Depression and the illusion of control

24 depressed and 24 nondepressed undergraduates (Beck Depression Inventory) placed bets on a dice game. The throwing of the dice was either under player-control or croupier-control conditions. As predicted, depressed Ss were more confident of success in the croupier-control condition, and nondepressed Ss were more confident of success in the player-control condition. Results support the view that depressed Ss are characterized by a sense of personal incompetence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learned helplessness, depression, and the illusion of control.

Do people previously exposed to uncontrollable aversive events, like naturally depressed people, fail to succumb to an illusion of control in a situation in which events occur noncontingently but are associated with success? 120 depressed and nondepressed undergraduates (as determined by Beck Depression Inventory and Multiple Affect Adjective Check List) were assigned to 1 of 3 groups that make up the typical triad used in studies of learned helplessness: controllable noises, uncontrollable noises, or no noises. Following pretreatment, Ss judged how much control they had in a noncontingency learning problem. For half of the Ss, events were noncontingent and associated with failure; for the remaining Ss, events were noncontingent but associated with success. Contrary to the predictions of learned helplessness theory, nondepressed Ss previously exposed to uncontrollable noises showed a robust illusion of control in the condition in which events were noncontingent but associated with success; nondepressed Ss previously exposed to controllable noises judged control accurately. Depressed Ss also judged control accurately regardless of their previous noise experience. Results are interpreted as consistent with the egotism hypothesis. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of deliberative and implemental mind-sets on illusion of control.

In Experiment 1, Ss worked on 2 identical apparatuses in an attempt to turn on the target light by pressing or not pressing a button. In Experiment 2, the 1st experimental group was asked to complete a mental exercise that requested the deliberation of an unresolved personal problem, whereas a 2nd experimental group was requested to plan the implementation of a personal goal. Ss in both groups were then asked to find out how to turn on the target light on an apparatus that produced frequent noncontingent outcomes. A control group worked on this contingency task without any pretreatment. The control judgments of the 1st experimental group were much more accurate than those of the 2nd experimental group or the control group. Overall findings suggest that people who are trying to make decisions develop a deliberative mind-set that allows for a realistic view of action–outcome expectancies, whereas people who try to act on a decision develop an implemental mind-set that promotes illusionary optimism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ironic processes in the mental control of mood and mood-related thought.

Investigated the mental control of mood and mood-related thought. In Exp 1, Ss reminiscing about a happy or sad event were asked to make their mood positive, were given no instructions, or were asked to make their mood negative. Ss attempting mood control without an imposed cognitive load were successful, whereas those who attempted control while rehearsing a 9-digit number not only failed to control their moods, but also showed self-reported mood change opposite the mood they intended to create. In Exp 2, Ss attempting to control mood-related thoughts under cognitive load showed increased accessibility of those thoughts contrary to the direction of intended control in a Stroop-type color-naming task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and the illusion of control: The role of esteem maintenance and impression management.

Examined 2 motivational explanations (the esteem maintenance and impression management hypotheses) for depressive realism and nondepressive illusions of control. After completing measures assessing self-esteem (SE) and attitudes about the relationship between SE and control, 66 depressed (DP) and 77 nondepressed (NDP) Ss performed a judgment of noncontingency task in either a public or private setting. Findings suggest that both of the motivational hypotheses were related to control judgments. However, there was no evidence that these motives are the ones that underlie the typical failure of depressed individuals to succumb to the illusion of control. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Induced mood and preschoolers' behavior: Isolating the effects of hedonic tone and degree of arousal.

A circumplex model of emotion was used to examine the role of hedonic tone and degree of arousal in the effects of induced mood on children's persistence behavior. A total of 45 preschool children were asked to describe and think about either exciting, calm, or sad experiences and then perform a persistence task. Heart rate was continuously recorded throughout the session. Observers' ratings of facial expressions and parents' ratings of the experiences provided convergent validation of the induction procedure. Children in the excited induction were rated as displaying facial expressions and situations of those in the calm induction were also rated as positive, but less arousing, whereas those in the sad induction were rated as low on both. Concurrent heart rate recordings showed differential effects of the mood condition on autonomic arousal during the period when the children were generating the affect-induction procedure. Subsequent performance on a persistence task indicated that higher levels of arousal increased the amount of work completed, whereas higher levels of pleasure did not. Differential levels of autonomic arousal were displayed during the persistence task. These findings validate two important elements of the experimental design: (a) excited versus calm states induce similar levels of pleasure but different levels of arousal, and (b) calm versus sad states induce similar levels of arousal but different levels of pleasure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the false-memory illusion.

The counterintuitive developmental trend in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) illusion (that false-memory responses increase with age) was investigated in learning-disabled and nondisabled children from the 6- to 14-year-old age range. Fuzzy-trace theory predicts that because there are qualitative differences in how younger versus older children and disabled versus nondisabled children connect meaning information across the words on DRM lists, certain key effects that are observed in adult studies will be absent in young children and in learning-disabled children. Data on 6 such adult effects (list strength, recall inflation, delayed inflation, delayed stability, thematic intrusion, and true-false dissociation) were used to investigate this hypothesis, and the resulting data were consistent with prediction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroticism and the illusion of mental health.

