ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Mental Health Literacy (MHL) predicts help-seeking for mental health difficulties. Public surveys show high recognition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in relation to military contexts, but this has not been investigated with other sources of trauma. METHODS: A self-selecting sample of 2960 participants from UK and Ireland completed an online survey. Participants viewed one of three vignettes that described either a male or female character experiencing identical PTSD symptoms, that differed only by trauma source (military combat, industrial accident, sexual assault). Participants were asked to state i) whether a mental health problem was being experienced, ii) what it was, and iii) what help should be sought. RESULTS: Trauma type was a key predictor of classification as a mental health problem, correct identification of PTSD, and help-seeking suggestions. For participants shown the military scenario the odds of recognising PTSD were 5.2 times higher than for those shown the sexual assault vignette, and 2.2 times higher than for those shown the accident scenario. Age (younger), gender (female), education (university), and personal mental health experience were additional significant predictors of higher recognition of PTSD. LIMITATIONS: Reasons for failing to recognise a mental health problem/PTSD were not explored. The online convenience sampling method may limit generalisability of results. CONCLUSIONS: Recognition of PTSD is significantly affected by trauma source. The data confirmed the pervasive association with military combat and suggest under-recognition of PTSD from other traumas, particularly sexual assault. Awareness campaigns may aim to increase MHL of PTSD from diverse trauma sources.
Subject(s)
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/psychology , Accidents, Occupational/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Combat Disorders/psychology , Data Collection , Female , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Ireland , Life Change Events , Male , Middle Aged , Rape/psychology , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/etiology , United Kingdom , Young AdultABSTRACT
Individual differences in psychophysiological function have been shown to influence the balance between flexibility and distractibility during attentional set-shifting [e.g., Dreisbach et al. (2005). Dopamine and cognitive control: The influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate and dopamine gene polymorphisms on perseveration and distractibility. Behavioral Neuroscience, 119(2), 483-490]. Here we replicate both the facilitatory and detrimental influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate upon switch costs across the two distinct conditions of a set-shifting task. We extend this by presenting additional, putatively dopamine related, individual differences that also influence attentional control. Whereas trait psychoticism showed a pattern of effects opposite to that of eyeblink rate, greater working memory served to decrease switch costs across both conditions. These results highlight the need for further exploration of the role of dopaminergic neurotransmission and component processes involved in such attentional paradigms, and illustrates the importance of considering individual differences in cognitive control.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Blinking/physiology , Cognition/physiology , Memory, Short-Term/physiology , Personality , Set, Psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Analysis of Variance , Female , Humans , Individuality , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , Personality Tests , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
DeCaro et al. [DeCaro, M. S., Thomas, R. D., & Beilock, S. L. (2008). Individual differences in category learning: Sometimes less working memory capacity is better than more. Cognition, 107(1), 284-294] explored how individual differences in working memory capacity differentially mediate the learning of distinct category structures. Specifically, their results showed that greater working memory capacity facilitates the learning of novel category structures that are verbalisable and discoverable through logical reasoning processes. Conversely, however, greater working memory was shown to impede the learning of novel category structures thought to be non-verbalisable, inaccessible to conscious reasoning and discoverable only through implicit (procedural) learning of appropriate stimulus-category responses. The present paper calls into question the specific nature of the category learning tasks used, in particular their ability to discriminate between different modes of category learning.
Subject(s)
Verbal Learning/physiology , Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Individuality , Male , Memory/physiology , Memory, Short-Term/physiology , Middle Aged , Young AdultABSTRACT
Set-shifting refers to a process of cognitive control which is shown through flexible behavioural adaptation to changes in task parameters or demands, such as the switching of an explicit rule (extra-dimensional rule shifting) or the reversal of a reinforcement-contingency (reversal-learning). Set-shifting deficits are widely documented in specific neuropsychological disorders, but seldom investigated in relation to normally-occurring individual differences. In a sample of healthy adults (N=78, 28% male), we demonstrate that Working Memory and trait Psychoticism have independent involvement in extra-dimensional rule shifting as measured using an analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Only Psychoticism, however, was involved in reversal-learning, as assessed using a recent modification of the Iowa Gambling Task. Individual differences in extra-dimensional rule shifting were explained in terms of rule abstraction speed, while individual differences in reversal-learning were explained in terms of response perseveration. These results clarify component processes in different forms of set-shifting, and highlight the role of individual differences, especially personality, in cognitive control.
