Paradoxical effects of thought suppression

Can false denials turn fact into fiction? The effect of false denials on memory for self-performed actions

We examined the mnemonic effects of falsely denying a self-performed action. Specifically, participants (N = 30) performed, imagined, or received no instruction about 24 action statements (e.g., "cross your arms"). Next, their memory for whether they had performed, imagined, or did nothing (i.e., received no instructions) with these actions was tested. Subsequently, participants were instructed to repeatedly deny an action they had performed (false denial) and to repeatedly claim to have performed an action they had only imagined (false admission). In a final sorting memory task, 54% (n = 16) of participants erroneously indicated, after false admissions, that they had performed the imagined action. None of the participants indicated that they had only imagined an action after false denials, showing that it might be difficult to forget a performed action, even after repeatedly denying it. The current experiment sets the stage for future research to investigate why it seems to be difficult to forget performed actions.

Top-down then automatic: Instructions can continue to influence visual search when no longer actively implemented

The present study investigated the automaticity of top-down instructions in visual search when the instruction was no longer actively implemented. To do so, we exploited the Priming of Pop-out (PoP) effect, a selection history phenomenon that reflects faster responses when the target and distractor colors are repeated than switched across trials of singleton search. We then had participants perform a color singleton search task where they implemented the instruction of imagining the opposite color of the previous target, which put the target colors underlying PoP and the imagery instruction in opposition. To assess automaticity, on some trials participants were instructed to stop implementing the imagery instruction. When the imagery instruction was implemented, responses were faster when the target and distractor colors switched (i.e., imagery congruent) than repeated (i.e., imagery incongruent) across search displays - a pattern of results opposite to the PoP effect. When participants were to not implement this instruction, the PoP effect was absent, indicating the imagery instruction had a lingering influence on visual search. This remained true even when participants reported successfully not implementing the instruction, and only when the imagery abandonment instruction was supplanted by a different top-down task was the lingering influence removed such that the PoP effect returned. Overall, the present study demonstrates that top-down instructions can continue to influence visual search despite the will of the observer.

Escaping from worries: Comparing the effectiveness of focusing on one's breath, a neutral and a positive distractor in worry control

Focused-distraction strategies are commonly used for thought control, but their effectiveness in handling personal worries with different types of distractors has rarely been examined. To examine this issue, 101 undergraduate and graduate students whose depression levels fell below mild depression were recruited (64.4% female, M age  = 20.27) and were randomly assigned to one of the three strategy conditions: 34 participants for the focused-breathing strategy (FBS), 34 for the focused-positive-distractor strategy (FPS), and 33 for the focused-neutral-distractor strategy (FNS). After a short introduction and practice, they applied the assigned strategy during a 5-min worry control session to prevent thoughts regarding a recent worrying event. The number of worry intrusions was measured using an online self-caught method. Participants rated their emotional states before and after the worry control session. Their working memory capacities (WMCs) and depressive tendency were comparable across conditions. The results showed the FBS and FPS groups exhibited fewer worry intrusions than did the FNS group. Furthermore, worry intrusions were negatively related to WMC for the FNS group but independent of WMC for the other two. The above findings together indicate that the FBS and FPS are relatively effective and effortless methods for reducing worry intrusions. Negative emotions decreased after the worry control session for all groups. However, decoupling of negative emotions from worry intrusions was only observed for the FBS and FNS groups. Overall, FBS outperforms FPS and FNS in managing worries from the above aspects. Several theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.

Stopping a Response When You Really Care about the Action: Considerations from a Clinical Perspective

Response inhibition, whether reactive or proactive, is mostly investigated in a narrow cognitive framework. We argue that it be viewed within a broader frame than the action being inhibited, i.e., in the context of emotion and motivation of the individual at large. This is particularly important in the clinical domain, where the motivational strength of an action can be driven by threat avoidance or reward seeking. The cognitive response inhibition literature has focused on stopping reactively with responses in anticipation of clearly delineated external signals, or proactively in limited contexts, largely independent of clinical phenomena. Moreover, the focus has often been on stopping efficiency and its correlates rather than on inhibition failures. Currently, the cognitive and clinical perspectives are incommensurable. A broader context may explain the apparent paradox where individuals with disorders characterised by maladaptive action control have difficulty inhibiting their actions only in specific circumstances. Using Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as a case study, clinical theorising has focused largely on compulsions as failures of inhibition in relation to specific internal or external triggers. We propose that the concept of action tendencies may constitute a useful common denominator bridging research into motor, emotional, motivational, and contextual aspects of action control failure. The success of action control may depend on the interaction between the strength of action tendencies, the ability to withhold urges, and contextual factors.

Exploring Emotion Regulation and Perceived Control as Antecedents of Anxiety and Its Consequences During Covid-19 Full Remote Learning

Maintaining the emotional well-being of learners during a pandemic is important. This study explored the effects of two emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) and perceived control on full remote learners' anxiety during Covid-19, and their relationship to perceived learning. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze 239 questionnaires completed by Chinese graduate students taking a course remotely from home for 13 weeks. This study showed that reappraisal was positively related to perceived control, whereas suppression was negatively related to perceived control. Reappraisers perceived more learning, whereas suppressors experienced more anxiety. Anxiety was significantly and negatively related to perceived learning. Mediation analyses showed the existence of different patterns of mediation in the pathways from the two types of emotion regulation to perceived learning. These findings are discussed in relation to relevant studies conducted during non-pandemic periods and Covid-19, and based on the results we highlight the need for interventions aimed at developing adaptive emotion regulation strategies and reducing anxiety in emergency remote learning.

Believing is seeing: an fMRI study of thought-action fusion in healthy male adults

Thought-action fusion (TAF) is a tendency of individuals to establish causal relations between their own thoughts and external reality. TAF can lead to maladaptive behaviors typically observed in obsessional thoughts. However, neural mechanisms underlying TAF are still unknown. In this study, 38 healthy men were informed that MR signals were able to detect thoughts of the word 'apple' and that this recognition could result in the administration of electrical shocks to a person outside the scanner. During MR acquisition, they were asked to suppress or not suppress the thought of 'apple' while sham electrical shocks were or were not administered to the other person. The main effect of the sham administration of electrical shock to another person was shown in the bilateral lingual gyri, fusiform gyri, and middle occipital cortices (FDR corrected p < 0.05). Also, fusiform gyrus, lingual gyrus, and middle occipital cortex activity correlated with scores of guilty feeling only when participants consciously tried to think of apple as less as possible. Our study demonstrates that visual association areas may play primary roles in TAF. The simple belief and visual imagery that one's thought may lead to someone's injury activated visual areas of the brain where, in turn, brain activity is associated with feelings of guilt.

