Flexibility is not always adaptive: Affective flexibility and inflexibility predict rumination use in everyday life

The present study examined whether cognitive flexibility in the processing of emotional material (i.e., affective flexibility) predicts the use of rumination in response to negative events in daily life. One hundred fifty-seven undergraduate participants completed daily diaries for six consecutive days. Affective flexibility was measured with a novel task-switching paradigm using emotional pictures. Results show that affective inflexibility when switching away from processing the emotional meaning of negative material was associated with increased use of rumination in daily life. In contrast, affective inflexibility when switching away from processing the emotional meaning of positive material was related to decreased use of rumination. Importantly, affective flexibility predicted use of rumination beyond non-affective measures of executive functioning. This is the first study to show that inflexibility is not uniformly associated with increased rumination but that inflexibility in the processing of positive material can predict lower levels of rumination.     

Getting stuck in depression: The roles of rumination and emotional inertia

Like many other mental disorders, depression is characterised by psychological inflexibility. Two instances of such inflexibility are rumination: repetitive cognitions focusing on the causes and consequences of depressive symptoms; and emotional inertia: the tendency for affective states to be resistant to change. In two studies, we tested the predictions that: (1) rumination and emotional inertia are related; and (2) both independently contribute to depressive symptoms. We examined emotional inertia of subjective affective experiences in daily life among a sample of non-clinical undergraduates (Study 1), and of affective behaviours during a family interaction task in a sample of clinically depressed and non-depressed adolescents (Study 2), and related it to self-reported rumination and depression severity. In both studies, rumination (particularly the brooding facet) and emotional inertia (particularly of sad/dysphoric affect) were positively associated, and both independently predicted depression severity. These findings demonstrate the importance of studying both cognitive and affective inflexibility in depression.     

Knowing when to seek anger: Psychological health and context-sensitive emotional preferences

According to hedonic approaches to psychological health, healthy individuals should pursue pleasant and avoid unpleasant emotions. According to instrumental approaches, however, healthy individuals should pursue useful and avoid harmful emotions, whether pleasant or unpleasant. We sought to reconcile these approaches by distinguishing between preferences for emotions that are aggregated across contexts and preferences for emotions within specific contexts. Across five days, we assessed daily confrontational and collaborative demands and daily preferences for anger and happiness. Somewhat consistent with hedonic approaches, when averaging across contexts, psychologically healthier individuals wanted to feel less anger, but not more happiness. Somewhat consistent with instrumental approaches, when examined within contexts, psychologically healthier individuals wanted to feel angrier in more confrontational contexts, and some wanted to feel happier in more collaborative contexts. Thus, although healthier individuals are motivated to avoid unpleasant emotions over time, they are more motivated to experience them when they are potentially useful.     

工作记忆表征引导视觉注意选择的眼动研究

工作记忆表征能否引导视觉注意选择？目前实验结果尚不一致。有研究者认为能否观察到注意引导效应取决于视觉搜索类型。研究采用工作记忆任务与视觉搜索任务相结合的双任务范式, 结合眼动追踪技术, 对不同视觉搜索类型下的注意引导效应进行验证。实验1结果发现, 不管视觉搜索任务的靶子是否变化, 在早期的眼动指标上都发现了显著的注意引导效应, 但注意引导效应在靶子固定的视觉搜索任务下表现得更强。实验2在平衡两种视觉搜索任务中的工作记忆负载后发现, 两种视觉搜索任务下都出现了显著的注意引导效应, 但没有发现实验1中所出现的任务间差异。实验结果否定了视觉搜索类型对注意引导效应的决定性影响, 同时也提示工作记忆负载可能在注意引导效应中起重要作用。     

Affective flexibility and generalized anxiety disorder: valence-specific shifting difficulties

ABSTRACT

Background: Growing evidence suggests that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is associated with poor affective flexibility, defined as the ability to switch between emotional aspects and non-emotional aspects of a situation. However, it is unclear whether affective inflexibility is valence-specific in GAD.

Methods: Participants with GAD (n?=?21) and non-clinical control participants (n?=?28) were tested on an Affective Switching Task during which participants were asked to categorize pictures either by the valence or by the number of humans present in the pictures.

