Meaningful Communication but not Superficial Anthropomorphism Facilitates Human-Automation Trust Calibration: The Human-Automation Trust Expectation Model (HATEM)

OBJECTIVE

The objective was to demonstrate anthropomorphism needs to communicate contextually useful information to increase user confidence and accurately calibrate human trust in automation.

BACKGROUND

Anthropomorphism is believed to improve human-automation trust but supporting evidence remains equivocal. We test the Human-Automation Trust Expectation Model (HATEM) that predicts improvements to trust calibration and confidence in accepted advice arising from anthropomorphism will be weak unless it aids naturalistic communication of contextually useful information to facilitate prediction of automation failures.

METHOD

Ninety-eight undergraduates used a submarine periscope simulator to classify ships, aided by the Ship Automated Modelling (SAM) system that was 50% reliable. A between-subjects 2 × 3 design compared SAM appearance (anthropomorphic avatar vs. camera eye) and voice inflection (monotone vs. meaningless vs. meaningful), with the meaningful inflections communicating contextually useful information about automated advice regarding certainty and uncertainty.

RESULTS

Avatar SAM appearance was rated as more anthropomorphic than camera eye, and meaningless and meaningful inflections were both rated more anthropomorphic than monotone. However, for subjective trust, trust calibration, and confidence in accepting SAM advice, there was no evidence of anthropomorphic appearance having any impact, while there was decisive evidence that meaningful inflections yielded better outcomes on these trust measures than monotone and meaningless inflections.

CONCLUSION

Anthropomorphism had negligible impact on human-automation trust unless its execution enhanced communication of relevant information that allowed participants to better calibrate expectations of automation performance.

APPLICATION

Designers using anthropomorphism to calibrate trust need to consider what contextually useful information will be communicated via anthropomorphic features.

Doing things efficiently: Testing an account of why simple explanations are satisfying

People often find simple explanations more satisfying than complex ones. Across seven preregistered experiments, we provide evidence that this simplicity preference is not specific to explanations and may instead arises from a broader tendency to prefer completing goals in efficient ways. In each experiment, participants (total N=2820) learned of simple and complex methods for producing an outcome, and judged which was more appealing-either as an explanation why the outcome happened, or as a process for producing it. Participants showed similar preferences across judgments. They preferred simple methods as explanations and processes in tasks with no statistical information about the reliability or pervasiveness of causal elements. But when this statistical information was provided, preferences for simple causes often diminished and reversed in both kinds of judgments. Together, these findings suggest that people may assess explanations much in the same ways they assess methods for completing goals, and that both kinds of judgments depend on the same cognitive mechanisms.

Compositionality in perception: A framework

Perception involves the processing of content or information about the world. In what form is this content represented? I argue that perception is widely compositional. The perceptual system represents many stimulus features (including shape, orientation, and motion) in terms of combinations of other features (such as shape parts, slant and tilt, common and residual motion vectors). But compositionality can take a variety of forms. The ways in which perceptual representations compose are markedly different from the ways in which sentences or thoughts are thought to be composed. I suggest that the thesis that perception is compositional is not itself a concrete hypothesis with specific predictions; rather it affords a productive framework for developing and evaluating specific empirical hypotheses about the form and content of perceptual representations. The question is not just whether perception is compositional, but how. Answering this latter question can provide fundamental insights into perception. This article is categorized under: Philosophy > Representation Philosophy > Foundations of Cognitive Science Psychology > Perception and Psychophysics.

Frontal midline theta power during the cue-target-interval reflects increased cognitive effort in rewarded task-switching

Cognitive performance largely depends on how much effort is invested during task-execution. This also means that we rarely perform as good as we could. Cognitive effort is adjusted to the expected outcome of performance, meaning that it is driven by motivation. The results from recent studies suggest that the expenditure of cognitive control is particularly prone to being affected by modulations of cognitive effort. Although recent EEG studies investigated the neural underpinnings of the interaction of effort and control, reports on how cognitive effort is reflected by oscillatory activity of the EEG are quite sparse. It is the goal of the present study to bridge this gap by performing an exploratory analysis of high-density EEG data from a switching-task using manipulations of monetary incentives. A beamformer approach is used to localize the sensor-level effects in source-space. The results indicate that the manipulation of cognitive effort was successful. The participants reported significantly higher motivation and cognitive effort in high versus low reward trials. Performance was also significantly increased. The analysis of the EEG data revealed that the increase of cognitive effort was reflected by an increased mid-frontal theta activity during the cue-target interval, suggesting an increased use of proactive control. This interpretation is supported by the result from a regression analysis performed on single-trial data, showing higher mid-frontal theta power prior to target-onset being associated with faster responses. Alpha-desynchronization throughout the trial was also more pronounced in high reward trials, signaling a bias of attention towards the processing of external stimuli. Source reconstruction suggests that these effects are located in areas related to cognitive control, and visual processing.

Neurophysiological Dynamics of Metacontrol States: EEG Insights into Conflict Regulation

Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying metacontrol and conflict regulation is crucial for insights into cognitive flexibility and persistence. This study employed electroencephalography (EEG), EEG-beamforming and directed connectivity analyses to explore how varying metacontrol states influence conflict regulation at a neurophysiological level. Metacontrol states were manipulated by altering the frequency of congruent and incongruent trials across experimental blocks in a modified flanker task, and both behavioral and electrophysiological measures were analyzed. Behavioral data confirmed the experimental manipulation's efficacy, showing an increase in persistence bias and a reduction in flexibility bias during increased conflict regulation. Electrophysiologically, theta band activity paralleled the behavioral data, suggesting that theta oscillations reflect the mismatch between expected metacontrol bias and actual task demands. Alpha and beta band dynamics differed across experimental blocks, though these changes did not directly mirror behavioral effects. Post-response alpha and beta activity were more pronounced in persistence-biased states, indicating a neural reset mechanism preparing for future cognitive demands. By using a novel artificial neural networks method, directed connectivity analyses revealed enhanced inter-regional communication during persistence states, suggesting stronger top-down control and sensorimotor integration. Overall, theta band activity was closely tied to metacontrol processes, while alpha and beta bands played a role in resetting the neural system for upcoming tasks. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the neural substrates involved in metacontrol and conflict monitoring, emphasizing the distinct roles of different frequency bands in these cognitive processes.

