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Suicide and self-injury are difficult to predict because at-risk individuals are often unable or unwilling to report their intentions. Therefore, tools to reliably assess risk without reliance on self-report are critically needed. Prior research suggests that people who engage in suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) often implicitly (i.e., outside conscious control) associate themselves with self-harm and death, indicating that self-harm-related implicit cognition may serve as a useful behavioral marker for suicide risk. However, earlier studies left several critical questions about the robustness, sensitivity, and specificity of self-harm-related implicit associations unaddressed. We recruited a large sample of participants (N = 7,015) via a public web-based platform called Project Implicit Mental Health (PIMH) to test several hypotheses about self-harm-related implicit associations using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Participants were randomly assigned to complete 1 of 3 self-harm IATs (Self + Cutting using picture stimuli, Self + Suicide using word stimuli, Self + Death using word stimuli). Results replicated prior studies demonstrating that self-harm-related implicit associations were stronger among individuals with (vs. without) a history of suicide attempt and NSSI. Results also suggested that self-harm-related implicit associations are robust (based on internal replication), are sensitive to recency and severity of self-harm history (e.g., stronger associations for more recent and more lethal prior suicide attempts), and correlate with specific types of self-harm behaviors. These findings clarify the nature of self-harm-related implicit cognition and highlight the IAT's potential to track current risk for specific types of self-harm in ways that more fixed risk factors cannot. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Understanding differences in responses following attempts to suppress versus simply monitor intrusive thoughts is important given the established relationship between intrusive thinking and numerous forms of psychopathology. Moreover, these differences may vary as a function of age. Because of the links between aging and both enhancement in emotion regulation skills and decline in inhibition skills, older and younger adults were expected to differ in their responses (e.g., experience of negative affect and thought recurrence) to attempts at suppressing intrusive thoughts. This study examined whether efforts to suppress thought content that varied in valence and age-relevance differentially affected older (N=40, aged 66-92) and younger (N=42, aged 16-25) adults' ability to inhibit intrusive thought recurrence and their resulting negative affect. Interestingly, older adults experienced less recurrence for most thoughts than younger adults. Also, for several dependent variables (negative affect and perceived difficulty suppressing intrusive thoughts), older adults showed less decline in their magnitude of response across thinking periods (i.e., from suppression to monitoring) than did younger adults. These age effects were not generally moderated by level of trait anxiety, though higher anxiety did predict intrusive thought responding in expected directions, such as greater negative affect. These findings point to independent influences of age and anxiety, and suggest a complex mix of risk and protective factors for older adults' responses to intrusive thoughts., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Three studies were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of a new scale: the Heights Interpretation Questionnaire (HIQ). This scale was designed to measure height fear-relevant interpretation bias to help assess the relationship between biased interpretations and acrophobia symptoms. Studies 1 (N=553) and 2 (N=308) established the scale's factor structure and convergent and discriminant validity among two large undergraduate samples. Study 3 (N=48) evaluated the predictive validity of the HIQ by examining how well the scale predicted subjective distress and avoidance on actual heights. Factor analysis resulted in four distinct factors, and results suggest that each of the factors, along with the full HIQ, have good reliability and validity. Additionally, the scale predicts subjective distress and avoidance on heights beyond self-reported acrophobia symptoms. Overall, the HIQ shows promise as a new tool to investigate cognitive processing biases in acrophobia., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

To test cognitive models of panic disorder, a range of information processing biases were examined among persons with panic disorder (N=43) and healthy control participants (N=38). Evidence for automatic associations in memory was assessed using the Implicit Association Test, interference effects related to attention biases were assessed using a modified supraliminal Stroop task, and interpretation biases were assessed using the Brief Body Sensations Interpretation Questionnaire. In addition, the relationship between information processing biases and clinical markers of panic (including affective, behavioral, and cognitive symptom measures) was investigated, along with the relationships among biases. Results indicated more threat biases among the panic (relative to control) group on each of the information processing measures, providing some of the first evidence for an implicit measure of panic associations. Further, structural equation modeling indicated that the information processing bias measures were each unique predictors of panic symptoms, but that the bias indicators did not relate to one another. These findings suggest that cognitive factors may independently predict panic symptoms, but not covary. Results are discussed in terms of their support for cognitive models of panic and the potential for automatic versus strategic processing differences across the tasks to explain the low relationships across the biases.

There are many open questions about the phenomenology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in the elderly, and theories about the development of OCD have rarely been applied to older populations. The current study uses structural equation models to evaluate the relationship between obsessional beliefs and OCD symptoms across young and older adult age groups in a large community sample (aged 18-93; N=335), and to examine whether subjective concerns about cognitive decline partially mediate this relationship. Results support partial mediation, and follow-up analyses suggest that the pattern of relationships among subjective cognitive concerns, obsessional beliefs and OCD symptoms is invariant for younger and older adults, but older adults report relatively greater levels of subjective cognitive concerns.

