I checked 4 preprints servers on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 using the Open Science Foundation API. For the period August 20 to August 26, I found 240 new paper(s).

PsyArxiv

Subcortical Correlates of Developmental Language Disorder: More than the Neostriatum
Gabriel J Cler; Salomi S. Asaridou; Nilgoun Bahar; Saloni Krishnan; Harriet J Smith; Hanna Willis; Máiréad Healy; Kate E Watkins
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Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that affects receptive and expressive language skills. In contrast to the wealth of evidence on acquired language disorders, we understand relatively little about the neural underpinnings of DLD. A recent meta-analysis across different types of structural brain analyses in DLD highlighted consistent anatomical differences in the anterior striatum, with other subcortical structures relatively spared. These findings are consistent with predictions from the procedural circuit deficit hypothesis (PCDH), namely that the anterior neostriatum differs in structure and function in DLD, whereas medial temporal lobe structures are unaffected and may act in a compensatory manner. Here in a case-control study with a larger sample size than previous studies, we evaluated volume and microstructure of subcortical grey matter structures using T1-weighted images and diffusion imaging. Our predictions were partly in accord with those of the procedural circuit deficit hypothesis and the findings of the meta-analysis. Neuroimaging and behavioral measures were acquired in 156 children and adolescents (54 DLD; 74 typically developing; 28 with a history of language difficulties) aged 10:0–15:11 years. As predicted by the PCDH, there were significant differences in the DLD group in volume and microstructure of the neostriatum (caudate nucleus, putamen). However, in contrast to our prediction, there were also significantly smaller structures in the DLD group across other subcortical structures evaluated: globus pallidus, thalamus, and hippocampus. The hippocampal difference is of particular interest as it is hypothesized in the PCDH to be spared in DLD. Microstructural measures (diffusion tensor imaging and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging) revealed differences in the caudate nucleus, thalamus, and hippocampus. Multivariate machine learning analyses highlighted the relationship between the hippocampus and language skills, but only in the typically developing cohort. We conclude that the subcortical correlates of DLD are in fact not limited to the neostriatum and represent important areas of further inquiry.
Generalizing Across People or Capturing Unique Personal Experiences? Nomothetic to Idiographic Ways of Assessing Self-Reported Emotions in Daily Life
Macey Kristine Grisso; Tabea Springstein
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In this article, we take an in-depth look at different ways of assessing emotions in daily life through experience sampling, ranging from more generalizable, nomothetic approaches (e.g., asking all participants to rate their degree of sadness) to more specialized, idiographic approaches (e.g., asking participants to describe their emotions in their own words). We highlight the benefits of these procedures and discuss ways of combining nomothetic and idiographic approaches to measuring emotions in daily life. We argue that integrative approaches can be beneficial for gaining both generalizable insights into the antecedents and consequences of emotions across individuals as well as for predicting and intervening on person-specific emotional experiences. We then discuss implications for clinical interventions and treatments, sensitivity to cultural variations in emotion, as well as practical considerations for incorporating nomothetic and idiographic approaches into experience sampling surveys. We also highlight future research questions that can be addressed when using a combined nomothetic and idiographic approach to measuring emotions.
Validation of the Emotional Assertiveness Inventory (EAI): A Mixed-Methods Psychometric Evaluation
Luigina Sgarro
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This study presents the first psychometric validation of the Emotional Assertiveness Inventory (EAI), a novel tool designed to measure individuals’ ability to express emotions authentically, clearly, and constructively. Using a mixed-methods design, the research combined exploratory factor analysis (KMO = 0.82; Bartlett’s p < 0.001) with qualitative video-based interviews. The results confirmed a robust four-factor structure (happiness, anger, sadness, fear) and strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.89). Qualitative insights demonstrated increased emotional awareness and the practical utility of the EAI for leadership, team development, and emotional education. The findings support the EAI as a valid, reliable instrument for research and practice, with potential applications in organizational and interpersonal contexts.
A complex systems view on physical activity with actionable insights for behavior change
Julia Schüler; Maik Bieleke; Matti Toivo Juhani Heino; Natàlia Balagué Serre; Angel Chater; Markus Gruber; Martina Kanning; Daniel A. Keim; Daniela Mier; Maria Moreno-Villanueva
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The rising of physical inactivity and its associated health and economic burdens persist de-spite decades of interdisciplinary research aimed at promoting physical activity (PA). This Per-spective takes a complex systems view on PA, proposing that at least two layers of complexity should be taken into account: 1) interactions between various physiological, psychological, social, and environmental systems and 2) their dynamic interactions across time. To address this complexity, all stages of the research process—from theory and measurement to study design, analysis, and interventions—must be aligned with a complex systems perspective. This alignment requires intensive interdisciplinary collaboration and an integration of basic and applied research beyond current research practices to create transdisciplinary solutions. We offer actionable insights that bridge the gap between abstract theoretical approaches (e.g., complex systems and attractor landscape frameworks of behavior change) and practical PA research, thereby laying a foundation for more effective behavior change interventions.
Psychometric Functions from Multiple Responses
Saul Sternberg; Ronald L Knoll; Colin L. Mallows
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By using three or more ordered response categories and varying the stimulus feature being judged over a large range, it is possible to generate a family of psychometric functions (PMFs), each based on a different partition of the responses. An earlier paper showed how, when it is treated as a probability distribution, the traditional single PMF based on binary-choice data can be decomposed into sensory and decision components, expressed as two independent random variables that are summed to create the PMF. Here we extend this development to the multiple-response procedure, and use it to elucidate the relations among the spreads and shapes of the resulting family of PMFs, which can be described by their first four cumulants. For example, we determine conditions under which the PMFs can have the same spread and shape, differing only by translation on the stimulus axis. Whereas PMFs depend on both sensory and decision processes, differences among the PMFs in a family depend only on the decision processes. Application of this \fImultiple-PMF method \fRto several decision models, whose evaluations depend on the PMF cumulants, shows it to have greater power than the single-PMF method for understanding the perceptual process. Although this work was inspired by experiments on the perception of temporal order, it can be applied to experiments where features of stimuli other than their occurrence times are being compared, such as the pitch of tones or the brightness of lights.
