Intrusive memories and depression in cancer patients

Matched samples of depressed and nondepressed cancer patients were interviewed about past life events, particularly experiences of death and illness. They identified and described any spontaneous intrusive visual memories they had experienced in the past week corresponding to these events. About one quarter reported such memories and, as predicted, the majority of intrusive memories concerned illness, injury and death. The mean levels of intrusion and avoidance were equivalent to patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. Consistent with prediction, depressed patients reported significantly more intrusive memories than controls, and described the memories as typically beginning with or being exacerbated by the onset of depression. Greater numbers of intrusive memories were associated with more maladaptive coping, and greater avoidance with deficits in autobiographical memory functioning.     

启发式在警觉任务中的交叉复合作用

通过对个体和团队和警觉任务的阶段性研究,本研究发现了启发式对个体警觉任务的交叉复合作用,个体在警觉任务关键信号出现时绩效不一定下降。关键信号出现时成绩的升降取决于关键信号与背景信号的可取性。另外,团队结构克服了个体决策中出现的信息不全和信息加工资源不足的缺陷,使警觉任务在关键事件发生时、发生前和发生后的成绩波动不大。     

注意线索对自闭特质个体疼痛共情的影响：来自事件相关电位的证据

自闭特质个体在日常生活中表现出共情缺损, 但其程度较自闭症谱系障碍个体低, 并且注意线索和特异性的面孔加工可能会影响他们的共情加工进程。因此, 本研究采用事件相关电位(ERP)技术, 以疼痛面孔图片作为刺激材料, 让自闭特质组和控制组分别完成疼痛判断任务(该任务中被试的注意指向疼痛线索)和吸引力判断任务(该任务中被试的注意不指向疼痛线索)。结果发现, 相比控制组, 自闭特质组在吸引力判断任务中疼痛面孔图片诱发的P3波幅更大, 而在疼痛判断任务中两组没有显著差异。这表明注意线索会影响自闭特质个体对他人疼痛面孔的共情反应, 当自闭特质个体不注意他人面孔的疼痛线索时, 其疼痛共情能力会减弱。     

Younger adults report more distress and less well-being: A cross-cultural study of event centrality,depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and life satisfaction

The extent to which highly emotional autobiographical memories become central to one's identity and life story influences mental health. Young adults report higher distress and lower well-being, compared with middle-aged and/or older adults; whether this replicates across cultures is still unclear. First, we provide a review of the literature that examines age-differences in depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and life satisfaction in adulthood across cultures. Second, we report findings from a cross-cultural study that examined event centrality of highly positive and negative autobiographical memories along with symptoms of depression and PTSD, and levels of life satisfaction in approximately 1000 young and middle-aged adults from Mexico, Greenland, China and Denmark. Both age groups provided higher centrality ratings to the positive life event; however, the relative difference between the ratings for the positive and negative event was smaller in the young adults. Young adults reported significantly more distress and less well-being across cultures.     

Are older adults in Hong Kong “living in history” in their autobiographical memories?

Transition theory posits that autobiographical memories are organized by major life transitions, which is often supported by the Living-in-History effect that occurs when people frequently refer to public events to support their date estimates of personal events. In the present study, 52 Chinese older adults in Hong Kong recalled autobiographical events using cue-word method and justified the date estimates of the events. They also reported the most important events and assessed their impacts. Results showed that participants referred to public events only when estimating the date of 5.5% of word-cued events and reported a few public events as personally important, suggesting an absence of the Living-in-History effect. Nonetheless, word-cued events and important events accumulated around major life transitions to form a transition bump; the material change that important events brought about predicted whether the important events were used to organize autobiographical memory, thereby providing new evidence for the transition theory.     

Salvation Events Left Unattended: An Inquiry into the Unconscious

In this essay I celebrate James E. Dittes’ impact on my ministry by reassessing three strategic moments in the church in Providence I served for thirty-three years: a dinner, a Sunday morning summer service, and the replacement of the church’s dome. I try to step outside of the heroic role assigned me back then, into a probing, however painful, investigation of the church’s, and my own, darker side.     

