Validation of a brief measure of posttraumatic stress disorder: the Distressing Event Questionnaire (DEQ)

The Distressing Event Questionnaire (DEQ) is a brief instrument for assessing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) according to criteria provided in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). The DEQ possesses high internal consistency and exhibited satisfactory short-term temporal stability in studies with Vietnam War combat veterans and battered women. In a sample of Vietnam War veterans and 4 separate samples of abused women (with histories of incest, rape, intimate partner abuse, or prostitution and abuse), the DEQ exhibited very good discriminative validity when judged against structured interview assessment of PTSD. The DEQ exhibited strong convergent validity with other PTSD measures and other indexes of adjustment and also exhibited strong convergent validity as a measure of PTSD across ethnic groups in both the veteran sample and the combined women's sample.     

Suppositions, extensionality, and conditionals: a critique of the mental model theory of Johnson-Laird And Byrne (2002)

P. N. Johnson-Laird and R. M. J. Byrne proposed an influential theory of conditionals in which mental models represent logical possibilities and inferences are drawn from the extensions of possibilities that are used to represent conditionals. In this article, the authors argue that the extensional semantics underlying this theory is equivalent to that of the material, truth-functional conditional, at least for what they term "basic" conditionals, concerning arbitrary problem content. On the basis of both logical argument and psychological evidence, the authors propose that this approach is fundamentally mistaken and that conditionals must be viewed within a suppositional theory based on what philosophical logicians call the Ramsey test. The Johnson-Laird and Byrne theory is critically examined with respect to its account of basic conditionals, nonbasic conditionals, and counterfactuals.     

Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe

Highly hypnotizable participants were given a posthypnotic suggestion to feel a flash of disgust whenever they read an arbitrary word. They were then asked to rate moral transgressions described in vignettes that either did or did not include the disgust-inducing word. Two studies show that moral judgments can be made more severe by the presence of a flash of disgust. These findings suggest that moral judgments may be grounded in affectively laden moral intuitions.     

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome: diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a life threatening medical state complicating the use of antipsychotic medications and other drugs that affect the dopaminergic system on administration or withdrawal. The condition was recognised nearly half a century ago, shortly after the discovery of antipsychotic medications. However, there are still no systematic studies about NMS. There are no definitive guidelines on its treatment. Although early recognition is emphasised and usually possible, delayed diagnosis is not rare. We here report on a case of NMS complicated by renal failure, and possibly respiratory failure. The report underscores the seriousness of delayed diagnosis and puts forward a comprehensive management recommendation based on our experience and the existing literature.     

The wane of childhood amnesia for autobiographical and public event memories

We modified Bruce, Dolan, and Phillips-Grant's (2000) threshold procedure for determining the wane of childhood amnesia. In two experiments, undergraduates labelled childhood events (e.g., your first permanent tooth came in) as know or recollect memories and estimated their age at the event's occurrence. In both studies the estimated transition from mostly know memories to mostly recollect memories was roughly 4.7 years. This transition estimate was replicated in a sample of adults (ages 24-65 years) with both Bruce et al.'s event-generation task and the Experiment 1a questionnaire. By contrast, in two experiments a transition estimate of roughly 6 years was found for undergraduates' memories of public events (e.g., the Challenger explosion). The wane of childhood amnesia appears to occur around 4.7 years.     

How bad is a 10% chance of losing a toe? Judgments of probabilistic conditions by doctors and laypeople

We presented a Web questionnaire to 139 physicians and medical researchers and 109 laypeople. The subjects made judgments of badness and importance of prevention for eight medical conditions at each of seven different probability levels. By assuming that the response to each of the 56 risks was monotonically related to transformations of the probability and of the disutility of the condition, we could assess the relative effect of probability and disutility on each subject's judgments. Physicians' judgments were more sensitive than laypeople's judgments to changes in probability. Older and female laypeople were less sensitive to probability (and correspondingly, more responsive to differences in severity among medical conditions). Laypeople varied more than physicians in their responsiveness to probability. These results point to general individual differences in the effect of probability on evaluations of medical risks. They may also provide insight into causes and noncauses of physician-patient miscommunication.     

The visual search analogue of latent inhibition: Implications for theories of irrelevant stimulus processing in normal and schizophrenic groups

Latent inhibition (LI) is a robust phenomenon that is demonstrated when a previously inconsequential stimulus is less effective in a new learning situation than a novel stimulus. Despite LI’s simplicity, there is considerable disagreement as to its theoretical basis. Attentional theories claim that unattended stimulus preexposures reduce stimulus associability. Alternatively, it has been asserted that associability is unaffected and that LI is a result of competition/retrieval processes. The present article reviews a series of visual search studies, some with normal subjects, both undifferentiated and divided into low and high schizotypals, and others with pathologies that entail dysfunctional attention, such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and anxiety. The visual search conditions were designed to model those of traditional LI experiments, while tapping attentional processes independently of the learning scores that index LI. A variety of evidence from these and other studies is used to support the involvement of attentionaland retrieval processes in LI. A model of the mechanism of action of these processes in LI is presented, together with its application to schizophrenia.     

The effect of manipulated sympathy and anger on left and right frontal cortical activity

The present research extended past research demonstrating that approach-motivated anger is associated with greater left than right frontal cortical activity. Because past research had examined difference scores between left and right frontal activity, it was unable to test whether approach-motivated anger increased left activity, decreased right activity, or both. In addition, the present research examined a potential moderator of the effect of insult on left frontal activity. That is, it tested whether sympathy for an insulting person would reduce the left frontal activity that occurs following being insulted. Results indicated that left frontal activity was increased and right frontal activity was decreased by the insult. Moreover, these effects were inhibited when high levels of sympathy were first aroused.