Aversive conditioning,schizotypy, and affective temperament in the framework of the salience hypothesis

During classic conditioning, the processing of conditioned stimuli (CSs+) is enhanced relative to neutral stimuli (CSs−). In patients with psychotic disorders, CSs− become abnormally relevant relative to CSs+, which may lead to the formation of aberrant associations. In this study, we explored how schizotypal and affective personality traits are associated with salience processing in nonclinical individuals. We used aversive conditioning and personality questionnaires in 100 healthy volunteers. The CSs+ were colored circles predicting the unconditioned stimulus (US), which was a loud noise. Circles of another color were the CSs− predicting no US. Conditioning was measured with skin conductance responses (SCRs) and reaction time. Results revealed that higher reality distortion, introvertive anhedonia, and cyclothymic personality negatively correlated with SCRs and positively correlated with reaction time for CSs+, which indicates less efficient conditioning. After taking into account the covariance between these personality traits, only reality distortion and introvertive anhedonia remained significant for CS+ SCRs, and introvertive anhedonia remained significant for CS+ reaction time. Enhanced responses to CSs− were positively predicted only by reality distortion. These results suggest that salience-processing biases are related to schizotypal personality traits in healthy individuals, exhibiting a similar pattern to that observed in psychotic disorders.     

On the dynamics of implicit emotion regulation: Counter-regulation after remembering events of high but not of low emotional intensity

Valence biases in attention allocation were assessed after remembering positive or negative personal events that were either still emotionally hot or to which the person had already adapted psychologically. Differences regarding the current state of psychological adjustment were manipulated experimentally by instructing participants to recall distant vs. recent events (Experiment 1) or affectively hot events vs. events to which the person had accommodated already (Experiment 2). Valence biases in affective processing were measured with a valence search task. Processes of emotional counter-regulation (i.e., attention allocation to stimuli of opposite valence to the emotional event) were elicited by remembering affectively hot events, whereas congruency effects (i.e., attention allocation to stimuli of the same valence as the emotional event) were obtained for events for which a final appraisal had already been established. The results of our study help to resolve conflicting findings from the literature regarding congruent vs. incongruent effects of remembering emotional events on affective processing. We discuss implications of our findings for the conception of emotions and for the dynamics of emotion regulation processes.     

Mommy is only happy! Dutch mothers’ realisation of speech sounds in infant-directed speech expresses emotion,not didactic intent

Exaggeration of the vowel space in infant-directed speech (IDS) is well documented for English, but not consistently replicated in other languages or for other speech-sound contrasts. A second attested, but less discussed, pattern of change in IDS is an overall rise of the formant frequencies, which may reflect an affective speaking style. The present study investigates longitudinally how Dutch mothers change their corner vowels, voiceless fricatives, and pitch when speaking to their infant at 11 and 15 months of age. In comparison to adult-directed speech (ADS), Dutch IDS has a smaller vowel space, higher second and third formant frequencies in the vowels, and a higher spectral frequency in the fricatives. The formants of the vowels and spectral frequency of the fricatives are raised more strongly for infants at 11 than at 15 months, while the pitch is more extreme in IDS to 15-month olds. These results show that enhanced positive affect is the main factor influencing Dutch mothers’ realisation of speech sounds in IDS, especially to younger infants. This study provides evidence that mothers’ expression of emotion in IDS can influence the realisation of speech sounds, and that the loss or gain of speech clarity may be secondary effects of affect.     

An anxiety-induced bias in the perception of a bistable point-light walker

Human sensitivity for social cues is exquisite, as illustrated by the ease with which simplified point-light movements invoke social and emotional responses. Compared to faces, these biological motion stimuli only recently started to be used to explore questions regarding social cognition and anxiety. We presented human point-light walkers that could be perceived as facing towards or facing away from the observer, and tested whether participants with high social anxiety would perceive these bistable stimuli differently, because this type of stimuli has particular relevance for them. The results showed that observers with high social anxiety tended to see walkers as facing away more frequently than those with low social anxiety. This may mean that high socially anxious observers are biased towards the more positive perceptual alternative because they are motivated to protect themselves against threatening social experiences, but we also explore alternative explanations. The findings are in line with the evidence for a positivity bias in perception, also called wishful seeing, but in contrast with the attentional negativity bias often found in social anxiety. We discuss reasons for this divergence and possible limitations of the current study.     

Affective Priming of Alcohol Schema in Coping and Enhancement Motivated Drinkers

This study investigated whether Coping Motivated and Enhancement Motivated drinkers differ in their degree of semantic activation of alcohol concepts on a primed Stroop colour-naming task following exposure to negative and positive affect primes, respectively. Participants were 48 undergraduates (not necessarily problem drinkers) who had elevated scores on the Coping Motivated or Enhancement Motivated subscale of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire - Revised. The Stroop task involved negative, positive and neutral primes that preceded alcohol and no-alcohol target words. As hypothesized, Coping Motivated drinkers showed semantic activation of alcohol concepts following exposure to negative but not neutral primes. Also as hypothesized, Enhancement Motivated drinkers showed semantic activation of alcohol concepts following exposure to positive but not negative primes. Unexpectedly, semantic activation of alcohol concepts was also observed among Coping Motivated drinkers following positive primes and among Enhancement Motivated drinkers following neutral primes. Theoretical implications are discussed, as are implications for improving cognitive behavioral interventions for problem drinkers.     

