ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2464-0462
Current Organisation
University of Adelaide
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Psychology | Learning, Memory, Cognition And Language | Health, Clinical And Counselling Psychology | Personality, Abilities And Assessment
Mental health | Behavioural and cognitive sciences | Behaviour and health |
Publisher: Bioscientifica
Date: 10-2022
DOI: 10.1530/RAF-22-0028
Abstract: Endometriosis is a chronic condition that affects ~10% of women globally. Its symptoms include chronic pelvic pain, heavy periods and tiredness/fatigue, which have been associated with poorer quality of life and mental health. We aim to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pain and fatigue symptoms and their interactions with the impact on mental health in people with endometriosis. This global cross-sectional online survey study collected data from 4717 adults with self-reported surgical/radiological diagnosis of endometriosis between May and June 2020. The survey included questions on the current status and changes of endometriosis symptoms (pelvic pain, tiredness/fatigue, and bleeding patterns), mental health, pain catastrophising, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the respondents’ lives. Compared to 6 months earlier, Respondents reported a marked worsening of their endometriosis symptoms (endometriosis-associated pain (39.3% 95% CI: 37.7, 40.5), tiredness/fatigue (49.9% 95% CI: 48.4, 51.2) and bleeding patterns (39.6% 95% CI: 38.2, 41)) and mental health (38.6% 95% CI: 37.2, 39.9). Those with a pre-existing mental health diagnosis (38.8%) were more likely to report their symptoms worsening. Worsening of pain and tiredness/fatigue was significantly correlated with worsening of mental health ( P 0.001). The relationship between changes in mental health and (a) change in pain and (b) change in fatigue was found to be weakly mediated by pain catastrophising scores (pain: B = 0.071, lower limit of confidence interval (LLCI) = 0.060, upper limit of confidence interval (ULCI) = 0.082, tiredness/fatigue: B = 0.050, LLCI = 0.040, ULCI = 0.060). This study demonstrates that stressful experiences impact the physical and mental health of people with endometriosis. The findings highlight the need to consider psychological approaches in the holistic management of people with endometriosis. Endometriosis is a chronic condition in which tissue similar to that of the lining of the womb grows outside it. It affects around 10% of women globally, and the symptoms often include persistent pelvic pain, heavy periods and tiredness/fatigue. These symptoms are associated with impaired mental health and life quality. This study used an online questionnaire to assess the experiences of people with endometriosis during the first months of the pandemic. Results from 4717 adults revealed that pelvic pain, tiredness/fatigue and bleeding worsened in more than 39% of the participants. Poor mental health was also exacerbated and associated with worsening in tiredness/fatigue. Further analysis revealed that this relationship could be partially explained by ‘pain catastrophising’, which measures how participants think about their pain. Our results suggest that stressful experiences like the pandemic negatively impact the already burdened mental health of people with endometriosis, who could benefit from psychological interventions.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1002/BEM.20321
Abstract: The effect of acute exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF) generated by mobile phones on an auditory threshold task was investigated. 168 participants performed the task while exposed to RF EMF in one testing session (either global system for mobile communication (GSM) or unmodulated signals) while in a separate session participants were exposed to sham signals. Lateralization effects were tested by exposing participants either on the left side or on the right side of the head. No significant effect of exposure to RF EMF was detected, suggesting that acute exposure to RF EMFs does not affect performance in the order threshold task.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2018
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-1994
DOI: 10.3758/BF03206952
Abstract: The relation between distractor interference and negative priming from identical distractors was examined in two experiments. Subjects responded to a target letter, which was indicated by an adjacent bar marker, and attempted to ignore a distracting letter. On prime trials, distracting letters were either compatible or incompatible with the target, allowing for a measure of interference. On subsequent probe trials, previously ignored distractors were sometimes presented as targets, allowing for a measure of negative priming. Reducing the spatial separation between targets and distractors on the prime trial increased the magnitude of interference and negative priming, but these effects appeared to be independent of each other (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the prime target location was precued on some trials, but not on others. Precuing attenuated the magnitude of interference, but not that of negative priming effects. This pattern indicates that measures of negative priming and measures of distractor interference on the immediately preceding trial are independent. The results are discussed in terms of a selective inhibition model of selective attention.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-08-2020
DOI: 10.1007/S00426-018-1081-9
Abstract: Attentional bias to threat cues is most adaptive when the dangers they signal can readily be controlled by timely action. This study examined whether heightened trait anxiety is associated with impaired alignment between attentional bias to threat and variation in the controllability of danger, and whether this is moderated by executive functioning. Participants completed a task in which threat cues signalled money loss and an aversive noise burst (the danger). In 'high control' blocks, attending to the threat cue offered a high chance of avoiding this danger. In 'low control' blocks, attending to the threat cue offered little control over the danger. The task yielded measures of attentional monitoring for threat, and attentional orienting to threat. Results indicated all participants showed greater attentional orienting to threat cues in high control relative to low control blocks (indicative of proper alignment), however, high trait-anxious participants showed no difference in attentional monitoring for threat between block types, whereas low trait-anxious participants did. This effect was moderated by N-Back scores. These results suggest heightened trait anxiety may be associated with impaired alignment of attentional monitoring for threat cues, and that such alignment deficit may be attenuated by high executive functioning.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-1989
DOI: 10.1111/J.2044-8260.1989.TB00817.X
Abstract: A situationally specific measure of trait anxiety based on the Endler model was a better predictor of pre-operative state anxiety than the STAI trait anxiety scale in 54 patients undergoing colonoscopy. Lower self-reported pre-operative anxiety was found for (a) repressors, who report low trait anxiety and high defensiveness on the Marlowe-Crown scale, than for (b) truly low anxious patients, who report low trait anxiety and low defensiveness.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 29-04-2022
Abstract: When experimental tasks require intermittent switching between easy and hard trials, people exhibit switch cost asymmetry. This is a tendency to be slower to switch over from a hard task to an easier task than vice versa. Previously, Gustavson and colleagues (2007) found that people higher on trait-anxiety exhibit a stronger switch cost asymmetry. We replicated this task, which was emotionally neutral, in an online experiment with a larger number of participants (N=212 vs. original N = 91), and extended the findings to an affective version of the same task. We found evidence of switch cost asymmetry in both experiments, with only the emotionally neutral one showing a relation to trait anxiety as well as depression. As opposed to the original study, we found that people lower, not higher, on anxiety were driving the effect, by being slower to disengage from the hard trials regardless of whether they needed to switch tasks or not on the following trial. We interpret these results in the context of the effects of anxiety and depression on allostasis, with direct consequences on available energy levels for task performance.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-04-2015
DOI: 10.3758/S13423-015-0841-4
Abstract: Negative Priming (NP) is an influential paradigm in cognitive psychology that was originally developed to measure attentional selection. Yet, up to the mid-1990s, a large number of experimental reports questioned whether the NP effect is based on attentional inhibition and/or episodic retrieval processes. In this review, we summarize findings since the mid-1990s and discuss new and old theoretical approaches to Negative Priming. We conclude that more than one process contributes to NP and that future research should analyze the conditions under which a particular process contributes to NP. Moreover, we argue that the paradigm--although it does not measure a single cognitive process alone--is still a useful tool for understanding selection in cognition. In fact, it might be a virtue of the paradigm that several cognitive processes work here together as selection in nonexperimental contexts is surely a multidimensional process. From this perspective, research on NP is relevant for all research fields analyzing selection. We therefore close our review by discussing the implications of the new evidence on NP for theories of selective attention.
