Among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), verbal learning and memory are areas of weakness compared with other cognitive domains (e.g., visuospatial memory). In this study, previously deployed military veterans completed clinical assessments of word memory and vocabulary (n = 243) and a laboratory task measuring encoding, free recall, repetition priming, and recognition of words

Previous research on expectation updating in relation to psychopathology used to treat expectation-confirming information and expectation-disconfirming information as binary concepts. Here, we varied the extent to which new information deviates from prior expectations and examined its influence on expectation adjustment in both a false-feedback task (Study 1; N = 379) and a social-interaction task

Negative schizotypal traits potentially can be digitally phenotyped using objective vocal analysis. Prior attempts have shown mixed success in this regard, potentially because acoustic analysis has relied on small, constrained feature sets. We employed machine learning to (a) optimize and cross-validate predictive models of self-reported negative schizotypy using a large acoustic feature set, (b) evaluate

The association between having a sibling diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and risk for suicide attempt may be attributable to shared genetic liability between AUD and suicidal behavior, effects of environmental exposure to a sibling’s AUD, or both. To distinguish between these alternatives, we conducted a series of Cox regression models using data derived from Swedish population-based registers

Mental health research is at an important crossroads as the field seeks more reliable and valid phenotypes to study. Dimensional approaches to quantifying mental illness operate outside the confines of traditional categorical diagnoses, and they are gaining traction as a way to advance research on the causes and consequences of mental illness. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is

Suicide, a leading cause of death, is a complex and a hard-to-predict human tragedy. In this article, we introduce a comprehensive outlook on the emerging movement to integrate computational linguistics (CL) in suicide prevention research and practice. Focusing mainly on the state-of-the-art deep neural network models, in this “travel guide” article, we describe, in a relatively plain language, how

Impairments in theory of mind (ToM)—long considered common among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)—are in fact highly heterogeneous across this population. Although such heterogeneity should be reflected in differential recruitment of neural mechanisms during ToM reasoning, no research has yet uncovered a mechanism that explains these individual differences. In this study, 78 (48 with

Interpersonal antagonism is one of the major domains of maladaptive personality. Structure-based investigations of antagonism have generally been consistent in highlighting the more specific antagonistic traits (e.g., manipulativeness, callousness) that underlie the broader domain. However, less work has attempted to merge structural and functional accounts of antagonism to assess how specific antagonistic

We conducted a dismantling design treatment study comparing individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), CBT targeting parents’ reinforcement skills (CBT + Reinf), and CBT targeting parents’ relationship skills (CBT+ Relat) in 341 youths with primary anxiety diagnoses. At posttreatment, youths in CBT with parent involvement had lower anxiety than youths in CBT. At 12-month follow-up, youths in CBT

Dissociative amnesia, defined as an inability to remember important autobiographical experiences, usually of a stressful nature, is a controversial phenomenon. We systematically reviewed 128 case studies of dissociative amnesia reported in 60 articles that appeared in peer-reviewed journals in English over the past 20 years (2000–2020). Our aim was to examine to what extent these cases met core features

People vary in their emotion preferences (i.e., desired emotional states). No study, however, has examined the nature of emotion preferences in anxiety. In the current study, we used a 14-day ecological momentary assessment paradigm to investigate the daily dynamics of emotion preferences and state emotion as they relate to individual differences in trait anxiety and anxiety symptom severity. Individuals

Children differ considerably in the social-information-processing (SIP) patterns underlying their aggressive behavior. To clarify these individual differences, we propose a dual-mode SIP model that predicts which processing steps children will take, which children will take them, and under which circumstances, and how this may lead to aggression. This dual-mode SIP model distinguishes between an automatic

For many students, the COVID-19 pandemic caused once-in-a-lifetime disruptions of daily life. In March 2020, during the beginning of the outbreak in the Netherlands, we used ecological momentary assessment to follow 80 undergraduate students four times per day for 14 days to assess mental health, social contact, and COVID-19-related variables. Despite rapidly increasing rates of infections and deaths

Understanding the development of depression can inform etiology and prevention/intervention. Maternal depression and maladaptive patterns of temperament (e.g., low positive emotionality [PE] or high negative emotionality, especially sadness) are known to predict depression. Although it is unclear how these risks cause depression, altered functional connectivity (FC) during negative-emotion processing

The ability to regulate emotions in response to stress is central to healthy development. Whereas early research in emotion regulation predominantly employed static, self-report measurement, the past decade has seen a shift in focus toward understanding the dynamic nature of regulation processes. This is reflected in recent refinements in the definition of emotion regulation that emphasize the importance

