or avoid prosecution. This study examined the utility of the Inventory of Legal Knowledge (ILK) to identify persons motivated to feign competence related limitations. That the ILK has good potential as a screening tool is indicated by findings that the measure (1) has adequate test–retest reliability and (2) classified correctly the large majority of participants in two samples (i.e., college students and psychiatric patients) who completed the measure under “honest” or “fake bad” conditions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐Control Moderates Decision‐Making Behavior When Minimizing Losses versus Maximizing Gains

We examined (1) whether people would be more responsive to the delayed consequences of their decisions when attempting to minimize losses than when attempting to maximize gains in a history‐dependent decision‐making task and (2) how trait self‐control would moderate such an effect. In two experiments, participants performed a dynamic decision‐making task where they chose one of two options on each trial. The increasing option always gave a smaller immediate reward but caused future rewards for both options to increase. The decreasing option always gave a larger immediate reward but caused future rewards for both options to decrease. In Experiment 1 where the two options had equivalent expected value in the long run, participants were more prone to select the increasing option, which yielded larger benefits on future trials, in the loss‐minimization condition than in the gain‐maximization condition. Trait self‐control moderated the effect of losses by enhancing the effect for low self‐control participants while attenuating it for high self‐control participants. In Experiment 2 where selecting the increasing option was suboptimal, low self‐control participants still attempted to reduce losses on future trials by selecting the increasing option more often than high self‐control participants. These results suggest that decision makers value delayed consequences of their actions more in a losses domain relative to a gains domain and low self‐control individuals are more susceptible to such an effect. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.