The buffering effect of family functioning on the psychological consequences of headache

The current study aimed to examine whether high family functioning mitigates the association between headache intensity and distress. The sample consisted of 124 patients with chronic or recurrent headache. Patients completed validated questionnaires about headache intensity, family functioning, and distress. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine the interaction between headache intensity and family functioning on distress. Headache intensity was positively associated with distress (r = .28, p = .002). As hypothesized, family functioning moderated this association (B = ?.01, p = .023). More specifically, the positive association between headache intensity and distress was significant only among patients with lower family functioning (B = .01, p < .001) and not among patients with higher levels of family functioning (B = .006, p = .075). Functional families appear to buffer the distress level in patients; they showed relatively low levels of distress regardless of the severity of their headache. In contrast, patients with dysfunctional families who experienced more pain reported more distress, presumably because they did not receive adequate help and support from these families. This study underlines the importance of a broader perspective on family dynamics in coping with pain.     

Cross-modal transfer of conditioned suppression in rats: Effects of US intensity and extinction of the initial conditioning task

In conditioned suppression of water licking behavior by rats, we obtained data indicating general transfer of fear conditioning. A series of experiments resulted in two major findings. First, pairing of a neutral stimulus with a shock in the initial conditioning task facilitated acquisition of subsequent fear conditioning to another neutral stimulus, if the conditioned fear of the initial task was extinguished prior to the second task and if equally strong shocks were employed in both conditioning tasks. Second, omission of the extinction treatment or employment of weaker shocks in the initial task resulted in retardation, rather than facilitation, of the second conditioning task. An application to human clinical settings is discussed.     

评价性条件反射效应：无条件刺激的呈现时长、效价强度与关联意识的作用

以真实商标图案为条件刺激, 情绪图片为无条件刺激, 探索无条件刺激呈现时长、效价强度与关联意识对评价性条件反射效应的影响。实验通过结合四图再认测验与基于项目分析, 对关联意识的作用进行了详细探讨。结果表明, 评价性条件反射效应只发生在无条件刺激长呈现水平与无条件刺激强效价水平; 评价性条件反射效应的产生需要基于被试的关联意识。关联意识在呈现时长(效价强度)与评价性条件反射效应间的中介作用不显著。结果不支持评价性条件反射的内隐错误归因机制及联想-命题评价模型的相关论断, 部分支持命题性解释模型。     

The illusion of nonmediation in telecommunication: Voice intensity biases distance judgments to a communication partner

The illusion of nonmediation is an experience in mediated communication where individuals respond as if the medium is not there. It is frequently associated with advanced media technology, such as virtual environments and teleconference systems. In this paper, we investigate whether people experience an illusion of nonmediation during interactions as simple as making a phone call. In three experiments, participants were asked to listen to someone's voice on a mobile phone (Experiment 1) or through VoIP software (Experiment 2 and 3) before guessing the location of the person and indicating this location on a map. Results consistently demonstrated that louder voices were judged to be closer, as if the technical mediation was ignored. Combining the three experiments, a small-scale meta-analysis yielded an effect size estimate of d = 0.37 for the ‘louder-as-closer’ effect. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Emotion valence,intensity and emotion regulation in immigrants and majority members in the Netherlands

We were interested in interethnic differences and similarities in how emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal, suppression and social sharing) can be predicted by emotion valence and intensity. The sample consisted of 389 Dutch majority members and members of five immigrant groups: 136 Turkish and Moroccan, 105 Antillean and Surinamese, 102 Indonesian, 313 Western and 150 other non‐Western immigrants. In a path model with latent variables we confirmed that emotion regulation strategies were significantly and similarly related to emotion valence and intensity across the groups. Negative emotions were more reappraised and suppressed than positive emotions. Intensity was positively related to social sharing and negatively related to reappraisal and suppression. The Dutch majority group scored higher on emotion valence than Turkish and Moroccan immigrants. Also, the Dutch majority group scored lower on reappraisal than all non‐Western groups, and lower on suppression than Turkish and Moroccan immigrants. We conclude that group differences reside more in mean scores on some components than in how antecedents are linked to regulation strategies.     

Talking about daily emotional events: Psychological well-being moderates the intensity–disclosure link

The intensity of distressing events predicts people’s disclosure of those events at between-person and within-person levels. Depression symptoms seem to attenuate the within-person relation, but past research has not taken a multidimensional view of depression as a moderator. The authors tested whether two constructs related to depression-general psychological well-being and life satisfaction-account for depression’s moderating effects. In a daily diary study, college students (N = 116) rated the intensity of the day’s most unpleasant event and their disclosure of the event each day for 14 days. Participants completed measures of disclosure tendencies, depression symptoms, well-being, and life satisfaction prior to the diary portion of the study. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed moderating effects of disclosure tendencies and depression on the within-person intensity–disclosure relation. However, when psychological well-being and life satisfaction were entered, depression was no longer a significant moderator, but well-being was. Psychological well-being therefore determines the expression of individual differences in the disclosure of daily emotional events.     

Continuous loudness response to acoustic intensity dynamics in melodies: Effects of melodic contour,tempo, and tonality

The aim of this work was to investigate perceived loudness change in response to melodies that increase (up-ramp) or decrease (down-ramp) in acoustic intensity, and the interaction with other musical factors such as melodic contour, tempo, and tonality (tonal/atonal). A within-subjects design manipulated direction of linear intensity change (up-ramp, down-ramp), melodic contour (ascending, descending), tempo, and tonality, using single ramp trials and paired ramp trials, where single up-ramps and down-ramps were assembled to create continuous up-ramp/down-ramp or down-ramp/up-ramp pairs. Twenty-nine (Exp 1) and thirty-six (Exp 2) participants rated loudness continuously in response to trials with monophonic 13-note piano melodies lasting either 6.4 s or 12 s. Linear correlation coefficients > .89 between loudness and time show that time-series loudness responses to dynamic up-ramp and down-ramp melodies are essentially linear across all melodies. Therefore, ‘indirect’ loudness change derived from the difference in loudness at the beginning and end points of the continuous response was calculated. Down-ramps were perceived to change significantly more in loudness than up-ramps in both tonalities and at a relatively slow tempo. Loudness change was also greater for down-ramps presented with a congruent descending melodic contour, relative to an incongruent pairing (down-ramp and ascending melodic contour). No differential effect of intensity ramp/melodic contour congruency was observed for up-ramps. In paired ramp trials assessing the possible impact of ramp context, loudness change in response to up-ramps was significantly greater when preceded by down-ramps, than when not preceded by another ramp. Ramp context did not affect down-ramp perception. The contribution to the fields of music perception and psychoacoustics are discussed in the context of real-time perception of music, principles of music composition, and performance of musical dynamics.