ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6465-9603
Current Organisation
York St John University
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2016
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-07-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2014
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-2006
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 10-09-2018
Abstract: The treatment of severe and chronic substance dependence is challenged by high rates of treatment attrition, highlighting the need to identify factors that hinder treatment retention. The paper aims to discuss this issue. The present study examined certain neurocognitive and personality traits in relation to treatment retention in a s le of 46 residents of an Australian therapeutic community (TC). The traits examined were previously found to be associated with problematic substance use in non-clinical s les and were also previously shown to differentiate TC clients from social drinkers. The hypothesis was thus that traits that appear to be risk factors for addictions are also likely to impact on TC treatment retention. Group comparisons of those retained for more than the recommended 90 days vs those who left treatment prematurely showed that after controlling for the influence of depression, those who left treatment prematurely reported significantly higher levels of trait impulsivity, punishment sensitivity and executive cognitive dysfunction. There was a very high rate of alexithymia in the s le (52 per cent), but alexithymia was unrelated to retention. The final s le size was less than planned but reflected the strict participation criteria and temporal limitations of this study. No statistical assumptions were violated and the reliability indices of the scales completed by clients ranged from acceptable to excellent. Another limitation was that dropout cannot be assumed to mean relapse, as the reasons for client dropout were not available. Findings highlight the important roles of trait factors in TC treatment retention in addition to the motivational and interpersonal factors identified in previous work.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-06-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2007
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-09-2018
DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2017.1366604
Abstract: Given the well-established associations of the personality traits alexithymia, impulsivity, and reward sensitivity with problematic use of a variety of substances, including alcohol and cannabis, the present study sought to determine whether daily tobacco smoking is similarly linked to these traits. Male and female adults aged 18 to 40 years were recruited from the local Australian community, allowing comparison of demographically similar s les of current daily smokers (n = 47) to never-smokers (n = 59) on the relevant self-report measures. Multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that current smokers scored significantly higher than never-smokers on indices of negative mood, impulsiveness, and risky alcohol use, after controlling for social desirability. No significant group differences were found on indices of alexithymia, reward sensitivity, or punishment sensitivity. Results suggest that chronic daily cigarette smoking may be an exception to the maladaptive behaviors associated with alexithymia, and is driven primarily by mood regulation and poor impulse control.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.ADDBEH.2014.10.008
Abstract: Acute alcohol intoxication has been found to increase perseverative errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a well known neuropsychological index of prefrontal cortical functioning, in both laboratory and naturalistic settings. The present study examined the relationship between levels of alcohol consumption at c us drinking venues and performance of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), another neuropsychological test designed to assess prefrontal cortex dysfunction, after controlling for potential confounding variables including habitual alcohol intake (as a proxy for alcohol tolerance), trait impulsivity, and everyday executive functioning. The 49 participants of both genders aged 18 to 30years were recruited at the relevant venues and showed a broad range of blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) from virtually zero (.002%) to .19%. After controlling for demographic variables, habitual use of alcohol and illicit drugs, and frontal lobe related behavioural traits including impulsivity and disinhibition, BAC negatively predicted gambling money won on the last two trial blocks of the IGT. Trait impulsivity and habitual alcohol use were also significant predictors. Results are discussed in terms of acute effects of alcohol on brain systems and the behavioural consequences of such effects on decision making.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 10-2017
DOI: 10.1037/PRO0000136
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.ADDBEH.2012.03.028
Abstract: Two forms of impulsivity, rash impulsiveness and reward sensitivity, have been proposed to reflect aspects of frontal lobe functioning and promote substance use. The present study examined these two forms of impulsivity as well as frontal lobe symptoms in relation to risky drinking by university students. University undergraduates aged 18-26years completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ), Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), and a demographics questionnaire assessing age, gender, and age of onset of weekly drinking (AOD). AUDIT-defined harmful drinkers reported earlier AOD and scored higher on BIS-11, the Sensitivity to Reward (SR) scale of the SPSRQ, and the Disinhibition and Executive Dysfunction scales of the FrSBe compared to lower risk groups. Differences remained significant after controlling for duration of alcohol exposure. Path analyses indicated that the influence of SR on AUDIT was mediated by FrSBe Disinhibition, whereas the influence of BIS-11 on AUDIT was mediated by both Disinhibition and Executive Dysfunction scales of the FrSBe. Findings tentatively suggest that the influence of rash impulsiveness on drinking may reflect dysfunction in dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal systems, whereas the influence of reward sensitivity on drinking may primarily reflect orbitofrontal dysfunction. Irrespective of the underlying functional brain systems involved, results appear to be more consistent with a pre-drinking trait interpretation than effects of alcohol exposure.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 29-04-2015
DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2014.911846
