Cognitive strategies, expectancy, and coping style in the control of pain.

Measures of tolerance, self-reported pain threshold, and overall discomfort of cold-pressor pain were obtained from 114 male undergraduates in a pretest–training–posttest experiment. Training consisted of brief practice in 1 of 4 cognitive strategies: rational thinking, compatible imagery, incompatible imagery, and task-irrelevant cognition. Analyses of covariance indicated that (a) cognitive-imaginal strategies facilitated endurance of pain and raised self-reported threshold, (b) rational thinking and compatible imagery were generally the most effective treatments, (c) expectancy alone was not a significant pain-attenuating factor, (d) treatments did not affect discomfort ratings, and (e) individual differences in imaginal ability and coping style did not correlate with changes in any of the dependent measures. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-efficacy and perceived control: Cognitive mediators of pain tolerance.

The cold-pressor task was used with 102 female undergraduates in 2 experiments to determine (a) whether self-efficacy has validity as a true causal determinant of behavior change or is a correlate of change that has already occurred and (b) how perceptions of control and self-efficacy interact to determine choice behavior, persistence, and the impact of an aversive stimulus. Results of Experiment 1 indicate that self-efficacy expectations affected performance beyond what would have been expected from past performance alone. Changes in self-efficacy expectations predicted changes in cold-pressor tolerance. These findings suggest that self-efficacy expectations can be causal determinants of behavior in an aversive situation. Results of Experiment 2 indicate that self-efficacy was separable from control and that performance was best if both high levels of perceived control and self-efficacy were present. These findings support the notion that self-efficacy expectations can mediate the desirability of providing control, in that those who benefit most from control are those who are most confident they can exercise it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of prior pain experience and expectancy in psychologically and physically induced pain

Cognitive theories regarding symptom formation suggest that environmental factors such as warnings of impending pain and earlier experiences with pain can lead to a cognitive schema in which pain is selectively monitored. This study evaluated the role of prior experience with pain in the development of expectancy induced somatoform pain. Subjects from two experimental groups were connected to a sham stimulator and told to expect a headache. One of these groups, the physical stimulation first group, was exposed to pain induction by ice water and by pressure prior to the sham stimulation. A second group, the sham stimulation first group, received the sham stimulation followed by the cold water and pressure pain induction techniques. Subjects in the physical stimulation first group showed significant increases in their pain reports as settings on the sham stimulator were increased. Significant increases were not noted in the sham stimulation first group. The two groups did not differ in the number of subjects reporting pain or the mean maximal pain reported during the sham stimulation. Duration of cold water tolerance and the time until the analgesic threshold level for cold water were significantly shorter in subjects who had the sham stimulation first. This study suggests that prior pain can influence the reactivity to external suggestion for pain but does not increase the frequency of pain reports. It does suggest that the selective monitoring induced during the sham stimulation may influence later pain behaviours as was seen during the cold water tolerance testing.     

Metamemory and attributions as mediators of strategy use and recall.

The process by which metamemory and academic causal attributions relate to recall was examined with hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Several alternative conceptualizations of metamemory were used: general metamemory unrelated to the specific task; task-specific metamemory; memory monitoring; and both general and task-specific attributions. In order to examine the additive benefits of strategy and monitoring instructions, 81 4th graders were assigned to 1 of 4 instructional conditions: Strategy Only, Process Monitoring Only, Strategy Plus Process Monitoring, or Practice-Control group. Regression analyses indicated that the relationships between metamemory and recall depended on how metamemory was assessed and on the timing of the child's engagement with the recall task. Whereas general metamemory was significantly related to recall on the posttest and near-transfer tasks, task-specific metamemory became more relevant for transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributional mediators of evaluation, expectancy, and affect: A response time analysis.

