Trait anxiety, defensiveness and selective processing of threat: an investigation using two measures of attentional bias

Attentional biases for threat were examined in a non-clinical sample (N=60), with each participant tested on both the modified Stroop colour-naming and dot probe tasks. Three groups were selected on the basis of trait anxiety and social desirability scale (SDS) scores: “low anxiety” (LA: low trait, low SDS), “repressor” (REP: low trait, high SDS) and “high anxiety” (HA: high trait, low SDS). Results from the colour-naming task suggested that high levels of defensiveness (in combination with low trait anxiety) were associated with greater avoidance of threat. The REP group showed less interference in colour-naming threat than neutral words; whereas the HA group showed increased interference due to threat words. On the dot probe task, there was a general tendency for this non-clinical sample as a whole to show avoidance of social threat relative to neutral words, but there was no bias for physical threat words. Avoidance of social threat was significant only within the REP group. No relationships were found between the measures of cognitive bias from the two tasks, suggesting different underlying mechanisms. Results are discussed in relation to previous findings and theoretical views of the effects of anxiety and defensiveness on the processing of threat.     

Anxiety and Threat Perception Abnormalities in Normal Children

The current study examined the relationship between childhood anxiety and threat perception abnormalities. Children (N = 105) were exposed to stories reflecting three types of anxiety: social anxiety, separation anxiety, and generalized anxiety. From children's reactions to the stories, a number of threat perception indices were derived. Children's level of anxiety was assessed by means of questionnaires and a structured diagnostic interview. Results indicated that high levels of anxiety, as measured by questionnaires and interview, were accompanied by a high frequency of threat perception, high ratings of threat, a high frequency of threatening interpretations, high levels of negative feelings and cognitions, and an early detection of threat. Furthermore, results seemed to suggest that threat perception abnormalities were mediated by children's general level of anxiety rather than by levels of specific anxiety symptoms.     

The Life Story Schema

Current work on autobiographical memory does not take the term autobiographical seriously enough. Doing so requires taking not just single events, but the whole life and its coherence, into account: Only memories that are linked to self through their emotional or motivational significance over one's life are truly autobiographical. We introduce a new construct, the life story schema, a skeletal mental representation of life's major components and links. The life story schema provides 5 conceptual extensions to current models of autobiographical memory. The conclusion that results from these extensions is that the life story schema serves to bind autobiographical memory and the self over time. Research needed to substantiate our claims and further questions generated by the life story schema construct are discussed.     

Grammatical Encoding in Aphasia: Evidence from a “Processing Prosthesis”

Agrammatic aphasia is characterized by severely reduced grammatical structure in spoken and written language, often accompanied by apparent insensitivity to grammatical structure in comprehension. Does agrammatism represent loss of linguistic competence or rather performance factors such as memory or resource limitations? A considerable body of evidence supports the latter hypothesis in the domain of comprehension. Here we present the first strong evidence for the performance hypothesis in the domain of production: an augmentative communication system that markedly increases the grammatical structure of agrammatic speech while providing no linguistic information, functioning merely to reduce on-line processing demands. Copyright 2000 Academic Press and Unisys Corporation.     

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults: Clinical issues. A report from the first NHS clinic in the UK

Since 1994 Maudsley hospital has offered the only NHS-service for adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the United Kingdom. This paper reports on the development of this service, initial referral patterns and assessment issues. Data from a comparison of the first 96 referrals to the clinic are summarized. ADHD patients were more likely to be young men in their early twenties, to have personality disorder and abused psychoactive substances. Developmental milestones were delayed in the ADHD group. Comorbid anxiety and depression were common in both the ADHD group and non-ADHD group. It is clear that with maturity many ADHD adults have complex problems, yet the need for clinical services for this group is not commonly recognized.     

