Reduced autobiographical memory specificity and rumination in predicting the course of depression

Reduced autobiographical memory (AM) specificity is a known vulnerability factor for depression. AM specificity was investigated as a predictor of depression with the Autobiographical Memory Test (J. M. G. Williams & K. Broadbent, 1986). When baseline depression scores were partialed, reduced AM specificity to negative cue words predicted higher levels of depression at 7-month follow-up. Once rumination was taken into account by means of the Rumination on Sadness Scale (M. Conway, P. A. R. Csank, S. L. Holm, & C. K. Blake, 2000), AM specificity no longer predicted depression, suggesting that the predictive value of AM specificity observed in previous studies might be--at least partly--explained as an effect of rumination. Further mediation analyses indeed revealed support for rumination as a mediator of the relation between reduced AM specificity and poor outcome of depression.     

The representation of multiplication facts: developmental changes in the problem size, five, and tie effects

In this study, we investigated the development of basic effects that have been found in single-digit multiplication arithmetic: the problem size, five, and tie effects. Participants (9-, 10-, and 11-year-olds and adults) performed a production task on simple multiplication. The procedure replicated study [Canadian Journal of Psychology, Vol. 39, pp. 338-366], but the results show that the gradual decrease of the problem size effect ends in sixth grade. We report analyses on raw latencies and state trace analyses that take into account reaction time scaling as a function of age. The results show that 11-year-olds do not differ significantly from adults on any of the three effects. Before 11 years of age, interesting developmental changes occur.     

A model of exact small-number representation

To account for the size effect in numerical comparison, three assumptions about the internal structure of the mental number line (e.g., Dehaene, 1992) have been proposed. These are magnitude coding (e.g., Zorzi & Butterworth, 1999), compressed scaling (e.g., Dehaene, 1992), and increasing variability (e.g., Gallistel & Gelman, 1992). However, there are other tasks besides numerical comparison for which there is clear evidence that the mental number line is accessed, and no size effect has been observed in these tasks. This is contrary to the predictions of these three assumptions. Moreover, all three assumptions have difficulties explaining certain symmetries in priming studies of number naming and parity judgment. We propose a neural network model that avoids these three assumptions but, instead, uses place coding, linear scaling, and constant variability on the mental number line. We train the model on naming, parity judgment, and comparison and show that the size effect appears in comparison, but not in naming or parity judgment. Moreover, no asymmetries appear in primed naming or primed parity judgment with this model, in line with empirical data. Implications of our findings are discussed. This work was supported by Grant P5/04 from the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Program—Belgian Science Policy and by a GOA grant from the Ghent University Research Council to W.F.     

Hermeneutics and Experiences of the Body. The Case of Low Back Pain

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the notion of clinical medicine as a hermeneutical enterprise and to bridge the gap between the general perspectives of hermeneutics and the particularities of medical practice. The case of a patient with low back pain is analyzed. The discussion centers around the metaphor of the patient as a text and a model of five social discourses about low back pain. The problems addressed are: (1) the nature of a moral experience, (2) the variety of available texts, (3) the difference between the doctor's and patient's narratives, and (4) the patient's and doctor's responsibility regarding the existential, biographical meaning of an illness. Although many problems are left unsolved, it is argued that from a philosophical point of view the notion of medicine as a hermeneutical enterprise opens up the possibility of gaining insight in the foundations of the clinical encounter.     

Reward modulates adaptations to conflict

Both cognitive conflict (e.g. Verguts & Notebaert, 2009) and reward signals (e.g. Waszak & Pholulamdeth, 2009) have been proposed to enhance task-relevant associations. Bringing these two notions together, we predicted that reward modulates conflict-based sequential adaptations in cognitive control. This was tested combining either a single flanker task (Experiment 1) or a task-switch paradigm (Experiment 2) with performance-related rewards. Both experiments confirmed that adaptations after conflict were modulated by reward. In the flanker task, this resulted in increased conflict adaptation after rewarded trials. In the task-switching experiment, reward increased the conflict-modulated switch cost. Interestingly, both adaptations to conflict disappeared after no-reward trials. Moreover, individual differences in participants' sensitivity to reward predicted these reward modulations of trial-to-trial adaptations. These findings shed new light on the exact role of cognitive conflict in shaping subsequent behavior.     

Belief inhibition in children's reasoning: memory-based evidence

Adult reasoning has been shown as mediated by the inhibition of intuitive beliefs that are in conflict with logic. The current study introduces a classic procedure from the memory field to investigate belief inhibition in 12- to 17-year-old reasoners. A lexical decision task was used to probe the memory accessibility of beliefs that were cued during thinking on syllogistic reasoning problems. Results indicated an impaired memory access for words associated with misleading beliefs that were cued during reasoning if syllogisms had been solved correctly. This finding supports the claim that even for younger reasoners, correct reasoning is mediated by inhibitory processing as soon as intuitive beliefs conflict with logical considerations.     

On Compensation in Multidimensional Response Modeling

The issue of compensation in multidimensional response modeling is addressed. We show that multidimensional response models are compensatory in their ability parameters if and only if they are monotone. In addition, a minimal set of assumptions is presented under which the MLEs of the ability parameters are also compensatory. In a recent series of articles, beginning with Hooker, Finkelman, and Schwartzman (2009) in this journal, the second type of compensation was presented as a paradoxical result for certain multidimensional response models, leading to occasional unfairness in maximum-likelihood test scoring. First, it is indicated that the compensation is not unique and holds generally for any multiparameter likelihood with monotone score functions. Second, we analyze why, in spite of its generality, the compensation may give the impression of a paradox or unfairness.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Perceived Parent-Adolescent Attachment Relationship Quality and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms in Adolescence

This longitudinal study examined the direction of effects between adolescents' generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms and perceived parent-adolescent attachment relationship quality, as well as the moderating role of gender and age. 1,313 Dutch adolescents (48.5% boys) from two age cohorts of early (n?=?923, M(age)?=?12 at W1) and middle (n?=?390, M(age)?=?16 at W1) adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their attachment relationship to parents and GAD symptoms in four waves. Cross-lagged path analyses demonstrated that adolescents' GAD symptoms and perceived father-adolescent attachment relationship quality bidirectionally negatively affected each other over time. For mothers, adolescents' GAD symptoms negatively predicted perceived mother-adolescent attachment relationship quality over time. The within-wave correlated residuals between perceived attachment relationship quality with fathers and GAD symptoms were stronger for boys than for girls and stronger for the cohort of middle adolescents than for the cohort of early adolescents. This study demonstrates that both the parents' and the adolescents' gender as well as the adolescents' age affects the relation between adolescents' GAD symptoms and perceived parent-adolescent attachment relationship quality.     

From a single-level analysis to a multilevel analysis of single-case experimental designs

Multilevel modeling provides one approach to synthesizing single-case experimental design data. In this study, we present the multilevel model (the two-level and the three-level models) for summarizing single-case results over cases, over studies, or both. In addition to the basic multilevel models, we elaborate on several plausible alternative models. We apply the proposed models to real datasets and investigate to what extent the estimated treatment effect is dependent on the modeling specifications and the underlying assumptions. By considering a range of plausible models and assumptions, researchers can determine the degree to which the effect estimates and conclusions are sensitive to the specific assumptions made. If the same conclusions are reached across a range of plausible assumptions, confidence in the conclusions can be enhanced. We advise researchers not to focus on one model but conduct multiple plausible multilevel analyses and investigate whether the results depend on the modeling options.