Shaping our personal past: Assessing the phenomenology of autobiographical memory and its association with object and spatial imagery

A new instrument has been developed that allows a comprehensive assessment of the relevant dimensions of the phenomenology of autobiographical memories (Assessment of the Phenomenology of Autobiographical Memory, APAM), and their association with visual object and spatial imagery has been examined. An initial version of APAM consisting of 30 items (the first 28 measured on a seven-point Likert-type scale) was developed and administered to a sample of 138 undergraduates. To test whether each item consistently measured the same dimension across different memories, all questions were rated for 12 cues. Results showed that 25 Likert-type items possessed adequate levels of internal consistency and unidimensionality across cues. We also found that higher levels of visual object imagery were associated with more sensory details and recollective qualities of memory, and with stronger experience of sensory and emotional reliving. The theoretical and practical usefulness of APAM as well as the relevance of visual object imagery in the phenomenology of autobiographical memory are discussed.     

Emotion regulation mediates relationships between mindfulness facets and aggression dimensions

Recent years have witnessed an increase of research on socio-affective factors that can explain individual differences in aggressive tendencies across community and offender populations. Specifically, mindfulness and emotion regulation have emerged as important factors, which could also constitute important prevention and treatment targets. Yet, recent studies have advanced the possibility that mindfulness may also have a “dark” side, being associated with increased levels of aggression-related variables, especially when accounting for the variance associated with emotion regulation. The present study sought to elucidate relationships among mindfulness, emotion regulation, and aggression dimensions (i.e., verbal and physical aggression, anger, and hostility) across violent offender (N = 397) and community (N = 324) samples. Results revealed expected associations between both mindfulness and emotion regulation and aggression dimensions, such that greater impairments in mindfulness and emotion regulation were related to increased levels of aggression across samples. Further, analyses of indirect effects revealed that a latent emotion dysregulation factor accounted for (i.e., mediated) relationships between mindfulness facets and aggression dimensions in both samples. Previously reported positive associations between the residual variance in mindfulness scales (i.e., controlling for emotion regulation) and aggression-related variables were not replicated in the current samples. Taken together, findings suggest that mindfulness and emotion regulation have unequivocal relations with lower levels of aggression, and should therefore be considered as relevant targets for prevention and treatment programs aimed at reducing aggressive tendencies.     

On the Costs of Nonclassical Logic

Solutions to semantic paradoxes often involve restrictions of classical logic for semantic vocabulary. In the paper we investigate the costs of these restrictions in a model case. In particular, we fix two systems of truth capturing the same conception of truth: (a variant) of the system KF of Feferman (The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 56, 1–49, 1991) formulated in classical logic, and (a variant of) the system PKF of Halbach and Horsten (The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 71, 677–712, 2006), formulated in basic De Morgan logic. The classical system is known to be much stronger than the nonclassical one. We assess the reasons for this asymmetry by showing that the truth theoretic principles of PKF cannot be blamed: PKF with induction restricted to non-semantic vocabulary coincides in fact with what the restricted version of KF proves true.     

Perceived Maternal Parenting Styles,Cultural Values,and Prosocial Tendencies Among Mexican American Youth

The present study aimed to extend research on parenting and positive development of Latino youth. Participants were 207 Mexican American adolescents (M age = 10.9 years, SD = 0.83 years; 50% girls) who completed measures of their parents' supportive and firm parenting, their own endorsement of respect and traditional gender role values, and their tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors. Maternal nativity was also considered as an initial predictor of parenting, adolescents' cultural values, and adolescents' prosocial behaviors. Overall, the results demonstrated that maternal nativity was associated with traditional gender roles and specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Parenting dimensions were differentially associated with respect and traditional gender role values and prosocial behaviors. Cultural values, in turn, were associated with multiple forms of prosocial behaviors. Gender differences in the processes were also explored.     

