Exploring power-law behavior in human gaze shifts across tasks and populations

Visual perception is an integral part of human cognition. Vision comprises sampling information and processing them. Tasks and stimuli influence human sampling behavior, while cognitive and neurological processing mechanisms remain unchanged. A question still controversial today is whether the components interact with each other. Some theories see the components of visual cognition as separate and their influence on gaze behavior as additive. Others see gaze behavior as an emergent structure of visual cognition that emerges through multiplicative interactions. One way to approach this problem is to examine the magnitude of gaze shifts. Demonstrating that gaze shifts show a constant behavior across tasks would argue for the existence of an independent component in human visual behavior. However, studies attempting to generally describe gaze shift magnitudes deliver contradictory results. In this work, we analyze data from numerous experiments to advance the debate on visual cognition by providing a more comprehensive view of visual behavior. The data show that the magnitude of eye movements, also called saccades, cannot be described by a consistent distribution across different experiments. However, we also propose a new way of measuring the magnitude of saccades: relative saccade lengths. We find that a saccade's length relative to the preceding saccade's length consistently follows a power-law distribution. We observe this distribution for all datasets we analyze, regardless of the task, stimulus, age, or native language of the participants. Our results indicate the existence of an independent component utilized by other cognitive processes without interacting with them. This suggests that a part of human visual cognition is based on an additive component that does not depend on stimulus features.

The tactile signal detection task and why it could change how we measure workload

In Human Factors research, measuring the construct of workload is common. This often takes the form of using subjective questionnaires such as the NASA-TLX. Another approach analyses operators' performance in a secondary task to quantify and measure workload. We developed and, thus, propose one such task: the (Tactile) Signal Detection Task (TSDT). In two experimental studies, the performance of the TSDT was compared to NASA-TLX ratings during varying workload conditions in a laboratory setting. Study 2 additionally investigated the susceptibility of the NASA-TLX and the TSDT to different difficulty primes. Results indicate a good performance of the TSDT in measuring workload, a susceptibility of the NASA-TLX, and a non-susceptibility of the TSDT to difficulty primes. Further results and practical implications are discussed.

To meme or not to meme? Political social media posts and ideologically motivated aggression in job recommendations

This study tested the notion of ideological asymmetry, which proposes that conservatives are more prejudiced than liberals. It involved 682 self-identified conservative (n = 383) and liberal (n = 299) perceivers (MTurk workers; 54% female) who evaluated a target person's professional attributes, personal character, and job suitability based on the target's social media posts. The results did not support ideological asymmetry as both conservative and liberal participants negatively evaluated an ideologically opposite target. Interestingly, liberals showed three times more bias than conservatives. This study better supports a worldview conflict hypothesis, an alternative to ideological asymmetry, with both sides showing indirect aggression in an apolitical setting.

Affective reactions evoked by masks with an implied mouth

Wearing a mask often disrupts social interactions because it covers parts of the face. Hence, masks with a printed smiling mouth (smiling masks) were designed to overcome this problem. In this study, we examine how wearing a smiling mask evokes affective impressions. The results show that people wearing a smiling mask are evaluated more eerily than those with a typical cloth mask or without any masks (Experiments 1). Moreover, people wearing a transparent mask (i.e., a mask whose area around the mouth is transparent) are evaluated less eerily than those with a smiling mask (Experiments 2). Our findings suggest that the realism inconsistency between facial features in the upper area and the printed mouth causes devaluation effects for people with a smiling mask. Our findings can be used as a reference for future mask designs that can promote healthy social interactions in a mask-wearing society, considering the potential return of infectious diseases and pandemics in the future.

A fragile effect: The influence of episodic memory on delay discounting

Delay discounting occurs when a reward loses value as a function of delay. Episodic future thinking (EFT) reliably decreases delay discounting. EFT may share cognitive features with recalling episodic memories such as constructive episodic simulation. We therefore explored whether recalling episodic memories also reduces delay discounting. In Experiment 1, participants wrote about episodic memories and recalled those memories before completing a delay discounting task. Episodic memories reduced delay discounting according to one commonly used delay discounting measure (area under the curve) but not another (using the hyperbolic model). Experiment 2 compared the effects of general and episodic memories. Neither general nor episodic memories significantly decreased delay discounting compared with a control "counting" condition, but episodic memories reduced delay discounting compared with general memories under some conditions. In Experiment 3, episodic memories did not decrease delay discounting compared with three other control conditions while EFT did. Experiment 3 therefore found that thinking must be both episodic and future orientated to reduce delay discounting. Together, these results suggest that episodic thinking is not sufficient to reliably decrease delay discounting, rather, features unique to episodic future thinking are required. Episodic memory might reduce delay discounting in some contexts, but this effect is small and fragile.

Psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the medical staff occupational stress scale among Chinese clinical nurses

BACKGROUND

The Medical Staff Occupational Stress Scale (MSOSS) is a timely tool for the measurement of occupational stress among medical staff. It included a childhood stress dimension and seven other work-related stress dimensions. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the MSOSS using a large cohort of clinical nurses from Southeast China.

METHOD

A province-level survey was conducted from January 1st 2022 to May 31st 2022. Full-time clinical nurses from multiple hospitals in Hainan province were recruited. A total of 2989 nurses (1639 from secondary hospitals and 1350 from tertiary hospitals) completed the survey. The reliability of the MSOSS was assessed by its internal consistency. The validity of the MSOSS was assessed by its structural validity, convergent validity and concurrent validity. A series of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test and establish measurement invariance across variables such as age, work duration, hospital level, and job title.

RESULTS

The MSOSS exhibited excellent internal consistency in the different cohorts (Cronbach's α = 0.954-0.965, omega coefficient = 0.956-0.967 and Spearman-Brown coefficient = 0.883-0.905). The MSOSS exhibited stable structural validity and the confirmative factor analysis showed that the comparative fit index (CFI), incremental fit index (IFI) and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) were all around 0.9 in the different cohorts, indicating a good model fit. The measurement invariance of the MSOSS across hospital level, age, work duration and job title was supported by its metric invariance, scalar invariance and residual invariance. Cut-offs for the MSOSS as a depression and anxiety screening tool were also calculated. Scores above 102 and 207 were found to be indicative of depression and anxiety, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The MSOSS proved to be a suitable tool for assessing occupational stress among clinical nurses.

Monitoring skeletal muscle oxygen saturation kinetics during graded exercise testing in NCAA division I female rowers

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to analyze changes in skeletal muscle oxygen saturation (SmO2) kinetics during exercise in female rowers both acutely and longitudinally in relation to blood lactate (BLa). We also aimed to determine the agreement and statistical equivalence between physiological thresholds derived from SmO2 and BLa kinetics.

Methods

Twenty-three female NCAA Division I rowers were tested throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. Of these, 11 athletes completed at least two near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)-equipped GXTs, with physiological data analyzed for longitudinal changes. A 7x4-min discontinuous GXT protocol was performed by all athletes. First and second SmO2 breakpoints (SmO2BP1 and SmO2BP2) were estimated via piecewise linear regression modeling, and BLa thresholds (LT1 and LT2) were calculated using ADAPT software. Paired-samples t-tests assessed differences, and equivalence was tested using two one-sided tests (TOST). Agreement was determined using Bland-Altman analysis yielding mean differences (MD) and 95% limits of agreement (LoA). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC2,1) were also calculated.

