Human Research and Data Collection via the Internet

One and only SNARC? Spatial-Numerical Associations are not fully flexible and depend on both relative and absolute number magnitude

Numbers are associated with space, but it is unclear how flexible these associations are. We investigated whether the SNARC effect (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes; Dehaene et al. 1993 J. Exp. Psychol. 122, 371-396. (doi:10.1037/0096-3445.122.3.371); i.e. faster responses to small/large number magnitude with the left/right hand, respectively) is fully flexible (depending only on relative magnitude within a stimulus set) or not (depending on absolute magnitude as well). Evidence for relative-magnitude dependency came from studies observing that numbers 4 and 5 were associated with the right in a 0-5 range but with the left in a 4-9 range (Dehaene et al. 1993; Fias et al. 1996 Math. Cogn. 2, 95-110 (doi:10.1080/135467996387552). Within this Registered Report, we conducted two online experiments running Bayesian analyses with optional recruitment stopping at moderate evidence (BF10 above 3 or below 1/3). Experiment 1 (n = 200) replicated relative-magnitude dependency using the original stimuli. However, Experiment 2 (n = 300) additionally demonstrated absolute-magnitude dependency, while considering recent advances in SNARC research using 1-5 excluding 3 and 4-8 excluding 6. In contrast to the frequently perpetuated notion of fully flexible Spatial-Numerical Associations, some fixed relation to absolute magnitude prevails. These findings have important consequences for understanding how Spatial-Numerical Associations might support numerical processing.

Evidence for a specific distortion in perceptual body image in eating disorders: A replication and extension

A core feature of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, is an overestimation of body size. A key question is whether this overestimation arises solely from body image concerns typical in eating disorders, or if there is an additional perceptual disturbance. To address this question, we applied a two-component model of body size estimation that has been thoroughly replicated in the body image literature concerning healthy individuals. This model shows statistically independent, additive effects on body size estimates of: a) body image concerns, and b) a perceptual component known as contraction bias. Here body image concerns were defined by a principal components analysis (PCA) of psychometric tasks including the: Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, Body Shape Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4. The PCA identified three components referred to as PSYCH, FAMPEER, and ATHIN. We investigated the influence of age, personal body mass index (BMI), and these three components on body size estimation in 33 women with a current or past history of eating disorders and 100 healthy controls. Low-BMI control participants overestimated their size, while high-BMI controls underestimated their size, exhibiting the expected normal perceptual contraction bias. However, the women with a history of eating disorders showed no evidence of contraction bias, suggesting a different processing of perceptual aspects of body size estimation compared to controls. We discuss two putative mechanisms that can explain these differences in accuracy of personal body size estimation.

How reliable is assessment of children's sentence comprehension using a self-directed app? A comparison of supported versus independent use

This study reports on the feasibility of using the Test of Complex Syntax- Electronic (TECS-E), as a self-directed app, to measure sentence comprehension in children aged 4 to 5 ½ years old; how testing apps might be adapted for effective independent use; and agreement levels between face-to-face supported computerized and independent computerized testing with this cohort. A pilot phase was completed with 4 to 4;06-year-old children, to determine the appropriate functional app features required to facilitate independent test completion. Following the integration of identified features, children completed the app independently or with adult support (4-4;05 (n = 22) 4;06-4;11 months (n = 55) and 5 to 5;05 (n = 113)) and test re-test reliability was examined. Independent test completion posed problems for children under 5 years but for those over 5, TECS-E is a reliable method to assess children's understanding of complex sentences, when used independently.

Meta-analysis in a digitalized world: A step-by-step primer

In recent years, much research and many data sources have become digital. Some advantages of digital or Internet-based research, compared to traditional lab research (e.g., comprehensive data collection and storage, availability of data) are ideal for an improved meta-analyses approach.In the meantime, in meta-analyses research, different types of meta-analyses have been developed to provide research syntheses with accurate quantitative estimations. Due to its rich and unique palette of corrections, we recommend to using the Schmidt and Hunter approach for meta-analyses in a digitalized world. Our primer shows in a step-by-step fashion how to conduct a high quality meta-analysis considering digital data and highlights the most obvious pitfalls (e.g., using only a bare-bones meta-analysis, no data comparison) not only in aggregation of the data, but also in the literature search and coding procedure which are essential steps in any meta-analysis. Thus, this primer of meta-analyses is especially suited for a situation where much of future research is headed to: digital research. To map Internet-based research and to reveal any research gap, we further synthesize meta-analyses on Internet-based research (15 articles containing 24 different meta-analyses, on 745 studies, with 1,601 effect sizes), resulting in the first mega meta-analysis of the field. We found a lack of individual participant data (e.g., age and nationality). Hence, we provide a primer for high-quality meta-analyses and mega meta-analyses that applies to much of coming research and also basic hands-on knowledge to conduct or judge the quality of a meta-analyses in a digitalized world.

Testing the validity of online psychophysical measurement of body image perception

This body image study tests the viability of transferring a complex psychophysical paradigm from a controlled in-person laboratory task to an online environment. 172 female participants made online judgements about their own body size when viewing images of computer-generated female bodies presented in either in front-view or at 45-degrees in a method of adjustment (MOA) paradigm. The results of these judgements were then compared to the results of two laboratory-based studies (with 96 and 40 female participants respectively) to establish three key findings. Firstly, the results show that the accuracy of online and in-lab estimates of body size are comparable, secondly that the same patterns of visual biases in judgements are shown both in-lab and online, and thirdly online data shows the same view-orientation advantage in accuracy in body size judgements as the laboratory studies. Thus, this study suggests that that online sampling potentially represents a rapid and accurate way of collecting reliable complex behavioural and perceptual data from a more diverse range of participants than is normally sampled in laboratory-based studies. It also offers the potential for designing stratified sampling strategies to construct a truly representative sample of a target population.

Sample characteristics for quantitative analyses in Body Image: Issues of generalisability

Psychological research frequently encounters criticism regarding the representativeness of the samples under study, highlighting concerns about the external validity of the obtained results. Here, we conducted a comprehensive survey of all the quantitative samples from the journal Body Image for 2021 (n = 149 samples). Our primary objective was to examine the extent to which the sampled populations deviated from the population at large, which could potentially compromise the generalizability of findings. We identified that a substantial number of these samples came from student populations (n = 44) and the majority were from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Only a small number of samples (n = 9) employed direct measurements of body mass index (BMI), while the majority relied on self-reported data (n = 93). For a subset of samples in the journal, which were drawn from the general population, we compared whether these differed from population reference values in terms of age and BMI. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we found that samples tended to be younger and score lower on BMI than reference values obtained from the broader population. Samples drawn from female university students also tended to be lower on BMI than age-matched reference samples. We discuss the implications of our findings and make recommendations on sampling and inference. We conclude that a clearer specification of the parameters or conditions under which findings are expected to generalise has the potential to enhance the overall rigor and validity of this field of research.