Mental simulation of colour properties during language comprehension: influence of context and comprehension stages

Many studies have shown that mental simulation may occur during language comprehension. Supporting evidence is derived from the matching effects in the sentence-picture verification (SPV) task often used to assess mental simulations of object properties, such as size, orientation, and shape. However, mixed results have been obtained regarding object colour, with researchers reporting matching or mismatching effects. This study investigated the impact of colour information clarity within sentences on the process of mental simulation during language comprehension. Employing the SPV task and using novel objects, we examined whether there is a mental simulation of colour after excluding typical/atypical colour bias and how varying levels of colour information clarity in sentences influence the emergence of matching effects at different stages of comprehension. To address these issues, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, the participants read normal sentences and subsequently engaged in picture verification with a novel object after a 500 ms delay. In Experiment 2, the participants encountered sentences containing both clear and unclear colour information and, after either a 0 ms or 1500 ms interval, completed picture verification tasks with a novel object. Null effects were found in the 500 ms condition for normal sentences and the 0 ms condition for unclear colour information sentences. A mismatching effect appeared in the 0 ms condition after clear colour information sentences, and a matching effect appeared in the 1500 ms condition for all sentences. The results indicated that after excluding colour bias, the participants still formed mental simulations of colour during language comprehension. Our results also indicated that ongoing colour simulation with time pressure impacted the participant responses. The participants ignored unclear colour information under time pressure, but without time pressure, they constructed simulations that were as detailed as possible, regardless of whether the implicit colour information in the sentence was clear.

Bilingualism modifies cognition through adaptation, not transfer

The standard explanation for bilingual effects on cognition is that an aspect of language processing transfers to nonverbal cognitive performance, leading to improvements in executive functioning. However, much evidence is incompatible with that view, and transfer across those domains seems unlikely. The present argument is that bilingual experience modifies cognition through an adaptation to the underlying attention system, making attention more efficient. 'Transfer' focuses on the overlap of specific processes, so task similarity predicts outcomes. By contrast, 'adaptation' focuses on recruitment of the modified resource, so the degree of attention required predicts outcome. In this view, bilinguals require less attentional effort than monolinguals for similar levels of performance, and outperform monolinguals on tasks with high attention demands regardless of task similarity.

Is working memory domain-general or domain-specific?

Given the fundamental role of working memory (WM) in all domains of cognition, a central question has been whether WM is domain-general. However, the term 'domain-general' has been used in different, and sometimes misleading, ways. By reviewing recent evidence and biologically plausible models of WM, we show that the level of domain-generality varies substantially between three facets of WM: in terms of computations, WM is largely domain-general. In terms of neural correlates, it contains both domain-general and domain-specific elements. Finally, in terms of application, it is mostly domain-specific. This variance encourages a shift of focus towards uncovering domain-general computational principles and away from domain-general approaches to the analysis of individual differences and WM training, favoring newer perspectives, such as training-as-skill-learning.

Ambivalence by design: A computational account of loopholes

Loopholes offer an opening. Rather than comply or directly refuse, people can subvert an intended request by an intentional misunderstanding. Such behaviors exploit ambiguity and under-specification in language. Using loopholes is commonplace and intuitive in everyday social interaction, both familiar and consequential. Loopholes are also of concern in the law, and increasingly in artificial intelligence. However, the computational and cognitive underpinnings of loopholes are not well understood. Here, we propose a utility-theoretic recursive social reasoning model that formalizes and accounts for loophole behavior. The model captures the decision process of a loophole-aware listener, who trades off their own utility with that of the speaker, and considers an expected social penalty for non-cooperative behavior. The social penalty is computed through the listener's recursive reasoning about a virtual naive observer's inference of a naive listener's social intent. Our model captures qualitative patterns in previous data, and also generates new quantitative predictions consistent with novel studies (N = 265). We consider the broader implications of our model for other aspects of social reasoning, including plausible deniability and humor.

The latent scope bias: Robust and replicable

People appear to prefer explanations that minimize unobserved effects, a pattern known as the latent scope bias in explanatory reasoning. A recent set of studies published in Cognition argues that the bias can be elicited only in certain narrow conditions and with certain tasks, such as a forced-choice task (Stephan, 2023). This commentary assesses the robustness of the bias in two ways: it weighs the most recent discoveries against previous research, and it presents two new studies using the most general possible elicitation task, i.e., spontaneous written responses to problems designed to test for a latent scope bias. Across 35 previous studies, 7 studies published in Stephan (2023), and 2 new studies described herein, the overwhelming majority of studies showed that people preferred narrow latent scope explanations over broad ones. This analysis led us to conclude that the bias is both robust and replicable. Taken together, Stephan's (2023) contribution and our new analyses advance our understanding of explanatory reasoning behavior.

Understanding of the functions of forgiveness among preschoolers

Forgiveness plays an important role in restoring and maintaining cooperative relationships. Previous studies have demonstrated that young children could forgive transgressors both as a third party and as a victim. However, the research on young children's understanding of forgiveness is scant. This study focused on the two main functions of forgiveness-the restoration of a damaged relationship between the victim and the transgressor and the positive emotional change in the victim toward the transgressor. In this study, 48 4-year-olds (25 girls), 50 5-year-olds (21 girls), and 50 6-year-olds (21 girls) in Japan heard stories in which a victim either did or did not forgive a transgressor. They answered questions about the relationship between the victim and the transgressor and the victim's feelings toward the transgressor. Regarding the restoration of a damaged relationship, 4- to 6-year-olds understood that the restoration could occur in the presence of forgiveness. Yet, 6-year-olds showed more distinctive belief than 4- and 5-year-olds that the damaged relationship remains unrestored without forgiveness from the victim. For emotional changes, 6-year-olds understood that the forgiving victim would experience positive emotional changes, whereas the unforgiving victim would not. However, 4- and 5-year-olds expected positive emotional changes even without forgiveness, although they anticipated greater changes after forgiveness. The results show that the understanding of the important functions of forgiveness is present at 4 years of age and matures by 6 years of age. Children may develop a sophisticated understanding of the functions of forgiveness later than the actual forgiving behavior.

Effects of semantic and pragmatic factors on preschool children's negation-triggered inferences on plausible alternatives

Negation-triggered inferences are universal across human languages. Hearing "This is not X" should logically lead to the inference that all elements other than X constitute possible alternatives. However, not all logically possible alternatives are equally accessible in the real world. To qualify as a plausible alternative, it must share with the negated element as many similarities as possible, and the most plausible one is often from the same taxonomic category as the negated element. The current article reports on two experiments that investigated the development of preschool children's ability to infer plausible alternatives triggered by negation. Experiment 1 showed that in a context where children were required to determine the most plausible alternative to the negated element, the 4- and 5-year-olds, but not the 3-year-olds, exhibited a robust preference for the taxonomic associates. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that the 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds considered all the complement set members as equally possible alternatives in a context where they were not explicitly required to evaluate the plausibility of different candidates. Taken together, our findings reveal interesting developmental continuity in preschool children's ability to make inferences about plausible alternatives triggered by negation. We discuss the potential semantic and pragmatic factors that contribute to children's emerging awareness of typical alternatives triggered by negative expressions.