Results

No difference was found between SmO2BP2 and LT2 (MD = -5.76W [95% LoA = -38.52 to 22.25W], p = 0.134), moderate-to-good levels of agreement (ICC2,1 = 0.67 [95% CI: 0.36-0.85], p < 0.001), and no statistical equivalence (p = 0.117). This was not the case for SmO2BP1 and LT1, with NIRS significantly underestimating LT1 (MD = -8.14W [95% LoA = -38.90 to 27.37W], p = 0.026), poor-to-moderate agreement (ICC2,1 = 0.24 [95% CI: -0.13-0.58], p = 0.10), and no statistical equivalence (p = 0.487). Additionally, SmO2 recovery kinetics (SmO2resat) during 1-min rest intervals increased in response to graded increases in exercise intensity (p < 0.001, η2 p = 0.71), with higher intensities appearing to blunt this effect (step 6 - step 7: MD = -0.16%⋅s-1, p = 0.69). No statistically significant changes were observed in LT's or SmO2BP's throughout the 2023-2024 season.

Conclusion

In female collegiate rowers, NIRS may be a tool that compliments BLa testing when determining the second lactate threshold (i.e., LT2). However, significant inter-individual variablility exists between SmO2BP2 and LT2 paired with a lack of statistical equivalence suggest the two are not interchangeable. While not a standalone replacement, if used in combination with traditional BLa testing methods NIRS may be a complimentary tool that helps inform individual athlete training zone prescription.

Does increasing absolute conditioned reinforcement rate improve sensitivity to relative conditioned reinforcement rate?

Previous research has demonstrated several procedural modifications that improve the sensitivity of human behavior to relative rates of conditioned reinforcement or S+ production. Denser rates of reinforcement have proved useful in related human operant research, but the influence of denser rates of S+ production has yet to be evaluated. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate how the absolute S+ production rate influenced sensitivity to relative S+ production rate. Thirty undergraduate students were randomly assigned to three groups for which the absolute rate of S+ production varied but the programmed relative rate of S+ production was held constant across groups. Results similar to those of previous research were obtained with many participants; however, the absolute rate of S+ production exerted no systematic effect on sensitivity or the quality of fits of the generalized matching equation. Exploratory analyses suggest that methods ensuring steady-state responding and improving the predictive value of S+ are important directions for future research.

Click Ordering Lateralization Test: Applicability and feasibility of a new paradigm for assessing sound lateralization behavior

OBJECTIVE

the present study aimed to investigate the applicability and feasibility of a new paradigm for assessing sound lateralization behavior.

DESIGN

The Click Ordering Lateralization Test comprises two tracks (tracks 1 and 2), with 54 trials each. Each trial consists of one of nine intervals ranging from 0 to 230 ms between two noise bursts, whereby subjects must indicate on which side they first heard the noise. The COLT procedure was applied to 30 normal-hearing children (between 8 and 14 years old).

RESULTS

the results indicated that an interaural time difference (ITD) of 0 ms functions as a control item, and after an ITD of 170 ms, the lateralization threshold reaches a ceiling effect. Different analysis methods were investigated in this study, with the total percentage score and a lateralization threshold of 5 hits deemed the most reliable methods. No differences were observed between test tracks and performance across the tracks was shown to be reliable and equivalent.

CONCLUSIONS

there are few procedures available to assess sound laterization in a clinical setting. This study presents the COLT as an easy-to-apply, reliable test for use in children aged between 8 and 14 years old.

The null need not be nil: Clarifying the parallel arbitrariness of difference testing and equivalence testing

In every statistical analysis, a critical step is to determine the smallest effect size of interest, namely, the arbitrary dividing line between meaningful and negligible results. Different tests address this in different ways, and the contrasting approaches can sometimes lead to confusion. We discuss a key example of such confusion, whereby equivalence testing is perceived to be more arbitrary than difference testing. Our comments are intended to clarify that the latter methods share parallel arbitrariness, and to show how the contrary perception is fueled by the habituated use of "nil null hypotheses" in difference testing. The main premise is that nil null hypotheses give an appearance of objectivity by making the smallest effect size of interest an implicit factor in the interpretation stage of difference testing. When contrasted with the requirements of equivalence testing (where the smallest effect size of interest must be explicitly declared and justified a priori, in the form of the equivalence zone), it is therefore understandable how the misperception of greater arbitrariness could emerge. By combating the latter misperception, our comments serve to promote good practice in both difference testing and equivalence testing.

There is a party in my head and no one is invited: Resting-state electrocortical activity and solitude

OBJECTIVE

What are the motivational underpinnings of solitude? We know from self-report studies that increases in solitude are associated with drops in approach motivation and rises in avoidance motivation, but only when solitude is experienced as non-self-determined (i.e., non-autonomous). However, the extent to which individual differences in solitude relate to neurophysiological markers of approach-avoidance motivation derived from resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) is unknown. These markers are Frontal Alpha Asymmetry, beta suppression, and midline Posterior versus Frontal EEG Theta Activity.

METHOD

We assessed the relation among individual differences in the reasons for solitude (i.e., preference for solitude, motivation for solitude), approach-avoidance motivation, and resting-state EEG markers of approach-avoidance motivation (N = 115).

RESULTS

General preference for solitude was negatively related to approach motivation, observed in both self-reported measures and EEG markers of approach motivation. Self-determined solitude was positively related to both self-reported approach motivation and avoidance motivation in the social domain (i.e., friendship). Non-self-determined solitude was positively associated with self-reported avoidance motivation.

CONCLUSION

This research was a preliminary attempt to address the neurophysiological underpinnings of solitude in the context of motivation.

Accuracy of reported energy in food and beverages supplied to hospital patients

BACKGROUND

Underprovision of food energy within the hospital environment can negatively affect clinical outcomes. Hence, the supply of hospital foods/beverages and the ability to assess their calorie provision is critical. The aim of this study was to directly measure the energy density of foods/beverages supplied to patients by Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) foodservice and compare these to caloric values established from nutrition information panels (NIPs) on product packaging.

METHODS

Bomb calorimetry was used to determine the gross energy density of 58 food/beverage items (~47% of total menu) using standardised procedures. Food items included those from the general menu, in addition to therapeutic menu items. Equivalence between directly measured values and those derived from NIPs was determined by comparing the measured mean and ±90% confidence interval (CI) against two pre-defined equivalence bounds (i.e., ±10% NIP value [consensus criteria] and ±20% NIP value [United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) criteria]). Caloric values from NIPs were considered equivalent to measured values when the 90% CI of the measured values fell within these thresholds.

RESULTS

Overall, 34 (59%) and 19 (33%) items had measured energy density values not equivalent to those from product NIPs according to the consensus and US FDA thresholds, respectively. When employing the US FDA criteria, 12 (21%) items contained a higher calorie density than that established from the label, while seven (12%) items were lower. While non-equivalent items were identified across all therapeutic menus, food labels from items exclusively prepared for the smooth-pureed menu were particularly inaccurate (~60% non-equivalency).

CONCLUSION

This study found a discrepancy between energy density that was directly measured and that derived from manufacturers' NIPs for many foods and beverages supplied via a hospital foodservice. Given the importance of accurate energy provision for hospitalised patients, this level of inaccuracy is concerning and may warrant a revision of food labelling procedures for items supplied in hospital settings.

Motivational strategies reduce recidivism and enhance treatment adherence in intimate partner violence perpetrators with substance use problems

Introduction

The incorporation of motivational strategies has shown promising results in increasing the effectiveness of intervention programs for intimate partner violence perpetrators, such as enhancing treatment adherence and decreasing risk of intimate partner violence recidivism. This could be particularly important for participants with alcohol and/or other drug use problems (ADUPs), who are at higher risk of recidivating and dropping out from the intervention. Consequently, there is a need to study whether motivational strategies are also effective for high-risk and highly resistant participants. The aim of this study was to determine whether the incorporation of motivational strategies led to improved outcomes in participants with ADUPs compared to those without.

Methods

Participants were intimate partner violence male perpetrators who received a standard intervention (n = 349) or a standard intervention adding an individualized motivational plan (n = 367). Data on official intimate partner violence recidivism, intervention dose, and dropout were collected after the end of the intervention. Comparisons were made between participants with and without ADUPs in each intervention condition.

