The Stroop effect is the delay in reaction times due to interference. Since the original experiments of 1935, it has been used primarily in linguistic context. Language is a complex skill unique to humans, which involves a large part of the cerebral cortex and many subcortical regions. It is perceived primarily in auditory form (spoken) and secondarily in visual form (written), but it is also always perceived in representational form (natural sounds, images, smells, etc). Auditory signals are processed much faster than visual signals, and the language processing centres are closer to the primary auditory cortex than the primary visual cortex, but due to the integration of stimuli and the role of the executive functions, we are able to perceive both simultaneously and coherently. However, auditory signals are still processed faster, and this study focused on establishing how auditory and visual, linguistic and representational stimuli interact with each other and affect reaction times in four Stroop tasks with four archetypal mammals (dog, cat, mouse and pig): a written word against an image, a spoken word against an image, a written word against a natural sound and a spoken word against a natural sound. Four hypotheses were tested: in all tasks reaction times would be faster when the stimuli were congruent (Stroop Hypothesis); reaction times would be faster when both stimuli are auditory than when they are visual (Audiovisual Hypothesis); reaction times would be similar in the tasks where one stimulus is auditory and the other visual (Similarity Hypothesis); finally, reaction times would be slower when stimuli come from two sources than when they come from one source (Attention Hypothesis). Twelve native speakers of Swedish between the ages of 22 and 40 participated. The experiment took place in the EEG lab of the Linguistics Department of Stockholm University. The same researcher (the author) and equipment was used for all participants. The results confirmed the Stroop Hypothesis, did not confirm the Audiovisual and Similarity Hypothesis, and the results of the Attention Hypothesis were mixed. The somewhat controversial results were mostly attributed to a false initial assumption, namely that having two different auditory stimuli (one on each ear) was considered one source of stimuli, and possibly the poor quality of some natural sounds. With this additional consideration, the results seemed to be in accord with previous research. Future research could focus on more efficient ways to test the reaction times of Stroop tasks involving auditory and visual stimuli, as well as different populations, especially neurodiverse and bilingual populations.

Using action orientation after failure as a measure of individual differences in emotion regulation abilities (ERA), this thesis’ studies investigated the impact of ERA on cognition, behavior, and own versus imposed goals differentiation. The first study used cortisol as a physiological stress marker to replicate the link between ERA and the ability to make intuitive judgments under stress. High ERA were associated with increased performance in an intuition task under stress. In contrast, when feeling no stress, low ERA were associated with increased performance in an intuition task. The second study showed that ERA can compensate for depression-associated biased processing of negative stimuli. This effect was present even at mild to moderate depression levels. Replicating earlier findings, the third study showed that ERA are associated with an increased ability to distinguish self-chosen from imposed goals. Most importantly, the study identified activation in the right medial prefrontal cortex as a neural correlate of identifying self-chosen goals, and activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, as a correlate of falsely identifying imposed goals as self-chosen ones. Altogether, these studies show the necessity to consider individual differences in ERA in stress, clinical, and motivational research. The findings are discussed with respect to three theories that relate to motivation and personality from behavioral and neurobiological perspectives, namely, Personality Systems Interaction Theory, Predictive and Reactive Control Systems Theory, and Self-Determination Theory.

L’objectif de ce travail de thèse était d’investiguer l’influence de la valence émotionnelle négative, positive ou taboue des mots parlés sur l’orientation des ressources attentionnelles, dans la population tout-venant. Pour ce faire, j’ai élaboré des adaptations auditives de paradigmes expérimentaux qui avaient été utilisés auparavant dans le but d’explorer l’influence du contenu émotionnel de stimuli visuels sur l’allocation de l’attention :le paradigme de déploiement de l’attention (Etudes 1 et 3), le paradigme de Stroop émotionnel (Etude 2) et le paradigme d’indiçage spatial émotionnel (Etude 4). <p>En particulier, les Etudes 1, 3 et 4 m’ont permis d’examiner l’influence de la valence émotionnelle de ces stimuli sur l’attention sélective à une localisation spatiale, évaluée au travers des réponses à une cible subséquente. <p>Dans la situation de compétition pour les ressources attentionnelles spécifique au paradigme de déploiement de l’attention (Etudes 1 et 3), nous avons observé un engagement préférentiel des ressources attentionnelles vers la localisation spatiale des mots tabous, lorsque ceux-ci étaient présentés à droite, par rapport à la localisation spatiale des mots neutres présentés conjointement. Ces biais attentionnels ont été observés quelle que soit l’attention portée volontairement aux stimuli, la nature de la tâche à réaliser sur la cible, ou la charge cognitive liée à la tâche. De tels biais ont également été observés envers la localisation spatiale des mots négatifs et positifs, mais de manière moins robuste. Lorsque deux stimuli rivalisent pour l’orientation des ressources, la valence choquante serait donc cruciale pour l’orientation de l’attention spatiale. De plus, les mots tabous induisent un ralentissement général des temps de réaction (TRs) à la cible subséquente, quelle que soit sa localisation spatiale.<p>Au contraire, lorsque des mots-indices sont présentés isolément dans le paradigme d’indiçage spatial émotionnel (Etude 4), la valence émotionnelle négative des mots, mais pas leur valence choquante, paraît cruciale pour l’observation d’effets spatiaux :les stimuli les plus négatifs moduleraient l’orientation spatiale automatique de l’attention suscitée par leur présentation périphérique. Plus précisément, ils empêcheraient l’application de processus attentionnels inhibiteurs des localisations déjà explorées. En outre, la présentation d’un indice périphérique négatif accélère le traitement d’une cible subséquente, quelle que soit sa localisation spatiale.<p>L’influence de la dimension émotionnelle des mots parlés sur l’attention sélective à une dimension (non-émotionnelle) de ces stimuli a été investiguée grâce au paradigme de Stroop émotionnel (Etude 2). Contrairement à mes autres études, aucun déplacement attentionnel spatial n’était impliqué dans cette situation puisque les participants devaient répondre à chaque essai à une dimension non-émotionnelle (l’identité du locuteur) du stimulus (potentiellement émotionnel) présenté. J’ai ainsi observé une influence de la dimension émotionnelle taboue ou négative des mots sur le traitement de la dimension pertinente d’un mot neutre subséquent, mais pas sur le traitement de la dimension pertinente de ces mots eux-mêmes, suggérant l’occurrence d’effets lents, inter-essais, des mots tabous et négatifs, mais pas d’effet rapide. <p>Ces données appuient donc l’existence, dans une population tout-venant, d’un mécanisme de traitement involontaire du contenu émotionnel des mots parlés qui influence non seulement l’orientation spatiale et dimensionnelle de l’attention mais également, de manière plus générale, la latence des réponses fournies par le sujet.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

