Objectives: This study sought to determine whether a computerised cognitive bias modification programme could be effective within a waiting-room setting for parents accompanying their children to CAMHS appointments. The primary objectives were to determine whether detectable changes to participants' emotion recognition could be observed in this setting, and whether this approach would be acceptable to the population. Secondary measures investigated whether the programme would lead to changes in participants' affect or changes in parents' appraisals of difficulties with children. Methods: A computerised emotion recognition training task was delivered to all participants during four weekly sessions. Participants in the experimental condition (n=17) received feedback aiming to shift their detection of positive facial emotions, while those in the control condition (n=14) received feedback which was not designed to elicit any shift in emotion detection. Results: Positive shifts in emotion recognition were observed in the experimental group, although no changes were observed in secondary measures in either control or experimental groups. Qualitative data indicated that the programme was acceptable and appropriately constructed. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that cognitive bias modification is possible within a waiting-room setting, although the extent to which this can lead to clinically significant improvements in mood or relationships remains uncertain. This work has implications for emotion recognition interventions for clinical populations known to present with negative emotional biases (e.g. anxiety and depression) and represents an important first research step towards developing interventions to improve parent-child relationships.

O interesse da psicologia experimental pelo estudo da emoção e sua relação com a cognição foi, até pouco tempo, deixado em segundo plano. Recentemente, com o avanço da neurociência cognitiva, as pesquisas começaram a enfatizar, também, a investigação da relação cognição-emoção, gerando vários modelos explicativos. Mais recentemente, os teóricos voltaram sua atenção para a avaliação cognitiva, em estados de humor negativos como a depressão e ansiedade. Este trabalho investigou, através de experimentos controlados, as três grandes hipóteses que existem sobre o processamento de informação na ansiedade. O estudo foi realizado com 50 estudantes universitários de ambos os sexos. Foi utilizado o software Super Lab®, folhas de registro para avaliação das respostas e a escala Beck para a mensuração do nível de ansiedade. O primeiro experimento avaliou o impacto que estímulos semânticos ambíguos têm no tipo de escolha e na tomada de decisão; os resultados, calculados pela ANOVA, indicaram que os participantes tendem a escolher mais significados negativos, frente a uma escolha ambígua, se comparada às neutras F(1, 49) =107,08, p0,0001. Além disso, os participantes mais ansiosos diferem em média dos menos ansiosos no tempo que levam para se decidirem F(1, 49) =4689, p=0,033. O segundo experimento utilizou uma versão original da tarefa de Stroop emocional; em uma delas, avaliamos o papel que a classe gramatical tinha na focalização atencional dos participantes e, para tanto, utilizamos verbos, adjetivos e substantivos, neutros e ameaçadores, em slides individuais. Uma análise posthoc de Bonferroni indicou que os adjetivos ameaçadores são os que mais elevam a atenção dos participantes com p0,05. Pudemos perceber, também, que a parcela mais ansiosa da amostra leva, em média, mais tempo para nomear as cores das palavras ameaçadoras, de um modo geral F(1, 99) =6,656, p=0,011, o que indica uma grande hiper-vigilância para ameaça em geral. Na segunda tarefa de stroop, queríamos avaliar se palavras abstratas e concretas, neutras e ameaçadoras, eram processadas de um modo diferente. Os resultados indicaram que não, porém os participantes mais ansiosos demonstraram maior seletividade atencional, quando as palavras ameaçadoras foram tomadas como um todo F(1, 99) = 4270, p=0,041, o que pode indicar uma análise primitiva e pouco discriminada. No terceiro experimento, utilizamos listas de palavras com sete itens, onde o item central podia ser neutro ou ameaçador, sendo que, posteriormente, o participante evocava as palavras de que se lembrava. Os resultados indicaram que os participantes se lembraram igualmente bem das palavras iniciais e finais em ambas as listas; contudo, quando a palavra central era negativa, a lembrança foi significativamente mais elevada F(1, 49) = 25, 579, p0,0001, o que pode indicar que temos a tendência a memorizar melhor estímulos negativos. Em conjunto, nossos dados demonstram que os vieses cognitivos são características encontradas em todos os níveis de ansiedade, o que indica que eles devem fazer parte de processamento de informação normal, em situações de perigo. As diferenças encontradas nos participantes mais ansiosos indicam uma maior utilização de recursos executivos, em etapas posteriores de processamento. As implicações clínicas e experimentais são discutidas / The interest of experimental psychology for the study of emotions and its relation with the cognition was, until some time ago, left in second plain. Recently, with the advance of the cognitive neuroscience, the research had started to emphasize also the inquiry of the relation cognition-emotion, generating some clarifying models. More recently, the theoreticians had come back their attention toward the cognitive evaluation in negative mood states as depression and anxiety. Through controlled experiments, the three great hypotheses that exist on the processing of information in the anxiety were investigated in this work. The study was realized with 50 university students of both sexes. The software Super Lab® was used, registration