Some friends were having a drink in a London pub at lunchtime. Afterconversing for a while, one said, “I had a terribly embarrassingexperience last evening. I went up to the ticket window, meaning topurchase a ticket to Piccadilly, and instead I asked for a ticket toTickadilly!”(AAB) “I know just what you mean,” replied one of the chaps. “I wentto the post office, meaning to ask for a first class stamp, and insteadI asked for a first class tramp.”(AAAB) One of the other men replied, “I had a similar experience. Iwent to the airport meaning to buy a ticket to Baltimore, but insteadasked for a ticket to Faltimore.”(B) The next chap replied, “I had a similar experience. Only thismorning at breakfast I meant to ask my wife to please pass the butter.Instead, to my acute embarrassment, I said, ‘You hopeless bitch, youruined my life.’”

AAB

An equivalent AA’a”b form is typical in jokes, as illustrated inthe following joke:(A) Some men are about to be executed. The guard brings the firstman forward, and the executioner asks if he has any last requests. Hesays no, and the executioner shouts, “Ready! Aim!”Suddenly the man yells, “Earthquake!”Everyone is startled and looks around. In all the confusion, the firstman escapes.(A’) The guard brings the second man forward, and the executionerasks if he has any last requests. He says no, and the executionershouts, “Ready! Aim!”Suddenly the man yells, “Tornado!”Everyone is startled and looks around. In all the confusion, the secondman escapes.(a”b) By now the last man has it all figured out. The guard brings himforward, and the executioner asks if he has any last requests. He saysno, and the executioner shouts, “Ready! Aim!”And the last man yells, “Fire!”

Humor

Humor

The current study is—to the best of our knowledge—the first to address the physiology of flow in a group context. We examined the physiological mechanisms related to the emergence of flow in three-person groups that worked under anonymous or identifiable conditions on a cooperative game. We examined whether CV reactivity and synchrony among group members predicted group-based flow and performance. In line with Hypothesis 1 we found a relationship between synchronization in PEP and self-reported flow. Moreover, in line with Hypothesis 2, both PEP reactivity and within-group synchronization in PEP were related to group performance. These effects were not found for other CV measures (CO most notably), and not further moderated by the extent to which group members were anonymous (vs. identifiable) during the task. In line with previous research we also found reliable relations between group identification, cohesion and flow in a group context (Mao et al., 2016; Zumeta et al., 2016). Finally—but importantly—synchronization in PEP mediated the relation between performance and flow. The current findings contribute to the literature by showing—for the first time—the role of flow in the relation between CV synchronization and performance in groups. This finding relates to recent work on synchrony in autonomic nervous system activation and the performance of groups and dyads. More specifically, the current results are in keeping with the work by Gordon et al. (2020) who showed how synchrony in heart rate enhanced group performance, as well as the work by Behrens et al. (2020) who showed how synchrony in skin conductance predicted the cooperative success of dyads. The current work extends this work not just by showing the role of subjectively experienced flow but also by isolating the role of a particular component of the autonomic nervous system, i.e., the sympathetic branch, which is at the CV level most directly indexed by PEP.

3 RESULTS

Challenge and threat operate under conditions of task engagement, which is indicated by increased sympathetic activation, as indexed by increased heart rate (HR) and decreased PEP. The sympathetic nervous system influence on the heart is most directly measured by PEP, however, while HR is under both sympathetic and parasympathetic influences (Brownley et al., 2000). As a result, PEP has been described as the most direct CV measure of task engagement (Kelsey, 2012; Richter et al., 2016), while HR is a more secondary index. In turn, under challenge, increased cardiac activity (i.e., increased HR, decreased PEP) is coupled with decreased vascular resistance, leading in turn to increased levels of cardiac output (CO) compared to baseline. Under threat, by contrast, vascular resistance increases, leading to low or even decreased levels of CO compared to baseline, despite increased cardiac activation.1

hus, we predicted flow to be associated with HR, PEP and CO reactivity (Hypothesis 1a) and within-group synchronization in HR, PEP and CO (Hypothesis 1b). Moreover we predicted performance to be associated with HR, PEP and CO reactivity (Hypothesis 2a), within-group synchronization in HR, PEP and CO (Hypothesis 1b), and flow (Hypothesis 2c). Finally, we predicted higher levels of flow, performance, and CV reactivity and -synchronization in the anonymous condition than in the identifiable condition (Hypothesis 3). We also included subjective measures of group-experience (perceived cohesion/group identification) which we analyzed in a more exploratory manner. Although one can generally expect positive relations between cohesion, identification, performance and flow in groups, the role of anonymity (vs. identifiability) is harder to predict. On the one hand, anonymity may shift attention to social identity and increase group experience (Postmes et al., 2001; Postmes & Spears, 1998); on the other hand, being able to see each other during team performance may also increase group cohesion. Therefore, group experience will be examined in a more exploratory fashion.

we found that the objective magnitude of the response to hypnotic suggestions was increased by such stimulation.

