Brief treatment with alprazolam and behavioral guidance in panic disorder

Abstract

Thirty-two patients with panic disorder, with or without agoraphobic limitations, were treated with alprazolam (mean dose 3.5 mg/d) plus brief behavioral guidance in an open study during eight weeks. The sample had a notorious severity in the frequency of panics and phobic avoidance but was only mildly depressed. Before starting treatment the presence of demoralized mood and extensive avoidance were significant indicators of clinical severity, whereas the presence of dizziness as a relevant somatic complaint was not related to higher severity. After eight weeks of treatment a clinical improvement equal to or exceeding 80% of change was obtained in all cases (29) who completed treatment. Ninety-two percent of the patients were panic free at the end of treatment. There were significant reductions in all the scales with comparable declines in the subgroups formed according to the presence or absence of agoraphobic avoidance and demoralization. The data suggested that moderate doses of alprazolam could be a quick and effective treatment for panic-agoraphobic patients in the short term. The behavioral guidance probably helped in reducing agoraphobic avoidance and in obtaining global good effectiveness although this awaits controlled tests. Finally, the similarity in the response to treatment regardless of the presence of extensive avoidance or demoralized mood argues in favor of not considering the different variants of panic-agoraphobic syndrome differently, at least in samples with similar severity to the present one.     

Searching through the hierarchy: How level of target categorization affects visual search

Does the same basic-level advantage commonly observed in the categorization literature also hold for targets in a search task? We answered this question by first conducting a category verification task to define a set of categories showing a standard basic-level advantage, which we then used as stimuli in a search experiment. Participants were cued with a picture preview of the target or its category name at either superordinate, basic, or subordinate levels, then shown a target-present/absent search display. Although search guidance and target verification was best using pictorial cues, the effectiveness of the categorical cues depended on the hierarchical level. Search guidance was best for the specific subordinate-level cues, whereas target verification showed a standard basic-level advantage. These findings demonstrate different hierarchical advantages for guidance and verification in categorical search. We interpret these results as evidence for a common target representation underlying categorical search guidance and verification.     

Mind-reading without the scanner: Behavioural decoding of working memory content

ABSTRACT

Sophisticated machine learning algorithms have been successfully applied to functional neuroimaging data in order to characterize internal cognitive states. But is it possible to “mind-read” without the scanner? Capitalizing on the robust finding that the contents of working memory guide visual attention toward memory-matching objects, we trained a multivariate pattern classifier on behavioural indices of attentional guidance. Working memory representations were successfully decoded from behaviour alone, both within and between individuals. The current study provides a proof-of-concept for applying machine learning techniques to simple behavioural outputs (e.g., response times) in order to decode information about specific internal cognitive states.     

Categorical target templates: Typical category members are found and identified quickly during word-cued search

What information do people use to guide search when they lack precise details about the appearance of their target? In this study, we employed categorical (word-cued) search and eye tracking, to examine how category typicality influences search performance. We found that typical category members were fixated and identified more quickly than atypical categories. This finding held when the participant was cued at the superordinate level (finding “clothing” among non-clothing items) or the basic level (finding a “shirt” among other clothing items). This suggests that categorical target templates may be constructed by piecing together features from the most typical category member(s).     

Frankfurt versus Frankfurt: a new anti-causalist dawn

There is an important anomaly to the causalist/compatibilist paradigm in the philosophy of action and free will. This anomaly, which to my knowledge has gone unnoticed so far, can be found in the philosophy of Harry Frankfurt. Two of his most important contributions to the field – his influential counterexample to the Principle of Alternate Possibilities and his ‘guidance’ view of action – are incompatible. Frankfurt's counterexample to the Principle works only if we do not understand action as Frankfurt does in his guidance account. If, on the other hand, we understand agency in terms of the agent's guidance, then his counterexample to the Principle fails because, then, counterfactual scenarios of Frankfurt-type counterexamples are such that what happens does not count as the relevant agent's action. So Frankfurt-type counterexamples do not show that the agent could not have avoided acting as she did: so they fail to offer a scenario in which the agent is intuitively responsible even though she could not have avoided acting as she did. Therefore, Frankfurt-type counterexamples do not challenge the Principle, according to which ‘a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise’. The importance of this inconsistency goes far beyond the issue of coherence within Frankfurt's philosophy. I shall argue that this inconsistency represents an important anomaly within the causalist/compatibilist framework; so that we should start to seriously consider having to move on from the established paradigm.     