An Emotion Regulation and Impulse Control (ERIC) Intervention for Vulnerable Young People: A Multi-Sectoral Pilot Study

Objective: There is a demonstrated link between the mental health and substance use comorbidities experienced by young adults, however the vast majority of psychological interventions are disorder specific. Novel psychological approaches that adequately acknowledge the psychosocial complexity and transdiagnostic needs of vulnerable young people are urgently needed. A modular skills-based program for emotion regulation and impulse control (ERIC) addresses this gap. The current one armed open trial was designed to evaluate the impact that 12 weeks exposure to ERIC alongside usual care had on young people's ability to regulate emotions, as well as examine potential moderating mechanisms. Methods: Seventy nine young people (50.6% male; M = 19.30; SD = 2.94) were enrolled to the 12 week intervention period. Twenty one practitioners from youth and community health services delivered relevant ERIC modules adjunct to usual care. Linear mixed effects regression (with random intercept) was used to examine change over time across the primary outcome of emotion dysregulation and secondary outcomes of depression, anxiety, stress, experiential avoidance and mindfulness. Moderation analyses were conducted to test whether the magnitude of change in emotion dysregulation moderated change over time in secondary outcomes. Results: Analyses revealed significant improvement in the primary outcome of emotion dysregulation with a moderate effect size (Mean Change = -10.24, 95% CI (-14.41, -6.06; Cohen's dav = -0.53), in addition to decreases in the secondary outcomes of depression, anxiety, stress and experiential avoidance. No improvements in mindfulness were reported. Moderation analyses revealed that the residualised change over time in emotion dysregulation moderated the change over time in symptoms of distress, depression, anxiety, stress, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness. Conclusion: Reductions in the severity of emotion dysregulation, depression, anxiety, stress and experiential avoidance are promising, and were evident despite the complexity of the participants and the diversity of the service setting. The improvements found in each outcome were only observed for those young people whose emotion regulation also improved, providing preliminary evidence for the role of emotion regulation as a key treatment target in this population.

Refreshing and removing items in working memory: Different approaches to equivalent processes?

Researchers have investigated "refreshing" of items in working memory (WM) as a means of preserving them, while concurrently, other studies have examined "removal" of items from WM that are irrelevant. However, it is unclear whether refreshing and removal in WM truly represent different processes, or if participants, in an effort to avoid the to-be-removed items, simply refresh alternative items. We conducted two experiments to test whether these putative processes can be distinguished from one another. Participants were presented with sets of three words and then cued to either refresh one item or remove two items from WM, followed by a lexical decision probe containing either one of the just-seen words or a non-word. In Experiment 1, all probes were valid and in Experiment 2, probes were occasionally invalid (the probed word was one of the removed/non-refreshed items). In both experiments, participants also received a subsequent surprise long-term memory test. Results from both experiments suggested the expected advantages for refreshed (or non-removed) items in both short-term response time and long-term recognition, but no differences between refresh and remove instructions that would suggest a fundamental difference in processes. Thus, we argue that a functional distinction between refreshing and removal may not be necessary and propose that both of these putative processes could potentially be subsumed under an overarching conceptual perspective based on the flexible reallocation of mental or reflective attention.

Measurement of Unwanted Thought Suppression Strategies with the Thought Control Questionnaire in the General Polish Population: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Validation

INTRODUCTION

Although psychological studies have suggested both the desired and paradoxical effects of unwanted thought suppression, we still know little about this mechanism. It has been proposed that individual differences in using specific strategies to suppress intrusions explain why contradictory effects of suppression are observed. The main aims of the study were to investigate the factor structure of the Polish version of Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ) and verify whether this structure corresponds to the original version of the TCQ measurement.

METHODS

Using the TCQ, which is a 30-item self-report measure, this research investigated individual thought control strategies to suppress intrusive thoughts in the general population. We used parallel analysis and theoretical interpretability to investigate the most appropriate factor structure of the inventory. To examine the validity of the Polish version of TCQ the correlational analysis of TCQ factors with other psychometric scales: Beck Depression Inventory, The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and The Metacognitions Questionnaire. The internal consistency of the TCQ subscales was also assessed by calculating the Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients for each factor.

RESULTS

The resulting five-factor solution explained 51.86% of the total variance. The Polish version of TCQ consisted of five subscales yielding satisfactory reliability values: 1) Punishment (α = 0.725); 2) Distraction (α = 0.688); 3) Social Control (α = 0.780); 4) Worry (α = 0.788; 5) Re-appraisal (α = 0.70).

CONCLUSION

The five-factor solution was convergent with the dimensions that appeared in the original TCQ version and were observed in the most TCQ adaptations in various countries. Our findings support the psychological construct of thought-control strategies measured by TCQ and prove the satisfactory reliability of this self-report measure within a Polish population.

An Analysis of the Relationship between the Modified Theory of Planned Behavior and Leisure Rumination of Korean Employees

An increasing trend among employees has been to engage in leisure activities, which has been proven to be an effective method of overcoming work stress. As a result, employees are doing "Other Things" (i.e., non-work activities) as a way to relieve stress. Based on the existing studies on rumination, this study considered doing "Other Things" as a new concept of "leisure rumination" and identified its influence as a means to help employees recover from work stress. Accordingly, this study provided basic data on the meaning of leisure activities and leisure rumination in office workers who suffer from failure to recover from work stress using partial least squares structural equation modeling. This study was conducted on employees residing in the Seoul metropolitan area and the Gyeongsang-do district in November 2019 through a structured questionnaire. The results of this study verified the significance of leisure rumination and the possibility of it being utilized as a practical research tool for leisure activities. Our findings may be considered when planning interventions for work addiction and burnout through leisure rumination.

Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Why, When, and How?

Behavioural experiments are an integral component of cognitive therapy (CT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they can be overlooked due to practical constraints and therapist concerns. Here we describe why behavioural experiments are an important part of CT, where they fit into different elements of treatment for PTSD, how to design and implement effective experiments including coping with unexpected outcomes, and how to incorporate behavioural experiments when therapy is delivered remotely. Clinical case examples are used to illustrate a range of idiosyncratic and creative behavioural experiments.

