This study explored the relationship between gaze anxiety and the perception of facial expressions. The literature suggests that individuals experiencing Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) might have a fear of making direct eye contact, and that these individuals also demonstrate a hypervigilance towards the eye region. It was thought that this increased anxiety concerning eye contact might be related to the tendency of socially anxious individuals to mislabel emotion in the faces of onlookers. A better understanding of the cognitive biases common to SAD could lead to more efficient intervention and assessment methods. In the present study, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory-23 (SPAI-23) were used to measure social anxiety, depression, and overall distress. These forms allowed us to separate participants who reported high socially anxious and depressive traits from those in the normal range. We then compared anxiety concerning mutual eye contact as measured by the Gaze Anxiety Rating Scale (GARS) to performance on a facial recognition task. Performance was measured as recognition accuracy and average perceived intensity of onlooker expression on a scale of 1-5. A linear regression analysis revealed that higher GARS scores were related to higher perceived intensity of emotion by socially anxious individuals. An exploratory correlation analysis also revealed that higher gaze anxiety was related to lower accuracy at identifying neutral emotions and higher accuracy at identifying angry emotions. While past research has demonstrated these same biases by socially anxious individuals, gaze anxiety had not been explored extensively. Future research should investigate gaze anxiety’s role as a moderating variable.

Child and adolescent mood and anxiety symptoms are common and debilitating, with long-term effects on well-being. Research presented in this thesis examines interpersonal cognitive factors in the emergence of anxious and depressive symptoms in late childhood through to early adulthood. The thesis considers this issue using three main approaches. For the first, data are presented showing that biases in the appraisals of social situations are the aspects of interpersonal cognition most closely associated with emotional symptoms. For the second, longitudinal twin data are used to examine genetic and environmental origins of these interpersonal cognitive biases and their temporal prediction of symptoms across a 2-year period. Data show that interpersonal cognitive factors are strongly influenced by non-shared environmental factors, and moreover, predict symptoms across time. The final section of the thesis comprises four studies using Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) training methodology to show that both positive and negative interpretive biases for interpersonal information can be induced in adolescents. Positive biases are shown to persist for at least 24 hours after training, and induced positive and negative biases are shown to differentially predict anxious responses to an experimental stressor. Evidence is also provided to suggest that effects following training positive interpretive biases may transfer to other cognitive measures, namely appraisals of ambiguous emotional faces. Finally, data tentatively show that CBM-I training may be useful in reducing negative interpretations of interpersonal information made by 11-year-old children undergoing the transition to secondary school. In summary, studies in this thesis support the contribution of cognitive biases to mood and anxiety symptoms in childhood and adolescence. They further extend this knowledge by suggesting that these reflect individual-specific (non-shared) environmental risks to predict symptoms across time. These biases may also be amenable to change through training interventions, with some - albeit weak - effects on other cognitive outcomes.

La question du bien-être de l’animal ne se pose que si on lui reconnaît le statut d’être sensible, capable de ressentir des émotions. Les émotions dépendent de processus cognitifs qu’entreprend l’animal pour évaluer son environnement. Pour comprendre le passage des émotions à un état de bien-être, nous avons étudié si ces processus cognitifs peuvent être biaisés par les émotions, lesquelles en retour seraient modulées durablement. Un modèle de stress chronique a été développé sur ovins : des agnelles sont exposées de manière répétée à des évènements aversifs, imprévisibles et incontrôlables. L’altération des systèmes neuroendocriniens et la potentialisation de la réactivité émotionnelle confirment que les agnelles ont développé un stress. Ensuite, l’effet de ce stress chronique sur les processus d’évaluation a été exploré : les agnelles stressées montrent une évaluation négative et des déficits d’apprentissage. Enfin, nous avons cherché à savoir si l’induction répétée d’émotions positives chez des agnelles stressées peut contrecarrer les biais d’évaluation négative induits par le stress. Elles évaluent de manière plus positive les événements ambigus que les agnelles uniquement stressées. L’accumulation d’émotions négatives peut conduire l’animal à développer une perception pessimiste de son environnement et une anhédonie, qui contribuent à auto-entretenir l’état de stress. La réduction d’anhédonie après induction répétée d’émotions positives montre que des stratégies cognitivo-comportementales sont envisageables pour corriger un stress. Bien qu’analytiques, ces travaux contribuent à la conception de pratiques d’élevage innovantes améliorant la qualité de vie des animaux. / The term ‘animal welfare’ embraces both physical and mental well-being of animals. The consideration of mental well-being of animals results from the acceptance that they are sentient beings that feel emotions. Emotions depend on cognitive abilities used by animals to evaluate its environment. To understand the progression from emotions to welfare state, we investigated whether these cognitive abilities could be biased by emotions which would be in turn modified in a lasting fashion. A model of chronic stress was developed in sheep : female lambs were repeatedly exposed to unpredictable and uncontrollable aversive events. The alteration of neuroendocrine systems and the increase of emotional reactivity showed that lambs underwent a chronic stress experience. Then, we investigated the impact of chronic stress on cognitive abilities : chronic stressed lambs showed negative evaluation and learning deficits. Finally, we investigated if a repeated exposure to positive emotions could alleviate negative cognitive biases in chronically stressed lambs. These animals showed a more positive evaluation of ambiguous events than lambs which had only been chronically stressed. Accumulation of negative emotions could lead the animal to develop a pessimistic-like perception of environment and anhedonia thus reinforcing and maintaining the state of stress. A decrease in anhedonia after repeated exposure to positive emotions in stressed animals showed that cognitive-behavioral strategies are possible to alleviate negative effects of stress. This work will contribute to develop innovating rearing practices which improve animal welfare.