Results

Results showed that in the full sample of participants, irrespective of their condition, those with ADUPs presented a higher recidivism (p = .007) and dropout rate (p = .003) and lower intervention dose than those without ADUPs (p = .005). When only considering participants in the standard intervention, results also showed that intimate partner violence perpetrators with ADUPs had a higher recidivism (p = .025) and dropout rate (p = .015) and lower intervention dose (p = .048) than those without. However, there were no significant differences between participants with and without ADUPs in the standard intervention adding an individualized motivational plan.

Discussion

When incorporating motivational strategies into the standard interventions for intimate partner violence perpetrators, disparities between participants with and without ADUPs were mitigated. Specifically, participants with ADUPs showed similar outcomes to those without ADUPs after receiving the standard intervention adding an individualized motivational plan. Our results suggest that motivational strategies may be effective in reducing intimate partner violence recidivism and improving treatment adherence in high-risk and highly resistant intimate partner violence perpetrators.

Warning people that they are being microtargeted fails to eliminate persuasive advantage

The practice of microtargeting in politics, involving tailoring persuasive messages to individuals based on personal vulnerabilities, has raised manipulation concerns. As microtargeting's persuasive benefits are well-established and its use facilitated by AI tools and personality-inference models, ethical and regulatory concerns are magnified. Here, we explore countering microtargeting effects by creating a warning signal deployed when users encounter personality-tailored political ads. Three studies evaluated the effectiveness of warning "popups" against potential microtargeting by comparing persuasiveness of targeted vs. non-targeted messages with and without popups. Using within subject-designs, Studies 1 (N = 666), 2a (N = 432), and 2b (N = 669) reveal a targeting effect, with targeted ads deemed more persuasive than non-targeted ones. More important, the presence of a warning popup had no meaningful impact on persuasiveness. Overall, across the three studies, personality-targeted ads were significantly more persuasive than non-targeted ones, and this advantage persisted despite warnings. Given the focus on transparency in initiatives like the EU's AI Act, our finding that warnings have little effect has potential policy implications.

Development and Validation of a Rapid Tool to Measure Pragmatic Abilities: The Brief Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS Brief)

Pragmatics is key to communicating effectively, and its assessment in vulnerable populations is of paramount importance. Although tools exist for this purpose, they are often effortful and time-consuming, with complex scoring procedures, which hampers their inclusion in clinical practice. To address these issues, we present the Brief Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS Brief), a rapid (10 min), easy-to-use and freely distributed tool for evaluating pragmatics in Italian, inspired by the existing APACS test and already validated in the remote version (APACS Brief Remote). The APACS Brief test measures-with a simplified scale-the domains of discourse production and figurative language understanding and is developed in two parallel forms, each including novel items differing from APACS. Psychometric properties, cut-off scores, and thresholds for change were computed on 287 adults. The analysis revealed satisfactory internal consistency, good test-retest reliability, and strong concurrent and construct validity. Moreover, APACS Brief showed excellent discriminant validity on a sample of 56 patients with schizophrenia, who were also cross-classified consistently by APACS Brief and APACS cut-off values. Overall, APACS Brief is a reliable tool for evaluating pragmatic skills and their breakdown, with brief administration time and simple scoring making it well-suited for screening in at-risk populations.

Beyond the null: Recognizing and reporting true negative findings

Science is based on ideas that might be true or false in describing reality. In order to discern between these two, scientists conduct studies that can reveal evidence for an idea, i.e., positive findings, or not, i.e., negative or null findings. The outcome of these studies can either be true, i.e., reflecting the real world, or false. Much has been said about disentangling true from false positive findings and the danger of a publication bias toward positive findings. Here, we argue that publishing negative findings is important to provide an accurate picture of the real world. At the same time, we highlight that a cautious approach should be taken to minimize the impact of publishing false negative findings, which has received limited attention so far. We discuss sources of false negative findings, using experimental and observational animal behavior and cognition studies as examples, which often differ from those of false positive findings. We conclude by recommending strategies for rigorous studies, such as conducting positive controls, selecting diverse samples, designing engaging protocols, and clearly labeling negative findings. These practices will lead to studies that contribute to our knowledge, regardless of whether they result in positive or negative findings.

The genetic architecture of differentiating behavioral and emotional problems in early life

BACKGROUND

Early in life, behavioral and cognitive traits associated with risk for developing a psychiatric condition are broad and undifferentiated. As children develop, these traits differentiate into characteristic clusters of symptoms and behaviors that ultimately form the basis of diagnostic categories. Understanding this differentiation process - in the context of genetic risk for psychiatric conditions, which is highly generalized - can improve early detection and intervention.

METHODS

We modeled the differentiation of behavioral and emotional problems from age 1.5-5 years (behavioral problems - emotional problems = differentiation score) in a pre-registered study of ∼79,000 children from the population-based Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study. We used genomic structural equation modeling to identify genetic signal in differentiation and total problems, investigating their links with 11 psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. We examined associations of polygenic scores (PGS) with both outcomes and assessed the relative contributions of direct and indirect genetic effects in ∼33,000 family trios.

RESULTS

Differentiation was primarily genetically correlated with psychiatric conditions via a "neurodevelopmental" factor. Total problems were primarily associated with the "neurodevelopmental" factor and "p"-factor. PGS analyses revealed an association between liability to ADHD and differentiation (β=0.11 [0.10,0.12]), and a weaker association with total problems (β=0.06 [0.04,0.07]). Trio-PGS analyses showed predominantly direct genetic effects on both outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

We uncovered genomic signal in the differentiation process, mostly related to common variants associated with neurodevelopmental conditions. Investigating the differentiation of early life behavioral and emotional problems may enhance our understanding of the developmental emergence of different psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Effectiveness of ex ante honesty oaths in reducing dishonesty depends on content

Dishonest behaviours such as tax evasion impose significant societal costs. Ex ante honesty oaths-commitments to honesty before action-have been proposed as interventions to counteract dishonest behaviour, but the heterogeneity in findings across operationalizations calls their effectiveness into question. We tested 21 honesty oaths (including a baseline oath)-proposed, evaluated and selected by 44 expert researchers-and a no-oath condition in a megastudy involving 21,506 UK and US participants from Prolific.com who played an incentivized tax evasion game online. Of the 21 interventions, 10 significantly improved tax compliance by 4.5 to 8.5 percentage points, with the most successful nearly halving tax evasion. Limited evidence for moderators was found. Experts and laypeople failed to predict the most effective interventions, though experts' predictions were more accurate. In conclusion, honesty oaths were effective in curbing dishonesty, but their effectiveness varied depending on content. These findings can help design impactful interventions to curb dishonesty.

A position coding model that accounts for the effects of event boundaries on temporal order memory

Episodic memories, particularly temporal order memory, are influenced by event boundaries. Although numerous theoretical and computational models have been developed to explain this phenomenon, creating a model that can explain a wide range of behavioral data and is supported by neural evidence remains a significant challenge. This study presented a new model, grounded in ample evidence of position coding, to account for the impact of event boundaries on temporal order memory. The proposed model successfully simulated various behavioral effects in previous experiments measuring temporal order memory. Our model outperformed the context-resetting model in fitting all the data and capturing the full set of effects in previous and newly conducted experiments, including the boundary effect, the distance effect, the local primacy effect, and the absence of boundary number effect. These findings underscore a novel mechanism in which event boundaries affect temporal order memory by resetting the local position coding of events.