In two studies we examined the informational value of ability and effort cues as guides to achievement-related judgments about others. Using a response time methodology, we first presented subjects with information concerning how much ability a failing student had, how hard the student tried, or both. Subsequently, subjects reported interpersonal evaluations, expectancy predictions, and affective judgments of guilt, shame, and unhappiness. Interpersonal evaluations were made the most rapidly when effort information was provided, and expectancy predictions were made the most rapidly when ability information was provided. These data were consistent with an attributional analysis of effort as a more informative causal cue for evaluation and ability as a more informative cue for expectancy. There was only modest support for related hypotheses concerning the cue value of effort and ability as guides to affective judgments. Finally, the response time data provided evidence for an attributional conception of increasingly complex causally mediated judgments. We discuss implications for causal inference and for self-perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive activity and suggestions for analgesia in the reduction of reported pain.

Assessed 38 undergraduates' pain magnitude and pain tolerance for arm immersion in ice water during a baseline and posttest session. Before the posttest, half the Ss received an analgesia suggestion. On the basis of their written testimony, Ss were classified as having either predominately coped (e.g., imagined event inconsistent with pain or made positive self-statements) or predominantly exaggerated (e.g., worried about and exaggerated the noxious aspects of the situation) during each immersion. On both immersions, copers reported less pain and exhibited higher pain tolerance than exaggerators. Moreover, the suggestion was associated with reductions in reported pain only when it transformed baseline exaggerators into posttest copers. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and the balanced-placebo design: The role of experimenter demands in expectancy.

Tested the hypothesis that Ss who were debriefed so that experimenter demands were withdrawn would report beverage content and level of intoxication more accurately than Ss treated as usual in a balanced-placebo experiment. 48 male university students were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 usual groups: told alcohol/received alcohol (.79 ml/kg), told alcohol/received no alcohol, told no alcohol/received alcohol, and told no alcohol/received no alcohol. Ss were told that the data file containing their actual group allocation and previous reports was lost owing to computer breakdown, and thus the experiment did not know which beverage they had drunk. The initial manipulation check revealed a greater effect of expectancy, but the later check revealed a larger effect of drink content. Only 8 of 24 Ss were successfully deceived. Conclusions derived from past studies and the use of the balanced-placebo design in the area of alcohol and expectancies are challenged, although the challenge may be restricted to the use of the design with relatively high doses of alcohol. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol expectancy priming and drinking behavior: The role of compatibility between prime and expectancy content.

According to information-processing models of alcohol use, alcohol expectancies constitute representations in long-term memory that may be activated in the presence of drinking-related cues, thereby influencing alcohol consumption. A fundamental implication of this approach is that primed expectancies should affect drinking only for those individuals who possess the specific expectancies primed. To test this notion, in the present study, participants were initially assessed on 3 distinct domains of positive alcohol expectancies. Approximately 1 week later, they completed an ad libitum drinking study during which only a single expectancy domain (sociability) was primed in the experimental condition. Consistent with predictions, following exposure to sociability primes but not control primes, individuals with stronger expectancies that alcohol would enhance sociability uniquely showed increased placebo consumption of nonalcoholic beer. These results, which demonstrate the moderating role of compatibility between the specific content of primes and that of underlying expectancies, offer new, direct support for memory network-based models of drinking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Illness attributions and hopelessness depression: The role of hopelessness expectancy.

According to hopelessness theory, hopelessness expectancy is the proximal, sufficient cause of hopelessness depression. Consequently, hopelessness expectancy is viewed as mediating the influence of all other factors on hopelessness depression. Using a longitudinal research design, hopelessness expectancy was examined as a mediator of the relation between illness attributions and hopelessness depression in a sample of 57 adults with rheumatoid arthritis. Although hopelessness expectancy was a strong predictor of hopelessness depression, it moderated rather than mediated the relation between attributions and depression. Finding support for a moderating rather than a mediating model is inconsistent with theory but is consistent with the findings of J. H. Riskind et al (1987). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive mediators of aggression in adolescent offenders: II. Intervention.

A 12-session intervention program, based on a model of social–cognitive development, was designed to remediate cognitive factors identified as correlates of aggression (R. G. Slaby and N. G. Guerra; see record 1989-01839-001). 120 male and female adolescents incarcerated for aggression offenses participated in either the cognitive mediation training program, an attention control group, or a no-treatment group. Compared with Ss in both control groups, Ss in the treatment group showed increased skills in solving social problems, decreased endorsement of beliefs supporting aggression, and decreased aggressive, impulsive, and inflexible behaviors, as rated by staff. Posttest aggression was directly related to change in cognitive factors. No group differences were detected for number of parole violators up to 24 months after release. The ways in which changes in cognitive skills and beliefs may mediate changes in aggressive behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive mediators of aggression in adolescent offenders: I. Assessment.