The role of object ownership on online inhibition in peripersonal space

Peripersonal space (PPS), as opposed to extrapersonal space (EPS), refers to the area surrounding the body within which individuals interact with objects or conspecifics. However, objects in PPS can belong to oneself or to others, which was found to influence how these objects are encoded. We analyzed the performances of motor responses in a reachability judgment task concerning self-owned and other-owned objects (cups) presented in PPS or EPS. EMG activities were recorded on the thumbs (flexor pollicis brevis) to detect correct and erroneous motor activations. Behavioral data showed that motor responses were shorter and longer for self-owned cups compared to other-owned cups in PPS and EPS, respectively. Ten percent of trials showed initial response errors, which were higher in the EPS for self-owned cups and in the PPS for other-owned cups. Eighty-two percent of these errors were corrected online, with corrections being more efficient for self-owned cups in the PPS. Overall, the data revealed that reachability judgments were faster and more accurate in the PPS, with more efficient inhibition processes in the presence of motor errors. Motor selection and correction are thus modulated by the social context of object ownership, highlighting the specific role of the PPS in encoding self-relevant objects for action.

Balancing exploration and exploitation? The impact of cost and inhibitory control on information gathering in early childhood

The information-seeking behaviour of adults focuses on optimizing the gathering and utilizing information to minimize search costs. In contrast, children tend to engage in information search during decision-making with less consideration for costs. This difference in behaviour is believed to be linked to the development of executive functions. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between executive function and cost-related information-gathering behaviour. We assessed 56 children aged 4-6 years, involving three tasks: an information-gathering task, an inhibitory control and a working memory task. In the information-gathering task, children participated in both non-cost and cost conditions, where they were given the opportunity to freely gather information or incur a cost to acquire information. The findings revealed that children with higher inhibitory control tended to gather less information when a cost was involved. This highlights the important role of inhibitory control in shaping information-seeking behaviour in early childhood.

MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Chronic Pain

MR-guided focused ultrasound (FUS) represents a promising alternative for patients with chronic neuropathic who have failed medical management and other treatment options. Early single-center experience with chronic neuropathic pain and trigeminal neuralgia has demonstrated favorable long-term outcomes. Excellent safety profile with low risk of motor and sensory complications and so far anecdotal permanent neurologic deficits make FUS a powerful tool to treat patients who are otherwise hopeless. Neuromodulation may be the most influential factor driving outcomes and studies devised to detect neuroplasticity will be critical to guide such therapies.

How 18-month-olds with Later Autism Look at Other Children Interacting: The Timing of Gaze Allocation

When observing other people during naturally paced and dynamic interactions, it is essential to look at specific locations at the right time to extract a maximum of socially informative content. In this study, we aimed to investigate the looking behavior of typically developing toddlers and toddlers later diagnosed with autism when observing other children interact. The sample consisted of 98 toddlers; 22 in a low-likelihood of autism group, 60 in an elevated likelihood of autism group who did not receive a subsequent diagnosis, and 16 in an elevated likelihood group who did receive an autism diagnosis. Participants performed an eye tracking task at 18 months of age and were assessed for diagnostic outcome at 36 months. The video stimuli consisted of two children interacting, where a boy reaches out for a toy and a girl refuses to give it to him. The low likelihood group showed an expected increase in ratio of looking at the girl's face after the boy requested the toy, as compared to before (t(21) = -3.337, p = .003). Toddlers with later autism showed a significantly lower ratio of looking at the girl's face during this time window, as compared to the other groups (F(2,91) = 3.698, p = .029). These findings provide new leads on how social gaze may be different in children with autism in everyday life (e.g., kindergarten), and highlight the need of studying the dynamics of gaze on short time scales.

Action-outcome Regularity Perceptual Sensitivity in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

PURPOSE

An internal model deficit is considered to underlie developmental coordination disorder (DCD); thus, children with DCD have an altered sense of agency (SoA), which is associated with depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the perception of action-outcome regularity is present in early development, is involved in the generation of SoA, and has roles in adaptive motor learning and coordinated motor skills. However, perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity has not been examined in children with DCD.

METHODS

We investigated perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity in 6-15-year-old children with DCD and age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children. Both groups were assessed for coordinated motor skills with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2nd Edition, while the DCD group was assessed with the DCD Questionnaire, Social Communication Questionnaire, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-Rating Scale, and Depression Self- Rating Scale for Children.

RESULTS

Perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity was significantly reduced in children with DCD. However, there was a significant correlation between perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity and age in DCD and TD children. Perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity was significantly lower in younger children with DCD than in younger and older TD children, but there were no significant differences between older children with DCD and younger and older TD children.

CONCLUSION

The current results suggest that children with DCD have significantly reduced perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity at younger ages, which may alter SoA and inhibit internal model development, thereby reducing motor skill coordination.

Comprehension of Spatial Demonstratives in Mandarin-speaking Children on the Autism Spectrum: The Roles of Theory of Mind and Executive Function

The present study aimed to examine whether Mandarin-speaking children on the autism spectrum showed differences in comprehending spatial demonstratives ("this" and "that", and "here" and "there"), as compared to typically developing (TD) children. Another aim of this study was to investigate the roles of theory of mind (ToM) and executive functions (EF) in the comprehension of spatial demonstratives. Twenty-seven autistic children (mean age 6.86) and 27 receptive-vocabulary-matched TD children (mean age 5.82) were recruited. Demonstrative comprehension was assessed based on participants' ability to place objects in certain locations according to experimenters' instructions which involved these demonstratives in three different conditions (same-, opposite-, and spectator-perspective conditions). Four false-belief tasks were administered to measure ToM, and the word-span task and the dimensional change card sort task were used to measure two subcomponents of EF - working memory and mental flexibility - respectively. Children on the autism spectrum were found to score below TD children in the comprehension of spatial demonstratives. In addition, the results showed that ToM and working memory were conducive to the correct interpretation of spatial demonstratives. The two cognitive abilities mutually influenced their respective roles in spatial demonstrative comprehension in the three different conditions. The findings suggest that the comprehension of spatial demonstratives comprehension is an area of need in Mandarin-speaking children on the autism spectrum, and it might be linked to their differences in cognitive abilities.

English-learning infants developing sensitivity to vowel phonotactic cues to word segmentation

Previous research has shown that when domain-general transitional probability (TP) cues to word segmentation are in conflict with language-specific stress cues, English-learning 5- and 7-month-olds rely on TP, whereas 9-month-olds rely on stress. In two artificial languages, we evaluated English-learning infants' sensitivity to TP cues to word segmentation vis-a-vis language-specific vowel phonotactic (VP) cues-English words do not end in lax vowels. These cues were either consistent or conflicting. When these cues were in conflict, 10-month-olds relied on the VP cues, whereas 5-month-olds relied on TP. These findings align with statistical bootstrapping accounts, where infants initially use domain-general distributional information for word segmentation, and subsequently discover language-specific patterns based on segmented words. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Research indicates that when transitional probability (TP) conflicts with stress cues for word segmentation, English-learning 9-month-olds rely on stress, whereas younger infants rely on TP. In two artificial languages, we evaluated English-learning infants' sensitivity to TP versus vowel phonotactic (VP) cues for word segmentation. When these cues conflicted, 10-month-olds relied on VPs, whereas 5-month-olds relied on TP. These findings align with statistical bootstrapping accounts, where infants first utilize domain-general distributional information for word segmentation, and then identify language-specific patterns from segmented words.