長久以來，序列式詞彙處理模式以及互動式詞彙處理模式經常爭論孰為合理的語誤生成模型。這份研究企圖利用心理學實證角度探究此議題。原屬於心理學範疇的史楚普技術(1935)或可提供語言學多方面的視角，尤其在我們處理顏色詞彙時詞彙譯碼歷程上與視覺表徵之間的關係。因此我們試圖將此經典心理學技術轉化成宜於語言學研究的語誤誘發實驗。藉由控制變項間的語音近似度，創制了四項實驗，分別是：顏色唸名實驗、顏色誦讀實驗、史楚普唸名實驗、同音詞唸名實驗。結果顯示，即便受試者對語音近似度並未在單項實驗中產生語誤數量與反應時間的差異，但它在不同實驗任務之間卻誘使受試者產生不一樣的反應結果，包括數量上及時間上的顯著差異。 此外，我們針對語誤，分析其與目標字之間的關係，研判部分音韻效應是否對詞彙處理網絡造成顯著影響。結果顯示，史楚普效應、音韻結構、音法限制以及聲調效應在語誤數量中均出現顯著的生成量；音節首、韻部以及母音則並未出現顯著效應。史楚普技術除了在語誤證據中為文字閱讀提供自動化效應的解釋外，也讓我們看到音韻效應在不同視覺任務指派中產生顯著差異的結果。如此看來，互動式模型提供了較為簡潔的解釋。來自二元視覺刺激(視覺色彩與顏色詞)的詞彙競爭，該框架可以合理提供理論基礎，並解釋不同視覺任務之間音韻關係依存度的不同。 另一方面，我們亦援引同樣技術設計出以音韻單位為導向的唸名實驗，討論語言輸出前規劃單位之議題。我們發現，僅含聲調的音節以及無聲調的音節可在詞彙網絡中做為語言規劃之心理處理單位，促進詞彙處理效能。其他單位如音節首、介音、母音、韻尾、聲調則無法出現顯著效應。同時亦於實驗中發現，中文聲調於規劃階段時，應是屬於詞彙結構上的聲調，而非純粹的聲韻調。 / Serial-ordering model and interactive processing model have long been discussed as whether people process languages in a sequential level of processing or the consequence of levels interacting altogether by looking at speech errors. Stroop technique (1935) in psychology could give linguistics some insights on the relation between lexical encoding and visual representation when people process colors. We tried to adapt this classical psychological experiment for an experiment of speech error elicitation. By means of controlling the phonological similarity, we created four experiments: color naming, color reading, Stroop naming, and homophonous naming tasks. The result first showed that even though phonological similarity did not induce significant difference in error amount and response time within single task, it still caused significant difference in these results among these tasks. Second, after analyzing the linguistic relation between targets and speech errors, we found that Stroop effect, syllable structure, phonotactic regularity, and tone induced apparent effects in error generation, while initial, rhyme, and vowel did not. Stroop effect not only provided the evidence from speech errors where character representation was an autonomous mechanism in lexical process, but also provided a fact that phonological effect would impacted differently on amount of error according to the type of visual task. It seems that interactive account could help explain the result easily, as the competition from dual visual inputs could be given a theoretical basis to account for the phonological dependency according to certain visual task which subjects were assigned to. Finally, we also discussed the issue of advanced planning unit in lexical process. In the shared unit task with Stroop technique, we found that only the units of tonal syllable and bare syllable could serve as possible planning units in lexical network, and tone in Chinese should be attributed to a type of lexical tone in planning, rather than a pure phonological tone. To sum up, the purpose of the study attempts to provide empirical evidence to examine the above issues.