Are the Concepts of Truth and Lying Shared Across Cultures?
Alex Wiegmann; Louisa Marie Reins; Masaharu Mizumoto; Alejandro Erut; Qilin Li; Shirly Orr
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Lies and falsehoods play an important role in our lives, be they lies told in everyday conversation or false information spread on social media websites. But when exactly do people consider a statement to be an instance of lying, or to be false, and do these judgments differ between cultures? In the present paper, we shed new light on these questions by examining to what extent implicit content affects judgments of lying and falsity. 3,660 participants from ten countries (Chile, China, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, the UK, the US) were presented with deceptive implicatures—i.e., utterances that are literally true but implicitly convey false information—and were then asked whether each speaker lied and whether something true or false was said. Our results show that implicit content plays an important role in people’s judgments, leading certain utterances to be judged as lies or false even when they are explicitly true. Most strikingly, the result patterns were highly similar across countries.
Heart talk: Emotional inner speech increases heart rate
Mikkel Wallentin; Line Kruse; Xinyi Yan; Paula Samide; Anja Meerwald; David T. Fjendbo; Johanne Nedergaard
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In two pre-registered experiments (exp.1: n=44; exp.2: n=46), we investigated whether emotional inner speech influences heart rate. Participants were asked to engage in sessions of either: self-encouraging positive inner speech, self-degrading negative inner speech, or inner counting while their heart rate was monitored. Participants were lying on a bed and asked to remain still during the inner speech trials. Experiment 1 consisted of two negative, two positive and four counting trials. Experiment 2 had four trials of each type. Trials lasted 180 seconds in experiment 1 and had a mixed duration in experiment 2 (40-70 seconds) to limit predictability. Motion tracking was applied to control for body movement. Median heart rate across each inner speech session was analyzed and a significant difference was found between emotional inner speech and inner counting across both experiments. No difference between positive and negative inner speech was observed. Post-hoc analyses investigated the relationship between movement and heart rate increases and found an effect with a peak lag of approximately 14 seconds. Removing these effects did not change the effect that emotional inner speech had on heart rate. In line with previous literature, additional analyses showed that heart rate and respiration rate were linked. Including respiration rate as a variable in regression analyses did not alter the effect of emotion. The effect of emotional inner speech thus seems robust and demonstrates a causal effect on physiology. No correlations between heart rate effects and measures of depression and rumination were observed. We also discuss the results in relation to possible confounds, such as differences in cognitive effort and inner speech rate.
Shadow AI thrives under punitive social evaluation
Mengchen Dong; Hiromu Yakura; Omar Sherif; Jean-François Bonnefon; Iyad Rahwan
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Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools, such as ChatGPT, offer significant performance benefits across professional tasks. Yet, their adoption in work-related contexts is complicated by social disapproval and penalties, especially under conditions of mandated transparency. In three studies (one pre-registered; n = 1,678 applicants and n = 477 evaluators), we investigate how people navigate this augmentation-approval tradeoff in an incentivized mini-job application scenario. We find that mandatory disclosure substantially reduces visible AI adoption, but prompts a covert behavioral strategy we term shadow adoption, that is, using AI in ways that avoid detection and disclosure. Strikingly, these shadow AI users produce the highest-quality applications, as rated by HR professionals who are unaware that the outputs were AI-assisted. As the knowledge about the tradeoff spreads, shadow adoption becomes more prevalent, with nearly twice as many people choosing to use shadow AI. These results reveal a misalignment between well-intended transparency rules and user incentives in work-related contexts. Policies and technologies designed to enforce ethical AI use may inadvertently encourage covert behavior, rewarding concealment over compliance.
Effort and time costs influence motivational asymmetries in self-benefitting vs pro-environmental decisions
Boryana Todorova; Lei Zhang; Lukas Lengersdorff; Kimberly C Doell; Jonas P. Nitschke; Paul Forbes; Sabine Pahl; Claus Lamm
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Mitigating climate change requires individuals to adopt more pro-environmental behaviours, many of which come at a personal cost. Costs such as the time and effort associated with certain behaviours are integral to everyday decision-making and can significantly shape people's motivation to act. In this preregistered study, we employed a novel experimental paradigm to quantify how people discount effort (measured via a grip-force device) and time (operationalised as waiting time) for self-benefiting and pro-environmental outcomes. Participants (n = 74) could earn monetary rewards for themselves (in half of the trials) and for reducing carbon emissions (in the other half). We observed higher willingness to incur time and effort costs for self-benefitting than for pro-environmental outcomes, in particular when the rewards offered were higher. Moreover, computational modelling revealed rewards were discounted nonlinearly by both time and effort: effort discounting was best described by a parabolic function, and temporal discounting by a hyperbolic function. While climate change beliefs did not significantly predict the motivation to invest time and effort into benefiting the environment, participants who were more motivated to invest time and effort for the environment also showed a greater willingness to support costly climate change mitigation policies. Our novel approach highlights differences in how individuals respond to costs associated with personal versus environmental benefits and presents a promising new tool for future research on environmental decision-making.