Love and hate do not modulate the attentional blink but improve overall performance

How may feelings of love and hate impact people's attention? We used a modified Attentional Blink (AB) task in which 300 participants were asked to categorise a name representing a person towards whom they felt either hate, love, or neutral (first target) plus identify a number word (second target), both embedded in a rapidly presented stream of other words. The lag to the second target was systematically varied. Contrary to our hypothesis, results revealed that both hated and loved names resulted in higher accuracy for the second target than neutral names, which was largely independent of lag. Also, there we observed no sustained transfer effects of love and hate onto neutral name trials. The findings differ from prior research on attentional blink and transient, non-personal, stimulus-driven emotions, suggesting that interpersonal feelings activate different attention-relevant mechanisms. Relevant to future research, we speculate that love and hate are motivators of goal-directed behaviour that facilitate subsequent information processing.

Not to follow because of distrust: perceived trust modulates the gaze cueing effect

In social life, people spontaneously form stable trustworthiness impressions from faces. However, the precise role of extracting trustworthiness information remains unclear. This study aims to elucidate whether discerning facial trustworthiness influences social interactions. Specifically, it explores the gaze cueing effect (GCE), wherein individuals exhibit quicker responses to targets appearing in the direction of gaze compared to other locations. Given conflicting perspectives in existing literature regarding the potential modulation of trustworthiness on the GCE, two plausible hypotheses are proposed to explain divergent result patterns. The reflexive hypothesis posits that the GCE operates automatically. In contrast, the flexible hypothesis underscores the potential modulatory role of trustworthiness in the GCE. To provide a comprehensive understanding of whether trustworthiness modulates the GCE, we employed face stimuli incorporating trustworthiness information within Posner' s cue-target task. The findings of Experiment 1 revealed that the perception of trustworthiness indeed influenced the GCE. Specifically, when facial stimuli were perceived as trustworthy, they elicited a more pronounced GCE compared to untrustworthy stimuli. This modulation effect was replicated using a different stimulus set in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, we employed the same stimuli as in Experiment 2, setting the trustworthiness information to baseline as a control experiment. The results demonstrated that the trustworthiness modulation effect disappeared, indicating its specificity to the trustworthiness attribute of the stimuli rather than other characteristics. Collectively, these findings lend support to the flexible hypothesis, highlighting that the extraction of trustworthiness information plays a pivotal role in modulating the GCE, consequently influencing social interactions.

Altered temporal awareness during Covid-19 pandemic

Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic had profound effects on human well-being. A handful of studies have focused on how time perception was altered during the COVID-19 pandemic, while no study has tested whether temporal metacognition is also affected by the lockdown. We examined the impact of long-term social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic on the ability to monitor errors in timing performance. We recruited 1232 participants from 12 countries during lockdown, 211 of which were retested "post-pandemic" for within-group comparisons. We also tested a new group of 331 participants during the "post-pandemic" period and compared their data to those of 1232 participants tested during the lockdown (between-group comparison). Participants produced a 3600 ms target interval and assessed the magnitude and direction of their time production error. Both within and between-group comparisons showed reduced metric error monitoring performance during the lockdown, even after controlling for government-imposed stringency indices. A higher level of reported social isolation also predicted reduced temporal error monitoring ability. Participants produced longer duration during lockdown compared to post-lockdown (again controlling for government stringency indices). We reason that these effects may be underlain by altered biological and behavioral rhythms during social isolation experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding these effects is crucial for a more complete characterization of the cognitive consequences of long-term social isolation.

The interplay between ego-resiliency, math anxiety and working memory in math achievement

Previous research has suggested that math anxiety may contribute to poor math performance by interfering with working memory. However, only a limited number of studies investigated the mediating role of working memory in the math anxiety-math performance link in school-aged children. Unlike math anxiety, ego-resiliency is a personality resource that promotes the management of challenges and has been positively associated with math performance and negatively with anxiety. Nevertheless, there is still limited understanding regarding the specific role of ego-resiliency in math learning and how it relates to math anxiety. This study aimed to investigate conjunctly the interplay between primary school children's ego-resiliency, math anxiety, working memory, and performance on two different math tasks (i.e., arithmetic task and word problem-solving task), after controlling for general anxiety and age. The study involved 185 Italian children from grades 3 to 5. Serial multi-mediational analyses revealed that: (1) ego-resiliency has a positive indirect effect on math achievement through two paths - math anxiety, and math anxiety and working memory; (2) the study replicated previous findings showing that working memory partially mediated the relationship between math anxiety and math performance; (3) similar patterns of results were found for both math skills. The study identifies ego-resiliency as a possible protective factor in the development of math anxiety and suggests that ego-resiliency could be worth considering when designing interventions aimed at reducing negative emotions towards mathematics.

The impact of task measurements on sequential dependence: a comparison between temporal reproduction and discrimination tasks

Decisions about a current stimulus are influenced by previously encountered stimuli, leading to sequential bias. However, the specific processing levels at which serial dependence emerges remain unclear. Despite considerable evidence pointing to contributions from perceptual and post-perceptual processes, as well as response carryover effects impacting subsequent judgments, research into how different task measurements affect sequential dependencies is limited. To address this gap, the present study investigated the role of task type in shaping sequential effects in time perception, employing a random-dot kinematogram (RDK) in a post-cue paradigm. Participants had to remember both the duration and the direction of the RDK movement and perform the task based on a post-cue, which was equally likely to be direction or duration. To delineate the task type, we employed the temporal bisection task in Experiment 1 and the duration reproduction task in Experiment 2. Both experiments revealed a significant sequential bias: durations were perceived as longer following longer previous durations, and vice versa. Intriguingly, the sequential effect was enhanced in the reproduction task following the same reproduction task (Experiment 2), but did not show significant variation by the task type in the bisection task (Experiment 1). Moreover, comparable response carryover effects were observed across two experiments. We argue that the differential impacts of task types on sequential dependence lies in the involvement of memory reactivation process in the decision stage, while the post-decision response carryover effect may reflect the assimilation by subjective, rather than objective, durations, potentially linking to the sticky pacemaker rate and/or decisional inertia.