Behavioral Experiments Online?

Online experiments offer several advantages over traditional laboratory experiments. However, for reaction time experiments, precise stimulus presentation and response detection is crucial. The precision of online experiments could be compromised due to increased variance arising from varying hardware configurations among participants, lack of control over experimental conditions, and the absence of an examiner. In this study, we conducted an online experiment using the avatar-Simon task to investigate whether small differences in reaction times could be examined using online experiments conducted with the experimental toolkit PsyToolkit. In the avatar-Simon task, participants respond to the color of vertically presented stimuli in front of avatars by pressing a left or right button. Reactions are faster when the position of the stimulus, defined from the avatar's point of view, matches the position of the response. Compared to the previous laboratory experiment, we observed lower effect sizes and more timeouts but were able to replicate the avatar-Simon effect overall. Based on further distributional and reliability analyses, PsyToolkit appears to be suitable tool to detect behavioral effects in the range of tens of milliseconds. We discuss differences and similarities with the original laboratory study and suggest how to address potential problems associated with online experiments.

Adapting attentional control settings in a shape-changing environment

In rich visual environments, humans have to adjust their attentional control settings in various ways, depending on the task. Especially if the environment changes dynamically, it remains unclear how observers adapt to these changes. In two experiments (online and lab-based versions of the same task), we investigated how observers adapt their target choices while searching for color singletons among shape distractor contexts that changed over trials. The two equally colored targets had shapes that differed from each other and matched a varying number of distractors. Participants were free to select either target. The results show that participants adjusted target choices to the shape ratio of distractors: even though the task could be finished by focusing on color only, participants showed a tendency to choose targets matching with fewer distractors in shape. The time course of this adaptation showed that the regularities in the changing environment were taken into account. A Bayesian modeling approach was used to provide a fine-grained picture of how observers adapted their behavior to the changing shape ratio with three parameters: the strength of adaptation, its delay relative to the objective distractor shape ratio, and a general bias toward specific shapes. Overall, our findings highlight that systematic changes in shape, even when it is not a target-defining feature, influence how searchers adjust their attentional control settings. Furthermore, our comparison between lab-based and online assessments with this paradigm suggests that shape is a good choice as a feature dimension in adaptive choice online experiments.

Online misinformation can distort witnesses' memories. Analysis of co-witness discussions using an online version of the MORI-v technique

Introduction

The memory conformity effect occurs when people witness a given incident and then talk to each other about it, and the statement of one person affects the memory account of another person with respect to that incident. The main objectives of this experiment were (1) to examine the effectiveness of a modified version of the MORI-v technique in inducing the memory conformity effect and (2) to investigate how the manner in which participants discuss the observed event influences the magnitude of this effect. In general, the modified online MORI-v technique consists of the following main elements: (1) original material, that is, two versions of a short film which are identical except for certain critical details; for example, in one version, a thief puts on a red cap, but in the other version it is black; (2) the collaborative recognition test, that is, a discussion about the original material which leads to mutual misinformation; and (3) an individual recognition test that checks the effect of the discussion on the memory account of the original material.

Methods

A total of 72 participants (36 pairs) aged 18-54 took part in the research. Participants were tested using the online MORI-v technique: They were familiarized with the original material on their computers at home, and then they talked about it via a video communication app and completed an individual recognition test on their computers. Importantly, the discussions were recorded and analyzed in detail after the experimental session.

Results and discussion

Using the online MORI-v technique, the effect of memory conformity was demonstrated, that is, in the individual recognition test, the proportion of correct answers to questions about discussed details (related to misinformation) was lower than the proportion of correct answers to questions about non-discussed details. It was also demonstrated that if one participant introduced misinformation during the discussion about a particular item and the other did not question it, the latter's answer to that item during the individual recognition test was most often incorrect. However, if one participant introduced misinformation during the discussion about an item and the other questioned it, the latter's answer about that item during the individual recognition test was most often correct.

Measuring Cognitive Abilities in the Wild: Validating a Population-Scale Game-Based Cognitive Assessment

Rapid individual cognitive phenotyping holds the potential to revolutionize domains as wide-ranging as personalized learning, employment practices, and precision psychiatry. Going beyond limitations imposed by traditional lab-based experiments, new efforts have been underway toward greater ecological validity and participant diversity to capture the full range of individual differences in cognitive abilities and behaviors across the general population. Building on this, we developed Skill Lab, a novel game-based tool that simultaneously assesses a broad suite of cognitive abilities while providing an engaging narrative. Skill Lab consists of six mini-games as well as 14 established cognitive ability tasks. Using a popular citizen science platform (N = 10,725), we conducted a comprehensive validation in the wild of a game-based cognitive assessment suite. Based on the game and validation task data, we constructed reliable models to simultaneously predict eight cognitive abilities based on the users' in-game behavior. Follow-up validation tests revealed that the models can discriminate nuances contained within each separate cognitive ability as well as capture a shared main factor of generalized cognitive ability. Our game-based measures are five times faster to complete than the equivalent task-based measures and replicate previous findings on the decline of certain cognitive abilities with age in our large cross-sectional population sample (N = 6369). Taken together, our results demonstrate the feasibility of rapid in-the-wild systematic assessment of cognitive abilities as a promising first step toward population-scale benchmarking and individualized mental health diagnostics.

Can we measure individual differences in cognitive measures reliably via smartphones? A comparison of the flanker effect across device types and samples

Research deployed via the internet and administered via smartphones could have access to more diverse samples than lab-based research. Diverse samples could have relatively high variation in their traits and so yield relatively reliable measurements of individual differences in these traits. Several cognitive tasks that originated from the experimental research tradition have been reported to yield relatively low reliabilities (Hedge et al., 2018) in samples with restricted variance (students). This issue could potentially be addressed by smartphone-mediated administration in diverse samples. We formulate several criteria to determine whether a cognitive task is suitable for individual differences research on commodity smartphones: no very brief or precise stimulus timing, relative response times (RTs), a maximum of two response options, and a small number of graphical stimuli. The flanker task meets these criteria. We compared the reliability of individual differences in the flanker effect across samples and devices in a preregistered study. We found no evidence that a more diverse sample yields higher reliabilities. We also found no evidence that commodity smartphones yield lower reliabilities than commodity laptops. Hence, diverse samples might not improve reliability above student samples, but smartphones may well measure individual differences with cognitive tasks reliably. Exploratively, we examined different reliability coefficients, split-half reliabilities, and the development of reliability estimates as a function of task length.