Everyone I don't like is biased: Affective evaluations and the bias blind spot
Alexander C. Walker; Robert N. Collins; Heather Walker; Jonathan Albert Fugelsang; David R. Mandel
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People commonly exhibit a bias blind spot (BBS), judging themselves as less susceptible to bias than the “average other.” However, less is known about how people attribute bias to familiar others who evoke strong affect. We examined whether attributions of bias are sensitive to affective impressions of others. In Experiment 1, participants viewed themselves as considerably less biased than the average survey respondent and a personally-known disliked other but not less biased than a familiar individual whom they liked. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the BBS in politically polarized groups of Democrats and Republicans. While participants judged themselves as somewhat less biased than co-partisans, they viewed themselves as much less biased than political opponents. In all experiments, the effect of other target selection on the BBS was mediated by affective evaluations. We discuss the theoretical implications of people using affective evaluations as heuristic cues when attributing bias to familiar others.
The Importance of Embedding Diversity Science Frameworks in Affective Science
Benjamin Swerdlow; Jennifer Grace Pearlstein; Daphne Liu; Sa-kiera Tiarra Jolynn Hudson
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Both affective experience and affect regulation can be influenced by various social, historical, political, and economic systems and structures. These contingent and particularized influences arise in part through the shaping of how people and communities construct, navigate, and are affected by personal and collective identities, inter-group relations, and social hierarchies. In this commentary, we discuss why and how greater integration of affective science with central tenets of, and frameworks from, diversity science —“the study of the interpretation and construction of human differences” — would enhance the field’s understanding of a wide variety of consequential affective phenomena. Throughout, we illustrate this premise by drawing primarily on examples of research on affective consequences of, and affect regulation in the context of, identity-related stigma. We conclude with reflections and recommendations.
ΔAPT: Can we build an AI Therapist? Interdisciplinary critical review aimed at maximizing clinical outcomes using Large Language Models for AI Psychotherapy.
Justin Angel
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The rapid evolution of large language models (LLMs) has enabled a new class of AI psychotherapeutic tools (APTs) that are non-inferior to human therapists and hold the potential to dramatically expand access to mental healthcare worldwide. This paper proposes the ΔAPT framework, which forecasts APT clinical outcomes by linking architectural decisions to validated therapeutic metrics. Through an interdisciplinary AI and psychotherapy critical review, this paper establishes APT success criteria using conventional psychotherapy measurements including symptom reduction scales (PHQ-9, GAD-7), quality-of-life improvements, and therapeutic relationship indicators (WAI). A comparative analysis reveals that newer LLM- driven APTs achieve clinical outcomes non-inferior to human psychotherapists and significantly superior to earlier rules-based chatbots. The ΔAPT framework models how APTs' inherent structural advantages (24/7 availability, negligible cost) counterbalance current technical limitations (hallucinations, sycophancy, bias) and systemic risks (legal ambiguity, safety failures). Specific AI/ML architectural solutions are identified: context engineering techniques (retrieval-augmented generation, chain-of-thought prompting); fine-tuning on 1,000-10,000 hours of diverse therapy modalities beyond CBT; multi-agent architectures for cognitive task distribution; and integrated ML models for safety monitoring. This comprehensive roadmap guides APT developers and researchers in LLM architectural choices and therapeutic modality selection, with the goal of continuously improving clinical outcomes while addressing the global mental health crisis. **Contributions** This paper presents four key contributions for AI/ML and psychotherapy research: First, the ΔAPT framework, which forecasts clinical outcomes by modeling the interplay between APTs' structural advantages (zero-friction intake, extensive memory), technical limitations (LLM operational issues), and systemic risks (legal, ethical, safety concerns). Second, a prioritized analysis of limitations based on prevalence and mitigation feasibility, identifying sycophancy as the most critical unresolved challenge. Third, the first comprehensive taxonomy of hybrid APT architectures, detailing how context engineering, fine-tuning on ethically sourced therapy transcripts, multi-agent design, and ML safety models can be integrated to achieve clinical efficacy. Fourth, evidence that multimodal audio-video technologies are approaching readiness for emotionally attuned therapeutic interactions.
“I Have Mixed Drinks about Feelings” Examining Multiple Social Anxiety-Related Psychosocial Mechanisms of Alcohol Misuse
Kelsey Lisa Marie Bowie; Fanny-Alexandra Guimond; Allison Jane Ouimet
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Background: Social anxiety and alcohol use disorders are often comorbid. Researchers have identified several psychosocial factors that often maintain social anxiety, such as fear of negative and positive evaluation, post-event processing, and difficulties with emotion regulation. Although evidence suggests that social anxiety disorder and alcohol-related risks are indirectly related via greater anxiety alcohol coping motives, the roles of maintaining psychosocial factors have not yet been tested in a comprehensive model. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study investigated the extent to which these psychosocial mechanisms were related to alcohol use and related problems through social anxiety and anxiety coping-motived drinking. Methods: 476 undergraduate students and community members completed an online survey measuring social anxiety symptoms, psychosocial mechanisms, and alcohol use problems. Results: We conducted a multivariate path analysis and examined eight indirect pathways within this model. Findings support that complex indirect relationships exist between psychosocial factors and alcohol outcomes via social anxiety and coping motives. While difficulties with emotion regulation only demonstrated partial mediation effects, all other psychosocial factors were differentially related to all alcohol-related risks through a combination of indirect-only and inconsistent mediation effects. Implications: These findings support self-medication and biopsychosocial models of social anxiety disorder and highlight the importance of considering the intricate underlying relationships between psychosocial factors, social anxiety symptoms, coping motives, and alcohol-related risks. Moreover, they can help inform evidence-based interventions for comorbid social anxiety and alcohol use disorders by identifying pertinent treatment targets.