The role of cognitive mediators in identifying differences in aggression was examined. Male and female adolescents incarcerated for antisocial aggression offenses and high-school students rated as either high or low in aggression were compared in terms of two sets of cognitive mediators: skills in solving social problems and beliefs supporting aggression. Antisocial-aggressive individuals were most likely (and low-aggressive individuals were least likely) to solve social problems by: defining problems in hostile ways; adopting hostile goals; seeking few additional facts; generating few alternative solutions; anticipating few consequences for aggression; and choosing few "best" and "second best" solutions that were rated as "effective." Antisocial-aggressive individuals were also most likely to hold a set of beliefs supporting the use of aggression, including beliefs that aggression: is a legitimate response; increases self-esteem; helps avoid a negative image; and does not lead to suffering by the victim. The ways in which these findings further elaborate a model of social-cognitive development and extend it to antisocial-aggressive adolescents are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individuation, gender role, and dissent: Personality mediators of situational forces.

An experimental analysis of dissenting and conforming behavior in small groups revealed a significant interaction between personality and situational variables. Individual differences in gender role and in willingness to be "individuated" were predictive of subjects' choices to disagree or agree with the opinions of other group members. However, this link between personality and social behavior showed within-subjects variation as a function of two situational factors: group norm and opinion topic. Contrary to traditional expectations, personality was a better predictor of behavior on those trials when peer pressure was strong than when it was weak. Personality variables also differentially predicted responses to masculine opinion topics versus feminine ones. These results contribute to a new understanding of the interaction of person and situation, as well as to the psychological meaning of conformity and dissent. They also bear on the long-standing debate about sex differences in influenceability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancy challenge and drinking reduction: Process and structure in the alcohol expectancy network.

Expectancies' mediational (control) role in alcohol consumption has been supported by both correlational and experimental evidence (J. Darkes & M. S. Goldman, 1993; M. S. Goldman, P. E. Greenbaum, & J. Darkes, 1997; L. Roehrich & M. S. Goldman, 1995). This study assigned participants (n?=?54) to 1 of 2 expectancy challenges targeting the expectancy dimensions of either arousal or sociability identified by B. C. Rather and M. S. Goldman (1994), or to a no-treatment control, to examine the relationship of the structure and process of change in alcohol expectancies. Both challenges resulted in reduced consumption and expectancies immediately posttreatment and 6 weeks later after a short "booster" session. These results may reflect the lack of "discrete" expectancy structure and provide further support for the exploration of these methods as a possible prevention strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of drug expectancy in the control of human drug seeking.

Human drug seeking may be goal directed in the sense that it is mediated by a mental representation of the drug or habitual in the sense that it is elicited by drug-paired cues directly. To test these 2 accounts, the authors assessed whether a drug-paired stimulus (S+) would transfer control to an independently trained drug-seeking response. Smokers were trained on an instrumental discrimination that established a tobacco S+ in Experiment 1 and a tobacco and a money S+ in Experiment 2 that elicited an expectancy of their respective outcomes. Participants then learned 2 new instrumental responses, 1 for each outcome, in the absence of these stimuli. Finally, in the transfer test, each S+ was found to augment performance of the new instrumental response that was trained with the same outcome. This outcome-specific transfer effect indicates that drug-paired stimuli controlled human drug seeking via a representation or expectation of the drug rather than through a direct stimulus-response association. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive strategies, experimenter modeling, and expectation in the attenuation of pain.

Obtained verbal reports of pain from 120 female undergraduates during a base-level pretest and also during a posttest conducted under 1 of several experimental treatments. The pain stimulus was a heavy weight applied to a finger for 2 min. During the posttest, Ss who had been asked to utilize cognitive strategies for reducing pain (i.e., to imagine pleasant events or to imagine the finger as insensitive) showed a reduction in pain as compared to uninstructed control Ss. Ss led to expect a reduction in pain, but not provided with cognitive strategies, also showed reduced pain during the posttest compared to controls, but the reduction was smaller than for Ss using cognitive strategies. An E modeling procedure, used with half of the Ss under each experimental treatment, was effective in reducing verbal reports of pain only for Ss with high pretest levels who were asked to imagine pleasant events. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnosis, suggestion, and placebo in the reduction of experimental pain.

