Cost-Effectiveness and Health Care Utilization in a Multidisciplinary Pain Center: Comparison of Three Treatment Groups

Recent literature supports the efficacy of multidisciplinary pain management in treating persons suffering from chronic pain. However, the components of multidisciplinary pain management need to be evaluated in terms of effects on patients' quality of life as well as saving of future health care dollars. Therefore, cost-effectiveness of three treatment groups was compared by examining treatment outcome, posttreatment health care costs, and posttreatment health care visits. Results revealed that patients receiving both medical and psychological treatment (multidisciplinary pain management) exhibited the largest improvements in functional capacity, while being the least costly after their treatment program had ended. In contrast, patients who received only medical treatment exhibited significant deterioration in outcome after their treatment ended, and consumed substantially more posttreatment health care dollars.     

The Roles of Semantic and Phonological Information in Word Production: Evidence from Spanish–English Bilinguals

The research investigated the roles of semantic and phonological processing in word production. Spanish–English bilingual individuals produced English target words when cued with definitions that were also written in English. When the correct word was not produced, a secondary task was performed in which participants rated the ease of pronunciation of a Spanish prime word. We varied the relatedness between target and prime words. In related conditions, the target and prime words were cognates (i.e., similar in meaning and sound), false cognates (i.e., similar in sound, but different in meaning), or noncognates (i.e., similar in meaning, but different in sound). In unrelated conditions, target and primes were dissimilar in sound and meaning. The results showed that participants’ performance was influenced by semantic as well as phonological information. These results provided evidence that semantic as well as phonological information can influence word production, as is predicted by memory models in which representations for semantic and phonological levels of representation are interconnected.     

A Grounded Theory of Filipino Wellness (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Kaginhawaan</Emphasis>)

The purpose of this study was to develop a theory to explain Filipino wellness (kaginhawaan). Open-ended and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted among 18 Filipinos. Nine resided in the city and the rest lived in the rural areas. The participants were also representative of the low, middle, and high levels of family income prescribed by the Philippine’s National Statistics Office. Glasser and Strauss’ (The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1967) grounded theory approach was used to guide the process of investigation. The findings suggest that Filipino wellness is a condition where an individual enjoys economic freedom and security and psycho-emotional wellness within the context of the family. In the absence of family, an individual may turn to occupation to provide a semblance of Filipino wellness. On the other hand, when the individual faces economic difficulties, one turns to spirituality as a source of wellness.     

Exploring linguistic correlates of social anxiety in romantic stories

The current study used computerized linguistic analysis of stories about either going on a date or taking a walk down a street to examine linguistic correlates of social anxiety in a sample of undergraduate students. In general, linguistic analysis revealed associations of social anxiety with several linguistic variables, including negative emotion, affect, and anxiety words. Participants higher in social anxiety wrote fewer affect words. The relationship between social anxiety and anxiety words depended on gender, whereas the relationship between social anxiety and negative emotion words depended on both gender and the nature of primes (supraliminal vs. subliminal) received. Overall, our findings highlight the potential utility and benefits of using linguistic analysis as another source of information about how individuals higher in social anxiety process romantic stimuli.     

Attentional Processing of Threat in Bipolar Disorder: Going Beyond Mood-Congruency

Emotional processing in bipolar disorder (BD) entails a complex attentional pattern not merely restricted to happy or sad biases, but also directed towards threatening information. This study examined threat-related bias on attentional orienting when participants were not instructed about the presentation of emotional stimuli (i.e., implicit instructions). An emotional dot-probe task in which an emotional face (i.e., threat, sad, happy) is simultaneously displayed with a neutral face was applied to BD individuals in their different episodes: mania (n?=?26), depression (n?=?24), and euthymia (n?=?28) as well as to a group of healthy controls (n?=?28). Symptomatic BD patients (i.e., in a manic or depressive episode) showed an attentional orienting bias toward threatening faces but not for happy or sad faces, while euthymic BD patients did not exhibit any attentional bias for emotional stimuli. A bias toward happy faces was found in the control group. Threat-related bias was not related to the severity of affective and anxiety symptoms in BD. When attention is not explicitly directed to emotional information, threat-related bias may characterize attentional orienting during mania and depression, but may be attenuated during euthymia.

