Working memory capacity and spontaneous emotion regulation in generalised anxiety disorder

Researchers have postulated that deficits in cognitive control are associated with, and thus may underlie, the perseverative thinking that characterises generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). We examined associations between cognitive control and levels of spontaneous state rumination following a stressor in a sample of healthy control participants (CTL; n?=?27) and participants with GAD (n?=?21). We assessed cognitive control by measuring working memory capacity (WMC), defined as the ability to maintain task-relevant information by ignoring task-irrelevant information. To this end, we used an affective version of the reading span task with valenced (negative or neutral) distractors. Lower WMC in the presence of negative distractors was associated with greater state rumination in the GAD group, but not in the CTL group. These findings suggest that difficulty maintaining task-relevant information due to interference from negative distractors contributes to perseverative thinking in GAD.     

Intensity dependence in high-level facial expression adaptation aftereffect

Perception of a facial expression can be altered or biased by a prolonged viewing of other facial expressions, known as the facial expression adaptation aftereffect (FEAA). Recent studies using antiexpressions have demonstrated a monotonic relation between the magnitude of the FEAA and adaptor extremity, suggesting that facial expressions are opponent coded and represented continuously from one expression to its antiexpression. However, it is unclear whether the opponent-coding scheme can account for the FEAA between two facial expressions. In the current study, we demonstrated that the magnitude of the FEAA between two facial expressions increased monotonically as a function of the intensity of adapting facial expressions, consistent with the predictions based on the opponent-coding model. Further, the monotonic increase in the FEAA occurred even when the intensity of an adapting face was too weak for its expression to be recognized. These results together suggest that multiple facial expressions are encoded and represented by balanced activity of neural populations tuned to different facial expressions.     

Affect as a foundational psychological process for spirituality and empathy

There is growing interest in understanding the manner by which spiritual experiences, religious beliefs and behaviours, and prosocial traits (e.g., empathy, altruism) are related. Research has recently focused on determining those psychological constructs (e.g., affective, behavioural, cognitive) that are common to these related constructs, although the specific relationships remain unclear. The current study evaluated relationships among spiritual experiences and affective and cognitive dimensions of empathy in 98 participants with heterogeneous health conditions. Results indicate that spirituality is significantly related to affective empathy, but not cognitive empathy. These findings suggest that individuals’ propensity to be both spiritual and empathetic is primarily related to a greater disposition towards emotional connection with others (i.e., whether with the divine or other people). Research and practical implications are discussed.     

INFLUENCES ON COCAINE TOLERANCE ASSESSED UNDER A MULTIPLE CONJUNCTIVE SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT

Under multiple schedules of reinforcement, previous research has generally observed tolerance to the rate‐decreasing effects of cocaine that has been dependent on schedule‐parameter size in the context of fixed‐ratio (FR) schedules, but not under the context of fixed‐interval (FI) schedules of reinforcement. The current experiment examined the effects of cocaine on key‐pecking responses of White Carneau pigeons maintained under a three‐component multiple conjunctive FI (10 s, 30 s, & 120 s) FR (5 responses) schedule of food presentation. Dose‐effect curves representing the effects of presession cocaine on responding were assessed in the context of (1) acute administration of cocaine (2) chronic administration of cocaine and (3) daily administration of saline. Chronic administration of cocaine generally resulted in tolerance to the response‐rate decreasing effects of cocaine, and that tolerance was generally independent of relative FI value, as measured by changes in ED50 values. Daily administration of saline decreased ED50 values to those observed when cocaine was administered acutely. The results show that adding a FR requirement to FI schedules is not sufficient to produce schedule‐parameter‐specific tolerance. Tolerance to cocaine was generally independent of FI‐parameter under the present conjunctive schedules, indicating that a ratio requirement, per se, is not sufficient for tolerance to be dependent on FI parameter.     

Power that Builds Others and Power that Breaks: Effects of Power and Humility on Altruism and Incivility in Female Employees

Building on the approach/inhibition theory of power and the situated focus theory of power, we examine the roles of positional and personal power on altruism and incivility in workplace dyads. Results from a field study in daycare centers showed that legitimate power (a dimension of positional power) was positively associated with incivility. In contrast, personal power—referent power and expert power—was positively associated altruism and was negatively associated with incivility. Referent power was a stronger predictor of both altruism and incivility for individuals with low humility than those with high humility. Coercive power was a stronger predictor of incivility for individuals with high humility than those with low humility.     

