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If you don’t let it in, you don’t have to get it out: Thought preemption as a method to control unwanted thoughts | Psychology Department

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naom Markovitch

Congratulations to Dr. Noam Markovitch

24 May, 2023

For receiving the best doctoral award in developmental psychology from the APA organization!
Noam's doctorate deals with the understanding of children's differential sensitivity to the effects of the environment on their development. The work's contribution to developmental psychology is very significant, both in theoretical thought and methodological approaches.
Well done Noam!
Noam PhD supervisor, Prof. Ariel Knafo-Noam, has also won the award in the past

 

From acute stress to persistent post-concussion symptoms: The role of parental accommodation and child’s coping strategies

19 April, 2023

An article by PhD candidate Irit Aviv, supervised by Dr. Tammy Pilowsky Peleg and Prof. Hillel Aviezer was selected as the winner of the Eighth Annual TCN/AACN student Project Competition, from among 15 eligible manuscripts

Acute stress following mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) is highly prevalent and associated with Persistent Post-Concussion symptoms (PPCS). However, the mechanism mediating this relationship is understudied.

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If you don’t let it in, you don’t have to get it out: Thought preemption as a method to control unwanted thoughts

21 July, 2022
Eran Eldar

Trying to stop thinking unwanted, often repetitive thoughts is a familiar experience. However, being aware of such attempts implies that the thought has already reached consciousness. Can we preempt an unwanted thought from coming to mind in the first place?

In a new study, Dr. Isaac Fradkin and Dr. Eran Eldar have examined this question using a free association task where people were instructed to avoid repeating associations. The study has shown that to meet the task, people principally reject and replace unwanted associations after they have already reached consciousness. Another prominent finding was that, in general, thinking and reporting a thought dramatically increases its strength, making it even more likely to be generated the future. However, people instructed to suppress repeated associations were able to partially avoid this self-reinforcing effect of thoughts. Thus, whereas people cannot completely avoid unwanted thoughts, this study suggests a novel mechanism allowing people to make sure unwanted thoughts do not become excessively repetitive.

See full article here