Abstract: Attentional Control Theory (ACT) predicts that trait anxiety and situation stress combine to reduce performance efficiency on tasks requiring rapid shifts in attention. Recent evidence has also suggested that working memory capacity (WMC) might moderate this relationship. We controlled for methodological difficulties in the existing literature to investigate the relationships between trait anxiety, situational stress, and WMC on attentional shifting. Seventy undergraduate students participated in the study. Trait anxiety was operationalized using questionnaire scores, situational stress was manipulated through a pressured counting task, and WMC was based on performance on the Automated Operation Span Task (AOSPAN). The shifting task involved a modified version of the Sternberg paradigm as the primary task and an oddball tone-discrimination task as the secondary task. Dependent variables were performance effectiveness (accuracy) and processing efficiency (accuracy ided by response time) on the secondary task. There was no effect of anxiety, stress, or WMC in predicting performance effectiveness however, a significant three-way interaction on processing efficiency was observed. At higher WMC, anxiety and situational stress were not associated with processing efficiency. Conversely, at lower WMC, higher trait anxiety was associated with poorer efficiency but only for those who reported higher situational stress for those who reported lower situational stress higher trait anxiety predicted facilitated efficiency. Results are interpreted with respect to ACT and directions for future research are discussed.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.ADDBEH.2013.07.002
Abstract: Indices of mood, mood regulation expectancies and everyday executive functioning were examined in adult current smokers and never-smokers of both genders in Australia (N = 97), where anti-smoking c aigns have dramatically reduced smoking prevalence and acceptability, and in China (N = 222), where smoking prevalence and public acceptance of smoking remain high. Dependent measures included the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), the Negative Mood Regulation (NMR) expectancies scale, the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) controlling for demographic and recruitment related variables revealed highly significant differences between current smokers and never-smokers in both countries such that smokers indicated worse moods and poorer functioning than never-smokers on all dependent measures. Chinese smokers scored significantly worse on all dependent measures than Australian smokers whereas Chinese and Australian never-smokers did not differ on any of the same measures. Although nicotine dependence level as measured by FTND was significantly higher in Chinese than Australian smokers and was significantly correlated with all other dependent measures, inclusion of FTND scores as another covariate in MANCOVA did not eliminate the highly significant differences between Chinese and Australian smokers. Results are interpreted in light of the relative ease of taking up and continuing smoking in China compared to Australia today.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 15-03-2014
DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2013.876522
Abstract: Indices of mood, mood regulation, and executive functioning were examined in 61 current smokers who have smoked daily for at least one year, 36 ex-smokers who had not smoked a cigarette for at least one year, and 86 never-smokers. All participants completed the following measures online: Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), the Negative Mood Regulation (NMR) scale, the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), the Fagerström Test for Cigarette Dependence (FTCD), and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) followed by Tukey post-hoc tests revealed significant differences (p < .01) such that current smokers indicated worse functioning than both ex-smokers and never-smokers on DASS, NMR, and FrSBe, as well as heavier drinking as measured by AUDIT. These differences remained significant even after controlling for AUDIT scores. Results most plausibly reflect a return to pre-smoking baseline brain function in long-term abstinent ex-smokers.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 13-06-2014
DOI: 10.1080/23279095.2013.850693
Abstract: The present study examined a widely used self-report index of trait impulsiveness in relation to performance on a well-known neuropsychological executive function test in 70 university undergraduate students (50 women, 20 men) aged 18 to 24 years old. Participants completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), after which they performed the Tower Test of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. Hierarchical linear regression showed that after controlling for gender, current alcohol consumption, age at onset of weekly alcohol use, and FrSBe scores, BIS-11 significantly predicted Tower Test Achievement scores, β = -.44, p < .01. The results indicate that self-reported impulsiveness is associated with poorer executive cognitive performance even in a s le likely to be characterized by relatively high general cognitive functioning (i.e., university students). The results also support the role of inhibition as a key aspect of executive task performance. Elevated scores on the BIS-11 and FrSBe are known to be linked to risky drinking in young adults as confirmed in this s le however, only BIS-11 predicted Tower Test performance.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2008
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-0006
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2199
DOI: 10.1016/J.BRAT.2009.11.003
Abstract: We investigated the effects of awareness on selective attention for masked and unmasked verbal threat material using a computerised version of the emotional Stroop. Participants were assigned to the high trait anxious (HTA) and low trait anxious (LTA) groups on the basis of questionnaire scores, and state anxiety was manipulated within participants through the threat of electric shock. To investigate the effects of awareness on responses to threat, the mode of exposure was blocked such that half the participants received masked trials before the unmasked trials, whereas the other half received the reverse order. The results revealed that there was no difference between the HTA and LTA groups in responses to threat for those who received the masked trials before the unmasked trials. However, when unmasked trials were presented before the masked trials HTA in iduals were significantly slower to respond to both masked and unmasked threat words compared to the LTA group, and these effects were not further modified by participants' state anxiety status. The results are discussed in terms of the automatic nature of threat processing in anxiety.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Date: 04-2018
DOI: 10.5406/AMERJPSYC.131.1.0041
Abstract: Both alcohol misuse and the externally oriented thinking (EOT) facet of alexithymia are associated with deficits in facial emotion recognition and emotional empathy. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether EOT mediates the association of drinking with these deficits, and to test the hypothesis that impaired facial emotion recognition mediates the relationship between EOT and low emotional empathy, in a nonclinical s le. The s le consisted of 161 men and women who completed an online survey that included the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). In addition to replicating associations between TAS-20 and other measures, EOT was found to mediate relationships between potential alcohol misuse (as indexed by AUDIT) and facial emotion recognition (as indexed by RMET) as well as emotional empathy (as indexed by the corresponding subscale of the IRI) after controlling for mood and demographic variables. The negative relationship between EOT and emotional empathy was mediated by impaired facial emotion recognition. Present findings point to a likely role of the EOT trait in the reported associations of alcohol misuse with both poor emotion recognition and low emotional empathy, and a mediating role of poor emotion recognition in the relationship of EOT to the latter.