O objetivo do artigo apresentado é analisar dilemas de efetividade na atividade de Inteligência Governamental. Explorando a literatura sobre falhas de inteligência e surpresa estratégica, avançamos em um campo pouco explorado pelos Estudos de Inteligência no Brasil: os aspectos cognitivos dos analistas de inteligência e as relações entre a comunidade política e a comunidade de inteligência. Primeiramente discorremos sobre os desafios de se avaliar a Inteligência Governamental como política pública, em especial no que se refere à dimensão da efetividade. Na segunda sessão abordamos os principais vieses cognitivos e heurísticas possíveis de ocorrer durante a análise de inteligência. A terceira sessão trata das tensões relacionais características entre a esfera política e a comunidade de inteligência e como essa relação afeta no resultado final da atividade de inteligência. Nas considerações finais apontamos para os limites e possibilidades das reformas organizacionais e procedimentais no que se refere à efetividade dos sistemas de inteligência. / The objective of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness‟ dilemmas of government intelligence activities. Exploring the literature on intelligence failures and strategic surprise, we move towards a little explored field on Brazilian Intelligence Studies: the cognitive aspects of intelligence analysts and the relations between the political community and the intelligence community. First we balance the challenges of evaluating government intelligence as public policy, particularly regarding the effectiveness dimension. In the second session, we discuss the main cognitive biases and heuristics that can occur during intelligence analysis. The third section discusses the typical relational tensions between the political sphere and the intelligence community and how that relationship affects the final result of intelligence activity. In the concluding remarks, we point to the limits and possibilities of organizational and procedural reforms on the effectiveness of intelligence systems.

<p>As the number one cause of sick absenteeism and disability pension, musculoskeletal pain is considered a major health problem in Sweden and many other industrialized countries. Medical findings are often insufficient to explain the pain’s intensity or duration, and psychological factors are known to be important in understanding the aetiology and maintenance of pain. The current thesis examines the relationship between non-specific chronic musculoskeletal pain and cognitions, emotions and behaviours. In Study I, chronic pain patients were interviewed about pain experiences and the results indicated that some patients use psychological defences to deal with chronic pain. Study II was an experimental approach set up to study the association between chronic pain and selective memory. In a pictorial memory game, no differences were found between patients and controls in the neutral game. In the pain-related game patients decreased – and controls improved – their performance, a finding discussed in terms of cognitive avoidance. Study III used questionnaire and register data to examine the predictive value of psychosocial variables on sustained pain-related sick absenteeism and the results showed sense of mastery and recovery beliefs to be especially important. The studies are discussed in terms of emotional and defensive coping and it is suggested that defences can be related to excessive activity, which may increase the risk of future relapses. It was suggested that an increased acceptance of pain, at both an individual and a societal level – would favour rehabilitation and return-to-work for those suffering from persistent pain.</p>