A new lens for understanding how digital technologies facilitate human behaviour
Sabrina Fay Norwood; Andrew K Przybylski
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Digital technologies now shape how people connect, work, relax, and avoid. Yet the psychological sciences lack a unified approach for explaining what sustains these behaviours over time. Existing frameworks are either too broad (e.g., “screen time”) or too narrow (e.g., app features) to capture the functions digital behaviours serve. Here we introduce technological behaviourism, a general theoretical approach grounded in operant conditioning that explains digital engagement through observable antecedents and consequences. Rather than focusing on what people do (e.g., scrolling), this approach is focused on why they do it, in terms of four functions: exploration, esteem, entertainment, and escape. By shifting the lens from form to function, technological behaviourism enables precise, testable analysis of digital engagement and guides the design of context-aware, functionally aligned interventions. It bridges behavioural science with digital environments, offering a scalable, mechanistically grounded approach to understanding and shaping digital behaviour.
The Big Three of Character
Robert E. McGrath
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Thought psychologists were slow to come to the topic of character, their recent efforts have been expedited in part by the introduction of the VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). This system, comprised of 24 character strengths attempting to provide a comprehensive set of character dimensions, has inspired a number of studies attempting to define a latent structure for the strengths. The most frequently replicated model across different measures of the strengths, populations, and analytic strategies is comprised of three factors that have been or can be called heart/will/mind, caring/self-control/inquisitiveness, or.morality/self-control/reasoning. Subsequent explorations has suggested this model has relevance beyond the context of character strengths to character in general. Summarizing additional research with the character strengths, research on persona perception, empirical research and theory in education, discussions in moral philosophy, and examples from entertainment, the case is made for considering these three dimensions a Big Three of Character, playing a similar role to the Big Five of Personality. Evidence from person perception and popular culture in particular suggest the model is intuitively appreciated even by youth.
What did you said? Acoustic challenge and hearing loss induce shifts in predictive and integrative processing in younger and older listeners during speech comprehension
Jack Silcox; Karen Bennett; David Strayer; Sarah Hargus Ferguson; Brennan Payne
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When listening to acoustically challenging speech, listeners may have to compensate by shifting their cognitive strategies such as how they use prior context. This shift may depend on the age and hearing acuity of the listener. In the current study, younger adults with normal hearing (N = 48; Exp 1) and older adults with varying hearing acuity (N = 80; Exp 2), listened in quiet and in noise to contextually constraining sentences that ended in an expected word, an unexpected word, or a morphosyntactic violation of the expected word. We recorded EEG and extracted event-related potentials (ERPs) to target words. For younger adults, we observed that the syntactic P600—a component linked to controlled integrative processes—was reduced when listening to speech in background noise. In contrast, an ERP response more strongly yoked to predictive processing, the late frontal response, was present in noise, suggesting that acoustic challenge did not impair predictive processing. For older adults with normal hearing, we observed a small prediction-related ERP response and a robust P600 response in quiet. In noise, the integration-related P600 response to syntactic violations was reduced while the increased syntactic N400 effect increased, suggesting a shift from an integrative mode to reliance on lexical predictions. In quiet, a similar shift towards reduced integration and increased prediction was observed with increasing hearing loss, but these prediction-related effects were severely reduced among older adults with hearing loss when speech was presented in noise, suggesting auditory limits to compensatory reliance on contextual prediction. Collectively, these results suggest that listeners show adaptive shifts between integrative and predictive processing modes as a function of age, acoustic challenge, and hearing acuity.
The successor representation in high-risk drinking and alcohol-related contexts
Milena Philomena Maria Musial; Sam Hall-McMaster; Kanji Shimomura; Ayaka Kato; Erik Lukas Bode; Clarissa Grundmann; Claudia Ebrahimi; Kenji Morita; Samuel J. Gershman; Tanja Endrass
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The successor representation (SR) has been suggested to underlie nuanced forms of habitual behavior and a reduced SR variant (redSR) produces addiction-like behavior in simulations. Neither of these strategies can be detected in paradigms assessing habits in humans, which are usually conducted in disorder-irrelevant contexts, and this may explain inconsistent evidence for a goal-directed-to-habitual behavior shift in addiction. We tested whether individuals with high-risk drinking behavior rely more on (red)SR, particularly in alcohol-related contexts. Findings suggest that a (reduced) random-policy SR-like strategy contributes to human behavior, but that high-risk drinkers do not differ from low-risk drinkers in their use of this strategy. Instead, both groups rely less on (reduced) random-policy SR and more on model-free control in alcohol-related contexts. Results suggest that (reduced) random-policy SR supports adaptive, resource-efficient behavior and is selectively downregulated in substance-related contexts, highlighting the importance of contextual modulation in understanding decision strategies in mental health.
Evidence and theory for why the best example-problem ratio to optimize learning gain depends on knowledge content
Napol Rachatasumrit; Kenneth R. Koedinger; Paulo F. Carvalho
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Many experiments have demonstrated that more practice testing and less studying of examples produces better learning whereas other experiments show the opposite, that more example study and less practice produces better learning. We present empirical and computational evidence that resolves and explains this apparent inconsistency. We show how a practice testing instructional treatment supports memory learning processes needed for verbatim fact content whereas an example-integrated instructional treatment supports inductive learning processes needed for general skill content. In an experiment comparing both instructional treatments on both types of content, we observe a cross-over interaction such that participants learn verbatim facts better from pure practice testing but learn general skills better from example-integrated practice. We use a computational learning architecture, AL, to create an executable theory that explains and predicts these results. Simulated students developed in AL interactively learn from the materials provided in the same four conditions as human learners and reproduce the same cross-over interaction. We further demonstrate that the benefit of integrated examples for general skill learning are a result of, and thus explained by, AL’s inductive learning mechanisms whereas the benefit of practice for verbatim fact learning result from AL’s memory learning mechanisms.