The Effect of an Intervention Teaching Adolescents that People can Change on Depressive Symptoms, Cognitive Schemas, and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Hormones

Interest is increasing in developing universal interventions to prevent depression in adolescents that are brief enough to be scaled up. The aim of this study was to test the effects on depressive symptoms, cognitive schemas, and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Hormones of an intervention focused on teaching an element of an incremental theory of personality, namely, the belief that people can change. We also examined whether grade level moderated the effects of the intervention. A double-blind, randomized, controlled trial was conducted with 867 Spanish adolescent participants (51.9% boys, Grades 8-10) randomly assigned to an incremental theory intervention (n = 456) or an educational control intervention (n = 411). The adolescents completed measures of depressive symptoms and negative cognitive schemas at pretest, at 6-month follow-up, and at 12-month follow-up. A subsample of 503 adolescents provided salivary samples for cortisol and DHEA-S testing. In 8th grade, adolescents who received the incremental theory intervention displayed a greater decrease in depressive symptoms and cognitive schemas and a lower increase in DHEA-S. Moreover, in adolescents who received the intervention, the rate of adolescents with high depression scores decreased by almost 18% whereas in the control group, the rate increased by 37%. Surprisingly, the effects of the intervention were in the opposite direction among adolescents in 9th grade. These data indicate that a brief universal intervention could prevent depressive symptoms under some conditions, but developmental characteristics can moderate the effectiveness of this approach.

Mindfulness, Experiential Avoidance, and Recovery From Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

BACKGROUND

Mood disturbance, pain, and fatigue are prevalent and distressing concerns for patients with hematologic cancer recovering from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The way in which individuals approach difficult thoughts and emotions may affect symptoms and functioning. Specifically, mindfulness has been associated with more optimal psychological and physical functioning, whereas experiential avoidance has been associated with poorer outcomes.

PURPOSE

The primary objective was to determine whether mindfulness and experiential avoidance measured prior to HSCT were associated with recovery of psychological and physical functioning following HSCT. We also evaluated dimensions of mindfulness to determine which were most robustly associated with outcomes.

METHODS

Participants completed measures of mindfulness and experiential avoidance prior to HSCT. Depression and anxiety symptoms and pain and fatigue interference with daily activities were assessed prior to HSCT and 1, 3, and 6 months post-HSCT.

RESULTS

Participants who reported better ability to describe their internal experiences and who were better able to act with awareness experienced less depression, anxiety, and fatigue interference following HSCT. Participants who were nonjudgmental and nonreactive toward thoughts and emotions experienced less depression and anxiety following HSCT, but these traits were not associated with pain or fatigue interference. Being a good observer of internal experiences was not associated with outcomes, nor was experiential avoidance.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that most facets of mindfulness may optimize psychological functioning following HSCT, and the ability to describe one's internal experience and to focus on the present moment may have a beneficial influence on physical functioning.

The Relationship Between Ruminating the Catastrophic Consequences of Bodily Changes and Positive Reappraisal and Practical Problem-Solving Strategies in Individuals With Illness Anxiety Disorder

Introduction:

Cognitive emotion regulation is suggested to contribute to Illness Anxiety Disorder (IAD). Reappraisal and suppression are essential ER strategies with controversial data about their roles in IAD. Relevant studies are mostly limited to exploring these two strategies in individuals without such disorder. Therefore, we aimed to study the role of emotion regulation in the psychopathology of IAD by evaluating other ER strategies in illness-anxious individuals. Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between IAD and emotion regulation by targeting the role of interpretation bias for health-related information.

Methods:

The study participants were 60 university students. They underwent a semi-structured clinical interview to assess the presence or absence of IAD symptoms (n=30/group). They completed a battery of questionnaires measuring IAD, emotion regulation, and interpretation bias.

Results:

The illness-anxious group applied significantly less reappraisal and refocus on planning and more rumination, catastrophizing, and acceptance strategies, compared to the controls. Besides, interpretation bias was positively correlated with rumination and catastrophizing; while its association with reappraisal and planning was negative.

Conclusion:

Both functional (e.g. reappraisal & planning) and dysfunctional strategies (e.g. rumination & catastrophizing) contributed to the psychopathology of IAD. The biased interpretation of bodily information could make individuals prone to ruminate about the catastrophic consequences of bodily changes; such conditions interrupt fostering more positive reappraisal or practical problem-solving strategies.

Countering emotional behaviors in the treatment of borderline personality disorder

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the unique effects of a commonly used skill incorporated into treatment packages for borderline personality disorder (BPD), countering emotion-driven behavioral urges. Individuals with BPD (N = 8) participated in a single-case experimental design, specifically a multiple baseline, in which they were randomly assigned to complete a baseline assessment-only phase of 2 or 4 weeks. Participants then received four sessions of the countering emotional behaviors module from the unified protocol, followed by a 4-week follow-up phase. Throughout the duration of the study, daily data capture was used to assess real-time changes in the frequency of emotionally avoidant behaviors in response to emotional experiences. Symptoms of BPD, depression, and anxiety were also assessed. By follow-up, the majority of patients demonstrated a meaningful reduction (per single-case experimental design guidelines for evaluating improvements) in their use of avoidant behaviors. There was also preliminary evidence that encouraging participants to act counter to avoidant urges is associated with decreases in BPD, depression, and anxiety symptoms, as well as negative affectivity. The countering emotional behaviors skill from the unified protocol indeed engages its putative target of emotionally avoidant behavioral coping, indicating it is an active ingredient in multicomponent treatment packages for BPD, with implications for downstream clinical endpoints such as BPD and depressive and anxiety symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Ironic Effects of Thought Suppression: A Meta-Analysis

The ironic effect of thought suppression refers to the phenomenon in which individuals trying to rid their mind of a target thought ironically experience greater levels of occurrence and accessibility of the thought compared with individuals who deliberately concentrate on the thought (Wegner, 1994, doi:10.1037/0033-295X.101.1.34). Ironic effects occurring after thought suppression, also known as rebound effects, were consistently detected by previous meta-analyses. However, ironic effects that occur during thought suppression, also known as immediate enhancement effects, were found to be largely absent. In this meta-analysis, we test Wegner’s original proposition that detection of immediate enhancement effects depends on the cognitive load experienced by individuals when enacting thought suppression. Given that thought suppression is an effortful cognitive process, we propose that the introduction of additional cognitive load would compete for the allocation of existing cognitive resources and impair capacity for thought suppression. Studies ( k = 31) consistent with Wegner’s original thought-suppression paradigm were analyzed. Consistent with our predictions, rebound effects were observed regardless of cognitive load, whereas immediate enhancement effects were observed only in the presence of cognitive load. We discuss implications in light of ironic-process theory and suggest future thought-suppression research.