Inconclusive evidence for associations between adverse experiences in adulthood and working memory performance

Decades of research have shown that adversity tends to be associated with lower working memory (WM) performance. This literature has mainly focused on impairments in the capacity to hold information available in WM for further processing. However, some recent adaptation-based studies suggest that certain types of adversity can leave intact, or even enhance, the ability to rapidly update information in WM. One key challenge is that WM capacity and updating tasks tend to covary, as both types of tasks require the creation and maintenance of bindings in WM; links between mental representations of information in WM. To estimate the associations between adversity and different processes in WM, we need to isolate variance in performance related to WM capacity from variance in performance related to updating ability. In this Registered Report, participants from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel completed three WM tasks: two complex span tasks and a task measuring both binding and updating of information. In addition, we estimated participants' exposure to neighbourhood threat, material deprivation and unpredictability. We estimated associations between the three types of adversity and latent estimates of WM capacity and updating using structural equation modelling. We did not find consistent associations between adversity and WM capacity or updating, nor did we find evidence that the associations were practically equivalent to zero. Our results show that adversity researchers should account for overlap in WM tasks when estimating specific WM abilities.

Touching the Ground: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Data Physicalizations for Spatial Data Analysis Tasks

Inspired by recent advances in digital fabrication, artists and scientists have demonstrated that physical data encodings (i.e., data physicalizations) can increase engagement with data, foster collaboration, and in some cases, improve data legibility and analysis relative to digital alternatives. However, prior empirical studies have only investigated abstract data encoded in physical form (e.g., laser cut bar charts) and not continuously sampled spatial data fields relevant to climate and medical science (e.g., heights, temperatures, densities, and velocities sampled on a spatial grid). This paper presents the design and results of the first study to characterize human performance in 3D spatial data analysis tasks across analogous physical and digital visualizations. Participants analyzed continuous spatial elevation data with three visualization modalities: (1) 2D digital visualization; (2) perspective-tracked, stereoscopic "fishtank" virtual reality; and (3) 3D printed data physicalization. Their tasks included tracing paths downhill, looking up spatial locations and comparing their relative heights, and identifying and reporting the minimum and maximum heights within certain spatial regions. As hypothesized, in most cases, participants performed the tasks just as well or better in the physical modality (based on time and error metrics). Additional results include an analysis of open-ended feedback from participants and discussion of implications for further research on the value of data physicalization. All data and supplemental materials are available at https://osf.io/7xdq4/.

Longitudinal changes in reinforcement learning during smoking cessation: a computational analysis using a probabilistic reward task

Despite progress in smoking reduction in the past several decades, cigarette smoking remains a significant public health concern world-wide, with many smokers attempting but ultimately failing to maintain abstinence. However, little is known about how decision-making evolves in quitting smokers. Based on preregistered hypotheses and analysis plan ( https://osf.io/yq5th ), we examined the evolution of reinforcement learning (RL), a key component of decision-making, in smokers during acute and extended nicotine abstinence. In a longitudinal, within-subject design, we used a probabilistic reward task (PRT) to assess RL in twenty smokers who successfully refrained from smoking for at least 30 days. We evaluated changes in reward-based decision-making using signal-detection analysis and five RL models across three sessions during 30 days of nicotine abstinence. Contrary to our preregistered hypothesis, punishment sensitivity emerged as the only parameter that changed during smoking cessation. While it is plausible that some changes in task performance could be attributed to task repetition effects, we observed a clear impact of the Nicotine Withdrawal Syndrome (NWS) on RL, and a dynamic relationship between craving and reward and punishment sensitivity over time, suggesting a significant recalibration of cognitive processes during abstinence. In this context, the heightened sensitivity to negative outcomes observed at the last session (30 days after quitting) compared to the previous sessions, may be interpreted as a cognitive adaptation aimed at fostering long-term abstinence. While further studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying punishment sensitivity during nicotine abstinence, these results highlight the need for personalized treatment approaches tailored to individual needs.

Accurately Identifying Language Disorder in School-Age Children Using Dynamic Assessment of Narrative Language

PURPOSE

Several studies have demonstrated that dynamic assessment can be a less biased, valid approach for the identification of language disorder among diverse school-age children. However, all prior studies have included a relatively small number of participants, which is generally not adequate for psychometric research. This is the first large-scale study to (a) examine whether a dynamic assessment of narrative language yields indifferent outcomes regardless of several demographic variables including age, race/ethnicity, multilingualism, or gender; (b) examine the sensitivity and specificity of the dynamic assessment of language among a large sample of students with and without language disorder; and (c) identify specific cut-points by grade to provide clinically useful data.

METHOD

Participants included 634 diverse first- through fifth-grade students with and without language learning disorder. Students were confirmed as having a language disorder using a triangulation technique involving several sources of data. A dynamic assessment of narrative language, which took approximately 10 min, was administered to all students.

RESULTS

Results indicated that the dynamic assessment had excellent (> 90%) sensitivity and specificity and that modifiability scores were not meaningfully different across any of the demographic variables.

CONCLUSIONS

The dynamic assessment of narrative language accurately identified language disorder across all student demographic groups. These findings suggest that dynamic assessment may provide less biased classification than traditional, static forms of assessment.

Effects of sleep restriction and light intensity on mental effort during cognitive challenge

We investigated the effects of sleep duration and light intensity on effort-related cardiovascular response. We predicted that due to reduced alertness after shortened sleep duration perceived task demand should increase which should lead to higher mental effort. Similarly, lower light intensity should also lead to lower alertness, and therefore to higher perceived task demand and therefore higher effort. Effort was operationalized as sympathetic beta-adrenergic impact on the heart and assessed through reactivity of the cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and systolic blood pressure (SBP). Twenty-four healthy volunteers underwent two experimental sessions, one after 5 and one after 8 h of sleep opportunity in a counterbalanced order (within-person). Experimental lighting conditions (100 lx vs. 500 lx, within-person) were applied for 15 min, and for following 5-min modified auditory Sternberg task. In line with our hypothesis, results showed a stronger SBP (and DBP) reactivity after sleep restriction (ps < 0.001), indicating higher effort exertion. Contrary to our prediction, 500 lx light led to higher PEP reactivity compared to 100 lx (p = 0.032). Overall, our results provide the first experimental evidence that shorter sleep duration leads to higher mental effort.

Assessing AudaxCeph®'s cephalometric tracing technology versus a semi-automated approach for analyzing severe Class II and Class III skeletons

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the accuracy and precision of the AudaxCeph® fully automated software in identifying cephalometric landmarks on lateral cephalograms of Class II and Class III skeletal relationships, comparing its performance against experienced orthodontists using manual tracing within the same software environment.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Sixty cephalograms depicting severe Class II or Class III skeletal discrepancies were assessed by two board-certified orthodontists and AudaxCeph®'s artificial intelligence automatic tracing software. Among these, 40 cases were classified as Class II and 20 as Class III. An X-Y axis was established at the bottom left corner of each cephalogram, and subsequent X and Y coordinates for the landmarks were exported to Excel. Thirteen cephalometric landmarks were identified and used for comparing manual and automatic tracing methods, with no alteration of landmark positions post-tracing. Measures of the X coordinate, Y coordinate, and radial distance for each landmark were compared using t-tests for equivalence with a 2mm margin, both against AudaxCeph®'s positions and intra-operator reliability.

RESULTS

Analysis revealed that while most operator measurements closely approximated AudaxCeph® values, discrepancies exceeding 2mm were notable at Gonion and Porion landmarks. Slight variability was noted in one instance during intra-examiner evaluation at the Gonion landmark.

CONCLUSIONS

This study concludes that AudaxCeph®'s artificial intelligence-driven automatic tracing of cephalograms offers a reliable and accurate method for orthodontic treatment planning across various skeletal types and severities. On average, it exhibits minimal discrepancies exceeding 2mm compared to manual operators, with notable variations observed primarily at the Gonion and Porion landmarks. While AudaxCeph® is an acceptable tool for cephalometric landmark location, it's accuracy still require the practitioner to verify some less reliable landmark locations.

