Emotion processes in voice-hearers: Understanding differences in emotional reactivity, emotion regulation and alexithymia.

Objectives: Disrupted emotion processes are commonly linked to the onset and maintenance of auditory verbal hallucinations. However, a comprehensive approach using an extended emotion model has not previously been applied to voice-hearers to distinguish impairments in emotion processes from non-clinical populations. The present study hypothesised voice-hearers, as compared to controls, would have (1) higher reactivity to negative emotions and lower reactivity to positive emotions, (2) more difficulties regulating negative and positive emotions, (3) more maladaptive strategy use, and (4) higher alexithymia.

EXPRESS:Spatial Organisation in the Human Mind as a Function of the Distance Between Stimuli.

Studies investigating serial order in working memory have shown that participants from Western cultures are faster at responding to items presented at the beginning of a sequence using their left hand and faster at responding to items at the end with their right hand. This is known as the spatial positional association of response codes (SPoARC) effect. The SPoARC effect provides evidence that recently presented information is spatially organised in the cognitive system along a horizontal axis.

Explaining the SPoARC and SNARC effects with knowledge structures: An expertise account.

Two proposals have been put forward to account conjointly for the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect and the spatial-positional association of response codes (SPoARC) effect: the working memory account and the dual account. Here, on the basis of experimental and theoretical knowledge acquired in the field of expert memory, we propose an alternative account-named the expertise account-that explains both effects through the acquisition and use of knowledge structures (a generalization of "chunks," "retrieval structures," and "templates"), which have been used extensively in expert memory theory. These knowledge structures can be of two types: nonslotted or slotted schemas.

Three Strategies for the Critical Use of Statistical Methods in Psychological Research.

We present three strategies to replace the null hypothesis statistical significance testing approach in psychological research: (1) visual representation of cognitive processes and predictions, (2) visual representation of data distributions and choice of the appropriate distribution for analysis, and (3) model comparison. The three strategies have been proposed earlier, so we do not claim originality. Here we propose to combine the three strategies and use them not only as analytical and reporting tools but also to guide the design of research.

Assessing Emotional Reactivity: Psychometric Properties of the Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale and the Development of a Short Form.

The Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale (PERS) is a 30-item self-report measure of trait levels of emotional reactivity. In this article, we examine the psychometric properties of the PERS subscale and composite scores in an adult community sample ( = 428), and develop an 18-item short form of the measure (PERS-S). The PERS and PERS-S are designed to assess the typical ease of activation, intensity, and duration of one's emotional responses, and do so for positive and negative emotions separately.

The Assessment of Emotional Reactivity Across Negative and Positive Emotions: Development and Validation of the Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale (PERS).

The Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale (PERS) is a newly developed 30-item self-report measure of emotional reactivity (affective style). The PERS measures the typical ease of , , and of one's emotional responses, and importantly does so for and emotions separately. We examined the psychometric properties of the PERS in an adult community sample ( = 183).

Becoming an expert: Ontogeny of expertise as an example of neural reuse.

In this commentary, we discuss an important pattern of results in the literature on the neural basis of expertise: (a) decrease of cerebral activation at the beginning of acquisition of expertise and (b) functional cerebral reorganization as a consequence of years of practice. We show how these two results can be integrated with the neural reuse framework.

Does the cognitive reflection test measure cognitive reflection? A mathematical modeling approach.

We used a mathematical modeling approach, based on a sample of 2,019 participants, to better understand what the cognitive reflection test (CRT; Frederick In Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19, 25-42, 2005) measures. This test, which is typically completed in less than 10 min, contains three problems and aims to measure the ability or disposition to resist reporting the response that first comes to mind. However, since the test contains three mathematically based problems, it is possible that the test only measures mathematical abilities, and not cognitive reflection.

Expertise modulates the neural basis of context dependent recognition of objects and their relations.

Recognition of objects and their relations is necessary for orienting in real life. We examined cognitive processes related to recognition of objects, their relations, and the patterns they form by using the game of chess. Chess enables us to compare experts with novices and thus gain insight in the nature of development of recognition skills.

Expertise in complex decision making: the role of search in chess 70 years after de Groot.

One of the most influential studies in all expertise research is de Groot's (1946) study of chess players, which suggested that pattern recognition, rather than search, was the key determinant of expertise. Many changes have occurred in the chess world since de Groot's study, leading some authors to argue that the cognitive mechanisms underlying expertise have also changed. We decided to replicate de Groot's study to empirically test these claims and to examine whether the trends in the data have changed over time.

Left lateralization in autobiographical memory: an fMRI study using the expert archival paradigm.

In brain-imaging and behavioral research, studies of autobiographical memory have higher ecological validity than controlled laboratory memory studies. However, they also have less controllability over the variables investigated. This article presents a novel technique - the expert archival paradigm - that increases controllability while maintaining ecological validity.

Brain localization of memory chunks in chessplayers.

Chess experts store domain-specific representations in their long-term memory; due to the activation of such representations, they perform with high accuracy in tasks that require the maintenance of previously seen information. Chunk-based theories of expertise (chunking theory: Chase & Simon, 1973; template theory: Gobet & Simon, 1996) state that expertise is acquired mainly by the acquisition and storage in long-term memory of familiar chunks that allow quick recognition. This study tested some predictions of these theories by using fMRI while chessplayers performed a recognition memory task.

The role of domain-specific practice, handedness, and starting age in chess.

The respective roles of the environment and innate talent have been a recurrent question for research into expertise. The authors investigated markers of talent, environment, and critical period for the acquisition of expert performance in chess. Argentinian chess players (N = 104), ranging from weak amateurs to grandmasters, completed a questionnaire measuring variables including individual and group practice, starting age, and handedness.

Structure and stimulus familiarity: a study of memory in chess-players with functional magnetic resonance imaging.

A grandmaster and an international chess master were compared with a group of novices in a memory task with chess and non-chess stimuli, varying the structure and familiarity of the stimuli, while functional magnetic resonance images were acquired. The pattern of brain activity in the masters was different from that of the novices. Masters showed no differences in brain activity when different degrees of structure and familiarity where compared; however, novices did show differences in brain activity in such contrasts.