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Full-Text Articles in Psychology
Having No Words For Feelings: Alexithymia As A Fundamental Personality Dimension At The Interface Of Cognition And Emotion, Olivier Luminet, Kristy A. Nielson, Nathan Ridout
Having No Words For Feelings: Alexithymia As A Fundamental Personality Dimension At The Interface Of Cognition And Emotion, Olivier Luminet, Kristy A. Nielson, Nathan Ridout
Psychology Faculty Research and Publications
This special issue brings together two important reviews and seven cutting-edge empirical papers concerning the influence of alexithymia on cognitive and emotional processing. Alexithymia is a multifaceted construct that is characterised by difficulties identifying one’s feelings; difficulties describing one’s feelings to others; and an externally focused, utilitarian cognitive style. In this paper, we begin by considering how emotion science has evolved in its understanding of personality traits, before highlighting the potential importance of alexithymia research for the field of cognition and emotion. After summarising the historical context of alexithymia research, we consider the contributions of the featured papers to the …
Cognitive-Emotional Processing In Alexithymia: An Integrative Review, Olivier Luminet, Kristy A. Nielson, Nathan Ridout
Cognitive-Emotional Processing In Alexithymia: An Integrative Review, Olivier Luminet, Kristy A. Nielson, Nathan Ridout
Psychology Faculty Research and Publications
Alexithymia is a multifaceted personality construct characterised by difficulties identifying one’s feelings and distinguishing them from bodily sensations, difficulties describing one’s feelings to others, and an externally oriented cognitive style. Over the past 25 years, a burgeoning body of research has examined how alexithymia moderates processing at the cognition–emotion interface. We review the findings in five domains: attention, appraisals, memory, language, and behaviours. The preponderance of studies linked alexithymia with deficits in emotion processing, which was apparent across all domains, except behaviours. All studies on behaviours and a proportion of studies in other domains demonstrated emotional over-responding. Analysis at the …
The Role Of Alexithymia In Memory And Executive Functioning Across The Lifespan, Anthony N. Correro, Elizabeth Rose Paitel, Steven J. Byers, Kristy A. Nielson
The Role Of Alexithymia In Memory And Executive Functioning Across The Lifespan, Anthony N. Correro, Elizabeth Rose Paitel, Steven J. Byers, Kristy A. Nielson
Psychology Faculty Research and Publications
Alexithymia is a personality trait characterised by difficulties identifying feelings (DIF), describing feelings (DDF), and externally oriented thinking (EOT). Alexithymia has been associated with poorer memory, at least for emotive materials, and recently, with executive and neural dysfunction. Aging is also accompanied by poorer memory and executive functioning (EF), neural dysfunction, and increasing alexithymia. Thus, the hypothesis of a general cognitive impairment in alexithymia, particularly in elders, needs investigation. Three large, independent, cross-sectional experiments (n = 296, 139 and 121, respectively) investigated memory and EF in healthy adults, ranging from young to old adulthood, with age, sex, and the …
The Effects Of Alexithymia And Age On Inhibitory Control, Anthony Correro
The Effects Of Alexithymia And Age On Inhibitory Control, Anthony Correro
Dissertations (1934 -)
Alexithymia is a stable personality trait typified by externally oriented thinking and difficulties identifying and describing feelings. It is associated with cognitive-affective deficits such as poorer memory for emotional and neutral information as well as executive dysfunction. Relatedly, aging is accompanied by executive dysfunction and increasing alexithymia. Because executive functions comprise multiple cognitive skills, it is essential to demarcate which are impacted by aging and alexithymia. While age-related deficits in inhibitory control are well established, there is a dearth of literature examining inhibition in alexithymia. Thus, this study aimed to examine the effect of alexithymia on inhibition and to interrogate …
The Effects Of Emotional Arousal On False Recognition In Alexithymia, Anthony N. Correro
The Effects Of Emotional Arousal On False Recognition In Alexithymia, Anthony N. Correro
Master's Theses (2009 -)
Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties identifying feelings, difficulties describing feelings, and an externally oriented thinking style (EOT). Further, individuals with alexithymia experience chronic physiological arousal. Prior research has shown that non-clinical participants with alexithymic traits cannot subjectively recognize increased arousal in response to viewing an arousing video. Yet, these individuals will still experience physiological arousal and will still have arousal-induced memory modulation. No studies to date have examined arousal effects on false memory in alexithymia. The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm examines false memory by introducing words associated with a non-presented `theme' word (i.e., critical lure) as memoranda, which …
Alexithymia Impairs The Cognitive Control Of Negative Material While Facilitating The Recall Of Neutral Material In Both Younger And Older Adults, Déborah Dressaire, Charles B. Stone, Kristy A. Nielson, Estelle Guerdoux, Denis Brouillet, Olivier Luminet
Alexithymia Impairs The Cognitive Control Of Negative Material While Facilitating The Recall Of Neutral Material In Both Younger And Older Adults, Déborah Dressaire, Charles B. Stone, Kristy A. Nielson, Estelle Guerdoux, Denis Brouillet, Olivier Luminet
Psychology Faculty Research and Publications
We investigated the moderating impact of the personality construct alexithymia on the ability of younger and older adults to control the recall of negative and neutral material. We conducted two experiments using the directed forgetting paradigm with younger and older adults. Participants studied negative (Experiment 1) or neutral (Experiment 2) words. Participants were instructed to forget the first half and remember the second half of an entire list of words. Overall, we found that alexithymia impairs the ability of both younger and older adults to cognitively control negative material (through both recall and inhibition). The “externally oriented thinking” factor of …
Modulation Of Long-Term Memory By Arousal In Alexithymia: The Role Of Interpretation, Kristy A. Nielson, Mitchell A. Meltzer
Modulation Of Long-Term Memory By Arousal In Alexithymia: The Role Of Interpretation, Kristy A. Nielson, Mitchell A. Meltzer
Psychology Faculty Research and Publications
Moderate physiological or emotional arousal induced after learning modulates memory consolidation, helping to distinguish important memories from trivial ones. Yet, the contribution of subjective awareness or interpretation of arousal to this effect is uncertain. Alexithymia, which is an inability to describe or identify one’s emotional and arousal states even though physiological responses to arousal are intact, provides a tool to evaluate the role of arousal interpretation. Participants scoring high and low on alexithymia (N = 30 each) learned a list of 30 words, followed by immediate recall. Participants then saw either an arousing (oral surgery) or neutral video (tooth …
Intact Physiological Response To Arousal With Impaired Emotional Recognition In Alexithymia, Linda Ann Stone, Kristy A. Nielson
Intact Physiological Response To Arousal With Impaired Emotional Recognition In Alexithymia, Linda Ann Stone, Kristy A. Nielson
Psychology Faculty Research and Publications
Background: The purpose of the present study was to clarify the relationship between the recognition of emotion and physiological response to emotion (i.e. arousal) in alexithymia. Methods: This study investigated differences in physiological arousal state, as measured by continuous heart rate, electrodermal activity (EDA) and self-reported emotional intensity before and after exposure to an emotionally arousing or neutral videotape among 41 high- or low-alexithymic young adult participants. Results: Across subjects, emotionally negative stimuli produced increased physiological arousal. However, high-alexithymic participants exposed to the arousing videotape did not report increased subjective emotional intensity, as did low-alexithymic participants. In addition, the baseline …