Using the Scrambled Sentences Test to Examine Relationships Between Cognitive Bias, Thought Suppression and Borderline Personality Features

Cognitive bias and thought suppression are two maladaptive patterns of thinking that have been associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Negative cognitive biases related to BPD include thoughts that they are bad, powerless, or vulnerable and that the world is dangerous. Thought suppression is a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy where unwanted thoughts are intentionally pushed out of one’s consciousness. However, previous research has connected thought suppression and cognitive biases to BPD only via self-report measures. The present study examined whether a laboratory task meant to measure cognitive bias and thought suppression (Scrambled Sentences Test) would predict BPD features over and above self report measures of cognitive bias and thought suppression. A sample of 153 undergraduates completed self-report measures of BPD features, thought suppression, and negative cognitive biases, as well as the Scrambled Sentences Test (SST). Results showed that while the SST was a good predictor of cognitive biases, it did not predict thought suppression when self report measures were included. Recognizing the importance of negative cognitive bias in BPD may be useful in continued treatment development. Further research into other ways of measuring thought suppression and cognitive biases in the lab may be warranted

Testing a Values-Based Approach to Healthcare Decision-Making in Older Adults

Despite natural declines in physical and cognitive function, older adults maintain good emotion regulation abilities, leading to emotional wellbeing and resilience. This phenomenon can partially be explained by socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), which posits that when time is perceived as a limited resource, older adults focus attention on positive environmental stimuli to regulate emotions. Although this positivity effect maintains emotional wellbeing, it may disrupt information processing related to healthcare decision-making. Older adults request less information from their doctors, are less likely to ask for a second opinion, make their decisions more quickly, and devote more attention to positive medical information, compared with younger adults. These age effects are temporarily reversible when older adults are primed to reduce their emotional focus or increase the amount of information they gather. However, this leads to reductions in positive affect and may reduce self-regulatory capacities required for emotion regulation. Personal values have been studied in the context of information processing and decision-making. Emphasizing personal values increases positive affect, counteracts self-regulatory fatigue, and reduces defensiveness when processing health information. Despite the relevance of personal values to older adults, the effects of personal values have not been studied in research on healthcare decision-making and aging. The present study employed a laboratory-based healthcare decision-making task to examine the effects of three writing tasks (control, information-gathering, and values) on the decision-making process in older adults (n=90) compared to race/gender-matched younger adults (n=90). Participants also completed self-report questionnaires on physical and psychological wellbeing, a behavioral task measuring self-regulatory strength, and neuropsychological measures. The present study found that older adults reviewed more positive information when selecting a health plan and physician, and recalled their physician choice more positively compared to younger adults. Older adults took significantly longer and reviewed more information when selecting a health plan and physician compared to younger adults. However, there were no significant effects for writing task condition. Significant age-related differences in information processing were partially accounted for by baseline affect and future time perspective. These results offer support for the positivity effect in older adults when reviewing health-related information. Null findings associated with values-based writing task highlight experimental complexities when examining age-related differences and provide additional avenues for future research

Managing the Spatial Externalities of Renewable Energy Deployment: Uniform vs. Differentiated Regulation

With the expansion of renewable energy sources (RES) in countries all over the world, policy design to address the negative impacts of RES plants on their local and regional environment gains in importance. We analyse whether policy design should be spatially-differentiated or uniform when negative RES environmental externalities are spatially heterogeneous and display interregional cumulative effects. In a theoretical model of the RES electricity generation sector, we compare the welfare differential between both regulatory designs and analyse how it is affected by cumulative environmental effects. While we confirm that the welfare costs of attaining a RES deployment target are lower under a spatially-differentiated than a spatiallyuniform regulation, we find that the welfare costs are contingent on the presence of cumulative environmental effects. This depends on the heterogeneity of region-specific generation cost parameters and social cost parameters of RES electricity generation. If heterogeneity is more (less) pronounced in regional generation cost parameters than in regional social cost parameters, positive (negative) cumulative effects decrease the welfare costs of a uniform instrument