The Chinese Version of the Behavioral Emotion Regulation Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties Among University Students

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE

Maladaptive emotion regulation is a strong predictor of depression or anxiety. Behavioral emotion regulation has a direct influence on coping with negative emotion. Although it is interesting to explore more about the behavioral emotion regulation, most of the existing measures can not assess it separately. The Behavioral Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (BERQ) has made important gain in addressing conceptual confusion between cognitive and behavioral emotion regulation. As there is a lack of single and stable measure to assess behavioral emotion regulation in mainland China, we translated the BERQ into Chinese to fit this gap.

METHODS

We evaluated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the BERQ (BERQ-C) based on a sample of Chinese university students (n=816). Factor analysis was performed to assess the construct validity of the BERQ-C. To test its reliability and validity, all the participants were invited to complete BERQ-C, GAD-7, PHQ-9, and CERQ-C. Of the initial samples, 138 students participated in the second measurement with completing BERQ-C twice.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analysis supported the five-factor model. The internal consistence (Cronbach's α = 0.71 ~ 0.85), the split-half reliability (Spearman-Brown coefficient = 0.66 ~ 0.85), and the test-retest stability (ICC = 0.55 ~ 0.67) are all acceptable. The criterion-related validity is good.

CONCLUSION

The BERQ-C is a promising instrument to assess behavioral emotion regulation among the Chinese university students. Future studies are needed to explore the questionnaire's psychometric properties among wider range of population especially for patients.

Do Trait Emotional Intelligence and Dispositional Mindfulness Have a Complementary Effect on the Children's and Adolescents' Emotional States?

Mindfulness is both a non-judgmental and present-centered awareness, which has been applied to reduce negative emotions. On the other hand, Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) is the way of how good people perceive their emotional intelligence abilities (perceiving, expressing, understanding, and regulating emotions), which are involved in people's social functioning. This empirical study was designed to analyze whether dispositional mindfulness (DM) and TEI have a potential combined role for children and adolescent's emotional states. In a sample of primary school students (N = 318), age ranged from 8 to 16 years old (M = 11.25, SD = 2.20), participants filled a TEI measure (ESCQ, Emotional skills and competence questionnaire) and two measures of DM (CAMM, Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure and AFQ-Y, Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth). Measures selected included: PANAS (Positive affect and negative affect schedule), White Bear Suppression Inventory (a thought suppression inventory), and STAIC (State-Trait Anxiety for Children). Findings pointed out that TEI measures (labeling and expression, understanding, and managing emotions) were positively and significantly related to positive emotional states (especially, positive affect and balance) and negatively with a lower association with state anxiety. However, DM measures were both negatively and strongly associated with negative emotional states (thought suppression, negative affect, and anxiety). Conclusions indicate that a combined effect of both TEI skills and DM based interventions would be more complete than each one separately for better social functioning of children and teenagers.

Cognitive emotion regulation and personality: an analysis of individual differences in the neural and behavioral correlates of successful reappraisal

A common and mostly effective emotion regulation strategy is reappraisal. During reappraisal, activity in cognitive control brain regions increases and activity in brain regions associated with emotion responding (e.g., the amygdala) diminishes. Immediately after reappraisal, it has been observed that activity in the amygdala increases again, which might reflect a paradoxical aftereffect. While there is extensive empirical evidence for these neural correlates of emotion regulation, only few studies targeted the association with individual differences in personality traits. The aim of this study is to investigate these associations more thoroughly. Seventy-six healthy participants completed measures of broad personality traits (Big Five, Positive and Negative Affect) as well as of more narrow traits (habitual use of emotion regulation) and performed an experimental fMRI reappraisal task. Participants were instructed to either permit their emotions or to detach themselves from the presented negative and neutral pictures. After each picture, a relaxation period was included. Reappraisal success was determined by arousal ratings and activity in the amygdala. During reappraisal, we found activation in the prefrontal cortex and deactivation in the left amygdala. During the relaxation period, an immediate aftereffect was found in occipital regions and marginally in the amygdala. Neither personality traits nor habitual use of emotion regulation predicted reappraisal success or the magnitude of the aftereffect. We replicated typical activation and deactivation patterns during intentional emotion regulation and partially replicated the immediate aftereffect in the amygdala. However, there was no association between personality traits and emotion regulation success.

Psychological and physiological effects of applying self-control to the mobile phone

This preregistered study examined the psychological and physiological consequences of exercising self-control with the mobile phone. A total of 125 participants were randomly assigned to sit in an unadorned room for six minutes and either (a) use their mobile phone, (b) sit alone with no phone, or (c) sit with their device but resist using it. Consistent with prior work, participants self-reported more concentration difficulty and more mind wandering with no device present compared to using the phone. Resisting the phone led to greater perceived concentration abilities than sitting without the device (not having external stimulation). Failing to replicate prior work, however, participants without external stimulation did not rate the experience as less enjoyable or more boring than having something to do. We also observed that skin conductance data were consistent across conditions for the first three-minutes of the experiment, after which participants who resisted the phone were less aroused than those who were without the phone. We discuss how the findings contribute to our understanding of exercising self-control with mobile media and how psychological consequences, such as increased mind wandering and focusing challenges, relate to periods of idleness or free thinking.

Don't Tell Me What to Think: Comparing Self- and Other-Generated Distraction Methods for Controlling Intrusive Thinking

Cognitive control is central to the phenomenon of intrusive thinking in obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. The current study tested how attempts at cognitive control are impacted by self- vs. other-generated distractor thoughts. Participants (N=1913) were randomly assigned to suppress or monitor an intrusive thought and also randomly assigned to: a) self-generate a distractor, b) receive a distractor, or c) receive no distractor guidance. Participants reported subsequent thought recurrences, perceived success and effort keeping the thought out of mind, and positive and negative affect during a one-minute thinking period and a one-minute monitoring period. During the first thinking period only, self-generated distractors resulted in greater perceived control (p<.001; during monitoring instructions only) relative to no guidance, and less effort (ps<.001) relative to both other conditions. Interestingly, self-generated distractors led to longer duration of recurrences relative to both other conditions (ps≤.007). Finally, there were no distractor differences in trajectories of positive and negative affect (ps>.10). These findings suggest that the source of distractors may inform when attempts to control intrusive thinking will be helpful versus harmful.