If all of these four premises hold, it follows that hypnotizability will be increased by any manipulation that impairs the functioning of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

In the Introduction to this paper, we reviewed literature which provides support for the following four premises:

The experimenter also rated the degree of objective response to each suggestion on a percentage scale (percentage of maximum possible movement for motor suggestions, reverse coded for rigid arm, and percentage of maximum possible facial expression for taste hallucination).

the particular rTMS method we used had the desired effect of reducing cortical excitability in the targeted cortical regions

Suggestions were always given in the same order for a given site: magnetic hands, arm levitation, rigid arm, and finally taste hallucination

Subjects then received four sessions of 5 min of low frequency (1 Hz) rTMS, each session followed by a brief 1 min hypnotic induction and two hypnotic suggestions in the 5-min window of the residual cortical disruption that followed.

Capgras delusion (“My wife has been replaced by an impostor”

a monothematic delusional condition is one where the deluded person has only a single delusional belief or at most a small set of delusional beliefs all related to a single theme

As noted above, Fasold et al. (2002) reported that irrigating the left ear with cold water produces activation of rLPFC regions including rDLPFC and rIFG. Since such irrigation in patients with the delusion of somatoparaphrenia temporarily dispels the delusion, one might take the view that this irrigation improves the operation of a belief formation and evaluation system located in rLPFC. So one might predict that such irrigation would improve the accuracy of people's beliefs about the likelihood of future illnesses. i.e., make them more realistic; and that is what McKay et al. (2013) found.

Cold caloric stimulation of the left ear produces activation of a cortical network involving right prefrontal regions including the right dorsolateral PFC and areas adjacent to it such as the frontal operculum (pars opercularis) of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) (Fasold et al., 2002). Such stimulation temporarily removed the delusion in two patients with somatoparaphrenia (Bisiach et al., 1991, Rode et al., 1992).

e consider that Factor 2 – impaired belief evaluation – is induced in subjects simply by their being in the hypnotic state. The specific hypnotic suggestion given to the subject is responsible for the specific content of the hypnotically-induced delusional belief i.e. it acts as Factor 1 of the Two-Factor theory.

, Factor 2, an impairment of the system for belief evaluation and acceptance or rejection must also be present, regardless of the content of the delusional belief.

Factor 1 must be different for each kind of monothematic delusional belief, since it is Factor 1 that is responsible for the content of the belief

Proponents of the Two-Factor theory therefore argue that there must be some additional impairment in patients with Capgras delusion. A disconnection between the face recognition system and the autonomic nervous system is responsible for the content of the Capgras delusion; a second impairment is responsible for the maintenance of this content as a belief.

According to this theory, to account for any kind of monothematic delusion we just need to discover the answer to two questions. The first is: what brought the delusional thought to mind in the first place? The second is: why was this thought then adopted as a belief, rather than being dismissed from consideration as it should have been (because of its implausibility, and because of the strength of the evidence against it)?

tronger startle responses to the loudnoise during the fear-conditioned stimulus (CS1+) as compared withthe control stimulus (CS2–) reflects the fearful state of the participantelicited by CS1+.

CS1-R

ef

TestExtinctionAcquisition

Reconsolidation offear memory was manipulated by administration of propranolol(40 mg,n¼20), randomized and double-blind placebo controlled(n¼20) (seeSupplementary Methodsonline). For the additionalcontrol condition (n¼20), propranolol (40 mg) was administeredwithout memory reactivation.

eclarative knowledg

ear-relevant stimuli

neurobio-logical manipulations

Recently, itwas rediscovered that fear memory in animals is not necessarilypermanent but can change when retrieved3–5. The reactivation of aconsolidated (fear) memory can return it to a labile, supposedly proteinsynthesis–dependent state, a process that is referred to as reconsolida-tion4.

r=−.49,p<.01

Table 1

Recognition d-prime

WM taskAn operation span (OSPAN) task

For example, participants often assigncritical lures morerememberthanknowresponse

Recently, the relationship between working memory(WM) capacity and performance on the DRM task