Two studies were conducted to test a dual-process theory of cognitive vulnerability to depression. According to this theory, implicit and explicit cognitive processes have differential effects on depressive reactions to stressful life events. Implicit processes are hypothesized to be critical in determining an individual's immediate affective reaction to stress whereas explicit cognitions are thought to be more involved in long-term depressive reactions. Consistent with hypotheses, the results of study 1 (cross-sectional; N=237) showed that implicit, but not explicit, cognitions predicted immediate affective reactions to a lab stressor. Study 2 (longitudinal; N=251) also supported the dual-process model of cognitive vulnerability to depression. Results showed that both the implicit and explicit measures interacted with life stress to predict prospective changes in depressive symptoms, respectively. However, when both implicit and explicit predictors were entered into a regression equation simultaneously, only the explicit measure interacted with stress to remain a unique predictor of depressive symptoms over the five-week prospective interval.

The high levels of problematic drinking in college students make clear the need for improvement in the prediction of problematic drinking. We conducted a laboratory-based experiment that investigated whether implicit measures of alcohol-related associations, self-control, and their interaction predicted drinking. Although a few studies have evaluated self-control as a moderator of the relationship between implicit measures of alcohol-related associations and drinking, this study extended that work by using a previously-validated manipulation that included a more (vs. less) cognitively demanding task and incentive to restrain drinking and by evaluating multiple validated measures of alcohol-related associations. Experimental condition was expected to moderate the relationship between implicit measures of alcohol-related associations and drinking, with a more positive relationship between alcohol-related associations and drinking among participants who completed the more (vs. less) cognitive demanding task. Secondary aims were to evaluate how individual differences in control factors (implicit theories about willpower and working memory capacity) might further moderate those relationships. One hundred and five U.S. undergraduate heavy episodic drinkers completed baseline measures of: drinking patterns, three Implicit Association Tests (evaluating drinking identity, alcohol excite, alcohol approach associations) and their explicit measure counterparts, implicit theories about willpower, and working memory capacity. Participants were randomized to complete a task that was more (vs. less) cognitively demanding and were given an incentive to restrain their drinking. They then completed an alcohol taste test. Results were not consistent with expectations. Despite using a previously validated manipulation, there was no evidence that one condition was more demanding than the other, and none of the predicted interactions reached statistical significance. The findings raise questions about the relation between self-control, implicit measures of alcohol-related associations, and drinking, as well as the conditions under which implicit measures of alcohol-related associations predict alcohol consumption in the laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive paradigms allow clinical psychologists to examine memory processes, such as false memory production, to better understand psychopathology. The current study uses the Deese-Roediger-McDermott task to investigate true and false memories in a sample with social anxiety disorder ( n = 37) compared to a non-anxious control group ( n = 40) before and after a three-day delay following list presentation. Additionally, the study examines anticipation of a social stressor and stimuli content (social versus nonsocial) as moderators of memory effects. Contrary to hypotheses, results for true memories showed no effects involving social anxiety or stressor group. However, nonsocial false memories were reported more frequently when participants with social anxiety disorder were anticipating a speech and when control participants were not (the latter at the level of a trend). Notably, when lists were socially relevant, these group differences in false memory disappeared. Results suggest that individuals with social anxiety disorder may be vulnerable to some unexpected memory distortions when anticipating social stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The current study tested the causal premise underlying cognitive models of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) that negative interpretations of intrusive thoughts lead to the distress and impairment associated with symptoms of OCD. Specifically, we sought to determine: (a) whether it was possible to train healthier (defined as more benign/less threatening) interpretations regarding the significance of intrusive thoughts; and (b) whether there was a link between modifying negative interpretations and subsequent emotional vulnerability to an OC stressor. A nonclinical sample of students high in OC symptoms completed either a Positive (n = 50) or Neutral (n = 50) interpretation training procedure designed to alter OC-relevant interpretations and beliefs. As expected, participants in the Positive (versus Neutral) training condition endorsed healthier OC-relevant interpretations and beliefs following training. Additionally, when controlling for baseline affect, participants in the Positive (versus Neutral) training condition reported less negative affect during the OC-stressor task (at the level of a non-significant trend) and reported less desire to perform neutralizing activities. In general, results provide some support for cognitive models of obsessions and suggest that negative interpretations of intrusive thoughts may be causally related to symptoms of OCD. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The current study investigates an experimental anxiety reduction intervention among a highly socially anxious sample (N =108; n =36 per Condition; 80 women). Using a conditioning paradigm, our goal was to modify implicit social anxiety associations to directly test the premise from cognitive models that biased cognitive processing may be causally related to anxious responding. Participants were trained to preferentially process non-threatening information through repeated pairings of self-relevant stimuli and faces indicating positive social feedback. As expected, participants in this positive training condition (relative to our two control conditions) displayed less negative implicit associations following training, and were more likely to complete an impromptu speech (though they did not report less anxiety during the speech). These findings offer partial support for cognitive models and indicate that implicit associations are not only correlated with social anxiety, they may be causally related to anxiety reduction as well. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Previous research has demonstrated that induced sad mood is associated with increased accuracy of recall in certain memory tasks; the effects of clinical depression, however, are likely to be quite different. The authors used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm to examine the impact of clinical depression on erroneous recall of neutral and/or emotional stimuli. Specifically, they presented Deese-Roediger-McDermott lists that were highly associated with negative, neutral or positive lures and compared participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder and nondepressed control participants on the accuracy of their recall of presented material and their false recall of never-presented lures. Compared with control participants, major depressive disorder participants recalled fewer words that had been previously presented but were more likely to falsely recall negative lures; there were no differences between major depressive disorder and control participants in false recall of positive or neutral lures. These findings indicate that depression is associated with false memories of negative material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate a causal relationship between biased information processing and fear responding, as posited by many cognitive models of anxiety disorders, spider-relevant interpretations were trained to be non-threatening in an analog phobic sample. Participants high in spider fear ( N = 61) were randomly assigned to a ‘Positive training’ condition, or to a ‘Neutral training’ or ‘No training’ control condition. ‘Positive training’ involved learning to ascribe non-threatening meanings to emotionally ambiguous scenarios. Results suggested this training was successful at inducing interpretation biases to be non-threatening, as indicated by faster responses to positive (versus negative) word fragments, as well as more positive and less negative interpretations of novel scenarios (relative to control conditions). Notwithstanding, the impact of training on subsequent avoidance and fear when presented with a live spider was minimal. No differences across training conditions were found; however, faster responding to positive word fragments predicted less avoidance and fear for participants receiving ‘Positive training’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between panic and anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been well established. Further, cognitive theories of panic have received substantial support through demonstrations of cognitive biases toward threatening information. However, past research has produced mixed findings on whether AS is itself associated with biased information processing. To explore this question, the current study examined evidence for and relationships among attention (on a modified Stroop), interpretation (using the Brief Body Sensations Interpretation Questionnaire), and schematic/memory biases (on Implicit Association Tests) in individuals with high ( N = 55) and low ( N = 48) AS. Results indicated interpretation and memory biases favoring threat among the high AS group, but no attentional bias. Further, the memory bias was positively related to the interpretation bias and to measures of anxiety and panic, offering the first evidence for a schema potentially related to the development of panic. Findings are discussed regarding implications for cognitive models of vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a rich theoretical literature on the automatic nature of fear and anxiety and the role of maladaptive fear schemata. Information processing biases, both implicit and explicit, have been demonstrated among clinically anxious persons, but the clinical applications of this work have not been well developed. This article highlights empirical support for implicit cognition in anxiety (evaluating evidence for biases in attention, interpretation, memory, and automatic associations) and then focuses on the relevance of this research for clinical practice. Potential mechanisms for change in implicit cognition are outlined. Although clinical applications for implicit cognition are not yet well articulated, there is good reason to stay tuned to this research because recent advances in the study of automatic fear processing have potential to lead to better assessment and intervention techniques and better prediction of vulnerability to the onset and return of anxiety. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study evaluates the cognitive model of anxiety by investigating treatment-related changes in automatic associations to evaluate schematic processing. Spider-phobic participants (n = 31) and healthy controls (n = 30) completed fear-based Implicit Association Tests (IATs), which are reaction-time measures that tap implicit associations without requiring conscious introspection. The specific tasks involved classifying pictures of snakes and spiders along with semantic categorizations (good vs. bad, afraid vs. unafraid, danger vs. safety, and disgusting vs. appealing). Phobic individuals were assessed before and after group-based exposure treatment and 2 months later; controls were assessed at matched time points. Results supported clinical applications for implicit fear associations, including prediction of phobic avoidance, and treatment sensitivity of the fear- and disgust-specific automatic associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated an implicit measure of cognitive processing, the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998), as a measure of fear-related automatic associations. Sixty-seven students with snake or spider fears completed 4 IAT tasks in