Conceptualizing and managing risk in pediatric OCD: Case examples

It is not uncommon for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to present with symptoms that suggest possible risk. This can include apparent risk, which reflects the content of obsessional fears, and genuine risk arising as the unintended consequence of compulsive behaviors. In both situations, risk can cause confusion in relation to diagnosis and treatment. The current article adds to the small existing literature on risk in OCD by presenting case examples illustrating different types of risk in the context of pediatric OCD, along with a discussion of their implications for management. The cases highlight that it is crucial that risk in OCD is considered carefully within the context of the phenomenology of the disorder. Guidance is offered to support clinical decision making and treatment planning.

Concrete vs. Abstract Processing in Repetitive Negative Thinking: Distinct Functional Effects on Emotional Reactivity and Attentional Control

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a transdiagnostic process linked to emotional regulation impairment and involved in mood, anxiety, eating disorders and addictions. Attentional disengagement impairment is one of the factors hypothesized to be responsible for the recurrent and uncontrollable character of RNT. The aim of the present study was to empirically test this hypothesis with evaluation of disengagement from negative and RNT-related stimuli separately. Sixty participants were randomly allocated to one of three experimental conditions: abstract RNT, concrete RNT, and control condition (distraction). The change in their negative affect (PANAS) and their attentional disengagement impairment (exogenous cueing task) were measured. The analysis revealed that participants in abstract RNT condition presented higher emotional reactivity comparing to concrete or distraction conditions. The results indicated no differences between induction conditions in attentional disengagement. However, participants after concrete RNT induction had longer mean response times in exogenous cueing task comparing to control induction suggesting that they detected presented stimuli slower than participants in control condition. The results raised an important, from clinical point of view, question of distinctive impact of two types of RNT on emotional reactivity and attentional processes.

Reconsidering unconscious persistence: Suppressing unwanted memories reduces their indirect expression in later thoughts

When we seek to forget unwelcome memories, does the suppressed content still exert an unconscious influence on our thoughts? Although intentionally stopping retrieval of a memory reduces later episodic retention for the suppressed trace, it remains unclear the extent to which suppressed content persists in indirectly influencing mental processes. Here we tested whether inhibitory control processes underlying retrieval suppression alter the influence of a memory's underlying semantic content on later thought. To achieve this, across two experiments, we tested whether suppressing episodic retrieval of to-be-excluded memories reduced the indirect expression of the unwanted content on an apparently unrelated test of problem solving: the remote associates test (RAT). Experiment 1 found that suppressed content was less likely than unsuppressed content to emerge as solutions to RAT problems. Indeed, suppression abolished evidence of conceptual priming, even when participants reported no awareness of the relationship between the memory and the problem solving tasks. Experiment 2 replicated this effect and also found that directing participants to use explicit memory to solve RAT problems eliminated suppression effects. Experiment 2 thus rules out the possibility that suppression effects reflect contamination by covert explicit retrieval strategies. Together, our results indicate that inhibitory control processes underlying retrieval suppression not only disrupt episodic retention, but also reduce the indirect influence of suppressed semantic content during unrelated thought processes. Considered with other recent demonstrations of implicit suppression effects, these findings indicate that historical assumptions about the persisting influence of suppressed thoughts on mental health require closer empirical scrutiny and need to be reconsidered.

Metacognitive therapy versus exposure and response prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

The recommended psychological treatment of choice for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is exposure with response prevention (ERP). However, recovery rates are relatively modest, so better treatments are needed. This superiority study aims to explore the relative efficacy of metacognitive therapy (MCT), a new form of cognitive therapy based on the metacognitive model of OCD.

DESIGN AND METHOD

In a randomized controlled trial, we will compare MCT with ERP. One hundred patients diagnosed with OCD will be recruited in an outpatient mental health center in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). The primary outcome measure is OCD severity, measured by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). Data are assessed at baseline, after treatment, and at 6 and 30 months follow-up.

DISCUSSION

By comparing MCT with ERP we hope to provide an indication whether MCT is efficacious in the treatment of OCD and, if so, whether it has the potential to be more efficacious than the current "gold standard" psychological treatment for OCD, ERP.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Dutch Trial Register, NTR4855 . Registered on 21 October 2014.

Development and Preliminary Validation of a Self-Report Coping Response Measure in a Community Sample of Children in Middle Childhood

Coping plays a key role in psychological adjustment. However, whereas coping in adulthood has been extensively studied, coping in childhood remains relatively sparsely researched. This might be in part due to the fact that measures of coping have yet to be developed that are suitable for use with young children. This article describes the development and preliminary validation of the Profile of Coping Dimensions in Children (PCDC), a new, theory-driven measure of coping suitable for use in middle childhood, designed to assess coping as a multidimensional construct across 11 dimensions linked with well-being. Patterns of coping across age and gender were also examined. Participants were 2,566 children between 7 and 11 years old, attending 15 primary (elementary) schools in the southeast of England. The measure was administered along with other questionnaires designed to measure anxiety, somatization, and perceived stress and happiness. The measure was found to be easy to use, and suitable for use in this age group. Coping response styles assessed using the measure were found to vary by age and gender, and were differentially associated with measures of anxiety, somatization, and perceived stress and happiness. Results provide preliminary support for the utility of the measure as a multidimensional assessment of coping in middle childhood.

Grappling With Implicit Social Bias: A Perspective From Memory Research

There is now widespread consensus that social biases often influence actions independently of the actor's intention or awareness. The notion that we are sometimes blind to the origins of our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors also features prominently in research into domain-general human memory systems, which has a long history of distinguishing between implicit and explicit repercussions of past experience. A shared challenge across these fields of study is thus to identify techniques for effectively managing the contents of our memory stores, particularly those aspects into which we have limited metacognitive insight. In the present review, we examine recent developments in the cognitive neuroscience of human memory that speak to this challenge as it applies to the social domain. One area of progress pertains to the role of individuation, the process of attending to and representing in memory unique characteristics of individuals, which can limit the influence of generalizations based on social categories. A second body of work concerns breakthroughs in understanding memory consolidation, which determines the fate of newly encoded memories. We discuss the promise of each of these developments for identifying ways to become better stewards of our social minds. More generally, we suggest that, as with other forms of learning and memory, intentional practice and rehearsal may be critical in learning to minimize unwanted biases.

Intrinsic Rivalry. Can White Bears Help Us With the Other Side of Consciousness?

