Human latent inhibition: Problems with the stimulus exposure effect.

Latent inhibition (LI) is a startlingly simple effect in which preexposure of a stimulus without consequence retards subsequent responding to a stimulus-consequence relation. The effect was first demonstrated with Pavlovian conditioning in animals and was later suggested to be a marker of human psychopathology such as schizophrenia. Individual differences in LI has supported the continued use of animal models to understand human mental health. In this review, we ask whether there is sufficient evidence to support the continued application of LI from animal models to human psychopathology because of the weak evidence for LI in humans. There is considerable variability in the methods used to assess LI, sustaining different theoretical accounts of the effects observed, which differ from the accepted accounts of LI as demonstrated in animals. The review shows that although there have been many experiments testing human LI, none provide the necessary experimental controls to support the conclusion that retarded responding is caused simply by preexposure to a stimulus, as has been demonstrated with animal models. Establishing this conflict, we set out a framework for future research.

To neglect or integrate contingency information from outside the task frame, that is the question! Effects of depressed mood.

Evidence shows that there are individual differences in the extent to which people attend to and integrate information into their decisions about the predictive contingencies between events and outcomes. In particular, information about the absence of events or outcomes, presented outside the current task frame, is often neglected. This trend is particularly evident in depression, as well as other psychopathologies, though reasons for information neglect remain unclear. We investigated this phenomenon across two experiments (Experiment 1: N=157; Experiment 2: N=150) in which participants, scoring low and high in the Beck Depression Inventory, were asked to learn a simple predictive relationship between a visual cue and an auditory outcome. We manipulated whether or not participants had prior experience of the visual cue outside of the task frame, whether such experience took place in the same or different context to the learning task, and the nature of the action required to signal occurrence of the auditory outcome. We found that all participants were capable of including extra-task experience into their assessment of the predictive cue-outcome relationship in whatever context it occurred. However, for mildly depressed participants, adjacent behaviours and similarity between the extra-task experience and the main task, influenced information integration, with patterns of 'over-integration' evident, rather than neglect as we had expected. Findings are suggestive of over-generalised experience on the part of mildly depressed participants.

Enhanced attention to context: An intervention that increases perceived control in mild depression.

People perceive that they have control over events to the extent that the same events do not occur outside of their control, randomly, in the environment or context. Therefore, perceived control should be enhanced if there is a large contrast between one's own control and the control that the context itself seems to exert over events. Given that depression is associated with low perceived control, we tested the hypothesis that enhanced attentional focus to context will increase perceived control in people with and without depression. A total of 106 non-depressed and mildly depressed participants completed a no control zero-contingency task with low and high outcome probability conditions. In the experimental context-focus group, participants were instructed to attend to the context, whereas in the control group, participants were instructed to attend to their thoughts. Irrespective of attentional focus, non-depressed participants displayed illusory control. However, people with mild depression responded strongly to the attention focus manipulation. In the control group, they evidenced low perceived control with classic depressive realism effects. In the experimental group, when asked to focus on the context in which events took place, participants with mild depression displayed enhanced perceived control or illusory control, similar to non-depressed participants. Findings are discussed in relation to whether depression effects on perceived control represent tendencies towards realism or attentional aspects of depressive thoughts.

The Perception of Threat from Emotions in Predicting Binge Eating Behaviours in People Who Are Obese and Seeking Treatment for Their Weight.

OBJECTIVE: The affect regulation theory suggests that people binge eat to regulate negative emotional states. In this study, we used a basic emotions perspective to consider the role of perceived threat of emotions, emotional suppression and reduced emotional expressiveness in predicting binge eating behaviours in people who are obese. METHOD: Treatment-seeking participants with obesity (N = 51, body mass index range from 30.8 to 60.2 kg m-2 ) completed measures of 'perception of threat from emotion' as well as 'emotional expressiveness' and binge eating. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that perceived threat of sadness predicted binge eating (ß = .55, p < .05). Additionally, a mediation analysis revealed that reduced emotional expressiveness mediated the relationship between perceived threat of fear and binge eating (ß = .25, 95%). DISCUSSION: These findings are contextualized within a theoretical perspective that suggests that individuals who binge eat are threatened by certain emotional states and they use binge eating to suppress certain, but not all, emotional states. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE: Considering basic emotions within binge eating should be a part of a psychological assessment and treatment. This should consider how emotions could often be perceived as being threatening and their expression is limited. It is possible that the emotions of fear and sadness appear to be particularly threatening within binge eating/obese populations.

Two pathways to causal control: use and availability of information in the environment in people with and without signs of depression.

Perceiving one's causal control is important for adaptive behavior. Studying depression and other individual differences has provided insight into typical as well as pathological causal processing. We set out to study factors that have been shown to distinguish those with and without signs of depression and affect perceptions of causal control: levels of behavior, the availability of outcomes and learning about the environment or context. Two experiments were carried out in which participants, scoring low and high on the Beck Depression Inventory using established cutoffs, completed a causal control task, in which outcomes occurred with a low (.25) or high probability (.75). Behavior levels were either constrained (N1=73) or unconstrained (N2=74). Overall, findings showed that levels of behavior influenced people's experiences of the context in which events occurred. For all participants, very high behavior levels eliminated sensitivity to levels of outcomes occurring in the environment and lead to judgments that were consistent with conditional probabilities as opposed to the experimenter programmed contingency. Thus increased behavior increased perceived control via influence on context experience. This effect was also evident for those scoring high on the BDI. Overall conclusions are that behavior and context provide two important interlinked psychological pathways to perceived control. However, situations that constrain people's ability to respond freely can prevent people with signs of depression from taking control of a situation that would otherwise be uncontrollable.