Social and auditory experience shapes forebrain responsiveness in zebra finches before the sensitive period of vocal learning

Early-life experiences with signals used in communication are instrumental in shaping an animal's social interactions. In songbirds, which use vocalizations for guiding social interactions and mate choice, recent studies show that sensory effects on development occur earlier than previously expected, even in embryos and nestlings. Here, we explored the neural dynamics underlying experience-dependent song categorization in young birds prior to the traditionally studied sensitive period of vocal learning that begins around 3 weeks post-hatch. We raised zebra finches either with their biological parents, cross-fostered by Bengalese finches beginning at embryonic day 9, or with only the non-singing mother from 2 days post-hatch. Then, 1-5 days after fledging, we conducted behavioral experiments and extracellular recordings in the auditory forebrain to test responses to zebra finch and Bengalese finch songs. Auditory forebrain neurons in cross-fostered and isolated birds showed increases in firing rate and decreases in responsiveness and selectivity. In cross-fostered birds, decreases in responsiveness and selectivity relative to white noise were specific to conspecific song stimuli, which paralleled behavioral attentiveness to conspecific songs in those same birds. This study shows that auditory and social experience can already impact song 'type' processing in the brains of nestlings, and that brain changes at this age can portend the effects of natal experience in adults.

Bigger versus smaller: Children's understanding of size comparison words becomes more precise with age

The ability to compare plays a key role in how humans learn, but words that describe relations between objects, like comparisons, are difficult to learn. We examined how children learn size comparison words, and how their interpretations of these change across development. One-hundred-and-forty children in England (36-107 months; 68 girls; majority White) were asked to build block structures that were bigger, longer, smaller, shorter, or taller than an experimenter's. Children were most successful with words that refer to size increases. Younger children were less accurate with smaller and shorter, often building bigger structures. The dimensional aspect of taller emerged gradually. These findings suggest that children's interpretation of the meaning of size comparison words changes and becomes more precise across development.

An Active-Inference Approach to Second-Person Neuroscience

Social neuroscience has often been criticized for approaching the investigation of the neural processes that enable social interaction and cognition from a passive, detached, third-person perspective, without involving any real-time social interaction. With the emergence of second-person neuroscience, investigators have uncovered the unique complexity of neural-activation patterns in actual, real-time interaction. Social cognition that occurs during social interaction is fundamentally different from that unfolding during social observation. However, it remains unclear how the neural correlates of social interaction are to be interpreted. Here, we leverage the active-inference framework to shed light on the mechanisms at play during social interaction in second-person neuroscience studies. Specifically, we show how counterfactually rich mutual predictions, real-time bodily adaptation, and policy selection explain activation in components of the default mode, salience, and frontoparietal networks of the brain, as well as in the basal ganglia. We further argue that these processes constitute the crucial neural processes that underwrite bona fide social interaction. By placing the experimental approach of second-person neuroscience on the theoretical foundation of the active-inference framework, we inform the field of social neuroscience about the mechanisms of real-life interactions. We thereby contribute to the theoretical foundations of empirical second-person neuroscience.

An update of the development of motor behavior

This primer describes research on the development of motor behavior. We focus on infancy when basic action systems are acquired-posture, locomotion, manual actions, and facial actions-and we adopt a developmental systems perspective to understand the causes and consequences of developmental change. Experience facilitates improvements in motor behavior and infants accumulate immense amounts of varied everyday experience with all the basic action systems. At every point in development, perception guides behavior by providing feedback about the results of just prior movements and information about what to do next. Across development, new motor behaviors provide new inputs for perception. Thus, motor development opens up new opportunities for acquiring knowledge and acting on the world, instigating cascades of developmental changes in perceptual, cognitive, and social domains. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Cognitive Development Psychology > Motor Skill and Performance Neuroscience > Development.

The effect of an embodied intervention on responsibility: put a load on one's shoulder

Responsibility is an essential part of our social life. Although responsibility is an abstract concept, it can be represented with concrete ideas through conceptual metaphor. Expressions like "carry a lot of responsibility," "shoulder the responsibility" shows that responsibility can be understood as a load on shoulder that one has to carry. Accordingly, this study tests the question that does putting a burden on one's shoulder makes him/her more responsible or not. In order to investigate this, on each trial, we asked participants to decide between risky situations that vary in magnitude, probability of win/lose, and the ambiguity level in two conditions: "self" and 'group." Each subject wears a vest with a load on each shoulder in half of the trials. As expected, Most of participants choose to defer on the group trials more than on the self-trials. This difference between numbers of deferring in group and self conditions is called responsibility aversion. Results indicate that responsibility aversion scores are lower (responsibility-taking was greater) in the state of wearing the vest than in the form of not wearing the vest significantly. We provided evidence that the abstract concept of responsibility is linked to bodily experiences of feeling load on the shoulder consistent with an embodied cognition theory.

The differential illusion memory for high-associated abstract concepts (DIM-HA) effect

A vast body of evidence has shown that concrete concepts are processed faster and more accurately than abstract concepts in a variety of cognitive tasks. This phenomenon is widely known as the concreteness effect, and explanations for its occurrence seem to reflect differences in processing and organization for both types of representations. While there is considerable evidence to support this concreteness effect, the nature of these differences is still controversial. In developing an explanation, we have proposed a relatively different approach from a false memory perspective using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. To explore the implications of the association in creating false memories, we explore behavioral and electrophysiologically the false memory effect, where targets were manipulated according to their association strength and their concreteness. Results showed that false recognition rates differed significantly between concrete and abstract critical words when they were associated strongly with their respective lists, which led to a higher proportion of abstract false alarms both in behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. The principal outcome, which was called the DIM-HA effect, was discussed in terms of theories of associative activation and qualitatively different representation.

Demystifying unsupervised learning: how it helps and hurts

Humans and machines rarely have access to explicit external feedback or supervision, yet manage to learn. Most modern machine learning systems succeed because they benefit from unsupervised data. Humans are also expected to benefit and yet, mysteriously, empirical results are mixed. Does unsupervised learning help humans or not? Here, we argue that the mixed results are not conflicting answers to this question, but reflect that humans self-reinforce their predictions in the absence of supervision, which can help or hurt depending on whether predictions and task align. We use this framework to synthesize empirical results across various domains to clarify when unsupervised learning will help or hurt. This provides new insights into the fundamentals of learning with implications for instruction and lifelong learning.

Do claims about certainty make estimates less certain?