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered everyday life worldwide, and some individuals may be at increased risk for pandemic-related distress. In a U.S. community sample (N = 236, 64% female; 78% White; mean age = 30.3 years) assessed before COVID-19 and during the initial surge, we examined, prospectively, whether pandemic disruptions and a history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were

Although exposure and response prevention (ERP) is an effective treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), it is unclear whether the decoupling of obsessions and compulsions is associated with treatment response. Accordingly, the present study examined change in the association between obsessions and compulsions during ERP for OCD as well as the association between decoupling of obsessions

Conceptualizations that distinguish systems-level stress exposures are lacking; the stimulation (lack of safety and high attentional demands), discrepancy (social exclusion and lack of belonging), and deprivation (SDD; lack of environmental enrichment) theory of psychosis and stressors occurring at the systems level has not been directly tested. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on 3,207 youths

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that indirect inhibition of the insula via cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) would decrease disgust and moral rigidity in 36 healthy individuals undergoing 15 min of tDCS over the temporal lobe. To obtain a comprehensive assessment of disgust, we used subjective (affect rating), physiological (heart rate variability [HRV]), and implicit

Placebo effects have increasingly aroused scientific and public interest for their clinical and research values. However, underlying mechanisms of this mind–body phenomenon are not yet fully understood. In this article, I propose a new model according to which context-based placebo effects source from positive treatment beliefs but are directly caused by benefit expectations. By virtue of mediating

Making negative inferences for negative events, ruminating about them, and retrieving negative aspects of memories have all been associated with depression. However, the causal mechanisms that link negative inferences to negative mood and the interplay between inferences, rumination, and memory have not been explored. In the current study, we used a cognitive-bias modification (CBM) procedure to train

Unhealthy diets are widespread and linked to a number of detrimental clinical outcomes. The current preregistered experiment extended expectancy theory into the study of food intake; specifically, we tested whether a fast-food restaurant affects food expectancies, or the emotions one expects to feel while eating highly processed foods (e.g., pizza) and minimally processed foods (e.g., carrots). Participants

A reciprocal relationship between repetitive negative thinking (RNT) and negative affect (NA) has been found in various types of psychopathology. Recent studies have suggested that the magnitude of this association can vary across time and individuals, which may inform future psychopathology. Here, we explored how these dynamics and interplays are manifested in student and general populations using

A person-centered approach to examining trauma has uncovered typologies of polytraumatization that are differentially associated with psychopathology. However, previous research is limited by narrow conceptualizations of trauma, limited distal outcomes, and underrepresentation of racially marginalized groups. To address these gaps, we used latent profile analysis to uncover distinct polytraumatization

We aimed to demonstrate the utility of an item-level network analysis approach to suicide risk by testing the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide (IPTS) among 402 psychiatric inpatients. We hypothesized that specific thwarted belongingness (TB) or perceived burdensomeness (PB; Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire items) facets would positively relate to passive or active suicide ideation and

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) uses factor analysis to group self-reported symptoms of mental illness (i.e., like goes with like). It is hailed as a significant improvement over other diagnostic taxonomies. However, the purported advantages and fundamental assumptions of HiTOP have received little, if any, scientific scrutiny. We critically evaluated five fundamental claims about

Research on the adverse effects of mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) has been sparse and hindered by methodological imprecision. The 44-item Meditation Experiences Interview (MedEx-I) was used by an independent assessor to measure meditation-related side effects (MRSEs) following three variants of an 8-week program of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (n = 96). Each item was queried for occurrence

We examined whether a polygenic score (PGS) for smoking measured genetic risk for general behavioral disinhibition by estimating its associations with externalizing and internalizing psychopathology and related personality traits at multiple time points in adolescence (ages 11, 14, and 17 years; N = 3,225). The smoking PGS had strong associations with the stable variance across time for all the externalizing

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by negative self-beliefs and altered brain activation in the default-mode network (DMN). However, the extent to which there is neurocognitive heterogeneity in SAD remains unclear. We had two independent samples of patients perform a self-referential encoding task and complete self-reports of childhood maltreatment, subjective well-being, and emotion regulation

Whether patients with schizophrenia are impaired in flexibly regulating attention in accordance with fluctuations in cognitive demand to achieve optimal task performance remains unclear. To address this issue, 47 patients with schizophrenia and 47 matched control participants were recruited to complete a time-based prospective memory task. Every 2-min block before the target time was divided into four

