Inhibition and interference in the think/no-think task

Five experiments using the think/no-think (TNT) procedure investigated the effect of the no-think and substitute instructions on cued recall. In Experiment 1, when unrelated A–B paired associates were studied and cued for recall with A items, recall rates were reliably enhanced in the think condition and reliably impaired below baseline in the no-think condition. In Experiments 2 and 5, final recall was cued with B items, leading to reliably higher recall rates, as compared with baseline, in both the think and no-think conditions. This pattern indicates backward priming of no-think items. In Experiments 3 and 4, the no-think instruction was replaced with a thought substitution instruction, and participants were asked to think of another word instead of the studied one when they saw the no-think cued items. As in Experiments 1 and 2, the same amount of forgetting of B items was observed when A items were the cues, but in contrast to Experiment 2, there was no increase in the recall performance of A items when B items were the cues. These results suggest that not thinking of studied items or, alternatively, thinking of a substitute item to avoid a target item may involve different processes: the former featuring inhibition and the latter interference.     

Interference resolution in retrieval-induced forgetting: Behavioral evidence for a nonmonotonic relationship between interference and forgetting

Retrieving memories renders related memories less accessible. This phenomenon, termed retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), is thought to be the result of processes that resolve interference during competitive retrieval. In several studies, researchers have manipulated the level of interference to test different theoretical accounts of RIF (e.g., inhibitory vs. noninhibitory). However, the nature of how interference and RIF are related has not been systematically investigated. Here, we introduce a design that allows for assessing interference during competitive retrieval by measuring the recall RTs associated with target recall. Using such a design, we found that RIF occurred only when interference during competitive retrieval reached moderate levels, but not when it was too low or too high. This finding might indicate that low levels of interference do not trigger interference resolution, whereas interference resolution might fail when the interference reaches extremely high levels.     

The interplay of trait worry and trait anxiety in determining episodic retrieval: The role of cognitive control

Worrying is a key concept in describing the complex relationship between anxiety and cognitive control. On the one hand, cognitive control processes might underlie the specific tendency to engage in worrying (i.e., trait worry), conceptualized as a future-oriented mental problem-solving activity. On the other hand, the general tendency to experience the signs and symptoms of anxiety (i.e., trait anxiety) is suggested to impair cognitive control because worrisome thoughts interfere with task-relevant processing. Based on these opposing tendencies, we predicted that the effect of the two related constructs, trait anxiety and trait worry, might cancel out one another. In statistics, such instances have been termed suppressor situations. In four experiments, we found evidence for such a suppressor situation: When their shared variance was controlled, trait worry was positively whereas trait anxiety was negatively related to performance in a memory task requiring strategic, effortful retrieval. We also showed that these opposing effects are related to temporal context reinstatement. Our results suggest that trait worry and trait anxiety possess unique sources of variance, which differently relate to performance in memory tasks requiring cognitive control.     

Do High- and Low-Active Adolescents Have Different Prototypes of Physically Active Peers?

The Psychological Record - Previous studies have investigated social images in health-risk behaviors, suggesting that these images are important factors in adolescents’ health-related...     

Granulocyte activation in humans is modulated by psychological stress and relaxation

Our aim was to study the possible relationship between psychological stress and granulocyte activation primarily in healthy students during an examination period (n = 11) and also in chronically anxious patients (n = 15). We employed cell surface markers: lactoferrin, L-selectin, alphaMbeta2-integrin and CD15s and flow cytometry to detect changes in the activation state of granulocytes, with the start of the stressed state in students at the beginning of an examination period, which was associated with elevated blood plasma cortisol level, and following relaxation hypnosis in both students, during their examination term, and patients. The ratios of all four types of marker-carrier granulocytes increased at the start of the examination period in students; an especially dramatic (ca. 5-fold) enhancement was observed in the proportion of lactoferrin-bearing cells relatively to the pre-examination term value. After hypnosis, the percentage of lactoferrin-exposing granulocytes decreased considerably both in students and in patients, by about half; a similar decrease was observed in the ratio of CD15s-carrier cells in patients. No significant alteration was observed during the study in state or trait anxiety levels, and in total or differential leukocyte counts. Thus, granulocyte activation could be associated with stress, while relaxation may facilitate reducing activation of these cells. In both groups of subjects, granulocyte surface lactoferrin appeared to be a sensitive "stress indicator". This needs further evaluation.     

The Testing Effect is Preserved in Stressful Final Testing Environment

Previous studies have shown that retrieval practice leads to better long‐term memory than additional study of a material (a phenomenon termed the testing effect). In this study, we compared the effectiveness of these learning strategies when the final test occurs under stress (such as in an exam). Participants studied word pairs; then half of the material was repeatedly studied, whereas the other half was repeatedly tested. Following a 7‐day delay, participants were exposed to either a psychosocially stressful situation or a control task, followed by an associative recall task that tested memory for all items. Multiple measures were used to assess stress levels: emotional state assessments as well as assays of salivary cortisol and alpha‐amylase levels. Results are in favour of the ecological validity of retrieval‐based learning. Participants recalled more retested items than restudied items regardless of being exposed to a stressful situation and the hormonal (cortisol) response to stress. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.