Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by emotional and behavioural instability, and impaired ability to maintain relationships. Previous research has demonstrated an association between BPD and insecure attachment style. It has been argued that BPD is a disorder of attachment, with insecure attachment being associated with inadequate capacity to represent mental states, or to “mentalize”. There is evidence that people with BPD are impaired in their capacity to mentalize in the context of attachment relationships. The term “mentalization” encompasses a broad range of processes including metacognition. There is a theoretical basis for metacognitive deficits in BPD. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence regarding the role of metacognition in BPD and its relationship to adult attachment style. Method: Participants with BPD were recruited from Community Mental Health Teams, Clinical Psychology and a Dialectal Behaviour Therapy (DBT) service within NHS Highland. A comparison group of participants without BPD were recruited from the Clinical Psychology service, having been referred for symptoms of depression. Both groups were administered the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ)(a self-report measure of attachment); and a short version of the Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30). Severity of clinical symptoms and current mood was assessed using the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: Participants with BPD scored significantly higher than those without BPD on the attachment-anxiety and attachment-avoidance dimensions of the RSQ. The BPD group also endorsed MCQ-30 items more than the comparison group. There was a significant difference between the groups on the MCQ-30 total score and four of the five subscale scores. There were significant positive correlations between attachment dimension scores and metacognition subscales. The strongest associations were between attachmentanxiety and “uncontrollability and danger” and “need to control thoughts” subscales of the MCQ-30. Only metacognition was predictive of current mood and distress levels. Conclusions: The results of this study show that people with BPD report high attachment-avoidance and attachment-anxiety in their relationships, relative to a non-BPD, depressed comparison group. These findings are consistent with the existing literature regarding the profile of attachment in BPD. This study also found that people with BPD also have more maladaptive metacognitions than people with symptoms of depression. An association between self-reported adult attachment style and maladaptive metacognitiion was demonstrated in the present study. Maladaptive metacognitive strategies and beliefs potentially contribute to maintenance of depressed and anxious mood, as well as broader symptoms of distress.

Background It has been found that both depressed patients and patients who have recovered from depression report more rumination and hold more meta-cognitive beliefs about the benefits of rumination than never-depressed controls. Furthermore, it is suggested that a ruminative cognitive style predicts the onset, length and severity of depressive episodes. Within an ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) perspective on depression, it is suggested that rumination in depression is a verbal reason-giving behaviour used to „solve‟ the problem of depressed mood. However, it is proposed that an individual‟s fusion with these verbal reasons (i.e. cognitive fusion) perpetuates rumination and impedes the adoption of more functional behaviours. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between depression, rumination, cognitive fusion and positive beliefs about rumination. Method A between-groups design was used comparing currently depressed adults (n = 26), recovered depressed adults (n = 21) and never depressed adults (n = 27) on a battery of self-report measures for depressive symptomatology, rumination, positive beliefs about rumination and cognitive fusion. Data were analysed using ANOVAs, post hoc comparisons, and path analysis: an extension of multiple regression. Results Significant differences were found in rumination and cognitive fusion between all three groups, with higher levels of rumination and cognitive fusion found in both the currently depressed and recovered depressed groups compared to never depressed controls. Significant differences in positive beliefs about rumination were found only between the currently depressed group and the never depressed group. Results also indicated that depression severity was best predicted by rumination and cognitive fusion rather than positive beliefs about rumination. Furthermore, the relationships between the variables of cognitive fusion and rumination (β = 0.76, p < .001), and cognitive fusion and depression (β = 0.66, p < .001), were stronger than the relationships between any of the other variables included in this study. Discussion Overall, the findings support the suggestion that cognitive fusion be considered in the conceptualisation of ruminative processes and depression. The results suggest that in individuals who have recovered from depression and are no longer clinically depressed, a difference in cognitive processes such as rumination and cognitive fusion remains. This may indicate that cognitive fusion is not secondary to depression and does appear to be implicated in the ruminative process.

The study of metacognition is rooted in the observation of behaviors under states of uncertainty (e.g., Smith et al., 1995). Individuals who are more responsive to uncertainty tend to show greater interference effects in a Stroop color-word naming task compared to those who are less responsive to uncertainty (Washburn, Smith, & Taglialatela, 2005). Individual differences in Stroop interference also have been shown to reflect relative differences in response competition (Washburn, 1994) and rule-maintenance ability (Kane & Engle, 2003). Why would individuals who respond to uncertainty most adaptively be characterized by the worst attention-control skills? The current study was designed to measure the individual contribution of sensitivity to response competition and rule maintenance ability to the pre-established relationship between Stroop interference and uncertainty responsiveness. Though participants performed as expected in both tasks, the previously reported relationship between Stroop interference and uncertainty responsiveness was not observed.

