Hidetoshi Seiwa

Test Anxiety and Working Memory System

The purpose was to examine the effect of test anxiety on deficits in the articulatory loop in the working memory system. We used a verbal memory task to occupy the articulatory loop and a spatial memory task to occupy the visuospatial scratch pad. 17 highly test-anxious and 19 low-anxiety subjects performed both tasks under an anxiety-inducing situation during which they were observed by a monitor camera. Percentage of correct responses and reaction times were measured as indices of task performance. Highly anxious subjects reported feeling worry and cognitive self-concern more than the low-anxiety group. Highly anxious subjects showed a longer mean reaction time on the verbal memory task than the low-anxiety group. On the spatial memory task there was no difference in quality of performance. This finding might suggest that anxiety such as worry and cognitive self-concern interferes with information processing in the articulatory loop of the working memory system.

Coping availability and stress reduction for optimistic and pessimistic individuals

It has been noted that optimists adopt active coping strategies and pessimists employ passive coping strategies. Although active coping strategies are known as adaptive, these strategies under an uncontrollable situation are considered as maladaptive according to the goodness of fit hypothesis. The present study aimed to examine the effect of coping strategies adopted by both optimists and pessimists under a controllable and an uncontrollable situation. Participants were 32 optimists and 32 pessimists selected by the Life Orientation Test. Controllability of aversive situations was operated by ratios of answerable anagram tasks. Main findings were as follows. Optimists tended to adopt active coping strategies and showed lower subjective stress than pessimists. Under a controllable situation, coping strategies adopted by optimists were correlated with subjective stress significantly, while pessimists showed no relationship between coping strategies and stress. These results indicated that high stress shown by pessimists was due to the low efficacy of adopted coping strategies.

The effect of UCS inflation and deflation procedures on ‘fear’ conditioning

Davey (1992: Classical conditioning and the acquisition of human fears and phobias: a review and synthesis of the literature. Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 14, 29-66) hypothesized that subjective revaluation of an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) would determine the strength of the autonomic conditioned response (CR) in the fear conditioning paradigm. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of UCS aversiveness on the CR strength in the fear conditioning paradigm. The UCS aversiveness was controlled by the UCS intensity; that is, the UCS intensity was increased for the inflation group or decreased for the deflation group. Thirty subjects were randomly assigned to the inflation or the deflation group, and they participated under both experimental and control conditions. All subjects went through the pretest, the acquisition of classical conditioning, the UCS intensity operation, and the test sessions. The indices of the CR were skin conductance responses (SCRs) and a subjective aversion to the conditioned stimulus (CS). The main results were as follows. (1) The CR strength measured by SCR was increased by the UCS inflation and decreased by the UCS deflation. (2) The subjective aversiveness of the CS was not sensitive to both manipulations of UCS intensity. These results suggested that the autonomic CR strength might be influenced by the subjective revaluation of UCS, as Davey (1992) described. The result from the test of the subjective aversiveness of the CS, however, could not support Daveys model. The difference between expressions of the SCR and the subjective aversiveness of the CS might be caused by different learning systems.

The influence of obsessive‐compulsive neurosis patients’ premorbid personality on obsessive‐compulsive symptoms and efficacy of medication

We conducted a survey with the Lynfield obsessive‐compulsive symptom questionnaire (revised version) on 48 obsessive‐compulsive neurotic patients as the survey subjects. In the factor analysis five factors of obsessions, were identified: (i) the desire for perfection; (ii) compulsive checking; (iii) washing; (iv) feelings of uncleanliness; and (v) anthropophobia. High correlations were noted between these factors. We also investigated the premorbid personalities of obsessive‐compulsive neurotic patients with a multidimensional personality scale and obtained an extroversion dimension and neuroticism dimension. The influence of these premorbid personality dimensions on obsessive‐compulsive symptoms became clear; (i) neuroticism is related to the levels of obsession after onset, but not related to compulsive behaviors; and (ii) No differences in premorbid personality dimensions were noted between compulsive checking and compulsive washing behaviors. We also studied whether it was possible to predict the efficacy of pharmacotherapy upon obsessive‐compulsive symptoms. It was elucidated that the obsessions of those whose premorbid personalities are emotionally stable and extroversive are susceptible to antidepressants. Based on these results, we discussed the usefulness of premorbid personalities in predicting diversity of obsessive‐compulsive symptoms, as well as in prediction the efficacy of medication.

