Neuroscience and Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy: Roots of [Contemporary] Psychotherapy

The purpose of this article is to review the symbolic-experiential family therapy model of Carl Whitaker and apply it specifically to recent neuroscience findings. The article concludes that symbolic-experiential family therapy reflects many of the recent findings in neuroscience including the role of implicit learning and memory formation, the importance of the relationship between the couple or family and the therapist, increasing stress and anxiety in order to facilitate change, which activates the right brain, and unstructured and spontaneous interaction, which promotes brain reorganization.

Is There Cross-format Transfer in Implicit Invariance Learning?

Three experiments investigated cross-form transfer in the invariance learning paradigm introduced by McGeorge and Burton (1990). The results suggest that the transfer observed by McGeorge and Burton depended on subjects’ ability to use a response strategy discovered by Wright and Burton (1995). When that strategy was denied to subjects (Experiments 1 and 2), no cross-form transfer was observed; when the strategy was made available (Experiment 3), cross-form transfer re-emerged. These results suggest that this form of learning, like many other forms of implicit learning and memory, is hyperspecific.