sheet for evaluation of the answers and the Beck scale for the mensuration of the anxiety levels. The first experiment evaluated the impact that ambiguous semantic stimulatons have in the type of choice and taking of decision; the results, calculated for the ANOVA, had indicated that the participants tend to choose more negative meanings, front to a ambiguous choice, if compared with the neutral F (1, 49) =107,08, p0,0001. Moreover, the most anxious participants differ on average from less anxious in the time that lead to decide F (1, 49) =4689, p=0,033. The second experiment used an original version of the emotional Stroop task; in one of them, we evaluate the paper that the grammatical category had in the atencional focalization of the participants and, for in such a way, we use verbs, adjectives and substantives, neutral and threatening, in individual slides. An analysis post-hoc of Bonferroni indicated that the threatening adjectives are the ones that more raise the participants attention with p0,05. We could notice, also, that the most anxious parcel of the sample, takes more time, on average, to nominate the colors of the threatening words in a general way F (1, 99) =6,656, p=0,011, what indicates a great hiper-monitoring for threat in general. In the second stroop task, we wanted to evaluate if abstract and concrete words, neutral and threatening, were processed in a different way. The results had indicated that not, however the most anxious participants demonstrated more atencional selectivity, when the threatening words had been taken as a whole F (1, 99) = 4270, p=0,041, what it can indicate a primitive and few discriminated analysis. In the third experiment, we use lists of words with seven itens, where the central item could be neutral or threatening, being that, later the participant evoked the words that remembered. The results had indicated that they had remembered the initial and final words equally well in both the lists; however, when the central word was negative, the recall was significantly more raised F (1, 49) = 25, 579, p0,0001, what can indicate that we have the trend to better memorize negative stimulatons. In joint, our data demonstrate that the cognitive bias are characteristic and found in all anxiety levels, what shows that they must be part of the normal information processing, in danger situations. The differences found in the most anxious participants indicate a bigger use of executive resources, in posterior stages of processing. The clinical and experimental implications are discussed

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a relatively rare autoimmune disease with no known aetiology or cure. In addition to numerous physical symptoms, those living with SLE have also been shown to experience significant emotional and psychosocial difficulties. There has been little psychological research into SLE despite the rapidly increasing interest in health psychology and quality of life issues over the last two decades. One such issue that has commanded particular attention is that of cognitive bias in individuals with chronic pain and/or chronic illness. Cognitive bias toward illness-related information is theorised to indicate the presence of an illness self-schema, and is a valuable tool of investigation as it permits access to a level of cognitive structure that is inaccessible via self-report instruments. The primary focus of the present study is to investigate recall bias for pain- and illness-related words in SLE patients. This bias is explored relative to the recall of neutral words and depression-related words, and also relative to the responses of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and healthy controls. Two hypotheses are proposed: firstly, that bias is related to disease activity; and secondly, that bias is related to the combination of illness and depression. The findings provide support for the second hypothesis, with the additional caveat that the nature of the pain/illness stimuli used is important in determining the presence of cognitive bias. No recall bias for illness-related words as a whole was found in any of the groups, nor was there evidence of a recall bias in the SLE and RA patients when they were divided according to depression status. However, when the illness words were examined separately according to �sensory pain� and �disability-related� words, a clear bias for disability words was found in the depressed patient group. It is concluded that there is a relationship between depression in chronically ill individuals, and the way in which such individuals process disability-related words. In accordance with the schema-enmeshment model (Pincus & Morley, 2001), it is suggested that both a pain-schema and an illness-schema exist, and it is when these two schemas become enmeshed with the self-schema that depression occurs in chronic pain/chronically ill patients. The cognitive bias assessment paradigm adopted in this study-one that is typically used in similar investigations-is lengthy, requires sophisticated equipment and can be difficult to interpret on an individual level. The present study investigates the relationship between cognitive biases in SLE patients and a recently-developed task, PRISM, which appears to symbolise the enmeshment of illness-, pain- and self-schemas. Analyses confirmed that recall of negative illness words was the only independent predictor of PRISM scores. This suggests that PRISM, a quick and easy task to administer, may have considerable usefulness as a clinical tool to assess information relevant to the enmeshment of illness- and self-schema. A greater understanding of schema and the processing styles of chronically ill patients will allow for more effective psychological treatment such that quality of life can be improved.