Chapter 1 starts with providing the theoretical background against which the experimental work in this thesis can be viewed. It provides the main approaches, theories and views on consciousness and the main challenges in the field. Specifically, it does so in relation to first-order and second- order neuronal processing, which will be explained later on. Furthermore, Chapter 1 discusses the conscious brain in its larger context of an embodied mind and the environment in which the agent lives. Lastly, the final section reviews the possibility of consciousness being a social construct. Chapter 2 continues with examining what happens when information-processing is limited to first-order processing, which is the case when information remains subliminal. Subliminal information does get processed up to a certain level, since brain activity in response to the stimulus can be measured. Yet, it is not processed up to the level that renders the stimulus conscious. The study presented in Chapter 2 aims to answer whether perceptual information presented below the conscious threshold can still affect behaviour? The outcome of this and similar studies would tell us more about the possible functions of consciousness. If subliminal stimuli are not able to influence behaviour, it would suggest that consciousness is necessary in order to guide or regulate human behaviour. Chapter 3 discusses how (changes in) perceptual content influences the subjective experience of time, a concept that is highly related to consciousness. Consciousness inevitably needs a reference or content to be conscious of. Similarly, time needs external physical events to occur to have any meaning, since time is generally only defined in terms of changes of state, mass or energy. Atomic clocks measure time by detecting changes in energy levels of electrons in atoms and are the most accurate timekeepers we have with an error rate of only 1 second per 30 million years. Therefore, no matter how small the event is, without any such event like a change in physical state of the electron the concept of time would be meaningless. Thus, the concept of time would be completely irrelevant in a universe without mass or matter. In such a universe the passing of a single nanosecond would be exactly the same as a billion years. This dependence on external events is what makes time perception such an interesting topic to study in the field of consciousness. The critical question here is how subjective experience of time relates to conscious (changes in) perceptual content.Chapter 4 further explores the relationship between perceptual content and consciousness. The study described in this chapter examines the transition of first-order information to second-order processing. Does a gradual increase in first-order perceptual evidence result in similarly gradual judgments of subjective experience? This chapter discusses levels of representation, perceptual evidence and their effect on subjective judgments. The key question here is whether increasing perceptual evidence while maintaining a fixed level of representation will result in higher levels of subjective measures as well or whether such measures only increase with higher levels of representation. In short, can you be more or less conscious in a graded manner or is consciousness an all-or-none type of phenomenon? This answer will have important consequences for distinguishing between the main theories on consciousness since their predictions about graded consciousness differ and therefore could be strongly challenged by the answer to this question. Chapter 5 tests the idea of consciousness being an acquired ability rather than an innate property of the brain by examining the possibility of training or improving second-order processing, which is one of the key assumptions of the Radical Plasticity Theory. The study described in this chapter explores plasticity of consciousness by performing a perceptual learning study of multiple sessions over several days. The effects of this training paradigm on both first- and second order processing will be discussed in this chapter. Chapter 6 looks deeper into such second-order subjective judgments and what kinds of first- order information is used to make such judgments. It has been suggested that such measures of conscious experience not only incorporate sensory information but also includes information from non-sensory brain areas such as the motor cortex. In light of the sensorimotor accounts of consciousness the influence of motor cortex, and thus action, on the subjective experience of visual stimuli would be an important result and would support such accounts wherein perception and action are tightly intertwined. Finally, chapter 7 summarizes the main findings and discusses the results within the larger framework or first- and second order processing. It also addresses the consequences or implications of these findings for some of the most promising theories on consciousness, and Radical Plasticity thesis in particular. / Doctorat en Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Background Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is considered to be one of the most debilitating and difficult to treat mental disorders. Traditionally, studies investigating the aetiology and mechanisms associated with the development and exacerbation of BPD have relied on the use of clinical populations. As a consequence, the opportunities to understand vulnerabilities and fundamental processes that may contribute to the development and maintenance of the disorder have been limited. Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the potential interactions and mediating effects of metacognition and emotion regulation on the relationships among different forms of childhood abuse, attachment, and parental bonding with a composite of core BPD features designed to encompass major areas of personality functioning and pathological personality traits (per DSM-5 section III). Method: A non-clinical sample of 695 students in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland took part in an internet survey composed of a battery of self-report measures. This was geared to identify features associated with BPD, emotion regulation difficulties, characteristics of metacognition, adult insecure attachment, fundamental parental bonding styles and signs of childhood maltreatment. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data. Results All variables of interest had a direct effect on the development of features associated with BPD. Metacognition was found to mediate the effects of all three forms of childhood abuse used in the study as well as the effects of adult insecure attachment on the development BPD related traits. Emotion regulation suppression was found to mediate the effects of sexual and physical childhood abuse (but not emotional abuse, adult insecure attachment, parental bonding indifference, or parental bonding overprotection) on the development of borderline features. In addition, the lack of emotion regulation reappraisal was found to mediate the effects of sexual abuse and adult insecure attachment (but not emotional or physical abuse, parental bonding indifference, or parental bonding overprotection) on the development of BPD related traits. Discussion These findings have important clinical and theoretical implications. The results provide support and understanding of the role of mediating mechanisms in the exacerbation and in the development of features associated with BPD. This is important because metacognition and emotion regulation may be more amenable to change than traumatic past experiences and/or deep seeded patterns of attachment. In addition, further development in this area of research has the potential to lead to better and more effective psychotherapeutic treatments for BPD.