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 04-2008
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-1994
DOI: 10.1111/J.2044-8295.1994.TB02507.X
Abstract: Snowling (1980) reported that dyslexic children appear to have specific deficits in grapheme-phoneme conversion skills. Using a similar methodology, the present study compared the ability of dyslexic and control readers to make phoneme discriminations between the beginnings and ends of words. Recognition of word pairs as same or different were presented in four conditions: visual presentation-visual recognition (V-V), auditory-auditory (A-A), visual-auditory (V-A) and auditory-visual (A-V). It was found that dyslexic readers had particular difficulty with the mixed-mode conditions (V-A, A-V) which required grapheme-phoneme conversion. Furthermore, dyslexic readers were particularly error-prone in these conditions if words differed on their end-sound rather than their beginning sound.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 02-2009
DOI: 10.1037/A0014379
Abstract: Cognitive models of anxiety disorders and unipolar depression have postulated that selective information processing plays an important role in the development and maintenance of emotional psychopathology. Cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures have recently been developed to test this theoretical claim. The purpose of this special section is to introduce the central ideas underlying CBM and to bring together the research that exemplifies the theoretical and clinical potential of the CBM approach.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 17-10-2022
Abstract: Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a rise in common mental health problems compared to pre-pandemic levels, especially in young people. Understanding the factors that place young people at risk is critical to guide the response to increased mental health problems. Here we examine whether age-related differences in mental flexibility and frequency of use of emotion regulation strategies partially account for the higher levels of negative affectivity, reduced positive affectivity, and increased mental health problems reported by younger relative to older people during the pandemic.Method: Participants (N=2,367 89.95% female, 11-100 years) from Australia, UK, and USA were surveyed thrice at three-month intervals during the first year of the pandemic (May 2020–April 2021). Participants completed measures of frequency of use of emotion regulation strategies, mental flexibility, negative and positive affect, and mental health problems. Results: Younger age was associated with less positive (b =0.008, p& .001) and more negative (b=−0.015, p& .001) affect across the first year of the pandemic. Maladaptive emotion regulation partially accounted for age-related variance in negative affect (β=−0.013, p=.020) whereby younger age was associated with more frequent use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies which, in turn, was associated with more negative affect at our third assessment point. More frequent use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and in turn, changes in negative affect from our first to our third assessment, partially accounted for age-related variance in mental health problems (β=0.007, p=.023). Conclusion: Our findings add to the growing literature demonstrating the vulnerability of younger people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and suggest that emotion regulation may be a promising target for intervention. Reducing the use of maladaptive and increasing the use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies in younger people may lead to improvements in negative affect, and in turn, mental health.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 03-10-2022
Abstract: A large body of evidence suggests that processing of affective information is typically disrupted in anxiety. It has also been hypothesized that anxious in iduals are less able to evaluate contextual cues and to respond in an adaptive way to stress. In the present study, 25 participants (16 Female 9 Male) scoring high (scores of 45 or above) and 26 participants (13 Female 13 Male) scoring low (scores of 35 and below) on a standardized measure of trait-anxiety performed an emotion search task to investigate attentional biases when the task provides an explicit emotional context. An emotional context was set in each block by asking participants to look as quickly as possible at a face expressing a specific emotion, while eye movements were being recorded. On each trial two faces appeared, one of them expressing the target emotion and the other one expressing a distractor emotion. High trait-anxious participants showed slower response times (time to look at the instructed emotion), regardless of the affective context, compared to the control group. Additionally, we found slower responses to happy faces (positive context) in the anxious group in the presence of neutral and fearful distractors. Cognitive control may therefore be disrupted in anxiety, as anxious people take longer to process (search for) happy faces, presumably because attentional resources are drawn by neutral and fearful distractors. Those differences were not observed in a simple reaction times task, which suggests that attentional biases and not differential processing of low-level facial features, are responsible for those differences.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 17-09-2022
Abstract: Progress in psychopathy research has been h ered by ongoing contention about its fundamental cause. The Impaired Integration theory of psychopathy provides an attention-based account of information integration abnormalities. We set out to evaluate the suggested mechanism via an innovative application of the well-established illusory conjunction paradigm (Treisman & Gelade, 1980). Two hundred participants were recruited by utilising a psychopathic- trait-maximisation technique, s ling in iduals from an ex-prisoner and a population s le. We found no support for information integration deficits in psychopathic in iduals (BF10 = 0.156), and the absence of a relationship between psychopathic traits and illusory conjunctions remained when accounting for confounding variables. These findings question the mechanism proposed by the Impaired Integration theory and pave the way for future research to advance our understanding of psychopathic trait aetiology by assessing specific and falsifiable mechanisms thought to bring about the observed cognitive and behavioural deficits.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.JBTEP.2018.06.008
Abstract: Mechanisms of engagement and disengagement of attention to emotional information are thought to contribute to the onset and maintenance of anxiety and depression, a conclusion based largely on findings in analogue subclinical s les. However, we argue that traditionally defined analogue s les can be misleading. Firstly, research has challenged the adequacy of conventional measures of subclinical traits by illustrating that supposedly distinct scales are highly inter-correlated and do not therefore measure independent constructs. Secondly, recent research in clinical groups has revealed results opposite to those expected from the analogue literature, suggesting speeded, rather than impaired, disengagement from threat. We present analogue findings, from a s le of 70 healthy participants, allowing a purer distinction between the phenomenology of anxiety versus depression using the orthogonal traits of positive and negative affect to classify in iduals. Using emotional peripheral cueing we found that, at short cue durations, dysphoric in iduals' (those with low positive and high negative affect) attention to facial expressions was slowed by emotional compared to neutral invalid cues. Limitations included a small s le size and limited generalisability due to s ling from a student population. The data suggest that, in line with the previous subclinical literature, dysphoric in iduals are slow to disengage attention from emotional information at early stages of processing and are consistent with the possibility that patterns of orienting of attention might be qualitatively different in subclinical versus clinical populations.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-1993
DOI: 10.1016/0005-7967(93)90129-I
Abstract: Under certain circumstances, anxiety has been shown to be associated with a processing bias favouring threatening information. Much of the evidence has come from experiments utilising the modified Stroop colour-naming paradigm. However, the traditional Stroop stimuli does not allow for a good test of selective attention. The present study presented colour, neutral and threatening words in conditions where the distracting (word) and target (colour) information were presented: (i) together or (ii) separately. High trait-anxious Ss took longer to colour-name threatening words than neutral words, even when the threatening material was presented outside the focus of attention. There were no differential responses to threat and neutral words for low trait-anxious Ss. High trait-anxious Ss were also distracted by separate colour words, which produced no interference for the low-anxious Ss. These results suggest that high-trait anxiety may be associated with a general inability to maintain attentional focus, rather than by an automatic attentional bias towards threatening information.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.BRAT.2018.01.005
Abstract: Worry refers to the experience of uncontrollable negative thoughts. Cognitive models suggest that the combination of negative information processing biases along with diminished attentional control contribute to worry. In the current study we investigate whether promoting a) adaptive interpretation bias and b) efficient deployment of attentional control would influence the tendency to worry. Worry-prone in iduals (n = 60) received either active cognitive bias modification for interpretation bias (CBM-I) combined with sham working memory training (WMT), adaptive WMT combined with sham CBM-I, or sham WMT combined with sham CBM-I. Neither of the active training conditions reduced worry during a breathing focus task relative to the control condition. However, when considering inter-in idual differences in training-related improvements, we observed a relation between increases in positive interpretation bias and a decrease in negative intrusions. Moreover, increases in working memory performance were related to a reduction in reactivity of negative intrusions to a worry period. Our findings show that facilitating a more benign interpretation bias and improving working memory capacity can have beneficial effects in terms of worry, but also highlight that transfer related gains from existing training procedures can be dependent upon improvement levels on the training task.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-06-2011
DOI: 10.1002/BEM.20681
Abstract: Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) technology ("Airwave") has led to public concern because of its potential interference with electrical activity in the brain. The present study is the first to examine whether acute exposure to a TETRA base station signal has an impact on cognitive functioning and physiological responses. Participants were exposed to a 420 MHz TETRA signal at a power flux density of 10 mW/m(2) as well as sham (no signal) under double-blind conditions. Fifty-one people who reported a perceived sensitivity to electromagnetic fields as well as 132 controls participated in a double-blind provocation study. Forty-eight sensitive and 132 control participants completed all three sessions. Measures of short-term memory, working memory, and attention were administered while physiological responses (blood volume pulse, heart rate, skin conductance) were monitored. After applying exclusion criteria based on task performance for each aforementioned cognitive measure, data were analyzed for 36, 43, and 48 sensitive participants for these respective tasks and, likewise, 107,125, and 129 controls. We observed no differences in cognitive performance between sham and TETRA exposure in either group physiological response also did not differ between the exposure conditions. These findings are similar to previous double-blind studies with other mobile phone signals (900-2100 MHz), which could not establish any clear evidence that mobile phone signals affect health or cognitive function.
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 12-02-2008
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-01-2015
DOI: 10.1002/BEM.21892
Abstract: Data from two previous studies were aggregated to provide a statistically powerful test of whether exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produced by telecommunication base stations negatively affects well-being in in iduals who report idiopathic environmental illness with attribution to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) and control participants. A total of 102 IEI-EMF and 237 controls participated in open provocation trials and 88 IEI-EMF and 231 controls went on to complete double-blind trials in which they were exposed to EMFs from a base station emitting either a Global System for Mobile Communication and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System or a Terrestrial Trunked Radio Telecommunications System signal. Both experiments included a comparison sham condition. Visual analog and symptom scales measured subjective well-being. Results showed that IEI-EMF participants reported lower levels of well-being during real compared to sham exposure during open provocation, but not during double-blind trials. Additionally, participants reported lower levels of well-being during high compared to low load trials and this did not interact with radiofrequency-EMF exposure. These findings are consistent with a growing body of literature indicating there is no causal relationship between short-term exposure to EMFs and subjective well-being in members of the public whether or not they report perceived sensitivity to EMFs.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-2005
DOI: 10.3758/BF03193540
Abstract: Perceptual load theory (Lavie, 1995) states that participants cannot engage in focused attention when shown displays containing a low perceptual load, because attentional resources are not exhausted, whereas in high-load displays attention is always focused, because attentional resources are exhausted. An alternative "salience" hypothesis holds that the salience of distractors and not perceptual load per se determines selective attention. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the influence that target and distractor onsets and offsets have on selective processing in a standard interference task. Perceptual load theory predicts that, regardless of target or distractor presentation (onset or offset), interference from ignored distractors should occur in low-load displays only. In contrast, the salience hypothesis predicts that interference should occur when the distractor appears as an onset and would occur for distractor offsets only when the target was also an offset. Interference may even occur in highload displays if the distractor is more salient. The results supported the salience hypothesis.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-11-2019
DOI: 10.1186/S40359-019-0342-8
Abstract: Adolescence is a time of considerable social, cognitive, and physiological development. It reflects a period of heightened risk for the onset of mental health problems, as well as heightened opportunity for flourishing and resilience. The CogBIAS Longitudinal Study (CogBIAS-L-S) aims to investigate psychological development during adolescence. We present the cohort profile of the s le ( N = 504) across three waves of data collection, when participants were approximately 13, 14.5, and 16 years of age. Further, we present descriptive statistics for all of the psychological variables assessed including (a) the self-report mood measures, (b) the other self-report measures, and (c) the behavioural measures. Differential and normative stability were investigated for each variable, in order to assess (i) measurement reliability (internal consistency), (ii) the stability of in idual differences (intra-class correlations), and (iii) whether any adolescent-typical developmental changes occurred (multilevel growth curve models). Measurement reliability was good for the self-report measures ( .70), but lower for the behavioural measures (between .00 and .78). Differential stability was substantial, as in idual differences were largely maintained across waves. Although, stability was lower for the behavioural measures. Some adolescent-typical normative changes were observed, reflected by (i) worsening mood, (ii) increasing impulsivity, and (iii) improvements in executive functions. The stability of in idual differences was substantial across most variables, supporting classical test theory. Some normative changes were observed that reflected adolescent-typical development. Although, normative changes were relatively small compared to the stability of in idual differences. The development of stable psychological characteristics during this period highlights a potential intervention window in early adolescence.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2024
