doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063. Threat-confirming belief bias and symptoms of anxiety disorders. 13, 47–56. doi: 10.1177/0146167295218001, Nummenmaa, L., and Niemi, P. (2004). Most people are aware that dementia is a blanket term for a group of memory-loss related neurological disorders, including frontotemporal disorder. These findings are consistent with previous research (Channon and Baker, 1994; Melton, 1995; Oaksford et al., 1996). Kai Hamburger designed the experiments and wrote the paper. People appear to find it easiest to process neutral (non-emotional) information (Experiments 1 and 2) but ideally sessions work with hot cognitions and elicit key emotions and cognitions (Safran and Greenberg, 1982; Beck, 1995). 0000273925 00000 n Test anxiety and academic performance in undergraduate and graduate students. Göttingen: Hogrefe. Lastly, some studies even found a beneficial effect of emotions on logical reasoning performance. 0000008620 00000 n Content may give rise to emotion and so similar results due to reduced working memory resources should also be found in experiments with emotional content. The ambiguous results in the literature motivated us to bring together the effect of the reasoners' emotional state and the effect of the reasoning problems' emotionally-laden content. We are aware of the fact that our sample size is rather small. Therefore, the effect of non-semantic emotional material on reasoning performance can be investigated. The participants were told that each card contained one part of the rule on one side and the other part of the rule on the other side. Our research helps to explain that people with autism make more logical decisions because they are not as easily influenced by their internal sensations or … A computer administered the Wason selection problems using the SuperLab 4.0 software (Cedrus Corporation, San Pedro, CA) and recorded participants‘ answers (in all experiments). Presentation of problems and recording of responses was identical to Experiment 2. But, this does so far not generalize to other contexts, since it could for example not be found in a sample with exam anxiety (Experiment 4; exam anxiety in combination with exam content). 150, 175–185. Mem. However, no significant interaction was found for content and group. Psychol. 0000012477 00000 n Note, that a score of +2 is equivalent to full logicality. All problems were randomized for each participant. Eliciting “hot cognitions” in cognitive behavior therapy: rationale and procedural guidelines. The study shows an apparent connection between reported fear on the SPQ (Klorman et al., 1974) and behavior during experiments (error rates). They have been selected from a larger sample (N = 47) based on their scores of a measure for exam-anxiety (Hodapp, 1991). However, we believe that the most reasonable explanation for the current findings is provided by the suppression theory (Oaksford et al., 1996): processing phobia relevant material comprised the confrontation with the phobic object which causes fear. The partici- pants completed a conditional reasoning task (If p, then q) with emotional and neutral contents. (1997b). Participants responded by pressing either a “Yes” key or a “No” key on the keyboard. When the problem with the four cards was presented on the screen participants had to decide which of the cards they would like to turn over in order to check the validity of the given rule. While Wason selection tasks with positive emotional value described success situations, the negative ones described failure situations. Psychology of Reasoning: Structure and Content. Examples of the statements are presented in Table 2. Our results concerning the second hypothesis (predicting a detrimental effect on performance of positive and negative problem content) are mixed. In this study participants made more errors when the content was controversial (e.g., stereotypical responses such as “homeless person are lazy”) as opposed to neutral. This does not explain why in Experiments 2 and 4 best performance was with negative content. 0000277205 00000 n This hampers your ability to perform tasks that require logical reasoning or complex thought. Then we summarize what is currently known about the connection between logical reasoning and emotional states. Some studies have shown that such a combination results in worse performance. 0000008747 00000 n