Intrusive memories of a traumatic event can be reduced by a subsequent interference procedure, seemingly sparing voluntary memory for that event. This selective-interference effect has potential therapeutic benefits (e.g., for emotional disorders) and legal importance (e.g., for witness testimony). However, the measurements of intrusive memory and voluntary memory typically differ in the role of associations

The quality of one’s romantic relationship is associated with mental health. Low levels of relationship quality may be a stressor that triggers a predisposition or diathesis to mental illness. Analyses were conducted to examine whether relationship quality moderated the association between polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for several mental health syndromes on phenotypic measures of those syndromes. Data

Imagination is an adaptive ability that can be directed toward the pursuit of personal goals. Although there is a wealth of research on goals and on imagination, few studies lie at the intersection—little is known about individual differences in goal-directed imagination. In 153 adults, we examined how 28 aspects of goal setting, pursuit, and goal-directed imagination relate to mental health. Higher

Evaluation (the process attributing value to outcomes) underlies “hot” aspects of cognition, such as emotion, affect, and motivation. In several psychopathologies, such as depression and addiction, impairments in evaluation are critical. Contemporary theories highlight the reference-dependent nature of evaluation, whereby outcomes are evaluated relative to their context. Surprisingly, reference-dependent

Refugees and asylum seekers often suffer from trauma- and stress-related mental health problems. We thus developed mindfulness-based trauma recovery for refugees (MBTR-R)—a 9-week, mindfulness-based, trauma-sensitive, and socioculturally adapted group intervention for refugees and asylum seekers. We conducted a randomized waitlist-control study to test its efficacy and safety among a community sample

Sexual-minority women (SMW) report higher rates of substance use and disorder across the life span and greater levels of minority stress in adolescence and young adulthood. Minority stress mediation models propose that higher levels of social stressors may increase emotion dysregulation, which in turn increases the propensity toward substance misuse. Few studies, however, have prospectively examined

Digital technology is ubiquitous in modern adolescence, and researchers are concerned that it has negative impacts on mental health that, furthermore, increase over time. To investigate whether technology is becoming more harmful, we examined changes in associations between technology engagement and mental health in three nationally representative samples. Results were mixed across types of technology

Cardiovascular reactivity has been proposed as a biomarker linking childhood adversity and poorer health. In the current study, we examined the association of childhood adversity, cardiovascular reactivity, and health in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (n = 922) and Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) studies (n = 1,015). In both studies, participants who experienced more

In the present work, we evaluated reciprocal, within-dyads associations between parents’ and adolescents’ depressive symptoms across two independent samples (N = 327 and N = 435 dyads; approximately 85% biological mothers) assessed every 3 months for 2 years (Study 1) to 3 years (Study 2). Results of random intercept cross-lagged panel models converged to support positive contemporaneous patterns of

Children reared in institutions experience severe psychosocial deprivation, resulting in lasting consequences for social and emotional development. This study evaluated growth trajectories of self-regulation from ages 8 to 16 among previously institutionalized children randomized to foster care (foster-care group; FCG) or to remain in institutional care (care-as-usual group; CAUG) compared with a

Stressful life events (SLEs) are strongly associated with the emergence of adolescent anxiety and depression, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood, especially at the within-persons level. We investigated how adolescent social communication (i.e., frequency of calls and texts) following SLEs relates to changes in internalizing symptoms in a multitimescale, intensive, year-long study

Suicidal ideation has been linked to a bias toward interpreting ambiguous information in consistently less positive or more negative manners (positive/negative interpretation bias), implying that information-processing biases might distort beliefs thought to inspire suicidal ideation (e.g., those regarding burdensomeness). Therefore, in the present study, we examined whether suicidal ideation and beliefs

Meaningfully improved mental and behavioral health treatment is an unrealized dream. Across three factorial experiments, inferential tests in prior studies showed a pattern of negative interactions, suggesting that better clinical outcomes may be obtained when participants receive fewer rather than more intervention components. Furthermore, relatively few significant main effects were found in these

The action crisis is a critical phase in goal striving during which the goal pursuer feels conflicted about persevering with the goal or initiating disengagement. Recent research suggests that goal motivation, specifically controlled motivation (i.e., pursuing a goal out of obligation and pressure), increases the likelihood of experiencing action crises. In turn, action crises in goal pursuit have

Studies suggest that general control deficits and elevated affect intensity in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) extend beyond memory for the index trauma. However, few researchers have pursued this possibility experimentally by examining memory for novel events. We used an experimental design to measure the frequency and characteristics of involuntary memories over time. Veterans with and without