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2008
DOI: 10.1002/ACP.1425
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-09-2006
DOI: 10.1002/BEM.20279
Abstract: Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) syndrome is usually defined as a condition where an in idual experiences adverse health effects that he or she believes is due to exposure to objects that emit electromagnetic fields. The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire that would identify the key symptoms associated with EHS and determine how often these symptoms occur in the general population of the United Kingdom. In the pilot study, an EHS questionnaire was developed and tested. In Study 1 the EHS questionnaire was revised and sent to a randomly selected s le of 20,000 people. Principal components analysis of the symptoms resulted in eight subscales: neurovegetative, skin, auditory, headache, cardiorespiratory, cold related, locomotor, and allergy related symptoms. Study 2 established the validity of the questionnaire in that EHS in iduals showed a higher severity of symptoms on all subscales compared to the control group. The two key results of this study were the development of a scale that provides an index of the type and intensity of symptoms commonly experienced by people believing themselves to be EHS and a screening tool that researchers can use to pre-select the most sensitive in iduals to take part in their research.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2012
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 04-2012
DOI: 10.1037/A0025321
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2005
DOI: 10.3758/CABN.5.4.396
Abstract: The present study contributes to the ongoing debate over the extent to which attentive resources are required for emotion perception. Although fearful facial expressions are strong competitors for attention, we predict that the magnitude of this effect may be modulated by anxiety. To test this hypothesis, healthy volunteers who varied in their self-reported levels of trait and state anxiety underwent an attentional blink task. Both fearful and happy facial expressions were subject to a strong attentional blink effect for low-anxious in iduals. For those reporting high anxiety, a blink occurred for both fearful and happy facial expressions, but the magnitude of the attentional blink was significantly reduced for the fearful expressions. This supports the proposals that emotion perception is not fully automatic and that anxiety is related to a reduced ability to inhibit the processing of threat-related stimuli. Thus, in idual differences in self-reported anxiety are an important determinant of the attentional control of emotional processing.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 11-2007
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 05-2002
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-2003
DOI: 10.1080/13506280344000095
Abstract: We investigated whether a fearful expression enhances the effect of another's gaze in directing the attention of an observer. Participants viewed photographs of faces whose gaze was directed ahead, to the left or to the right. Target letters then appeared unpredictably to the left or right. As expected, targets in the location indicated by gaze were detected more rapidly. In nonanxious volunteers the effects of fearful gaze did not differ from neutral gaze, but fearful expression had a more powerful influence in a selected high anxious group. Attention is thus more likely to be guided by the direction of fearful than neutral gaze, but only in anxiety-prone in iduals.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-2001
Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists
Date: 15-08-2018
DOI: 10.1192/BJO.2018.47
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-1987
DOI: 10.1093/BJA/59.6.746
Abstract: In a randomized double-blind, parallel groups study, 40 patients undergoing surgical removal of impacted 3rd molar teeth received either midazolam 15 mg orally followed at 35 min by i.v. saline, or oral placebo followed at 35 min by i.v. diazepam 10 mg (Diazemuls). Rapid onset of sedation was seen after midazolam, while the pattern and duration of postoperative sedation, as measured by standard psychometric tests, indicated slower recovery after midazolam than after diazepam. Ratings by the surgeon indicated superior anxiolysis following midazolam and significantly more patients expressed a preference for oral midazolam sedation. Significant, comparable anterograde amnesia was seen with both treatments. No significant cardiovascular complications occurred with either treatment. The findings indicate that rapidly acting oral benzodiazepines such as midazolam provide safe, effect alternatives to i.v. diazepam for conscious sedation in outpatients undergoing minor surgical procedures.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2010
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2003
DOI: 10.1016/J.ACTPSY.2003.08.002
Abstract: The present research examines priming effects from a centrally presented single-prime word to which participants were instructed to either attend or ignore. The prime word was followed by a single central target word to which participants made a semantic categorization (animate vs. inanimate) task. The main variables manipulated across experiments were attentional instructions (attend vs. ignore the prime word), presentation duration of the prime word (20, 50, 80 or 100 ms), prime-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA 300 vs. 800 ms), and temporal presentation of instructions (before vs. after the prime word). The results showed (a) a consistent interaction between attentional instructions and repetition priming and (b) a qualitatively different ignored priming pattern as a function of prime duration: reduced positive priming (relative to the attend instruction) for prime exposures of 80 and 100 ms, and reliable negative priming for the shorter prime exposures of 20 and 50 ms. In addition (c), the differential priming pattern for attend and ignore trials was observed at a prime-target SOA of 800 ms (but not at a shorter 300-ms SOA) and only when instructions were presented before the prime word. Methodological and theoretical implications of the present findings for the extant negative priming literature are discussed.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2000
Abstract: The rapid detection of facial expressions of anger or threat has obvious adaptive value. In this study, we examined the efficiency of facial processing by means of a visual search task. Participants searched displays of schematic faces and were required to determine whether the faces displayed were all the same or whether one was different. Four main results were found: (1) When displays contained the same faces, people were slower in detecting the absence of a discrepant face when the faces displayed angry (or sad/angry) rather than happy expressions. (2) When displays contained a discrepant face people were faster in detecting this when the discrepant face displayed an angry rather than a happy expression. (3) Neither of these patterns for same and different displays was apparent when face displays were inverted, or when just the mouth was presented in isolation. (4) The search slopes for angry targets were significantly lower than for happy targets. These results suggest that detection of angry facial expressions is fast and efficient, although does not "pop-out" in the traditional sense.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 15-11-2021
Abstract: Belonging is a basic human need, with social isolation signaling a threat to biological fitness. Sensitivity to ostracism varies across in iduals and the lifespan, peaking in adolescence. Government-imposed restrictions upon social interactions during COVID-19 may therefore be particularly detrimental to young people and those most sensitive to ostracism. Participants (N = 2367 89.95% female, 11-100 years) from three countries with differing levels of government restrictions (Australia, UK, and USA) were surveyed trice at three-month intervals (May 2020 – April 2021). Young people, and those living under the tightest government restrictions, reported the worst mental health, with these inequalities in mental health remaining constant throughout the study period. Further dissection of these results revealed that young people high on social rejection sensitivity reported the most mental health problems at the final assessment. These findings help account for the greater impact of enforced social isolation on young people’s mental health, and open novel avenues for intervention.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2002
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 07-2015
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 08-12-2021
Abstract: In iduals vary in their ability to tolerate uncertainty. High intolerance of uncertainty is a known risk factor for mental health problems. In the current study we examined the degree to which intolerance of uncertainty predicted depression and anxiety symptoms and their interrelations across the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined these associations across three time points (May 2020 – April 2021) in an international s le of adults (N = 2087, Mean age = 41.13) from three countries (UK, USA, Australia) with varying degrees of COVID-19 risk. We found that in iduals with high and moderate levels of intolerance of uncertainty reported reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms over time. However, symptom levels remained significantly elevated compared to in iduals with low intolerance of uncertainty. In iduals with low intolerance of uncertainty had low and stable levels of depression and anxiety across the course of the study. Network analyses further revealed that the relationships between depression and anxiety symptoms became stronger over time among in iduals with high intolerance of uncertainty and identified that feeling afraid showed the strongest association with intolerance of uncertainty. Our findings are consistent with previous work identifying intolerance of uncertainty as an important risk factor for mental health problems, especially in times marked by actual health, economic and social uncertainty. The results highlight the need to explore ways to foster resilience among in iduals who struggle to tolerate uncertainty, as ongoing and future geopolitical, climate and health threats will likely lead to continued exposure to significant uncertainty.
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 06-01-2017
DOI: 10.1097/J.PAIN.0000000000000781
Abstract: Adult patients with chronic pain are consistently shown to interpret ambiguous health and bodily information in a pain-related and threatening way. This interpretation bias may play a role in the development and maintenance of pain and disability. However, no studies have yet investigated the role of interpretation bias in adolescent patients with pain, despite that pain often first becomes chronic in youth. We administered the Adolescent Interpretations of Bodily Threat (AIBT) task to adolescents with chronic pain (N = 66) and adolescents without chronic pain (N = 74). Adolescents were 10 to 18 years old and completed the study procedures either at the clinic (patient group) or at school (control group). We found that adolescents with chronic pain were less likely to endorse benign interpretations of ambiguous pain and bodily threat information than adolescents without chronic pain, particularly when reporting on the strength of belief in those interpretations being true. These differences between patients and controls were not evident for ambiguous social situations, and they could not be explained by differences in anxious or depressive symptoms. Furthermore, this interpretation pattern was associated with increased levels of disability among adolescent patients, even after controlling for severity of chronic pain and pain catastrophizing. The current findings extend our understanding of the role and nature of cognition in adolescent pain, and provide justification for using the AIBT task in longitudinal and training studies to further investigate causal associations between interpretation bias and chronic pain.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-1995
DOI: 10.3758/BF03210958
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-07-2016
DOI: 10.1038/MP.2016.114
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2009
DOI: 10.1002/BEM.20504
Abstract: In iduals who report sensitivity to electromagnetic fields often report cognitive impairments that they believe are due to exposure to mobile phone technology. Previous research in this area has revealed mixed results, however, with the majority of research only testing control in iduals. Two studies using control and self-reported sensitive participants found inconsistent effects of mobile phone base stations on cognitive functioning. The aim of the present study was to clarify whether short-term (50 min) exposure at 10 mW/m(2) to typical Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) base station signals affects attention, memory, and physiological endpoints in sensitive and control participants. Data from 44 sensitive and 44 matched-control participants who performed the digit symbol substitution task (DSST), digit span task (DS), and a mental arithmetic task (MA), while being exposed to GSM, UMTS, and sham signals under double-blind conditions were analyzed. Overall, cognitive functioning was not affected by short-term exposure to either GSM or UMTS signals in the current study. Nor did exposure affect the physiological measurements of blood volume pulse (BVP), heart rate (HR), and skin conductance (SC) that were taken while participants performed the cognitive tasks.
Publisher: Environmental Health Perspectives
Date: 11-2007
DOI: 10.1289/EHP.10286
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.JAD.2019.05.072
Abstract: Depressive recurrence is highly prevalent and adds significantly to the burden of depressive disorder. Whilst some clinical predictors of recurrence have been clearly demonstrated (e.g. residual symptoms, previous episodes), the cognitive and psychological processes that may contribute to recurrence risk are less well established. In this study we examine whether cognitive flexibility deficits and rumination are related to recurrence in a remitted clinical s le. We compared remitted patients with 2 or more previous depressive episodes (N = 69) to a matched group of healthy controls (N = 43). Cognitive flexibility was measured using the Internal Shift Task (IST) and a version of the Exogenous Cueing Task (ECT) rumination was assessed with the Ruminative Responses Scale. IST and ECT performance did not differ between remitted patients and controls. Remitted patients had higher levels of rumination than controls. Within the remitted patient group, faster disengagement from angry and happy faces on the ECT was predictive of shorter time to recurrence (hazard ratio for 1 standard deviation, (HR We had low power to detect small effects for the analysis within remitted patients. Whilst cognitive flexibility in remitted patients was not impaired relative to controls, rapid disengagement from emotional stimuli and rumination were independently associated with time to recurrence. Cognitive flexibility may be an important indicator of recurrence risk, and a target for interventions to reduce recurrence.
