Delusional thinking and cognitive organization in schizophrenia.

A delusion can be conceptualized as a form of cognitive reorganization; according to this interpretation a delusion serves to integrate into a meaningful and acceptable whole data which otherwise would be anxiety provoking. On the assumption that the utilization of delusions is representative of a generalized cognitive technique for dealing with ambiguous inputs it was hypothesized that delusional schizophrenics should manifest a stronger tendency to integrate ambiguous stimuli in a laboratory situation than nondelusional schizophrenics. To test the hypothesis 24 delusional and 25 nondelusional schizophrenics were compared on the McGill Closure Test. The results supported the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal investigation of information processing and cognitive organization in clinical depression: Stability of schematic interconnectedness.

This study longitudinally investigated information processing and cognitive organization in clinical depression. The main hypothesis was that individuals whose depression had remitted would show a significant cognitive shift on information processing (e.g., deactivation of negative processing) but not on cognitive organizational tasks. Forty-five individuals with clinical depression completed 2 information processing and 2 cognitive organizational tasks at initial assessment. At 6-month follow-up, the sample (23 remitted, 22 stable depressed) was readministered the tasks. As expected, information processing shifted significantly in individuals who had improved symptomatically, whereas negative cognitive organizational indices remained stable. The implications of these results are discussed as they pertain to the cognitive vulnerability, maintenance, treatment, and recurrence of depression. Directions for future research are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leveling-sharpening and memory organization.

The Schematizing Test (see 35: 2266) and a psychophysical task utilizing the method of single stimuli were used to differentiate a group of "levelers" (in a perceputal sense—or, in a psychoanalytic sense, repressors) from "sharpeners." Ss were asked to relate requested details of a story (the Pied Piper of Hamlin), the story being used as a measure of remote memory. The groups were differentiated on the basis of such recall. The results were seen as supporting the effects of cognitive style upon memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using a modified Stroop task to implicitly discern the cognitive organization of alcohol expectancies.

Alcohol expectancies have been statistically modeled as memory networks that influence future consumption. To test the organization of expectancies suggested by these models, a modified Stroop color-naming task incorporated expectancy words associated in past research with heavy and light drinking. Light and heavy drinkers ink-named expectancy targets after being cued with an alcohol beverage word or a nonalcohol beverage word. Consistent with predictions derived from statistical models, heavy drinkers displayed significant interference when arousing expectancy words had been primed by an alcohol beverage word, whereas light drinkers displayed significant interference when sedating expectancy targets had been so primed. These results reinforce the idea that mediation of alcohol use by expectancies may be implicit as well as explicit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Normative data on cognitive measures of depression.

The assessment of cognition and cognitive change is important for case conceptualization, monitoring the efficacy of specific interventions, and evaluating treatment outcome in cognitive-behavioral therapy. Unfortunately, a paucity of normative data exists on cognitive measures used for psychotherapy outcome research in depression, and little information is available to guide a practitioner's understanding of the magnitude and clinical significance of a patient's cognitive change. This article presents normative data on 6 self-report instruments that assess negative and positive automatic thoughts, hopelessness, cognitive biases and errors, and dysfunctional attitudes. Normative data were derived from studies published from the date of inception of a given cognitive index to the year 2000. Recommendations for the use of these normative data are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-organization of cognitive performance.

Background noise is the irregular variation across repeated measurements of human performance. Background noise remains after task and treatment effects are minimized. Background noise refers to intrinsic sources of variability, the intrinsic dynamics of mind and body, and the internal workings of a living being. Two experiments demonstrate l/f scaling (pink noise) in simple reaction times and speeded word naming times, which round out a catalog of laboratory task demonstrations that background noise is pink noise. Ubiquitous pink noise suggests processes of mind and body that change each other's dynamics. Such interaction-dominant dynamics are found in systems that self-organize their behavior. Self-organization provides an unconventional perspective on cognition, but this perspective closely parallels a contemporary interdisciplinary view of living systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confidence and cognitive test performance.