Precise display time measurement in JavaScript for web-based experiments

Conducting research via the Internet is a formidable and ever-increasingly popular option for behavioral scientists. However, it is widely acknowledged that web-browsers are not optimized for research: In particular, the timing of display changes (e.g., a stimulus appearing on the screen), still leaves room for improvement. So far, the typically recommended best (or least bad) timing method has been a single (RAF) JavaScript function call within which one would give the display command and obtain the time of that display change. In our Study 1, we assessed two alternatives: Calling the RAF twice consecutively, or calling the RAF during a continually ongoing independent loop of recursive RAF calls. While the former has shown little or no improvement as compared to single RAF calls, with the latter we significantly and substantially improved overall precision, and achieved practically faultless precision in most practical cases. Our two basic methods for effecting display changes, plain text change and color filling, proved equally efficient. In Study 2, we reassessed the "RAF loop" timing method with image elements in combination with three different display methods: We found that the precision remained high when using either or changes - while drawing on a element consistently led to comparatively lower precision. We recommend the "RAF loop" display timing method for improved precision in future studies, and or changes when using image stimuli. We publicly share the easy-to-use code for this method, exactly as employed in our studies.

The Headphone and Loudspeaker Test - Part I: Suggestions for controlling characteristics of playback devices in internet experiments

In internet experiments on auditory perception, playback devices may be a confounding variable reducing internal validity. A procedure to remotely test multiple characteristics of playback devices does not currently exist. Thus, the main goals of this study were to (i) develop and (ii) evaluate a comprehensive, efficient, and easy-to-handle test procedure for the reliable control and identification of playback device characteristics in online experiments. Based on a counting task paradigm, the first part of the Headphone and Loudspeaker Test (HALT-Part I) was developed with which researchers can standardize sound level adjustments, detect stereo/mono playback, and assess lower frequency limits. In a laboratory study (N = 40), HALT-Part I was evaluated with four playback devices (circumaural and intra-aural headphones; external and laptop loudspeakers). Beforehand, the acoustical properties of all playback devices had been measured (e.g., sound pressure level, frequency response, total harmonic distortion). The analysis suggested that HALT-Part I has high test-retest reliability (rtt = .90 for level adjustment and rtt = .79 for stereo/mono detection) and is an efficient (3.5 minutes for completion) method to remotely test playback devices and listening conditions (sound level, stereo/mono playback). The procedure can help improve data quality in internet experiments.

General knowledge norms: Updated and expanded for German

The general knowledge questions introduced by Nelson and Narens (Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19(3), 338-368, 1980) have been a valuable research tool in various areas of cognitive research. We translated, updated, and expanded the set of questions for German. We present a total set of 356 general knowledge questions with their recall probability as well as metacognitive measures-confidence and peer judgments-based on a university student sample (N = 512). Furthermore, we present response latencies, pairwise correlations between recall probability and metacognitive judgments as well as the most common commission errors. These general knowledge questions can be used in studies with German speaking participants in a broad range of research fields, such as memory, illusory truth, misinformation, and metacognitive processes.

Replacing vertical actions by mouse movements: a web-suited paradigm for investigating vertical spatial associations

The number of web-based studies in experimental psychology has been growing tremendously throughout the last few years. However, a straightforward web-based implementation does not exist for all types of experimental paradigms. In the current paper, we focus on how vertical response movements-which play a crucial role in spatial cognition and language research-can be translated into a web-based setup. Specifically, we introduce a web-suited counterpart of the vertical Stroop task (e.g., Fox & Shor, in Bull Psychon Soc 7:187-189, 1976; Lachmair et al., in Psychon Bull Rev 18:1180-1188, 2011; Thornton et al., in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 39:964-973, 2013). We employed nouns referring to entities typically located in lower or upper vertical space (e.g., "worm" and "bird", respectively) in Experiments 1 and 2, and emotional valence words associated with a crouched or an upward bodily posture (e.g., "sadness" and "excitement", respectively) in Experiment 3. Depending on the font color, our participants used their mouse to drag the words to the lower or upper screen location. Across all experiments, we consistently observed congruency effects analogous to those obtained with the lab paradigm using actual vertical arm movements. Consequently, we conclude that our web-suited paradigm establishes a reliable approach to examining vertical spatial associations.

Measuring event segmentation: An investigation into the stability of event boundary agreement across groups

People spontaneously divide everyday experience into smaller units (event segmentation). To measure event segmentation, studies typically ask participants to explicitly mark the boundaries between events as they watch a movie (segmentation task). Their data may then be used to infer how others are likely to segment the same movie. However, significant variability in performance across individuals could undermine the ability to generalize across groups, especially as more research moves online. To address this concern, we used several widely employed and novel measures to quantify segmentation agreement across different sized groups (n = 2-32) using data collected on different platforms and movie types (in-lab & commercial film vs. online & everyday activities). All measures captured nonrandom and video-specific boundaries, but with notable between-sample variability. Samples of 6-18 participants were required to reliably detect video-driven segmentation behavior within a single sample. As sample size increased, agreement values improved and eventually stabilized at comparable sample sizes for in-lab & commercial film data and online & everyday activities data. Stabilization occurred at smaller sample sizes when measures reflected (1) agreement between two groups versus agreement between an individual and group, and (2) boundary identification between small (fine-grained) rather than large (coarse-grained) events. These analyses inform the tailoring of sample sizes based on the comparison of interest, materials, and data collection platform. In addition to demonstrating the reliability of online and in-lab segmentation performance at moderate sample sizes, this study supports the use of segmentation data to infer when events are likely to be segmented.

Fear of COVID-19 and Subjective Well-Being: Sequential Mediating Role of Cognitive Flexibility and Psychological Resilience

The negative relationship between fear of COVID-19 and well-being has been revealed over the last years. However, the potential variables that affect this relationship need to be studied. This study examines the sequential mediating role of cognitive flexibility and psychological resilience in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and subjective well-being. Six hundred and eight participants (339 females and 269 males, aged between 18-79 years) completed the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the Brief Resilience Scale, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale online. The path analysis was conducted using PROCESS macro in the study. The sequential mediation analyses show that the control dimension of cognitive flexibility and psychological resilience fully mediate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and subjective well-being. In other words, fear of COVID-19 indirectly affects subjective well-being via the control dimension of cognitive flexibility and psychological resilience. In order to restrain the adverse effects of COVID-19, individuals’ cognitive flexibility and psychological resilience levels should be increased to enhance their well-being.