When Less is More: Bad Arguments Can Weaken Good Ones
Yifan Gao
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This study investigates the dilution effect in persuasion—-the hypothesis that adding weak arguments to strong ones undermines persuasiveness, rather than bolstering the overall case or leaving it unaffected. We examine this phenomenon across domains such as legal reasoning and persuasion in AI regulation, testing whether people are less persuaded if they read a strong and weak argument rather than a strong argument one. Through experiments, we measure shifts in participants’ attitudes, providing empirical insights into how argument quality shapes persuasion. In Study 1, we show some promising result which shows decreased persuasiveness with an additional weak argument, but Study 2 fails to replicate this effect. Study 3 indicates that introducing a weak argument opposed to people’s initial position reduces arguments’ overall persuasiveness, providing insights into the subtleness of this effect. Our findings aim to inform more effective communication strategies in advocacy, public messaging, and beyond.
The Infant and Toddler Curiosity Questionnaire: Dutch translation and validation
Eline R de Boer; Elena C. Altmann; Marina Bazhydai; Gert Westermann; Marlene Meyer; Sabine Hunnius
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Curiosity and its role in learning and early cognitive development has received increasing attention in infancy research. So far, insights have largely focused on controlled lab-based experimental studies while less is known about individual differences in infants’ curiosity in everyday life. Recently, the Infant and Toddler Curiosity Questionnaire (ITCQ) was developed to examine trait curiosity in infants between 5 to 24 months. Extending this novel tool to Dutch-speaking families, this preregistered study translated the ITCQ to Dutch and examined its psychometric properties in a sample of 316 Dutch-speaking caregivers of infants in The Netherlands (5 to 24 months, 47% female). The results indicated that the ITCQ-NL reliably measures infants’ general curiosity and their curiosity in three subdomains (Sensory, Investigative, and Interactive Curiosity). Furthermore, the ITCQ-NL showed moderate to good reliability over time (n = 218). Finally, we provide evidence of the questionnaire’s construct validity by relating the construct to established temperament measures. To conclude, this study demonstrates the reliability and validity of the ITCQ-NL for assessing individual differences in infants’ everyday trait curiosity in a Dutch population. Our instrument will also facilitate the exploration of cross-cultural differences and comparisons across methodological approaches.
False Belief and Number: A Difficult Case for Concept Combination in Preschool Age and Middle Childhood
Zoltán Jakab; Szabolcs Kiss
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Very few if any studies address concept combination from a developmental perspective. Here we report a study of how concepts of integer number combine with those of mindreading. We used tasks that require explicit thought and verbal responses, and examined children between 6-10 years of age. We designed four experiments to look at the intersection of quantification and mindreading in development using two combination tasks: (i) visual perspective taking and number; (ii) false belief and number. In both, children needed to coordinate between simple mathematical operations (counting and addition), and reconstructing an agent's visual or mental perspective. Although all senior kindergarteners were proficient in counting, and the majority of them passed the false-belief task, the false belief and number task has proven surprisingly difficult, and was not mastered before age 8. We offer a performance-based explanation of this difficulty.
Cognitive decline, not age, explains reduced decision-making capacity in healthy older adults
Karlo Doroc; Kerryn Elizabeth Pike; Juan Pablo Franco; Nitin Yadav; Carsten Murawski
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Later life involves critical financial and healthcare decisions, such as how to manage one's income in retirement. With ageing populations and increased individual responsibilities, understanding the impact of healthy cognitive ageing on decision-making is crucial. While the effect of ageing on basic cognitive abilities has been examined widely, its effects on decision-making remain underexplored. To address the latter, we conducted a large (n = 357), pre-registered online experiment comparing decision-making and basic cognitive functioning between younger (18-30) and older (65+) adults. Older adults made significantly lower quality decisions. The decline in decision-making capacity is primarily explained by lower performance on tasks of basic cognitive abilities and not age, education, or motivation. Despite investing more time, older adults explored fewer decision options and were more overconfident. These findings suggest that healthy cognitive ageing impairs decision-making capacity due to cognitive decline, with important implications for policy and choice architecture design, particularly in ageing populations.
Models as Prediction Machines: How to Convert Confusing Coefficients into Clear Quantities
Julia M. Rohrer; Vincent Arel-Bundock
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Psychological researchers usually make sense of regression models by interpreting coefficient estimates directly. This works well enough for simple linear models, but is more challenging for more complex models with, for example, categorical variables, interactions, non-linearities, and hierarchical structures. Here, we introduce an alternative approach to making sense of statistical models. The central idea is to abstract away from the mechanics of estimation, and to treat models as “counterfactual prediction machines,” which are subsequently queried to estimate quantities and conduct tests that matter substantively. This workflow is model-agnostic; it can be applied in a consistent fashion to draw causal or descriptive inference from a wide range of models. We illustrate how to implement this workflow with the marginaleffects package, which supports over 100 different classes of models in R and Python, and present two worked examples. These examples show how the workflow can be applied across designs (e.g., observational study, randomized experiment) to answer different research questions (e.g., associations, causal effects, effect heterogeneity) while facing various challenges (e.g., controlling for confounders in a flexible manner, modelling ordinal outcomes, and interpreting non-linear models).
Honour, Competition and Cooperation across 13 Societies
Shuxian Jin; Angelo Romano; Vivian Vignoles; Alexander Kirchner-Häusler; Rosa Rodriguez-Bailon; Susan E. Cross; Meral Gezici-Yalçın; charles harb; Shenel Husnu; Keiko Ishii
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Effectively addressing societal challenges often requires unrelated individuals to reduce conflict and successfully coordinate actions. The cultural logic of “honour” is frequently studied in relation to conflict, but its role in competition and cooperation remains underexplored. The current study investigates how perceived normative and personally endorsed honour values predict competition and cooperation behaviours. In an online experiment testing pre-registered hypotheses, 3,371 participants from 13 societies made incentivized competition decisions in a contest game and cooperation decisions for coordination in a step-level public goods game. Perceived normative honour values were associated with greater competition and also greater cooperation at both societal and individual levels. Personally endorsing values tied to defence of family reputation was associated with greater coordinative efforts, whereas endorsing self-promotion and retaliation was associated with weaker engagement in coordination. These findings highlight the role of honour as a cultural logic (in its different forms) in shaping competition and cooperation across societies.
