Altgassen, M, Rendell, PG, Bernhard, A, Henry, JD, Bailey, PE, Phillips, LH & Kliegel, M 2015, 'Future thinking improves prospective memory performance and plan enactment in older adults', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 192-204.
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Efficient intention formation might improve prospective memory by reducing the need for resource-demanding strategic processes during the delayed performance interval. The present study set out to test this assumption and provides the first empirical assessment of whether imagining a future action improves prospective memory performance equivalently at different stages of the adult lifespan. Thus, younger ( n = 40) and older ( n = 40) adults were asked to complete the Dresden Breakfast Task, which required them to prepare breakfast in accordance with a set of rules and time restrictions. All participants began by generating a plan for later enactment; however, after making this plan, half of the participants were required to imagine themselves completing the task in the future (future thinking condition), while the other half received standard instructions (control condition). As expected, overall younger adults outperformed older adults. Moreover, both older and younger adults benefited equally from future thinking instructions, as reflected in a higher proportion of prospective memory responses and more accurate plan execution. Thus, for both younger and older adults, imagining the specific visual–spatial context in which an intention will later be executed may serve as an easy-to-implement strategy that enhances prospective memory function in everyday life.
Burton, AL, Hay, P, Smith, E, Raman, J, Swinbourne, J, Touyz, S & Abbott, MJ 2015, 'Investigating the clinical utility of the Eating Beliefs Questionnaire: Validity, reliability and the results of a Confirmatory Factor Analysis', Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 3, no. S1.
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Cartwright, C, Rhodes, P, King, R & Shires, A 2015, 'A Pilot Study of a Method for Teaching Clinical Psychology Trainees to Conceptualise and Manage Countertransference', AUSTRALIAN PSYCHOLOGIST, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 148-156.
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© 2015 The Australian Psychological Society. There is evidence that therapists' countertransference responses can affect the therapeutic relationship. There is also evidence that trainee therapists can experience difficulty understanding and managing countertransference. This evidence suggests the need for greater focus on countertransference in the training of professionals, such as psychologists, for whom therapy is a core activity. However, little is currently known about the best way of providing such training or the impact of such training on recipients. This pilot study examined clinical psychology trainees' responses to a teaching and learning method for conceptualising and managing countertransference. The method was designed to be accessible to a range of psychology trainees including those in cognitive behavioural therapy programmes. This article outlines the method and its pilot evaluation. An anonymous online questionnaire was completed by 55 trainees pre-intervention and 40 post-intervention. Qualitative methods were used to examine changes in trainees' analyses of countertransference pre- and post-intervention, and their reports of understanding and managing countertransference. Trainees also rated the intervention. The majority of participants who completed the post-intervention questionnaire reported that training increased awareness of or the ability to conceptualise countertransference. They reported strategies for managing countertransference, although they were less confident in this area.
Chen, A, Liu, L & Kager, R 2015, 'Cross-linguistic perception of Mandarin tone sandhi', Language Sciences, vol. 48, pp. 62-69.
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Dear, BF, Gandy, M, Karin, E, Staples, LG, Johnston, L, Fogliati, VJ, Wootton, BM, Terides, MD, Kayrouz, R, Perry, KN, Sharpe, L, Nicholas, MK & Titov, N 2015, 'The Pain Course', Pain, vol. 156, no. 10, pp. 1920-1935.
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© 2015 International Association for the Study of Pain. The present study evaluated an internet-delivered pain management program, the Pain Course, when provided with different levels of clinician support. Participants (n5490) were randomised to 1 of 4 groups: (1) Regular Contact (n5143), (2) Optional Contact (n5 141), (3) No Contact (n 5 131), and (4) a treatment-As-usual Waitlist Control Group (n 5 75). The treatment program was based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy and comprised 5 internet-delivered lessons provided over 8 weeks. The 3 Treatment Groups reported significant improvements (between-group Cohen's d; avg. reduction) in disability (ds ≤ 0.50; avg. reduction ≤ 18%), anxiety (ds≤0.44; avg. reduction≤32%), depression (ds≤0.73; avg. reduction≤36%), and average pain (ds≤0.30; avg. reduction ≤ 12%) immediately posttreatment, which were sustained at or further improved to 3-month follow-up. High treatment completion rates and levels of satisfaction were reported, and no marked or consistent differences were observed between the Treatment Groups. The mean clinician time per participant was 67.69 minutes (SD533.50), 12.85 minutes (SD524.61), and 5.44 minutes (SD 5 12.38) for those receiving regular contact, the option of contact, and no clinical contact, respectively. These results highlight the very significant public health potential of carefully designed and administered internet-delivered pain management programs and indicate that these programs can be successfully administered with several levels of clinical support.
Dear, BF, Staples, LG, Terides, MD, Karin, E, Zou, J, Johnston, L, Gandy, M, Fogliati, VJ, Wootton, BM, McEvoy, PM & Titov, N 2015, 'Transdiagnostic versus disorder-specific and clinician-guided versus self-guided internet-delivered treatment for generalized anxiety disorder and comorbid disorders: A randomized controlled trial', Journal of Anxiety Disorders, vol. 36, pp. 63-77.
