Conscious and unconscious forms of memory in different implicit tests

This study investigated how shallow processing (complexity rating), deep processing (pleasantness rating), and semantic generation (translating from English) of Chinese words affects conscious memory (CM) and unconscious memory (UM) of the words with three implicit tests: word association, word identification, and word-stem completion. A metacognition-based dissociation procedure was used to estimate the two forms of memory for each test. Except for the shallow condition preceding the word-association test, all three study conditions produced a positive effect on the estimate of CM. The estimate of UM did not benefit from any of the study conditions in the word-association test, it benefited from the shallow and deep conditions but did not benefit from the generation condition in the stem-completion test, and it benefited from the shallow condition but did not benefit from the deep and generation conditions in the word-identification test. Implications of these results for CM and UM operations are discussed.     

Understanding Pamina's recovery: An application of the hermeneutic single‐case efficacy design

This article reports an effectiveness case study of the individual systemic therapy of a 22‐year‐old Portuguese woman with a diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder, conducted in a university‐based clinic in Lisbon, Portugal. Data were analysed using the hermeneutic single‐case efficacy design, a non‐experimental interpretive approach that aims to determine whether change occurred, whether change was due to therapeutic strategies, and what in therapy caused the change. Results indicate that the treatment was effective and that de‐pathologising Pamina's condition and genogram‐based exploration techniques played a crucial role in her recovery.     

Conscious and Preconscious Uses of Memory in Patients with Depressive and Somatoform Disorders

This study investigated whether conscious and preconscious memory features contribute to discrimination between depressive and somatoform disorders. Thirty-one participants fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for a somatoform disorder and 28 participants fulfilling the criteria for depression were examined within the framework of the process–dissociation paradigm using neutral, health-threatening, and general threatening words in a lexical decision task. Parameters of conscious memory, preconscious memory, and chance were used to compare memory features of both the groups. There was an inverse relationship between conscious and preconscious memory effects for health-threatening stimuli in the group of patients with somatoform disorders but not in the group of depressive patients. Patients with somatoform disorders showed a significantly lower level of conscious memory for health-threatening stimuli than depressive participants. Compared to depressive patients, a more dynamic relationship between decreased conscious and increased preconscious memory for health-related stimuli seems to be characteristic for patients with somatoform disorders.     

The indissociable unity of psyche and soma: A view from the Paris Psychosomatic School1

Depending on whether or not psyche/soma is seen as singular or dual, one may construct different systems explaining man and the world, life and death. In the author's view, the discoveries of psychoanalysis offer a perfectly cogent and unique solution to the famous mind/body problem. In transferring the duality psyche/soma on to the duality of drives, psychoanalysis places the origin of the thought process in the body. In Beyond the pleasure principle, Freud discusses the drastic effect of a painful somatic illness on the distribution and modalities of the libido. He provides a starting point for the Paris Psychosomatic School's psychoanalytical approach to patients affl icted with somatic illnesses. To illustrate the technical implications of this theory the author relates two clinical cases.     

视觉搜索左右视野靶时脑两半球加工特点

研究视觉分别搜索在左右视野靶时,脑两侧前额叶视觉加工的机制。14名有偿被试参加实验。实验任务是从正圆中所存在的垂直方向的箭头,搜索出水平方向箭头,并判断箭头方向。靶所在左右视野经过镜面处理完全对应。结果发现当靶出现约220ms后左右两侧脑区ERP出现分叉点,靶对侧与靶同侧的前脑区相比有非常显著的负向电位活动,对侧和同侧的N2延续40-80ms。分析认为靶对侧前额脑区N2负向活动增强是注意的等级提高,聚焦点收窄,使所要加工的靶在主效应脑区(靶视野对侧脑区)“跃显”出来,在得到正反馈诱导的同时,也得到更多的资源,靶同侧脑区N2可能与中断或阻止其他无关信息的涌入有关。     