As the number one cause of sick absenteeism and disability pension, musculoskeletal pain is considered a major health problem in Sweden and many other industrialized countries. Medical findings are often insufficient to explain the pain’s intensity or duration, and psychological factors are known to be important in understanding the aetiology and maintenance of pain. The current thesis examines the relationship between non-specific chronic musculoskeletal pain and cognitions, emotions and behaviours. In Study I, chronic pain patients were interviewed about pain experiences and the results indicated that some patients use psychological defences to deal with chronic pain. Study II was an experimental approach set up to study the association between chronic pain and selective memory. In a pictorial memory game, no differences were found between patients and controls in the neutral game. In the pain-related game patients decreased – and controls improved – their performance, a finding discussed in terms of cognitive avoidance. Study III used questionnaire and register data to examine the predictive value of psychosocial variables on sustained pain-related sick absenteeism and the results showed sense of mastery and recovery beliefs to be especially important. The studies are discussed in terms of emotional and defensive coping and it is suggested that defences can be related to excessive activity, which may increase the risk of future relapses. It was suggested that an increased acceptance of pain, at both an individual and a societal level – would favour rehabilitation and return-to-work for those suffering from persistent pain.

BAKGRUND: Generation Y är idag unga vuxna och kommer när de blir pensionärer få ut en lägre inkomst än dem som går i pension idag, vilket ökar betydelsen av ett eget sparande. Tidigare studier har visat ett samband mellan en hög finansiell bildning och pensionssparande. Den finansiella bildningen har dock visats vara låg bland unga. På området beteendefinans finns en rad exempel på kognitiva bias som även de pekar på svårigheter med långsiktigt sparande. Forskning har ofta fokuserat på en specifik påverkande faktor för pensionssparande med ett kvantitativt arbetssätt, men en helhetsbild saknas. SYFTE: Syftet med studien är att undersöka generation Y:s kännedom om och hur de reflekterar kring behovet av långsiktigt sparande till pension, samt analysera hur deras kännedom och reflektioner relaterar till deras livssituation, finansiella bildning och tidigare forskning kring kognitiva bias. GENOMFÖRANDE: Studien har genomförts genom kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta personer ur generation Y. Genom frågor där respondenterna fått beskriva både sitt eget handlande, sina tankar, sina åsikter samt vad de anser kännetecknar generation Y har en helhetsbild av deras förhållningssätt till pensionssparande skapats. SLUTSATS: Studiens resultat visar att generation Y som utgångspunkt anser att det finns ett behov av pensionssparande, men att det i deras specifika fall inte passar att spara just nu. Deras faktiska kunskap om behovet av pensionssparande är dock låg. Motviljan att spara kan i flertalet situationer förklaras med överdriven optimism inför framtiden. En alternativ förklaring kan dock vara att generationen i dagsläget helt enkelt är nonchalanta inför sin framtida ekonomiska situation som pensionärer, då de värderar kortsiktig konsumtion högre. / BACKGROUND: Generation Y, who today are young adults, will get a lower income when they retire than those who are retired now. Previous studies have shown a connection between higher financial literacy and saving for retirement, but the financial literacy among young people has been shown to be low. In the field of behavioural finance there are several cognitive biases that also suggests that there are difficulties connected to long term savings. Research has often focused on one specific factor of impact for retirement savings with a quantitative approach, but a conclusive picture is lacking. AIM: The aim of this thesis is to examine the knowledge and reflections of generation Y regarding the need for long term savings for retirement, and to analyse their knowledge and reflections in relation to their conditions, financial literacy and previous research on cognitive biases. COMPLETION: The study has been conducted through qualitative, semi structured interviews with eight people from generation Y. Through questions where the respondents have had the opportunity to describe both their own actions, thoughts, opinions and what they think characterizes generation Y a conclusive picture of their attitude towards retirement savings has been created. CONCLUSION: The study concludes that generation Y as a reference point considers retirement savings important, but that in their specific case it is not suitable to save right now. Their actual knowledge about the need for retirement savings is low. Their aversion to save can in several cases be explained by undue optimism towards the future. An alternative explanation could be that the generation at present simply is unconcerned with their future economic situation in retirement, because they value short term consumption higher.