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Diefenbach, GJ, Wootton, BM, Bragdon, LB, Moshier, SJ & Tolin, DF 2015, 'Treatment Outcome and Predictors of Internet Guided Self-Help for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder', Behavior Therapy, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 764-774.
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Gonsalvez, CJ, Deane, FP, Blackman, R, Matthias, M, Knight, R, Nasstasia, Y, Shires, A, Perry, KN, Allan, C & Bliokas, V 2015, 'The Hierarchical Clustering of Clinical Psychology Practicum Competencies: A Multisite Study of Supervisor Ratings', CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY-SCIENCE AND PRACTICE, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 390-403.
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Liu, L & Kager, R 2015, 'Bilingual exposure influences infant VOT perception', Infant Behavior and Development, vol. 38, pp. 27-36.
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Mercuri, K, Terrett, G, Henry, JD, Bailey, PE, Curran, HV & Rendell, PG 2015, 'Episodic foresight deficits in long-term opiate users', Psychopharmacology, vol. 232, no. 7, pp. 1337-1345.
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Mitchison, D & Mond, J 2015, 'Epidemiology of eating disorders, eating disordered behaviour, and body image disturbance in males: a narrative review', Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 3, no. 1.
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Mitchison, D, Jakes, S, Kelly, S & Rhodes, J 2015, 'Are Young People Hospitalised with Psychosis Interested in Psychological Therapy?', Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 22-31.
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ObjectivesPsychotic clients may be difficult to engage in psychological therapy, and many potential participants decline to participate in controlled trials of cognitive behavioural therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate psychotic patients' perspectives regarding therapy.DesignThe design was qualitative and used thematic analysis to investigate emerging themes.MethodsA total of 46 inpatients with psychosis were interviewed about their views on therapy. Interview summaries were submitted to thematic analysis.ResultsA total of 41% of participants were rated as interested, 36% were rated as not interested and 23% appeared ambivalent, or their interest in therapy was unable to be assessed. Themes related to interest in therapy included the desire to build skills, to address (usually non‐psychotic) symptoms and for a therapeutic relationship. Themes related to not wanting therapy included a denial of psychological problems, distrust in the healthcare system and psychologists and low perceived efficacy in therapy.ConclusionsA large minority of psychotic patients may be interested in therapy, although mostly not to address psychotic symptoms. Future research on pre‐treatment approaches to disconfirm negative perceptions and increase interest in therapy is warranted. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Key Practitioner MessageThe reasons why some patients with psychosis are not interested in receiving psychological therapy may relate to past negative experiences with psychologists, negative perceptions...
Mullin, A, Dear, BF, Karin, E, Wootton, BM, Staples, LG, Johnston, L, Gandy, M, Fogliati, V & Titov, N 2015, 'The UniWellbeing course: A randomised controlled trial of a transdiagnostic internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for university students with symptoms of anxiety and depression', Internet Interventions, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 128-136.
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© 2015. Anxiety and depression are prevalent among university students and many universities offer psychological services to assist students. Unfortunately, students can experience barriers that prevent access to these services and many university services experience difficulties meeting demand. The present pragmatic randomised controlled trial examined the preliminary efficacy and acceptability of a transdiagnostic and internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for university students seeking help with anxiety and depression. Participants were randomly allocated to either a treatment group (n= 30) or a waitlist-control group (n= 23). The treatment group received weekly contact with a therapist, via telephone or a secure messaging system, as well as automated emails that guided their progress through the programme. Significant reductions were found on standard measures of anxiety (Cohen's d= 0.66; 95% CI: 0.13 to 1.17) and depression (Cohen's d= 0.81; 95% CI: 0.27 to 1.32) among the treatment group participants, but no significant differences were found between the treatment and control groups at post-treatment. However, more pronounced reductions were found among treatment group participants with clinical level symptoms of anxiety (Cohen's d= 1.33; 95% CI: 0.62 to 1.99) and depression (Cohen's d= 1.59; 95% CI: 0.81 to 2.30), who reported significantly lower levels of symptoms than control group participants at post-treatment. These reductions were maintained at 3-month follow-up and participants rated the intervention as acceptable. The results provide preliminary support for the potential of iCBT for university students with anxiety and depression. However, larger scale implementation trials considering a broader range of outcomes are required. Trial registration: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12612000212853.
Penney, ES & Abbott, MJ 2015, 'The Impact of Perceived Standards on State Anxiety, Appraisal Processes, and Negative Pre- and Post-event Rumination in Social Anxiety Disorder', Cognitive Therapy and Research, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 162-177.
