Object-goal positioning influences spatial representation in rats

Three tests investigated how the geometric relation between object/landmarks and goals influenced spatial choice behavior in rats. Two groups searched for hidden food in an object-filled circular arena containing 24 small poles. For the “Proximal” group, four distinct objects in a square configuration were placed close to four baited poles. For the “Distal” group, the identical configuration of objects was rotated 45° relative to the poles containing the hidden food. The Proximal group learned to locate the baited poles more quickly than the Distal group. Tests with removed and rearranged landmarks indicated that the two groups learned to use the objects differently. The results suggested that close proximity of objects to goals encouraged their use as beacons, while greater distance of objects from goals resulted in the global encoding of the geometric properties of the arena and the use of the objects as landmarks. Received: 22 June 1998 / Accepted after revision: 23 January 1999     

An analysis of social anxiety in anorexic,bulimic, social phobic,and control women

Responses to the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) were examined in 23 women with anorexia nervosa, 54 women with bulimia nervosa, 50 female college undergraduates, and 43 social phobic women. Results indicated that women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa scored comparably high to social phobic women on measures of social anxiety and that these fears were not limited to fears of eating or drinking in public. This study suggests that fears of negative evaluation in women with eating disorders may generalize beyond the fears of scrutiny of body shape and size to more traditional social situations.     

无手机恐惧:我们为什么不能与手机分离?

无手机恐惧是一种由手机不在身边或无法使用手机所诱发的情境性焦虑。近年来,大量研究证实了无手机恐惧的普遍存在。相关理论从错失恐惧、手机依恋和自我扩展等视角解释了无手机恐惧发生的原因。综述以往的实证研究发现,无手机恐惧的发生会受到个体特征(人口学变量、人格特质等)和手机使用行为等多方面因素的影响;同时,无手机恐惧会对个体的认知与学业表现、问题性手机使用行为、压力感、心理健康、生活方式和睡眠等多方面产生消极影响。未来研究应厘清和完善无手机恐惧的结构与测量工具,拓展无手机恐惧的研究方法与手段,进一步探讨无手机恐惧的影响因素、后效及作用机制,并加强对无手机恐惧的干预研究。     

The role of somatosensory stimulation in social phobia—An analysis of hand coordination in patients and therapeutic dyads during psychodynamic psychotherapy

In the psychotherapeutic treatment of social phobia, the hand movement behaviour exhibited during the interaction provides information about the success of the therapy. In particular, the degree of mutual somatosensory stimulation of the hands (hands moving on each other, as a unit, apart) appears to be relevant regarding the patient's mental state. To test this hypothesis, the present study investigates hand coordination in the course of psychotherapy in patients with and without symptom improvement and in the corresponding therapeutic dyads. Forty-two videos of patient–therapist dyads consisting of 21 patients (n = 11 non-improved; n = 10 improved; according to Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale self-assessment) from the Social Phobia Research Network project were investigated in early psychotherapy sessions and in pre-last sessions. Hand movements of four randomised video sequences per dyad were analysed with NEUROGES^®-ELAN. Patients with non-improved symptoms displayed shorter act apart coordination and more act on each other coordination than patients with improved symptoms. Patients displayed more act apart and act on each other and less act as a unit coordination than therapists. In therapeutic dyads, act on each other coordination in early sessions, as well as short act apart coordination, was significantly related to non-improvement. Patients with non-improved symptoms are characterised by more hand coordination associated with a high degree of somatosensory stimulation serving self-regulation (act on each other), as well as short complex gestural expressions (act apart). Thus, hand coordination constitutes a progression and outcome parameter informing on somatosensory stimulation.     

Task concentration training versus applied relaxation, in combination with cognitive therapy, for social phobia patients with fear of blushing, trembling, and sweating

Social phobia patients with fear of blushing, trembling, sweating and/or freezing as main complaint (N = 65) were randomly assigned to either task concentration training (TCT) or applied relaxation (AR) both followed by cognitive therapy (CT). Measurements took place before and after wait-list, after TCT or AR (within-test), after CT (post-test), at 3-months and at 1-year follow-up. Effects were assessed on fear of showing bodily symptoms (the central outcome variable), social phobia, other psychopathology, social skills, self-consciousness, self-focused attention, and dysfunctional beliefs. No changes occurred during wait-list. Both treatments were highly effective. TCT was superior to AR in reducing fear of bodily symptoms and dysfunctional beliefs at within-test. This difference disappeared after CT, at post-test and at 3-months follow-up. However, at 1-year follow-up the combination TCT-CT was superior to AR-CT in reducing fear of bodily symptoms, and effect sizes for TCT-CT reached 3. Furthermore, at all assessment moments TCT or the combination TCT-CT was superior to AR-CT in reducing self-consciousness and self-focused attention. The superior long-term effect of TCT on fear of showing bodily symptoms is explained by lasting changes in attentional focus.     