A signal detection view, on the other hand, suggeststhat participants who have been forewarned may adopt amore conservative criterion during testing, which wouldlead to reduced false-memory rates

been conducted to explore variables that could potentiallyeliminate, or at least reduce, the false-memory effect

activation/monitoring theory

In fact, the intrusionand false-recognition rates for critical lures have often beenfound to be comparable to, or sometimes even exceed,recognition rates of the studied words

ANOVA of Schema Discrepancy by Emotional State Induction on the average occurrence of spatial memory bias,Study 2

Indeedpositive emotional stimuli presented at the topand negative emotional stimuli presented at thebottom of a monitor (stimulus congruent loca-tions) were expected to be more accuratelyretrieved than positive stimuli presented at thebottom and negative stimuli presented at the topof a monitor (stimulus incongruent locations)

reconstructions in confor-mity with the valence (positive vs negative) of thestimuli

An emotional state of alarm was induced inparticipants

ANOVA of Word Valence by Emotional State Induction on average number of accurately recognised words, Study 1.

A22 mixed-design ANOVA was run on theaverage number of correctly recognised words,with Emotional State Induction (Alarm Statecondition vs Control condition) as the between-participants factor, and Word Valence (Negativevs Neutral Words) as the within-participants fac-tor. A significant main effect of Word Valence wasfound to be significant,F(1, 82)29.73,MSE116.67,pB.001: Compared with Neutral Words,Negative Words were more accurately recognised.Moreover, the Emotional State Induction maineffect was significant,F(1, 82)4.51,MSE42.00,pB.01: Participants in the Alarm Statecondition recognised both Negative and NeutralWords better than participants in the Controlcondition (see Figure 2). The interaction effect

he experimental approach is the major strengthof the present work.

reconstructive factors

Now Print!

direct pathway

a considerable amount of FBMresearch has used three parameters as proxiesfor FBM accuracy: quantity of details, consis-tency, and confidence

have criticised thespecial encoding hypothesis, suggesting thatFBMs are subject to the forgetting curve, and toreconstructive and inferential processes, compar-able to those observed for ordinary autobiogra-phical memories

Across both experiments, strong cues led to an initial advantage in recall, but items recalled from weak cues were actually retained better over time, such that the advantage for strong cues was eliminated or reversed at the time of the final test

items learned through study were retained at approximately equal rates on the final test whether they were learned in the context of strong or weak cues

Both experiments revealed a robust testing effect.

Mean Relatedness Ratings

Design and Procedure

If elaborative activation is not as likely to occur during restudy, final test recall of items presented for restudy would not be expected to vary in either experiment as a function of cue–target relatedness.

Initial retrieval was expected to be higher for targets recalled from strong cues than from weak cues. However, because initial retrieval is less direct with weak cues, recalling a target from a weak cue is more likely to involve the activation of more elaborative information (e.g., Basket → Eggs → Flour → Bread) than is recalling a target from a strong cue (e.g., Toast → Bread).

Furthermore, the degree of elaboration during retrieval would seem to be greater under conditions in which the target is less accessible.

the act of retrieval r

Testing could therefore have a mediating benefit on retention by influencing how well learners process the material during their next opportunity to study it

Instead, it was best for items that were given a free-recall initial test, regardless of the type of final test.

has been observed for a wide variety of materials, including word lists (e.g., Carpenter & DeLosh, 2006), general knowledge facts (e.g., Carpenter, Pashler, Wixted, & Vul, 2008), foreign language vocabulary (e.g., Carrier & Pashler, 1992), and text passages (Agarwal, Karpicke, Kang, Roediger, & McDermott, 2008). The effect has also been demonstrated with face–name pairings (e.g., Carpenter & DeLosh, 2005; Landauer & Bjork, 1978)

One explanation that has been offered is based on the notion of transfer-appropriate processing

It may be hypothesizedthat beta-adrenergic blockade during reconsolidation may selectivelydisrupt the protein synthesis of the amygdalar fear memory, resultingin deconsolidation of the fear memory trace while leaving thedeclarative memory in the hippocampus untouched

our finding that a well-established retrieval technique for fear memories (reinstatement)failed to uncover any fear response suggests that the fear memorymay either be erased (storage theory) or may be unavailable as aresult of retrieval failure (retrieval theory)5

Placebo reactivation

Unconditionedstimuli

Placebo reactivation

In addition, declarative knowledge of the con-tingency between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditionedstimulus was measured

ifferential fear-conditioning procedure with fear-relevant stimuli.