Publisher: The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)
Date: 13-12-2017
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 28-07-2016
Publisher: Canadian Center of Science and Education
Date: 08-11-2014
DOI: 10.5539/IJPS.V6N4P41
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 08-2016
DOI: 10.1037/EMO0000138
Abstract: Attentional control theory (ACT) describes the mechanisms associated with the relationship between anxiety and cognitive performance. We investigated the relationship between cognitive trait anxiety, situational stress and mental effort on phonological performance using a simple (forward-) and complex (backward-) word span task. Ninety undergraduate students participated in the study. Predictor variables were cognitive trait anxiety, indexed using questionnaire scores situational stress, manipulated using ego threat instructions and perceived level of mental effort, measured using a visual analogue scale. Criterion variables (a) performance effectiveness (accuracy) and (b) processing efficiency (accuracy ided by response time) were analyzed in separate multiple moderated-regression analyses. The results revealed (a) no relationship between the predictors and performance effectiveness, and (b) a significant 3-way interaction on processing efficiency for both the simple and complex tasks, such that at higher effort, trait anxiety and situational stress did not predict processing efficiency, whereas at lower effort, higher trait anxiety was associated with lower efficiency at high situational stress, but not at low situational stress. Our results were in full support of the assumptions of ACT and implications for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-2019
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-2018
DOI: 10.1111/AP.12255
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2015
DOI: 10.1037/EMO0000051
Abstract: Attentional control theory (ACT) predicts that trait anxiety and situational stress interact to impair performance on tasks that involve attentional shifting. The theory suggests that anxious in iduals recruit additional effort to prevent shortfalls in performance effectiveness (accuracy), with deficits becoming evident in processing efficiency (the relationship between accuracy and time taken to perform the task). These assumptions, however, have not been systematically tested. The relationship between cognitive trait anxiety, situational stress, and mental effort in a shifting task (Wisconsin Card Sorting Task) was investigated in 90 participants. Cognitive trait anxiety was operationalized using questionnaire scores, situational stress was manipulated through ego threat instructions, and mental effort was measured using a visual analogue scale. Dependent variables were performance effectiveness (an inverse proportion of perseverative errors) and processing efficiency (an inverse proportion of perseverative errors ided by response time on perseverative error trials). The predictors were not associated with performance effectiveness however, we observed a significant 3-way interaction on processing efficiency. At higher mental effort (+1 SD), higher cognitive trait anxiety was associated with poorer efficiency independently of situational stress, whereas at lower effort (-1 SD), this relationship was highly significant and most pronounced for those in the high-stress condition. These results are important because they provide the first systematic test of the relationship between trait anxiety, situational stress, and mental effort on shifting performance. The data are also consistent with the notion that effort moderates the relationship between anxiety and shifting efficiency, but not effectiveness.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-03-2017
DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2016.1152232
Abstract: Few studies have focussed on the link between anxiety and inhibitory control in the absence of stimulus-driven external threat. This two-part experiment examined the interactions between (1) somatic trait anxiety, somatic situational stress (i.e. threat of electric shock), and effort, and (2) cognitive trait anxiety, cognitive situational stress (i.e. ego-threat instructions), and effort, on inhibitory processes using a Go-No-Go paradigm. Trait anxiety was operationalised using questionnaire scores and effort was operationalised using a visual analogue scale. Performance effectiveness was measured using the d' parameter from signal detection theory and processing efficiency was indexed by the ratio of d' to response time on correct trials. Results indicated that somatic trait anxiety and stress did not predict effectiveness or efficiency. Cognitive trait anxiety and stress were associated with both inhibitory effectiveness and efficiency deficits however, contrary to expectations these deficits were evident at higher rather than lower mental effort. Results suggest a distinction between how somatic and cognitive anxiety manifest on tasks involving inhibitory control.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Mark Edwards.