Contribution of cognitive factors to the prediction of post-traumatic stress disorder, phobia and depression after motor vehicle accidents

Past research into the psychological consequences of traumatic events has largely focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although other anxiety disorders and depression are also common in the aftermath of trauma. Little is known about differential predictors of these conditions. The present study investigated the extent to which theoretically derived cognitive variables predict PTSD, phobias and depression after motor vehicle accidents. The cognitive predictors were compared to a set of established, mainly non-cognitive predictors. In addition, we tested how disorder-specific the cognitive predictors are. Participants (n=101) were interviewed within a year after having been injured in a motor vehicle accident. Diagnoses of PTSD, travel phobias and depression, symptom severities and predictor variables were assessed with self-report questionnaires and structured interviews. In multiple regression analyses, the sets of cognitive variables derived from disorder-specific models explained significantly greater proportions of the variance of the symptom severities than the established predictors (PTSD 76% vs. 45%, depression 72% vs. 46% and phobia 66% vs. 40%), and than cognitive variables derived from the models of the other disorders. In addition, the majority of individual cognitive variables showed the expected pattern of differences between diagnostic groups. The results support the hypothesis that disorder-specific sets of cognitive factors contribute to the development and maintenance of PTSD, phobias and depression following traumatic events.     

Stimulus fading and differential reinforcement for the treatment of needle phobia in a youth with autism

Stimulus fading in the form of gradually increased exposure to a fear-evoking stimulus, often combined with differential reinforcement, has been used to treat phobias in children who are otherwise normal and in children with autism. In this investigation, we applied stimulus fading plus differential reinforcement with an adolescent with autism and diabetes whose needle phobia had prevented medical monitoring of his blood glucose levels for over 2 years. Results showed that the treatment was successful in obtaining daily blood samples for measuring glucose levels.     

Evolutionary perspectives on imitation: is a comparative psychology of social learning possible?

Studies of imitation in animals have become numerous in recent times, but do they contribute to a comparative psychology of social learning? We review this burgeoning field to identify the problems and prospects for such a goal. Difficulties of two main kinds are identified. First, researchers have tackled questions about social learning from at least three very different theoretical perspectives, the "phylogenetic", "animal model", and "adaptational". We examine the conflicts between them and consider the scope for integration. A second difficulty arises in the methodological approaches used in the discipline. In relation to one of these - survey reviews of published studies - we tabulate and compare the contrasting conclusions of nine articles that together review 36 studies. The basis for authors' disagreements, including the matters of perceptual opacity, novelty, sequential structure, and goal representation, are examined. In relation to the other key method, comparative experimentation, we identify 12 studies that have explicitly compared species' imitative ability on similar tasks. We examine the principal problems of comparing like with like in these studies and consider solutions, the most powerful of which we propose to be the use of a systematic range of task designs, rather than any single "gold standard" task.     

Patients with generalized social phobia direct their attention away from faces

The experiment tested whether patients with social phobia direct their attention to or away from faces with a range of emotional expressions. A modified dot probe paradigm (J. Abnorm. Psychol. 95 (1986) 15) measured whether participants attended more to faces or to household objects. Twenty patients with social phobia were faster in identifying the probe when it occurred in the location of the household objects, regardless of whether the facial expressions were positive, neutral, or negative. In contrast, controls did not exhibit an attentional preference. The results are in line with recent theories of social phobia that emphasize the role of reduced processing of external social cues in maintaining social anxiety.     

Recognition and evaluation of emotional prosody in individuals with generalized social phobia: a pilot study

Studies using facial emotional expressions as stimuli partially support the assumption of biased processing of social signals in social phobia. This pilot study explored for the first time whether individuals with social phobia display a processing bias towards emotional prosody. Fifteen individuals with generalized social phobia and fifteen healthy controls (HC) matched for gender, age, and education completed a recognition test consisting of meaningless utterances spoken in a neutral, angry, sad, fearful, disgusted or happy tone of voice. Participants also evaluated the stimuli with regard to valence and arousal. While these ratings did not differ significantly between groups, analysis of the recognition test revealed enhanced identification of sad and fearful voices and decreased identification of happy voices in individuals with social phobia compared with HC. The two groups did not differ in their processing of neutral, disgust, and anger prosody.