Latent mechanisms of language disorganization relate to specific dimensions of psychopathology.

Comprehensible communication is critical for social functioning and well-being. In psychopathology, incoherent discourse is assumed to reflect disorganized thinking, which is classically linked to psychotic disorders. However, people do not express everything that comes to mind, rendering inferences from discourse to the underlying structure of thought challenging.

Clinical and cognitive insight in panic disorder: phenomenology and treatment effects in internet cognitive behavior therapy.

Clinical observations suggest that individuals with panic disorder (PD) vary in their beliefs about the causes of their panic attacks. Some attribute these attacks to psychological factors, while others to physiological or medical factors. These beliefs also extend to whether individuals perceive panic attacks as dangerous.

Theory-Driven Analysis of Natural Language Processing Measures of Thought Disorder Using Generative Language Modeling.

Background: Natural language processing (NLP) holds promise to transform psychiatric research and practice. A pertinent example is the success of NLP in the automatic detection of speech disorganization in formal thought disorder (FTD). However, we lack an understanding of precisely what common NLP metrics measure and how they relate to theoretical accounts of FTD.

Examining the relationship between cognitive factors and insight in panic disorder before and during treatment.

Individuals with Panic Disorder (PD) often have impaired insight, which can impede their willingness to seek treatment. Cognitive processes, including metacognitive beliefs, cognitive flexibility, and jumping to conclusions (JTC) may influence the degree of insight. By understanding the relationship between insight and these cognitive factors in PD, we can better identify individuals with such vulnerabilities to improve their insight.

Formal vs. intuitive categorization and obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Background And Objectives: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is often characterized by rigidity regarding rules and perfectionism, which suggests a formal reasoning style. However, other characterizations suggest an overreliance on internal cues for behavior termination, which suggests a more intuitive reasoning style. We examine reasoning styles in OCD by assessing categorization preferences traditionally classified to rule-based and family resemblance categorization.

Accumulating evidence for myriad alternatives: Modeling the generation of free association.

The associative manner by which thoughts follow one another has intrigued scholars for decades. The process by which an association is generated in response to a cue can be explained by classic models of semantic processing through distinct computational mechanisms. Distributed attractor networks implement rich-get-richer dynamics and assume that stronger associations can be reached with fewer steps.

If you don't let it in, you don't have to get it out: Thought preemption as a method to control unwanted thoughts.

To attain goals, people must proactively prevent interferences and react to interferences once they occur. Whereas most research focuses on how people deal with external interferences, here we investigate the use of proactive and reactive control in dealing with unwanted thoughts. To examine this question, we asked people to generate an association to each of several repeating cue words, while forbidding the repetition of associations.

Hierarchical inference as a source of human biases.

The finding that human decision-making is systematically biased continues to have an immense impact on both research and policymaking. Prevailing views ascribe biases to limited computational resources, which require humans to resort to less costly resource-rational heuristics. Here, we propose that many biases in fact arise due to a computationally costly way of coping with uncertainty-namely, hierarchical inference-which by nature incorporates information that can seem irrelevant.

Anxious attachment improves and is predicted by anxiety sensitivity in internet-based, guided self-help cognitive behavioral treatment for panic disorder.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether anxious and avoidant attachment styles improve during guided internet-based cognitive behavioral treatment (ICBT) for panic disorder, and if so, to identify potential theoretically driven mechanisms related to the change. We examined changes in anxious and avoidant attachment and their time-lagged (1 week), longitudinal relationship with panic-related constructs in patients participating in ICBT ( = 79) in an open trial. Anxious attachment scores improved significantly with a medium effect during ICBT, = 0.

Patient alliance with the program predicts treatment outcomes whereas alliance with the therapist predicts adherence in internet-based therapy for panic disorder.

This study examines relationships among different aspects of therapeutic alliance with treatment outcome, adherence and attrition in internet delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) for panic disorder. We examined alliance-outcome relationships in ICBT ( = 74) using a newly developed self-report alliance measure that disentangles alliance with program content (Internet Patient's Experience of Attunement and Responsiveness with the program; I-PEARp) and with the therapist (I-PEARt). We compared ICBT outcomes of patient rated and therapist-rated alliance with conventional alliance scales (WAI-6 and WAI-T).

Modelling Pathological Narcissism Using the Brief PNI in Terms of Structure and Convergent and Divergent Validity: A New Perspective.

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) is a popular measure and the first to attempt to tap into both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism (GN/VN). However, data have raised questions as to whether it appropriately formulates GN and differentiates it from VN. In this study, we examined the Brief-PNI's structure and construct validity, by using a novel model based on the theoretical notion of GN and VN sharing core features.

Doubting what you already know: Uncertainty regarding state transitions is associated with obsessive compulsive symptoms.

Obsessive compulsive (OC) symptoms involve excessive information gathering (e.g., checking, reassurance-seeking), and uncertainty about possible, often catastrophic, future events.

Searching for an anchor in an unpredictable world: A computational model of obsessive compulsive disorder.

In this article, we develop a computational model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We propose that OCD is characterized by a difficulty in relying on past events to predict the consequences of patients' own actions and the unfolding of possible events. Clinically, this corresponds both to patients' difficulty in trusting their own actions (and therefore repeating them), and to their common preoccupation with unlikely chains of events.

Why check? A meta-analysis of checking in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Threat vs. distrust of senses.

Compulsive checking is the most common ritual among individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Yet, other than uncertainty, the variables prompting checking are not fully understood. Laboratory studies suggest that task conditions - whether threatening (anxiety-relevant) or neutral, and task type - whether requiring perceptual or reasoning decision-making - may be influential.

Author Correction: Growing a social brain.

In the version of this Perspective originally published, at the end of the first paragraph of the section 'Neural prediction as a potential mechanism for how experience sculpts the developing brain' the citation to ref. 76 should have been to ref. 74, and at the end of the first sentence of the next paragraph ref.

Growing a social brain.

It has long been assumed that social animals, such as humans, are born with a brain system that has evolved to support social affiliation. However, the evidence does not necessarily support this assumption. Alternatively, social animals can be defined as those who cannot survive alone and rely on members from their group to regulate their ongoing physiology (or allostasis).

Are stronger memories forgotten more slowly? No evidence that memory strength influences the rate of forgetting.

Information stored in visual short-term memory is used ubiquitously in daily life; however, it is forgotten rapidly within seconds. When more items are to be remembered, they are forgotten faster, potentially suggesting that stronger memories are forgotten less rapidly. Here we tested this prediction with three experiments that assessed the influence of memory strength on the rate of forgetting of visual information without manipulating the number of items.

Validation of the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS) in scrupulous and nonscrupulous patients: Revision of factor structure and psychometrics.

Scrupulosity, or obsessive-compulsive symptoms related to religiosity or religion, is a common presentation of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and it is important to elucidate its phenomenology and measurement. Today, the most widespread questionnaire for the assessment of scrupulosity is the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS). The current study examines the psychometric properties of the PIOS in outpatient, treatment-seeking patients.