General practitioner care in nursing homes during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: a retrospective survey among nursing home managers

BACKGROUND

Though evidence on the detrimental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes is vast, research focusing on general practitioners' (GP) care during the pandemic in nursing homes is still scarce.

METHODS

A retrospective online survey among 1,010 nursing home managers in Germany was conducted during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic between November 2020 and February 2021. Associations between perceived deficits in GP care (routine and acute visits) and both general and COVID-19-related characteristics of nursing homes were analysed using multiple logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

The majority of nursing home managers reported no deficits in GP care (routine visits, 84.3%; acute visits, 92.9%). Logistic regression analyses revealed that deficits in GP care (routine visits) were significantly associated with visiting restrictions for GPs and nursing home size. Small nursing homes (1-50 residents) were significantly more likely to report deficits in GP care (routine visits) compared to medium (51-100 residents) and large nursing homes (> 100 residents). Further, deficits in GP care (acute visits) were significantly associated with dementia as a focus of care and the burden of insufficient testing for SARS-CoV-2 among residents. Moreover, visiting restrictions for GPs were significantly associated with dementia as the focus of care and the COVID-19 incidence at the federal state level. Finally, COVID-19 cases in nursing homes were significantly associated with size of nursing homes, COVID-19-incidence on the federal state level and the burden of insufficient testing capacities for SARS-CoV-2 among residents.

CONCLUSION

We found structural factors associated with GP care deficits during the pandemic. New concepts for GP care should be implemented in pandemic preparedness plans to ensure high quality, consistent, and reliable GP care as well as effective infection prevention measures in nursing homes.

The kleineWeltentdecker App - A smartphone-based developmental diary

Today, a vast number of tools exist to measure development in early childhood in a variety of domains such as cognition, language, or motor, cognition. These tools vary in different aspects. Either children are examined by a trained experimenter, or caregivers fill out questionnaires. The tools are applied in the controlled setting of a laboratory or in the children's natural environment. While these tools provide a detailed picture of the current state of children's development, they are at the same time subject to several constraints. Furthermore, the measurement of an individual child's change of different skills over time requires not only one measurement but high-density longitudinal assessments. These assessments are time-consuming, and the breadth of developmental domains assessed remains limited. In this paper, we present a novel tool to assess the development of skills in different domains, a smartphone-based developmental diary app (the kleineWeltentdecker App, henceforth referred to as the APP (The German expression "kleine Weltentdecker" can be translated as "young world explorers".)). By using the APP, caregivers can track changes in their children's skills during development. Here, we report the construction and validation of the questionnaires embedded in the APP as well as the technical details. Empirical validations with children of different age groups confirmed the robustness of the different measures implemented in the APP. In addition, we report preliminary findings, for example, on children's communicative development by using existing APP data. This substantiates the validity of the assessment. With the APP, we put a portable tool for the longitudinal documentation of individual children's development in every caregiver's pocket, worldwide.

Preventing and Protecting Against Internet Research Fraud in Anonymous Web-Based Research: Protocol for the Development and Implementation of an Anonymous Web-Based Data Integrity Plan

Background

Data integrity is a priority in any internet research study; it should be maintained to protect the safety and privacy of human participants and to maintain the validity and reliability of research findings. However, one noteworthy risk of web-based research is fraudulent respondent activity. When investigators must utilize anonymous web-based recruitment techniques to reach hidden and expanded populations, steps should be taken to safeguard the integrity of data collected.

Objective

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel protocol in the form of an anonymous web-based research data integrity plan (DIP) protocol that outlines steps for securing data integrity while conducting anonymous web-based data collection.

Methods

In this paper, we discuss a protocol regarding the development and implementation of a specific DIP in response to fraudulent activity in an original large-scale mixed methods study launched in April 2021. Four primary steps, each with a set of affiliated procedures, are presented: (1) defining the risks, (2) planning research protocols, (3) securing data collection and recruitment, and (4) determining enrollment.

Results

Following the relaunch of a large-scale original study and implementation of the DIP protocol, preliminary analyses demonstrated no fraudulent activity. A pre-post analysis is underway to evaluate the effectiveness of the DIP strategies from February 2022 through May 2023.

Conclusions

Implementing the DIP protocol could save valuable research time, provides a process to examine data critically, and enables the contribution of rigorous findings to various health fields.

International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)

DERR1-10.2196/38550

No Correlation Between Mood or Motivation and the Processing of Global and Local Information

Mood has been argued to impact the breadth of human attention, but the empirical evidence supporting this claim remains shaky. Gable and Harmon-Jones (2008) have attributed previous empirical inconsistencies regarding the effect of mood on attentional breath to a critical role of approach/avoidance motivation. They demonstrated that the combination of positive affect with high, but not with low, motivational intensity improves performance during processing local information and impairs performance during processing global information. The latter, but not the former, was replicated by Domachowska et al. (2016). Since we were interested in the modulation of attention by valence and motivation, and considering the inconsistencies in the findings, we replicated the critical experiments of both studies in four online experiments but found no significant effect of either valence or motivational intensity on attention. Taken together, our evidence casts doubt on a systematic relationship between mood or motivation on the one hand and global/local processing on the other.

Revisiting the influence of cultural novelty and emotional stability on general adjustment of expatriates hosted in emerging economies

Purpose

The relationship between cultural novelty and cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates is often assumed to be negative and linear, while the empirical results for the relationship has been demonstrated by researchers as either negative, positive or absent.

Design/methodology/approach

The current research challenges the negative and linear assumption conceptually and empirically and tests a curvilinear relation between cultural novelty and general adjustment. The authors specifically propose and test a theoretical model whereby emotional stability moderates the curvilinear cultural novelty–general adjustment relationship such that the negative effect of cultural novelty on general adjustment is mitigated by emotional stability. Survey data are collected from expatriates recruited from two different host countries, India (N = 151) and China (N = 157).

Findings

The findings provide support for the curvilinear relationship between cultural novelty and general adjustment and the moderating effect of expatriates' emotional stability on this relationship.

Originality/value

This present study makes unique contributions to the expatriate management literature in at least two major ways: first, this study consolidates the otherwise contradictory findings and furthers the understanding on the nature of the effect of cultural novelty on expatriate adjustment. In addition, this research tests a cultural novelty–expatriate adjustment model using expatriate samples drawn from China and India, the two largest emerging markets that capture the demographic-profile changes pertaining to the newly emerging expatriation trends.