Escalation of commitment is the voluntary continuation of investing resources into what appears to be a failing course of action whose outcome is uncertain. Investigation into the escalation of commitment phenomenon is important to organizations because such behavior could result in grave economic loss. This research investigates two cognitive biases that we posit lead to IT escalation of commitment, namely, attribution bias and overconfidence in an escalation decision, as well as desire to rectify past outcomes (DRPO) for its potential role as a mediator. To test our research model, 160 IT managers participated in a web-based role-playing experiment. Attribution was manipulated at two levels (internal and external), creating two treatment conditions. We posited that the participants assigned to the internal attribution condition would escalate their commitment to the failing IT project to a greater extent than participants assigned to the external attribution condition; that individuals that have a high, versus low, level of overconfidence would have a greater tendency to escalate; and that DRPO would mediate the effects of attribution and overconfidence on escalation of commitment. Attribution bias was significant at the .1 level, but in the opposite direction of what was hypothesized; overconfidence showed a significant main effect on escalation. The effect of attribution bias on escalation was significantly mediated by DRPO, but the effect of overconfidence on escalation was not mediated by DRPO. Implications of these findings for both research and practice are discussed.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a relatively rare autoimmune disease with no known aetiology or cure. In addition to numerous physical symptoms, those living with SLE have also been shown to experience significant emotional and psychosocial difficulties. There has been little psychological research into SLE despite the rapidly increasing interest in health psychology and quality of life issues over the last two decades. One such issue that has commanded particular attention is that of cognitive bias in individuals with chronic pain and/or chronic illness. Cognitive bias toward illness-related information is theorised to indicate the presence of an illness self-schema, and is a valuable tool of investigation as it permits access to a level of cognitive structure that is inaccessible via self-report instruments. The primary focus of the present study is to investigate recall bias for pain- and illness-related words in SLE patients. This bias is explored relative to the recall of neutral words and depression-related words, and also relative to the responses of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and healthy controls. Two hypotheses are proposed: firstly, that bias is related to disease activity; and secondly, that bias is related to the combination of illness and depression. The findings provide support for the second hypothesis, with the additional caveat that the nature of the pain/illness stimuli used is important in determining the presence of cognitive bias. No recall bias for illness-related words as a whole was found in any of the groups, nor was there evidence of a recall bias in the SLE and RA patients when they were divided according to depression status. However, when the illness words were examined separately according to �sensory pain� and �disability-related� words, a clear bias for disability words was found in the depressed patient group. It is concluded that there is a relationship between depression in chronically ill individuals, and the way in which such individuals process disability-related words. In accordance with the schema-enmeshment model (Pincus & Morley, 2001), it is suggested that both a pain-schema and an illness-schema exist, and it is when these two schemas become enmeshed with the self-schema that depression occurs in chronic pain/chronically ill patients. The cognitive bias assessment paradigm adopted in this study-one that is typically used in similar investigations-is lengthy, requires sophisticated equipment and can be difficult to interpret on an individual level. The present study investigates the relationship between cognitive biases in SLE patients and a recently-developed task, PRISM, which appears to symbolise the enmeshment of illness-, pain- and self-schemas. Analyses confirmed that recall of negative illness words was the only independent predictor of PRISM scores. This suggests that PRISM, a quick and easy task to administer, may have considerable usefulness as a clinical tool to assess information relevant to the enmeshment of illness- and self-schema. A greater understanding of schema and the processing styles of chronically ill patients will allow for more effective psychological treatment such that quality of life can be improved.