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2001
Publisher: Environmental Health Perspectives
Date: 06-2010
DOI: 10.1289/EHP.0901416
Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists
Date: 06-02-2020
DOI: 10.1192/BJO.2019.100
Abstract: UK Biobank is a well-characterised cohort of over 500 000 participants including genetics, environmental data and imaging. An online mental health questionnaire was designed for UK Biobank participants to expand its potential. Describe the development, implementation and results of this questionnaire. An expert working group designed the questionnaire, using established measures where possible, and consulting a patient group. Operational criteria were agreed for defining likely disorder and risk states, including lifetime depression, mania/hypomania, generalised anxiety disorder, unusual experiences and self-harm, and current post-traumatic stress and hazardous/harmful alcohol use. A total of 157 366 completed online questionnaires were available by August 2017. Participants were aged 45–82 (53% were ≥65 years) and 57% women. Comparison of self-reported diagnosed mental disorder with a contemporary study shows a similar prevalence, despite respondents being of higher average socioeconomic status. Lifetime depression was a common finding, with 24% (37 434) of participants meeting criteria and current hazardous/harmful alcohol use criteria were met by 21% (32 602), whereas other criteria were met by less than 8% of the participants. There was extensive comorbidity among the syndromes. Mental disorders were associated with a high neuroticism score, adverse life events and long-term illness addiction and bipolar affective disorder in particular were associated with measures of deprivation. The UK Biobank questionnaire represents a very large mental health survey in itself, and the results presented here show high face validity, although caution is needed because of selection bias. Built into UK Biobank, these data intersect with other health data to offer unparalleled potential for crosscutting biomedical research involving mental health.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2000
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2016
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 08-2006
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 27-12-2022
Abstract: Background: Little is understood about the development of cognitive biases, despite their influential role in psychopathology and wellbeing. The Cognitive Bias (CogBIAS) hypothesis proposes that cognitive biases develop as a function of environmental influences (which determine the valence of biases), and the genetic susceptibility to those influences (which determines the potency of biases). The current study employed adolescent data from the CogBIAS Longitudinal Study to examine the CogBIAS hypothesis, using a polygenic-by-environment approach. Methods: Measures of life experiences and polygenic scores for depression were used to examine the development of memory and interpretation biases in a three-wave s le of adolescents (12-16 years). Mixed effects modeling was used to examine whether (negative and positive) life experiences, polygenic scores, and their interaction predicted various forms of the memory and interpretation biases. Results: Positive life experiences were shown to, respectively, diminish and enhance the negative and positive forms of memory recall and interpretation biases. Against expectation, negative life experiences and depression polygenic scores were not significant predictors of any cognitive outcomes, upon adjusting for psychopathology. Nonetheless, the interaction between polygenic risk and positive life events predicted a stronger positive social interpretation bias. Conclusions: These results provide the first line of polygenic evidence to support the CogBIAS and vantage sensitivity hypotheses, by demonstrating that polygenic risk for depression could interact with positive environmental influences to produce positive psychological outcomes during adolescence.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-01-2020
DOI: 10.1002/ACP.3628
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2011
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.APPET.2018.09.007
Abstract: In our food-rich environment we must constantly resist appealing food in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Previous studies have found that food-specific inhibition training can produce changes in eating behaviour, such as a reduction in snack consumption. However, the mechanisms that drive the effect of inhibition training on eating behaviour remain unknown. Identifying the mechanism underlying food-specific inhibition training could lead to more targeted training interventions increasing the potential efficacy of such interventions. In the current study, we investigated directly whether training-induced effects on inhibitory control might underlie the predicted change in eating behaviour. Healthy in iduals who scored high on uncontrolled eating were randomly assigned to receive six online training sessions over six consecutive days of either food-specific response inhibition training (active group n = 21) or response inhibition training without food stimuli (control group n = 20). We measured pre- and post-training inhibitory control in the context of food and food cue sensitivity, as well as food consumption in a bogus taste test. As expected, food-specific inhibition training decreased snack consumption in the bogus taste test relative to control training. However, the active training did not improve inhibitory control towards food, nor did it reduce food cue sensitivity above and beyond the control training. Future studies are needed to investigate the potential underlying mechanism of food-specific inhibition training, as it remains unclear what drives the reliable effect on eating behaviour.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-1989
DOI: 10.1111/J.2044-8341.1989.TB02847.X
Abstract: Elevated state-anxiety prior to oral surgery is common and is associated with increased post-operative pain. This paper presents a psychological model of predicting elevated anxiety prior to dental surgery. Elevated anxiety and intraoperative stress can be predicted by measuring trait-anxiety. However, prediction may be improved by using a situationally specific measure of trait-anxiety, and by taking the patient's coping style into account. Thirty-nine patients undergoing wisdom-tooth extraction took part in the study. The Corah Dental Anxiety Scale was a better predictor of pre-operative anxiety than the STAI trait-anxiety scale. Coping style was measured by means of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale in conjunction with scores on trait-anxiety to define three coping style groups: sensitizers (high-anxious), truly low-anxious, and repressors who verbally deny anxiety. Two oral surgeons rated patient intra-operative state on 100 mm visual analogue scales. These ratings indicate that 'repressors' exhibit significantly more stress responses than the truly low-anxious group, in spite of similar (low) trait-anxiety scores. It is concluded that a situationally specific measure of trait-anxiety is the most appropriate predictor of differential state-anxiety elevations prior to oral surgery. Repressive coping style may be a confounding factor, in terms of predicting elevated anxiety, since some people verbally deny being anxious but express it behaviourally.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2001
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 26-06-2016
DOI: 10.5127/JEP.053415
Abstract: Resilience is considered to be the process by which in iduals demonstrate more positive outcomes than would be expected, given the nature of the adversity experienced. We propose that a cognitive approach has the potential to guide studies investigating the relationships between adversity, stress, and resilience. We outline a preliminary cognitive model of resilience in order to facilitate the application of cognitive approaches to the investigation of resilience in the face of adversity. We argue that the situationally appropriate application of flexibility or rigidity in affective-cognitive systems is a key element in promoting resilient responses. We propose that this mapping of cognitive processing can be conceptualised as being undertaken by an overarching mapping system, which serves to integrate information from a variety of sources, including the current situation, prior experience, as well as more conscious and goal-driven processes. We propose that a well-functioning mapping system is an integral part of the cognitive basis for resilience to adversity. Our preliminary model is intended to provide an initial theoretical framework to guide research on the development of cognitive functions that are considered to be important in the resilience process.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2010
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 2009
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 1996
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2017
Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists
Date: 19-04-2018
DOI: 10.1192/BJO.2018.19
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 08-2007
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-1995
DOI: 10.1080/14640749508401373
Abstract: Research on visual selective attention has shown that processing of distractors can produce (1) interference with response to a concurrent target, and (2) negative priming of response to a subsequent target. These results support late-selection accounts of attention. However, recent findings demonstrate that when conditions are optimal for attentional focusing, the interference effects are almost entirely eliminated. This result has been interpreted as supporting early-selection accounts. The present study investigates the impact of focusing attention on negative priming in addition to interference effects. In a letter-identification task, reliable interference and negative priming effects were observed from distractors. However, when the location of the target in the prime display was pre-cued, interference effects were significantly reduced, but negative priming effects did not decrease. This pattern of results provides further evidence that the absence of interference is insufficient to determine whether distractors have been semantically processed (Driver & Tipper, 1989).
