Are memories for sexually traumatic events "special"? A within-subjects investigation of trauma and memory in a clinical sample

According to a long-standing clinical tradition, sexually traumatic experiences are processed and recalled differently from other experiences, often leading to memory impairment. In this study, we compared the characteristics of traumatic memories for sexual violence and two other types of emotional experiences. N=44 women recruited from a local sexual trauma agency were asked to recall and describe three autobiographical events: sexual abuse/assault, a non-sexual trauma, and a positive emotional event. The characteristics of the three memory types were compared on both subjective and objective measures. Further, the potential influences of level of traumatic impact and dissociation were assessed. Results indicated that memories for sexual trauma were not impaired or fragmented relative to other memories. Instead, memories for sexual trauma were associated with a remarkably high level of vividness, detail, and sensory components. Further, high levels of traumatic impact were not associated with memory impairment. Implications for the ongoing traumatic memory debate are discussed.     

Attachment styles and demographic factors as predictors of sociocultural and psychological adjustment of Eastern European immigrants in the Netherlands

The present study examined the relationship between adult attachment styles and psychological and sociocultural adjustment of Polish, Russian, and Hungarian immigrants (N = 631) to Dutch society. In addition, it also examined the relationship between demographic factors and adjustment and compared the predictive value of attachment styles and demographic factors for immigrants' adjustment. The Attachment Style Questionnaire was used to assess respondents' attachment. Psychological adjustment was measured with the Psychological Health Scale and the Satisfaction With Life Scale. Sociocultural adjustment was measured with the Social Support List - Interactions scale. Two scales for measuring identification and contact with the native and with the Dutch culture were developed and used as indicators of cultural adjustment. We found relations between attachment styles and psychological and sociocultural adjustment. Secure attachment was positively related (p<.01) to psychological and sociocultural adjustment, fearful attachment was negatively (p<.01) associated with psychological adjustment, and more negatively with identification with the Dutch culture than with identification with the native culture. Preoccupied attachment was negatively related (p<.01) to psychological adjustment and to identification with the Dutch culture. Dismissing attachment was weakly negatively related (p<.01) to sociocultural adjustment. Correlation patterns across the three immigrants' samples indicate that dismissing individuals remain relatively indifferent towards their native and the Dutch culture. Regarding demographic factors we found that education and age at immigration were positively associated with psychological and sociocultural adjustment, and length of residence appeared to be positively related to sociocultural adjustment. In general, demographic factors showed a stronger association with sociocultural than with psychological adjustment. Regression analysis revealed that attachment styles were better predictors of immigrants' psychological and sociocultural adjustment than demographic factors-education, age at immigration, and length of residence. The results indicate that immigrant studies would benefit from taking an attachment perspective.     

Attitudes of Potential Providers Towards Preconceptional Cystic Fibrosis Carrier Screening

To determine the attitudes of potential providers (general practitioners and Community Health Service workers) towards preconceptual cystic fibrosis (CF) carrier screening and to determine which factors are associated with a positive attitude. A survey was conducted among 200 general practitioners (GPs) and 134 Community Health Service (CHS) workers. Fifty-two percent of the eligible GPs participated and 84% of the CHS workers. Fifty-five percent of the GPs and 73% of the CHS workers had a positive attitude towards routinely offering CF carrier screening, and more than 80% were in favor of informing the target population about the possibility of having a CF carrier test. A positive attitude was associated with (a) high perceived severity of CF, (b) religion (nonreligious compared to Reformed), (c) low perceived barriers, and (d) high perceived test reliability. The care providers who are most likely to be involved in a preconceptual CF carrier screening program, i.e. GPs and CHS workers, generally have a positive attitude towards the implementation of such a program.     

Spontaneous generalization of abstract multimodal patterns in young domestic chicks

From the early stages of life, learning the regularities associated with specific objects is crucial for making sense of experiences. Through filial imprinting, young precocial birds quickly learn the features of their social partners by mere exposure. It is not clear though to what extent chicks can extract abstract patterns of the visual and acoustic stimuli present in the imprinting object, and how they combine them. To investigate this issue, we exposed chicks (Gallus gallus) to three days of visual and acoustic imprinting, using either patterns with two identical items or patterns with two different items, presented visually, acoustically or in both modalities. Next, chicks were given a choice between the familiar and the unfamiliar pattern, present in either the multimodal, visual or acoustic modality. The responses to the novel stimuli were affected by their imprinting experience, and the effect was stronger for chicks imprinted with multimodal patterns than for the other groups. Interestingly, males and females adopted a different strategy, with males more attracted by unfamiliar patterns and females more attracted by familiar patterns. Our data show that chicks can generalize abstract patterns by mere exposure through filial imprinting and that multimodal stimulation is more effective than unimodal stimulation for pattern learning.     