Conducting organizational survey and experimental research online: From convenient to ambitious in study designs, recruiting, and data quality

Conducting organizational research via online surveys and experiments offers a host of advantages over traditional forms of data collection when it comes to sampling for more advanced study designs, while also ensuring data quality. To draw attention to these advantages and encourage researchers to fully leverage them, the present paper is structured into two parts. First, along a structure of commonly used research designs, we showcase select organizational psychology (OP) and organizational behavior (OB) research and explain how the Internet makes it feasible to conduct research not only with larger and more representative samples, but also with more complex research designs than circumstances usually allow in offline settings. Subsequently, because online data collections often also come with some data quality concerns, in the second section, we synthesize the methodological literature to outline three improvement areas and several accompanying strategies for bolstering data quality.

Plain Language Summary: These days, many theories from the fields of organizational psychology and organizational behavior are tested online simply because it is easier. The point of this paper is to illustrate the unique advantages of the Internet beyond mere convenience—specifically, how the related technologies offer more than simply the ability to mirror offline studies. Accordingly, our paper first guides readers through examples of more ambitious online survey and experimental research designs within the organizational domain. Second, we address the potential data quality drawbacks of these approaches by outlining three concrete areas of improvement. Each comes with specific recommendations that can ensure higher data quality when conducting organizational survey or experimental research online.

Self-administered Web-Based Tests of Executive Functioning and Perceptual Speed: Measurement Development Study With a Large Probability-Based Survey Panel

BACKGROUND

Cognitive testing in large population surveys is frequently used to describe cognitive aging and determine the incidence rates, risk factors, and long-term trajectories of the development of cognitive impairment. As these surveys are increasingly administered on internet-based platforms, web-based and self-administered cognitive testing calls for close investigation.

OBJECTIVE

Web-based, self-administered versions of 2 age-sensitive cognitive tests, the Stop and Go Switching Task for executive functioning and the Figure Identification test for perceptual speed, were developed and administered to adult participants in the Understanding America Study. We examined differences in cognitive test scores across internet device types and the extent to which the scores were associated with self-reported distractions in everyday environments in which the participants took the tests. In addition, national norms were provided for the US population.

METHODS

Data were collected from a probability-based internet panel representative of the US adult population-the Understanding America Study. Participants with access to both a keyboard- and mouse-based device and a touch screen-based device were asked to complete the cognitive tests twice in a randomized order across device types, whereas participants with access to only 1 type of device were asked to complete the tests twice on the same device. At the end of each test, the participants answered questions about interruptions and potential distractions that occurred during the test.

RESULTS

Of the 7410 (Stop and Go) and 7216 (Figure Identification) participants who completed the device ownership survey, 6129 (82.71% for Stop and Go) and 6717 (93.08% for Figure Identification) participants completed the first session and correctly responded to at least 70% of the trials. On average, the standardized differences across device types were small, with the absolute value of Cohen d ranging from 0.05 (for the switch score in Stop and Go and the Figure Identification score) to 0.13 (for the nonswitch score in Stop and Go). Poorer cognitive performance was moderately associated with older age (the absolute value of r ranged from 0.32 to 0.61), and this relationship was comparable across device types (the absolute value of Cohen q ranged from 0.01 to 0.17). Approximately 12.72% (779/6123 for Stop and Go) and 12.32% (828/6721 for Figure Identification) of participants were interrupted during the test. Interruptions predicted poorer cognitive performance (P<.01 for all scores). Specific distractions (eg, watching television and listening to music) were inconsistently related to cognitive performance. National norms, calculated as weighted average scores using sampling weights, suggested poorer cognitive performance as age increased.

CONCLUSIONS

Cognitive scores assessed by self-administered web-based tests were sensitive to age differences in cognitive performance and were comparable across the keyboard- and touch screen-based internet devices. Distraction in everyday environments, especially when interrupted during the test, may result in a nontrivial bias in cognitive testing.

Supporting Remote Experimentation Through Computer-Mediated Communication

With the emergence of COVID-19 and the resultant reduction in direct personal contact, we were faced with a novel challenge of how to conduct studies that involved both semi-structured elicitation of detailed cognitive information and the evaluation of software interfaces and algorithms. We leveraged distributed communication technologies to support data collection across three separate human-computer interaction studies. We describe these studies in terms of specific computer-mediated communication methods and features and how we used them. We also present lessons learned, potential risks and detriments of using such approaches, (e.g., connectivity dependence, reduced ability to observe non-verbal cues, and diminished interpersonal interaction), along with how the research community can compensate for the shortcomings of distributed data collection in human-centered research.

Online Assessment of Motor, Cognitive, and Communicative Achievements in 4-Month-Old Infants

Remote methods for data collection allow us to quickly collect large amounts of data, offering several advantages as compared to in-lab administration. We investigated the applicability of an online assessment of motor, cognitive, and communicative development in 4-month-old infants based on several items of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 3rd edition (BSID-III). We chose a subset of items which were representative of the typical developmental achievements at 4 months of age and that we could administer online with the help of the infant’s caregiver using materials which were easily available at home. Results showed that, in a sample of infants tested live (N = 18), the raw scores of the BSID-III were significantly correlated with the raw scores of a subset of items corresponding to those administered to a sample of infants tested online (N = 53). Moreover, for the “online” participants, the raw scores of the online assessment did not significantly differ from the corresponding scores of the “live” participants. These findings suggest that the online assessment was to some extent comparable to the live administration of the same items, thus representing a viable opportunity to remotely evaluate infant development when in-person assessment is not possible.

The Daily Rhythmic Changes of Undergraduate Students' Emotions: An Analysis Based on Tencent Tweets

Emotional stability is of great importance for undergraduates and has significant predictive power for mental health. Emotions are associated with individuals' daily lives and routines. Undergraduates commonly post their opinions and feelings on social networks, providing a huge amount of data for studying their emotional states and rhythms. Based on the construction of the emotion dictionary of undergraduates' Tencent tweets (TTs)-a social network for users to share their life situations and express emotions and feelings to friends-we used big data text analysis technology to analyze the emotion words in 45,996 Tencent tweets published by 894 undergraduates. Then, we used hierarchical linear modeling to further analyze the daily rhythms of undergraduate students' emotions and how demographic variables are associated with the daily rhythmic changes. The results were as follows: (1) Undergraduates tweeted about more positive emotions than negative emotions (love was most common and fear was the least common); (2) The emotions in undergraduates' tweets changed considerably from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., but were fairly stable during the day; (3) There was a rising trend in the frequency of using emotion words in Tencent tweets during the day as each hour progressed, and there was a higher increase in positive emotion than negative emotion; and (4) The word frequencies and daily rhythms of emotions varied depending on demographic variables. Gender was correlated with the frequencies of gratitude and the daily rhythms of anger. As the grade increased, the frequency of emotion words in most subcategories in TTs decreased and the fluctuation in daily rhythms became smaller. There was no significant difference in the frequency and daily rhythm of emotion words used in TTs based on having had a left-behind experience. The results of the present study provided emotion expression in social networks in Chinese collectivist culture. This study added new evidence to support the notion that positive and negative emotions are independent dimensions.