This article examines the nature of confidence in relation to abilities, personality, and metacognition. Confidence scores were collected during the administration of Reading and Listening sections of the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT) to 824 native speakers of English. Those confidence scores were correlated with performance accuracy scores from the TOEFL iBT and SAT, high school grade point averages (HS-GPA), and measures of personality and metacognition. The results of factor analyses indicate that confidence is a separate psychological trait, somewhere between ability and personality. The findings also suggest that confidence is related to, but separate from, metacognition. Gender and ethnic differences in confidence are also reported, with men and African Americans showing higher overconfidence bias than women and Whites or Hispanics, respectively. Finally, the data show small incremental validity of the confidence scores above and beyond the accuracy scores in predicting performance on the TOEFL iBT as a whole, the Writing and Speaking sections of the TOEFL iBT, and a test of numeracy. Confidence does not show incremental validity for the SAT and HS-GPA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and cognitive inhibition.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated whether anxiety proneness is associated with impaired inhibitory processing. Participants made speeded decisions requiring inhibition of threatening or neutral meanings of ambiguous words, which were inappropriate in their current context. In Experiment 1 there were no differences found in inhibitory processing associated with anxiety. However, in Experiment 2, when the capacity for controlled processing was reduced by imposition of a mental load, anxious individuals showed a response pattern consistent with a general impairment of inhibitory processing. In Experiment 3, a group who had experienced a traumatic event also showed evidence of impaired inhibition, despite the absence of additional load. Thus anxiety proneness is associated with a general deficit of inhibitory processing, but this may be revealed only under conditions that limit the availability of controlled processing resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal behavior in a changing organization.

Developed an instrument assessing organization members' perceptions of their own interpersonal behavior and applied it in a study of staff reorganization in a mental hospital to test hypotheses that reactions differed between job levels, similar organizational units, and times of measurement. Analysis of variance showed consistent significant differences between job levels but no consistent differences between similar units or times of measurement. Existence of many stable emergent organizational characteristics were not demonstrated; instead the data were viewed as a demonstration of the effects of bureaucratic control. Reliability and validity of the approach are considered promising. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal problems, personality pathology, and social adjustment after cognitive therapy for depression.

The authors examined the level and structure- of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems--Circumplex version (IIP-C; L. M. Horowitz. L. E. Alden, J. S. Wiggins, & A. L. Pincus, 2000) before and after 20 sessions of acute-phase cognitive therapy for depression (N=118), as well as associations with the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (L. A. Clark, 1993b) and the Social Adjustment Scale--Self-Report version (M. M. Weissman & S. Bothwell, 1976). Interpersonal problems had a 3-factor structure (Interpersonal Distress, Love, and Dominance), with the latter 2 factors approximating a circumplex, both before and after therapy. Interpersonal Distress decreased and social adjustment increased with therapy, but the Love and Dominance dimensions were relatively stable, similar to personality constructs. Social adjustment related negatively to Interpersonal Distress but not to Love or Dominance. Personality pathology related broadly to Interpersonal Distress and discriminantly to Love and Dominance. These findings support the reliability and validity of the IIP-C and are discussed in the context of personality theory and measurement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brain and cognitive evolution: Forms of modularity and functions of mind.

Genetic and neurobiological research is reviewed as related to controversy over the extent to which neocortical organization and associated cognitive functions are genetically constrained or emerge through patterns of developmental experience. An evolutionary framework that accommodates genetic constraint and experiential modification of brain organization and cognitive function is then proposed. The authors argue that 4 forms of modularity and 3 forms of neural and cognitive plasticity define the relation between genetic constraint and the influence of developmental experience. For humans, the result is the ontogenetic emergence of functional modules in the domains of folk psychology, folk biology, and folk physics. The authors present a taxonomy of these modules and review associated research relating to brain and cognitive plasticity in these domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress-related cognitive interference predicts cognitive function in old age.

