The latent structure of anxiety sensitivity--revisited

Anxiety sensitivity has been implicated as a risk factor for the development and maintenance of panic and other anxiety disorders. Although researchers have generally assumed that anxiety sensitivity is a dimensional, rather than categorical, variable, recent taxometric research has raised questions concerning the accuracy of this assumption. The present study examined the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity by applying four taxometric procedures (MAXEIG, MAXCOV, MAMBAC, and L-Mode) to data collected from two large nonclinical samples (n = 1,025 and n = 744) using two distinct measures of anxiety sensitivity (Anxiety Sensitivity Profile and Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised). In contrast to previous taxometric analyses of anxiety sensitivity, results of the present research provided convergent evidence for a latent anxiety sensitivity dimension. Several potential explanations for the discrepancy between these findings and those of previous research are discussed, as well as the implications of these findings for the conceptualization and measurement of anxiety sensitivity.     

Fearful expressions gain preferential access to awareness during continuous flash suppression

Rapid evaluation of ecologically relevant stimuli may lead to their preferential access to awareness. Continuous flash suppression allows assessment of affective processing under conditions in which stimuli have been rendered invisible due to the strongly suppressive nature of dynamic noise relative to static images. The authors investigated whether fearful expressions emerge from suppression into awareness more quickly than images of neutral or happy expressions. Fearful faces were consistently detected faster than neutral or happy faces. Responses to inverted faces were slower than those to upright faces but showed the same effect of emotional expression, suggesting that some key feature or features in the inverted faces remained salient. When using stimuli solely representing the eyes, a similar bias for detecting fear emerged, implicating the importance of information from the eyes in the preconscious processing of fear expressions.     

Numerical reproduction in pigeons

Pigeons were trained to match the number of responses made during a production phase to the number of keylight flashes (2, 4, or 6) in a previous sample phase. In Experiment 1, there were 2 conditions in which the flashes were programmed to occur at a constant rate or within a constant overall duration. For both conditions, although accuracy was relatively low, responding increased linearly with flash number and coefficients of variation decreased. Positive transfer to novel numbers was obtained only when test and baseline trials had the same temporal organization, but multiple regressions revealed significant control by number independently of temporal cues. In Experiment 2, flashes were programmed to occur pseudorandomly to degrade the validity of temporal cues. Results were similar to in Experiment 1. A prototype response class model accounted for the major features of the data. According to the model, responses during the production phase are shaped into higher order units that are associated with different stimulus numbers and function as a rough category scale of numerosity.     

Child traumatherapy: Its role in managing the effects of trauma,loss, damaged attachment,and dissociation in children exposed to lethal urban community violence

Violence and its effects on children should be a pressing concern for clinicians, policy makers, and public officials. Urban violence assaults the minds and bodies of our children, resulting in troublesome and complex responses that have far-reaching implications for the future of society. This article highlights chronic post-traumatic and loss response patterns associated with the horrors of violence and murder witnessed by a child, and a model of intervention referred to as child traumatherapy.Since the problems presented by many inner city children are wide-ranging, to include attachment problems and dissociation, a multisystems approach transformed in practice into an intersystem approach may be required in many cases. This approach begins with a unisystem, then moves to multisystems, and later to coordinated intersystem service structures. This may be realized through the coordinative skills of the therapist who instrumentally brokers clinical-community services, while ensuring political leveraging for the benefit of children. In essence, the model is a comprehensive one which directly engages the child self system, the family-extended family systems, the community, the political system, while employing ethnoculturally enlightened methods. The model integrates techniques in play, cognitive, behavioral, social, and psychodynamic therapies, and highlights the indispensability of the use of transference to manage terror, horror, and resolve disturbed attachment. These and other issues will be presented in this article.