Motion Perception Investigated Inside and Outside of the Laboratory

Representational Momentum and Representational Gravity describe systematic perceptual biases, occurring for the localization of the final location of a moving stimulus. While Representational Momentum describes the systematic overestimation along the motion trajectory (forward shift), Representational Gravity refers to a systematic localization bias in line with gravitational force (downward shift). Those phenomena are typically investigated in a laboratory setting, and while previous research has shown that online studies perform well for different task, motion perception outside of the laboratory was not focused to date. Therefore, one experiment was conducted in two different settings: in a typical, highly controlled laboratory setting and in an online setting of the participants' choosing. In both experiments, the two most common trial types, implied motion stimuli and continuously moving stimuli, were used, and the influence of classical velocity manipulations (by varying stimulus timing and distance) was assessed. The data pattern across both experiments was very similar, indicating a robustness of both phenomena and indicating that motion perception can very well be studied outside the classical laboratory setting, opening a feasible possibility to diversify access to motion perception experiments everywhere.

Visitor satisfaction and behavioral intentions in nature-based tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study from Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China

Nature-based tourism (NBT) has become a popular tool for developing countries to achieve economic growth by the non-destructive use of their natural resources. COVID-19 has caused severe financial impacts on tourism-dependent areas. Revitalizing NBT is needed for economic recovery in those regions and can also help deal with mental health issues worldwide. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (ZNFP), the first national park created in China, was selected to examine the important factors that influence visitor satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic and the relationship between satisfaction and visitors' environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) intention. The authors collected 788 onsite and online questionnaires from visitors to ZNFP during June–September 2020. This paper reveals previously underestimated factors and offers practical applications for park development at ZNFP and other NBT destinations. Visitors had a high level of satisfaction with the natural scenery of the park but were relatively dissatisfied with price reasonableness, park services, activities and events, and artificial attractions. Younger visitors, especially students, and well-educated visitors looking for environmental education opportunities tended to have lower satisfaction rates. Visitor satisfaction may have a positive but limited influence on promoting visitors' ERB intentions. We propose group-specific strategies for national park managers to attract more visitors and increase their length of stay.

Memory advantage for untrustworthy faces: Replication across lab- and web-based studies

The Covid-19 pandemic imposed new constraints on empirical research and forced researchers to transfer from traditional laboratory research to the online environment. This study tested the validity of a web-based episodic memory paradigm by comparing participants’ memory performance for trustworthy and untrustworthy facial stimuli in a supervised laboratory setting and an unsupervised web setting. Consistent with previous results, we observed enhanced episodic memory for untrustworthy compared to trustworthy faces. Most importantly, this memory bias was comparable in the online and the laboratory experiment, suggesting that web-based procedures are a promising tool for memory research.

Is irregular time estimation a common factor in smoking behavior and delay discounting?

INTRODUCTION

Smoking is known to be associated with steeper delay discounting which is a widely used measure of externalizing behavior. This study investigates individual aspects of time estimation and the extent to which these are associated with differences in delay discounting and smoking behavior.

METHODS

The study was conducted as an online experiment in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 495), including 51 smokers. Participants completed a serial time estimation, delay discounting task (MCQ), BIS/BAS questionnaire, Fagerstrom test for nicotine dependence and an alcohol use assessment (QFV).

RESULTS

Smoking, heavy drinking and delay discounting were associated with faster estimation of time. Furthermore, smoking and delay discounting were associated with differences in autocorrelation. Fun seeking was associated with smoking and alcohol use, but not with time estimation or delay discounting.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides evidence for the hypothesis that an acceleration of the internal clock might lead to time over-estimation which could lead towards delayed consequence sensitivity and addiction. The study also found further evidence for the hypothesis that distortions in time estimation (i.e., autocorrelation) may be related to delay discounting and smoking. Smoking and delay discounting were associated with faster estimations of time and differences in autocorrelation.

AIM against survey fraud

Objectives

Although there exists a variety of anonymous survey software, this study aimed to develop an improved system that incentivizes responses and proactively detects fraud attempts while maintaining anonymity.

Materials and Methods

The Anonymous Incentive Method (AIM) was designed to utilize a Secure Hash Algorithm, which deterministically assigned anonymous identifiers to respondents. An anonymous raffle system was established to randomly select participants for a reward. Since the system provided participants with their unique identifiers and passwords upon survey completion, participants were able to return to the survey website, input their passwords, and receive their rewards at a later date. As a case study, the validity of this novel approach was assessed in an ongoing study on vaping in high school friendship networks.

Results

AIM successfully assigned irreversible, deterministic identifiers to survey respondents. Additionally, the particular case study used to assess the efficacy of AIM verified the deterministic aspect of the identifiers.

Discussion

Potential limitations, such as scammers changing the entry used to create the identifier, are acknowledged and given practical mitigation protocols. Although AIM exhibits particular usefulness for network studies, it is compatible with a wide range of applications to help preempt survey fraud and expedite study approval.

Conclusion

The improvements introduced by AIM are 2-fold: (1) duplicate responses can be filtered out while maintaining anonymity and (2) the requirement for the participant to keep their identifier and password for some time before returning to the survey website to claim a reward ensures that rewards only go to actual respondents.

Incentivizing a target population to complete a survey can be at odds with maintaining privacy. Anonymous survey software typically either collects some form of personal information (eg, emails) to send rewards to participants or upholds respondents’ privacy by providing rewards without requiring personally identifiable information but risks being exploited by scammers. To address this gap, the Anonymous Incentive Method (AIM) was designed to only reimburse actual participants and allow for the detection of scammers without storing personal information of any kind. AIM can be adapted for a wide variety of commercial and research surveys. Despite not completely eradicating survey fraud, AIM can be bolstered by additional safeguards depending on the specific survey. AIM can not only increase the response rate by ensuring anonymity and making potential respondents more comfortable but also help qualify studies as exempt from full review to expedite approval by an Institutional Review Board.

Advanced Training in Web-Based Psychology Research

Abstract. This article describes Advanced Training Institutes (ATIs) and workshops on psychological experimentation conducted via the Internet. These programs, conducted since 2002, presented instruction that evolved over the decades to reflect changes in Web-based methods and techniques. The need for instruction in the methods and methodology of Web-based research has increased over the years, as more researchers adopted these methods without necessarily learning the methodological lessons developed from theory and experience. Links to instructional materials created for the workshops are provided. From events and trends that played out over time, including the story of methods that were once state-of-the-art and are no longer functional today, lessons hard-won from the past can be used to anticipate and plan future directions in Web-based experimentation.