The roles of leader emotion management and team conflict for team members' personal initiative: A multilevel perspective

Employees' personal initiative (i.e., their active and future-oriented engagement at work) is of high relevance to organizations that strive for innovation and competitiveness. To better understand its drivers and diminishers, the present study refers to Affective Events Theory and examines the impact of leader emotion management, team conflict, and affective well-being on personal initiative. Data from 300 members of 59 work teams in Germany were gathered from multiple sources at three points in time over the course of 2 weeks. Multilevel analyses indicated that leader emotion management positively affected team members' personal initiative and that this effect was mediated by team members' affective well-being. Data also revealed a contrasting negative indirect effect of task conflict within the team on team members' personal initiative via team members' affective well-being. The study's results suggest that the improvement of leaders' emotion management as well as the establishment of work conditions and experiences that foster affective well-being should be seriously considered by organizations wishing to facilitate personal initiative in team settings.     

The impact of interpersonal affective relationships and awareness on expertise seeking: A multilevel network investigation

Transactive memory theory suggests that general awareness of expertise location in a group is sufficient to predict expertise seeking. Yet expertise seeking is, at least in part, a social phenomenon between two individuals embedded in a network of social relationships. Taking a multilevel, network perspective, we examined the interplay of affective relationships and awareness on expertise seeking in groups. Hypotheses were tested using network data collected from 693 employees in 53 sales groups. HLM analysis results indicated that awareness of expertise distribution positively influenced the decision to seek expertise at all levels of analysis examined. In addition, both positive and negative affective relationships influenced expertise seeking, although their pattern of influence differed across different levels of analysis. More specifically, having either a positive or a negative affective relationship with another group member affected the decision to seek expertise from that person. Although having many positive relationships had a positive effect on expertise seeking, having many negative affective relationships had no effect. Moreover, having both an awareness and a positive affective relationship with another group member amplified their positive effect on expertise seeking. Last, individuals who had more negative affective ties were less likely to leverage the positive impact of each awareness relationship on expertise seeking.     

The validation of a religiosity measure for individuals with schizophrenia

Measures of religiosity validated for psychotic patients do not exist. This study sought to examine the psychometric properties of a modified version of the Religious Life Inventory (RLI) in this population. It was anticipated that religiosity would be affected by psychotic symptoms. The religiosity of patients with schizophrenia was assessed while symptoms were more evident and again after treatment, to evaluate changes in religiosity. Four factors were found which characterized the religiosity of people with schizophrenia. These factors were found to have good construct validity. Patient's responses indicated a reduced need for religion when re-assessed once symptom scores were reduced.     

The specific-word frequency effect in speech production: Evidence from Spanish and French

The role of word frequency in lexical access during the production of homophones remains unresolved. In the current study, we address whether specific-word (the frequency of occurrence of the word “nun”) or homophone frequency (the summed frequency of words with the pronunciation /nΛn/) determines the production latencies of homophones. In Experiments 1a, 2a, and 3a, participants named pictures of high-frequency (e.g., “banco”–a bank: financial institution) and low-frequency (e.g., “banco”–park bench) Spanish (Experiments 1a and 2a) or French (Experiment 3a) homophones and control pictures of nonhomophone words matched in frequency with each of the two uses of the homophones. The naming latencies for low-frequency homophones were longer than those for high-frequency homophones. Furthermore, the naming latencies for homophones were indistinguishable from those for nonhomophone controls matched in specific-word frequency. In Experiments 1b, 2b, and 3b, the participants performed either object decision or picture–word matching tasks with the stimuli used in the corresponding Experiments 1a, 2a, and 3a. There were no reliable differences between high- and low-frequency homophones. The findings support the hypothesis that specific-word and not homophone frequency determines lexical access in speech production.     

The word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm

The word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm is a highly influential finding that has provided some of the most compelling support for word class constraints on lexical selection. However, methodological concerns called for a replication of the most convincing of those effects. Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Pechmann and Zerbst (2002 Pechmann, T. and Zerbst, D. 2002. The activation of word class information during speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28: 233–243. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Experiment 4). Participants named pictures of objects in the context of noun and adverb distractors. Naming took place in bare noun and sentence frame contexts. A word class effect emerged in both bare noun and sentence frame naming conditions, suggesting a semantic origin of the effect. In Experiment 2, participants named objects in the context of noun and verb distractors whose word class relationship to the target and imageability were orthogonally manipulated. As before, naming took place in bare noun and sentence frame naming contexts. In both naming contexts, distractor imageability but not word class affected picture naming latencies. These findings confirm the sensitivity of the picture–word interference paradigm to distractor imageability and suggest the paradigm is not sensitive to distractor word class. The results undermine the use of the word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm as supportive of word class constraints during lexical selection.