Studies of consciousness have traditionally been based mainly upon the perceptual domains of consciousness. However, there is another side of consciousness, represented by various types of intrinsic conscious experiences. Even though intrinsic experiences can represent up to 50% of our conscious experiences, they are still largely neglected in conscious studies. We assume there are two reasons for this. First, the field of intrinsic conscious experiences is methodologically far more problematic than any other. Second, specific paradigms for capturing the correlates of intrinsic conscious experiences are almost nonexistent. Nevertheless, we expect the intrinsic side of consciousness to soon take its place in conscious studies, but first new experimental paradigms will have to be devised, which would be of a similar design to the paradigms used in studies of perceptual consciousness. In this hypothesis and theory article, we propose such a hypothetical paradigm, presenting the exploratory data of our proof-of-concept study, discussing its use, and addressing its shortcomings and their possible remediation.

How Not to Fall for the White Bear: Combined Frequency and Recency Manipulations Diminish Negation Effects on Overt Behavior

Processing negated mental representations comes with a price: Not only are negations harder to resolve than affirmative statements, but they may even invoke ironic effects, producing the exact opposite of the intended outcome. Negation effects also behave ironically when subjected to high-frequency training; when they are confronted often, the difficulty to process negations strangely increases. Here we show that negation effects can be mitigated under certain circumstances. Based on models of cognitive control and conflict adaptation, we hypothesized that negation effects diminish when two criteria are met: negations have to be resolved not only frequently, but also just recently. We confirmed this prediction in two experiments by using an innovative, two-dimensional finger tracking design, in which we measured the influence of the original semantic content during negation processing via temporal and spatial measures. Negation effects were present throughout the experiment, but were reduced after recent negations, particularly during or after a high-frequency negation context. The combined influence of frequency and recency thus seems to be the most successful and promising attempt to mitigate ironic negation effects on overt behavior.

A Brief Spanish Version of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). A Dispositional Mindfulness Measure

Dispositional Mindfulness (DM) is the awareness of the thoughts and feelings in the present moment. DM in children and adolescents has been related to mechanisms of change in mindfulness-based interventions, which have shown significant mediation relationships with mental health outcomes (for instance, lower social anxiety, depression symptoms, or perceived stress). However, the assessment of DM among children and adolescents is being unsatisfactory due cultural biases and/or reliability issues. In this study, we examined the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) in a sample of 687 children and adolescents between 8 and 16 years old. Although the CAMM has been validated in English, Portuguese, Italian, and Catalonian versions, until now no data has been reported in a Spanish context. Results showed that the best CAMM factor structure was constituted by five items from the original version (1, 4, 7, 8, and 9). These items defined dispositional mindfulness. The rest of the items (2, 3, 5, 6, and 10) were eliminated from the Spanish final version. The analyses revealed good reliability and internal consistency for the Spanish version of the CAMM. As we expected, the confirmatory factor analysis showed the unidimensional structure of the CAMM.

Ego Depletion as a Measure of Emotion Processing Deficits among MUS Patients

Previous studies have found a link between emotion processing deficits and medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUS). The majority of previous studies have used self-report measures of emotional processing, with the majority focusing on alexithymia, and have produced inconsistent and contradictory results. In the present study, we investigated the role of emotion-processing deficits in MUS by assessing emotion regulation performance and the effects of performance on ego depletion. Participants with high or low levels of self-reported MUS watched emotion-evoking videos under instructions to allow or suppress their emotional reactions, and then performed an anagram task to measure their effort and perseverance. Contrary to the research with self-report measures, experimental analysis of emotion-processing revealed that MUS is correlated with the inability to regulate negative emotions. Unexpected self-regulatory tendencies of the participants with high symptom levels were discussed.

Mild Depression in Low Back Pain: the Interaction of Thought Suppression and Stress Plays a Role, Especially in Female Patients

PURPOSE

Mild depression has been shown as a precursor and as a consequence of low back pain, even in early phases of acute or subacute pain. Chronic daily life stress as well as dysfunctional pain-related cognitions such as thought suppression (TS) seem to play a role in the pain-depression cycle; however, the mechanisms of these associations are less understood. Experimentally induced TS, conceived as the attempt to directly suppress sensations such as pain, has been shown to paradoxically cause a delayed and non-volitional return of the suppressed thoughts and sensations and to increase affective distress. These dysfunctional processes are supposed to increase under high cognitive load, such as high stress.

METHOD

In the present cross-sectional study, we for the first time sought to examine a possible interaction between habitual TS and stress on depression in N = 177 patients with subacute low back pain (SLBP), using the following questionnaires: Subscale Thought Suppression from Avoidance-Endurance Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, and Kiel Interview of Subjective Situation. A three-way ANOVA was conducted with two groups of TS (high/low), stress (high/low) and sex as independent factors and depression as dependent.

RESULTS

Results indicated a significant three-way interaction with highest depression scores in female patients showing high TS and high stress. Overall main effects for sex and stress indicated higher depression in women and in highly stressed patients.

CONCLUSION

Our findings support the hypothesis that TS heightens depressive mood under conditions of high cognitive load especially in female patients with SLBP indicating a special vulnerability for depressive mood in women with SLBP.

Reductions in anxiety sensitivity cognitive concerns prospectively mitigate trauma symptom development

Identifying a malleable pre-trauma risk marker for posttraumatic stress is crucial to preventing symptom development among at-risk individuals. One such candidate is anxiety sensitivity cognitive concerns (ASCC), which represents the fear of psychological incapacitation due to anxious arousal. While the extant literature suggests that applying ASCC interventions prior to trauma exposure should mitigate development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), this has not been formally tested. We examined whether individuals randomized to receive a Cognitive Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment (CAST; n = 44) prior to a trauma film paradigm would report lower film-specific PTSS after one week compared to individuals randomized to a physical health education training control condition (n = 47). Results revealed that post-intervention ASCC and week-one PTSS were both lower among the CAST condition, and reductions in ASCC mediated the relationship between intervention condition and follow-up PTSS. The current study demonstrated that reducing ASCC prior to an analog trauma can mitigate the development of PTSS. This is critical for establishing ASCC as a causal risk factor for PTSS and encourages the use of ASCC interventions in samples at-risk for trauma exposure.

The tendency for experiencing involuntary future and past mental time travel is robustly related to thought suppression: an exploratory study

Involuntary mental time travel (MTT) refers to projecting oneself into the past or into the future without prior conscious effort. The previous studies have shown high inter-individual variability in the frequency of involuntary MTT, but a few systematic studies exist. In three exploratory studies, we investigated the relation between individual differences in experiencing involuntary past and future MTT, and selected emotional and cognitive processes, with a special focus on thought suppression. Across all three studies, thought suppression emerged as a robust predictor of involuntary MTT above and beyond emotion-related variables, mind-wandering, daydreaming styles, and demographic variables. Findings from Studies 1 and 2 showed that higher thought suppression consistently predicted both more frequent involuntary past and future MTT across an American and a Danish sample, whereas rumination and emotion regulation were less consistently related to involuntary MTT. In Study 3, thought suppression reliably predicted more frequent involuntary MTT, even when controlling for mind-wandering, as well as for positive and negative daydreaming styles, which were all related to greater involuntary MTT. Overall, the individual differences assessed showed similar relationships to the tendency for having past and future involuntary MTT, with the possible exception of daydreaming styles, which appeared more strongly related to future-directed involuntary MTT.

Priming food intake with weight control cues: systematic review with a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

A growing number of studies suggest that exposure to cues which are associated with weight control can prime or prompt controlled food intake in tempting food environments. However, findings are mixed and understanding which types of cues and for whom such cues may be most effective is needed to inform subsequent research and societal applications. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to evaluate the effects of exposure to weight control cues compared with control cues on food intake.

METHODS

PsycINFO, Medline, Embase and Web of Science were searched using key terms. Hedge's g was used to calculate effect sizes based on mean food intake, standard deviations and sample sizes extracted from relevant publications and, a random effects model was used for the meta-analysis.

RESULTS

Twenty-five articles consisting of 26 studies were eligible. Data from 25 studies (31 effect sizes) were available for the meta-analysis. Overall, weight control cues reduced food intake, albeit to a trivial effect (ES: -0.149, 95% CI: -0.271 to - 0.027). Subgroup analyses when studies which induced negative affect were removed showed that for individuals with strong weight control goals the effect was small-to-moderate (ES: -0.440, 95% CI: -0.718 to - 0.163), whereas for individuals with weak weight control goals this effect was trivial and non-significant (ES: 0.014, 95% CI: -0.249 to 0.278). Cue type and level of engagement did not significantly moderate the effect; however, specific cues (low-calorie foods and thin models) and attended engagement yielded significant effects. Caution is needed interpreting these findings as most studies were rated with high risk of bias and a number of studies could not be included in the subgroup analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the data available, weight control cues reduce food intake in individuals with strong weight control goals. Further research is needed to explore longer term effects of cue exposure and confirm underlying mechanisms. PROSPERO registry#CRD42016052396.

Towards augmented human memory: Retrieval-induced forgetting and retrieval practice in an interactive, end-of-day review

The authors report 6 experiments that examined the contention that an end-of-day review could lead to augmentation in human memory. In Experiment 1, participants in the study phase were presented with a campus tour of different to-be-remembered objects in different university locations. Each to-be-remembered object was presented with an associated specific comment. Participants were then shown the location name and photographs of half of the objects from half of the locations, and they were asked to try to name the object and recall the associated comment specific to each item. Following a filled delay, participants were presented with the name of each campus location and were asked to free recall the to-be-remembered objects. Relative to the recall from the unpracticed location categories, participants recalled the names of significantly more objects that they practiced (retrieval practice) and significantly fewer unpracticed objects from the practiced locations (retrieval-induced forgetting, RIF). These findings were replicated in Experiment 2 using a campus scavenger hunt in which participants selected their own stimuli from experimenter’s categories. Following an examination of factors that maximized the effects of RIF and retrieval practice in the laboratory (Experiment 3), the authors applied these findings to the campus scavenger hunt task to create different retrieval practice schedules to maximize and minimize recall of items based on experimenter-selected (Experiment 4) and participant-selected items using both category-cued free recall (Experiment 5) and item-specific cues (Experiment 6). Their findings support the claim that an interactive, end-of-day review could lead to augmentation in human memory.

Cortical Mechanisms of Prioritizing Selection for Rejection in Visual Search

In visual search, the more one knows about a target, the faster one can find it. Surprisingly, target identification is also faster with knowledge about distractor-features. The latter is paradoxical, as it implies that to avoid the selection of an item, the item must somehow be selected to some degree. This conundrum has been termed the "ignoring paradox", and, to date, little is known about how the brain resolves it. Here, in data from four experiments using neuromagnetic brain recordings in male and female humans, we provide evidence that this paradox is resolved by giving distracting information priority in cortical processing. This attentional priority to distractors manifests as an enhanced early neuromagnetic index, which occurs before target-related processing, and regardless of distractor predictability. It is most pronounced on trials for which a response rapidly occurred, and is followed by a suppression of the distracting information. These observations together suggest that in visual search items cannot be ignored without first being selected.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT How can we ignore distracting stimuli in our environment? To do this successfully, a logical hypothesis is that as few neural resources as possible should be devoted to distractor processing. Yet, to avoid devoting resources to a distractor, the brain must somehow mark what to avoid; this is a philosophical problem, which has been termed the "ignoring paradox" or "white bear phenomenon". Here, we use MEG recordings to determine how the human brain resolves this paradox. Our data show that distractors are not only processed, they are given temporal priority, with the brain building a robust representation of the to-be-ignored items. Thus, successful suppression of distractors can only be achieved if distractors are first strongly neurally represented.

Cognitive and Self-regulatory Mechanisms of Obesity Study (COSMOS): Study protocol for a randomized controlled weight loss trial examining change in biomarkers, cognition, and self-regulation across two behavioral treatments

Obesity is a global epidemic, yet successful interventions are rare. Up to 60% of people fail to achieve clinically meaningful, short-term weight loss (5-10% of start weight), whereas up to 72% are unsuccessful at achieving long-term weight loss (5-10% loss for ≥5years). Understanding how biological, cognitive, and self-regulatory factors work together to promote or to impede weight loss is clearly needed to optimize obesity treatment. This paper describes the methodology of the Cognitive and Self-regulatory Mechanisms of Obesity Study (the COSMOS trial). COSMOS is the first randomized controlled trial to investigate how changes in multiple biopsychosocial and cognitive factors relate to weight loss and one another across two weight loss treatments. The specific aims are to: 1) Confirm that baseline obesity-related physiological dysregulation is linked to cognitive deficits and poorer self-regulation, 2) Evaluate pre- to post-treatment change across time to assess individual differences in biomarkers, cognition, and self-regulation, and 3) Evaluate whether the acceptance-based treatment (ABT) group has greater improvements in outcomes (e.g., greater weight loss and less weight regain, improvements in biomarkers, cognition, and self-regulation), than the standard behavioral treatment group (SBT) from pre- to post-treatment and 1-year follow-up. The results of COSMOS will provide critical information about how dysregulation in biomarkers, cognition, and/or self-regulation is related to weight loss and whether weight loss treatments are differentially associated with these factors. This information will be used to identify promising treatment targets that are informed by biological, cognitive, and self-regulatory factors in order to advance obesity treatment.