Decay of Stimulus Spatial Code in Horizontal and Vertical Simon Tasks

Evidence on the processes underlying the horizontal and vertical Simon effect is still controversial. The present study uses experimental manipulations to selectively delay the stages of response execution, response selection, and stimulus identification in three experiments. A reduction is observed for both horizontal and vertical Simon effects when response execution is delayed by a go-signal presented 400–600 ms post-stimulus onset or when a spatial precue is presented 200–400 ms before the stimulus. When the overlap between stimulus spatial code formation and response selection is prevented by decreasing stimulus discriminability, the horizontal Simon effect decays, but the vertical Simon effect does not change. Activation theories, which propose a decay of the automatically activated response ipsilateral to the stimulus, mainly apply to the horizontal Simon effect. In contrast, translation theories, which propose that the effect occurs when stimulus features are translated into a response code, are more suitable to account for the vertical Simon effect.     

Correlates of MMPI–A Scales in Acute Psychiatric and Forensic Samples

The purpose of this study was to expand the empirical basis for interpretation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI–A; Butcher et al., 1992). Participants were 157 boys from a forensic setting and 197 girls from an acute psychiatric inpatient setting. Criterion variables were identified from sources such as psychiatrist report, parent report, and psychosocial history. Results generally support the construct validity of MMPI–A scales. Scales measuring internalizing problems were more highly correlated with criterion measures of internalizing behaviors than measures of externalizing behaviors, whereas scales measuring externalizing problems were more highly correlated with externalizing variables than with internalizing criteria. Implications of this study include an expanded empirical foundation for interpretation of the MMPI–A, greater understanding of the constructs it measures, and evidence supporting the generalizability of these constructs across settings.     

High cost helping scenario: The role of empathy,prosocial reasoning and moral disengagement on helping behavior

This study aimed to investigate the process that leads people to offer or omit help in response to an explicit request for assistance, taking into account both emotional and cognitive factors. Specifically, a hypothetical scenario methodology was used in a sample of 174 Italian youths (50% males) to examine whether and how factors such as empathy, prosocial moral reasoning and moral disengagement influence the propensity to help when providing assistance is not in the individual’s personal interest. While a few previous studies have included moral disengagement as an antecedent of prosocial decision making, we highlight the significance of this factor in the avoidance of moral responsibility towards others in need. The results highlight two ways in which differences in emotional tendencies and moral-cognitive processes may operate in prosocial decision making in high personal cost situations. First, high empathy levels could promote an altruistic response which in turn fosters mature prosocial moral reasoning. Second, personal distress may enhance moral disengagement mechanisms that may facilitate self-centred behaviors.     

The return of the Sophists

The author argues against a foundational epistemology and thus sides with the Greek Sophists. He shows that the search for foundations of knowledge and truth is the outcome of a referential theory of language. He finds that Nietzsche and Saussure pioneered attacks on and substitutions for this theory. Wittgenstein, Derrida and Rorty, inter alia, continued this trend. The author discusses the criticisms and theories of these philosophers and finds that he agrees with their criticisms and many of their positive moves but that he cannot accept their social relativism because it cannot account for inter- and transcultural understanding and the regulative role of truth. He looks for a theory of language and truth which will also comply with these requirements.     

Trauma and the symbolic function of the mind

The relationship between trauma and the symbolic function of the mind is discussed in three parts. First, a short outline is given of the long‐lasting split within the field of trauma: it consists in a dichotomy between the symbolic and anti‐symbolic reading of the traumatic experience – as I have called it in a previous paper. In the second part, it is maintained that the work of Ferenczi represents an attempt at overcoming this split. In the third and last part, the notion of symbolic adaptation is introduced. The process of adaptation has to ensure the survival of the individual along lines capable to foster the hope that the lost equilibrium between the individual and his environment will one day be restored. This function is performed by symbols: by linking together the lost satisfaction and the hoped‐for wish‐fulfillment, by creating bridges between past and future, symbols enable us to adjust to the new environment without renouncing hope. Symbols are mediators between the pleasure principle and the reality principle. When a person is struck by trauma it is precisely this unifying function which is broken. A typical consequence of this situation is described by Ferenczi as a rupture between feeling and intelligence.