Two experiments compared placebo and hypnotic analgesia in high and low hypnotizable subjects. Experiment 1 demonstrated that hypnotic and placebo analgesia were equally ineffective in low hypnotizables, but that hypnotic analgesia was much more effective than placebo analgesia in high hypnotizables. Experiment 2 replicated these results, but also included low and high hypnotizables who were given a nonhypnotic suggestion for analgesia. Both the low and high hypnotizables in this group reported greater suggested than placebo analgesia and as much suggested analgesia as high hypnotizable hypnotic subjects. Both experiments found substantial discrepancies between the amount of pain reduction subjects expected from the various treatments and the amount of pain reduction they actually reported following exposure to those treatments. In Experiment 2, subjects in all treatments who reduced reported pain engaged in more cognitive coping and less catastrophizing than those who did not reduce pain. Theoretical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reassertion and giving up: The interactive role of self-directed attention and outcome expectancy.

Two experiments with 108 female undergraduates tested a theoretical model of behavioral self-regulation, which makes predictions about the effect of failure on a person's subsequent efforts. This model holds that degree of effort will be a product of 2 things: expectancy of being able to redress the failure and degree of self-attention. In the experiments, a failure pretreatment was used to create large within-self discrepancies among Ss. It was predicted that (a) negative outcome expectancies regarding a subsequent task would lead to decreased persistence on that task, (b) positive outcome expectancies for the subsequent task would lead to increased persistence on that task, and (c) both of these tendencies would be mediated by self-directed attention. Results support the predictions. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive functioning in alcoholics: The role of subject attrition.

Studied the role of 4 S factors in research on cognitive ability in alcoholics. These factors were S attrition by failure to meet test performance criteria, duration of alcoholism, education, and age. To assess cognitive ability, 2 versions of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test were used. A total of 60 alcoholic and 37 control male Ss participated. Findings are as follows: (a) Alcoholics had a higher attrition rate than controls (30 vs 3%). (b) The attrition rate was particularly high among alcoholics who were over the age of 45 and had less than 13 yrs of education. (c) Older or less educated alcoholics performed more poorly on the 1st part of the test than did younger or more educated alcoholics. (d) Among controls and alcoholics who completed the entire test, less educated Ss performed more poorly than did more educated Ss. (e) Alcoholics who completed the entire test performed more poorly than did controls. Duration of alcoholism was not related to performance. The importance of S factors, (i.e., S attrition and S selection) in the study of cognitive deficits in alcoholics is emphasized. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive factors in sexual arousal: The role of distraction.

Instructed 4 groups ( N = 26) of male undergraduates to perform, according to group assignments, increasingly complex cognitive operations when randomly presented single digits forming 1 channel of a dichotic listening paradigm. An erotic tape recording forming the 2nd channel was played into the nonattended ear following a warm-up period. Sexual arousal, as measured by changes in penile tumescence, varied directly as a function of the complexity of the distracting or interfering cognitive operations. Clinical implications and the importance of developing ties between basic behavioral science and sex research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information processing strategies in counselor hypothesis testing: The role of selective memory and expectancy.

The issue of confirmatory bias in counselors' clinical hypothesis testing was explored. Previous research has suggested that counselors are unbiased when constructing questioning strategies to test a client hypothesis. This study proceeded on the assumption that questioning is only the beginning of the hypothesis-testing process. In 2 experiments, the way counselors remembered information about a client was examined, and information from a client narrative was selected. In Exp 1, experienced counselors remembered more confirmatory than disconfirmatory information, even when the report they reviewed contained more disconfirmatory information. In Exp 2, counselors in training selected more confirmatory than disconfirmatory information, even when the report they reviewed contained more disconfirmatory information. Conclusions of the study were the following: Counselors need to be aware of these biases, and counselor education should explicitly train counselors to avoid them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)