Immersive Virtual Reality Decreases Work Rate and Manipulates Attentional Focus During Self-Regulated Vigorous Exercise

To determine the effect of immersive virtual reality use on finishing time of a vigorous-intensity self-regulated exercise task, and on relevant psychological variables. Healthy untrained adults (N = 21; 10 men/11 women; age = 22.9 ± 7.2 years; BMI = 24.0 ± 4.5 kg/m2) completed 1500-m exercise bouts on a rowing ergometer in a counterbalanced and randomized order, with and without use of a headset-delivered virtual reality fitness program. Heart rate, rating of perceived exertion, affective valence, and attentional focus were collected every 300 m, in addition to finishing time. Data were analyzed with repeated measures as appropriate. Intensity of both exercise bouts was considered vigorous according to heart rate results (>77% maximal heart rate). Finishing time was faster in the control condition (449.57 ± 82.39 s) than in the virtual reality condition (463.00 ± 91.78 s), p = .007. Compared to the control condition, the virtual reality condition was characterized by a more external attentional focus (52.38 ± 18.22 vs. 38.76 ± 17.81, p < .001). No differences were observed for remaining variables as a result of condition (p > .05 for all). When a headset-delivered VR program was used during a self-regulated vigorous-intensity exercise task, participants were 13.6 seconds (~3%) slower than in a control condition. Attentional focus was manipulated to be more external with VR use, which may have ultimately distracted from the exercise objective. Recommendations for selecting an appropriate virtual reality experience for a given exercise task are discussed.

A chromosomal mutation is superior to a plasmid-encoded mutation for plasmid fitness cost compensation

Plasmids are important vectors of horizontal gene transfer in microbial communities but can impose a burden on the bacteria that carry them. Such plasmid fitness costs are thought to arise principally from conflicts between chromosomal- and plasmid-encoded molecular machineries, and thus can be ameliorated by compensatory mutations (CMs) that reduce or resolve the underlying causes. CMs can arise on plasmids (i.e., plaCM) or on chromosomes (i.e., chrCM), with contrasting predicted effects upon plasmid success and subsequent gene transfer because plaCM can also reduce fitness costs in plasmid recipients, whereas chrCM can potentially ameliorate multiple distinct plasmids. Here, we develop theory and a novel experimental system to directly compare the ecological effects of plaCM and chrCM that arose during evolution experiments between Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 and its sympatric mercury resistance megaplasmid pQBR57. We show that while plaCM was predicted to succeed under a broader range of parameters in mathematical models, chrCM dominated in our experiments, including conditions with numerous recipients, due to a more efficacious mechanism of compensation, and advantages arising from transmission of costly plasmids to competitors (plasmid "weaponisation"). We show analytically the presence of a mixed Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) regime for CMs, driven by trade-offs with horizontal transmission, that offers one possible explanation for the observed failure of plaCM to dominate even in competition against an uncompensated plasmid. Our results reveal broader implications of plasmid-bacterial evolution for plasmid ecology, demonstrating the importance of specific compensatory mutations for resistance gene spread. One consequence of the superiority of chrCM over plaCM is the likely emergence in microbial communities of compensated bacteria that can act as "hubs" for plasmid accumulation and dissemination.

A dominance analysis on the relationship between schizotypy and loneliness type

BACKGROUND

This study investigated how individual differences in schizotypy differentially predicted types of loneliness - direct, social, emotional, and existential loneliness (in relationships and meaninglessness in life).

METHODS

We presented participants with the brief version of the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences and the de Jong Giervald loneliness scale and used dominance analysis to evaluate the dominant predictors of schizotypy on loneliness. We also evaluated the impact of depression on each model.

RESULTS

In our preregistered analysis we found evidence to suggest that cognitive disorganization and introvertive anhedonia are consistently the most dominant of the schizotypy predictors. Introvertive anhedonia was the most dominant predictor for social loneliness and existential loneliness in relationships, and cognitive disorganization was the most dominant predictor of direct, emotional and existential meaninglessness in life loneliness. Depression became the most dominant predictor of all types of loneliness when added to the models.

LIMITATIONS

This research is limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data which is unable to account for changes in loneliness over time, and we acknowledge that the relationship between predictors and outcome is likely bi-directional.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight the diverse relationship between schizotypy and loneliness type and suggest that schizotypy domains linked to social anxiety and withdrawal are key predictors of loneliness. These findings are important for the development of focused interventions and the prevention of clinical disorder development.

Effects of exposure to plus-size fashion models on weight-related attitudes in bulimia nervosa: Findings from an exploratory study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Eating disorders are often linked to the internalization of the thin-ideal and weight stigma. The present exploratory study investigates the effects of plus-sized fashion media on weight-related attitudes in bulimia nervosa (BN).

METHODS

Women with BN (n=27) and without an eating disorder (n=28) were exposed to 17 pictures of plus-size fashion models. Participants rated the attractiveness of the models. Before and after the exposure task, participants completed questionnaires on their attitudes towards people with higher weight as well as thin-ideal media.

RESULTS

The BN group rated the bodies of the plus-size fashion models as less attractive than controls, whereas no group differences were found in attractiveness ratings for the models' faces or full images. In both groups, negative attitudes about people with higher weight significantly decreased after viewing plus-size model pictures. Attitudes toward thin-ideal media remained unchanged, with scores higher for BN than controls.

LIMITATIONS

This exploratory study has several limitations, such as the lack of a control condition, small sample size, and reliance on only self-report data.

CONCLUSIONS

These exploratory results imply that the positive effects of plus-sized model images on reducing negative assumptions about people with high weight may not be limited to healthy individuals but also seem to extend to women with BN. Further controlled studies with larger samples and long-term assessments are needed to confirm these findings.

Self-esteem modulates the similarity of the representation of the self in the brains of others

Social neuroscientists have made marked progress in understanding the underlying neural mechanisms that contribute to self-esteem. However, these neural mechanisms have not been examined within the rich social contexts that theories in social psychology emphasize. Previous research has demonstrated that neural representations of the self are reflected in the brains of peers in a phenomenon called the 'self-recapitulation effect', but it remains unclear how these processes are influenced by self-esteem. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging in a round-robin design within 19 independent groups of participants (total N = 107) to test how self-esteem modulates the representation of self-other similarity in multivariate brain response patterns during interpersonal perception. Our results replicate the self-recapitulation effect in a sample almost ten times the size of the original study and show that these effects are found within distributed brain systems underlying self-representation and social cognition. Furthermore, we extend these findings to demonstrate that individual differences in self-esteem modulate these responses within the medial prefrontal cortex, a region implicated in evaluative self-referential processing. These findings inform theoretical models of self-esteem in social psychology and suggest that greater self-esteem is associated with psychologically distanced self-evaluations from peer-evaluations in interpersonal appraisals.

Signaling (in)tolerance: Social evaluation and metaethical relativism and objectivism

Prior work has established that laypeople do not consistently treat moral questions as being objectively true or as merely true relative to different perspectives. Rather, these metaethical judgments vary dramatically across moral issues and in response to different social influences. We offer a potential explanation by examining how objectivists and relativists are evaluated in different contexts. We provide evidence for a novel account of metaethical judgments as signaling tolerance or intolerance of disagreement. The social implications of signaling tolerance or intolerance in different contexts may motivate different metaethical judgments. Study 1 finds that relativists are perceived as more tolerant, empathic, having superior moral character, and as more desirable as social partners than objectivists. Study 2 replicates these findings with a within-participants design and also shows that objectivists are perceived as more morally serious than relativists. Study 3 examines evaluations of objectivists and relativists regarding concrete moral issues, finding these results vary across situations of moral agreement and disagreement. Study 4 finds that participants' metaethical stances likewise vary when responding in the way they think would make a person who agrees or disagrees with them evaluate them more positively. However, in Study 5, we find no effect on metaethical judgment of telling participants they will be evaluated by a person who agrees or disagrees with them, which suggests either a failure to induce reputational concerns or a more limited influence of reputational considerations on metaethical judgments, despite strong effects on social evaluation.

