A Psychometric Evaluation of the Thought Control Ability Questionnaire (TCAQ) and the Prediction of Cognitive Control

Williams, Alishia D.; Moulds, Michelle L.; Grisham, Jessica R.; Gay, Philippe; Lang, Tamara J.; Kandris, Eva; Werner‐Seidler, Aliza; Yap, Carol S. L.

doi:10.1007/s10862-009-9171-z

Cited by 21 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…However, this difference did not moderate the effect of instructed thought suppression or HRV. The most likely explanation for this finding is that it is simply due to chance, as other studies that have employed the current study design with samples of undergraduate students have not observed these differences (Grisham & Williams, ; Williams et al, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Participants then completed a task in which they were asked to monitor the occurrence of a personally relevant intrusive thought. Variations of this thought suppression task have been successfully employed in a number of recent studies (Grisham & Williams, ; Williams et al, ). First, participants were instructed to type the name of a loved one into the computer.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual differences in resting heart rate variability moderate thought suppression success

2015

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Individual differences in heart rate variability (HRV) at rest are thought to represent an individual's capacity for self-regulation, but it remains unclear whether HRV predicts control over unwanted thoughts. The current study used a thought suppression paradigm in which participants recorded occurrences of a personally relevant intrusive thought over three monitoring periods. Among those instructed to suppress, higher levels of HRV were associated with greater declines in intrusions across the monitoring periods; no such relationship was found among those assigned to a control condition. Resting HRV also interacted with spontaneous thought suppression effort to predict intrusive thought frequency. In both cases, these HRV-related differences in thought suppression success predicted the generalized distress symptoms common to depression and anxiety. These findings enhance understanding of the relationships between HRV and cognitive control and highlight how individual differences in self-regulatory capacity impact thought suppression success and emotion regulation.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in resting heart rate variability moderate thought suppression success

2015

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“…TCAQ is a 25-item self-report questionnaire used to measure the ability of an individual to control unwanted and intrusive thoughts (Williams et al, 2010). TCAQ has a high test–retest reliability and good internal consistency (Luciano et al, 2005).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thought Control Ability Is Different from Rumination in Explaining the Association between Neuroticism and Depression: A Three-Study Replication

Yang

Qiu

2017

Front. Psychol.

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Neuroticism is the most common vulnerability factor of depression. However, the mechanism underlying this vulnerability is still unclear. Previous studies suggested that rumination intensifies the negative effect of neuroticism on depression. However, whether cognitive control could explain the association between neuroticism and depression remains unclear to date. Therefore, this study evaluated the indirect effects of rumination and thought control on the relationship between neuroticism and depression. Seven self-report measures were employed among healthy and main depression disorder (MDD) participants. Three studies were used to examine the hypotheses. Results of the three studies showed significant correlations among neuroticism, rumination, thought control, and depression. Rumination mediated the link between neuroticism and depression among healthy young adults, and this finding replicated previous studies. This study provided new evidence that thought control mediates the association between neuroticism and depression in both healthy and MDD populations. In conclusion, rumination increases neuroticism risk for depression, but high-level thought control decreases the effect of neuroticism on depression. This study may serve as a reference to develop effective and focused interventions for MDD patients.

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“…325thought control ability (as measured by the TCAQ;Luciano, Algarabel, Tomás, & Martínez, 2005; greater scores on the TCAQ are negatively associated with both anxiety and depression as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder;Williams et al, 2010), and dissociative disorders (as measured by the Dissociative Experiences Scale, DES;…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory suppression and its deficiency in psychological disorders: A focused meta-analysis

Stramaccia¹,

Meyer²,

Rischer³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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It is hotly debated whether suppressing the retrieval of unwanted memories constitutes a beneficial mechanism that causes forgetting. Here, we scrutinize the evidence for such suppression-induced forgetting (SIF) and examine whether it is deficient in psychological disorders characterized by intrusive thoughts. Specifically, we performed a focused meta-analysis of studies that have used the Think/No-Think procedure to test SIF in individuals either affected by psychological disorders or exhibiting high scores on related traits. First, our analysis of the control samples (N = 534) indicated that avoiding retrieval indeed leads to reliable forgetting in healthy participants. Overall, the effect size was moderate to small (SMCC = 0.31, 95% CI [0.16, 0.45]) and remained significant after attempting to account for publication bias. However, moderator analyses revealed that this effect varied according to the exact mechanism that participants were instructed to engage, with the greatest effect size observed for direct retrieval suppression (SMCC = 0.63, 95% CI [0.36, 0.90]). Second, we found no evidence for SIF in the clinical/sub-clinical samples (N = 534, SMCC = 0.07, 95% CI [- 0.13, 0.28]). Critically, SIF in these samples was significantly smaller than in the respective control samples (SMD = 0.26 (95% CI [0.06, 0.47]). This deficiency was particularly pronounced when participants were instructed to apply direct retrieval suppression mechanism. These results suggest that intact suppression-induced forgetting is a hallmark of psychological well-being, and that inducing more specific suppression mechanisms fosters voluntary forgetting.

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A Psychometric Evaluation of the Thought Control Ability Questionnaire (TCAQ) and the Prediction of Cognitive Control

Cited by 21 publications

References 30 publications

Individual differences in resting heart rate variability moderate thought suppression success

Individual differences in resting heart rate variability moderate thought suppression success

Thought Control Ability Is Different from Rumination in Explaining the Association between Neuroticism and Depression: A Three-Study Replication

Memory suppression and its deficiency in psychological disorders: A focused meta-analysis

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