Effects of Personal Responsibility and Latitude for Type A and B Individuals on Psychological and Physiological Stress Responses

Latitude has been considered a dominant factor in stress reduction. Jobs that involve high latitude, however, generally are accompanied by high responsibility, which might induce high levels of stress. Therefore, latitude in a job situation is necessary to examine the effects of responsibility and latitude together. In this study we examined the effects of personal responsibility and latitude for Type A and B individuals on psychological and physiological responses. Thirty-one Type A participants and 31 Type B participants were divided into high- and low-responsibility conditions. Personal responsibility was operated by disclosures about results of the task performed by groups of 3 participants. Participants received both latitude conditions (self-paced and externally paced task). High responsibility elicited psychological responses and increased heart rate; Type A individuals especially showed a remarkable increase of heart rate. On the other hand, latitude did not reduce strain. We concluded that personal responsibility might be one of the dominant factors of stress elicitation.

Implicit and explicit associations in the fear structure of social anxiety.

Implicit associations in the fear structure of social anxiety were investigated and their relations with explicit associations were examined in the present study. The Implicit Association Test was used to assess implicit associations. Individuals scoring High (n = 26) and Low (n = 18) on Social Anxiety completed two forms of the Implicit Association Test and rated the probability and cost of negative social outcomes. Analyses showed an implicit association between anxiety responses and negative evaluations was more strongly formed in the High Social Anxiety group than in the Low Social Anxiety group. Furthermore, relations between implicit associations and explicit measures were minimal. These findings suggested that the Implicit Association Test is suitable for the assessment of implicit associations in the fear structure of social anxiety, and that implicit associations of social anxiety are relatively independent of explicit associations.

A FACILITATOR IN SELF-REPORTED PERCEPTION OF PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS : THE ROLE OF CONTINGENCY BETWEEN PHYSICAL SYMPTOM AND AVERSIVE EVENT

Perceptions of physical symptoms are influenced not only by the passive process of physiological stimuli but also by psychological factors such as the contingency between a physical symptom and an aversive event which we examined here in two experiments. 18 subjects in Exp. 1 and 14 subjects in Exp. 2 performed motor tasks. In the Physical condition, an aversive event was contingent on the physical symptom of ‘racing heart’ in Exp. 1, and on the symptom of ‘overstraining shoulder muscles’ in Exp. 2. In the Motor condition, an aversive event was contingent on the response of the ‘disordered pace of motor tasks’ in both experiments. Self-reported scores on attention to and perception of the physical symptoms under the Physical condition were higher than those under the Motor condition. However, there were no differences in the actual physical responses between the two conditions. These results suggest that a contingency between a physical symptom and an aversive event facilitates attention to and perception of the physical symptom.

Influence of the role of a partner on anxiety due to a physically threatening situation

Abstract This study aimed to examine the influence of the presence of a partner in terms of affiliation level and role on anxiety in a physically threatening situation. In the first experiment, nine male subjects waited alone for the electric shock, and the other nine subjects waited with their partner. In the second experiment, 36 female subjects were assigned to four experimental groups by the difference of the role of a partner (coactor or audience) and the affiliation level of a partner (friend or stranger), and subjects waited for the electric shock with their partner. It was found that anxiety of subjects decreased when the partner was a coactor and/or a friend. It was suggested that these two functioned differently in anxiety reduction in a physically threatening situation.