Comparing conventional and action video game training in visual perceptual learning

Action video game (AVG) playing has been found to transfer to a variety of laboratory tasks in visual cognition. More recently, it has even been found to transfer to low-level visual "psychophysics tasks. This is unexpected since such low-level tasks have traditionally been found to be largely "immune" to transfer from another task, or even from the same task but a different stimulus attribute, e.g., motion direction. In this study, we set out to directly quantify transfer efficiency from AVG training to motion discrimination. Participants (n = 65) trained for 20 h on either a first-person active shooting video game, or a motion direction discrimination task with random dots. They were tested before, midway, and after training with the same motion task and an orientation discrimination task that had been shown to receive transfer from AVG training, but not from motion training. A subsequent control group (n = 18) was recruited to rule out any test-retest effect, by taking the same tests with the same time intervals, but without training. We found that improvement in motion discrimination performance was comparable between the AVG training and control groups, and less than the motion discrimination training group. We could not replicate the AVG transfer to orientation discrimination, but this was likely due to the fact that our participants were practically at chance for this task at all test points. Our study found no evidence, in either accuracy or reaction time, that AVG training transferred to motion discrimination. Overall, our results suggest that AVG training transferred little to lower-level visual skills, refining understanding of the mechanisms by which AVGs may affect vision. Protocol registration The accepted stage 1 protocol for this study can be found on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/zdv9c/?view_only=5b3b0c161dad448d9d1d8b14ce91ab11 . The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 01/12/22. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ZDV9C.

Neural Decoding of Spontaneous Overt and Intended Speech

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to decode intended and overt speech from neuromagnetic signals while the participants performed spontaneous overt speech tasks without cues or prompts (stimuli).

METHOD

Magnetoencephalography (MEG), a noninvasive neuroimaging technique, was used to collect neural signals from seven healthy adult English speakers performing spontaneous, overt speech tasks. The participants randomly spoke the words yes or no at a self-paced rate without cues. Two machine learning models, namely, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D CNN), were employed to classify the two words from the recorded MEG signals.

RESULTS

LDA and 1D CNN achieved average decoding accuracies of 79.02% and 90.40%, respectively, in decoding overt speech, significantly surpassing the chance level (50%). The accuracy for decoding intended speech was 67.19% using 1D CNN.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showcases the possibility of decoding spontaneous overt and intended speech directly from neural signals in the absence of perceptual interference. We believe that these findings make a steady step toward the future spontaneous speech-based brain-computer interface.

A reward self-bias leads to more optimal foraging for ourselves than others

People are self-biased for rewards. We place a higher value on rewards if we receive them than if other people do. However, existing work has ignored one of the most powerful theorems from behavioural ecology of how animals seek resources in everyday life, the Marginal Value Theorem (MVT), which accounts for optimal behaviour for maximising resources intake rate. Does this self-bias help humans maximise rewards when foraging for their own benefit compared to foraging for the benefit of others? Participants had to decide when to leave patches where reward intake was gradually depleting, in environments with different average reward rates. Half of the time participants foraged for themselves, and in the other half they collected rewards for an anonymous stranger. The optimal MVT derived solution states people should leave when the instantaneous reward intake in a patch equals the average rate in an environment. Across two studies, people were more optimal when foraging for self, showing a reduced sensitivity to instantaneous rewards when foraging for other. Autistic traits were linked to reduced sensitivity to reward rates when foraging for self but not for other. These results highlight that the self-bias may be adaptive, helping people maximise reward intake.

Attention and executive delays in early childhood: a meta-analysis of neurodevelopmental conditions

The objective of this review was to evaluate attention and executive function performance in children with neurodevelopmental conditions across the first 5 years of life, compared to neurotypical peers. MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO databases were searched until June 30, 2023, and studies comparing attention or executive function between children with (or at risk for) neurodevelopmental conditions and neurotypical (or low risk) peers, 0 to 5 years old, were included. Of the 4338 studies identified, 111 studies with 12292 participants were included in the meta-analysis. The qualitative analysis of brain development included 5 studies. Primary outcomes were the standardised mean difference (Hedges' g) in attention and executive function between groups. Meta-regressions examined moderating effects of age, biological sex, diagnosis, and measure type. Children with neurodevelopmental conditions showed small delays in attention (n = 49 studies, k = 251 outcomes, g = 0.36, 95% CI 0.23-0.48, p < 0.001) and moderate delays in executive function (n = 64 studies, k = 368 outcomes, g = 0.64,95% CI 0.53-0.76, p < 0.001). Attention and executive function delays could not be identified in the first year (equivalence tests, p < 0.001), small to moderate delays were found in toddlerhood and moderate delays by preschool. Delays identified were largely transdiagnostic, although there was some evidence of diagnosis-specific delays for attention and moderation by measure type (informant rating vs performance-based vs physiological). Qualitative analysis described how delays were underpinned by a divergence of brain development in medial prefrontal regions. These findings highlight the potential of using attention and executive measures to detect delay and to intervene in neurodevelopmental conditions early in life.

Individual differences in music-induced interpersonal synchronization and self-other integration: the role of creativity and empathy

It has been demonstrated that moving together in synchrony to music makes us feel connected. Yet, little is known about the individual differences that shape the relationship between interpersonal synchronization to music and social bonding. The present research tests the hypothesis that this association is influenced by differences in empathy and creativity-two highly relevant factors in many musical activities. We implemented a synchronization task featuring a virtual drummer and measured self-other integration (SOI), a core component of social bonding. We employed a dual-measurement paradigm, incorporating both an explicit assessment (Inclusion of Other in the Self scale) and an implicit assessment (joint-Simon effect) of SOI. Surprisingly, our analysis did not reveal explicit and implicit measurements correlating, nor were they similarly affected by interpersonal synchronization. This raises questions about the assessment of SOI in interpersonal synchronization experiments. Furthermore, we observed no moderating role of empathy or creativity in the association between interpersonal synchronization and SOI. Nevertheless, we found creativity to correlate with SOI. In light of this finding, we recommend placing greater emphasis on creativity as a decisive factor in the study of musical interaction.

How often are replication attempts questioned?

Fear of retaliation from the original authors and their allies has been proposed as one of the explanations for the paucity of replications. In the current paper the frequency of negative responses to replications in psychology, and the attention such responses attract, was measured in a series of three studies. Study 1 indicates that replications do not attract more negative mentions in literature than randomly selected non-replication papers unless they are independent and failed, in which case a small increase in negative mentions was noticed, although replications with open data were less likely to attract such mentions. Moreover, no difference in attracting comments on a post-publication peer-review site between replications and non-replication papers was found. Study 2 shows that independent failed and partially successful replications are more likely to attract stand-alone replies than non-replication papers, but the risk is still small and is reduced for replications with open data. Study 3 indicates that stand-alone replies to replications attract fewer citations and readers than the replications to which they respond. I conclude that scientists' unwillingness to criticize published research, cited as one of the reasons for the paucity of replications, also benefits replicators by largely shielding their research from questioning.

Online Eye Tracking for Aphasia: A Feasibility Study Comparing Web and Lab Tracking and Implications for Clinical Use

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Studies using eye-tracking methodology have made important contributions to the study of language disorders such as aphasia. Nevertheless, in clinical groups especially, eye-tracking studies often include small sample sizes, limiting the generalizability of reported findings. Online, webcam-based tracking offers a potential solution to this issue, but web-based tracking has not been compared with in-lab tracking in past studies and has never been attempted in groups with language impairments.

