Fresson Megan, Dardenne Benoit, Geurten Marie, Anzaldi Laury, Meulemans Thierry
Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition (Research Unit), University of Liège, Liège, BE.
Psychol Belg. 2017 Jun 26;57(2):77-92. doi: 10.5334/pb.364.
Neuropsychological assessment is known to be influenced by expectancy effects, which can either enhance (placebo) or diminish (nocebo) cognitive performance. Research suggests that the response expectancy effect is influenced by various individual and situational factors and that the placebo effect results in an increase in monitoring processes as measured indirectly. However, the impact on monitoring processes has not yet been studied by direct measures such as Judgement Of Learning (JOL). This study aimed to investigate the response expectancy effect on various neuropsychological tasks, including a task that directly assesses monitoring capacities (JOL). In addition to determining which cognitive functions are influenced by the expectancy effect, this study examined the moderating role of the self-transcendence dimension of personality. Eighty healthy subjects were exposed to three bogus conditions presented as allegedly having a positive, negative, or no impact on cognitive capacities. Then they completed, in random order, three blocks of tasks (executive, attentional, and memory), one in each condition. Results showed an effect of negative instructions on flexibility (poorer performance) and memory (better performance) scores. Furthermore, positive instructions led to better explicit monitoring capacities (JOL) than the neutral condition. These effects were moderated by self-transcendence, as only participants with moderate or high self-transcendence exhibited these effects. Overall, our results showed that the response expectancy effect emerges from a combination of individual and cognitive factors.
众所周知，神经心理学评估会受到预期效应的影响，这种效应既可以增强（安慰剂效应）也可以削弱（反安慰剂效应）认知表现。研究表明，反应预期效应受多种个体和情境因素影响，且安慰剂效应会导致间接测量的监控过程增加。然而，尚未通过诸如学习判断（JOL）等直接测量方法来研究其对监控过程的影响。本研究旨在调查反应预期效应在各种神经心理学任务中的作用，包括一项直接评估监控能力的任务（JOL）。除了确定哪些认知功能受预期效应影响外，本研究还考察了人格的自我超越维度的调节作用。80名健康受试者被置于三种虚假条件下，据称这些条件对认知能力有积极、消极或无影响。然后他们以随机顺序完成三个任务组块（执行、注意和记忆），每种条件下各完成一个。结果显示，消极指令对灵活性（表现较差）和记忆（表现较好）得分有影响。此外，积极指令比中性条件导致更好的显性监控能力（JOL）。这些效应受自我超越调节，因为只有具有中等或高自我超越水平的参与者才表现出这些效应。总体而言，我们的结果表明，反应预期效应是个体因素和认知因素共同作用的结果。
