Involuntary and voluntary mental time travel in high and low worriers

Worry as a trait is an individual's general tendency to become worried, which in severe cases is associated with the diagnosis Generalised Anxiety Disorder. Mental time travel (MTT) is the ability to mentally project oneself into one's personal past or future, in terms of memories of personal past events or projections of possible events in the personal future. MTT can be voluntarily initiated or occur involuntarily. The current exploratory study investigated involuntary and voluntary MTT in the context of trait worry, thereby bringing together research on worry and MTT. High (N=20) and low (N=16) worriers recorded involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories and future projections using a structured diary method. We predicted that MTT in high worriers would show signs of cognitive avoidance, such as reduced emotional intensity, more observer perspective, less visual imagery, or coming up with overgeneral or less self-relevant events. We found only partial support for our hypotheses in that high worriers rated personal memories and future projections lower on measures of self-relevance than did low worriers.     

A simple and inexpensive method to measure urinary excretion in nonhuman primates

A simple and inexpensive automated method is described for simultaneous recording of time of day and frequency of urinary excretion. A 24-h event record for eight rhesus monkeys illustrates possible usefulness of the method in determining individual differences, response to environmental factors, and diumal patterns.     

Knowing that I didn't know: preschoolers' understanding of their own false belief is a predictor of assents to fictitious events

The present study examines the relation between children's theory of mind abilities and their tendency to assent to fictitious events when questioned repeatedly across interviews. Children between the ages of 3 and 6 years were interviewed individually either four or seven times about a fictitious and a real staged event, and in addition given a false belief test as well as a fantasy‐reality distinction test. Children's performance on the false belief task addressing the understanding of their own false belief was a better predictor for assents to false events than was understanding the false belief of another person, age, number of interviews and performance on a fantasy‐reality distinction task. Children's memory for a staged event showed that repeated questions across interviews was related to a decrease in correct assents to having experienced a staged event, an increase in wrong yes‐responses about touch and erroneously mentioning names of children who had not been present during the staged event. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The reappearance hypothesis revisited: Recurrent involuntary memories after traumatic events and in everyday life

Recurrent involuntary memories are autobiographical memories that come to mind with no preceding retrieval attempt and that are subjectively experienced as being repetitive. Clinically, they are classified as a symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder. The present work is the first to systematically examine recurrent involuntary memories outside clinical settings. Study 1 examines recurrent involuntary memories among survivors of the tsunami catastrophe in Southeast Asia in 2004. Study 2 examines recurrent involuntary memories in a large general population. Study 3 examines whether the contents of recurrent involuntary memories recorded in a diary study are duplicates of, or differ from, one another. We show that recurrent involuntary memories are not limited to clinical populations or to emotionally negative experiences; that they typically do not come to mind in a fixed and unchangeable form; and that they show the same pattern regarding accessibility as do autobiographical memories in general. We argue that recurrent involuntary memories after traumas and in everyday life can be explained in terms of general and well-established mechanisms of autobiographical memory.     

Emotional valence and the functions

Differences between positive and negative autobiographical memories are often explained with reference to hypothesized evolutionary functions. Generally, it has been proposed that autobiographical memory serves directive, self-, and social functions. However, the relationship between emotional valence and the three functions has never been studied. In Study 1, participants generated memories that mapped onto each of the three functions. Directive memories were dominated by negative emotion, whereas self- and social memories were dominated by positive emotion. In Study 2, participants generated their most positive and most negative memories, as well as their most frequent involuntary and most vivid flashbulb memories, and the three functions were measured through rating-scale questions. The directive function had the lowest ratings across all memory classes, but, consistent with the results of Study 1, positive memories were rated higher on the self- and social functions, whereas negative memories were rated higher on the directive function.     

I Know My Story and I Know Your Story: Developing a Conceptual Framework for Vicarious Life Stories

Vicarious life stories are mental representations of other people's life stories. We propose a conceptual framework that situates the study of vicarious life stories at the crossroads between personality and social cognition, identifies their potential functions, and describes possible connections between vicarious and personal life stories. Two preliminary studies compared chapters and specific memories in personal and close others' life stories in two groups of student participants. Ages associated with chapters and specific memories in personal and vicarious life stories showed similar temporal distributions. Emotion ratings of both personal and vicarious life story chapters were related to personality traits and self‐esteem, although relations were more consistent for personal chapters. In conclusion, personal and vicarious life stories share important similarities. Mental models of other people include vicarious life stories that serve to expand the self as well as facilitate understanding of others.     