Web-Based Research in Psychology

Abstract. The present article reviews web-based research in psychology. It captures principles, learnings, and trends in several types of web-based research that show similar developments related to web technology and its major shifts (e.g., appearance of search engines, browser wars, deep web, commercialization, web services, HTML5…) as well as distinct challenges. The types of web-based research discussed are web surveys and questionnaire research, web-based tests, web experiments, Mobile Experience Sampling, and non-reactive web research, including big data. A number of web-based methods are presented and discussed that turned out to become important in research methodology. These are one-item-one-screen design, seriousness check, instruction manipulation and other attention checks, multiple site entry technique, subsampling technique, warm-up technique, and web-based measurement. Pitfalls and best practices are described then, especially regarding dropout and other non-response, recruitment of participants, and interaction between technology and psychological factors. The review concludes with a discussion of important concepts that have developed over 25 years and an outlook on future developments in web-based research.

On the (Mis)Use of Deception in Web-Based Research

Abstract. The deception of research participants remains a controversial issue in the behavioral sciences. Current ethics codes consistently limit the use of deception to cases in which non-deceptive alternatives are unfeasible and, crucially, require that participants subjected to deception be debriefed correspondingly along with an option to withdraw their data after learning about the deception. These conditions pose a particular challenge in the context of web-based research because participants can typically discontinue a study unilaterally (i.e., dropout by simply closing the browser window) in which case full debriefing and an option to withdraw one’s data are no longer available. As a consequence, the study would no longer be compatible with ethical standards. Based on recent meta-analytical data, we provide an existence proof of this problem, showing that deception is used in web-based research with little to no indication of safeguards ensuring full debriefing and subsequent data withdrawal options. We close by revisiting recommendations for the (non-)use of deception in web-based research and offer solutions to implement such safeguards in case deception is truly unavoidable.

Remote Research Methods: Considerations for Work With Children

The growing shift to online research provides numerous potential opportunities, including greater sample diversity and more efficient data collection. While online methods and recruitment platforms have gained popularity in research with adults, there is relatively little guidance on best practices for how to conduct remote research with children. The current review discusses how to conduct remote behavioral research with children and adolescents using moderated (i.e., real-time interactions between the experimenter and child) and unmoderated (i.e., independent completion of study without experimenter interaction) methods. We examine considerations regarding sample diversity and provide recommendations on implementing remote research with children, including discussions about remote software, study design, and data quality. These recommendations can promote the use of remote research amongst developmental psychologists by contributing to our knowledge of effective online research practices and helping to build standardized guidelines when working with children.

Adapting a Mental Health Intervention for Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Web-Based Synchronous Focus Group Study

Background

Although focus groups are a valuable qualitative research tool, face-to-face meetings may be difficult to arrange and time consuming. This challenge has been further compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown and physical distancing measures implemented, which caused exceptional challenges to human activities. Online focus groups (OFGs) are an example of an alternative strategy and require further study. At present, OFGs have mostly been studied and used in high-income countries, with little information relating to their implementation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Objective

The aim of this study is to share our experiences of conducting OFGs through a web conferencing service and provide recommendations for future research.

Methods

As part of a broader study, OFGs were developed with adults and adolescents in Colombia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a convenience sampling method, we invited eligible participants via email in two different cities of Colombia to participate in OFGs conducted via Microsoft Teams. Researcher notes and discussion were used to capture participant and facilitator experiences, as well as practical considerations.

Results

Technical issues were encountered, but various measures were taken to minimize them, such as using a web conferencing service that was familiar to participants, sending written instructions, and performing a trial meeting prior to the OFG. Adolescent participants, unlike their adult counterparts, were fluent in using web conferencing platforms and did not encounter technical challenges.

Conclusions

OFGs have great potential in research settings, especially during the current and any future public health emergencies. It is important to keep in mind that even with the advantages that they offer, technical issues (ie, internet speed and access to technology) are major obstacles in LMICs. Further research is required and should carefully consider the appropriateness of OFGs in different settings.

The Geneva Space Cruiser: a fully self-administered online tool to assess prospective memory across the adult lifespan

The current study aimed to examine whether the Geneva Space Cruiser - a new online adaptation of the Cruiser - represents a valid, reliable and useful tool to assess prospective memory (PM) across the adult lifespan via fully self-administered online testing. Therefore, an adult lifespan sample of 252 adults (19-86 years old) performed the Geneva Space Cruiser in the laboratory and online, at home, and also performed a more traditional laboratory PM task. A second sample of 224 young adults (19-35 years old) participated in a test-retest online assessment of the Geneva Space Cruiser. Bayesian analyses showed that the Geneva Space Cruiser yielded similar results when administered in the laboratory versus online, both in terms of data distribution as well as of key outcome measures (i.e., PM performance and monitoring). Results further showed very good test-retest reliability and acceptable construct validity. Finally, the online tool was sensitive for detecting age-differences similar to those typically observed in laboratory studies. Together, our findings suggest that the Geneva Space Cruiser represents a rather valid, moderately to highly reliable, and generally useful tool to assess PM in online testing across wide ranges of the adult lifespan, with certain limitations for the oldest participants and for women.

Empirica: a virtual lab for high-throughput macro-level experiments

Virtual labs allow researchers to design high-throughput and macro-level experiments that are not feasible in traditional in-person physical lab settings. Despite the increasing popularity of online research, researchers still face many technical and logistical barriers when designing and deploying virtual lab experiments. While several platforms exist to facilitate the development of virtual lab experiments, they typically present researchers with a stark trade-off between usability and functionality. We introduce Empirica: a modular virtual lab that offers a solution to the usability-functionality trade-off by employing a "flexible defaults" design strategy. This strategy enables us to maintain complete "build anything" flexibility while offering a development platform that is accessible to novice programmers. Empirica's architecture is designed to allow for parameterizable experimental designs, reusable protocols, and rapid development. These features will increase the accessibility of virtual lab experiments, remove barriers to innovation in experiment design, and enable rapid progress in the understanding of human behavior.

