Papers by Stella Maris Valencia Betancur
Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2017
Emotional processing (EP) is crucial for the elaboration and implementation of adaptive social st... more Emotional processing (EP) is crucial for the elaboration and implementation of adaptive social strategies. EP is also necessary for the expression of social cognition and behavior (SCB) patterns. It is well-known that war contexts induce socio-emotional atypical functioning, in particular for those who participate in combats. Thus, ex-combatants represent an ideal non-clinical population to explore EP modulation and to evaluate its relation with SCB. The aim of this study was to explore EP and its relation with SCB dimensions such as empathy, theory of mind and social skills in a sample of 50 subjects, of which 30 were ex-combatants from illegally armed groups in Colombia, and 20 controls without combat experience. We adapted an Emotional Recognition Task for faces and words and synchronized it with electroencephalographic recording. Ex-combatants presented with higher assertion skills and showed more pronounced brain responses to faces than Controls. They did not show the bias towa...
Frontiers in Psychology, 2017
Emotional processing (EP) is a complex cognitive function necessary to successfully adjust to soc... more Emotional processing (EP) is a complex cognitive function necessary to successfully adjust to social environments where we need to interpret and respond to cues that convey threat or reward signals. Ex-combatants have consistently shown atypical EP as well as poor social interactions. Available reintegration programs aim to facilitate the re-adaptation of ex-combatants to their communities. However, they do not incorporate actions to improve EP and to enhance cognitive-emotional regulation. The present study was aimed at evaluating the usefulness of an intervention focused on Social Cognitive Training (SCT), which was designed to equip ex-combatants enrolled in the Social Reintegration Route with EP and social cognition skills. A group of 31 ex-combatants (mean age of 37.2, 29 men) from Colombian illegal armed groups were recruited into this study. Of these, 16 were invited to take part in a SCT and the other continued with the conventional reintegration intervention. Both groups underwent 12 training sessions in a period 12-14 weeks. They were assessed with a comprehensive protocol which included Psychosocial, Behavioral, and Emotion Processing instruments. The scores on these instruments prior to and after the intervention were compared within and between groups. Both groups were matched at baseline. Ex-combatants receiving the SCT experienced significant improvements in EP and a reduction in aggressive attitudes, effects not observed in those continuing the conventional reintegration intervention. This is the first study that achieves such outcomes in such a population using SCT intervention. We discuss the implications of such results toward better social reintegration strategies.
Cognition & emotion, Jan 14, 2017
Attention is biased towards threat-related stimuli. In three experiments, we investigated the mec... more Attention is biased towards threat-related stimuli. In three experiments, we investigated the mechanisms, processes, and time course of this processing bias. An emotional flanker task simultaneously presented affective or neutral pictures from the international affective picture system database either as central response-relevant stimuli or surrounding response-uninformative flankers. Participants' response times to central stimuli was measured. The attentional bias was observed when stimuli were presented either for 1500 ms (Experiment 1) or 500 ms (Experiment 2). The threat-related attentional bias held regardless of the stimuli competing for attention even when presentation time was further reduced to 200 ms (Experiment 3). The results indicate that automatic and controlled mechanisms may interact to modulate the orientation of attention to threat. The data presented here shed new light on the mechanisms, processes, and time course of this long investigated by still largely u...
Revista Electronica Psyconex, Jul 21, 2011
Resumen Los sueños no se consideraban como un tema importante en la vida del sujeto. Aplicando la... more Resumen Los sueños no se consideraban como un tema importante en la vida del sujeto. Aplicando la asociación libre y el arte de la interpretación, Freud consigue el conocimiento de un producto mental que equivalía a un rendimiento psíquico completo, que ya no ...
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology
Uploads
Papers by Stella Maris Valencia Betancur