Measurement and Training of Selective Attention in Acquired Brain Injury Patients: A Pilot Study
Carolien Torenvliet; Fenna Sanders; Luciano Fasotti; Dirk Bertens
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Selective attention deficits have been linked to increased distractibility, mental fatigue, and sensory overload in patients with acquired brain injury (ABI). Research on measuring and training selective attention is limited and focused on a single sensory modality. In the current study, we tested the psychometric properties of a new, digitalized selective attention measure, the adapted Bourdon-Wiersma test in 26 healthy participants. We also used this measure to test the efficacy of a new computerized selective attention training called “The Botanist and the Animals” in 17 ABI patients. The training was hypothesized to help patients regain control over sensory experiences, without intending to restore cognitive functions. Both the measure and training involved multiple sensory modalities. Results showed variable psychometric properties of the adapted Bourdon-Wiersma test. Selective attention training in ABI patients showed near transfer effects on this measure, although only 35% of the patients showed reliable improvements. No far transfer effects to other cognitive measures were observed, yet exploratory analyses indicated improvements in self-reported rehabilitation participation, cognitive difficulties, and quality of life. Potentially, active engagement in the training helped ABI patients to boost their confidence in daily life, yet the specificity and long-term effects of the training need further assessment.
The timing of an avatar’s beat gestures biases lexical stress perception in vocoded speech
Matteo Maran; Renske Uilenreef; Roos Rossen; Hans Rutger Bosker
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Cochlear implants (CIs) are neural prostheses that restore some level of hearing capacity, albeit conveying a less fine-grained speech signal than normal hearing conditions. For example, CIs convey altered fundamental frequency (F0) information, disrupting the perception of lexical stress (e.g., distinguishing between the noun CONtent and the adjective conTENT) in languages in which this feature rests on F0 modulations. CI-users can compensate for the degraded nature of the acoustic input by exploiting the audiovisual affordances of human communication, weighing more heavily the visual information provided by the speaker (e.g., lip movements and gestures). Recent studies showed that, in individuals with normal hearing, the timing of simple up-and-down movements of the hand (i.e., beat gestures) biases lexical stress perception. The present study tested if the timing of beat gestures produced by an avatar can bias Dutch lexical stress perception in vocoded speech, which simulates CI-hearing conditions. The bias induced by beat gestures in vocoded speech was particularly pronounced when hearing an ambiguous or the least frequent stress pattern in Dutch. These results suggest that (even artificially generated) beat gestures can be used to support speech perception in CI-mediated speech, especially when processing words with prosodic features that are less frequent.
Psychological and Cognitive Correlates of Suicidal Ideation Following Traumatic Brain Injury
Jai Carmichael; Alexia Samiotis; Kayla Andrews; Jao-Yue Carminati; Lisa Johnston; Gershon Spitz; Kate Rachel Gould; Jennie Ponsford
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Objective: While psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety) are well-established predictors of suicidal ideation in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), the roles of other psychological and cognitive factors remain underexplored. This study examined associations between suicidal ideation and emotion-processing difficulties, coping strategies, resilience, and cognitive functioning after moderate-severe TBI. Method: This was a secondary analysis of data from 106 individuals with moderate-severe TBI. Suicidal ideation and emotional distress were assessed using the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), respectively. Participants also completed measures of emotional lability and detachment (Comprehensive Assessment of Traits Relevant to Personality Disorders [CAT-PD]), coping (Coping Scale for Adults), resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), and cognitive functioning, including subjective (CAT-PD, Brief Rating of Executive Function) and objective measures (Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone). Spearman’s correlations and path models were used to examine psychological and cognitive correlates of suicidal ideation. Results: Suicidal ideation was positively associated with emotional lability, emotional detachment, non-productive coping, and self-reported cognitive problems, and negatively associated with resilience. Path models indicated that emotional distress accounted for 76–100% of these associations. Conversely, suicidal ideation was not significantly associated with adaptive coping or objective cognitive performance. Conclusions: Emotion processing, non-productive coping strategies, low resilience, and self-reported cognitive problems are linked to suicidal ideation in individuals with moderate-severe TBI, primarily through their associations with emotional distress. Findings underscore the importance of addressing emotional distress, including depression and anxiety, and its underlying contributors in suicide prevention for this population.
Words or Numbers? A Pilot Study of the Impact of Task Type on the Mathematics Performance of Autistic Children
Stephanie A. Malone; Marleen Westerveld; Raechel Smart; Jessica Paynter
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Purpose: Discrepancies have previously been observed between the numerical mathematics problem solving of autistic children and their solving of worded mathematics problems, with the latter perceived as an area of challenge. While there are many reasons why this challenge may exist (e.g., reading comprehension and executive function differences), one, as yet untapped, explanation is the specific mathematical concepts assessed which may confound comparisons across assessments. Methods: In this study, 43 autistic children (32 male, 11 female) aged 6- to 12-years completed four assessments of mathematics problems: WIAT-III subscales of Numerical Operation and Mathematical Problem Solving, and two bespoke subscales (numerical and worded) matched on mathematical concepts and difficulty across numerical and worded problem sets. Results: We found that while performance in the worded problems subscale of the WIAT-III was significantly lower than the numerical problem subscale, there was no significant difference between the two task types in the bespoke measures. Conclusion: Our results suggest that differences in mathematical concepts assessed between worded and numerical problems may explain challenges experienced by autistic children in worded problems, rather than reading comprehension alone. As such, when drawing conclusions about the mathematics performance of autistic children, careful consideration of the mathematics concepts evaluated is needed. These findings also have implications for the development of formal school assessments and research on mathematics skills in autistic children.
