Top-down search for color prevents voluntary directing of attention to informative singleton cues

Visuo-spatial attention can be directed in a top-down controlled way to search for color targets and it can be captured by color contrasts, regardless of color identity. Here we tested whether participants can both search for a particular color target (e.g., red) and make use of a color-contrast cue that predicted the target's most likely position to direct their attention voluntarily. Our results show that this was impossible for the participants. Results support that top-down search for particular colors is incommensurate with directing attention to just any color contrast. The results are discussed in light of the current debates concerning the roles of color and color contrast for visuo-spatial attention.     

Spatial mislocalization as a consequence of sequential coding of stimuli

In three experiments, we tested whether sequentially coding two visual stimuli can create a spatial misperception of a visual moving stimulus. In Experiment 1, we showed that a spatial misperception, the flash-lag effect, is accompanied by a similar temporal misperception of first perceiving the flash and only then a change of the moving stimulus, when in fact the two events were exactly simultaneous. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that when the spatial misperception of a flash-lag effect is absent, the temporal misperception is also absent. In Experiment 3, we extended these findings and showed that if the stimulus conditions require coding first a flash and subsequently a nearby moving stimulus, a spatial flash-lag effect is found, with the position of the moving stimulus being misperceived as shifted in the direction of its motion, whereas this spatial misperception is reversed so that the moving stimulus is misperceived as shifted in a direction opposite to its motion when the conditions require coding first the moving stimulus and then the flash. Together, the results demonstrate that sequential coding of two stimuli can lead to a spatial misperception whose direction can be predicted from the order of coding the moving object versus the flash. We propose an attentional sequential-coding explanation for the flash-lag effect and discuss its explanatory power with respect to related illusions (e.g., the Fr?hlich effect) and other explanations.     

Misserfolge in der station?ren Therapie von Patienten mit Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen

While psychotherapy has proven its efficacy and effectiveness in the treatment of personality disorders (PD) there is a lack of studies on treatment failure, i.e. non-response or deterioration of psychopathology. In a naturalistic approach the failed treatment of1,239 inpatients with PD was studied by means of direct and indirect assessment of change from patient and therapist perspectives. For indirect assessment the global severity index of the symptom checklist SCL-90-R (self-report by patients) and the impairment severity score (judgement by therapists) were used. Depending on the method between 11% and 31% of inpatients did not show any relevant improvement in symptoms but concordance between the methods was poor (Cohen’s kappa between 0.10 and 0.30). Patients with treatment failure did not differ from those with successful treatment with respect to sociodemographic and clinical features. The findings are discussed with respect to methodological limitations but also reflect possible clinical and therapeutic implications as well as future research approaches.     

Response und Non-Response in der station?ren Psychotherapie depressiver Patienten

Background

Poor outcome of psychotherapeutic treatment has not yet been sufficiently investigated. It is assumed that approximately 25–30% of patients are treatment non-responders and about 5–10% suffer deterioration.

Study design and methods

The therapeutic success of a total of 2,323 consecutively admitted inpatients with a depressive episode (F32.0-2, F33.0-2) was evaluated by using different strategies based on self ratings at admission and at discharge, i.e. the Beck depression inventory II (BDI-II) and the brief symptom inventory (BSI). In intention to treat (ITT) and completer analyses various measures of therapy success were compared (e.g. statistical significance, effect sizes and clinical significance).

Results

Effect sizes were 1.59 (BDI-II) and 0.86 (BSI) for the ITT sample and 1.64 and 0.89 for the completer sample. Analyses using criteria of clinical significance resulted in response rates of 75.5% (BDI-II) and of 68.7% (BSI) for completer analyses and remission rates of 62.2% (BDI-II) and of 40.8% (BSI). Non-Response rates, also including minor responders, varied between 23.4% (BDI-II) and 27.4% (BSI). Deterioration was observed in only 1% (BDI-II) and 3.9% (BSI) of the patients.

Discussion

The results demonstrate that about two thirds of depressive patients show clinically significant improvements within a multimodal, primarily psychotherapeutic inpatient setting, whereas the rates of deterioration are lower than expected. The aim for the future should be to identify poor or minor response as early as possible in order to optimize treatment.     

A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Motivation and Emotion - Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study...     

Temporal processing within and across senses

This special issue on temporal processing within and across senses was the outcome of a two-day workshop that took place in Tübingen, Germany. The aim of the workshop and this special issue was to advance our knowledge on timing and the senses and to bring together two lines of research that have not yet interacted, those of synchrony and duration perception.     

Trauma und sexuelle Störungen

Background

Sexual disorders are common among patients with traumatic childhood experiences, especially when they were exposed to sexual abuse. Despite the fact that trauma-associated sexual disorders imply serious consequences for the persons concerned, to date the topic has not found much consideration in the research and clinical contexts.

Material and methods

This study investigated the prevalence and relationships of sexual disorders and experiences of sexual abuse in 189 patients (81?% women, 19?% men) with complex posttraumatic stress disorder. All participants completed the Interview zur Diagnostik der komplexen posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung (I-kPTBS, interview on diagnostics of complex posttraumatic stress disorder) and the traumatic antecedents questionnaire (TAQ).

Results

At least one sexual disorder was found in 77.2?% of the participants. In both sexes hyposexual disorders were more common than hypersexual disorders. Women showed more hyposexual disorders than men and men showed more hypersexual disorders than women. Of the participants 50.8?% reported experiences of sexual abuse and women were more often affected than men. The presence of hyposexual disorders was clearly associated with the existence of experiences of child sexual abuse.

Conclusion

There is a need for research on and effective treatment concepts for trauma-associated sexual disorders. The development of new therapeutic approaches should be realized in interdisciplinary cooperation.     

A Salutogenic Analysis of the Well-Being Paradox in Older Age

Following Antonovsky’s salutogenic perspective, we investigate to what extent the sense of coherence and psychological resources mediate the physical health-mental health relationship, assuming that these resilience factors mutually influence each other. In our questionnaire study, 387 older persons at the mean age of 73.8 years volunteered. We assessed physical health appraisals, sense of coherence components (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness), psychological resources (self-efficacy and self-esteem) and mental health (subjective well-being, depressive mood, and psychological health). We used structural equation modeling with latent variables and a bootstrapping method to test hypothesized mediation chains. We found (a) a significant direct effect of physical health on mental health, (b) two significant specific indirect effects of physical health on mental health, substantiating that the sense of coherence was a stronger mediator than psychological resources, and (c) two significant 3-path mediated effects. Physical health is profoundly associated with mental health. However, resilience factors such as the sense of coherence and psychological resources enable older people to maintain mental health when confronted with chronic physical health problems.     

Masked singleton effects

In the present study, we tested whether visual singletons remaining outside awareness are processed. Singletons differ by at least one feature from their more homogeneous neighbors. Here, we used backward masking to prevent awareness of shape singleton primes (Experiments 1-4) or color singleton primes (Experiment 5). Masked singleton primes nonetheless produced a congruence effect: Congruent singletons indicating the location of subsequent visible targets facilitated responses, in comparison with incongruent singletons at positions away from the targets. This congruence effect was found with singletons defined by feature presence or feature absence. It was at least partly due to attentional capture by singletons remaining outside of the participants' awareness. Results are discussed in light of theories pertaining to singleton effects and masked-priming effects.