MATERIALS & METHODS

Patients with post-stroke aphasia (n = 16) and age-matched controls (n = 16) completed identical sentence-picture matching tasks in the lab (using an EyeLink system) and on the web (using WebGazer.js), with the order of sessions counterbalanced. We examined whether web-based eye tracking is as sensitive as in-lab eye tracking in detecting group differences in sentence processing.

RESULTS

Patients were less accurate and slower to respond to all sentence types than controls. Proportions of gazes to the target and foil picture were computed in 100 ms increments, which showed that the two modes of tracking were comparably sensitive to overall group differences across different sentence types. Web tracking showed comparable fluctuations in gaze proportions to target pictures to lab tracking in most analyses, whereas a delay of approximately 500-800 ms appeared in web compared to lab data.

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS

Web-based eye tracking is feasible to study impaired language processing in aphasia and is sensitive enough to detect most group differences between controls and patients. Given that validations of webcam-based tracking are in their infancy and how transformative this method could be to several disciplines, much more testing is warranted.

Reduced resting-state periodic beta power in adults who stutter is related to sensorimotor control of speech execution

OBJECTIVE

The primary aim of the current study was to determine whether adults who stutter (AWS) present with anomalous periodic beta (β) rhythms when compared to typically fluent adults in the eyes-open resting state. A second aim was to determine whether lower β power in the RS is related to a measure of β event-related desynchronization (ERD) during syllable sequence execution.

METHODS

EEG data was collected from 128 channels in a 5 min, eyes-open resting state condition and from a syllable sequence repetition task. Temporal independent component analysis (ICA) was used to separate volume conducted EEG sources and to find a set of component weights common to the RS and syllable repetition task. Both traditional measures of power spectral density (PSD) and parameterized spectra were computed for components showing peaks in the β band (13-30 Hz). Parameterization was used to evaluate separable components adjusted for the 1/f part of the spectrum.

RESULTS

ICA revealed frontal-parietal midline and lateral sensorimotor (μ) components common to the RS and a syllable repetition task with peaks in the β band. The entire spectrum for each component was modeled using the FOOOF algorithm. Independent samples t-tests revealed significantly lower periodic β in midline central-parietal and lateral sensorimotor components in AWS. Regression analysis suggested a significant relationship between left periodic sensorimotor β power in the RS and ERD during syllable sequence execution.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that periodic β peaks in the spectrum are related to hypothesized underlying pathophysiological differences in stuttering, including midline rhythms associated the default mode network (DMN) and lateral sensorimotor rhythms associated with the control of movement.

What I don't know can hurt you: Collateral combat damage seems more acceptable when bystander victims are unidentified

Five experiments (N = 2,204) examined responses to a realistic moral dilemma: a military pilot must decide whether to bomb a dangerous enemy target, also killing a bystander. Few people endorsed bombing when the bystander was an innocent civilian; however, when the bystander's identity was unknown, over twice as many people endorsed the bombing. Follow-up studies tested boundary conditions and found the effect to extend beyond modern-day conflicts in the Middle East, showing a similar pattern of judgment for a fictional war. Bombing endorsement was predicted by attitudes towards total war, the theory that there should be no distinction between military and civilian targets in wartime conflict. Bombing endorsement was lower for UK compared to US participants due to differences in total war attitudes. This work has implications for conflicts where unidentified bystanders are common by revealing a potentially deadly bias: people often assume unidentified bystanders are guilty unless proven innocent.

The illusion of information adequacy

How individuals navigate perspectives and attitudes that diverge from their own affects an array of interpersonal outcomes from the health of marriages to the unfolding of international conflicts. The finesse with which people negotiate these differing perceptions depends critically upon their tacit assumptions-e.g., in the bias of naïve realism people assume that their subjective construal of a situation represents objective truth. The present study adds an important assumption to this list of biases: the illusion of information adequacy. Specifically, because individuals rarely pause to consider what information they may be missing, they assume that the cross-section of relevant information to which they are privy is sufficient to adequately understand the situation. Participants in our preregistered study (N = 1261) responded to a hypothetical scenario in which control participants received full information and treatment participants received approximately half of that same information. We found that treatment participants assumed that they possessed comparably adequate information and presumed that they were just as competent to make thoughtful decisions based on that information. Participants' decisions were heavily influenced by which cross-section of information they received. Finally, participants believed that most other people would make a similar decision to the one they made. We discuss the implications in the context of naïve realism and other biases that implicate how people navigate differences of perspective.

About statistical significance, and the lack thereof

Absence of statistical significance (i.e., p > 0.05) in the results of a frequentist test comparing two samples is often used as evidence of absence of difference, or absence of effect of a treatment, on the measured variable. Such conclusions are often wrong because absence of significance may merely result from a sample size that is too small to reveal an effect. To conclude that there is no meaningful effect of a treatment/condition, it is necessary to use an appropriate statistical approach. For frequentist statistics, a simple tool for this goal is the 'two one-sided t-test,' a form of equivalence test that relies on the a priori definition of a minimal difference considered to be relevant. In other words, the smallest effect size of interest should be established in advance. We present the principles of this test and give examples where it allows correct interpretation of the results of a classical t-test assuming absence of difference. Equivalence tests are also very useful in probing whether certain significant results are also biologically meaningful, because when comparing large samples it is possible to find significant results in both an equivalence test and in a two-sample t-test, assuming no difference as the null hypothesis.

Guess what? Only correct choices forge immediate stimulus-response bindings in guessing scenarios

A central mechanism of human action control is the prompt binding between actions and the stimuli provoking them. Perceiving the same stimuli again retrieves any bound responses, facilitating their execution. An open question is whether such binding and retrieval only emerges when stimulus-response rules are known upon taking action or also when agents are forced to guess and receive feedback about whether they were successful or not afterward. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that knowing rules before responding would boost binding between stimuli and responses during action-taking relative to guessing situations. Second, we assessed whether the content of the feedback matters for binding in that agents might use feedback to build correct stimulus-response bindings even for wrong guesses. We used a sequential prime-probe design to induce stimulus-response binding for prime responses that were either rule-based or guesses, and to measure retrieval of these bindings in response times and errors in the probe. Results indicate that binding and retrieval emerge for successful but not for wrong guesses. Binding effects for correct guesses were consistently small in effect size, suggesting that pre-established stimulus-response bindings from instructed rules might indeed boost binding when taking action.

The Ambiguous Cue Task: Measurement reliability of an experimental paradigm for the assessment of interpretation bias and associations with mental health

Interpretation biases in the processing of ambiguous affective information are assumed to play an important role in the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders. Reports of low reliability for experimental measures of cognitive biases have called into question previous findings on the association of these measures with markers of mental health and demonstrated the need to systematically evaluate measurement reliability for measures of cognitive biases. We evaluated reliability and correlations with self-report measures of mental health for interpretation bias scores derived from the Ambiguous Cue Task (ACT), an experimental paradigm for the assessment of approach-avoidance behavior towards ambiguous affective stimuli. For a non-clinical sample, the measurement of an interpretation bias with the ACT showed high internal consistency (rSB = .91 - .96, N = 354) and acceptable 2-week test-retest correlations (rPearson = .61 - .65, n = 109). Correlations between the ACT interpretation bias scores and mental health-related self-report measures of personality and well-being were generally small (r ≤ |.11|) and statistically not significant when correcting for multiple comparisons. These findings suggest that in non-clinical populations, individual differences in the interpretation of ambiguous affective information as assessed with the ACT do not show a clear association with self-report markers of mental health. However, in allowing for a highly reliable measurement of interpretation bias, the ACT provides a valuable tool for studies considering potentially small effect sizes in non-clinical populations by studying bigger samples as well as for work on clinical populations, for which potentially greater effects can be expected.