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 16-07-2020
DOI: 10.1017/S0954579420000668
Abstract: Resilience is a dynamic process depicted by better than expected levels of functioning in response to significant adversity. This can be assessed statistically, by taking the residuals from a model of psychological functioning regressed onto negative life events. We report the first study to investigate multiple cognitive factors in relation to this depiction of resilient functioning. Life events, internalizing symptoms, and a range of cognitive risk and protective factors were assessed in a large s le of adolescents ( N = 504) across three waves spaced 12–18 months apart. Adolescents who displayed fewer symptoms than expected, relative to negative life events, were considered more resilient. Adolescents who displayed more symptoms than expected, relative to negative life events, were considered less resilient. All cognitive factors were associated with resilient functioning to differing degrees. These included memory bias, interpretation bias, worry, rumination, self-esteem, and self-reported trait resilience. Regression models showed that memory bias was a key factor explaining unique variance in prospective resilient functioning. In a subsequent cross-lagged panel model, memory bias and resilient functioning were reinforcing mechanisms across time points, supporting cognitive models of emotional resilience. This study adds to the literature, by highlighting key cognitive mechanisms as potential intervention targets
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.APPET.2021.105767
Abstract: Uncontrolled eating-in the general population-is characterized by overeating, hedonic hunger and being drawn towards palatable foods. Theoretically, it is the result of a strong food reward signal in relation to a poor ability to exert inhibitory control. How food consumption influences inhibitory control and food cue sensitivity, and how this relates to the continued urge to eat, remains unclear. We used fMRI in order to investigate the neural mechanism underlying food cue reactivity and food-specific response inhibition (go-nogo task), by comparing women reporting high (n = 21) versus low/average (n = 19) uncontrolled eating across two sessions: during an inter-meal state and after consumption of a high-caloric snack. We found no effects of in idual differences in uncontrolled eating, food consumption, nor their interaction on food cue reactivity. Differences in uncontrolled eating and food consumption did interact in modulating activity in an occipital-parietal network, extending from left lateral superior occipital cortex to visual cortex, cuneal cortex, and precuneus during response inhibition of non-food stimuli, areas previously associated with successful nogo-vs. go-trials. Yet, behavioural performance on the go-nogo task was not modulated by uncontrolled eating nor food consumption. Women with a low/average tendency for uncontrolled eating may need more cognitive resources to support successful response inhibition of non-food stimuli during food 'go' blocks in an inter-meal state, whereas women with a high tendency for uncontrolled eating showed this after food consumption. However, considering current and previous findings, it seems that in idual differences in uncontrolled eating in healthy women have only limited influence on food cue reactivity and food-related inhibitory control.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 05-2006
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 29-09-2017
DOI: 10.1097/J.PAIN.0000000000001084
Abstract: Attention bias for pain-related information is theorised to maintain chronic pain, indicating that changing this bias could improve pain-related outcomes. Modifying attention biases in adolescents, when chronic pain often first emerges, may be particularly beneficial. We report here a randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial of attention bias modification (ABM) training in adolescents with chronic noncancer pain. Adolescent patients (N = 66) were randomly assigned to complete multiple sessions of dot-probe ABM training (N = 23), placebo training (N = 22), or no training (waitlist N = 21) across a period of 4 weeks. Patients completed all assessments at a hospital-based pediatric pain clinic and completed all training at home. We examined the relative effects of ABM on attention bias and attention control, as well as pain symptomatology (primary outcome), pain catastrophizing, anxiety and depression symptoms, and functional disability (secondary outcomes) immediately after training and 3 months later. We found no evidence that ABM changed attention bias or attention control in comparison with placebo training or no training. We also found that pain and pain-related outcomes were no different for those undergoing ABM compared with placebo training or no training when tested immediately after training or 3 months later. Overall, we found no evidence to support the efficacy of dot-probe ABM for improving pain-related outcomes in adolescents with chronic pain. This study was registered on the NIHR Clinical Research Network Portfolio in August 2014 (UK Clinical Trials Gateway: CPMS 17251) and funded by a Research Training Fellowship awarded to Lauren Heathcote by Action Medical Research for Children.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-1987
DOI: 10.1007/BF00217072
Abstract: The significance of BRAF mutations, microsatelite instability (MSI) status and cyclin D1 expression in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) was evaluated. Primary tumours from 144 patients treated for mCRC were assessed for BRAF (V600E) mutation, MSI status and cyclin D1. The data were correlated with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). BRAF mutations were detected in 10 (out of 22, 45%) patients with MSI-H tumours compared with 2 (out of 122, 1.6%) in those with microsatellite stable tumours (P<0.001). The presence of BRAF mutations was correlated with cyclin D1 overexpression (7 out of 26 patients, 58% vs 5 out of 118 patients, 14% P=0.001). Patients with BRAF-mutated primary tumours had a significantly decreased PFS (2.7 vs 9.8 months P<0.001) and median OS (14 vs 30 months P<0.001) than patients with wild-type (wt) tumours. Patients with MSI-H and BRAF-mutated tumours experienced significantly lower PFS (3.1 vs 11.4 months P=0.008) and OS (14.5 vs 35.5 months P=0.004) than patients with MSI-H and BRAF wt tumours. Similarly, BRAF mutations and cyclin D1 overexpression were correlated with decreased PFS (3.1 vs 8.6 months P=0.03) and OS (17.8 vs 39.2 months P=0.01). BRAF V600E mutations are associated with MSI-H status and cyclin D1 overexpression and characterize a subgroup of patients with poor prognosis.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.BRAT.2017.10.011
Abstract: The process of worry has been associated with reductions in working memory capacity and availability of resources necessary for efficient attentional control. This, in turn, can lead to escalating worry. Recent investigations into working memory training have shown improvements in attentional control and cognitive performance in high trait-anxious in iduals and in iduals with sub-clinical depression. The current randomised controlled trial investigated the effects of 15 days of adaptive n-back working memory training, or an active control task, on working memory capacity, attentional control and worry in a s le of high worriers. Pre-training, post-training and one-month follow-up measures of working memory capacity were assessed using a Change Detection task, while a Flanker task was used to assess attentional control. A breathing focus task was used as a behavioural measure of worry in addition to a number of self-report assessments of worry and anxiety. Overall there was no difference between the active training and the active control condition with both groups demonstrating similar improvements in working memory capacity and worry, post-training and at follow-up. However, training-related improvements on the n-back task were associated with gains in working memory capacity and reductions in worry symptoms in the active training condition. These results highlight the need for further research investigating the role of in idual differences in working memory training.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 25-02-2009
Abstract: Humans differ in terms of biased attention for emotional stimuli and these biases can confer differential resilience and vulnerability to emotional disorders. Selective processing of positive emotional information, for ex le, is associated with enhanced sociability and well-being while a bias for negative material is associated with neuroticism and anxiety. A tendency to selectively avoid negative material might also be associated with mental health and well-being. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying these cognitive phenotypes are currently unknown. Here we show for the first time that allelic variation in the promotor region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) is associated with differential biases for positive and negative affective pictures. In iduals homozygous for the long allele (LL) showed a marked bias to selectively process positive affective material alongside selective avoidance of negative affective material. This potentially protective pattern was absent among in iduals carrying the short allele (S or SL). Thus, allelic variation on a common genetic polymorphism was associated with the tendency to selectively process positive or negative information. The current study is important in demonstrating a genotype-related alteration in a well-established processing bias, which is a known risk factor in determining both resilience and vulnerability to emotional disorders.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 1991
DOI: 10.3109/08860229109022144
Abstract: The assessment of health status and quality of life among chronically ill patients is an area of current scientific interest. This paper considers the utility of a short but comprehensive instrument to assess the quality of life for end-stage renal failure patients. the Spitzer QL-Index was completed by 8 nurses for all patients in the Wellington region currently being treated with home hemodialysis (n = 58) hospital hemodialysis (n = 13) and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (n = 37). Results indicated that home hemodialysis patients achieve the highest quality of life in comparison to the other two treatment modalities. It is concluded that the QL-Index has some discriminative validity for this patient population, and its use may contribute to informed decision making by both patients and doctors.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2005
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2019
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2000
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2014
DOI: 10.1037/A0034226
Abstract: The Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) paradigm was devised to test predictions that cognitive biases have a causal influence on emotional status. Increasingly, however, researchers are testing the potential clinical applications of CBM. Although generally successful in reducing emotional vulnerability in clinical populations, the impact of CBM interventions has been somewhat variable. The aim of the current experiment was to investigate whether social comparison processing might be an important moderator of CBM. Healthy participants were presented with 80 valenced scenarios devised to induce a positive or negative interpretative bias. Critically, participants answered a series of questions designed to establish whether they assimilated or contrasted themselves with the valenced descriptions. The induction of an interpretation bias that was congruent with the valence of the training scenarios was successful only for participants who tended to assimilate the valenced scenarios, and not for those participants who tended to evaluate themselves against the scenarios. Furthermore, the predicted influence of CBM on emotional outcomes occurred only for those who had an assimilative rather than evaluative orientation toward CBM training material. Of key importance, results indicated that "evaluators" showed increased emotional vulnerability following positive CBM training. This result has both theoretical and clinical implications in suggesting that the success of CBM is dependent upon the way in which participants socially compare themselves with CBM training material.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 05-11-2021
Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists
Date: 03-04-2018
DOI: 10.1192/BJO.2018.12
Abstract: UK Biobank is a well-characterised cohort of over 500 000 participants that offers unique opportunities to investigate multiple diseases and risk factors. An online mental health questionnaire completed by UK Biobank participants was expected to expand the potential for research into mental disorders. An expert working group designed the questionnaire, using established measures where possible, and consulting with a patient group regarding acceptability. Case definitions were defined using operational criteria for lifetime depression, mania, anxiety disorder, psychotic-like experiences and self-harm, as well as current post-traumatic stress and alcohol use disorders. 157 366 completed online questionnaires were available by August 2017. Comparison of self-reported diagnosed mental disorder with a contemporary study shows a similar prevalence, despite respondents being of higher average socioeconomic status than the general population across a range of indicators. Thirty-five per cent (55 750) of participants had at least one defined syndrome, of which lifetime depression was the most common at 24% (37 434). There was extensive comorbidity among the syndromes. Mental disorders were associated with high neuroticism score, adverse life events and long-term illness addiction and bipolar affective disorder in particular were associated with measures of deprivation. The questionnaire represents a very large mental health survey in itself, and the results presented here show high face validity, although caution is needed owing to selection bias. Built into UK Biobank, these data intersect with other health data to offer unparalleled potential for crosscutting biomedical research involving mental health. G.B. received grants from the National Institute for Health Research during the study and support from Illumina Ltd. and the European Commission outside the submitted work. B.C. received grants from the Scottish Executive Chief Scientist Office and from The Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation during the study. C.S. received grants from the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust during the study, and is the Chief Scientist for UK Biobank. M.H. received grants from the Innovative Medicines Initiative via the RADAR-CNS programme and personal fees as an expert witness outside the submitted work.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 1993
DOI: 10.3109/08860229309046154
Abstract: The Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) and the Wechsler Memory Scale--Revised (WMS-R) were administered to a small s le of end-stage renal failure patients. The memory test successfully discriminated between patients who were rated by their nurses to be well adjusted or poorly adjusted to dialysis treatment. It is concluded that this instrument may be useful in investigating cognitive function in this patient population.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 06-07-2018