Results: Individuals with GAD, but not healthy controls, exhibited greater difficulty shifting from emotional aspects of negative material compared to emotional aspects of positive material and shifting to the emotional aspects of positive material compared to emotional aspects of negative material.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that GAD is associated with valence-specific affective flexibility biases. The relevance of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Individual differences in the impact of attentional bias training on cardiovascular responses to stress in women

Abstract

Experimental studies show that training people to attend to negative stimuli makes them more likely to respond with greater anxiety to stress. The present study investigated this effect in students using measures of cardiovascular responses to stress and examined whether individual differences influence the impact of attention training on stress responses. Using a standard dot probe task, 30 participants underwent negative attentional bias training and 34 participants underwent anti-negative training before completing a stressful speech task. Results indicated that, overall, participants exhibited acclimatization to the procedures (indicated by a dip in blood pressure post-training) and normal stress responding (indicated by elevated blood pressure in response to stress; p<.001). However, consideration of participants’ scores for neuroticism/emotional-stability revealed important differences in how the intervention impacted on cardiovascular profiles (p=.008). For participants with high neuroticism scores, the negative attentional bias intervention elicited more exaggerated stress responding than the anti-negative intervention. For those with low neuroticism scores (i.e., emotionally stable participants), the anti-negative intervention was associated with elevated post-intervention blood pressure and higher blood pressure reactivity to stress. These findings provide evidence of the impact of attentional bias manipulation on physiological stress reactivity and suggest the effect is highly contingent on individual temperaments.     

Verbal-Motor Attention-Focusing Instructions Influence Kinematics and Performance on a Golf-Putting Task

The authors examined how varying the content of verbal-motor instructions and requesting an internal versus external focus influenced the kinematics and outcome of a golf putting task. On Day 1, 30 novices performed 120 trials with the instruction to focus attention either on performing a pendulum-like movement (internal) or on the desired ball path (external). After 20 retention trials on Day 2, they performed 20 transfer trials with the opposite instruction. Group differences for retention and a group by block interaction showed that external instruction enhanced movement outcome. Kinematic data indicated that specific instruction content influenced outcomes by eliciting changes in movement execution. Switching from the external to the internal focus instruction resulted in a more pendulum-like movement.     

大学生认知灵活性问卷的修订及初步使用

修订Martin等人编制的认知灵活性问卷并对我国大学生的认知灵活性进行测量。首先对366名大学生预测;然后对300名大学生正式测试;并对240名大学生进行效标效度研究;另外对785名大学生初步使用该问卷。结果表明：（1）中文修订版大学生认知灵活性问卷的项目区分度、Cronbachα系数、重测信度、结构效度和效标效度等心理测量学指标良好,可作为我国大学生认知灵活性的研究工具。（2）有社会实践经验大学生的认知灵活性显著高于无社会实践经验大学生;文科女生的认知灵活性显著高于理科女生。     

情绪对注意范围的影响: 动机程度的调节作用

在匹配了情绪刺激的效价和唤醒度后,检验了情绪的动机程度对注意范围的影响。研究采用Navon字母任务,通过被试对整体字母和局部字母的反应考察了注意范围的变化。结果显示,被试在中性状态下出现整体加工偏向;在低动机程度的正性和负性情绪下偏向加强,注意范围扩大;在高动机程度的正性和负性情绪下偏向减弱,注意范围缩小。因此,在同一效价内动机程度的不同仍会影响注意加工,高动机程度窄化注意范围,低动机程度反之。     

Disaster recovery experiences of a South African rural farming community

This study explored the bush fire disaster experiences and coping of South African farmers. Participants consisted of seven male farmers (6?=?White Afrikaans-speaking; 1?=?Black Tswana-speaking). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, nine months after the disaster, and analysed thematically. The findings showed that the farmers’ recovery was characterised by three distinct, transitioning phases. The first period involved resource-maintenance coping and emotion-focused coping. The second time period was characterised by meaning making related strategies. Finally, the third time period was charactirised by anxiety over reoccurrence and resource-maintenance coping. The results also suggest that successful coping is reliant on the individual's ability to adapt coping strategies continually, in a context-appropriate manner.