Memory of pain and affect associated with migraine and non-migraine headaches

The main aims of this study were to assess memory of pain and pain-related affect in headache sufferers and to compare the pain memories of individuals who suffer from migraines and those who experience non-migraine headaches. A total of 313 women participated in the study, 86 of whom had a diagnosis of migraine headache. The women rated their state anxiety about having a headache, the intensity and unpleasantness of headache pain, and their emotions while actually experiencing a headache. Either three or six months later, the participants were asked to recall their state anxiety, the intensity and unpleasantness of pain, and the emotions they had felt. Regardless of the length of recall delay or migraine diagnosis, participants accurately remembered both pain intensity and unpleasantness. Together, recalled anxiety, experienced pain and recalled positive affect were the most important predictors of memories for headache, accounting for 41% and 37% of the total variance in recalled pain intensity and unpleasantness, respectively. However, participants overestimated recalled positive and negative affect. The effect of recalled affect on memory of headache, together with the overestimation of recalled affect, suggests that although memory of headache is accurate, it is influenced by distorted memories of affect.     

Facilitating and inhibiting effects of priming and selection criteria in a sequence of dichotic listening trials

Competing models of attention make different predictions of how priming from recent stimulus processing could interact with intended selection. The present experiment examined the interaction between exogenous attention and endogenous priming across trial sequences. A sound cue directed attention to left, right or both sides before a dichotic syllable pair was presented. Participants were asked to report one syllable from each trial. Results showed that responses were slower on trials where one of the presented syllables had also been presented on the previous trial. Within these trials, the repeated syllable was selected less frequently, and the responses doing so were slower. Examined according to response choice on the preceding trial, syllables that had been ignored on the preceding trial tended to be ignored on the current trial (negative priming), while syllables that had been selected on the preceding trial tended to be selected on the current trial (positive priming). Responses that followed these selection biases were faster than responses that did not. Response selection was also influenced by the attention direction cue for the current trial, but not by the cue presented on the preceding trial. The results support an attentional model where traces from the preceding processing are retained, and current selection is biased to minimize cognitive conflict between recent and current processing. Negative priming appears to be due to after-effects of preceding processing, independently of the intentions behind that processing. The study accounts for positive and negative priming of dichotic listening sequences within an established, computationally viable biased competition framework.     

The Negative Physical Self Scale: Initial development and validation in samples of Chinese adolescents and young adults

This research presents four studies on the initial development and validation of the 48-item Negative Physical Self Scale (NPS), a multidimensional measure of body image concerns for use with Chinese samples. In Study 1 (N = 1095), exploratory factor analyses identified five dimensions underlying the NPS (General Appearance, Facial Appearance, Shortness, Fatness, Thinness). In Study 2 (N = 1057), confirmatory factor analyses replicated this factor structure. In Studies 3 and 4, the validity of all NPS dimensions except Thinness Concern was supported via their patterns of relation with both objective physical characteristics/behaviors and other self-report measures of body image and general self worth. Because Chinese adolescents and young adults expressed relatively more concerns about General Appearance, Shortness, and Facial Appearance than about Fatness, the NPS may have greater utility for assessing body image disturbances in China than existing measures that focus exclusively on general body satisfaction and body size/weight.     

Effect of post-encoding emotion on recollection and familiarity for pictures

Although prior studies have examined the effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on recognition memory for words, it is unknown whether the enhancement effect observed on words generalizes to pictures. Furthermore, prior studies using words have showed that the effect of emotional arousal can be modulated by stimuli valence and delay in emotion induction, but it is unclear whether such modulation can extend to pictures and whether other factors such as encoding method (incidental vs. intentional encoding) can be modulatory. Five experiments were conducted to answer these questions. In Experiment 1, participants encoded a list of neutral and negative pictures and then watched a 3-min neutral or negative video. The delayed test showed that negative arousal impaired recollection regardless of picture valence but had no effect on familiarity. Experiment 2 replicated the above findings. Experiment 3 was similar to Experiment 1 except that participants watched a 3-min neutral, negative, or positive video and conducted free recall before the recognition test. Unlike the prior two experiments, the impairment effect of negative arousal disappeared. Experiment 4, where the free recall task was eliminated, replicated the results from Experiment 3. Experiment 5 replicated Experiments 1 and 2 and further showed that the impairment effects of negative arousal could be modulated by delay in emotion induction but not by encoding method or stimuli valence. Taken together, the current study suggests that the enhancement effect observed on words may not generalize to pictures.     