Abstract: Background: Considerable effort and funding have been spent on developing Attention Bias Modification (ABM) as a treatment for anxiety disorders, theorized to exert therapeutic effects through reduction of a tendency to orient attention towards threat. However, meta-analytical evidence that clinical anxiety is characterized by threat-related attention bias is thin. The largest meta-analysis to date included dot-probe data for n=337 clinically anxious in iduals. Baseline measures of biased attention obtained in ABM RCTs form an additional body of data that has not previously been meta-analyzed. Method: This paper presents a meta-analysis of threat-related dot-probe bias measured at baseline for 1005 clinically anxious in iduals enrolled in 13 ABM RCTs.Results: Random-effects meta-analysis indicated no evidence that the mean bias index (BI) differed from zero (k= 13, n= 1005, mean BI = 1.8 ms, SE = 1.26 ms, p = .144, 95% CI [-0.6 - 4.3]. Additional Bayes factor analyses also supported the point-zero hypothesis (BF10 = .23), whereas interval-based analysis indicated that mean bias in clinical anxiety is unlikely to extend beyond the 0 to 5 ms interval. Discussion: Findings are discussed with respect to strengths (relatively large s les, possible bypassing of publication bias), limitations (lack of control comparison, repurposing data, specificity to dot-probe data), and theoretical and practical context. We suggest that it should no longer be assumed that clinically anxious in iduals are characterized by selective attention towards threat. Conclusion: Clinically anxious in iduals enrolled in RCTs for Attention Bias Modification are not characterized by threat-related attention bias at baseline.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-03-2014
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-1994
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-01-2020
DOI: 10.1007/S10567-020-00311-7
Abstract: Worry is common in children and adolescents, yet some youth experience excessive worries that persist over time and cause significant distress. Whilst the literature on worry and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) in adults is well established, relatively less is known about the cognitive mechanisms underlying child and adolescent worry. An influential cognitive model of adult pathological worry (Hirsch and Matthews in Behav Res Therapy 50:636–646, 10.1016/j.brat.2012.06.007 , 2012) proposes that negative information-processing biases, reduced executive functions, and verbal worry are critical in the aetiology of GAD in adults. The current systematic review investigated whether this cognitive model of worry could be extended to understand child and adolescent worry. Following a systematic search of the literature and screening for eligibility, 30 studies were identified. Evidence indicates that negative information-processing biases and reduced executive functions play an important role in worry and GAD in children and adolescents. However, evidence that children and adolescents experience verbal worry is inconclusive. Building upon Hirsch and Matthews' cognitive model (Behav Res Therapy 50:636–646, 10.1016/j.brat.2012.06.007 , 2012), we propose a model of child and adolescent worry to provide a guiding framework for future research. We conclude that cognitive models of worry should incorporate a developmental framework in order to provide greater insight into the mechanisms uniquely associated with worry in children and adolescents and help to identify the cognitive processes to target for early interventions and treatments.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 22-11-2016
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 07-07-2022
DOI: 10.1017/S0954579422000396
Abstract: Belonging is a basic human need, with social isolation signaling a threat to biological fitness. Sensitivity to ostracism varies across in iduals and the lifespan, peaking in adolescence. Government-imposed restrictions upon social interactions during COVID-19 may therefore be particularly detrimental to young people and those most sensitive to ostracism. Participants ( N = 2367 89.95% female, 11–100 years) from three countries with differing levels of government restrictions (Australia, UK, and USA) were surveyed thrice at three-month intervals (May 2020 – April 2021). Young people, and those living under the tightest government restrictions, reported the worst mental health, with these inequalities in mental health remaining constant throughout the study period. Further dissection of these results revealed that young people high on social rejection sensitivity reported the most mental health problems at the final assessment. These findings help account for the greater impact of enforced social isolation on young people’s mental health, and open novel avenues for intervention.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-07-2016
DOI: 10.1002/EJP.920
Abstract: Pain is common and can be debilitating in childhood. Theoretical models propose that attention to pain plays a key role in pain outcomes, however, very little research has investigated this in youth. This study examined how anxiety-related variables and attention control interacted to predict children's attention to pain cues using eye-tracking methodology, and their pain tolerance on the cold pressor test (CPT). Children aged 8-17 years had their eye-gaze tracked whilst they viewed photographs of other children displaying painful facial expressions during the CPT, before completing the CPT themselves. Children also completed self-report measures of anxiety and attention control. Findings indicated that anxiety and attention control did not impact children's initial fixations on pain or neutral faces, but did impact how long they dwelled on pain versus neutral faces. For children reporting low levels of attention control, higher anxiety was associated with less dwell time on pain faces as opposed to neutral faces, and the opposite pattern was observed for children with high attention control. Anxiety and attention control also interacted to predict pain outcomes. For children with low attention control, increasing anxiety was associated with anticipating more pain and tolerating pain for less time. This is the first study to examine children's attention to pain cues using eye-tracking technology in the context of a salient painful experience. Data suggest that attention control is an important moderator of anxiety on multiple outcomes relevant to young people's pain experiences. This study uses eye tracking to study attention to pain cues in children. Attention control is an important moderator of anxiety on attention bias to pain and tolerance of cold pressor pain in youth.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-08-2021
DOI: 10.1186/S40337-021-00444-2
Abstract: Recent years have witnessed an increasing prevalence of binge eating tendencies in adolescence—warranting a clearer understanding of their underlying predisposing and precipitating factors. The current study investigated whether the interaction between high levels of anxiety and stress predicted increased levels of binge eating tendencies in a prospective cohort of adolescents ( N = 324). Measurements were taken over three waves ( M ages: 13.33, 14.48, 15.65) as part of the CogBIAS Longitudinal Study. Longitudinal associations between levels of anxiety and stress with binge eating tendencies were estimated using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), which calculates within-person fluctuations over time while accounting for in idual trait-like stability and between-person variations. Binge eating tendencies were measured by the Cognitive Restraint, Uncontrolled Eating, and Emotional Eating styles from the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18. Two models were created for each binge eating tendencies variable: (1) a basic model with anxiety and stress as independent variables (2) an interaction model with an additional anxiety*stress interaction term. Model fit was assessed by SEM fit indices: X 2 , CFI, NFI, TLI, RMSEA, SRMR. Superior model fit was ascertained by a chi-square difference test ( p .05). For Cognitive Restraint, the interaction model demonstrated superior fit to the data ( p .05). The anxiety*stress interaction at Waves 1 and 2 was significantly negatively associated with Cognitive Restraint at Waves 2 ( β = −0.18, p = .002) and 3 ( β = −0.14, p = .002)—suggesting that anxiety and stress interacted to predict increased binge eating tendencies linked with cognitive restraint over and above their independent effects. In contrast, the interaction term between anxiety*stress did not predict levels of Uncontrolled Eating or Emotional Eating over time. The results highlight the importance of increasing awareness of the interaction between concurrently high anxiety and stress as a potential risk factor for binge eating tendencies in young people. Not applicable.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 03-2017
DOI: 10.1037/CCP0000165
Abstract: [Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 85(3) of We investigated 2 new CBM methodologies using biologically plausible synaptic learning mechanisms-continuous transformation learning and trace learning-which guide learning by exploiting either the spatial or temporal continuity between visual stimuli presented during training. We first describe simulations with a simplified 1-layer neural network, and then we describe simulations in a biologically detailed multilayer neural network model of the ventral visual pathway. After training with either the continuous transformation learning rule or the trace learning rule, the 1-layer neural network eliminated biases in interpreting neutral stimuli as sad. The multilayer neural network trained with realistic face stimuli was also shown to be able to use continuous transformation learning or trace learning to reduce biases in the interpretation of neutral stimuli. The simulation results suggest 2 biologically plausible synaptic learning mechanisms, continuous transformation learning and trace learning, that may subserve CBM. The results are highly informative for the development of experimental protocols to produce optimal CBM training methodologies with human participants. (PsycINFO Database Record
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-2012
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-1998
DOI: 10.3758/BF03211935
Abstract: The present study demonstrates that incongruent distractor letters at a constant distance from a target letter produce more response competition and negative priming when they share a target's color than when they have a different color. Moreover, perceptual grouping by means of color, attenuated the effects of spatial proximity. For ex le, when all items were presented in the same color, near distractors produced more response competition and negative priming than far distractors (Experiment 3A). However, when near distractors were presented in a different color and far distractors were presented in the same color as the target, the response competition x distractor proximity interaction was eliminated and the proximity x negative priming interaction was reversed (Experiment 3B). A final experiment demonstrated that distractors appearing on the same object as a selected target produced comparable amounts of response competition and negative priming whether they were near or far from the target. This suggests that the inhibitory mechanisms of visual attention can be directed to perceptual groups/objects in the environment and not only to unsegmented regions of visual space.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 22-04-2021
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 09-2015
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 19-05-2023
Abstract: IntroductionEmotion regulation is central to mental wellbeing and depends on good affective control. Training affective control has been shown to improve emotion regulation and have downstream benefits on mental health in adolescents. However, uptake and adherence to affective control training in adolescents has been low. In this study, we will explore the potential of a novel gamified affective control training program (G-AffeCT), the Social Brain Train app, to increase training adherence compared to a standard affective control training (AffeCT) program in adolescents.Methods and AnalysisIn total, 144 adolescents aged 13-16 years will train for 12 days on either the G-AffeCT or AffeCT. The G-AffeCT comprises an affective control training component: the dual n-back task. Together with typical gamification (incl. badges and points) a second cognitive interpretation bias modification (CBM-I) component was introduced as social puzzles to make the training more game-like. These puzzles include ambiguous social scenarios that participants must learn to resolve positively. The AffeCT includes only the dual n-back task. The two training groups will be compared on time spent training as well as gains in affective control, interpretation bias, emotion regulation, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Ethics and DisseminationThis study has been approved by the University of New South Wales Human Research Ethics Committee (HC230164). If the G-AffeCT successfully increases training uptake and adherence and improves affective control and emotion regulation in adolescents as predicted, future definitive trials should investigate its utility to prevent and reduce adolescent mental health problems.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2005
Publisher: Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
Date: 24-03-2022
DOI: 10.5334/JOPD.56
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 05-04-2018
Abstract: Psychological science relies on behavioural measures to assess cognitive processing however, the field has not yet developed a tradition of routinely examining the reliability of these behavioural measures. Reliable measures are essential to draw robust inferences from statistical analyses, while subpar reliability has severe implications for the measures’ validity and interpretation. Without examining and reporting the reliability of cognitive behavioural measurements, it is near impossible to ascertain whether results are robust or have arisen largely from measurement error. In this paper we propose that researchers adopt a standard practice of estimating and reporting the reliability of behavioural assessments. We illustrate this proposal using an ex le from experimental psychopathology, the dot-probe task although we argue that reporting reliability is relevant across fields (e.g. social cognition and cognitive psychology). We explore several implications of low measurement reliability, and the detrimental impact that failure to assess measurement reliability has on interpretability and comparison of results and therefore research quality. We argue that the field needs to a) report measurement reliability as routine practice so that we can b) develop more reliable assessment tools. To provide some guidance on estimating and reporting reliability, we describe bootstrapped split half estimation and IntraClass Correlation Coefficient procedures to estimate internal consistency and test-retest reliability, respectively. For future researchers to build upon current results it is imperative that all researchers provide sufficient psychometric information to estimate the accuracy of inferences and inform further development of cognitive behavioural assessments.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 28-08-2018