Reconsolidation of fear memory can be influenced by neurobio-logical manipulations during or shortly after the reactivation period

Once emotional memory is established, itappears to last forever.

know

remember

Watson et al., 2005).

Experiment 2

recognition d' (a) and remember d' (b)

Fig. 1

WM capacity

recollective detail.

could potentially eliminate, or at least reduce, the false-memory effect. One such condition, which is important for the present study, is explicitly forewarning participants about of the nature of the DRM illusion

activation/monitoring theory

Deese/Roediger–McDermott

the primary objective of the present study was to examinethe link between checking compulsions and habitual prospectivememory

The task requiredparticipants to remind the experimenter to send an email to hersupervisor

Fig. 1.

Episodic

Habitual

Method1.1

we also manipulated therelevance of the time- and event-cued prospective memory tasksin the present study

checkers indeed reportexperiencing more problems with various aspects of prospectivememory

Instead, our focus was on episodicand habitual prospective memory.

f individuals frequently experience prospective memoryfailures (e.g., they frequently forget to attend appointments, to paybills and/or to turn off the iron), they may begin to worry and haveintrusive doubts concerning prospective memory failures (e.g., didI turn off the iron?).

Until recently, the memory deficit theory was tested exclusivelyin the domain of retrospective memory

memory deficit theory

The most common subtype, characterized bychecking compulsions, occurs in over 50% of OCD patients(Henderson & Pollard, 1988; Rasmussen & Eisen, 2002; Steinet al., 1997), with an additional 15% of the general populationdemonstrating sub-clinical checking compulsions

Obviously it isimpossible to reproduce precisely those condi-tions that prevail for a phenomenon such as FBMwhen importing an event into the laboratory fromthe natural setting in which it is manifested.

although the naturalistic methodtakes advantage of capturing a naturally occur-ring phenomenon, it has the disadvantage oflacking sufficient control of both the assessmentof FBMs and the factors intervening in theirformation

Average occurence of Spatial Memory

Now Print!

As a general hypothesis, being in anemotional state of alarm was expected toinfluence directly and indirectly*through recon-structive processes*the individual’s memoryaccuracy

Figure 1.

read immediately after the emo-tional event (negative vs neutral words).

the experimental approach is the major strengthof the present work.

Indeed, research work on FBMs has beenprimarily conducted using a naturalistic question-naire method.

From the aforementioned it follows that twopossible pathways might be hypothesised toaccount for the formation of FBMs

For many years, researchers have being debat-ing whether FBMs can be considered either aspecial class of episodic emotional memories(Bohannon, 1988; Conway et al., 1994; Pillemer,1984), or are affected by reconstructive factors, asordinary autobiographical formations.

Traditional FBM literature suggests that FBMevents are public in nature

Typically, a restudy condition involves presenting the materialagain for participants to read, without any overt response required.In such a condition, it can be difficult to know the degree to whichparticipants are processing the material or even paying attention toit at all. The current study helps rule out this potential problem byincluding a restudy condition that required participants to judge therelatedness between two words in a pair. The consistency of theratings across the encoding and restudy trials indicates that partic-ipants were processing the items well enough to make relevant andaccurate judgments that were in line with what would be expected.

Both experiments revealed an interaction whereby strong cueswere advantageous for initial recall, but items recalled from weakcues were retained better over time.

According to the elaborative retrieval hypothesis, the activationof such information is less likely to occur during restudy and sofinal test recall of restudied items would not be expected to benefitas a function of manipulations that encourage elaborative process-ing during retrieval

elaborative information

4.26 (0.53

Two experiments

If this information is beneficial for retention,items recalled from weak cues should be retained better over time,such that the initial advantage for strong cues is eliminated orreversed at the time of the final test.

Testing could therefore have a mediating benefit onretention by influencing how well learners process the materialduring their next opportunity to study it

Carpenter andDeLosh (2006

transfer-appropriate processing

known answers

This study investigated whether ideomotor actions can express the contents of implicit semantic memory. We comparedresponses to yes/no questions using both volitional reports and Ouija responses. When participants believed they knew theanswer, responses for both modalities were similar. When participants believed they did not know the answer, accuracy fellto chance for volitional reports (50%) but remained significantly higher for Ouija responses (65%). These results indicate thatinformation inaccessible through volitional report can nevertheless be expressed in an ideomotor action in the complete ab-sence of conscious awareness.

we calculated for every participanta similarity indexSdescribing the correlation of responses

   -1 (opposite)    0 (no similarity)    + (same)

guessed answers

Results3.1

To examine this possibility

Material and methods

In this study we examine

Ideomotor actions