Who’s bringing the donuts: The role of affective patterns in group decision making

Two studies examined how intragroup affective patterns influence groups’ pervasive tendency to ignore the unique expertise of their members. Using a hidden profile task, Study 1 provided evidence that groups with at least one member experiencing positive affect shared more unique information than groups composed entirely of members experiencing neutral affect. This occurred because group members experiencing positive affect were more likely to initiate unique information sharing, as well as information seeking. Study 2 built upon this base by showing that confidence mediates the relationship between positive affect and the initiation of unique information sharing. Additionally, Study 2 investigated the role of negative affect in group decision making and how negative and positive affect concurrently influence decision making when groups are composed of members experiencing each. The results are discussed in terms of the role affect plays in influencing group behavior and the resultant importance of investigating specific affective patterns.     

Negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems

A new questionnaire, named the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, has been constructed, measuring nine cognitive coping strategies people tend to use after having experienced negative life events. A test–retest design was used to study the psychometric properties and relationships with measures of depression and anxiety among 547 high school youngsters. Principal component analyses supported the allocation of items to subscales, while alphas of most subscales exceeded 0.80. Cognitive coping strategies were found to play an important role in the relationship between the experience of negative life events and the reporting of symptoms of depression and anxiety. The results suggest that cognitive coping strategies may be a valuable context of prevention and intervention     

Emotional intelligence,cognitive ability and information search in tactical decision-making

Emotional intelligence (EI) may promote more effective decision-making under stress. In the present study, 167 participants completed a situation judgment test for EI, and performed a decision-making task based on an Antarctic rescue scenario. Participants were assigned to either a negative or neutral feedback group. Negative feedback significantly increased distress and impaired decision-making. EI failed to moderate the impacts of negative feedback, but higher EI was associated with greater information-search activity irrespective of feedback condition. It is concluded that ability EI may have a motivational component that may support more exhaustive analysis of both social and non-social stimuli.     

Stress and affective experiences: The importance of dark personality features

Personality has been shown to play an important role in the negative outcomes associated with stress. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether Dark Triad personality features (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) moderated the associations between stress and affective experiences. This was accomplished using a sample of 193 Israeli community participants who completed measures concerning dark personality features and affective expectations for their vacation prior to checking-into exclusive hotels in a resort city in southern Israel. Follow-up assessments concerning affective experiences and stress during vacation were completed by participants before checking-out. Results showed that psychopathy moderated the associations between stress and affective experiences such that individuals with high levels of psychopathy were more reactive to stress.     

Children’s Affect Expression and Frontal EEG Asymmetry: Transactional Associations with Mothers’ Depressive Symptoms

Although parents and children are thought to influence one another's affect and behavior, few studies have examined the direction of effects from children to parents, particularly with respect to parental psychopathology. We tested the hypothesis that children's affective characteristics are associated with the course of mothers' depressive symptoms. Children's affect expression was observed during a series of mother-child interaction tasks, and children's resting frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry was assessed in a psychophysiology laboratory. Mothers' depressive symptoms were assessed at two time points, approximately one year apart, at the mother-child interaction visits. Depressive symptoms increased over time for mothers with a history of childhood-onset depression whose children exhibited right frontal EEG asymmetry. Depressive symptoms were associated with high child negative affect at both time points for mothers whose children exhibited right frontal EEG asymmetry. Cross-lagged models with a subset of participants provided some evidence of both parent-to-child and child-to-parent directions of effects. Findings suggest that akin to other interpersonal stressors, children's affective characteristics may contribute to maternal depressive symptoms.     

Coping self-efficacy mediates the effects of negative cognitions on posttraumatic distress

Although cognitive distortions have predicted posttraumatic distress after various types of traumatic events, the mechanisms through which cognitive distortions influence posttraumatic distress remain unclear. We hypothesized that coping self-efficacy, the belief in one's own ability to manage posttraumatic recovery demands, would operate as a mediator between negative cognitions (about self, about the world, and self-blame beliefs) and posttraumatic distress. In the cross-sectional Study 1, data collected among 66 adult female victims of child sexual abuse indicated that coping self-efficacy mediated the effects of negative cognitions about self and about the world on posttraumatic distress. The same pattern of results was found in a longitudinal Study 2, conducted among 70 survivors of motor vehicle accidents. Coping self-efficacy measured at 1 month after the trauma mediated the effects of 7-day negative cognitions about self and about the world on 3-month posttraumatic distress. In both studies self-blame was not related to posttraumatic distress and the effect of self-blame on posttraumatic distress was not mediated by coping self-efficacy. The results provide insight into a mechanism through which negative cognitions may affect posttraumatic distress and highlight the potential importance of interventions aimed at enhancing coping self-efficacy beliefs.