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2000
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 05-08-2019
DOI: 10.1101/19001214
Abstract: This paper corrects and updates a paper published in BJPsych Open 2018 “Mental Health in UK Biobank” ( 0.1192/bjo.2018.12 ) that was voluntarily retracted following the finding of errors in the coding of the variable for alcohol use disorder. Notably, the percentage of participants reaching threshold for alcohol use disorder on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Tool increased from 7% to 21%. UK Biobank is a well-characterised cohort of over 500,000 participants that offers unique opportunities to investigate multiple diseases and risk factors. An online mental health questionnaire completed by UK Biobank participants expands the potential for research into mental disorders. An expert working group designed the questionnaire, using established measures where possible, and consulting with a service user group regarding acceptability. Operational criteria were agreed for defining likely disorder and risk states, including lifetime depression, mania/hypomania, generalised anxiety disorder, unusual experiences and self-harm, and current post-traumatic stress and alcohol use disorders. 157,366 completed online questionnaires were available by August 2017. Comparison of self-reported diagnosed mental disorder with a contemporary study shows a similar prevalence, despite respondents being of higher average socioeconomic status. Lifetime depression was the most common finding in 24% of participants (37,434), with current alcohol use disorder criteria met by 21% (32,602), while other criteria were met by less than 8% of the participants. There was extensive comorbidity among the syndromes. Mental disorders were associated with a high neuroticism score, adverse life events and long-term illness addiction and bipolar affective disorder in particular were associated with measures of deprivation. The questionnaire represents a very large mental health survey in itself, and the results presented here show high face validity, although caution is needed due to selection bias. Built into UK Biobank, these data intersect with other health data to offer unparalleled potential for crosscutting biomedical research involving mental health.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2018
Abstract: Emotions are at the heart of how we understand the human mind and of our relationships within the social world. Yet, there is still no scientific consensus on the fundamental nature of emotion. A central quest within the discipline of affective science is to develop an in-depth understanding of emotions, moods, and feelings and how they are embodied within the brain (affective neuroscience). This article provides a brief overview of the scientific study of emotion with a particular emphasis on psychological and neuroscientific perspectives. Following a selective snapshot of past and present research in this field, some current challenges and controversies in affective science are highlighted.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUBIOREV.2019.01.009
Abstract: Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a common, heritable and evolutionarily conserved trait describing inter-in idual differences in sensitivity to both negative and positive environments. Despite societal interest in SPS, scientific knowledge is lagging behind. Here, we critically discuss how SPS relates to other theories, how to measure SPS, whether SPS is a continuous vs categorical trait, its relation to other temperament and personality traits, the underlying aetiology and neurobiological mechanisms, and relations to both typical and atypical development, including mental and sensory disorders. Drawing on the erse expertise of the authors, we set an agenda for future research to stimulate the field. We conclude that SPS increases risk for stress-related problems in response to negative environments, but also provides greater benefit from positive and supportive experiences. The field requires more reliable and objective assessment of SPS, and deeper understanding of its mechanisms to differentiate it from other traits. Future research needs to target prevention of adverse effects associated with SPS, and exploitation of its positive potential to improve well-being and mental health.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-03-2006
DOI: 10.1002/BEM.20193
Abstract: Recent studies have indicated that acute exposure to low level radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields generated by mobile phones affects human cognition. However, the relatively small s les used, in addition to methodological problems, make the outcomes of these studies difficult to interpret. In our study we tested a large s le of volunteers (168) using a series of cognitive tasks apparently sensitive to RF exposure (a simple reaction task, a vigilance task, and a subtraction task). Participants performed those tasks twice, in two different sessions. In one session they were exposed to RFs, with half of subjects exposed to GSM signals and the other half exposed to CW signals, while in the other session they were exposed to sham signals. No significant effects of RF exposure on performance for either GSM or CW were found, independent of whether the phone was positioned on the left or on the right side.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-05-2021
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2000
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2002
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-09-2020
DOI: 10.1007/S10802-020-00694-9
Abstract: The development of negative cognitive biases, together with symptoms of anxiety and depression, has yet to be investigated longitudinally. Using a three-wave design, the present study examined developmental trajectories of anxiety and depressive symptoms and the co-occurrence of cognitive biases, in a large normative s le of adolescents ( N = 504). Data was drawn from the CogBIAS Longitudinal Study (CogBIAS-L-S), which assessed a wide range of psychological variables, including cognitive biases and self-reported anxiety and depressive symptoms, when adolescents were approximately 13, 14.5, and 16 years of age. The results showed that overall levels of anxiety were low and stable, while levels of depression were low but increased slightly at each wave. Growth mixture modeling identified four distinct developmental classes with regard to anxiety and depressive symptoms. Multiple group analysis further showed that class membership was related to the development of cognitive biases. The majority of the s le (75%) was characterised by ‘Low symptoms’ of anxiety and depression and showed low interpretation and memory biases for negative stimuli at each wave. A second class (11%) displayed ‘Decreasing anxiety symptoms’ and showed decreasing interpretation bias, but increasing memory bias. A third class (8%) displayed ‘Comorbid increasing symptoms’ and showed increasing interpretation and memory biases. While the fourth class (6%) displayed ‘Comorbid decreasing symptoms’ and showed decreasing interpretation and memory biases. This longitudinal study sheds light on healthy and psychopathological emotional development in adolescence and highlights cognitive mechanisms that may be useful targets for prevention and early interventions.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-1999
Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists
Date: 17-06-2019
DOI: 10.1192/BJO.2019.46
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-2013
DOI: 10.3758/BF03334094
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 08-2019
DOI: 10.1037/ABN0000406
Abstract: Considerable effort and funding have been spent on developing Attention Bias Modification (ABM) as a treatment for anxiety disorders, theorized to exert therapeutic effects through reduction of a tendency to orient attention toward threat. However, meta-analytical evidence that clinical anxiety is characterized by threat-related attention bias is thin. The largest meta-analysis to date included dot-probe data for n = 337 clinically anxious in iduals. Baseline measures of biased attention obtained in ABM RCTs form an additional body of data that has not previously been meta-analyzed. This article presents a meta-analysis of threat-related dot-probe bias measured at baseline for 1,005 clinically anxious in iduals enrolled in 13 ABM RCTs. Random-effects meta-analysis indicated no evidence that the mean bias index (BI) differed from zero (k = 13, n = 1005, mean BI = 1.8 ms, SE = 1.26 ms, p = .144, 95% confidence interval [-0.6, 4.3]. Additional Bayes factor analyses also supported the point-zero hypothesis (BF10 = .23), whereas interval-based analysis indicated that mean bias in clinical anxiety is unlikely to extend beyond the 0 to 5 ms interval. Findings are discussed with respect to strengths (relatively large s les, possible bypassing of publication bias), limitations (lack of control comparison, repurposing data, specificity to dot-probe data), and theoretical and practical context. We suggest that it should no longer be assumed that clinically anxious in iduals are characterized by selective attention toward threat. Clinically anxious in iduals enrolled in RCTs for Attention Bias Modification are not characterized by threat-related attention bias at baseline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.JPAIN.2016.05.009
Abstract: Negative interpretation bias, the tendency to appraise ambiguous situations in a negative or threatening way, has been suggested to be important for the development of adult chronic pain. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the role of a negative interpretation bias in adolescent pain. We first developed and piloted a novel task that measures the tendency for adolescents to interpret ambiguous situations as indicative of pain and bodily threat. Using this task in a separate community s le of adolescents (N = 115), we then found that adolescents who catastrophize about pain, as well as those who reported more pain issues in the preceding 3 months, were more likely to endorse negative interpretations, and less likely to endorse benign interpretations, of ambiguous situations. This interpretation pattern was not, however, specific for situations regarding pain and bodily threat, but generalized across social situations as well. We also found that a negative interpretation bias, specifically in ambiguous situations that could indicate pain and bodily threat, mediated the association between pain catastrophizing and recent pain experiences. Findings may support one potential cognitive mechanism explaining why adolescents who catastrophize about pain often report more pain. This article presents a new adolescent measure of interpretation bias. We found that the tendency to interpret ambiguous situations as indicative of pain and bodily threat may be one potential cognitive mechanism explaining why adolescents who catastrophize about pain report more pain, thus indicating a potential novel intervention target.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 02-2009
DOI: 10.1037/A0014878
Abstract: This commentary reviews key theoretical, methodological, and clinical issues raised by recent research on cognitive bias modification (CBM). The authors identify the major ways in which the new work reported within this special section extends earlier CBM research. In particular, they note that it considers a wider range of participants, includes a greater ersity of symptoms measures, and targets for change a broader array of processing biases than previously has been the case. Furthermore, they point out that the present work develops and employs a more erse arsenal of bias modification procedures, in some cases delivered across extended periods of time within naturalistic settings. They also draw attention to methodological limitations associated with the current studies, offering recommendations concerning how future CBM research might profitably build upon these exciting new directions while overcoming such limitations. Finally, they evaluate the theoretical and applied implications of the reported findings, discussing their capacity to illuminate the causal contributions made by cognitive bias to emotional vulnerability and their promise concerning the potential therapeutic value of CBM as a clinical tool.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 07-2015
Abstract: Adaptive behavior relies on the ability to effectively and efficiently ignore irrelevant information, an important component of attentional control. The current research found that fundamental difficulties in ignoring irrelevant material are related to dispositional differences in trait propensity to worry, suggesting a core deficit in attentional control in high worriers. The degree of deficit in attentional control correlated with the degree of difficulty in suppressing negative thought intrusions in a worry assessment task. A cognitive training procedure utilizing a flanker task was used in an attempt to improve attentional control. Although the cognitive training was largely ineffective, improvements in attentional control were associated with improvements in the ability to suppress worry-related thought intrusions. Across two studies, the findings indicate that the inability to control worry-related negative thought intrusions is associated with a general deficiency in attentional control.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2009
DOI: 10.1016/J.JBTEP.2009.07.006
Abstract: This experiment compares the effects of visual vs. auditory presentation of cognitive bias modification (CBM) training scenarios upon interpretation style and emotional vulnerability. For both modalities, negative, but not positive interpretation biases were successfully induced relative to a baseline. Mood declined for the auditory but not the visual group throughout the CBM procedure, irrespective of the valence of the CBM condition. This deterioration in mood raises an important methodological issue and indicates that the increased testing time brought about by auditory compared to visual presentation needs to be addressed. The CBM procedures did not influence emotional vulnerability as assessed by behavioural measures, but counter-to-prediction, CBM procedures did increase self-reported depression vulnerability for the positive but not negative CBM condition.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-1988
DOI: 10.1093/BJA/60.4.419
Abstract: In a randomized, double-blind, parallel groups study, 40 patients undergoing surgical removal of impacted 3rd molar teeth received either sublingual lormetazepam 2.5 mg (n = 20) in a new cellulose wafer formulation followed at 35 min by i.v. saline or sublingual placebo followed at 35 min by i.v. diazepam 10 mg (Diazemuls). Rapid onset of sedation was seen after sublingual lormetazepam, while the course and duration of postoperative sedation, measured using standard psychometric tests, was similar following both treatments. Surgeons' ratings indicated that sublingual lormetazepam was comparable to i.v. diazepam but patients' ratings indicated greater satisfaction with and preference for i.v. diazepam. Significant anterograde amnesia was found following both treatments. Both treatments were tolerated well, with no significant cardiovascular complications. These results indicate that sublingual lormetazepam may have a role in anaesthesia as a premedicant and for conscious sedation.