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© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Cognitive models emphasise the importance of pre- and post-event rumination as maintaining factors of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), however, there is limited research investigating pre-event rumination. This study aims to examine several key hypotheses posited by the cognitive models by experimentally manipulating social standards in order to examine the impact of high and low perceived social standards on appraisal processes, state anxiety, and negative rumination, and to determine if the predictors of pre-event rumination will mirror those of post-event rumination. The sample consisted of 91 participants, including 46 participants with SAD and 45 non-anxious controls. Socially anxious participants in this study engaged in more pre- and post-event rumination, had higher threat appraisals, and lower self-appraisals of performance than non-anxious controls. Socially anxious participants who believed that they were expected to perform to a high standard in anticipation of a speech task reported poorer ratings of self-efficacy than socially anxious participants in the low standard condition and non-anxious controls. Additionally, whilst anticipated self-appraisals of performance, threat appraisal, self-efficacy, and state anxiety were predictive of pre-event rumination, threat appraisal was the only significant predictor of post-event rumination. This study extends the current knowledge of the cognitive processes within SAD, which has clinical implications.
Puckett, AM & DeYoe, EA 2015, 'The Attentional Field Revealed by Single-Voxel Modeling of fMRI Time Courses', The Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 35, no. 12, pp. 5030-5042.
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The spatial topography of visual attention is a distinguishing and critical feature of many theoretical models of visuospatial attention. Previous fMRI-based measurements of the topography of attention have typically been too crude to adequately test the predictions of different competing models. This study demonstrates a new technique to make detailed measurements of the topography of visuospatial attention from single-voxel, fMRI time courses. Briefly, this technique involves first estimating a voxel's population receptive field (pRF) and then “drifting” attention through the pRF such that the modulation of the voxel's fMRI time course reflects the spatial topography of attention. The topography of the attentional field (AF) is then estimated using a time-course modeling procedure. Notably, we are able to make these measurements in many visual areas including smaller, higher order areas, thus enabling a more comprehensive comparison of attentional mechanisms throughout the full hierarchy of human visual cortex. Using this technique, we show that the AF scales with eccentricity and varies across visual areas. We also show that voxels in multiple visual areas exhibit suppressive attentional effects that are well modeled by an AF having an enhancing Gaussian center with a suppressive surround. These findings provide extensive, quantitative neurophysiological data for use in modeling the psychological effects of visuospatial attention.
Titov, N, Dear, BF, Staples, LG, Terides, MD, Karin, E, Sheehan, J, Johnston, L, Gandy, M, Fogliati, VJ, Wootton, BM & McEvoy, PM 2015, 'Disorder-specific versus transdiagnostic and clinician-guided versus self-guided treatment for major depressive disorder and comorbid anxiety disorders: A randomized controlled trial', JOURNAL OF ANXIETY DISORDERS, vol. 35, pp. 88-102.
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Wardle, S, Ritchie, JB, Seymour, K & Carlson, T 2015, 'What information is 'decoded' from stimulus orientation with fMRI and MVPA?', Journal of Vision, vol. 15, no. 12, pp. 993-993.
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Watson, P, van Steenbergen, H, de Wit, S, Wiers, RW & Hommel, B 2015, 'Limits of ideomotor action–outcome acquisition', Brain Research, vol. 1626, pp. 45-53.
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Wootton, B & Diefenbach, GJ 2015, 'Internet delivered treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder', Australian Clinical Psychologist.
Wootton, BM, Bragdon, LB, Steinman, SA & Tolin, DF 2015, 'Three-year outcomes of adults with anxiety and related disorders following cognitive-behavioral therapy in a non-research clinical setting', Journal of Anxiety Disorders, vol. 31, pp. 28-31.
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Wootton, BM, Dear, BF, Johnston, L, Terides, MD & Titov, N 2015, 'Self-guided internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (iCBT) for obsessive–compulsive disorder: 12 month follow-up', Internet Interventions, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 243-247.
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© 2015 . Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (iCBT) may reduce barriers to treatment faced by people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). To date, most research on iCBT for OCD has evaluated clinician-guided treatments. However, self-guided treatments, which do not involve contact with a clinician, have considerable public health potential and may be particularly advantageous for those patients who report stigma as a principal barrier to treatment. The findings of a recent trial of self-guided iCBT for symptoms of OCD highlighted the potential of this approach and found large within-group effect sizes from pre- to post-treatment on the YBOCS-SR (d= 1.37), sustained at 3-month follow-up (d= 1.17). In addition, 32% of participants met criteria for clinically significant change at 3-month follow-up. The present study reports the long-term outcomes of that trial (N= 28). Twelve out of 28 participants (43%) completed the 12. month follow-up. A large within-group effect size was found on the YBOCS-SR (d= 1.08) and 33% met criteria for clinically significant change at 12-month follow-up. No significant changes in symptoms were found between 3-month follow-up and 12-month follow-up, demonstrating that participants maintained their treatment gains in the long term. These results add to the emerging literature supporting the potential of self-guided iCBT for individuals with symptoms of OCD.
Wootton, BM, Diefenbach, GJ, Bragdon, LB, Steketee, G, Frost, RO & Tolin, DF 2015, 'A contemporary psychometric evaluation of the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory—Revised (OCI-R).', Psychological Assessment, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 874-882.
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