O objetivo do artigo apresentado é analisar dilemas de efetividade na atividade de Inteligência Governamental. Explorando a literatura sobre falhas de inteligência e surpresa estratégica, avançamos em um campo pouco explorado pelos Estudos de Inteligência no Brasil: os aspectos cognitivos dos analistas de inteligência e as relações entre a comunidade política e a comunidade de inteligência. Primeiramente discorremos sobre os desafios de se avaliar a Inteligência Governamental como política pública, em especial no que se refere à dimensão da efetividade. Na segunda sessão abordamos os principais vieses cognitivos e heurísticas possíveis de ocorrer durante a análise de inteligência. A terceira sessão trata das tensões relacionais características entre a esfera política e a comunidade de inteligência e como essa relação afeta no resultado final da atividade de inteligência. Nas considerações finais apontamos para os limites e possibilidades das reformas organizacionais e procedimentais no que se refere à efetividade dos sistemas de inteligência. / The objective of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness‟ dilemmas of government intelligence activities. Exploring the literature on intelligence failures and strategic surprise, we move towards a little explored field on Brazilian Intelligence Studies: the cognitive aspects of intelligence analysts and the relations between the political community and the intelligence community. First we balance the challenges of evaluating government intelligence as public policy, particularly regarding the effectiveness dimension. In the second session, we discuss the main cognitive biases and heuristics that can occur during intelligence analysis. The third section discusses the typical relational tensions between the political sphere and the intelligence community and how that relationship affects the final result of intelligence activity. In the concluding remarks, we point to the limits and possibilities of organizational and procedural reforms on the effectiveness of intelligence systems.

abstract: Cyber threats are growing in number and sophistication making it important to continually study and improve all dimensions of cyber defense. Human teamwork in cyber defense analysis has been overlooked even though it has been identified as an important predictor of cyber defense performance. Also, to detect advanced forms of threats effective information sharing and collaboration between the cyber defense analysts becomes imperative. Therefore, through this dissertation work, I took a cognitive engineering approach to investigate and improve cyber defense teamwork. The approach involved investigating a plausible team-level bias called the information pooling bias in cyber defense analyst teams conducting the detection task that is part of forensics analysis through human-in-the-loop experimentation. The approach also involved developing agent-based models based on the experimental results to explore the cognitive underpinnings of this bias in human analysts. A prototype collaborative visualization tool was developed by considering the plausible cognitive limitations contributing to the bias to investigate whether a cognitive engineering-driven visualization tool can help mitigate the bias in comparison to off-the-shelf tools. It was found that participant teams conducting the collaborative detection tasks as part of forensics analysis, experience the information pooling bias affecting their performance. Results indicate that cognitive friendly visualizations can help mitigate the effect of this bias in cyber defense analysts. Agent-based modeling produced insights on internal cognitive processes that might be contributing to this bias which could be leveraged in building future visualizations. This work has multiple implications including the development of new knowledge about the science of cyber defense teamwork, a demonstration of the advantage of developing tools using a cognitive engineering approach, a demonstration of the advantage of using a hybrid cognitive engineering methodology to study teams in general and finally, a demonstration of the effect of effective teamwork on cyber defense performance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Applied Psychology 2014

O objetivo do artigo apresentado é analisar dilemas de efetividade na atividade de Inteligência Governamental. Explorando a literatura sobre falhas de inteligência e surpresa estratégica, avançamos em um campo pouco explorado pelos Estudos de Inteligência no Brasil: os aspectos cognitivos dos analistas de inteligência e as relações entre a comunidade política e a comunidade de inteligência. Primeiramente discorremos sobre os desafios de se avaliar a Inteligência Governamental como política pública, em especial no que se refere à dimensão da efetividade. Na segunda sessão abordamos os principais vieses cognitivos e heurísticas possíveis de ocorrer durante a análise de inteligência. A terceira sessão trata das tensões relacionais características entre a esfera política e a comunidade de inteligência e como essa relação afeta no resultado final da atividade de inteligência. Nas considerações finais apontamos para os limites e possibilidades das reformas organizacionais e procedimentais no que se refere à efetividade dos sistemas de inteligência. / The objective of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness‟ dilemmas of government intelligence activities. Exploring the literature on intelligence failures and strategic surprise, we move towards a little explored field on Brazilian Intelligence Studies: the cognitive aspects of intelligence analysts and the relations between the political community and the intelligence community. First we balance the challenges of evaluating government intelligence as public policy, particularly regarding the effectiveness dimension. In the second session, we discuss the main cognitive biases and heuristics that can occur during intelligence analysis. The third section discusses the typical relational tensions between the political sphere and the intelligence community and how that relationship affects the final result of intelligence activity. In the concluding remarks, we point to the limits and possibilities of organizational and procedural reforms on the effectiveness of intelligence systems.