Abstract:
:This paper presents a theoretical model suggesting that doubt and certainty are two extremes of a continuum. Different people can be located in different locations on this continuum, according to how much they tend to seek refutation vs. confirmation. In both ends of the continuum lay mental disorders, which can be seen as extreme deviations from the usual relatively stable equilibrium between the two thinking processes. One end is defined by excessive skepticism and manifested as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), a disorder characterized by incessant doubt. The other end is defined by excessive certainty and lack of doubt, manifested as delusional disorders. Throughout this article, we demonstrate that the differences between normative thoughts and delusional thoughts are relatively vague, and that in general, the human default tendency is to prefer certainty over doubt. This preference is reflected in the confirmation bias as well as in other cognitive constructs such as overconfidence and stereotypes. Recent perspectives on these biases suggest that the human preference for confirmation can be explained in evolutionary terms as adaptive and rational. A parallel view of the scientific enterprise suggests that it also requires a certain equilibrium between skepticism and confirmation. We conclude by discussing the importance of the dialectic relationship between confirmation and refutation in both lay thinking and scientific thought.
journal_name
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatryjournal_title
Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatryauthors
Ron O,Oren E,Dar Rdoi
10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.08.005subject
Has Abstractpub_date
2016-12-01 00:00:00pages
68-74eissn
0005-7916issn
1873-7943pii
S0005-7916(15)30019-7journal_volume
53pub_type
杂志文章abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Information processing accounts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) state that intrusive memories emerge due to a lack of integration between perceptual and contextual trauma representations in autobiographical memory. This hypothesis was tested experimentally using an analogue trauma par...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章,随机对照试验
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2012.04.002
更新日期:2012-12-01 00:00:00
abstract::A case study is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of regular educational visits in reducing the over-utilization of emergency health care services. Frequent emergency room visits and help-seeking telephone calls were reduced substantially. The financial cost to the health system overall was reduced by 50%. ...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(86)90010-8
更新日期:1986-03-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Recent data indicate that extinguished fear often returns when the testing conditions differ from those of treatment. Several manipulations including extensive extinction training, extinction in multiple contexts, and spacing the extinction trials and sessions reduce the return of fear. Moreov...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.02.005
更新日期:2014-09-01 00:00:00
abstract::The present study aimed to provide an empirical test of the proposal that catastrophic worry about the consequences of not sleeping is common among patients with primary insomnia and serves to maintain the sleep disturbance. It was predicted that relative to good sleepers, patients with primary insomnia would catastro...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/s0005-7916(03)00003-x
更新日期:2003-03-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Rumination, a maladaptive cognitive style of responding to negative mood, is thought to be maintained by a variety of cognitive biases. However, it is unknown whether rumination is characterized by interpretation biases. METHODS:Two experiments examined the link between rumination and interpr...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.08.002
更新日期:2014-03-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:The treatment of negative symptoms in schizophrenia is a major challenge for mental health care. One randomized controlled trial found that cognitive therapy for low-functioning patients reduced avolition and improved functioning, using an average of 50.5 treatment sessions over the course of ...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 临床试验,杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.01.004
更新日期:2013-09-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Secondary extinction refers to the phenomenon that extinction of one conditioned stimulus (CS) results in the reduction of conditioned responses for other CSs conditioned with the same unconditioned stimulus (US). Previous research with rats has demonstrated that secondary extinction can inter...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.09.007
更新日期:2019-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a recently invented technique acclaimed as a major breakthrough for a range of anxiety-related symptoms. To determine the importance of the eye movement and expectancy variables, we conducted a one-hour session with 41 undergraduate subjects (11 males and 30 fema...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(95)00038-0
更新日期:1995-12-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Persons with delusions tend to display a jumping-to-conclusions (JTC) bias which is considered relevant to delusion formation. However, its contribution in real life social scenarios is unknown. This study investigates whether JTC increases when decisions have to be made in delusion-relevant s...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.09.005
更新日期:2011-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::The psychometric properties of the test entitled Knowledge of Behavioral Principles as Applied to Children and two shortened forms of this test were investigated in two samples of British subjects. The first consisted of 162 psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and clinical psyc...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(87)90004-8
更新日期:1987-09-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:It has been proposed that worry in individuals with Generalized Anxiety Disorder may be reinforced by a positive effect of worry on decision making, as reflected by a steeper learning curve on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). We hypothesized that this apparent positive effect of worry is dependent on the IGT pa...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.08.001
更新日期:2014-03-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Parasympathetic activity, as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), underlies key aspects of emotional and cognitive self-regulation. Examining time-varying RSA response during expressive writing about trauma may help inform theory about mechanisms of this intervention. The present stu...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.01.003
更新日期:2018-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a brief correction procedure in decelerating a high rate anti-social behaviour (spitting) in a profoundly retarded girl. A simple correction procedure seemed as effective as a more elaborate procedure incorporating positive practice elements, and gains were sustained with s...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(82)90084-2