Task-dependent sensitisation of perceptual and semantic processing during visual search for words

Two experiments examined the impact of task-set on people's use of the visual and semantic features of words during visual search. Participants' eye movements were recorded while the distractor words were manipulated. In both experiments, the target word was either given literally (literal task) or defined by a semantic clue (categorical task). According to Kiefer and Martens, participants should preferentially use either the visual or semantic features of words depending on their relevance for the task. This assumption was partially supported. As expected, orthographic neighbours of the target word attracted participants' attention more and took longer to reject, once fixated, during the literal task. Conversely, semantic associates of the target word took longer to reject during the categorical task. However, they did not attract participants' attention more than in the literal task. This unexpected finding is discussed in relation to the processing of words in the peripheral visual field.     

Child Saving and the Emergence of Vocational Psychology

Vocational psychology emerged at the beginning of the 20th in a context of social and political change known as the “progressive era.” A popular progressive theme was “child saving,” a movement that expressed concern for the physical, educational, emotional, and social well-being of children and adolescents. Vocational guidance was one manifestation of this and served as the foundation for the emergence first of vocational psychology and later of counseling psychology. The concern for and care of youth was gradually replaced by the professionalization of psychology that over time has changed the focus and direction of vocational psychology.     

全员参与学生发展性心理辅导研究

本研究借鉴美国、英国和我国香港地区的一些实践经验,力图发展和形成一种具有综合性的集体心理辅导模式,即学校教师全员参与学生的发展性心理辅导。研究提出了辅导模式的基本理念、操作步骤及主要内容,并采用教育实验的方法在金华南苑小学进行了实证研究,结果证明该模式有助于提高学生的心理健康水平,能促进学生更好地发展。     

团体心理辅导对大学生人际交往影响的长期效果的研究

以团体心理辅导技术对34名大学生进行为期6周的团体心理辅导,并于9个月后对辅导的效果进行再评估.结果表明:团体心理辅导对大学生人际交往问题的干预有效;实验组的干预对大学生人际交往影响不仅有即时提高与改善效应,还有潜在的长期效应;因为交往各变量的复杂性,在团体辅导后各变量的具体变化趋势又略有不同.     

Training compliance control yields improved drawing in 5–11 year old children with motor difficulties

There are a large number of children with motor difficulties including those that have difficulty producing movements qualitatively well enough to improve in perceptuo-motor learning without intervention. We have developed a training method that supports active movement generation to allow improvement in a 3D tracing task requiring good compliance control. Previously, we tested a limited age range of children and found that training improved performance on the 3D tracing task and that the training transferred to a 2D drawing test. In the present study, school children (5–11 years old) with motor difficulties were trained in the 3D tracing task and transfer to a 2D drawing task was tested. We used a cross-over design where half of the children received training on the 3D tracing task during the first training period and the other half of the children received training during the second training period. Given previous results, we predicted that younger children would initially show reduced performance relative to the older children, and that performance at all ages would improve with training. We also predicted that training would transfer to the 2D drawing task. However, the pre-training performance of both younger and older children was equally poor. Nevertheless, post-training performance on the 3D task was dramatically improved for both age groups and the training transferred to the 2D drawing task. Overall, this work contributes to a growing body of literature that demonstrates relatively preserved motor learning in children with motor difficulties and further demonstrates the importance of games in therapeutic interventions.