Predictions and estimates are sometimes qualified as certain. This epistemic marker occupies a privileged position at the top of scales of verbal probability expressions, reflecting probabilities close to 1. But such statements have rarely been compared to plain, unqualified statements in which certainty is not mentioned. We examined in nine studies (N = 2784) whether statements explicitly claimed to be certain are perceived as (1) more (or less) credible, (2) more (or less) precise, and (3) more (or less) strongly based upon evidence, compared to plain, unmarked declarative statements. We find, in apparent contrast with assumptions made by the standard scales, that "certain" are often judged to be less trustworthy, less reliable, and held with lower confidence than unmarked statements. Plain, declarative statements are further assumed to be more precise, while certainty implies that more extreme outcomes are possible. When it is certain that Henry made four errors, it is clear he did not commit less than four, but he might have committed five errors or more. Thus certainty can indicate lower bounds of an interval whose upper bounds are not defined, and certainty statements are consequently more ambiguous than estimates that do not mention certainty. At least-interpretations of certainty affect the interpretation of options in risky choice problems, where "200 lives will be saved" was deemed by a majority to mean exactly 200, while "it is certain that 200 will be saved", could mean 200-600 lives. We also find that credibility is affected by type of certainty, with impersonal certainty ("it is certain") perceived to be more accurate and persuasive than personal certainty ("I am certain"), especially in predictions of future events. Moreover, mentions of certainty can reveal that that a speaker's estimate is based on subjective judgments and guesswork rather than upon objective evidence. These findings have implications for communication. Estimates can appear more consensual when claims of certainty are omitted. To convey certainty it may be better not to mention that one is certain.

Continuity in false belief understanding from 33 to 52 months of age

Conceptual continuity in children's false belief understanding from toddlerhood to childhood was investigated in a longitudinal study of 75 children. Performance in a low-demands false belief task at 33 months of age was significantly correlated with performance in a content false belief task at 52 months independent of language ability and executive function. In contrast, there was no correlation with performance in a location false belief task, which differed from the "Sally-Anne" format of the low-demands task and was high in executive demands. These findings support the view that explicit false belief understanding may be continuous from toddlerhood to childhood and that developmental change may be characterized in terms of enrichment and increasing stability of core conceptual understanding rather than in terms of fundamental change.

Capturing daily-life executive impairments in adults: Does the choice of neuropsychological tests matter?

OBJECTIVE

Standardized executive functioning (EF) measures do not reliably capture EF-related difficulties reported in daily life. We aim to determine if an ecologically relevant neuropsychological battery is more strongly associated with self-reported everyday EF impairments than classically used tests.

METHOD

Fifty-nine adults aged 18-49 self-rated their EF abilities using the Barkley Deficits in EF Scale (BDEFS) and were randomly assigned to complete either a test battery composed of EF measures with hypothesized ecological relevance (Six Elements, Zoo Map, Hayling Sentence Completion, Iowa Gambling, and Auditory Startle Tasks) or one composed of traditional EF tasks (Card Sorting, Trail Making, Color-Word Interference, and Verbal Fluency). Associations were examined using linear regression.

RESULTS

There were no strong associations between BDEFS subscales and performance on either test battery. Only the regression model predicting Emotional Regulation from ecological tasks was significant. Iowa Gambling Task performance and corrugator muscle contraction in the Auditory Startle Task individually contributed significantly to the model, with small and moderate effect sizes respectively.

CONCLUSION

Results align with evidence that self-reported EF difficulties are not adequately captured by formal neuropsychological measures, even for performance-based measures which directly tap everyday constructs. Findings are interpreted cautiously in the context of a small, high-functioning sample.

Plinko: Eliciting beliefs to build better models of statistical learning and mental model updating

Prior beliefs are central to Bayesian accounts of cognition, but many of these accounts do not directly measure priors. More specifically, initial states of belief heavily influence how new information is assumed to be utilized when updating a particular model. Despite this, prior and posterior beliefs are either inferred from sequential participant actions or elicited through impoverished means. We had participants to play a version of the game 'Plinko', to first elicit individual participant priors in a theoretically agnostic manner. Subsequent learning and updating of participant beliefs was then directly measured. We show that participants hold various priors that cluster around prototypical probability distributions that in turn influence learning. In follow-up studies, we show that participant priors are stable over time and that the ability to update beliefs is influenced by a simple environmental manipulation (i.e., a short break). These data reveal the importance of directly measuring participant beliefs rather than assuming or inferring them as has been widely done in the literature to date. The Plinko game provides a flexible and fecund means for examining statistical learning and mental model updating.

Approaches to studying emotion using physiological responses to spoken narratives: A scoping review

Narratives are effective tools for evoking emotions, and physiological measurements provide a means of objectively assessing emotional reactions - making them a potentially powerful pair of tools for studying emotional processes. However, extent research combining emotional narratives and physiological measurement varies widely in design and application, making it challenging to identify previous work, consolidate findings, and design effective experiments. Our scoping review explores the use of auditory emotional narratives and physiological measures in research, examining paradigms, study populations, and represented emotions. Following the PRISMA-ScR Checklist, we searched five databases for peer-reviewed experimental studies that used spoken narratives to induce emotion and reported autonomic physiological measures. Among 3466 titles screened and 653 articles reviewed, 110 studies were included. Our exploration revealed a variety of applications and experimental paradigms; emotional narratives paired with physiological measures have been used to study diverse topics and populations, including neurotypical and clinical groups. Although incomparable designs and sometimes contradictory results precluded general recommendations as regards which physiological measures to use when designing new studies, as a whole, the body of work suggests that these tools can be valuable to study emotions. Our review offers an overview of research employing narratives and physiological measures for emotion study, and highlights weaknesses in reporting practices and gaps in our knowledge concerning the robustness and specificity of physiological measures as indices of emotion. We discuss study design considerations and transparent reporting, to facilitate future using emotional narratives and physiological measures in studying emotions.

Adversity and error-monitoring: Effects of emotional context

This study tested whether self-reports of childhood adversity would predict altered error processing under emotional versus non-emotional task conditions. N = 99 undergraduates completed two selective attention tasks, a traditional color-word Stroop task and a modified task using emotional words, while EEG was recorded. Participants also completed self-report measures of adverse and positive childhood experiences, executive functioning, depression, current stress, and emotion regulation. Reports of adversity were robustly correlated with self-reported challenges in executive functioning, even when controlling for self-reported depression and stress, but adversity was not correlated with task performance. With regard to neural markers of error processing, adversity predicted an enhanced error-related negativity and blunted error-positivity, but only during the emotion-word blocks of the task. Moreover, error-related changes in alpha oscillations were predicted by adversity, in a pattern that suggested less error responsiveness in alpha patterns during the emotion block, compared to the color block, among participants with higher adversity. Overall, results indicate alterations in error monitoring associated with adversity, such that in an emotional context, initial error detection is enhanced and sustained error processing is blunted, even in the absence of overt performance changes.