In this report, we examined baseline affective response to binge eating as a predictor of binge-eating disorder (BED) treatment outcome. Baseline affective response was defined as (a) each individual’s average net change (i.e., area under the curve [AUC]) of positive affect (PA) or negative affect (NA) before and after binge-eating episodes and (b) slope of PA or NA after binge eating across 7 days

A recent theory posits that prediction deficits may underlie the core symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, empirical evidence for this hypothesis is minimal. Using a visual extrapolation task, we tested motion-prediction abilities in children and adolescents with and without ASD. We examined the factors known to be important for motion prediction: the central-tendency response bias

Aberrant decision-making characterizes various pediatric psychopathologies; however, deliberative choice strategies have not been investigated. A transdiagnostic sample of 95 youths completed a child-friendly sequential sampling paradigm. Participants searched for the best offer by sampling a finite list of offers. Participants’ willingness to explore was measured as the number of offers sampled, and

Our previous research with U.S. Vietnam veterans focused on war-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We used data from a clinically diagnosed subsample of 254 men from the 1986–1988 National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). We found that one of the most important factors associated with war-related PTSD was veterans’ participation in harm to civilians and/or prisoners (13% of the

The emotional experiences of people with major depressive disorder (MDD) are characterized by emotional disturbances. We examined whether these patterns characterize people with MDD in remission. Participants included individuals who had experienced at least two major depressive episodes (remitted-MDD group; n = 80), had current MDD (current-MDD group; n = 48), or were control participants (n = 87)

Experiencing doubt in an uncertain situation has been theorized to be an antecedent of compulsive checking. However, whether and when obsessive compulsive (OC) symptoms are associated with experiencing doubt and increased checking is unclear. In this study, we investigated the relationship between OC symptoms, the experience of doubt, and checking in a tone-discrimination task. Doubt was measured using

In this study, we tested potential mediators that may explain change in depressive symptoms following exposure to a food-related behavioral activation intervention (F-BA). These included behavioral activation, avoidance and rumination, eating styles, body mass index, and dietary behavior at baseline and 3-month and 12-month follow-up. The trial used a community sample of 1,025 overweight adults with

Given the importance of the alliance in psychotherapy, nonverbal synchrony has been suggested as a promising automatic objective marker of its levels and development. Accumulating research presents mixed results regarding the association between alliance and nonverbal synchrony. In the current study, we propose that one of the reasons for the inconsistencies is that previous studies did not disentangle

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI)—deliberate self-harm without the intent to die—is a high-risk and impairing behavior associated with long-term morbidity and mortality risks. The prevalence of NSSI escalates in adolescence, indicating a sensitive developmental period for the emergence of this behavior. Neurobiological, interpersonal, and affective processes leading to NSSI have been proposed. However

Personality disorder (PD) symptoms in a parent generation may confer risk for problems in future generations, but intergenerational transmission has not been studied beyond parent–child effects. We examined the generational transfer of risk associated with PDs using structural models of grandparent personality pathology and grandchild psychopathology among 180 adults (mean age = 66.9 years), 218 of

The contrast-avoidance model (CAM) originally described emotion-regulation patterns in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), proposing that chronic worry maintains negative emotionality, thus attenuating strong shifts into negative emotion (emotional contrasts) as a result of adverse events. Rumination may function similarly in depression, although this proposal requires further research. In this study

Research suggests that individuals who are more depressed are prone to behaviors that reinforce their depressive symptoms. We performed a novel test of the self-verification perspective of this phenomenon. In two experiments, nonclinical participants completed a sham color-gazing task in which depressed people ostensibly see colors become less intense (less-intense condition) or more intense (more-intense

The motivational model of substance use posits that four motive subtypes (coping, enhancement, social, conformity) dynamically interact with contextual factors to affect decisions about substance use. Yet prior studies assessing the motivational model have relied on between-persons, cross-sectional evaluations of trait motives. We systematically reviewed studies using ecological momentary assessment

Autobiographical memory distortions are a key feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial (N = 43), we evaluated an autobiographical memory flexibility intervention, MemFlex. We aimed to determine whether the mechanism-focused intervention, which aims to improve autobiographical memory processes, may also affect other cognitive predictors of

Some clinical scientists are shifting from research on complete named therapy protocols to a more elemental approach—research on specific therapy components that contribute to therapy goals. To characterize and evaluate this emerging field, we systematically searched PsycINFO and Medline for studies evaluating therapy components. We identified 208 studies. In a scoping review, we map, explain, and