     

Do not fear your opponent: suboptimal changes of a prevention strategy when facing stronger opponents

The time spent making a decision and its quality define a widely studied trade-off. Some models suggest that the time spent is set to optimize reward, as verified empirically in simple-decision making experiments. However, in a more complex perspective compromising components of regulation focus, ambitions, fear, risk and social variables, adjustment of the speed-accuracy trade-off may not be optimal. Specifically, regulatory focus theory shows that people can be set in a promotion mode, where focus is on seeking to approach a desired state (to win), or in a prevention mode, focusing to avoid undesired states (not to lose). In promotion, people are eager to take risks increasing speed and decreasing accuracy. In prevention, strategic vigilance increases, decreasing speed and improving accuracy. When time and accuracy have to be compromised, one can ask which of these 2 strategies optimizes reward, leading to optimal performance. This is investigated here in a unique experimental environment. Decision making is studied in rapid-chess (180 s per game), in which the goal of a player is to mate the opponent in a finite amount of time or, alternatively, time-out of the opponent with sufficient material to mate. In different games, players face strong and weak opponents. It was observed that (a) players adopt a more conservative strategy when facing strong opponents, with slower and more accurate moves, and (b) this strategy is suboptimal: Players increase their winning likelihood against strong opponents using the policy they adopt when confronting opponents with similar strength.     

Opposite developmental trends for false recognition of basic and superordinate names

This study investigated the development of false memories for basic and superordinate names using the DRM procedure. Two experiments were conducted with younger (3–5 years old) and older (10–12 years old) children. In the first experiment the DRM procedure was used with categorised lists and in the second experiment both types of lists—categorised and associative—were applied. False recognition for basic and superordinate names showed opposite developmental trends, regardless of list type. False recognition increased for critical-basic items and decreased for critical-superordinate items with age. These opposing results are mainly explained by age differences in conceptual knowledge and editing processes.     

Conceptual and non-conceptual repetition priming in category exemplar generation: Evidence from bilinguals

One measure of conceptual implicit memory is repetition priming in the generation of exemplars from a semantic category, but does such priming transfer across languages? That is, do the overlapping conceptual representations for translation equivalents provide a sufficient basis for such priming? In Experiment 1 (N=96) participants carried out a deep encoding task, and priming between languages was statistically reliable, but attenuated, relative to within-language priming. Experiment 2 (N=96) replicated the findings of Experiment 1 and assessed the contributions of conceptual and non-conceptual processes using a levels-of-processing manipulation. Words that underwent shallow encoding exhibited within-language, but not between-language, priming. Priming in shallow conditions cannot therefore be explained by incidental activation of the concept. Instead, part of the within-language priming effect, even under deep-encoding conditions, is due to increased availability of language-specific lemmas or phonological word forms.     

Retrieval dynamics in false recall: revelations from identifiability manipulations

The present study analyzed the retrieval dynamics of false recall, using an externalized free-recall task after participants studied Deese/Roediger–McDermott lists with high- and low-identifiable critical words. In Experiment 1, the memory test required participants to write down the words they remembered as having been presented in each list (recall output) plus any related words that came to mind (inclusion output). The results of the inclusion output showed that highly identifiable critical items were more frequently generated than less identifiable critical items, suggesting that highly identifiable critical words were more accessible in a first phase of retrieval. At the same time, the results of the recall output showed that highly identifiable critical items were less often falsely recalled than low-identifiable critical items, a replication of previous findings. In Experiment 2, self-reports corroborated that participants were using an editing strategy based on the identification and exclusion of critical words—that is, the identify-to-reject strategy. These results help us to more fully understand the identifiability effect and, beyond that, emphasize the importance of considering the intervening of dual processes of accessibility and error correction as a crucial feature in theoretical explanations of false memories.