Selective auditory grouping by zebra finches: testing the iambic–trochaic law

Humans have a strong tendency to spontaneously group visual or auditory stimuli together in larger patterns. One of these perceptual grouping biases is formulated as the iambic/trochaic law, where humans group successive tones alternating in pitch and intensity as trochees (high–low and loud–soft) and alternating in duration as iambs (short–long). The grouping of alternations in pitch and intensity into trochees is a human universal and is also present in one non-human animal species, rats. The perceptual grouping of sounds alternating in duration seems to be affected by native language in humans and has so far not been found among animals. In the current study, we explore to which extent these perceptual biases are present in a songbird, the zebra finch. Zebra finches were trained to discriminate between short strings of pure tones organized as iambs and as trochees. One group received tones that alternated in pitch, a second group heard tones alternating in duration, and for a third group, tones alternated in intensity. Those zebra finches that showed sustained correct discrimination were next tested with longer, ambiguous strings of alternating sounds. The zebra finches in the pitch condition categorized ambiguous strings of alternating tones as trochees, similar to humans. However, most of the zebra finches in the duration and intensity condition did not learn to discriminate between training stimuli organized as iambs and trochees. This study shows that the perceptual bias to group tones alternating in pitch as trochees is not specific to humans and rats, but may be more widespread among animals.     

Do They Know How Happy They Are? On the Value of Self-Rated Happiness of People With a Mental Disorder

Quality of life is often measured using questions about happiness. This method presumes that respondents are able to judge their life. Research suggest that this is typically the case, but this is not to say that everybody can. In that context one may doubt whether people with a mental disorder can judge their life adequately. Happiness can be rejected as a indicator for quality of life for people with mental disorders, because of affective and cognitive distortions. We therefore checked the validity of happiness and satisfaction measures in the context of mental disorders. Psychiatric diagnoses were determined at baseline and at 12 and 36 months follow-up in a representative sample (N = 7,076) of the Dutch population, using a full Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Respondents indicated how often they had felt happy during the past month and how satisfied they were with their lives in general. The measurements have a satisfactory concurrent, ecological and predictive validity for people with mental disorders. Though the level of happiness is lower among the people with mental disorders, conditions for happiness and contentment appear to be similar.     

General and maladaptive personality dimensions and the assessment of callous-unemotional traits in adolescence

Associations between callous-unemotional traits and general and maladaptive personality dimensions are examined in adolescence. More specifically, it was investigated to what extent general and maladaptive personality dimensions can account for the variance in callous-unemotional (CU) scores. Adolescents (N = 509) and their mothers completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; Frick, 2003), the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC; Mervielde & De Fruyt, 1999, 2002), and the Dimensional Personality Symptom Item Pool (DIPSI; De Clercq, De Fruyt, Van Leeuwen, & Mervielde, 2006). Both personality measures accounted for substantial variance in ICU scores and the overall CU profile in terms of the HiPIC and DIPSI was consistent with psychopathy conceptualizations and consistent across informant. Implications for the assessment of early externalizing trait pathology are discussed.     

EMDR: eye movements superior to beeps in taxing working memory and reducing vividness of recollections

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is effectively treated with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) with patients making eye movements during recall of traumatic memories. Many therapists have replaced eye movements with bilateral beeps, but there are no data on the effects of beeps. Experimental studies suggest that eye movements may be beneficial because they tax working memory, especially the central executive component, but the presence/degree of taxation has not been assessed directly. Using discrimination Reaction Time (RT) tasks, we found that eye movements slow down RTs to auditive cues (experiment I), but binaural beeps do not slow down RTs to visual cues (experiment II). In an arguably more sensitive “Random Interval Repetition” task using tactile stimulation, working memory taxation of beeps and eye movements were directly compared. RTs slowed down during beeps, but the effects were much stronger for eye movements (experiment III). The same pattern was observed in a memory experiment with healthy volunteers (experiment IV): vividness of negative memories was reduced after both beeps and eye movements, but effects were larger for eye movements. Findings support a working memory account of EMDR and suggest that effects of beeps on negative memories are inferior to those of eye movements.     

Offending and Victimization in the Digital Age: Comparing Correlates of Cybercrime and Traditional Offending-Only,Victimization-Only and the Victimization-Offending Overlap

Cybercrime research suggests that, analogous to traditional crime, victims are more likely to be offenders. This overlap could be caused by shared risk factors, but it is unclear if these are comparable to traditional risk factors. Utilizing a high risk sample of computer-dependent cyber-offenders and traditional offenders (N = 535) we compare victimization, offending, and victimization-offending between cybercrime and traditional crime. Cybercrime results show a considerable victim-offender overlap and correlates like low self-control and routine activities partly explain differences in victimization, offending, and victimization-offending. Some cybercrime correlates are related to the digital context, but show similar patterns for cybercrime and traditional crime.