which they classified pictures of snakes and spiders along with descriptive words indicating valence, fear, danger, or disgust. Results indicated that all 4 tasks discriminated between fear groups in terms of their implicit associations, and fear-specific effects were significant even after controlling for the impact of valence evaluation. Findings are discussed in terms of applications of the IAT methodology to examine cognitive processing and schemata in anxiety and potential uses for assessing anxiety disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing suicidal thoughts and behaviors is difficult because at-risk individuals often fail to provide honest or accurate accounts of their suicidal thoughts or intentions. Research has shown that the Death Implicit Association Test (D-IAT), a behavioral test that measures implicit (i.e., outside of conscious control) associations between oneself and death concepts, can differentiate among people with different suicidal histories, such as those with different severity or recency of suicidal behaviors. We report here on the development and evaluation of a shorter and simpler version of the D-IAT called the Death Brief Implicit Association Test (D-BIAT). We recruited large (ns > 1,500) samples of participants to complete the original D-IAT and shorter D-BIAT via a public web-based platform and evaluated different scoring approaches, assessed the reliability and validity of the D-BIAT and compared it with the D-IAT. We found that the D-BIAT was reliable, provided significant group differences with effect sizes on par with the D-IAT, as well as similarly sized classification metrics (i.e., receiver operator characteristics). Although the D-IAT was nonsignificantly better on most outcomes, the D-BIAT is 1-1[1/2] minutes shorter and provided larger effect sizes for distinguishing between past year and lifetime attempters. Thus, there is a trade-off between administration time and improved outcomes associated with increased data. The D-BIAT should be considered for use where time or participant burden needs to be minimized, such as in clinical settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent theories of psychopathology have suggested that thought suppression intensifies the persistence of intrusive thoughts, and proposed that difficulty with thought suppression may differ between groups with and without psychopathology. The current meta-analytic review evaluates empirical evidence for difficulty with thought suppression as a function of the presence and specific type of psychopathology. Based on theoretical proposals from the psychopathology literature, diagnosed and analogue samples were expected to show greater recurrence of intrusive thoughts during thought suppression attempts than non-clinical samples. However, results showed no overall differences in the recurrence of thoughts due to thought suppression between groups with and without psychopathology. There was, nevertheless, variation in the recurrence of thoughts across different forms of psychopathology, including relatively less recurrence during thought suppression for samples with symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, compared to non-clinical samples. However, these differences were typically small and provided only mixed support for existing theories. Implications for cognitive theories of intrusive thoughts are discussed, including proposed mechanisms underlying thought suppression. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: The current study used a research domain criteria (RDoC) approach to assess age differences in multiple indicators of attention bias and its ties to anxiety, examining stimulus domain and cognitive control as moderators of older adults' oft-cited positivity effect (bias towards positive and away from negative stimuli, when compared to younger adults).Method: 38 Younger adults and 38 older adults were administered a battery of cognitive control and trait and state anxiety measures, and completed a dot-probe task to assess attention bias, during which reaction time and fixation duration (using eye-tracking) were recorded for negative and neutral social (a salient threat domain for younger adults) and physical (a salient threat domain for older adults) stimuli.Results: Mixed-effects models demonstrated that older adults were faster to react to dot-probe trials when the probe appeared in the place of negative (vs. neutral) physical stimuli, but displayed no difference in reaction time for social stimuli. Also, older (vs. younger) adults with lower levels of cognitive control were less negatively biased in their visual fixation to social stimuli. A negative reaction time attention bias on the dot-probe task predicted greater trait anxiety among participants with low levels of cognitive control, with a more complex pattern predicting state anxiety.Conclusion: Older adults do attend to social and physical stimuli differently. When stimuli concern a social threat, older adults do not preferentially attend to either neutral or negative stimuli. However, when stimuli concern physical threat, older adults preferentially attend to negative stimuli. Threat biases are associated with anxiety at all ages for those with low cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-reported anxiety, and potentially physiological response, to maintained inhalation of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) enriched air shows promise as a putative marker of panic reactivity and vulnerability. Temporal stability of response systems during low-dose, steady-state CO 2 breathing challenge is lacking. Outcomes on multiple levels were measured two times, one week apart, in 93 individuals. Stability was highest during the CO 2 breathing phase compared to pre-CO 2 and recovery phases, with anxiety ratings, respiratory rate, skin conductance level, and heart rate demonstrating good to excellent temporal stability (ICCs ≥ 0.71). Cognitive symptoms tied to panic were somewhat less stable (ICC = 0.58) than physical symptoms (ICC = 0.74) during CO 2 breathing. Escape/avoidance behaviors and DSM-5 panic attacks were not stable. Large effect sizes between task phases also were observed. Overall, results suggest good-excellent levels of temporal stability for multiple outcomes during respiratory stimulation via 7.5% CO 2 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]