东西方面孔异族效应机理的电生理学证据

采取事件相关电位方法研究东西方面孔记忆编码的差异（DM效应）,从而阐明异族效应的神经机制。14名被试学习和再认东西方面孔照片的实验结果表明,无论记住与否,西方面孔产生的早期成分（潜伏期70~220ms）在头皮额部有一个比东方面孔更为正向的变化,表明在此阶段更多的资源分配于异族面孔,支持异族效应产生的特征选择假说。无论东方面孔还是西方面孔,记住与未记住相比较,则在额部和顶部产生潜伏期在晚期正成分（LPC）范围的正走向变化,但西方面孔在240~320ms潜伏期范围内,DM效应较小。另外,东方面孔在枕部诱发出一个明显的负波N260,而西方面孔产生的N260很小甚至没有,反映了大脑对不同种族面孔的编码机制有所不同,因而可能被称为“种族特异波”     

生活事件、性格对某些心身疾病的影响的调查分析

本文用生活事件经历调查表(LEES)对278名心身疾病者,282名癌症患者和 273名健康人(对照组)作调查。结果表明:心身疾病和癌症患者病前出现应激性事件的频度(人次),及对事件产生负性情绪体验的强度(得分)皆明显高于对照组。在应激性生活事件中,家庭事件因素的频度和强度均较高,从某种意义上说,它可能是心身疾病和癌症的重要前因之一。生活事件强度体验与个体个性特征、应付策略和社会支持有关。     

Experience with Event Timing Does not Alter Emergent Timing: Further Evidence for Robustness of Event and Emergent Timing

Although, event and emergent timings are thought of as mutually exclusive, significant correlations between tapping and circle drawing (Baer, Thibodeau, Gralnick, Li, &; Penhune, 2013 Baer, L. H., Thibodeau, J. L. N., Gralnick, T. M., Li, K. Z. H., &; Penhune, V. B. (2013). The role of musical training in emergent and event-based timing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7(191), 1–10. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00191.[Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]; Studenka, Zelaznik, &; Balasubramaniam, 2012 Studenka, B. E., Zelaznik, H. N., &; Balasubramaniam, R. (2012). The distinction between tapping and circle drawing with and without tactile feedback: An examination of the sources of timing variance. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(6), 1086–1100. doi:10.1080/17470218.2011.640404.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Zelaznik &; Rosenbaum, 2010 Zelaznik, H. N., &; Rosenbaum, D. A. (2010). Timing processes are correlated when tasks share a salient event. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 36(6), 1565–1575. doi:10.1037/a0020380.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggest that emergent timing may not be as robust as once thought. We aimed to test this hypothesis in both a younger (18–25) and older (55–100) population. Participants performed one block of circle drawing as a baseline, then six blocks of tapping, followed by circle drawing. We examined the use of event timing. Our hypothesis that acute experience with event timing would bias an individual to use event timing during an emergent task was not supported. We, instead, support the robustness of event and emergent timing as independent timing modes.     

Event centrality and posttraumatic outcomes in the context of pervasive violence: a study of teachers in El Salvador

It is well established that the importance assigned to a trauma can affect one's recovery and psychological health in numerous ways. Event centrality is an increasingly popular construct that captures the tendency among survivors to reevaluate and possibly accommodate their worldviews posttrauma. The centrality given to trauma appears to serve as a “double-edged sword” in that this construct might factor prominently in both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Focusing on 257 violence-exposed teachers from educational departments throughout El Salvador, we examined whether the centrality assigned by the teachers to stressful life events uniquely predicted both PTSD symptomatology and PTG. Results revealed that event centrality was positively related to both PTSD and PTG, even when controlling for demographic factors, violence exposure, and depression. In addition, PTSD symptomatology and PTG were not associated with one another in this sample. In summary, these findings support the role of event centrality as a contributing factor for PTSD and PTG among persons exposed to pervasive trauma.