A molar view of goal direction and habit

When we treat behavior within an evolutionary framework and as temporally extended flow, two fundamental questions arise: (a) What is an organism? and (b) What is behavior? An organism is a process that stays intact by constantly exchanging energy with the environment. It takes in resources and puts out waste. The behavior of an organism consists of those process parts of the organism process that make up the exchange. These activities serve the function of reproducing, which generally depends on surviving. Surviving and reproducing depend on responding to phylogenetically important events (PIEs). A PIE induces activities that enhance or mitigate the PIE. Organisms respond not only to a PIE but also to events that covary with the PIE. Both activities and environmental features may covary with a PIE. When either type of covariance is introduced to an organism, behavior adapts over time. The early stages of adaptation constitute what researchers call “goal direction,” and the later stages constitute what researchers call “habit.” Behavior and environment constitute a dynamic system, and manipulations of the covariances and environmental features of the system allow many experimental interventions. This molar approach allows experiments on goal direction and habit to be understood without appeal to everyday mentalistic terms.     

预览搜索中基于颜色的两种自上而下加工

预览搜索（preview search）研究是近几年来注意选择研究领域新的热点。本研究将预览搜索任务和探测任务相结合,通过两个实验证明了预览搜索中存在基于颜色的自上而下加工。在每次实验中,先出现预览项目,然后让被试根据有无提示音完成搜索任务或探测任务。在实验一中,探测点的颜色为旧项目同色和无关色两种;在实验二中,探测点的颜色为新项目同色和无关色两种。结果发现,旧项目同色的探测子的反应时长于无关色反应时,而新项目同色的探测子的反应时短于无关色反应时。笔者认为这是由于在预览阶段,可能存在两种自上而下加工,一种是主要基于旧项目颜色的抑制定势,另一种是基于靶子颜色的预期定势。这两种自上而下的调控机制可以解释预览效应的原因,同时利用颜色等特征的格式塔组织也在预览搜索中起着重要的作用     

青少年学业情绪问卷的编制及应用

通过文献分析,结合访谈和半开放式问卷,将学业情绪确定为积极高唤醒、积极低唤醒、消极高唤醒、消极低唤醒四个维度。以1731名初一到高三学生为被试,通过三次取样测试,编制了青少年学业情绪问卷。通过对问卷的内部一致性信度、分半信度、结构效度和校标效度的检验,表明青少年学业情绪问卷具有较好的理论构想、良好的信效度指标。应用本问卷对3588名青少年的调查表明,青少年的学业情绪存在显著的年级和性别差异,初中生的积极学业情绪多于高中生,消极学业情绪少于高中生。男生的积极学业情绪多于女生,女生的消极学业情绪多于男生。研究表明青少年学业情绪问卷是研究青少年学业问题的一个有效工具     

Last night I had the strangest dream: Varieties of rational thought processes in dream reports

From the neurophysiological perspective, thinking in dreaming and the quality of dream thought have been considered hallucinatory, bizarre, illogical, improbable, or even impossible. This empirical phenomenological research concentrates on testing whether dream thought can be defined as rational in the sense of an intervening mental process between sensory perception and the creation of meaning, leading to a conclusion or to taking action. From 10 individual dream journals of male participants aged 22–59 years and female participants aged 25–49 years, we delimited four dreams per journal and randomly selected five thought units from each dream for scoring. The units provided a base for testing a hypothesis that the thought processes of dream construction are rational. The results support the hypothesis and demonstrate that eight fundamental rational thought processes can be applied to the dreaming process.     

Treatment Engagement with Caregivers of At-risk Children: Gaps in Research and Conceptualization

The high rates of dropping out and other engagement problems are significant concerns in the delivery of mental health and adjunct services to the families of at-risk children. Consequently, researchers have examined the correlates of attrition and have developed interventions to increase engagement and retention. However, the lack of a clear definition of engagement and gaps in theory about the relationship of engagement to other treatment processes hinder knowledge development. In this paper the behavioral and attitudinal aspects of engagement are disentangled. Current knowledge about treatment barriers and interventions to increase appointment keeping is summarized. A preliminary conceptualization of the engagement process is presented and research needs and practice implications are discussed.