Psychological review
March 1, 2024
Manoj K Doss, Jason Samaha, Frederick S Barrett et al.
24 citations
Psychoactive drugs produce unique subjective states, but their effects on episodic memory often overlap. This reanalysis of 10 data sets (28 drug conditions) used signal detection models to separate three memory processes: recollection (retrieving specific details), familiarity (recognizing without details), and metamemory (introspecting about memory accuracy). Sedatives impaired both recollection and familiarity during encoding but enhanced recollection during consolidation. Dissociatives and cannabinoids impaired recollection during encoding, and cannabinoids increased false recollections during retrieval. Psychedelics impaired recollection during encoding but tended to enhance familiarity. Stimulants enhanced metamemory during encoding and retrieval but impaired metamemory during consolidation. These distinct patterns help explain drug-specific phenomena like sedative-induced blackouts and psychedelic presque vu, and suggest that memory quantity and stability influence metamemory.
Psychological review
January 1, 2025
Nelson Cowan, Nick I Ahmed, Chenye Bao et al.
11 citations
A review of recent behavioral and neuroscientific research on consciousness finds that information from various cognitive functions and brain areas is integrated into a conscious whole. The authors propose a new model in which this integration involves funneling information to a hub or focus of attention centered in the parietal lobes, which is functionally connected to areas representing currently attended information. This funneling process is described as the converse of global broadcasting proposed by other theories. The model incorporates many principles from previous research and aims to clarify the relation between consciousness and attention, though no existing theory fully captures the proposed organization of conscious thought.
Psychological review
November 1, 2025
Max Wolff, Hans Rutrecht, Lea J Mertens et al.
Psychedelic therapy is often viewed as a distinct form of psychotherapy, but this article argues that its effectiveness can be understood through the same general change mechanisms that operate in all effective psychotherapies. Drawing on Klaus Grawe's empirically grounded model of common factors, the authors propose that psychedelic therapy works via five mechanisms: resource activation, therapeutic relationship, problem actuation, clarification, and mastery. The article integrates evidence from psychedelic research to support this transtheoretical framework and discusses its implications for clinical practice, training, and future studies.