Short-term proactive inhibition in the pigeon

Proactive inhibition in the pigeon was studied using a delayed-color-matching-to-sample task, with and without presentation of stimuli prior to the sample. Interference theory predicts that, relative to control performance, the disruptive effects of a prior stimulus should increase over a retention interval, while decay theory predicts that such disruptive effects should decrease over time. Results supported decay theory when performance was at a low level and interference theory when performance was at a high level. With performance at an intermediate level, parallel functions were obtained, an outcome supporting neither theory. It was concluded that the results supporting interference and decay theories were artifactually produced by floor and ceilling effects, respectively, and it was suggested that the results of earlier experiments using the present paradigm may well have been influenced by similar artifacts. Inserting a nondisruptive stimulus between a prior disruptive stimulus and the sample virtually eliminated the disruptive effects of the prior stimulus when tested immediately, but not when tested after 1 sec. The results of the present experiments and related findings can best be explained by either a modified decay theory (Grant, D. S. Proactive interference in pigeon short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 1975, 104, 207–220) or a modified temporal discrimination theory.     

A stimulus-compounding assay of conditioned inhibition and excitation

Rats were trained in an operant discrimination involving two panel lights, A and B. Group CI (Conditioned Inhibition) was trained to lever press in the presence of A (S+), and not in the presence of the compound AB (S?). The opposite contingencies held in Group CE (Conditioned Excitation). Response rates were higher in Group CE than in Group CI, especially to the positive stimulus. However, the groups acquired the discrimination at comparable rates. In a separate phase of the experiment, a tone (C) was separately trained in the absence of the lights to control responding. All seven possible combinations of A, B, and C were then presented randomly during extinction. The inhibitory effect of B on C in Group CI was comparable in magnitude to the excitatory effect of B on C in Group CE. B's effect on C was not altered by the presence or absence of A, regardless of whether A was inhibitory or excitatory. The symmetry between CI and CE revealed by the stimulus-compounding test may be partly artifactual.     

Recognition memory in mentally retarded persons

The continuous recognition memory of retarded and normal subjects was assessed. The stimuli were magazine pictures, arranged so that lags of up to 250 pictures occured. The overall performance of the retarded subjects was poorer, in terms of hit rate or d′. However, the differences were present at 0 lag and the slopes of the forgetting curves were similar in both groups. It was concluded that differences between these subjects were due to a perception related process and not to memory.     

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy with Toddlers in a community-based setting: Improvements in parenting behavior,emotional availability,child behavior,and attachment

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy with Toddlers (PCIT-T) is a new attachment-based parenting intervention designed to meet the needs of children aged 12–24 months presenting with challenging behaviors. This study examined outcomes of the first phase of PCIT-T, Child Directed Interaction–Toddler (CDI-T), 4-months post treatment. Participants were 56 toddlers (Child Mage = 19.13 months) referred to receive CDI-T over an 8-week period at an Australian community-based child behavior treatment clinic for treatment of difficult toddler behaviors. Participants completed questionnaires and observational measures at baseline (Time 1), post-treatment (Time 2), and 4-month follow-up (Time 3). At both Time 2 and Time 3, there were statistically significant increases in observed positive parenting skills and emotional availability and decreases in negative parenting behaviors and child noncompliance. There were also significant improvements in parent-reported child externalizing and internalizing behaviors, parental stress, and maternal depression. There was a pattern of a shift away from attachment insecurity and attachment disorganization. Results suggest that the CDI-T phase of PCIT-T is a promising intervention for toddlers presenting with behavioral issues. Future studies should be conducted to assess efficacy in other settings, using larger samples and utilizing randomized controlled designs.     

Maternal postpartum depression is a risk factor for infant emotional variability at 4 months

Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) is a risk for disruption of mother–infant interaction. Infants of depressed mothers have been found to display less positive, more negative, and neutral affect. Other studies have found that infants of mothers with PPD inhibit both positive and negative affect. In a sample of 28 infants of mothers with PPD and 52 infants of nonclinical mothers, we examined the role of PPD diagnosis and symptoms for infants’ emotional variability, measured as facial expressions, vocal protest, and gaze using microanalysis, during a mother–infant face-to-face interaction. PPD symptoms and diagnosis were associated with (a) infants displaying fewer high negative, but more neutral/interest facial affect events, and (b) fewer gaze off events.  PPD diagnosis, but not symptoms, was associated with less infant vocal protest. Total duration of seconds of infant facial affective displays and gaze off was not related to PPD diagnosis or symptoms, suggesting that when infants of depressed mothers display high negative facial affect or gaze off, these expressions are more sustained, indicating lower infant ability to calm down and re-engage, interpreted as a disturbance in self-regulation. The findings highlight the importance of not only examining durations, but also frequencies, as the latter may inform infant emotional variability.     

Opening the closed heart: affect-focused clinical work with the victims of early trauma

This paper begins with the understanding that early trauma leads to powerful dissociative defenses which injure the capacity to feel. It further explores ways to restore this capacity through body-centred attention to affect-in-the-moment in the psychoanalytic situation. Using the author’s personal experience while in analysis as well as a case of severe early trauma, he demonstrates the consciousness-killing effect of primitive defenses and shows how body-sensitive techniques hold the promise of restoring the patient’s sense of aliveness and hence, opening the unconscious to those affect-images that are the building blocks of the human imagination. A final section focuses on the neglect of feeling in Jungian psychology and suggests that the “creation of consciousness” which Jung described as his personal myth, is quintessentially a process of emotional transformation – of bringing unconscious suffering into consciousness – as feelings.     

A study of student assessment of the lexical and emotional characteristics of cancer-related words

IntroductionThe aim of this study was to clarify students’ knowledge and emotional feelings about words used in the announcement of cancer diagnoses.MethodA total of 465 students registered in a higher education institution rated familiarity, valence and arousal, and responded to questions about the definition and the contextual use of 20 cancer-related target words.ResultsThe words were estimated as being unfamiliar and negative, and were poorly defined by the majority of students. Many of these indicators varied according to whether the students reported having a relative diagnosed with cancer, and to their level of vocabulary.DiscussionThis study provides explanatory leads that should help to shed light on the nature of the difficulties students have in understanding medical messages.     

N-of-1 methods: A practical guide to exploring trajectories of behaviour change and designing precision behaviour change interventions

Objectives(1) To introduce N-of-1 methods and how they can help the researchers identify predictors of behavioural outcomes, (2) to provide examples of studies that test individual theory-based predictions of physical activity and/or exercise; (3) to provide a practical example dataset to illustrate how to design and undertake a basic analysis for an N-of-1 study; and (4) to suggest a future agenda for N-of-1 physical activity and exercise research.DesignFactors for consideration when designing an N-of-1 study include variability of predictors and outcomes, assessment frequency and appropriate analysis methods. Existing literature and piloting can help inform these aspects.MethodsWe use a dataset of 24 individuals who collected data over 28 days to illustrate example analysis procedures. Data, guidance and associated SPSS and R syntax are made available to provide researchers with tools to learn about and practice N-of-1 analysis.ResultsGuidance on dealing with missing data, looking at graphical representations of N-of-1 data, managing autocorrelation using the prewhitening method and analysing N-of-1 datasets is provided. Using the example dataset, we demonstrate how to identify antecedents of physical activity (steps) to assess directionality of associations. We also include an overview of aggregating N-of-1 datasets using multilevel modelling.ConclusionsN-of-1 methodology provides a means of tracking individual patterns of behaviour and identifying potential antecedents of physical activity and exercise to help determine causality. Assisted by mobile technologies, there is great potential to enrich our understanding of movement behaviour using this approach to inform interventions.     

记忆的自我参照效应

自我参照效应(self-reference effect)指的是记忆材料与自我相联系时的记忆效果显著优于其他编码条件。自我对记忆的促进作用,存在多种理论解释,最主要的有:精细加工说,组织加工说以及双过程说。自我参照效应的研究为应用脑功能成像技术对自我进行脑定位提供了一个新的视角,为情节记忆的HERA模型提供了有力的证据。目前,自我参照效应的研究同文化差异研究相结合,成为一个新的研究趋势。