Acculturation, social connectedness, and subjective well-being

This study examined social connectedness in mainstream society as a mediator between acculturation and subjective well-being (SWB), and social connectedness in the ethnic community as a mediator between enculturation and SWB. Survey data from 188 Korean immigrants in the Midwest were subject to path analyses. Results partially supported the study hypotheses. Social connectedness in mainstream society tended to partially mediate the relationship between acculturation and SWB although the standardized mediating effect did not reach statistical significance. Social connectedness in the ethnic community fully mediated the relationship between enculturation and SWB. About 49% of the variance in SWB was explained by acculturation, social connectedness in the ethnic community, and social connectedness in mainstream society, in a descending order of their unique contribution. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Emotional processing of individuals high in psychopathic traits

One of the most important clinical features of psychopaths is their differential emotional response style. The present study examined the modulating effect of negative mood induction on the processing of emotional information and its relation to psychopathy. The sample of 105 participants were randomly assigned to two types of mood induction conditions (negative vs neutral) and viewed three types of visual stimuli (positive, neutral, negative). Psychopathic Personality Inventory‐R (PPI‐R; Lilienfeld & Andrews) was employed to measure their psychopathic traits. It was hypothesized that individuals high on PPI‐II (i.e., self‐centered impulsivity) would show greater response latencies to emotionally negative pictures when they were induced into a negative mood compared to individuals high on PPI‐I (i.e., fearless dominance). In general, individuals high on PPI‐II showed greater response latencies to emotionally negative pictures, but their responsivity did not vary as a function of mood manipulation or task demands. When controlling the influence of other PPI factors, PPI‐I predicted reaction time (RT) facilitation to positive pictures in general (i.e., faster RT), and when interacting with a negative mood induction, it predicted longer viewing time of and more difficulty disattending from positive pictures (i.e., slower RT). These results were discussed within emotional processing theory associated with psychopathy.     

Mother–Infant Joint Attention and Sharing: Relations to Disorganized Attachment and Maternal Disrupted Communication

The normative development of infant shared attention has been studied extensively, but few studies have examined the impact of disorganized attachment and disturbed maternal caregiving on mother–infant shared attention. The authors examined both maternal initiations of joint attention and infants’ responses to those initiations during the reunion episodes of the Strange Situation Procedure at 12 and 18 months of infant age. The mothers' initiations of joint attention and three forms of infant response, including shunning, simple joint attention, and sharing attention, were examined in relation to infant disorganized attachment and maternal disrupted communication. Mothers who were disrupted in communication with their infants at 18 months initiated fewer bids for joint attention at 12 months, and, at 18 months, mothers of infants classified disorganized initiated fewer bids. However, the infant' responses were unrelated to either the infant' or the mother' disturbed attachment. At both ages, disorganized infants and infants of disrupted mothers were as likely to respond to maternal bids as were their lower risk counterparts. Our results suggest that a disposition to share experiences with others is robust in infancy, even among infants with adverse attachment experiences, but this infant disposition may depend on adult initiation of bids to be realized.     

Hippocampal lesion effects on occasion setting by contextual and discrete stimuli

Three experiments examined the role of the dorsal hippocampus (dHIPP) in occasion setting with diffuse contextual and discrete light stimuli serving as occasion setters in classical fear conditioning with rats. Both sham-operated and dHIPP-lesioned animals readily learned a L→T+, T? serial feature-positive discrimination in which a light (L) “set the occasion” for reinforcement of a tone (T+). dHIPP-lesioned animals were deficient, however, in acquiring a similar discrimination in which different contexts (A and B) served as occasion setters, i.e., A(T+) and B(T?). The lesioned animals also failed to discriminate between a context in which a tone had been partially reinforced and a context in which no conditioning had taken place, whereas sham-operated animals froze more to the tone in the conditioned context than in the novel context. Collectively, the data indicate that the dorsal hippocampus is important in processing information about the signaling value of contextual, but not discrete, stimuli.