Perception of control over anxiety mediates the relation between catastrophic thinking and social anxiety in social phobia

Cognitive models of social phobia (social anxiety disorder) assume that individuals with social phobia experience anxiety in social situations in part because they overestimate the social cost associated with a potentially negative outcome of a social interaction. Some emotion theorists, on the other hand, point to the perception of control over anxiety-related symptoms as a determinant of social anxiety. In order to examine the relationship between perceived emotional control (PEC), estimated social cost (ESC), and subjective anxiety, we compared three alternative structural equation models: Model 1 assumes that PEC and ESC independently predict social anxiety; Model 2 assumes that ESC partially mediates the relationship between PEC and anxiety, and Model 3 assumes that PEC partially mediates the relationship between ESC and anxiety. We recruited 144 participants with social phobia and administered self-report measures of estimated social cost, perceived anxiety control, and social anxiety. The results support Model 3 and suggest that "costly" social situations are anxiety provoking in part because social phobic individuals perceive their anxiety symptoms as being out of control.     

The effects of a seatbelt-gearshift delay prompt on the seatbelt use of motorists who do not regularly wear seatbelts

A seatbelt-gearshift delay was evaluated in two U.S. and three Canadian vehicles using a reversal design. The seatbelt-gearshift delay required unbelted drivers either to buckle their seatbelts or to wait a specified time before they could put the vehicle in gear. After collecting behavioral prebaseline data, a data logger was installed in all five vehicles to collect automated data on seatbelt use. Next the seatbelt-gearshift delay was introduced. The results showed that the delay increased all 5 drivers' seatbelt use, and that the duration of the delay that produced relatively consistent seatbelt use varied across drivers from 5 to 20 s. When the device was deactivated in four of the five vehicles, behavior returned to baseline levels.     

Food and water intake as functions of resource consumption costs in a closed economy.

In two experiments, rats living in a closed economy were offered continuous, concurrent access to four resources: food, water, a nest, and a running wheel. Costs of consuming food and water were imposed with bar-press requirements, and the price of either one or both resources was raised. As the consumption cost increased, less was consumed in each bout of resource use. Bout frequency increased, but not sufficiently to compensate for the fall in bout size, and total intake fell. Food and water tended to be complementary resources, in that as intake of one fell with its price, intake of the other also decreased. This interaction was accounted for by the defense of the ratio of body water to lean body mass. As amount consumed decreased, increases in feed efficiency (weight gain per unit of food ingested) and the use of stored calories compensated for the reduced energy intake. There was evidence of competition between feeding and drinking at the higher costs: When both commodities were expensive, the decline in the intake of each one was greater than when only one commodity was expensive. Although the time spent nesting, running, and in unmonitored activity was adjusted when feeding or drinking took more of the rat's day, there was no particular activity that was sacrificed.     

The effects of response cost and response restriction on a multiple-response repertoire with humans

In two experiments a multiple-response repertoire of four free-operant responses was developed with university students as subjects using monetary gain as reinforcement. Following baseline, one of the responses was reduced either by making monetary loss contingent upon it (response cost) or by removing it from the repertoire (response restriction). In Experiment 1 a multielement baseline design was employed in which baseline and restriction or response-cost contingencies alternated semirandomly every 3 minutes. In Experiment 2 a reversal design was employed (i.e., baseline, restriction or response cost, then baseline), and each response required a different amount of effort. Both experiments had the following results: (a) The target response decreased substantially; (b) most nontarget responses increased, and the rest remained near their baseline levels; and (c) no support was found for Dunham's hierarchical, most frequent follower, or greatest temporal similarity rules. For several subjects, the least probable responses during baseline increased most, and the most probable responses increased least. Furthermore, in Experiment 2, responses with the lowest frequency of reinforcement increased most (for all 7 subjects), and those with the greatest frequency of reinforcement increased least (for 5 subjects).     

The cognitive load of physical activity in individuals with high and low tolerance to effort: An ecological paradigm to contrast stepping on the spot and stepping through space

Performing a physical activity means dealing with the challenges and difficulties occurring during the task. The more a person possesses the cognitive ability to deal with the complexity of the task, the more that person will be able to face the difficulties in activity regulation. However, no studies have been designed to investigate the cognitive dimension of physical activity. In the present study, we present an original in-task methodology that offers the means to assess the cognitive and physical load of a physical activity. Through the application of a dual task paradigm, we report in-task changes in cognitive abilities and physiological experiences in low and high tolerant individuals during the practice of one of two whole-body stepping tasks. The findings confirmed that stepping through space is a physical activity that requires more cognitive resources and is perceived as more cognitively and physically challenging than stepping on the spot. We demonstrated also that the tolerance to effort, which is a psychological factor, plays a non-negligible role in the way the activity sessions were experienced. The affective states in low tolerant individuals were always more negative than those reported by high tolerant individuals. Our findings argue for the existence of a cognitive dimension to physical activity with tolerance to effort being a moderator of individuals’ affective experience to exercise.     

早期气管切开对非肺部疾病长期机械通气患者的影响

为了评价早期气管切开对非肺部疾病长期机械通气患者的影响,我们回顾性分析158例非肺部疾病长期机械通气患者,根据气管切开时间的早晚（气管插管7天为界）分为早期气管切开组（n=88）和延迟气管切开组（n=70）。比较两组患者的抗生素使用时间、镇静剂和镇痛剂用量、病死率、医院获得性肺炎发生率等。结果显示早期气管切开可以明显缩短患者机械通气时间和ICU住院时间,降低抗生素使用天数、减少镇痛剂的用量,降低总住院费用。所以,非肺部疾病长期机械通气患者可以从早期气管切开中获益。     

The effects of mortality salience on escalation of commitment

Based on propositions derived from terror management theory (TMT), the current study proposes that people who are reminded of their mortality exhibit a higher degree of self-justification behavior to maintain their self-esteem. For this reason, they could be expected to stick with their previous decisions and invest an increasing amount of resources in those decisions, despite the fact that negative feedback has clearly indicated that they might be on a course toward failure (i.e., "escalation of commitment"). Our experiment showed that people who were reminded of their mortality were more likely to escalate their level of commitment by maintaining their current course of action. Two imaginary scenarios were tested. One of the scenarios involved deciding whether to send additional troops into the battlefield when previous attempts had failed; the other involved deciding whether to continue developing an anti-radar fighter plane when the enemy had already developed a device to detect it. The results supported our hypothesis that mortality salience increases the tendency to escalate one's level of commitment.     

Comparing the effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior and response-cost contingencies on tics in youth with tourette syndrome

Tics are rapid, repetitive, stereotyped movements or vocalizations that arise from neurobiological dysfunction and are influenced by environmental factors. Although persons with tic disorders often experience aversive social reactions in response to tics, little is known about the behavioral effects of such consequences. Along several dimensions, the present study compared the effects of two treatments on tics: response cost (RC) and differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO). Four children with Tourette syndrome were exposed to free-to-tic baseline, DRO, RC, and quasibaseline rebound evaluation conditions using an alternating treatments design. Both DRO and RC produced substantial decreases in tics from baseline levels. No differential effects of DRO and RC contingencies were seen on self-reported stress or in the strength of the reflexive motivating operation (i.e., premonitory urge) believed to trigger tics, and neither condition produced tic-rebound effects. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.