Publisher: Environmental Health Perspectives
Date: 02-2008
DOI: 10.1289/EHP.10733R
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 18-09-2020
DOI: 10.1097/J.PAIN.0000000000002083
Abstract: Previous meta-analyses investigating attentional biases towards pain have used reaction time measures. Eye-tracking methods have been adopted to more directly and reliably assess biases, but this literature has not been synthesized in relation to pain. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the nature and time course of attentional biases to pain-related stimuli in participants of all ages with and without chronic pain using eye-tracking studies and determine the role of task parameters and theoretically relevant moderators. After screening, 24 studies were included with a total s le of 1425 participants. Between-group analyses revealed no significant overall group differences for people with and without chronic pain on biases to pain-related stimuli. Results indicated significant attentional biases towards pain-related words or pictures across both groups on probability of first fixation ( k = 21, g = 0.43, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.15-0.71, P = 0.002), how long participants looked at each picture in the first 500 ms (500-ms epoch dwell: k = 5, g = 0.69, 95% CI 0.034-1.35, P = 0.039), and how long participants looked at each picture overall (total dwell time: k = 25, g = 0.44, 95% CI 0.15-0.72, P = 0.003). Follow-up analyses revealed significant attentional biases on probability of first fixation, latency to first fixation and dwell time for facial stimuli, and number of fixations for sensory word stimuli. Moderator analyses revealed substantial influence of task parameters and some influence of threat status and study quality. Findings support biases in both vigilance and attentional maintenance for pain-related stimuli but suggest attentional biases towards pain are ubiquitous and not related to pain status.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1037/A0020325
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2001
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 06-11-2019
Abstract: Psychological science relies on behavioral measures to assess cognitive processing however, the field has not yet developed a tradition of routinely examining the reliability of these behavioral measures. Reliable measures are essential to draw robust inferences from statistical analyses, and subpar reliability has severe implications for measures’ validity and interpretation. Without examining and reporting the reliability of measurements used in an analysis, it is nearly impossible to ascertain whether results are robust or have arisen largely from measurement error. In this article, we propose that researchers adopt a standard practice of estimating and reporting the reliability of behavioral assessments of cognitive processing. We illustrate the need for this practice using an ex le from experimental psychopathology, the dot-probe task, although we argue that reporting reliability is relevant across fields (e.g., social cognition and cognitive psychology). We explore several implications of low measurement reliability and the detrimental impact that failure to assess measurement reliability has on interpretability and comparison of results and therefore research quality. We argue that researchers in the field of cognition need to report measurement reliability as routine practice so that more reliable assessment tools can be developed. To provide some guidance on estimating and reporting reliability, we describe the use of bootstrapped split-half estimation and intraclass correlation coefficients to estimate internal consistency and test-retest reliability, respectively. For future researchers to build upon current results, it is imperative that all researchers provide psychometric information sufficient for estimating the accuracy of inferences and informing further development of cognitive-behavioral assessments.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2008
DOI: 10.1080/02699939308409185
Abstract: Normal in iduals high and low in trait-anxiety differ from each other in their attentional functioning. The visual probe experiment was used here to investigate whether subjects with a "repressive coping style" could be distinguished from high-and low-anxious subjects. The three groups were identified by use of the Marlowe-Crowne scale of social desirability and the Spielberger Trait-Anxiety Scale. As predicted, the task clearly distinguished between the groups. High-anxious subjects shifted visual attention toward socially threatening words, represson Wed visual attention away from the same stimuli, and low-anxious subjects showed no consistent pattern of attcntional allocation. These patterns were not observed for stimuli relating to physical threat. It is concluded that in iduals reporting low anxiety cannot be considered as a homogeneous group. Theoretically, this is an important finding for the understanding of attentional biases and anxiety.
Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists
Date: 20-03-2018
DOI: 10.1192/BJP.2018.42
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1016/J.BRAT.2009.08.005
Abstract: This paper investigates whether changes in mood state are an important component of cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures. In a novel CBM procedure participants read either positive or negative statements relating to social issues for 5 min. Interpretation bias was measured by means of a scrambled sentence test, which was presented both before and after the CBM procedure. Participants who read the positive statements made more positive resolutions to the scrambled sentences, while participants who read the negative statements made more negative resolutions. Thus, the appropriate positive and negative interpretative biases were induced by the CBM procedure. However, significant mood changes also occurred following CBM. In Experiment 2, a musical mood induction procedure was presented with depressing or elating music. As before, a scrambled sentence test was presented both before and after the musical mood induction. Mood changed in accordance with the valence of the music to the same extent as with CBM. Critically however, performance on the scrambled sentence task did not change for both groups. This demonstrates that a change in mood state is not sufficient for a change in cognitive bias to occur.
Publisher: F1000 Research Ltd
Date: 24-01-2022
DOI: 10.12688/WELLCOMEOPENRES.17441.1
Abstract: Background: Adolescence is a sensitive period for the onset of mental health disorders. Effective, easy-to-disseminate, scalable prevention and early interventions are urgently needed. Affective control has been proposed as a potential target mechanism. Training affective control has been shown to reduce mental health symptoms and improve emotion regulation. However, uptake and adherence to such training by adolescents has been low. Thus, the current study aims to receive end user (i.e., adolescents) feedback on a prototype of a novel app-based gamified affective control training program, the Social Brain Train. Methods: The proposed study aims to recruit participants aged 13-16 years old ( N = 20) to provide user feedback on the Social Brain Train app. The first group of participants ( n = 5) will complete an online questionnaire assessing demographics, symptoms of depression and anxiety, social rejection sensitivity and attitudes toward the malleability of cognition and mental health. They will complete two tasks assessing cognitive capacity and interpretation bias. Participants will be then be invited to an online group workshop, where they will be introduced to the app. They will train on the app for three days, and following app usage, participants will complete the aforementioned measures again, as well as provide ratings on app content, and complete a semi-structured interview to obtain in-depth user feedback, which will be used to inform modifications to the app. Following these modifications, a second group of participants ( n = 15) will follow the same procedure, except they will train on the app for 14 days. Feedback from both groups of participants will be used to inform the final design. Conclusions: By including young people in the design of the Social Brain Train app, the proposed study will help us to develop a novel mental health intervention that young people find engaging, acceptable, and easy-to-use
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2001
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 22-01-2023
Abstract: Emerging evidence shows that compared to pre-pandemic norms pregnant women report significant increases in clinical levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19. This pre-registered study examined cognitive and social vulnerability factors for poor mental health in pregnancy during COVID-19. Understanding vulnerability profiles is key to identifying women at risk for deteriorating peripartum mental health. N=742 pregnant women and N=742 age and country-matched controls from the COVID-19 Risks Across the Lifespan Study were included. Using a case-match control design allowed us to explore whether the cognitive vulnerability profiles would differ between pregnant and non-pregnant women. The findings showed that COVID-19-related stress was associated with heightened levels of depression and anxiety during pregnancy. Its impact was greatest in women with cognitive (i.e., higher intolerance of uncertainty and tendency to worry) and social (i.e., higher level of self-reported loneliness) vulnerabilities. Importantly, our data show that the mental health impacts of the pandemic were greater in pregnant women compared to women who were not pregnant, especially those with cognitive and social vulnerabilities. The results highlight the urgent need to prioritise mental health care for pregnant women to mitigate the impact of COVID-19-related stress on women’s postpartum mental health and their infants’ well-being.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 10-09-2018
DOI: 10.20944/PREPRINTS201809.0149.V1
Abstract: Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a trait describing inter-in idual differences in sensitivity to environments, both positive and negative ones. SPS has attracted growing societal interest. However, (neuro)scientific evidence is lagging behind. We critically discuss how to measure SPS, how it relates to other theories of Environmental Sensitivity and other temperament and personality traits, how SPS interacts with environments to influence (a)typical development, what the underlying aetiologies and mechanisms are, and its relation to mental disorders involving sensory sensitivities. Drawing on the erse expertise of the authors, we set an agenda for future research to stimulate the field. We conclude that SPS is a heritable, evolutionarily conserved trait, linked to increased risk for psychopathology and stress-related problems in response to negative environments, as well as to greater benefits (e.g., intervention responsivity, positive mood) in positive environments. We need advances in objective assessment of SPS, understanding mechanisms, differentiating it from (seemingly) related mental disorders, to exploit the potential of SPS to improve mental health, preserve human capital, and prevent adverse effects.
Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists
Date: 11-2017
DOI: 10.1192/BJP.BP.115.176123
Abstract: If meta-analysis is to provide valuable answers, then it is critical to ensure clarity about the questions being asked. Here, we distinguish two important questions concerning cognitive bias modification research that are not differentiated in the meta-analysis recently published by Cristea et al (2015) in this journal: (1) do the varying procedures that investigators have employed with the intention of modifying cognitive bias, on average, significantly impact emotional vulnerability? and (2) does the process of successfully modifying cognitive bias, on average, significantly impact emotional vulnerability? We reanalyse the data from Cristea et al to address this latter question. Our new analyses demonstrate that successfully modifying cognitive bias does significantly alter emotional vulnerability. We revisit Cristea et al 's conclusions in light of these findings.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Start Date: 2008
End Date: 2014
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2019
End Date: 2014
Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2012
End Date: 2012
Funder: Wellcome Trust
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2011
End Date: 2011
Funder: Wellcome Trust
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2013
End Date: 2018
Funder: European Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2012
End Date: 2013
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2016
End Date: 2016
Funder: United States Air Force
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2019
End Date: 2023
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2001
End Date: 2005
Funder: Wellcome Trust
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2005
End Date: 2009
Funder: Wellcome Trust
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2014
End Date: 2015
Funder: British Academy
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2018
End Date: 2021
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2007
End Date: 2011
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2002
End Date: 2005
Funder: Department of Health
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2005
End Date: 2009
Funder: Wellcome Trust
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2007
End Date: 2009
Funder: Department of Health
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2012
End Date: 2013
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2018
End Date: 2020
Funder: British Academy
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 1995
End Date: 1996
Funder: Wellcome Trust
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 1996
End Date: 1999
Funder: Wellcome Trust
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2001
End Date: 2004
Funder: Wellcome Trust
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 05-2008
End Date: 06-2014
Amount: $663,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2007
End Date: 12-2011
Amount: $444,704.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity