Attentional bias and anxiety in individuals with coronary heart disease

This study examined whether in an emotional Stroop task, individuals with coronary heart disease (CHD) would show greater attention towards the threatening words related to their disease than healthy persons, and if such an attentional bias is associated with anxiety. An emotional Stroop task with threatening words related to CHD as well as positive, negative and neutral words was administered to 35 individuals with CHD and 35 healthy controls. Additionally, the original Stroop task, the Beck anxiety inventory and the state-trait anxiety inventory were administered. The results indicated an attentional bias towards threatening words related to CHD in the individuals with CHD. They experienced higher interference than healthy participants from threatening words related to CHD but not from positive or negative words. Moreover, the level of interference was associated with their level of anxiety, and a vicious circle may exist in this association. In addition, results indicated a possible deficit of executive functioning among individuals with CHD. Attentional bias, as well as its association with anxiety, and an indication of deficit in executive functioning among individuals with CHD might be the risk factors for these individuals’ quality of life and for further development of their disease.     

Processing Speed Weakness in Children and Adolescents with Non-Hyperactive but Inattentive ADHD (ADD)

DSM-IV-TR defines ADHD-Predominantly Inattentive as allowing up to five symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity, while theories of the inattentive type usually assume a group that is hypoactive and characterized by processing speed and cognitive interference deficits. In a community-recruited sample of 572 children and adolescents, a pure inattentive subtype of ADHD (ADD) was defined as those who met DSM-IV-TR criteria for ADHD-PI but had two or fewer hyperactive/impulsive symptoms. Processing and output speeds of those with ADD were compared to those identified with DSM-IV-TR ADHD combined type and non-ADHD controls. These results were then contrasted with those found when DSM-IV-TR defined ADHD-PI was compared with ADHD-C and controls. Processing and output speed were assessed with the Trailmaking A and B and the Stroop Naming Tests. Cognitive interference control was assessed with the interference score from the Stroop Task. Slower cognitive interference speed was found in the ADD vs. ADHD-C and controls comparisons, but not the ADHD-PI versus ADHD-C and controls comparisons. On output speed measures, ADD exhibited the slowest performance, significantly different from controls and the effect size for the set-shifting speed contrast (Trailmaking B) was double that of the ADHD-PI vs. control comparison. ADHD-Inattentive type as defined by the DSM-IV-TR is a heterogeneous condition with a meaningful proportion of those affected exhibiting virtually no hyperactive/impulsive symptoms. This subgroup may represent a distinct inattentive condition characterized by poor cognitive interference control and slow processing or output speed.     

Intentional and automatic processing of numerical information in mathematical anxiety: testing the influence of emotional priming

ABSTRACT

Current theoretical approaches suggest that mathematical anxiety (MA) manifests itself as a weakness in quantity manipulations. This study is the first to examine automatic versus intentional processing of numerical information using the numerical Stroop paradigm in participants with high MA. To manipulate anxiety levels, we combined the numerical Stroop task with an affective priming paradigm. We took a group of college students with high MA and compared their performance to a group of participants with low MA. Under low anxiety conditions (neutral priming), participants with high MA showed relatively intact number processing abilities. However, under high anxiety conditions (mathematical priming), participants with high MA showed (1) higher processing of the non-numerical irrelevant information, which aligns with the theoretical view regarding deficits in selective attention in anxiety and (2) an abnormal numerical distance effect. These results demonstrate that abnormal, basic numerical processing in MA is context related.     

Psychopathy and verbal emotion processing in non-incarcerated males

Incarcerated males who score high on personality measures of psychopathy are reported to be less efficient than other incarcerated males in processing emotionally laden stimuli. In this study, we evaluated whether an emotion deficit is also present in non-incarcerated higher functioning males who score high on psychopathy personality measures. A sample of male university students was screened for psychopathic personality, and two subsamples, those who scored high or low on global psychopathy, participated in a series of language processing tasks designed to assess verbal emotion processing. Unlike previous studies of emotion processing in the verbal domain, stimuli also systematically varied in abstractness. The results showed that participants scoring high in psychopathy were less efficient than those scoring low in psychopathy in processing negatively valenced words, across all levels of word abstractness. The results extend previous accounts of emotional processing deficits in individuals with psychopathic personality to a relatively high-functioning non-incarcerated sample.     

Direct and indirect measures of spider fear predict unique variance in children's fear-related behaviour

This study investigated whether direct and indirect measures predict unique variance components of fearful behaviour in children. One hundred eighty-nine children aged between 9 and 12 performed a pictorial version of the emotional Stroop task (EST), filled out the Spider Anxiety and Disgust Screening for Children (SADS-C), the Spider Phobia Questionnaire for Children (SPQ-C), and took part in a Behavioural Assessment Test (BAT). The EST did not correlate with self-reports. Correlations of the self-reports and the BAT remained significant after partialling out EST performance. Likewise, the EST and the BAT still correlated significantly with each other when controlling for the self-reports. This indicates that both direct and indirect measures are useful for predicting unique variance components of fearful behaviour in children. Moreover, it may explain why some previous studies have not found a relationship between self-reported fear and EST performance.     

Memory Deficits Among Alcoholics: Performance on a Selective Reminding Task

ABSTRACT

This article compared alcoholics and healthy controls on the Buschke Selective Reminding Task. Alcoholics demonstrated deficits in memory and learning when compared to healthy controls, even when controlling for age. Examination of the alcoholic sample initially showed that age predicted memory deficits; however, age was no longer a significant predictor once the number of years of heavy drinking was entered into the regression equation. Findings suggest a direct link or mechanism of action between alcohol use and memory impairments, above and beyond effects of age or education.     

A Sensory Origin for Color-Word Stroop Effects in Aging: Simulating Age-Related Changes in Color-vision Mimics Age-Related Changes in Stroop

ABSTRACT

An increase in Stroop effects with age can be interpreted as reflecting age-related reductions in selective attention, cognitive slowing, or color-vision. In the present study, 88 younger adults performed a Stroop test with two color-sets, saturated and desaturated, to simulate an age-related decrease in color perception. This color manipulation with younger adults was sufficient to lead to an increase in Stroop effects that mimics age-effects. We conclude that age-related changes in color perception can contribute to the differences in Stroop effects observed in aging. Finally, we suggest that the clinical applications of Stroop take this factor into account.     

The Universe as a Saturated Phenomenon: The Christian Concept of Creation in View of Modern Philosophical and Scientific Developments

Abstract

The article develops an argument that the Christian concept of creation of the world, being an issue of the modern dialogue between theology and science, must be rethought and reformulated along the lines of recent advancements in cosmology and philosophy. It is argued that the prevailing natural attitude to the issue of the creation of the universe (whether based on Biblical hermeneutics or scientific theories) is philosophically inadequate because it does not account for the facticity of the articulating consciousness, which itself is the modality of the created. Correspondingly, the issue of creation receives a different interpretation: it is the coming into existence of personal life in the Divine image, capable of recognizing its createdness, and articulating creation as hypostatically distant from the comprehending subjectivity. Creation as inseparable from the life of subjectivity thus acquires the status of a saturated phenomenon to which neither successive quantitative, nor qualitative synthesis, nor temporal synthesis can be applied; it also escapes a rubric of relation. The created world, or the universe as a whole, gives itself to us from its own “self” to such an extent that it affects us, changes us and almost constitutes us, and stages us out of its own giving itself to us. The universe is present in the background of our existence through relationship and communion in such a way that we can express this presence ecstatically—through music, painting, poetry etc.—that presence which cannot be formalized in definitions of physics and mathematics. It is the living humanity that is the only and ultimate manifestation of God through its creation.     

Cognitive Bias Via the Internet: A Comparison of Web‐Based and Standard Emotional Stroop Tasks in Social Phobia

There is accumulating evidence to suggest that social phobia is associated with attentional bias for words related to social threat. Information processing in individuals with social phobia (n = 87) was investigated in the present study using 2 versions of the emotional Stroop task. Results from a standard emotional Stroop task indicated delayed colour naming of socially threatening words relative to neutral words, in line with previous research, whereas results from a Web‐based emotional Stroop task indicated a facilitation effect, with faster manual indication of colour choice for socially threatening words than for neutral words. Possible explanations for these contrasting findings and issues for further research are discussed.