The Work for Environmental Protection Task: A consequential web-based procedure for studying pro-environmental behavior

Some human behaviors have serious societal consequences, but these consequences tend to be neglected in online research on societally relevant behaviors. For example, human activities contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss, but pro-environmental behavior is often studied using inconsequential self-reports and hypothetical scenarios. Such measures can easily be administered online, but suffer from severe validity problems. To address these problems, we developed a multi-trial web-based procedure for the study of consequential pro-environmental behavior. On the Work for Environmental Protection Task (WEPT), participants can choose to exert voluntary extra efforts screening numerical stimuli in exchange for donations to an environmental organization. They thus have the opportunity to produce actual environmental benefits at actual behavioral costs (i.e., to show actual pro-environmental behavior). In a preregistered validation study (N = 209), we found WEPT performance to systematically vary with these consequences, that is, the implemented costs and benefits were large enough for participants to effectively take them into account. In addition, aggregated WEPT performance was found to be highly reliable and to be correlated to self-reports and objective observations of other pro-environmental behaviors and conceptually related measures. These findings support the validity of the WEPT as an online procedure for the study of actual pro-environmental behavior. We discuss how the WEPT can advance the experimental analysis of pro-environmental behavior, help to address problems of common-method variance in individual difference research, and be adapted for the consequential study of other societally relevant behaviors.

Online and Face-to-Face Performance on Two Cognitive Tasks in Children With Williams Syndrome

There has been an increase in cognitive assessment via the Internet, especially since the coronavirus disease 2019 surged the need for remote psychological assessment. This is the first study to investigate the appropriability of conducting cognitive assessments online with children with a neurodevelopmental condition and intellectual disability, namely, Williams syndrome. This study compared Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM) and British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS) scores from two different groups of children with WS age 10–11 years who were assessed online (n = 14) or face-to-face (RCPM n = 12; BPVS n = 24). Bayesian t-tests showed that children’s RCPM scores were similar across testing conditions, but suggested BPVS scores were higher for participants assessed online. The differences between task protocols are discussed in line with these findings, as well as the implications for neurodevelopmental research.

Personality, Punishment and Public Goods: Strategic Shifts towards Cooperation as a Matter of Dispositional Honesty–Humility

Contributions in the public goods game—a classical social dilemma situation—have been shown to depend strongly on the presence versus absence of punishment or sanctions for free riders. Also, there appear to be noteworthy individual differences in the degree to which decision makers cooperate. Herein, we aimed to bring these two lines of research together. Firstly, we predicted that both presence of punishment and high dispositional Honesty–Humility (as conceptualized in the Honesty–Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to experience model of personality) should yield higher contributions. Secondly, and more importantly, we expected an interaction, such that only those low in Honesty–Humility would condition their behaviour on the presence versus absence of punishment, thus employing cooperation strategically. In line with the hypothesis, the results of two experiments (one of which comprised a longitudinal design) corroborated that the degree to which decision makers shift towards higher contributions when punishment is introduced depends on their dispositional level of Honesty–Humility. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Paranormal beliefs: their dimensionality and correlates

Lack of conceptual clarity and multivariate empirical studies has troubled research on superstitious, magical and paranormal beliefs. We defined paranormal beliefs as beliefs in physical, biological or psychological phenomena that feature core ontological properties of another ontological category. The aim was to bring together a range of beliefs and their potential correlates, to analyse whether the beliefs form independent subsets, and to test a structural model of the beliefs and their potential correlates. The results (N = 3261) showed that the beliefs could be best described by one higher‐order factor. There were also four lower‐order factors of paranormal beliefs but their explanatory power was low. Magico‐religious beliefs were best explained by high intuitive thinking, a humanistic world view and low analytical thinking. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Perceived Impact of Covid-19 Across Different Mental Disorders: A Study on Disorder-Specific Symptoms, Psychosocial Stress and Behavior

The recent outbreak of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has plunged countries across the world into crisis. Both in the general population and in specific subgroups such as infected people or health care workers, studies have reported increased symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress. However, the reactions of individuals with mental disorders to Covid-19 have largely been neglected. The present study therefore aimed to investigate the perceived impact of Covid-19 and its psychological consequences on people with mental disorders. In this online survey, participants were asked to evaluate their disorder-specific symptoms, perceived psychosocial stress and behaviors related to Covid-19 in the current situation and retrospectively before the spread of Covid-19. The study included participants with self-identified generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder and agoraphobia (PA), illness anxiety disorder (IA), social anxiety disorder (SAD), depression (DP), obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), eating disorders (ED), schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders (SP), other non-specified mental disorder (other) as well as mentally healthy controls (HC). The results of bayesian parameter estimation suggest that the symptom severity of DP, GAD, IA and BDD has deteriorated as a reaction to Covid-19. Across all mental disorders and HC, self-reported psychosocial stress levels were higher during the outbreak of Covid-19 compared to before. A reduced frequency of social contacts and grocery shopping was found for all participants. People with self-identified mental disorders showed higher personal worries about Covid-19 and a higher fear of contagion with Covid-19 than did HC. According to our findings, Covid-19 may reinforce symptom severity and psychosocial stress in individuals with mental disorders. In times of pandemics, special support is needed to assist people with mental disorders and to prevent symptom deterioration.

Social Media Recruitment for a Web Survey of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth: An Evaluation of Methods Used and Resulting Sample Diversity

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and efficacy of using advertisements (ads) on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat to recruit a national sample of adolescent sexual minority males ages 13-18 and transgender youth ages 13-24 for a web survey. Methods: The Survey of Today's Adolescent Relationships and Transitions (START) used targeted ads as survey recruitment tools. We assessed the efficacy of these varied forms of recruitment ads in reaching our target population. To understand how our sample differed from a national probability sample targeting the general adolescent population, we compared START respondents with sexual minority men identified from the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Results: The use of targeted language produced higher rates of completes per click compared with ads without targeted language. Video ads (compared with static images) were more effective at recruiting younger respondents. START and YRBS samples differed along lines of sexual identity, race and ethnicity, and age. The START sample had a greater percentage of Hispanic/Latino and Other/Multiracial respondents relative to the YRBS sample, thus providing additional data on these underserved sexual minority youth. Conclusion: The factors associated with design decisions for a hard-to-reach, non-probability sample impact the likelihood that respondents engage in and complete a survey. The ads proved to be effective and efficient at recruiting the targeted population.

The Hexaco-60, the Dark Triad and Scholastic Cheating

Previous studies have found inconsistent results regarding the personality predictors of scholastic cheating. This study investigated whether personality was a predictor of scholastic cheating using the HEXACO-60 personality inventory and the Dark Triad (DT). A sample of 252 students completed the online questionnaire. Results from a one-way ANOVA showed that scholastic cheating was more common in associate degree/diploma/foundation students and undergraduate students than postgraduate students. Year of study or student status (local or international students) had no effect on scholastic cheating. MANOVA showed that academic qualification, year of study, and student status had no effect on reasons for cheating. A structural equation model (SEM) found that scholastic cheating was positively predicted by unmitigated achievement and psychopathy. Psychopathy emerged as the strongest significant predictor of scholastic cheating. These results supported the view that dark personality is relevant for understanding scholastic cheating.