Event-related potentials of familiar monosyllabic words with unexpected lexical tones: A picture-word study of Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with and without a history of late talking

This study examined how Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with and without a history of late talking (LT) process familiar monosyllabic words with unexpected lexical tones, focusing on both phonological and semantic violations. This study initially enrolled 64 Mandarin-speaking toddlers: 31 with a history of LT (mean age: 27.67 months) and 33 without a history of LT (non-LT) (mean age: 27.85 months). Event-related potentials were recorded at the age of 4 years during a picture-word mismatch task (LT mean age: 51.36 months; non-LT mean age: 51.20 months); in this task, the participants were presented with auditory words either matching (Tone 3) or mismatching with images in terms of their lexical tones; the mismatches encompassed acoustically dissimilar (Tone 1) and similar (Tone 2) mismatches. A significant difference in the phonological mapping negativity (PMN) responses to Tones 1 and 3 was observed only in the non-LT group. However, differences in the N400 responses to Tones 1 and 3 remained consistent across both groups. In addition, greater differences in the PMN responses between Tones 1 and 3 were associated with higher language proficiency during the preschool period. The PMN response serves as an indicator of neural correlates in lexical tone processing, reflecting challenges encountered by preschoolers with a history of LT when processing the lexical tones of familiar words. Furthermore, the PMN response was correlated with concurrent language abilities. These findings indicate the importance of early tonal perception development for Mandarin speakers with a history of LT. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Preschoolers with a history of late talking (LT), similar to preschoolers without such a history, can establish word expectations and detect the lexical tone violation in real time. However, those with a history of LT require additional time to process acoustic cues and differentiate between word semantics based on lexical tone information. The phonological mapping negativity response serves as an indicator of neural correlates in lexical tone processing, reflecting challenges encountered by preschoolers with a history of LT when processing the lexical tones of familiar words. The present findings indicate the importance of early intervention for Mandarin speakers with a history of LT, with an emphasis on lexical tone processing from toddlerhood.

A Sense of Urgency on the Sense of Agency: Challenges in Evaluating Agency and Embodiment in Virtual Reality

Control over an avatar in virtual reality can improve one's perceived sense of agency and embodiment towards their avatar. Yet, the relationship between control on agency and embodiment remains unclear. This work aims to investigate two main ideas: (1) the effectiveness of currently used metrics in measuring agency and embodiment and (2) the relationship between different levels of control on agency, embodiment, and cognitive performance. To do this, we conducted a between-participants user study with three conditions on agency ($\mathrm{n}=57$). Participants embodied an avatar with one of three types of control (i.e., Low - control over head only, Medium - control over head and torso, or High - control over head, torso, and arms) and completed a Stroop test. Our results indicate that the degree of control afforded to participants impacted their embodiment and cognitive performance but, as expected, could not be detected in the self-reported agency scores. Furthermore, our results elucidated further insights into the relationship between control and embodiment, suggesting potential uncanny valley-like effects. Future work should aim to refine agency measures to better capture the effect of differing levels of control and consider other methodologies to measure agency.

Strategic learning of people's names as a function of expected utility in young and older adults

People's names are challenging to learn at all ages. Because people somewhat know this, they might spontaneously use cost-efficient encoding strategies and devote more resources to learn names that are most likely to be useful. To test this hypothesis, we created a pseudo-incidental learning situation in which young and older participants were exposed to 12 characters from a TV show and reviewed face-name-instrument triplets. Characters' probability of appearance was specified via importance labels (main or secondary characters, bit parts). A surprised cued recall test showed that young adults performed better than older ones, and that semantic information was better recalled than names. Consistent with cost-efficient encoding strategies, participants in both groups recalled names and semantic information about most important characters better. Interestingly, there were large individual differences: people who reported using cost-efficient strategies performed better. At the individual level, memory advantages for most important characters' names and semantic information correlated.

What makes different number-space mappings interact?

Models of numerical cognition consider a visuo-spatial representation to be at the core of numerical processing, the 'mental number line'. Two main interference effects between number and space have been described: the SNARC effect reflects a small number/left side and large number/right side association (number-location mapping); the size-congruity effect (SCE) reflects a small number/small size and large number/large size association (number-size mapping). Critically, a thorough investigation on the representational source for these two number-space mappings is lacking, leaving open the question of whether the same representation underlies both phenomena. Here, we build on a recent study (Viarouge and de Hevia in Front Hum Neurosci 15:750964, 2021) in order to address this question in three experiments, by systematically manipulating the presence of the two conditions that might elicit an interaction between SNARC and SCE: (i) an implicit task whereby numerical and spatial information are task-irrelevant, (ii) a design in which the number-space congruency relative to both mappings vary at the same level -either both within or between blocks. Experiment 1 replicated the interaction between the two mappings when both factors were present. Experiments 2 and 3 dissociated the two factors by varying the two mappings at the same level but using an explicit comparison task (Experiment 2), or by using an implicit task but with mappings varying at different levels (Experiment 3). We found that both factors, either in combination or used in isolation, drive the interaction between the two number-space mappings. These findings are discussed in terms of the weight given to each mapping, suggesting that a single representation encompassing both number-space mappings is therefore activated whenever both mappings are given equal weight through task requirements.

Performance on curriculum-based mathematics assessments in developmental dyscalculia: the effect of content domain and question format

Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is characterised by persistent difficulties in learning mathematical skills, which usually becomes apparent in the early years of schooling. Traditionally, DD is known to affect children's arithmetic processing, whilst other domains of mathematics receive much less research attention. Nevertheless, contemporary diagnostic guidelines suggest that DD is linked to widespread and diverse difficulties, both within and outside of the domain of numbers. This study examined the performance (i.e., accuracy and number of questions attempted) of children on a curriculum-based mathematics assessment, considering the effect of content domains, question format (i.e., multiple-choice questions vs. constructed response questions) and test half. Participants were forty children aged 8 to 11 years old with DD (n = 20) and a carefully matched control group of typically developing children (n = 20) from primary schools in Northern Ireland. Results revealed that the DD group achieved significantly lower scores than the control group across all areas of the curriculum, and the magnitude of group differences was similar across all content domains. These findings indicate that performance in content domains other than in arithmetic may be equally informative in supporting the identification of children with DD. In addition, we found that using multiple-choice questions may support learners with DD in achieving the best outcome, and, thus, could be useful for assessing mathematics skills in dyscalculic children in classroom contexts. Nevertheless, constructed response questions may show the greatest sensitivity to identifying learners at risk, and could be the most useful in diagnostic settings.

Registered Report Stage II: Decoding the category information from evoked potentials to visible and invisible visual objects

Previous studies that use decoding methods and EEG to investigate the neural representation of the category information of visual objects focused mainly on consciously processed visual objects. It remains unclear whether the category information of unconsciously processed visual objects can be decoded and whether the decoding performance is different for consciously and unconsciously processed visual objects. The present study compared the neural decoding of the animacy category of visible and invisible visual objects via EEG and decoding methods. The results revealed that the animacy of visible visual objects could be decoded above the chance level by the P200, N300, and N400, but not by the early N/P100. However, the animacy of invisible visual objects could not be decoded above the chance level by neither early nor late ERP components. The decoding accuracy was greater for visible visual objects than that for invisible visual objects for the P200, N300 and N400. These results suggested that access to animacy category information for visual objects requires conscious processing.