更新日期:1982-12-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:This treatment study investigated the extent to which asymmetric dimensions of affective responding, specifically the positivity offset and the negativity bias, at pretreatment altered the rate of response to Behavioral Activation treatment for depression. METHOD:Forty-one depressed participa...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.09.011
更新日期:2016-09-01 00:00:00
abstract::Efforts to curtail the spread of AIDS emphasize changing risk practices. An objective measure of practical knowledge about AIDS risk behaviors can permit the more accurate assessment of the impact of such prevention programs. This paper describes the construction of a standardized 40-item test of AIDS risk behavior kn...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(89)90027-x
更新日期:1989-09-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Perception of trustworthiness in other people is essential for successful social interaction. Facial expressions-as conveyers of feelings and intentions-are an important source of this information. We investigated how social anxiety is related to biases in the judgment of faces towards un/trus...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.04.003
更新日期:2016-09-01 00:00:00
abstract::The study investigated the relative effectiveness of thought suppression and the working memory-based method of dynamic visual noise as techniques for reducing food cravings. Twenty dieting women on the weight-loss programme prescribed by weight watchers and 20 non-dieting controls formed images of their most craved f...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.03.001
更新日期:2008-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::A number of cognitivists have claimed that it is somehow illegitimate for those people who do not accept that cognitions are the only cause of human behavior to enter into debate on the issue. Their argument appears to be that it is not possible to develop an argument without making use of the sort of cognition descri...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/s0005-7916(96)00046-8
更新日期:1996-12-01 00:00:00
abstract::A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to examine the efficacy of a treatment package consisting of relaxation, reinforcement, and cognitive self-instruction in the reduction of severe night-time fears in six children. Although the disruptive bedtime behaviors of five of the six children were reduced, the...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(89)90050-5
更新日期:1989-06-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:The Seeking Proxies for Internal States (SPIS) hypothesis predicts that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with a deficit in subjective convictions, which may lead to a reliance on external substitutes for the perceptions of an individual's internal states. Two well-designed stu...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.09.003
更新日期:2017-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::The hyperventilation syndrome is present in as many as 50% of patients with non-cardiac chest pain. This study evaluated a behavioral treatment of this disorder in three adult females. They had long histories of chest pain and were documented to be free of coronary artery disease. Each subject met the DSM-III-R diagno...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(89)90005-0
更新日期:1989-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::This clinical report describes an enhancement of imaginal flooding therapy developed in clinical practice with outpatient phobics. During the session, anxiety-producing fantasies are solicited, and the verbalizations immediately preceding peaks in emotional arousal are captured on a three-minute repeating "endless loo...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(91)90030-9
更新日期:1991-03-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Striving to attain personal goals is important for maintaining well-being. Previous research indicates that repetitive thoughts can influence the affect and cognition associated with personal goal strivings. Repetitive thought in the concrete-experiential processing mode improves affect and co...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2019.101481
更新日期:2019-12-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Cognitive theories of aggression propose that biased information processing is causally related to aggression. To test these ideas, the current study investigated the effects of a novel cognitive bias modification paradigm (CBM-I) designed to target interpretations associated with aggressive b...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.08.003
更新日期:2018-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::Refusal skills training was extended to sexually active handicapped female adolescents who lacked an effective refusal strategy. Role-plays for assessment and training were developed using the who, what, when and where of situations which resulted in unwanted intercourse. Refusal skills were trained following the form...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(90)90018-g
更新日期:1990-06-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:The purpose of the present study was to explore the association between reductions in symptoms of psychopathology and perceived centrality of negative autobiographical memories in participants with social anxiety disorder (SAD) or panic disorder (PD). METHODS:Thirty-nine individuals with SAD o...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.01.007
更新日期:2018-06-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Cognitive models propose that depression is caused by dysfunctional schemas that endure beyond the depressive episode, representing vulnerability factors for recurrence. However, research testing negative cognitions linked to dysfunctional schemas in formerly depressed individuals is still sca...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.09.008
更新日期:2014-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::Restricting the encountered range of stimuli on a particular stimulus dimension changes a person's perceptual frame of reference, or adaptation level, for such stimuli. The present experiment explores the effect of stimulus avoidance on perceptual adaptation and subsequent avoidance. Results converge with previous fin...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 临床试验,杂志文章,随机对照试验
doi:10.1016/s0005-7916(98)00015-9
更新日期:1998-09-01 00:00:00
abstract::We tested whether performance on a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement with increasing magnitudes of monetary reward could be used as a behavioral measure of response to reinforcement during depression. Performance on the task was recorded before, during and after treatment of depression in six melancholic pat...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/0005-7916(85)90068-0
更新日期:1985-09-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Trauma victims, such as war veterans, often remember additional traumatic events over time: the "memory amplification effect". This effect is associated with the re-experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including frequent and intrusive images of the trauma. One explan...
journal_title:Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.04.003
更新日期:2018-09-01 00:00:00