In recent years, there has been a growing body of literature investigating metacognition in second language (L2) listening (e.g. Cross, 2010; Vandergrift & Goh, 2012; Vandergrift & Tafaghodtari, 2010). The theoretical underpinning of the majority of these studies is that metacognition and listening are individual psychological processes. This led to a limited understanding of metacognition in listening that highlights the regulation of oneself, whilst disregarding the communication partner and the wider context. The present study contributed to the existing body of literature by investigating and re-conceptualising metacognition in L2 listening. Informed by a sociocultural and dialogical perspective on discourse and thought, this thesis offered new insights that recognise L2 listeners’ metacognitive awareness and activities as reciprocal monitoring and control processes. International students for whom English was a second/foreign language participated in the study. They worked in pairs on a collaborative problem-solving task and their interactions on this task were video-recorded. Directly after the task, individual interviews with each member of the pair were conducted to gain their accounts of how they perceived the task and how they monitored and regulated the interaction. A grounded theory informed approach was used to analyse the interview data, and a conversation analysis informed approach was used to analyse the interaction data. The findings of this study have established that a wider view of metacognition in L2 listening is required. The re-conceptualisation, underpinned by existing theories and deriving from the study’s empirical data, moved beyond conventional views of metacognition, and argued that the monitoring and control processes in listening are dialogical and reciprocal. This re-conceptualisation was encapsulated in the term Metacognitive Discourse Awareness (MDA). The central tenet of the MDA framework is that metacognition in listening involves the complex regulation of the discourse, thought and social-affective dimensions. This multidimensional framing of MDA entails the listener’s awareness of his/herself as the co-regulator of the other(s) in the reciprocal relationship in which meaning is socially co-constructed and negotiated. This study thus foregrounded the situatedness of the monitoring and control processes in L2 listening and the connections within, between and across the thought, discourse and social-affective dimensions. The thesis concluded with recommendations for L2 teachers and learners to develop a broader understanding of metacognition in the listening process so that this understanding can have an impact on practices in the increasingly diverse global higher education context.

Abstract not available

<p>This study was conducted to examine the primary theoretical relation between metacognition andmindfulness. 98 university students participated, the possible influence of their age and number ofeducation years on the concepts were also examined. A short version of the MetacognitiveAwareness Inventory along with the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale were employed to measure theconcepts. The results indicated that awareness, a central component of mindfulness wassignificantly related to metacognition. The results suggest that the concepts to some extent areinterrelated. Comparisons were made between students above, and below the median of age (22),and education years (1.5); no significant differences in metacognition or mindfulness were found.Neither were age and education years together significantly associated with the concepts.</p>

This study was conducted to examine the primary theoretical relation between metacognition andmindfulness. 98 university students participated, the possible influence of their age and number ofeducation years on the concepts were also examined. A short version of the MetacognitiveAwareness Inventory along with the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale were employed to measure theconcepts. The results indicated that awareness, a central component of mindfulness wassignificantly related to metacognition. The results suggest that the concepts to some extent areinterrelated. Comparisons were made between students above, and below the median of age (22),and education years (1.5); no significant differences in metacognition or mindfulness were found.Neither were age and education years together significantly associated with the concepts.

Metacognition involves different evaluations of your own thinking- and learning process. Ease of learning (EOL) means judging how difficult for example a word is to learn. When researching about EOLs, different methods have been used in the past. In an experiment that tested glossaries, the methodology for measuring EOLs was investigated in this study. In the experiment, a comparison was made between making a sequential or simultaneous judgement of the difficulty of the words. A simultaneous judgement means judging one item while seeing the other items on the list, and a sequential judgement means judging while only seeing the word pair you are to judge. The result of this experiment was in line with previous research in that EOL judgments significantly, but only moderately so, predict the actual learnability of the items. However, the difference between a sequential and simultaneous judgement and their correlation with recall was not significant. There was a tendency towards better EOLs being made with simultaneous judgements, having a 30 % higher correlation with recall than sequential judgements.