[Emotion regulation and pain : Behavioral and neuronal correlates: a transdiagnostic approach]

Emotions and emotion regulation are of special importance in the perception and modulation of pain but the mechanisms underlying this reciprocal relationship remain unclear. The transdiagnostic model provides an approach to explain the link between pain and emotion regarding cognitive and neuronal mechanisms and aims to identify mutual processes, which are relevant for both. Structural and functional imaging studies of pain indicate the involvement of specific cortical and subcortical structures, which also play an important role in emotion regulation. While numerous studies have investigated emotion regulation and their correlates in the central nervous system in pathological states, the research on emotion regulation in pain is still young. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of experimental and clinical studies of neuronal and behavioral correlates of pain-related emotion regulation. The current transdiagnostic approach may be able to enhance pain relief in the future.

Do positive spontaneous thoughts function as incentive salience?

The present work explores the theoretical relationship between positive spontaneous thoughts and incentive salience-a psychological property thought to energize wanting and approach motivation by rendering cues that are associated with enjoyment more likely to stand out to the individual when subsequently encountered in the environment (Berridge, 2007). We reasoned that positive spontaneous thoughts may at least be concomitants of incentive salience, and as such, they might likewise mediate the effect of liking on wanting. In Study 1, 103 adults recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk reported on key aspects of 10 everyday activities. As predicted, positive spontaneous thoughts mediated the relationship between liking an activity in the past and wanting to engage in it in the future. In Study 2, 99 undergraduate students viewed amusing and humorless cartoons and completed a thought-listing task, providing experimental evidence for the causal effect of liking on positive spontaneous thoughts. In Study 3, we tested whether positive spontaneous thoughts play an active role in energizing wanting rather than merely co-occurring with (inferred) incentive salience. In that experiment involving 80 undergraduates, participants who were led to believe that their spontaneous thoughts about a target activity were especially positive planned to devote more time to that activity over the coming week than participants who received no such information about their spontaneous thoughts. Collectively, these findings suggest that positive spontaneous thoughts may play an important role in shaping approach motivation. Broader implications and future directions in the study of positive spontaneous thoughts are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

An updated meta-analysis of the ego depletion effect

The ego depletion effect is one of the most famous phenomena in social psychology. A recent meta-analysis showed that after accounting for small-studies effects by using a newly developed method called PET-PEESE, the ego depletion effect was indistinguishable from zero. However, it is too early to draw such rushing conclusion because of the inappropriate usage of PET-PEESE. The current paper reported a stricter and updated meta-analysis of ego depletion by carefully inspecting problems in the previous meta-analysis, including new studies not covered by it, and testing the effectiveness of each depleting task. The results suggest that attention video should be an ineffective depleting task, whereas emotion video should be the most effective one. Future studies are needed to confirm the effectiveness of each depletion task revealed by the current meta-analysis.

Measuring Experiential Avoidance: Evidence toward Multidimensional Predictors of Trauma Sequelae

The current study sought to investigate measurement discrepancies in self-report assessment of experiential avoidance (EA). Recent research indicates that EA may be more appropriately conceptualized as a multidimensional construct, operationally defined in terms of specific avoidance strategies. To test this notion, EA was measured using two self-report assessment instruments, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) and the Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (MEAQ) in a convenience sample of university students. Measurement differences across measures and unique contributions to prediction of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and engagement in problematic behaviors were evaluated. Both the AAQ-II and MEAQ were found to significantly mediate the effect of childhood trauma exposure on PTSS. However, when levels of PTSS were dummy coded into dichotomies of those with a likely PTSD diagnosis and those without, the MEAQ was a stronger predictor symptoms of those with a likely PTSD diagnosis than AAQ-II did. These results provide initial support for the discriminant validity of the MEAQ, which appears to be a more specific predictor of trauma-related symptoms.

Seeing conflict and engaging control: Experience with contrastive language benefits executive function in preschoolers

Engaging executive function often requires overriding a prepotent response in favor of a conflicting but adaptive one. Language may play a key role in this ability by supporting integrated representations of conflicting rules. We tested whether experience with contrastive language that could support such representations benefits executive function in 3-year-old children. Children who received brief experience with language highlighting contrast between objects, attributes, and actions showed greater executive function on two of three 'conflict' executive function tasks than children who received experience with contrasting stimuli only and children who read storybooks with the experimenter, controlling for baseline executive function. Experience with contrasting stimuli did not benefit executive function relative to reading books with the experimenter, indicating experience with contrastive language, rather than experience with contrast generally, was key. Experience with contrastive language also boosted spontaneous attention to contrast, consistent with improvements in representing contrast. These findings indicate a role for language in executive function that is consistent with the Cognitive Complexity and Control theory's key claim that coordinating conflicting rules is critical to overcoming perseveration, and suggest new ideas for testing theories of executive function.

'Forget me (not)?' - Remembering Forget-Items Versus Un-Cued Items in Directed Forgetting

Humans need to be able to selectively control their memories. This capability is often investigated in directed forgetting (DF) paradigms. In item-method DF, individual items are presented and each is followed by either a forget- or remember-instruction. On a surprise test of all items, memory is then worse for to-be-forgotten items (TBF) compared to to-be-remembered items (TBR). This is thought to result mainly from selective rehearsal of TBR, although inhibitory mechanisms also appear to be recruited by this paradigm. Here, we investigate whether the mnemonic consequences of a forget instruction differ from the ones of incidental encoding, where items are presented without a specific memory instruction. Four experiments were conducted where un-cued items (UI) were interspersed and recognition performance was compared between TBR, TBF, and UI stimuli. Accuracy was encouraged via a performance-dependent monetary bonus. Experiments varied the number of items and their presentation speed and used either letter-cues or symbolic cues. Across all experiments, including perceptually fully counterbalanced variants, memory accuracy for TBF was reduced compared to TBR, but better than for UI. Moreover, participants made consistently fewer false alarms and used a very conservative response criterion when responding to TBF stimuli. Thus, the F-cue results in active processing and reduces false alarm rate, but this does not impair recognition memory beyond an un-cued baseline condition, where only incidental encoding occurs. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.