Coding modality vs. input modality in hypermnesia: Is a rose a rose a rose?

Recent experiments indicate that recall of pictures, unlike recall of words, may increase (hypermnesia) with time and effort. This study demonstrates that by recoding word inputs into ‘mental pictures’, i.e., images, subjects can transform inert word lists into hypermnesic ones. Thus, when word inputs are recoded into images, recall increases over time, and resembles in other respects the recall of pictures.     

No man is an island: the need to belong and dismissing avoidant attachment style

The need to belong theory proposes that all human beings need social connections. However, dismissive avoidant individuals claim to be comfortable without close relationships and appear to be indifferent to how other people think of them. The current studies examined the association between dismissing avoidant attachment and the desire to feel accepted by others. In Study 1, high-dismissive participants reported experiencing higher than average levels of positive affect and state self-esteem after learning that other participants accepted them. In Study 2, high-dismissive participants felt better about themselves and experienced higher levels of positive affect after learning that in the future they would be successful in interpersonal relative to independent domains or controls. The results of these studies suggest that dismissive avoidants do not represent a counterexample to the hypothesis that all human beings have a fundamental need and desire to belong.     

Brief cognitive-behavioral phone-based intervention targeting anxiety about the threat of attack: a pilot study

A brief, cognitive-behavioral, phone-based intervention was employed with an Israeli sample experiencing anticipatory anxiety about potential war-related attacks. In this quasi-experimental controlled pilot study, the cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention (diaphragmatic breathing and a modified cognitive-restructuring technique) was compared with the standard hotline care administered when worried citizens called a mental health emergency hotline in Israel. Individuals (n=32) were administered anxiety and worry measures pre-intervention, post-intervention, and three days post-intervention. The results indicated that anxiety levels decreased for the experimental and control group immediately post-intervention; however, three days later, the levels of anxiety in the CBT group continued to decline, while anxiety levels in the control group reached pre-intervention levels on two of the three outcome measures. These results suggest that CBT can be effectively delivered by paraprofessionals over the phone, which is cost-effective and efficient. Limitations are considered, and implications for treating individuals coping with the threat of terrorism are discussed.     

“NO CONFLICT OF PRINCIPLE”

The period of the Boer, or South African, War (1899–1902) has generated remarkably little interest amongst scholars of Anglo-Jewish history. Historians of British anti-Semitism have found fruitful ground in the controversy of alleged Jewish culpability for the war and the amplified climate of anti-Jewish (ostensibly anti-immigrant) sentiment. But, while telling us a great deal about how some segments of the British public regarded Jews, these studies have done little to illuminate how British Jews themselves thought and behaved. This article will make a first step towards redressing these imbalances, using Jewish sermons as a case study for understanding the established community's response to the war. Though a climate of insecurity undoubtedly existed, I will argue that the clergy's unflinchingly martial posture—which was representative of elite Jewish opinion as well—was not simply defensive or reactive. The clergy also saw the war as providing an ideal opportunity to express genuine gratitude and patriotism, showcase Jewish contributions to the nation and enhance Jewish inclusion. My examination of their rhetoric illustrates how these communal representatives attempted to balance the imperative of self-defence with the quest for fuller integration.     

Factor Structure of the Dissociative Experiences Scale: An Examination Across Sexual Assault Status

The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) has a long history within the literature, with conflicting reports concerning its underlying components and stability across different samples. This study examined the DES factor structure using advanced analytic procedures. Additionally, the impact of sexual victimization on the underlying components of the DES was explored, in order to examine whether sexual trauma influenced the scale’s structure. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis suggested the possibility of either a 1- or 2-factor structure in DES data obtained from an unselected sample of college females. Comparison of these models using an independent validation sample in Study 2 observed a clear advantage of a 2-factor structure. Study 3 explored whether sexual assault status influenced the structure of the 2-factor DES model, using samples drawn from Studies 1 and 2. A multiple group confirmatory factor analysis supported a robust 2-factor structure for the DES irrespective of sexual assault status.     

Exploring the Clinical Implications of the International CS Reference Data for Children and Adolescents (Meyer,Erdberg, & Shaffer, 2007)

As part of an ongoing study on the prediction of suicide, a replication study was carried out on the Neuropsychiatric Hospital Suicide Potential Scale (NPHSPS), a recently constructed schedule for prediction of potentiality for committed suicide among hospitalized neuropsychiatric patients at the time of release from the hospital. The population consisted of 54 patients who had committed suicide and 50 patients who had not. Overall accuracy of the scale was 81.7 percent, with 95.2 percent accuracy for prediction of the high risk group and 80.0 percent accuracy for prediction of nonsuicidal controls. By computation of posterior probability, the scale is shown to increase accuracy of prediction more than five-fold over use of the base rate (or prior probability) alone, but it is also evident the level of prediction of suicide is still too minimal to permit individual clinical application.     

Testing Our Quasi‐Statistical Sense: News Use,Political Knowledge,and False Projection

Although widely studied, previous research of projection in the context of public opinion did not incorporate the distinction between adequate and false projection developed in the cognitive studies: Adequate projection contributes to accurate perceptions of public opinion while false projection impairs it. The analysis presented in this study includes the above distinction, building on two case studies: (1) a dataset comprised of 25 surveys conducted over a period of 10 years (N = 11,313) and (2) a panel study of the 2013 Israeli general election. Relying on the assumptions of the Bayesian model, we tested if frequent news exposure and factual political knowledge reduce false projection. We found that false projection is a highly persistent psychological tendency with little variance. Although news exposure and political knowledge did contribute to a more accurate perception of public opinion, they did not reduce false projection. Conversely, knowledge increased false projection among moderates and had no effect in this respect among proponents of a more extreme ideology. These findings align better with the motivated reasoning model than with the Bayesian model.     

The Probability of Iterated Conditionals

Iterated conditionals of the form If p, then if q, r are an important topic in philosophical logic. In recent years, psychologists have gained much knowledge about how people understand simple conditionals, but there are virtually no published psychological studies of iterated conditionals. This paper presents experimental evidence from a study comparing the iterated form, If p, then if q, r with the “imported,” noniterated form, If p and q, then r, using a probability evaluation task and a truth‐table task, and taking into account qualitative individual differences. This allows us to critically contrast philosophical and psychological approaches that make diverging predictions regarding the interpretation of these forms. The results strongly support the probabilistic Adams conditional and the “new paradigm” that takes this conditional as a starting point.     

Combat-Related Killing: Expanding Evidence-Based Treatments for PTSD

Despite its prevalence, killing in war is an experience that may not fit neatly into existing models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its treatment. The context in which killing occurred may be complex. Furthermore, while killing may certainly be fear based, an individual may have also killed in response to losing someone close and experiencing sadness and anger, as opposed to fear. While evidence-based treatments for PTSD may be a good starting point for killing-related trauma, we argue that existing treatments need to be expanded. Complex killing-related cognitions that may not be anticipated or identified, moral injury, self-forgiveness, and loss are all important issues that arise that may need to be addressed in greater detail. Consequently, we have developed a 6- to 8-session individual treatment module for those impacted by killing in war, expressly designed for use with existing evidence-based treatments for PTSD, currently being validated for use in clinical practice. We see this module as supplementary, rather than as a replacement, building on the skills that veterans have already learned within these treatments. By expanding the types of treatments we offer those who have killed in war, we can ensure that we are providing veterans with comprehensive treatment that takes the complexities of war and its aftermath into account.