Neutralizing increases discomfort associated with obsessional thoughts: an experimental study with obsessional patients

Cognitive-behavioral theories suggest that the development of neutralizing is crucial in the development and persistence of obsessional problems (OCD). Twenty-nine patients with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnosis of OCD were randomly allocated to 2 conditions. Both listened to repeated recorded presentations of their intrusive thoughts and either neutralized (experimental group) or distracted themselves (control). Discomfort was rated during this 1st phase and then during a 2nd phase without neutralizing or distraction. The experimental group showed a similar level of discomfort in the 1st phase, which significantly reduced during the period compared with controls. The experimental group experienced significantly more discomfort during the 2nd phase, and significantly stronger urges to neutralize and distract at the end of this phase than controls.     

Knowing what a novel word is not: Two-year-olds 'listen through' ambiguous adjectives in fluent speech

Three studies investigated how 24-month-olds and adults resolve temporary ambiguity in fluent speech when encountering prenominal adjectives potentially interpretable as nouns. Children were tested in a looking-while-listening procedure to monitor the time course of speech processing. In Experiment 1, the familiar and unfamiliar adjectives preceding familiar target nouns were accented or deaccented. Target word recognition was disrupted only when lexically ambiguous adjectives were accented like nouns. Experiment 2 measured the extent of interference experienced by children when interpreting prenominal words as nouns. In Experiment 3, adults used prosodic cues to identify the form class of adjective/noun homophones in string-identical sentences before the ambiguous words were fully spoken. Results show that children and adults use prosody in conjunction with lexical and distributional cues to ‘listen through’ prenominal adjectives, avoiding costly misinterpretation.     

Does perceived steepness deter stair climbing when an alternative is available?

Perception of hill slant is exaggerated in explicit awareness. Proffitt (Perspectives on Psychological Science 1:110–122, 2006) argued that explicit perception of the slant of a climb allows individuals to plan locomotion in keeping with their available locomotor resources, yet no behavioral evidence supports this contention. Pedestrians in a built environment can often avoid climbing stairs, the man-made equivalent of steep hills, by choosing an adjacent escalator. Stair climbing is avoided more by women, the old, and the overweight than by their comparators. Two studies tested perceived steepness of the stairs as a cue that promotes this avoidance. In the first study, participants estimated the steepness of a staircase in a train station (n = 269). Sex, age, height, and weight were recorded. Women, older individuals, and those who were heavier and shorter reported the staircase as steeper than did their comparison groups. In a follow-up study in a shopping mall, pedestrians were recruited from those who chose the stairs and those who avoided them, with the samples stratified for sex, age, and weight status. Participants (n = 229) estimated the steepness of a life-sized image of the stairs they had just encountered, presented on the wall of a vacant shop in the mall. Pedestrians who avoided stair climbing by choosing the escalator reported the stairs as steeper even when demographic differences were controlled. Perceived steepness may to be a contextual cue that pedestrians use to avoid stair climbing when an alternative is available.     

Symptom Attributions Across the Menstrual Cycle in Women with Panic Disorder

Women with panic disorder are likely to experience greater menstrual-specific symptoms (e.g., headaches, cramps) as well as more panic/anxiety-related symptoms (e.g., dizziness, faintness, chest pain, heart pounding), and may be more likely to experience these symptoms during the premenstrual phase. This study examines the attributions women make about the somatic and affective symptoms they experience during the menstrual cycle. Using a 30-day prospective design, women with and without panic disorder monitored physical and affective symptoms. Participants reported on severity of various symptoms and a primary cause for each symptom (menstrual cycle-related, panic/anxiety related, stress-related, health-related). Women with panic disorder reported more panic attacks during the premenstrual phase compared to other cycle phases. They also reported more severe affective and panic symptoms during the premenstrual phase compared to other phases, but did not significantly differ from the comparison group in menstrual symptom severity across the three cycle phases. Although women with panic disorder attributed more panic/anxiety-related causes for their symptoms across the menstrual cycle, they were able to discriminate between panic/anxiety causes and menstrual cycle-related causes. Women with panic disorder may benefit for therapy that focuses on their exacerbation of panic symptoms during the premenstrual phase.     

The Interrelationship Between Hypertension and Blood Pressure, Attendance at Religious Services, and Race/Ethnicity

The relationships between race/ethnicity and hypertension or blood pressure (BP), as well as frequency of religious services attendance and hypertension/BP are well documented. However, the association between these three factors is poorly understood. Using national data, this interrelationship was assessed in non-Hispanic whites and blacks, and Mexican-Americans (n = 12,488). Compared to those who never attended services, whites who attended services weekly had lower odds of hypertension, as did blacks who attended more than weekly. There was no relationship between attendance and hypertension among Mexican-Americans. Attendance was inversely related to systolic BP for all groups, but more so for whites and blacks compared to Mexican-Americans. These results further demonstrate the benefits of increased attendance at religious services on hypertension/BP, but suggest that these benefits were not as advantageous for all.     

Action mechanisms for social cognition: behavioral and neural correlates of developing Theory of Mind

Many psychological theories posit foundational links between two fundamental constructs: (1) our ability to produce, perceive, and represent action; and (2) our ability to understand the meaning and motivation behind the action (i.e. Theory of Mind; ToM). This position is contentious, however, and long‐standing competing theories of social‐cognitive development debate roles for basic action‐processing in ToM. Developmental research is key to investigating these hypotheses, but whether individual differences in neural and behavioral measures of motor action relate to social‐cognitive development is unknown. We examined 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children's (N = 26) EEG mu‐desynchronization during production of object‐directed action, and explored associations between mu‐desynchronization and children's behavioral motor skills, behavioral action‐representation abilities, and behavioral ToM. For children with high (but not low) mu‐desynchronization, motor skill related to action‐representation abilities, and action‐representation mediated relations between motor skill and ToM. Results demonstrate novel foundational links between action‐processing and ToM, suggesting that basic motor action may be a key mechanism for social‐cognitive development, thus shedding light on the origins and emergence of higher social cognition.     

The Role of Rumination in Predicting Seasonality

The impact of the changing seasons on mood and behavior (i.e., seasonality) has long been of interest to researchers. Recently, researchers have begun to look beyond biological explanations to investigate psychological variables that may play a role in the development of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and subsyndromal (S-SAD) levels of seasonality. Rumination, in particular, has received initial support as a process that predicts more severe levels of winter depression. In the first study, we assessed the effects of rumination, current weather conditions, current level of depression, and attitudes toward weather conditions as predictors of seasonality. In addition to weather conditions, weather attitudes, and current depression, rumination emerged as a significant predictor of seasonality in females but not for males. In the second study, we followed individuals categorized as being high (S-SAD) and low in seasonality over time and assessed for depression at Time 1 and Time 2. Rumination, in addition to current weather conditions and weather attitudes, emerged as a significant predictor of depression for females in the S-SAD group. The results of these studies provide support for the role of rumination in seasonal depression, particularly for females. This type of research may contribute to attempts to better explain gender differences in seasonal depression.     

Measuring medical students' reluctance to prescribe opioids for cancer pain

Among 644 senior medical students a 14-item scale which was internally consistent indicated no change over the 6 years of testing in intent to reserve opioids for terminally ill.