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| Publications of Adriel Boals :recent first alphabetical combined listing:%% Journal Articles @article{fds42340, Author = {K. Klein and A. Boals}, Title = {Expressive writing can increase working memory capacity.}, Journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: General}, Volume = {130}, Pages = {520-533}, Year = {2001}, Abstract = {The effect of emotional disclosure through expressive writing on available working memory (WM) capacity was examined in 2 semester-long experiments. In the first study, 35 freshmen assigned to write about their thoughts and feelings about coming to college demonstrated larger working memory gains 7 weeks later compared with 36 writers assigned to a trivial topic. Increased use of cause and insight words was associated with greater WM improvements. In the second study, students (n = 34) who wrote about a negative personal experience enjoyed greater WM improvements and declines in intrusive thinking compared with students who wrote about a positive experience (n = 33) or a trivial topic (n = 34). The results are discussed in terms of a model grounded in cognitive and social psychological theory in which expressive writing reduces intrusive and avoidant thinking about a stressful experience, thus freeing WM resources.}, Key = {fds42340} } @article{fds42341, Author = {K. Klein and A. Boals}, Title = {The relationship of life stress and working memory.}, Journal = {Applied Cognitive Psychology}, Volume = {15}, Pages = {565-579}, Year = {2001}, Abstract = {The relationship between life stress and working memory capacity (WM) was examined in three studies. Participants with more life event stress performed more poorly on Turner and Engle's ([1989]) operation-word span WM task, and this impairment was more pronounced on longer operations. Life event stress also predicted intrusion errors. Finally, self-reports of intrusive and avoidant thinking predicted functional WM capacity as did the recency of negative life events. The results are interpreted using a limited capacity model of WM in which cognitive representations of stressful life events compete with task demands for attentional resources.}, Key = {fds42341} } @article{fds42339, Author = {A. Boals and K. Klein}, Title = {Word Use in Emotional Narratives about Failed Romantic Relationships and Subsequent Mental Health}, Journal = {Journal of Language and Social Psychology}, Volume = {24}, Pages = {252-268}, Year = {2005}, Abstract = {We investigated how word use in a stressful narrative is related to levels of grief and intrusive and avoidant thinking associated with the stressful event. Two hundred and eight college students who had experienced the breakup of a romantic relationship during the preceding twelve months produced a written narrative of the relationship and subsequent breakup using an expressive writing procedure. Participants used more negative emotion, cause, sensory, and first person singular words when describing the breakup in comparison to describing the period when they were still dating. In addition, greater avoidance of the breakup predicted greater use of negative emotion, first person singular and third person pronouns, and less use of cognitive words. Conversely, levels of grief predicted less use of causal words and greater use of first person singular pronouns. We argue that use of cognitive words reflect an active search for meaning and understanding of the stressful event.}, Key = {fds42339} } @article{fds42338, Author = {A. Boals and K. Klein}, Title = {Cognitive-emotional distinctiveness: Separating emotions from non-emotions in the representation of a stressful memory}, Journal = {Memory}, Volume = {13}, Pages = {638-648}, Year = {2005}, Abstract = {Current theories on autobiographical memory and recent neurological evidence suggest that emotional and non-emotional features of a memory may be retrieved by separate systems. To test this notion, 207 participants who had experienced the breakup of a significant romantic relationship in the last 12 months completed a Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) procedure in relation to the previous relationship. The resulting MDS model revealed two dimensions: a valence and an emotional/non-emotional dimension. Further, participants who associated a high level of distress with their relationship breakup perceived less dissimilarity between emotional and non-emotional features than participants who associated a low level of distress with their relationship breakup. Theoretical and methodological implications for stress and memory are discussed.}, Key = {fds42338} } | |
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