Of Mouses and Mans: A Test of Errorless Versus Error-Based Learning in Children

For both adults and children, learning from one's mistakes (error-based learning) has been shown to be advantageous over avoiding errors altogether (errorless learning) in pedagogical settings. However, it remains unclear whether this advantage carries over to nonpedagogical settings in children, who mostly learn language in such settings. Using irregular plurals (e.g., "mice") as a test case, we conducted a corpus analysis (N = 227) and two preregistered experiments (N = 56, N = 99), to investigate the potency of error-based learning as a mechanism for language acquisition in 3- and 4-year-old children. The results of the corpus analysis showed that incidental feedback after errors, in the form of caregivers' reformulations of children's errors, was relatively infrequent, had modest informational value, and was rarely used by children to correct their errors immediately. The following two experiments contrasted error-based learning with errorless learning, where the correct utterance was modeled for the child before a potential error was committed. The results showed that error-based learning was not always effective, and when it was, it was certainly not superior to errorless learning. Collectively, these findings question the extension of the benefits of error-based learning from pedagogical to nonpedagogical settings and define constraints under which one mechanism may be more beneficial to learning than the other.

Emotion Regulation Can Effectively Improve Decision-Making Behaviors of Individuals Who Use Methamphetamine

PURPOSE

Negative emotions can cause people to make irrational decisions, and decision-making disorders may lead individuals who use methamphetamine (meth) to relapse. Therefore, the current study was performed to investigate whether emotion regulation (ER) can improve negative emotions and thus improve decision-making behavior of individuals who use meth.

METHOD

Based on the Iowa Gambling Task, a three-factor mixed experimental design was used to examine the effects of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies on negative emotions and decision-making behaviors of 157 individuals who use meth.

RESULTS

Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression were effective in reducing participants' negative emotions and improving decision-making behaviors. Specifically, two types of ER strategies were effective in improving decision-making abilities of participants with negative emotional distress, and cognitive reappraisal was more effective than expressive suppression.

CONCLUSION

Regarding cognitive reappraisal, female participants showed better decision-making behavior than males, which predicts that females who use meth might be more adept at using cognitive reappraisal. This finding suggests that mental health providers should aid substance users in managing their negative emotions and also pay attention to gender differences during the nursing process. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 62(11), 27-34.].

Effects of perceptual redundancy, conceptual redundancy and self-relatedness on categorical responses

A redundancy gain occurs when perceptually identical stimuli are presented together, resulting in quicker categorization of these paired stimuli than lone stimuli. Similar effects have been reported for paired stimuli within the same conceptual category, particularly if the category is self-related. We recruited 528 individuals across three related studies to investigate whether, during perceptual and conceptual redundancy, such self-bias effects on foreground stimuli are modulated by natural versus urban backgrounds. Here, we highlight our observations pertaining to perceptual and conceptual redundancy effects of the foreground stimuli. In our first experiment, response options were randomised per trial. Results showed reaction time gains for perceptually identical stimuli, but this advantage was not modulated by self/other categorization. However, slower reaction times were observed for conceptually-related stimulus pairs and were influenced by self/other categorization. The second experiment replicated the methods of earlier studies of redundancy and observed comparable results to Experiment 1: a perceptual redundancy gain unmodulated by self/other categorization, yet for conceptual redundancy, no gain/cost but effects of self/other categorization. In the third experiment, self/other categories were substituted with arbitrary A/B categories: Once more, there was a perceptual redundancy gain and no conceptual redundancy gain. Notably, A/B categorisation produced effects equivalent to self/other categorisation. Overall, these findings challenge previous research on the facilitated early processing of conceptually-related stimuli and suggest that self-relatedness may not exert a unique effect on stimulus processing beyond attentional and response preferences during categorization. Our study motivates further research to understand conceptual categorization and redundancy gain effects.

Is there a lower visual field advantage for object affordances? A registered report

It's been repeatedly shown that pictures of graspable objects can facilitate visual processing, even in the absence of reach-to-grasp actions, an effect often attributed to the concept of affordances. A classic demonstration of this is the handle compatibility effect, characterised by faster reaction times when the orientation of a graspable object's handle is compatible with the hand used to respond, even when the handle orientation is task-irrelevant. Nevertheless, it is debated whether the speeded reaction times are a result of affordances or spatial compatibility. First, we investigated whether we could replicate the handle compatibility effect while controlling for spatial compatibility. Participants (N = 68) responded with left or right-handed keypresses to whether the object was upright or inverted and, in separate blocks, whether the object was red or green. We failed to replicate the handle compatibility effect, with no significant difference between compatible and incompatible conditions, in both tasks. Second, we investigated whether there is a lower visual field (VF) advantage for the handle compatibility effect in line with what has been found for hand actions. A further 68 participants responded to object orientation presented either in the upper or lower VF. A significant handle compatibility effect was observed in the lower VF, but not the upper VF. This suggests that there is a lower VF advantage for affordances, possibly as the lower VF is where our actions most frequently occur. However, future studies should explore the impact of eye movements on the handle compatibility effect and tool affordances.

Talking About the Absent and the Abstract: Referential Communication in Language and Gesture

Human language permits us to call to mind objects, events, and ideas that we cannot witness directly, either because they are absent or because they have no physical form (e.g., people we have not met, concepts like justice). What enables language to transmit such knowledge? We propose that a referential link between words, referents, and mental representations of those referents is key. This link enables us to form, access, and modify mental representations even when the referents themselves are absent ("absent reference"). In this review we consider the developmental and evolutionary origins of absent reference, integrating previously disparate literatures on absent reference in language and gesture in very young humans and gesture in nonhuman primates. We first evaluate when and how infants acquire absent reference during the process of language acquisition. With this as a foundation, we consider the evidence for absent reference in gesture in infants and in nonhuman primates. Finally, having woven these literatures together, we highlight new lines of research that promise to sharpen our understanding of the development of reference and its role in learning about the absent and the abstract.

Incomparability and Incommensurability in Choice: No Common Currency of Value?

Models of decision-making typically assume the existence of some common currency of value, such as utility, happiness, or inclusive fitness. This common currency is taken to allow comparison of options and to underpin everyday choice. Here we suggest instead that there is no universal value scale, that incommensurable values pervade everyday choice, and hence that most existing models of decision-making in both economics and psychology are fundamentally limited. We propose that choice objects can be compared only with reference to specific but nonuniversal "covering values." These covering values may reflect decision-makers' goals, motivations, or current states. A complete model of choice must accommodate the range of possible covering values. We show that abandoning the common-currency assumption in models of judgment and decision-making necessitates rank-based and "simple heuristics" models that contrast radically with conventional utility-based approaches. We note that if there is no universal value scale, then Arrow's impossibility theorem places severe bounds on the rationality of individual decision-making and hence that there is a deep link between the incommensurability of value, inconsistencies in human decision-making, and rank-based coding of value. More generally, incommensurability raises the question of whether it will ever be possible to develop single-quantity-maximizing models of decision-making.