O interesse da psicologia experimental pelo estudo da emoção e sua relação com a cognição foi, até pouco tempo, deixado em segundo plano. Recentemente, com o avanço da neurociência cognitiva, as pesquisas começaram a enfatizar, também, a investigação da relação cognição-emoção, gerando vários modelos explicativos. Mais recentemente, os teóricos voltaram sua atenção para a avaliação cognitiva, em estados de humor negativos como a depressão e ansiedade. Este trabalho investigou, através de experimentos controlados, as três grandes hipóteses que existem sobre o processamento de informação na ansiedade. O estudo foi realizado com 50 estudantes universitários de ambos os sexos. Foi utilizado o software Super Lab®, folhas de registro para avaliação das respostas e a escala Beck para a mensuração do nível de ansiedade. O primeiro experimento avaliou o impacto que estímulos semânticos ambíguos têm no tipo de escolha e na tomada de decisão; os resultados, calculados pela ANOVA, indicaram que os participantes tendem a escolher mais significados negativos, frente a uma escolha ambígua, se comparada às neutras F(1, 49) =107,08, p0,0001. Além disso, os participantes mais ansiosos diferem em média dos menos ansiosos no tempo que levam para se decidirem F(1, 49) =4689, p=0,033. O segundo experimento utilizou uma versão original da tarefa de Stroop emocional; em uma delas, avaliamos o papel que a classe gramatical tinha na focalização atencional dos participantes e, para tanto, utilizamos verbos, adjetivos e substantivos, neutros e ameaçadores, em slides individuais. Uma análise posthoc de Bonferroni indicou que os adjetivos ameaçadores são os que mais elevam a atenção dos participantes com p0,05. Pudemos perceber, também, que a parcela mais ansiosa da amostra leva, em média, mais tempo para nomear as cores das palavras ameaçadoras, de um modo geral F(1, 99) =6,656, p=0,011, o que indica uma grande hiper-vigilância para ameaça em geral. Na segunda tarefa de stroop, queríamos avaliar se palavras abstratas e concretas, neutras e ameaçadoras, eram processadas de um modo diferente. Os resultados indicaram que não, porém os participantes mais ansiosos demonstraram maior seletividade atencional, quando as palavras ameaçadoras foram tomadas como um todo F(1, 99) = 4270, p=0,041, o que pode indicar uma análise primitiva e pouco discriminada. No terceiro experimento, utilizamos listas de palavras com sete itens, onde o item central podia ser neutro ou ameaçador, sendo que, posteriormente, o participante evocava as palavras de que se lembrava. Os resultados indicaram que os participantes se lembraram igualmente bem das palavras iniciais e finais em ambas as listas; contudo, quando a palavra central era negativa, a lembrança foi significativamente mais elevada F(1, 49) = 25, 579, p0,0001, o que pode indicar que temos a tendência a memorizar melhor estímulos negativos. Em conjunto, nossos dados demonstram que os vieses cognitivos são características encontradas em todos os níveis de ansiedade, o que indica que eles devem fazer parte de processamento de informação normal, em situações de perigo. As diferenças encontradas nos participantes mais ansiosos indicam uma maior utilização de recursos executivos, em etapas posteriores de processamento. As implicações clínicas e experimentais são discutidas / The interest of experimental psychology for the study of emotions and its relation with the cognition was, until some time ago, left in second plain. Recently, with the advance of the cognitive neuroscience, the research had started to emphasize also the inquiry of the relation cognition-emotion, generating some clarifying models. More recently, the theoreticians had come back their attention toward the cognitive evaluation in negative mood states as depression and anxiety. Through controlled experiments, the three great hypotheses that exist on the processing of information in the anxiety were investigated in this work. The study was realized with 50 university students of both sexes. The software Super Lab® was used, registration sheet for evaluation of the answers and the Beck scale for the mensuration of the anxiety levels. The first experiment evaluated the impact that ambiguous semantic stimulatons have in the type of choice and taking of decision; the results, calculated for the ANOVA, had indicated that the participants tend to choose more negative meanings, front to a ambiguous choice, if compared with the neutral F (1, 49) =107,08, p0,0001. Moreover, the most anxious participants differ on average from less anxious in the time that lead to decide F (1, 49) =4689, p=0,033. The second experiment used an original version of the emotional Stroop task; in one of them, we evaluate the paper that the grammatical category had in the atencional focalization of the participants and, for in such a way, we use verbs, adjectives