Orthodox–Hussite Encounters

This article is a contribution to the ongoing debate about how the pan‐Orthodox vision of unity and the overall Christian vision of Christian unity are co‐related, following the Pan‐Orthodox Council in Crete in June 2016. The first section considers how modern Orthodox relations to ecumenism arose: in particular, how the vision of pan‐Orthodoxy and that of Christian unity were intertwined. The sections that follow concentrate on examples taken from Orthodox–Hussite relations.     

非目标工作记忆表征下颜色关联和抽象关联的注意捕获和抑制

采用工作记忆—视觉搜索双任务范式,探讨在非目标工作记忆表征下,颜色关联和抽象关联干扰子的注意捕获和抑制现象。实验1结果发现,颜色关联干扰子在快速反应阶段捕获注意,随后被成功抑制;抽象关联干扰子仍能捕获注意。实验2消除知觉凸显后,结果发现颜色关联条件的抑制消失,干扰子重新捕获注意。结果表明,有效抑制策略受不同关联干扰子加工先后顺序的影响,选择性抑制颜色关联干扰子,而颜色特征的凸显有助于抑制策略形成。     

Neurocognitive functioning in patients with conversion disorder/functional neurological disorder

Neurocognitive symptoms are common in individuals with somatic symptom and related disorders (SSRD), but little is known about the specific impairments in neurocognitive domains in patients with conversion disorder (CD)/functional neurological disorder (FND). This study examines neurocognitive functioning in patients with CD/FND compared to patients with other SSRD. The sample consisted of 318 patients. Twenty-nine patients were diagnosed with CD/FND, mean age 42.4, standard deviation (SD) = 13.8 years, 79.3% women, and 289 patients had other SSRD (mean age 42.1, SD = 13.3, 60.2% women). Patients completed a neuropsychological test battery that addressed a broad range of neurocognitive domains, including information processing speed, attention and executive functioning. Patients with CD/FND had clinically significant neurocognitive deficits in all neurocognitive domains based on normative data comparison. Patients with CD/FND also performed significantly worse than patients with other SSRD on information processing speed (Digit Symbol Substitution Test (V = .115, p = .035), Stroop Color–Word Test (SCWT) card 1 (V = .190, p = .006), and SCWT card 2 (V = .244, p < .001). No CD/FND vs. other SSRD differences were observed in other neurocognitive domains. These findings indicate the patients with CD/FND perform worse on information processing speed tests compared to patients with other SSRD.     

Is It Still a Movement?

In this address from 1971, the second general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Eugene Carson Blake, sets out the challenges facing the WCC at the beginning of the 1970s, identifying three key changes within the ecumenical movement: a shift in power and decision making away from the Protestant churches of North America and Western Europe; an organization more representative of churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and of Orthodox churches; and the ecumenical involvement of the Roman Catholic Church. It goes on to set out how the WCC, particularly since its conference on Church and Society held in Geneva in 1966, has been attempting to make Christian faith and morals relevant to a world experiencing rapid social, economic, and political change.     

Presidential Address: Are the Obsessive-Compulsive Related Disorders Related to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? A Critical Look at DSM-5’s New Category

The 5^th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) includes a new class of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs) that includes obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and a handful of other putatively related conditions. Although this new category promises to raise awareness of underrecognized and understudied problems, the empirical validity and practical utility of this new DSM category is questionable. This article critically examines the arguments underlying the new OCRD class, illuminates a number of problems with this class, and then discusses implications for clinicians and researchers.     

Neurophysiological marker of inhibition distinguishes language groups on a non-linguistic executive function test

Successful interaction with the environment depends on flexible behaviors which require shifting attention, inhibiting primed responses, ignoring distracting information, and withholding motor responses. These abilities, termed executive function (EF), are believed to be mediated by inhibitory processes in the frontal lobes. Superior performance on EF tests (i.e., faster reaction times (RT), and fewer errors) has been shown in bilinguals compared to monolingual speakers. However, findings are inconsistent, and no study has directly linked this bilingual advantage to frontal lobe inhibitory processes. To clarify this uncertainty, we concomitantly tested neural inhibitory processes and behavioral responses on an EF test in bilinguals and monolinguals. Specifically, we compared English monolinguals (N = 15) to Spanish/English bilinguals (N = 13) on event-related brain potentials (ERP) during a non-linguistic, auditory Go/NoGo task, a task linked to non-motor, cognitive inhibition in monolinguals. Participants responded with a button press on trials in which target tone-pairs (Go trials) were presented and withheld their responses on non-target trials (NoGo trials). Results revealed significantly greater inhibition (i.e., greater mean N2 amplitude) in bilinguals compared to monolinguals during NoGo trials even though both groups performed the task equally well (i.e., withheld a motor response). On Go trials where participants pressed a response button, neither ERPs nor RT distinguished the groups. Additionally, scores on a second language proficiency test (i.e., English in our bilingual group) were positively correlated with N2 amplitude. These findings are the first to directly link this bilingual advantage to a neural correlate of inhibition and to reveal that inhibition in bilinguals is moderated by second language proficiency. Results are discussed in the context of plasticity, and we propose that evaluating bilinguals at varying levels of second-language proficiency may serve as a model of human neuroplasticity.     