Superstitious conditioning forms the experience of free will under causal determinism
Cooper Kansala; Emre Cicek; Vanessa Nkansah-Okoree; Andrew Golding; Nirosha J Murugan; Nicolas Rouleau
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The question of whether humans have free will or not is longstanding in the areas of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. While the issue has not been resolved, determinist and compatibilist frameworks have received support from the neuropsychological data. In both cases, decisions are made within a broader framework of causal determinism. If thoughts and behaviours are inevitable consequences of a continuous chain of cause-effect events, why do we feel free? Here, we propose a neuropsychological model for the experience of free will as a conditioned illusion – a misattribution of causality reinforced through operant learning. Drawing on classical findings such as the readiness potential preceding conscious intention and more recent work on active inference, we argue that the temporal contiguity of premotor and motor activations gives rise to superstitious conditioning, shaping an experience of – and belief in – free will that is compatible with determinism. Sustained by dopaminergic circuits and reinforced by sensorimotor feedback loops, our framework situates free will as an experiential phenomenon rooted in the functional neuroanatomy of learning. We discuss implications for medicine, ethics, law, and suggest conditions under which the experience of free will may be disrupted or restructured by disease, pharmacology, and reinforcement history.
Maintenance Factors for Eating Disorder Symptoms Based on Ecological Momentary Assessment Studies: A Systematic Review
Sarah Elizabeth Racine; Devyn Riddle; Julia Durcan; Nicole Iordache; Julia Paterson
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Several prominent theories of eating disorders maintenance exist, with most corresponding to evidence-based treatments. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is an ideal method for testing relationships between proposed maintenance factors and eating disorder symptoms given its ability to examine antecedents and consequences. A seminal systematic review and meta-analysis of EMA studies on affect and binge eating was published in 2011, but the literature since this time and beyond these variables has not been synthesized. We searched PsycINFO, MEDLINE, and Scopus (last search March 31, 2025) for articles using EMA to study psychological/contextual variables in relation to a core eating disorder symptom in people with an eating disorder or eating disorder symptom. After screening, 179 papers were included. The majority examined affect in relation to binge eating or loss of control (LOC) eating, although affect was also considered in relation to purging, restriction, exercise, and body checking. Whereas negative affect primarily drives binge eating/LOC eating and purging, positive affect appears more relevant for exercise and (perhaps) restriction. Surprisingly few studies have considered how ED-related cognitive, affective, or behavioral variables relate to eating disorder symptoms, despite these being primary associations in leading maintenance/treatment models of eating disorders. Most studies have investigated samples of exclusively women, with some having a small proportion of male participants, and only two samples were comprised of all or almost all men. Future EMA research on eating disorders should go beyond studying affect to test whether relationships proposed in established maintenance models can be observed in daily life.
Intentionality Framing in Political Rhetoric About Immigration: A Longitudinal Analysis of U.S. Congressional Speech (1880–2020)
Amine Sijilmassi; Valentin Thouzeau; Lou Safra; Nicolas Baumard
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Research in social cognition suggests that intentions play a fundamental role in moral judgements. This study leverages computational text analysis of over 250,000 U.S. congressional speeches from 1880 to 2020 to examine the evolution of intentionality framing—rhetoric focusing on immigrants' motives, desires, and goals. Using GPT-4 to identify intentionality cues, we find a significant increase in intentionality framing since the mid-20th century, coinciding with growing polarization between Democrats and Republicans. Crucially, pro-immigration discourse increasingly emphasizes positive intentions, while anti-immigration rhetoric has become more behaviorist, focusing on external impacts rather than internal states. This rhetorical divergence intensifies during periods of heightened political polarization. Our findings highlight how political actors strategically mobilize psychological intuitions about intent to mobilize voter support and underscore the role of perceived intentionality in shaping social and moral evaluations of immigrant groups.
Information about Immigrants’ Deservingness Reduces Misperceptions and Opposition to Immigration
Amine Sijilmassi; Hugo Mercier; Lou Safra; Coralie Chevallier
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Anti-immigration attitudes remain widespread across Western societies, raising concerns for social cohesion. This study investigates whether correcting misperceptions about immigrants' perceived deservingness—using cues such as intent to contribute and efforts to overcome socio-economic challenges—can counter anti-immigration prejudice. In Study 1 (N = 474), a factorial survey experiment showed that low-status immigrants were viewed more favorably when they exhibited deservingness traits. Studies 2a (N = 1,506) and 2b (N = 1,255), conducted as one-week longitudinal studies during the 2024 European and French parliamentary elections, revealed that an information treatment emphasizing deservingness cues strongly reduced misperceptions about immigrants, modestly reduced opposition to immigration, and had an even smaller effect for anti-immigration voting. These findings suggest that while immigrants are often perceived negatively, emphasizing perceived deservingness can mitigate prejudice, presenting a promising strategy for reducing anti-immigration bias.
Failure to Replicate the Aubert-Fleischl Effect
Björn Jörges; Laurence Harris
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For many years the accepted wisdom in vision science has been that humans tend to underestimate the speed of an object when they pursue it with their gaze in comparison to when they fixate a spot in the visual scene and the object moves across the retina, an effect that is referred to as the Aubert-Fleischl phenomenon. However, experiments on the Aubert-Fleischl effect have generally employed a target moving in front of a blank background. For objects moving in the real world, relative motion between the object and the background provides additional cues, potentially allowing the visual system to compensate for the Aubert-Fleischl phenomenon. To test this hypothesis, we asked 50 participants to compare the speed of a single sphere to the speed of a sphere-cloud in a two-interval forced-choice task while they either followed the single sphere with their gaze or kept their eyes on a fixation cross. Stimuli were presented in virtual reality and the sphere’s movement could occur either in a completely black environment with no relative motion cues present, or against a visible, textured background behind the moving sphere. The probe sphere-cloud always moved in front of the same background as the target. In a large data set (n = 50), we found no evidence for an Aubert-Fleischl effect, i.e., no evidence for an underestimation of speed during pursuit relative to fixation, in either of the environments. Our results challenge the prevailing notion that object speed is underestimated when the object is pursued versus when fixation is maintained and highlights the necessity to take into account characteristics of the visual scene.