Issues in the treatment of depressed children

Basic research into the cognitive, behavioral, familial, and physiological disturbances associated with depressive disorders during childhood is reviewed. Implications for the development of a treatment program are discussed and a comprehensive treatment model is proposed. The proposed model includes intervention strategies for the child, parents, family, and school. The child component consists of intervention strategies for the affective, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological disturbances that are evident from the existing research. The parent training component is designed to address disturbances in parenting due to cognitive disturbances and skills deficits. The family therapy component emphasizes changing interaction patterns that communicate schema-consistent maladaptive interactions. A school consultation component is proposed in which school personnel support the skills training through prompting use of the skills and reinforcement of the use of the coping skills.     

Comparing the mental health needs of female and male incarcerated juvenile delinquents

The present study was undertaken to survey the prevalence of mental disorder in juvenile justice facilities and to compare the mental health needs for females and males. Girls displayed significantly more mental health needs than boys. The estimated prevalence of mental disorder for boys was 27%, compared with 84% for girls. The difference is highly significant and is discussed in terms of service system issues in juvenile justice that affect males and females differently. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Earwitness Testimony: Never Mind the Variety,Hear the Length

Three aspects of voice recognition were investigated in the study reported here: memory for familiar voices, memory for the words spoken, and the relative effects of length and variation in a voice extract on long- and short-term memory. In Experiment 1, recognition memory for the briefly heard voice of a stranger was superior with longer extracts (p<0.01), but increasing vowel variety did not improve performance. This pattern was repeated for short-term memory (p<0.01) in Experiment 2. Scores for the above task correlated significantly (p<0.05) with scores for recognizing well-known voices. In a further test of well-known voice memory in Experiment 3, a weak and non-significant positive correlation (r=0.29) was found between memory for well-known voices and memory for a once-heard voice. Memory for the words spoken did not correlate significantly with memory for the unknown voice itself. The possibilities of a memory-for-voices general ability, and forensic applications of the findings are discussed. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A seven year follow-up of treating rumination with dietary satiation

”Fred“, a man with profound mental retardation who was 24 years old at the beginning of this study, was referred for treatment of rumination. A number of minimally restrictive interventions, including administration of Zantac, extra fluids, and delivery of peanut butter after meals, had been used without success. In April of 1989 Fred began a satiation diet with ad libitum access to starchy foods or to fruits and vegetables, in addition to his regular meals. His baseline weight was 82 pounds and he ruminated during 58% of 10 s intervals measured during 20 min post-meal observations. During the first month of the satiation diet, Fred's ruminating declined to 6% of measured intervals, he consumed a mean of 163 fluid ounces of extra food per day, and his weight increased to 90 pounds. After 4 months' treatment, Fred's ruminating had declined to zero, his food consumption had stabilized at approximately 65 extra ounces of food per day, and his weight had stabilized at about 120 pounds. Starting in August 1990, in an effort to minimize weight gain, extra food was limited to 50% of Fred's ad libitum food consumption (averaged over the previous 6 weeks). Fred's weight gradually declined to about 100 pounds with zero rumination over the next two years. In August 1992 Fred's ruminating accelerated to 17% of intervals and he was again offered ad libitum food access. Over the next 7 months, rumination declined to zero and his weight increased slightly to about 105 pounds. This study shows that rumination that had not responded to less restrictive procedures was suppressed for 7 years via dietary satiation. Although dietary satiation is not without some risk, Fred has suffered no adverse effects from the procedure, other than gaining approximately one-third of his baseline weight. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison of noncontingent reinforcement,other competing stimulation,and liquid rescheduling for the treatment of rumination

Modified versions of three popular nonaversive treatments for rumination in a person with profound developmental delay were evaluated using an alternating treatments design (ATD) as a component of an ABAB design. Results showed that the most effective intervention involved noncontingent feeding every 20 s for the 30 min immediately following a meal. Further analysis demonstrated that no significant increase in rumination occurred during the 60 min after the treatment procedure had expired, thus indicating that rumination was not merely postponed. Results are discussed in terms of their relation to currently popular (satiation) interventions for the treatment of rumination in individuals with developmental disability. Future research needs are proposed from an analysis of known behavioral and physiological variables and their possible interactions. ©1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.