The relationship between viewing US-produced television programs and intentions to drink alcohol among a group of Norwegian adolescents

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of exposure to US-produced television programs and family rules prohibiting alcohol use on the development of normative beliefs, expectancies, and intentions to drink alcohol in the next 12 months among a group of Norwegian adolescents who reported that they had not previously consumed alcohol. Data were collected via a survey administered to 622 eighth and ninth graders enrolled at ten junior highs in southeastern Norway. To examine these relationships we tested the fit of a structural equation model which was based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1988). Data from the non-drinkers (n= 392, 63% of the respondents) were used. To control for the influence of peer drinking on behavioral intentions, our model was tested under two group conditions: (1) those subjects reporting that they have no friends who drink alcohol and (2) those subjects reporting that they have one or more friends who drink. The findings indicate that the influence of TV exposure was a significant predictor (directly) of normative beliefs, expectancies (indirectly) and intentions to drink (both directly and indirectly) only for those subjects who reported having no friends who drink. For the group with non-drinking friends, family rules constrain intentions only indirectly by influencing normative beliefs. For those with friends who drink, however, family rules have a direct (inverse) effect on intentions. It is concluded that exposure to US-produced television programs functions as a limited knowledge source only for those subjects who had little or no personal experience with alcohol while the presence of family rules have limited impact on behavioral intentions.     

The relationship between reading beauty and fashion magazines and the use of pathogenic dieting methods among adolescent females

This study examined the relationship between reading women's beauty and fashion magazines and the use of pathogenic dieting methods (laxatives, appetite suppressants/diet pills, skipping two meals a day, intentional vomiting, and restricting calories to 1,200 or less each day) among 502 high school females. Weak to moderate positive associations were found between reading frequency and each of these unhealthful practices except the use of laxatives. When controlling for anxiety about weight and frequency of regular exercise, however, the original bivariate relations between reading frequency and skipping two meals a day, and reading and intentional vomiting, disappeared. Replication and weak specification effects were found when examining the relationships between reading and taking appetite suppressant/weight control pills, and reading and restricting calories, under the control conditions. These findings suggest that two of the most common adolescent dieting methods--restricting calories and taking diet pills--appear to be influenced by the reading of women's beauty and fashion magazines.     

Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence: problems, progress, and potential in theory and research

Progress and issues in the study of coping with stress during childhood and adolescence are reviewed. Definitions of coping are considered, and the relationship between coping and other aspects of responses to stress (e.g., temperament and stress reactivity) is described. Questionnaire, interview, and observation measures of child and adolescent coping are evaluated with regard to reliability and validity. Studies of the association of coping with symptoms of psychopathology and social and academic competence are reviewed. Initial progress has been made in the conceptualization and measurement of coping, and substantial evidence has accumulated on the association between coping and adjustment. Problems still remain in the conceptualization and measurement of coping in young people, however, and aspects of the development and correlates of coping remain to be identified. An agenda for future research on child-adolescent coping is outlined.     

Common pathways in mental imagery and pain perception: an fMRI study of a subject with an amputated arm

The present paper reviews data from two previous studies in our laboratory, as well as some additional new data, on the neuronal representation of movement and pain imagery in a subject with an amputated right arm. The subject imagined painful and non-painful finger movements in the amputated stump while being in a MRI scanner, acquiring EPI-images for fMRI analysis. In Study I (Ersland et al., 1996) the Subject alternated tapping with his intact left hand fingers and imagining "tapping" with the fingers of his amputated right arm. The results showed increased neuronal activation in the right motor cortex (precentral gyrus) when tapping with the fingers of the left hand, and a corresponding activation in the left motor cortex when imagining tapping with the fingers of the amputated right arm. Finger tappings of the intact left hand fingers also resulted in a larger activated precentral area than imagery "finger tapping" of the amputated right arm fingers. In Study II (Rosen et al., 2001 in press) the same subject imagining painful and pleasurable finger movements, and still positions of the fingers of the amputated arm. The results showed larger activations over the motor cortex for movement imagining versus imagining the hand being in a still position, and larger activations over the sensory cortex when imagining painful experiences. It can therefore be concluded that not only does imagery activate the same motor areas as real finger movements, but also that adding instructions of pain together with imaging moving the fingers intensified the activation compared with adding instructions about non-painful experiences. From these studies, it is clear that areas activated during actual motor execution to a large extent also are activated during mental imagery of the same motor commands. In this respect the present studies add to studies of visual imagery that have shown a similar correspondence in activation between actual object perception and imagery of the same object.