When did it happen? Verbal information about causal relations affects time estimation

Usually, the closer two events occur, the more likely people infer a causal relationship between them. Recent studies have shown that this relationship between time and causality is bidirectional. Participants also tend to judge events closer in time if they assume that they are causally related. We present six experiments showing causal binding, but unlike other experiments, participants do not emit any motor action, and no physical feedback is given. Rather, all stimuli and causal information are provided verbally. After reading a list of events, participants were asked to estimate the time elapsed between two of them. Those participants who were informed that there was a causal relationship between the two events estimated them as occurring closer to each other. These results support causality- and heuristic-based explanations of temporal binding, as opposed to other explanations such as sensory integration or intentionality of action.

Myths in psychology: psychological misconceptions among Spanish psychology students

Myths in Psychology are beliefs that are widely spread and inconsistent with the empirical evidence available within this field of knowledge. They are characterized by being relatively stable, resistant to change, and prevalent both among the non-academic population and among students and professionals within this discipline. The aim of this study was to analyse the prevalence of these myths among Spanish psychology students and the influence of three variables: the type of university, face-to-face (UAM) and online (UNED), the academic year in which participants were enrolled and familiarity with scientific dissemination. Results show that participants from the face-to-face university, enrolled in higher academic years and that reports familiarity with scientific dissemination believe less in myths than those from the online university, enrolled in lower years and that report no familiarity with scientific dissemination.

Methodological Factors Involved in the Study of Temporal Binding Using the Open Source Software Labclock Web

Temporal binding occurs when an action and an outcome that follows it after a short period of time are judged as occurring closer to each other in time than they actually are. This effect has often been studied using Libet's clock methodology. Garaizar et al. (2016) presented Labclock Web, a free HTML5 open source software that allows researchers to conduct temporal binding and other experiments using Libet's clock through the Internet. The purpose of the three experiments presented here was to test how certain methodological modifications in the Labclock Web task could impact the temporal binding effect. In comparison with the original study, we aimed to: (a) reduce the interval between action and outcome in the delayed condition to 100 ms, instead of 500, (b) present the two types of trials, immediate and delayed, in two separate consecutive blocks, instead of intermixed, (c) use a visual, rather than auditory, outcome following the action, and (d) reduce the number of trials. In addition to its potential theoretical implications, the results confirm that Labclock Web is a useful and reliable tool for conducting temporal binding experiments and that it is well suited to measure temporal binding effects in a broad range of situations.

Attentional instructions modulate differential context-switch effects after short and long training in human predictive learning

Three experiments in human predictive learning assessed the modulating role of instructions on context-switch effects on performance after different levels of training. Cue X (a food name) was paired with an outcome (gastric malaise) in Context A (a specific restaurant), whereas another cue, Y, was presented in the absence of outcome in Context B. The series manipulated the testing context (same or different from the acquisition context), the length of training (short vs. long), and the instructions participants received before testing (attentional or neutral). Attentional instructions intended to either focusing participants' attention on the context (Experiments 1 and 2) or to take attention away from the context (Experiment 3). In agreement with the predictions of the attentional theory of context processing, instructions that focused participants' attention on the context made retrieval of information after long training context specific, something that did not occur in the absence of attentional instructions. Conversely, instructions that took participants' attention away from the context (by focusing their attention on the cue) attenuated context-switch effects that otherwise appear after short training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Learning to infer the time of our actions and decisions from their consequences

Research shows that people infer the time of their actions and decisions from their consequences. We asked how people know how much time to subtract from consequences in order to infer their actions and decisions. They could either subtract a fixed, default, time from consequences, or learn from experience how much time to subtract in each situation. In two experiments, participants' actions were followed by a tone, which was presented either immediately or after a delay. In Experiment 1, participants estimated the time of their actions; in Experiment 2, the time of their decisions to act. Both actions and decisions were judged to occur sooner or later as a function of whether consequences were immediate or delayed. Estimations tended to be shifted toward their consequences, but in some cases they were shifted away from them. Most importantly, in all cases participants learned progressively to adjust their estimations with experience.

Changes in Cue Configuration Reduce the Impact of Interfering Information in a Predictive Learning Task

Decades of research in extinction and interference show that contexts can play a critical role at disambiguating the meaning of cues that have been paired with different outcomes at different times. For instance, if a cue x is followed by outcome 1 in the first phase of an experiment and by outcome 2 in a second phase, responses to cue x tend to be consistent with outcome 2 when tested in a context similar to that of the second phase of the experiment. However, if participants are taken back to the original context of the first phase (i.e., ABA renewal) or to a completely new context (i.e., ABC or AAB renewal), their responses to x tend to be more consistent with outcome 1. Although the role of physical and temporal contexts has been well studied, other factors that can also modulate the selective retrieval of information after interference have received less attention. The present series of experiments shows how changes in cue configuration can modulate responding in a similar manner. Across five experiments using a human predictive learning task, we found that adding, removing or replacing elements from a compound cue that had undergone an interference treatment gave rise to a recovery of responding akin to that observed after context changes in AAB renewal. These results are consistent with those of previous studies exploring the effect of changes of cue configuration on interference. Taken together, these studies suggest that a change in cue configuration can have the functional properties of a context change, a finding with important implications for formal models of configural learning and for classical accounts of interference and information retrieval.

A HTML5 open source tool to conduct studies based on Libet's clock paradigm

Libet's clock is a well-known procedure in experiments in psychology and neuroscience. Examples of its use include experiments exploring the subjective sense of agency, action-effect binding, and subjective timing of conscious decisions and perceptions. However, the technical details of the apparatus used to conduct these types of experiments are complex, and are rarely explained in sufficient detail as to guarantee an exact replication of the procedure. With this in mind, we developed Labclock Web, a web tool designed to conduct online and offline experiments using Libet's clock. After describing its technical features, we explain how to configure specific experiments using this tool. Its degree of accuracy and precision in the presentation of stimuli has been technically validated, including the use of two cognitive experiments conducted with voluntary participants who performed the experiment both in our laboratory and via the Internet. Labclock Web is distributed without charge under a free software license (GPLv3) since one of our main objectives is to facilitate the replication of experiments and hence the advancement of knowledge in this area.

Implementation and assessment of an intervention to debias adolescents against causal illusions

Researchers have warned that causal illusions are at the root of many superstitious beliefs and fuel many people’s faith in pseudoscience, thus generating significant suffering in modern society. Therefore, it is critical that we understand the mechanisms by which these illusions develop and persist. A vast amount of research in psychology has investigated these mechanisms, but little work has been done on the extent to which it is possible to debias individuals against causal illusions. We present an intervention in which a sample of adolescents was introduced to the concept of experimental control, focusing on the need to consider the base rate of the outcome variable in order to determine if a causal relationship exists. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured using a standard contingency learning task that involved fake medicines that typically produce causal illusions. Half of the participants performed the contingency learning task before participating in the educational intervention (the control group), and the other half performed the task after they had completed the intervention (the experimental group). The participants in the experimental group made more realistic causal judgments than did those in the control group, which served as a baseline. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first evidence-based educational intervention that could be easily implemented to reduce causal illusions and the many problems associated with them, such as superstitions and belief in pseudoscience.