ADVANCES IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Year:2003 | Volume:5 | Issue:2|Papers Count:16

Objective: In this study, we will examine phenomenological aspects of autobiographical memory and its relation to positive / negative affect in students of art and humanities and a group of depressed patients. Method: The dominant affect of each of the students was assessed by using Positive and Negative Affect Scale. Then, they were asked to describe four memories (two real memories, two imagined memories and for each of them, a pleasant memory and an unpleasant one). The participants rated phenomenological aspects of each memory through Memory Characteristics Questionnaire. To make later comparison possible, the above examinations were done on a group with depressed mood as well. Results: The results showed that the healthy participants reported identical levels of positive and negative affects, whereas depressed patients experienced less positive affect and more negative affect than the other two groups. On the whole, depressed patients reported less phenomenological details of autobiographical memories (pleasant/unpleasant and real/imagined) than the other two groups. The function of the art group was better than the humanistic group. Correlation between evaluated parameters and affect was meaningful. Conclusion: These findings are consistent with the negative view of depressed patients toward themselves, world and future.

Objective: The goal of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate stigma and its related factors among the families of patients with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder (MDD) and Bipolar disorder (BD). Method: One-hundred patients were selected from each group by convenient sampling method. A self - administered 34 items questionnaire was the main tool for data collection. Results: This study showed that 49% of the schizophrenia group, 30% of the MDD group and 50.5% of the BD group were humiliated & discriminated by the others. There was a significant relationship between the patient's gender and rate of being humilated only in the MDD group. A significant relationship was observed between the duration of the disorder, number of hospitalization and rate of being humilated. There was a significant relationship between the number of hospitalization and the rate of stigmatization in the schizophrenia and MDD groups. The way the families of these patients expressed their patients' problems was significantly different as compared to the way used by the families of other patients. Conclusion: This study shows that a significant proportion of the psychiatric patients families suffer from stigmatization which in turn makes them feel ashamed of having such a patient. The type of psychiatric disorder and some of the demographic characteristics play a major role in this regard. Application of appropriate educational programs can be effective in increasing the community knowledge.

Objective: Exposure to violence causes various mental health problems in children and adolescents. However, there are few reports on the consequences of violence in Eastern hemisphere countries. This study was conducted to explore the relationship between violence exposure and the psychological characteristics defined as resilience in adolescents. Method: Five-hundred students in public high schools of Roodehen, a little town near Tehran (Iran), were assessed in a self-report survey for which SAHA (Social And Health Assessment) was used as the instrument. Scales for behaviors or characteristics, which address resilience and supportive factors, were analyzed for the purpose of this paper. The subjects were distributed into three groups of "no-exposure", "witness" and "victim", according to reports of violence exposure. Results: depression, antisocial behavior and cigarette smoking were most common among the victim group and the least among no-exposure group. The victim group showed highest rate of somatization. Conclusion: Findings of the current study show that even witnessing violence in community can increase the risk of mental health problems. Further investigation, especially prospective studies for defining the supportive factors and proper interventions, are needed.

Objective: In this article, cognitive insight of groups of patients with mental illnesses was assessed across multiple dimensions. Method: The sample of this study were patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder with psychotic feature (according to DSM-IV criteria). The measurements were done through the Global Assessment Scale (GAS) and Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD). Results: The results indicated that poor insight is a prevalent feature of patients with schizophrenia and is poor in comparison to the other groups. Conclusion: The findings of this study are consistent with the findings of other researches, which indicate that self-awareness deficits are the results of neuropsychological deficits.

Objective: Delayed Discounting Procedure (DDP) is defined as discounting of the value related to a reward or punishment due to a delay in their presentation. This procedure, as one of the infrastructural processes underlying riskful decision making, plays a significant role in neuropsychological basis of several psychiatric disorders. Here, in the first DDP study in Iran, a Persian computerized DDP task with standard logic was used. Method: In this study, 100 students (75 males) chose between receiving 100,000 Toomans after a constant delay and immediate receiving of a decreasing amount of reward in eight consecutive stages. The duration of delays in these stages included 6 hours, one day, one week, two months, 6 months, one year, 5 years, and 25 years. The mean indifference points (in Toomans) among subjects were measured for these delays which were 96280, 94357, 90397, 80750, 68862, 55608, 33350 and 14308 respectively. Results: There was no significant difference between male and female subjects. Nonlinear regression analysis of our results showed that the hyperbolic function could better explain the DDP function than the exponential function. Applying A/(1+KD) logic to all of the subjects, we found k = 0.060 and r^2 = 0.9334, which reached near 0.98 after increasing the power of variable s in the denominator. Conclusion: The amount of delayed discounting of reward in our study is higher in comparison to the western studies (on 1000 $) which may be influenced by higher interest rate, economical instabilities, being distrustful among subjects regarding the paying of reward in next several years, and higher value of 1000 $ in western societies compared to the value of 100,000 Toomans for an Iranian subject.

Objective: In this article, a case of shared psychotic manic syndrome with delusion of grandiosity is reported. Method: The mood and psychotic symptoms appeared with a three days interval, in two sisters of 26 and 21 years old, respectively. They were admitted and treated in a psychiatric hospital. Laboratory tests, brain neuroimaging, electroencephalography, and diagnostic evaluation by two psychiatrists were done. Results: In these two patients, the diagnoses based on DSM-IV criteria were bipolar-I-disorder in manic episode with psychotic features. There were religious and grandiosity delusions in both patients, persecutory delusion in the older one, and auditory hallucinations in the other. Conclusion: The current diagnostic criteria to include various shared mental symptoms, such as manic symptoms, needs revision. To evaluate validity of these diagnoses, longitudinal studies are suggested.

Objectives: In this article, we will review the main theories and debates about the negative priming (NP) phenomenon. Method: A literature review was undertaken for this purpose. Results: Considering the psychophysical part of NP history, four major theories are available: (1) Inhibition of an internal representation of the distractor; (2) active suppression of a stimulus which dose not match with the internal templates features; (3) temporal discrimination, according to the systems processing for the level of familiarity, and (4) the most recent theory which focuses on how surprising the target is; In other words, target selection has two components on which accuracy and speed of the system depend: the attention transfer rate and attention orienting procedures. Some research found controversial results about what actually occur in different types of NP in the brain by using imaging and electrophysiologial technology. In a research based on the stroop effect, which made NP in this known paradigm, by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), left medial temporal (LMT) and operculum of the pre-central gyrus were shown as the most associated areas with NP. Conclusion: The presented prospectus in this article, is finding about the sequences of events in these areas. This can be achieved by using psychophysical tricks in object presentation, or combining fMRI with high temporal resolution devices like electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP).

Objective & Method: To evaluate the role of team learning in the development of human resources by using areview of literature. Results & Conclusion: Although knowledge and individual learning is the source for organizational development and creating competetive advantages, but this can be sustained if learning happens as the results of interactions in the group. In the learning organization, almost all the critical decisions are being made in the groups, and they act as the learning units. This makes continuos learning as a necessity for them. Developing group learning in the organization fully depends on our knowledge of psychology of learning, different methods of transferring knowledge and group learning.