From significance testing to estimation and Open Science: How esci can help

We argue that researchers should test less, estimate more, and adopt Open Science practices. We outline some of the flaws of null hypothesis significance testing and take three approaches to demonstrating the unreliability of the p value. We explain some advantages of estimation and meta-analysis ("the new statistics"), especially as contributions to Open Science practices, which aim to increase the openness, integrity, and replicability of research. We then describe esci (estimation statistics with confidence intervals): a set of online simulations and an R package for estimation that integrates into jamovi and JASP. This software provides (a) online activities to sharpen understanding of statistical concepts (e.g., "The Dance of the Means"); (b) effects sizes and confidence intervals for a range of study designs, largely by using techniques recently developed by Bonett; (c) publication-ready visualisations that make uncertainty salient; and (d) the option to conduct strong, fair hypothesis evaluation through specification of an interval null. Although developed specifically to support undergraduate learning through the 2nd edition of our textbook, esci should prove a valuable tool for graduate students and researchers interested in adopting the estimation approach. Further information is at ( https://thenewstatistics.com).

The quantitative paradigm and the nature of the human mind. The replication crisis as an epistemological crisis of quantitative psychology in view of the ontic nature of the psyche

Many suggestions for dealing with the so-called replication crisis in psychology revolve around the idea that better and more complex statistical-mathematical tools or stricter procedures are required in order to obtain reliable findings and prevent cheating or publication biases. While these aspects may play an exacerbating role, we interpret the replication crisis primarily as an epistemological crisis in psychology caused by an inadequate fit between the ontic nature of the psyche and the quantitative approach. On the basis of the philosophers of science Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, and Imre Lakatos we suggest that the replication crisis is therefore a symptom of a fundamental problem in psychology, but at the same time it is also an opportunity to advance psychology as a science. In a first step, against the background of Popper's Critical Rationalism, the replication crisis is interpreted as an opportunity to eliminate inaccurate theories from the pool of theories and to correct problematic developments. Continuing this line of thought, in an interpretation along the lines of Thomas Kuhn, the replication crisis might signify a model drift or even model crisis, thus possibly heralding a new paradigm in psychology. The reasons for this are located in the structure of academic psychology on the basis of Lakatos's assumption about how sciences operate. Accordingly, one hard core that lies at the very basis of psychology may be found in the assumption that the human psyche can and is to be understood in quantitative terms. For this to be possible, the ontic structure of the psyche, i.e., its very nature, must also in some way be quantitatively constituted. Hence, the replication crisis suggests that the ontic structure of the psyche in some way (also) contains a non-quantitative dimension that can only be grasped incompletely or fragmentarily using quantitative research methods. Fluctuating and inconsistent results in psychology could therefore also be the expression of a mismatch between the ontic level of the object of investigation and the epistemic level of the investigation.

Just Keep Spinning? The Impact of Auditory and Somatosensory Cues on Rotary Chair Testing

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to determine whether providing realistic auditory or somatosensory cues to spatial location would affect measures of vestibulo-ocular reflex gain in a rotary chair testing (RCT) context.

METHOD

This was a fully within-subject design. Thirty young adults age 18-30 years (16 men, 14 women by self-identification) completed sinusoidal harmonic acceleration testing in a rotary chair under five different conditions, each at three rotational frequencies (0.01, 0.08, and 0.32 Hz). We recorded gain as the ratio of the amplitude of eye movement to chair movement using standard clinical procedures. The five conditions consisted of two without spatial information (silence, tasking via headphones) and three with either auditory (refrigerator sound, tasking via speaker) or somatosensory (fan) information. Two of the conditions also included mental tasking (tasking via headphones, tasking via speaker) and differed only in terms of the spatial localizability of the verbal instructions. We used linear mixed-effects modeling to compare pairs of conditions, specifically examining the effects of the availability of spatial cues in the environment. This study was preregistered on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/2gqcf/).

RESULTS

Results showed significant effects of frequency in all conditions (p < .05), but the only pairs of conditions that were significantly different were those including tasking in one condition but not the other (e.g., tasking via headphones vs. silence). Post hoc equivalence testing showed that the lack of significance in the other comparisons could be confirmed as not meaningfully different.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that the presence of externally localizable sensory information, whether auditory or somatosensory, does not affect measures of gain in RCT to any relevant degree. However, these findings also contribute to the increasing body of evidence suggesting that mental engagement ("tasking") does increase gain whether or not it is provided via localizable instructions.

Originalbeiträge (Originals). Veränderungen in der Konfliktpathologie während stationärer Psychotherapie und ihr Zusammenhang mit Symptomreduktion

Changes in conflict pathology during inpatient psychotherapy and their relationship with symptom reduction Background: In psychodynamic psychotherapy, the treatment of a patient's unconscious conflicts represents an essential aspect of psychotherapeutic success. The present study therefore investigated whether 1) the significance of conflict issues changes during inpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy, and whether 2) greater changes in the significance of conflicts are associated with a greater reduction in symptoms.

METHOD

113 patients provided information on their symptoms (BSI-18) and the significance of six OPD conflict themes in active and passive mode (12 conflict scales) by self-report on admission and discharge. Using Welch's t-tests and multiple regression models, both pre-post changes in symptoms and conflict significance and the influence of conflict changes on symptom reduction were analyzed.

RESULTS

Four OPD conflict scales changed significantly during treatment. Patients who changed more strongly in terms of the manifestation of conflicts also showed a greater reduction in symptoms.

DISCUSSION

The results indicate both a certain stability of conflict issues and their changeability and confirm the psychodynamic theory that change in conflict issues is associated with symptom reduction.

Revisiting perceptual sensitivity to non-native speech in a diverse sample of bilinguals

Werker and Tees (1984) prompted decades of research attempting to detail the paths infants take towards specialisation for the sounds of their native language(s). Most of this research has examined the trajectories of monolingual children. However, it has also been proposed that bilinguals, who are exposed to greater phonetic variability than monolinguals and must learn the rules of two languages, may remain perceptually open to non-native language sounds later into life than monolinguals. Using a visual habituation paradigm, the current study tests this question by comparing 15- to 18-month-old monolingual and bilingual children's developmental trajectories for non-native phonetic consonant contrast discrimination. A novel approach to the integration of stimulus presentation software with eye-tracking software was validated for objective measurement of infant looking time. The results did not support the hypothesis of a protracted period of sensitivity to non-native phonetic contrasts in bilingual compared to monolingual infants. Implications for diversification of perceptual narrowing research and implementation of increasingly sensitive measures are discussed.

Maternal experienced bereavement and offspring mental health in early adulthood: the role of modifiable parental factors

BACKGROUND

It is estimated that 78% of children experience the death of a close friend or family member by 16 years of age, yet longitudinal research examining the mental health outcomes of wider experiences of bereavement is scarce. We conducted a longitudinal investigation of the association between maternal experienced bereavement before the age of 11 years and offspring depressive and anxiety disorders at age 18 and examined moderation of this association by modifiable parental factors.

METHODS

We analysed data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a UK-based birth cohort, including 9,088 child participants with data available on bereavement. Bereavement was measured via maternal report at eight timepoints until children were 11 years. Offspring depressive and anxiety-related disorders were self-reported at 18 years old using the Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised (CIS-R). The potential moderating roles of maternal anxiety, maternal depression, parental monitoring, positive parenting and negative parenting practices were examined.

RESULTS

Maternal experienced bereavement was not associated with depression or anxiety-related disorders in early adulthood among offspring. In addition, no support was found for negative parenting practices, parental monitoring or maternal anxiety and depression as moderators of the relationship between maternal experienced bereavement and offspring mental health problems at 18 years old. Findings in relation to the moderating role of positive parenting practices were inconsistent.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that a large number of children are exposed to maternal experienced bereavement. We found no evidence that maternal experienced bereavement during childhood increases the risk for offspring psychiatric disorders in early adulthood. Several methodological considerations prudent to bereavement research are discussed.