and substantives, neutral and threatening, in individual slides. An analysis post-hoc of Bonferroni indicated that the threatening adjectives are the ones that more raise the participants attention with p0,05. We could notice, also, that the most anxious parcel of the sample, takes more time, on average, to nominate the colors of the threatening words in a general way F (1, 99) =6,656, p=0,011, what indicates a great hiper-monitoring for threat in general. In the second stroop task, we wanted to evaluate if abstract and concrete words, neutral and threatening, were processed in a different way. The results had indicated that not, however the most anxious participants demonstrated more atencional selectivity, when the threatening words had been taken as a whole F (1, 99) = 4270, p=0,041, what it can indicate a primitive and few discriminated analysis. In the third experiment, we use lists of words with seven itens, where the central item could be neutral or threatening, being that, later the participant evoked the words that remembered. The results had indicated that they had remembered the initial and final words equally well in both the lists; however, when the central word was negative, the recall was significantly more raised F (1, 49) = 25, 579, p0,0001, what can indicate that we have the trend to better memorize negative stimulatons. In joint, our data demonstrate that the cognitive bias are characteristic and found in all anxiety levels, what shows that they must be part of the normal information processing, in danger situations. The differences found in the most anxious participants indicate a bigger use of executive resources, in posterior stages of processing. The clinical and experimental implications are discussed

Behavioural economics has established that cognitive biases such as the overconfidence bias impact managerial decision-making. Literature has also shown that different levels of management require different skills, values and decision-making processes and styles. It would likely follow that cognitive biases would impact different levels of management in varying ways. This research seeks to expand on current literature in drawing on principles of behavioural economics to further investigate the overconfidence bias and its relationship with different levels of management. This research also seeks to explore whether cognitive ability or reflection can further explain any relationship between overconfidence and level of management. A sample of managers at professional services firms was surveyed using various assessments of overconfidence. Utilising statistical techniques, it was found that in fact there were differences in overconfidence between levels of management. Specifically, middle management appeared to display different overconfidence tendencies than upper and lower management levels. The relationship between cognitive ability, level of management and the overconfidence bias also appeared to be significant enough to warrant further investigation. The results also showed insight into problems with the current definitions of overconfidence. Based on the findings, this study concludes by providing several business and academic recommendations. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

No description available.

No description available.

The present investigation tested the prediction that effortless control processing, the deliberate activation of innate automatic encoding mechanisms, will enable nondepressed persons to accurately judge degree of control. Subjective judgment of control in nondepressed students was examined by a modification of the method developed by Jenkins and Ward (1965). The modification was based on Hasher and Zacks' (1979) version of the method. Several measures were used to assess students' representations of control. Students were asked to judge the degree of control their responses had over outcomes rather than the degree of contingency between responses and outcomes. To facilitate comparison of prior studies on the judgment of contingency with the present study, Jenkins and Ward's (1965) index of the actual degree of control was used. Their index used the magnitude of the difference between the conditional probability of an outcome given the occurrence of one response versus the conditional probability of the outcome given the occurrence of another response as representing degree of control or contingency. In this experiment, students instructed in effortful control processing and effortless control processing were presented with a series of problems in which there was no contingency between their responses and outcomes. The problems differed in the degree of favorable outcome frequency. Students' abilities to detect noncontingency between responses and outcomes under different conditions of outcome frequency was examined.