Both subjective distress and cognitive interference have been proposed as mechanisms underlying the negative effects of stress on cognition. Studies of aging have shown that distress is associated with lower cognitive performance, but none have examined the effects of cognitive interference. One hundred eleven older adults (Mage=80) completed measures of working memory, processing speed, and episodic memory as well as self-report measures of subjective distress and cognitive interference. Cognitive interference was strongly associated with poorer performance on all 3 cognitive constructs, whereas distress was only modestly associated with lower working memory. The results suggest that cognitive process related to stress is an important predictor of cognitive function in advanced age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of member influence in an organization: Phenomenology versus organization structure.

This study explores the relative tenability of 2 hypotheses concerning the effects on members' loyalty and activity of membership influence in an organization. The phenomenological hypothesis explains the effects in terms of the influence which the members perceive to exist; the structural hypothesis in terms of the influence that actually does exist. This is a secondary analysis of questionnaire data from a previous survey of 104 leagues of the League of Women Voters of the U. S. Significant interleague correlations are found between members' average perceptions of membership influence in their respective leagues and the average loyalty and activity of members in these leagues who are matched on perception of influence. These correlations cannot easily be explained phenomenologically since the members who differ in loyalty and activity report identical perceptions of membership influence. (34 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The stability of cognitive controls.

Test-retest reliabilities of measures of cognitive controls reported in a previous publication (Gardner et al., 1959) were seen to be, in general, statistically high. The assumption is made, therefore, that cognitive controls are relatively stable features of cognitive organizations. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2HE85G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using cognitive science methods to assess the role of social information processing in sexually coercive behavior.

74 undergraduate men completed cognitive performance tasks assessing perceptual organization, classification, and category learning, as well as self-report measures relevant to sexual coercion. The stimuli were slides of Caucasian women who varied along affect and physical exposure (i.e., sensuality) dimensions. Data were analyzed using a weighted multidimensional scaling model, signal-detection theory analyses, and a connectionist learning model (RASHNL; J. K. Kruschke and M. K. Johansen, 1999). Individual differences in performance on the classification and category-learning tasks were congruent with individual differences in perceptual organization. Additionally, participants who showed relatively more attention to exposure than to affect were less sensitive to women's negative responses to unwanted sexual advances. Overall, the study demonstrates the feasibility and utility of cognitive science methods for studying information processing in psychopathology, (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual organization and intelligence: A further study.

This experiment was a replication of that of Krech and Calvin (Levels of perceptual organization and cognition. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1953, 48, 394-400) using modified techniques. The correlation previously reported by Krech and Calvin between intelligence and perception, did not obtain upon replication. The data confirmed their finding that progression over trials was usually from low to high perceptual organization, but did not show a correlation between perception and stimulus-exposure time from 0.01 to 1.00 second. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of cognitive stimulation on the relations between age and cognitive functioning.

To make a convincing argument that cognitive stimulation moderates age trends in cognition there must be (a) a negative relation between age and level of cognitive stimulation, (b) a positive relation between level of cognitive stimulation and level of cognitive functioning, and (c) evidence of an interaction between age and cognitive stimulation in the prediction of cognitive functioning. These conditions were investigated in a study in which 204 adults between 20 and 91 years of age completed an activity inventory and performed a variety of cognitive tasks. Only the 1st condition received empirical support, and, thus, the results of this study provide little evidence for the hypothesis that cognitive stimulation preserves or enhances cognitive functioning that would otherwise decline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discontinuities and cognitive changes in an exposure-based cognitive therapy for depression.

Significant shifts or discontinuities in symptom course can mark points of transition and reveal important change processes. The authors investigated 2 patterns of change in depression-the rapid early response and a transient period of apparent worsening that the authors call a depression spike. Participants were 29 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder who enrolled in an open trial of an exposure-based cognitive therapy. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed an overall cubic shape of symptom change and that both the rapid response and spike patterns predicted lower posttreatment depression. Patients wrote weekly narratives about their depression. Early narratives of rapid responders were coded as having more hope than those of nonrapid responders. The narratives of patients with a depression spike had more cognitive-emotional processing during this period of arousal than those without a spike. Findings are discussed in the context of cognitive-emotional processing theories in depression and anxiety disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)