Positive emotion modulates cognitive control: An event‐related potentials study

There is substantial evidence to indicate that negative emotion can modulate cognitive control processing. However, only a few studies have investigated this effect with positive emotion. Therefore, the present study explored the electrophysiological correlates of the impact of positive emotional stimuli on cognitive control, using event‐related potentials (ERPs). Sixteen healthy young adults completed a modified Simon task (Simon, 1969). Behavioral data indicated that reaction times were faster for positive emotional stimuli than for neutral emotional stimuli in the incongruent condition, but not in the congruent condition, which suggested that positive emotion expedited conflict resolution. The ERP data showed that two negative ERP components (N300–400 and N450–550) were associated with the positive emotional stimuli in the incongruent minus congruent condition. It is suggested that these components may respectively be related to the conflict monitoring (N300–400) and response selection (N450–550) stages of cognitive control processing. Overall, our results indicated that positive emotion could facilitate cognitive control processing. These results are in line with the neuropsychological theory, according to which, positive emotion could modulate cognitive control mediated by increased dopamine levels in frontal brain areas.     

Cognitive control in belief‐laden reasoning during conclusion processing: An ERP study

Belief bias is the tendency to accept conclusions that are compatible with existing beliefs more frequently than those that contradict beliefs. It is one of the most replicated behavioral findings in the reasoning literature. Recently, neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event‐related potentials (ERPs) have provided a new perspective and have demonstrated neural correlates of belief bias that have been viewed as supportive of dual‐process theories of belief bias. However, fMRI studies have tended to focus on conclusion processing, while ERPs studies have been concerned with the processing of premises. In the present research, the electrophysiological correlates of cognitive control were studied among 12 subjects using high‐density ERPs. The analysis was focused on the conclusion presentation phase and was limited to normatively sanctioned responses to valid–believable and valid–unbelievable problems. Results showed that when participants gave normatively sanctioned responses to problems where belief and logic conflicted, a more positive ERP deflection was elicited than for normatively sanctioned responses to nonconflict problems. This was observed from ?400 to ?200 ms prior to the correct response being given. The positive component is argued to be analogous to the late positive component (LPC) involved in cognitive control processes. This is consistent with the inhibition of empirically anomalous information when conclusions are unbelievable. These data are important in elucidating the neural correlates of belief bias by providing evidence for electrophysiological correlates of conflict resolution during conclusion processing. Moreover, they are supportive of dual‐process theories of belief bias that propose conflict detection and resolution processes as central to the explanation of belief bias.     

Searching for salvation: An analysis of US religious searching on the World Wide Web

Ministerial itinerancy is characteristic of, although not exclusive to, the British Methodist Church. Rational choice theorists Finke and Starke have claimed that, historically, itinerancy has served to promote and reinforce instrumental commitment to the local church. This article develops and assesses a rational choice analysis of the effects of ministerial itinerancy on the organisational commitment of Methodist congregations and their ministers. It concludes that rational choice theory can only offer a partial analysis and fails to take into account less instrumental forms of organisational commitment. The article surveys the current debate within the Methodist Church about the future of ministerial itinerancy and suggests that the Church may be in the process of recognising that ‘moving ministers’ is not necessarily good at ‘moving congregations’ to embrace the national Church's priorities. The article predicts that itinerancy will remain an important feature, but not a defining characteristic, of the Methodist ministry and will no longer tend to ‘go with the job’.     

Mindfulness and integrative self‐knowledge: Relationships with health‐related variables

This study examined how mindfulness and integrative self‐knowledge were related to health‐related issues. Men in general population (n = 103) and coronary heart disease samples (n = 101) completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Integrative Self‐knowledge Scale, the Type 2 subscale of the Interpersonal Reactions Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Anxiety and Depression Scales. In both samples, there was a moderate positive correlation between mindfulness and integrative self‐knowledge and they were negatively correlated with all health‐related variables. However, only integrative self‐knowledge explained independent variance in health‐related variables. Specifically, in both samples, the relationship between mindfulness and health‐related variables was mediated by integrative self‐knowledge. Mindfulness and integrative self‐knowledge are related domains of self‐awareness that are associated with a range of health‐related variables. These relationships are robust across samples drawn from general population and patients with coronary heart disease. The finding that integrative self‐knowledge explained additional variance in the health‐related variables after the contribution of mindfulness had been accounted for suggests that reflective self‐awareness in integrative self‐knowledge may make a unique contribution to the explanation of individual differences in health variables.