Comments on the argument by J. Schedler et al (see record 1994-09623-001) that standard mental health scales appear unable to distinguish between genuine mental health and the illusion of mental health created by psychological defenses. It is asserted that Schedler et al misstate the psychometric position and fail to demonstrate the superiority of clinical judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of the Müller-Lyer illusion on the planning and control of manual aiming movements.

Two experiments used Müller-Lyer stimuli to test the predictions of the planning-control model (S. Glover, 2002) for aiming movements. In Experiment 1, participants aimed to stimuli that either remained the same or changed upon movement initiation. Experiment 2 was identical except that the duration of visual feedback for online control was manipulated. The authors found that the figures visible during movement planning and online control had additive effects on endpoint bias, even when participants had ample time to use visual feedback to modify their movements (Experiment 2). These findings are problematic not only for the planning-control model but also for A. D. Milner and M. A. Goodale's (1995) two visual system explanation of illusory bias. Although our results are consistent with the idea that a single representation is used for perception, movement planning, and online control (e.g., V. H. Franz, 2001), other work from our laboratory and elsewhere suggests that the manner in which space is coded depends on constraints associated with the specific task, such as the visual cues available to the performer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional processing and the subjective contour illusion.

To distinguish between bottom–up and top–down (TD) accounts of subjective contour (SC) perception, the present investigation used a dual-task paradigm to test the relative attentional demands of real SC perception. In the primary task, 16 undergraduates made speeded same–different discriminations of either paired SC forms or their real contour analogs. Half the Ss performed this primary task in conjunction with a 6-digit short-term memory load secondary task. If subjective forms impose a greater limited-capacity processing load than real forms, then the need to share processing capacity with a secondary task was expected to produce a greater increment in RT for subjective relative to real forms. Results indicate that the expected enhanced RT increment for subjective relative to real forms with the addition of a concurrent memory load was limited to same trials. This result implies that the nature of response indicators must be considered in assessing capacity requirements with the sort of dual-task paradigm used in the present investigation. Nevertheless, the fact that the increment in same RT with the addition of a concurrent memory load was greater for subjective relative to real forms accords with expectations derived from the notion that the perception of SCs is more attention-demanding than that of real contours. A comprehensive theory of SC perception will most likely be formulated within the TD perspective of conceptually driven visual information processing. (90 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal clock processes and the filled-duration illusion.

In 3 experiments, the authors compared duration judgments of filled stimuli (tones) with unfilled ones (intervals defined by clicks or gaps in tones). Temporal generalization procedures (Experiment 1) and verbal estimation procedures (Experiments 2 and 3) all showed that subjective durations of the tones were considerably longer than those of unfilled intervals defined either by clicks or gaps, with the unfilled intervals being judged as approximately 55%-65% of the duration of the filled ones when real duration was the same. Analyses derived from the pacemaker-switch-accumulator clock model incorporated into scalar timing theory suggested that the filled/unfilled difference in mean estimates was due to higher pacemaker speed in the former case, although conclusively ruling out alternative interpretations in terms of attention remains difficult. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postpartum depression and symbiotic illusion.

Discusses the phenomenon of postpartum depression from a transgenerational perspective. The concept of symbiosis is taken from the mother's point of view as well as from the baby's. Symbiosis is defined as a delusional 2-person fantasy of mutual dependence rather than as a normal phase of development. Analysis of a case of postnatal depression is presented to illustrate the clinical and theoretical implications of this viewpoint and how it was applied in treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ecological momentary assessment of mood disorders and mood dysregulation.

In this review, we discuss ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies on mood disorders and mood dysregulation, illustrating 6 major benefits of the EMA approach to clinical assessment: (a) Real-time assessments increase accuracy and minimize retrospective bias; (b) repeated assessments can reveal dynamic processes; (c) multimodal assessments can integrate psychological, physiological, and behavioral data; (d) setting- or context-specific relationships of symptoms or behaviors can be identified; (e) interactive feedback can be provided in real time; and (f) assessments in real-life situations enhance generalizability. In the context of mood disorders and mood dysregulation, we demonstrate that EMA can address specific research questions better than laboratory or questionnaire studies. However, before clinicians and researchers can fully realize these benefits, sets of standardized e-diary questionnaires and time sampling protocols must be developed that are reliable, valid, and sensitive to change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deconstructing the McGurk–MacDonald illusion.

Cross-modal illusions such as the McGurk–MacDonald effect have been used to illustrate the automatic, encapsulated nature of multisensory integration. This characterization is based in the widespread assumption that the illusory percept arising from intersensory conflict reflects only the end-product of the multisensory integration process, with the mismatch between the original unisensory events remaining largely hidden from awareness. Here the authors show that when presented with desynchronized audiovisual speech syllables, observers are often able to detect the temporal mismatch while experiencing the McGurk–MacDonald illusion. Thus, contrary to previous assumptions, it seems possible to gain access to information about the individual sensory components of a multisensory (integrated) percept. On the basis of this and similar findings, the authors argue that multisensory integration is a multifaceted process during which different attributes of the (multisensory) object might be bound by different mechanisms and possibly at different times. This proposal contrasts with classic conceptions of multisensory integration as a homogeneous process whereby all the attributes of a multisensory event are treated in a unified manner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Terrestrial passage theory of the moon illusion.