Prevalence rates of many types of psychopathology are lower for men than they are for women, but the causes of these discrepancies are not known. This paper focuses on two such psychopathology groups – eating disorders and depressive disorders – and examines gender differences within a transactional theory of stress that takes into account levels of cognitive processing (an expanded transactional theory of stress). Both studies found that men are more physiologically reactive to disorder-relevant, stressful stimuli and stressful events. The study on depression also found that different cognitive processes may be depressogenic for men and women: deployment of attentional resources toward negative stimuli was associated with depression in men, while deployment of attentional resources away from positive stimuli was associated with depression in women. These findings have significant implications for choosing appropriate treatment options for men and women.

Prevalence rates of many types of psychopathology are lower for men than they are for women, but the causes of these discrepancies are not known. This paper focuses on two such psychopathology groups – eating disorders and depressive disorders – and examines gender differences within a transactional theory of stress that takes into account levels of cognitive processing (an expanded transactional theory of stress). Both studies found that men are more physiologically reactive to disorder-relevant, stressful stimuli and stressful events. The study on depression also found that different cognitive processes may be depressogenic for men and women: deployment of attentional resources toward negative stimuli was associated with depression in men, while deployment of attentional resources away from positive stimuli was associated with depression in women. These findings have significant implications for choosing appropriate treatment options for men and women.

A significant subset of women plagued with breast cancer continue to experience chronic neuropathic pain (CNP) long after undergoing cancer treatment. Medical interventions such as pharmacotherapy and/or surgery have been most widely used to abate painful symptoms with limited efficacy. Other alternatives are required given a heavy reliance on pharmaceuticals can lead to tolerance, dependence and severe side effects. Possibilities include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), physical therapy, and mindfulness interventions to supplement pharmacotherapies. Mindfulness practice in particular has been offered to a variety of chronic pain groups including breast cancer patients, however evidence is lacking to support its effectiveness in CNP for breast cancer survivors (BCS). The purpose of the present study was to explore the benefits a mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR) may have on altering the underlying neuronal correlates linked with pain-related symptoms associated with CNP in BCS. The primary objective was to investigate how mindfulness training might possibly mediate the brain’s capacity for emotional reactivity, white matter integrity, and activation of the default mode network (DMN) and how these changes may correlate with levels of pain severity and pain interference, improving overall quality of life. To achieve these results, several brain imaging techniques were used in order to observe the correlation between the subjective experience of pain and the objective manifestation of brain changes that may be potentiated by MBSR training. A total of 23 participants were placed in either an 8 week MBSR intervention group (n=13) or a waitlist control group (n =10). All women were scanned with MRI before and after the 8 week intervention regardless of group allotment. The following neuroimaging modalities were used for each scanning session: resting state fMRI (rsfMRI) to monitor changes to functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN); Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) to assess the structural integrity of white matter tracts; and the Emotional Stroop Task (EST) to examine emotional reactivity in response to pain related stimuli. Exploratory results from this pilot study indicate that improvements to functional connectivity were apparent in the MBSR group relative to control, indicative of more efficient communication in areas related to attention, self-awareness, emotion regulation and pain. Improvements were also noted as increased cerebral white matter health and reduced emotional reactivity to pain related stimuli in the group of MBSR trained participants relative to control. Additionally, these functional and structural changes correlated with the self-reported pain measures in the MBSR group, suggesting that the MBSR group demonstrated improvements to ratings of pain severity and pain interference whereas the opposite occurred with the control group. The results have been interpreted as improvements to patients’ perception of pain and quality of life post MBSR training, however, were not limited to the subjective experience of pain. The inclusion of neuroimaging modalities provides objective and empirical support for MBSR training as it highlights the underlying brain mechanisms that were altered as part of MBSR treatment. Ultimately, the evidence suggests that MBSR could be incorporated as part of the treatment protocol for women experiencing CNP post breast cancer treatment.

The role of executive functioning in substance dependence and addiction has received increased attention in recent years; however, the findings of empirical studies are at times contradictory and difficult to compare at face value. To address the current state of fragmentation and to delineate the current body of knowledge a systematic review of existing studies was conducted. The synthesis of the findings from these studies confirmed that lower neuropsychological performance scores of executive functioning are observed in substance dependent populations. Furthermore, the synthesis of the components of these studies provided a comprehensive overview and revealed a number of critical gaps in the current body of knowledge. The gaps include limitations concerning specific demographics of the samples studied (under-representation of females, adolescents, the elderly, individuals with limited education, and individuals from Africa, Oceania, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean), as well as the scarce number of studies investigating specific substances; insufficient longitudinal studies; and the fragmentation of executive functioning as a theoretical construct. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)