Reviews theories of the celestial, or moon, illusion and asserts that they have neglected geometric characteristics of movement along and above the surface of the earth. It is suggested that the illusion occurs because the characteristics of terrestrial passage are attributed to celestial passage. In terrestrial passage, the visual angle subtended by an object changes discriminably as an essentially invariant function of elevation above the horizon. In celestial passage, by contrast, change in visual angle is indiscriminable at all elevations. If a terrestrial object gains altitude, its angular subtense fails to follow the expansion projected for an orbital course: Angular diminution or constancy is equivalent to distancing. On the basis of terrestrial projections, a similar failure of celestial objects in successive elevations is also equivalent to distancing. It is argued that the illusion occurs because of retinal image constancy, not—as traditionally stated—despite it. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size illusion, distance illusion, and terrestrial passage: Comment on Reed.

Comments on C. F. Reed's (see record 1985-29807-001) terrestrial-passage theory, in which it is assumed that the moon's failure to increase in visual subtense while elevating is accounted for strictly by perceptual distancing. This allows a formal account of the moon distance illusion, but at the expense of a compelling explanation of the moon size illusion. In order to explain the distance illusion, Reed also assumes that all objects, regardless of their perceived altitude, are perceived to start from a common point at the horizon. Several alternative applications of Reed's terrestrial-passage foundation to the actual illusions are suggested. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The tactile continuity illusion.

We can perceive the continuity of an object or event by integrating spatially/temporally discrete sensory inputs. The mechanism underlying this perception of continuity has intrigued many researchers and has been well documented in both the visual and auditory modalities. The present study shows for the first time to our knowledge that an illusion of continuity also occurs with vibrotactile stimulation. We found that when the brief temporal gaps inserted into a vibrotactile target were filled with vibrotactile noise, the target vibration was perceived to continue through the noise if the target vibration was sufficiently weak relative to the noise. It is important that the illusory continuity of the vibration cannot be distinguished from the physically continuous vibration. These results therefore suggest that the continuity illusion is common to multiple sensory modalities and that it reflects a fundamental principle of perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The illusion of external agency.

People typically underestimate their capacity to generate satisfaction with future outcomes. When people experience such self-generated satisfaction, they may mistakenly conclude that it was caused by an influential, insightful, and benevolent external agent. In three laboratory experiments, participants who were allowed to generate satisfaction with their outcomes were especially likely to conclude that an external agent had subliminally influenced their choice of partners (Study 1), had insight into their musical preferences (Study 2), and had benevolent intentions when giving them a stuffed animal (Study 3). These results suggest that belief in omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent external agents, such as God, may derive in part from people's failure to recognize that they have generated their own satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-devaluation and depressed mood.

E. Velten's (1968) mood induction procedure (VMIP) has been used in a variety of studies to induce depressed moods. Its effectiveness has been attributed to the self-devaluative nature of its statements, and it has been used as support for cognitive self-evaluation theories of depression. An alternative hypothesis is that suggestions of somatic states characteristic of depression, which are found in nearly half of the VMIP depression statements, account for the effectiveness of the procedure. 60 female college students were randomly assigned to 5 groups: VMIP depression, VMIP elation, VMIP neutral, somatic suggestion, and self-devaluation. The VMIP depression statements were divided into those that suggest somatic states characteristic of depression, (e.g., fatigue and exhaustion) and those that are self-devaluative, (e.g., statements of low self-worth) to form the somatic suggestion and self-devaluation conditions. Somatic suggestion Ss reported more depressed mood than neutral Ss. Somatic suggestion Ss also reported more depressed mood than self-devaluation Ss on several measures. Results support a somatic suggestion hypothesis and offer no support for self-devaluative interpretations of VMIP effects. This limits the support VMIP studies offer to cognitive self-evaluation theories of depression. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assimilation theory and the Ponzo illusion: Quantitative predictions.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 26(2) of Canadian Journal of Psychology Revue Canadienne de Psychologie (see record 2007-04524-001). A corrected formula is provided.] Predicted that the ponzo illusion would increase, and then decrease as angle of the oblique arms increased, on the basis of assimilation theory. A reversed illusion was predicted when the angle was very obtuse. 4 orientations of the ponzo illusion were employed. In these the apex pointed to the top, bottom, left, and right. A different orientation was used on each of 4 sessions separated by a minimum of 1 day. The order was randomized for each of 9 men and 6 women ss. Both predictions were verified. Data suggest a change in the attentive field postulate of assimilation theory, and a general formula was derived to obtain a numerical estimate of illusion. (french summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)