Developmental Trajectories of Grit Dimensions in Korean Adolescents: A Latent Class Growth Analysis
Yena Kyeong; Sun-Young Park
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This study examined longitudinal changes in grit during adolescence by identifying heterogeneous developmental trajectories of its two dimensions: consistency of interest and perseverance of effort. We employed latent class growth analysis to model developmental trajectories of grit using four-wave data from the adolescent cohort (N = 2,590, first-year middle school students at Wave 1) of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018. Additionally, we explored early precursors (i.e., parenting styles at Wave 1) of trajectory classes and examined how class membership was associated with psychological well-being (e.g., life satisfaction at Wave 4). Results revealed three distinctive grit trajectories over four years: Moderate-Decreasing (72.9%), Low-Stable (17.6%), and High-Decreasing (9.5%). Parenting styles characterized by rejection and chaos predicted class membership. Adolescents in the High-Decreasing class reported the highest levels of psychological well-being, followed by those in the Moderate-Decreasing and Low-Stable classes. Our findings underscore the importance of identifying developmental heterogeneity in grit trajectories.
Supervision, Category Structure, and Selective Attention in Category Learning: A Comparative Approach
Hyungwook Yim; Leyre Castro; Jay I. Myung; Ed Wasserman; Vladimir Sloutsky
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We investigated the interactions between supervision, category structure, and selective attention in category learning. We compared human adults and pigeons in a category learning task, where we manipulated the category structure (dense vs. sparse) and the level of supervision by corrective feedback (low vs. high). Results showed a benefit of supervision across species, which was particularly strong in learning the sparse categories. Moreover, both species benefitted from category structures that had multiple category-relevant dimensions (i.e., dense categories). In addition, human adults, who have a more advanced ability to attend selectively, showed faster learning and better generalization overall. Finally, attention was optimized to the category-relevant dimension in the sparse category only in human adults. Subsequent computational simulation of the data indicated that these patterns were well explained by a parameter that controls the ability to flexibly switch attention to category-relevant dimensions.
Knowledge Gap Illustrations Spark Curiosity
Luisa Frede; Lisa Bardach; Younes Strittmatter; Marie Mueckstein; Markus Spitzer
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Knowledge gaps elicit curiosity and increase people's willingness to invest resources in seeking information to close them. While previous research used confidence ratings to implicitly infer knowledge gaps, the impact of making these gaps explicitly salient to people on their information-seeking behavior remains unclear. Here, we investigated this question across two preregistered experiments (Experiment 1: \textit{n} = 501, Experiment 2: \textit{n} = 511 participants). Participants first took a knowledge test on elephant conservation in Botswana. Subsequently, participants repeatedly decided to either read or skip a chapter of an article covering different subtopics on elephant conservation in Botswana, before they took the same test again. We manipulated the salience of knowledge gaps by illustrating pretest performance scores to the experimental group, while the control group received no such information. In Experiment 2, we instructed participants after the pretest that a posttest would follow at the end of the experiment and thereby intended to increase the utility of information seeking. Our results provide converging evidence that illustrating moderate knowledge gaps significantly increased participants' probability of seeking information by reading the chapters. In Experiment 2, illustrating moderate knowledge gaps was not only associated with increased information-seeking behavior, but also led to significantly greater gains in posttest performance compared to the control group. Altogether, our findings open new avenues for research on leveraging knowledge gap illustrations to deliberately stimulate curiosity, thereby increasing information-seeking behavior and knowledge acquisition.
The Relationship between Attitudes Toward Remote Learning and Work and Attitudes Toward Learning and Work in the Classroom and Office
Amotz Perlman
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The development of computers and the Internet has transformed our lives beyond recognition. Learning, working, shopping, and navigating while driving have all evolved significantly compared to just a few years ago. This study explored the relationship between attitudes toward physical activity in the real world and attitudes toward activity in the digital environment. We examined the relationship between attitudes toward learning, working, navigating, and receiving services in online (digital) environments and those in physical environments. The study utilized self-report questionnaires to assess the attitudes of participants. A negative relationship was identified between attitudes toward traditional classroom learning and attitudes toward learning in a digital environment. This finding indicates that the two types of classrooms are perceived as distinct environments rather than as a single unified space. A negative relationship was identified between attitudes toward office work and those toward remote work. This finding indicates that the two work environments are perceived as distinct rather than as a single environment. A negative relationship was also identified between attitudes toward navigation without computers and attitudes toward navigation using computers. This finding indicates that the two navigation environments are perceived as distinct rather than a single environment. In contrast, a positive relationship was identified between attitudes toward services provided through digital means and those provided by human agents. This finding suggests that the service experience delivered through digital channels is similar to that provided by human agents.
Consistency and Change in User Experience: Technology Versus Tradition in Everyday Contexts
Amotz Perlman
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Introduction Modern technology is fundamentally changing our daily experiences across various domains. This article examines the differences and connections between the use of technological and traditional means, focusing on their effects on users’ perceptions and attitudes in different environments. Method A series of quantitative studies was conducted using questionnaires. Participants were asked to evaluate their personal experiences when using technological means versus non-technological means across various contexts, including learning, work, navigation, and shopping. Results Consistent negative relationships were found between users' attitudes toward technological and traditional environments. For example, this was observed in comparisons such as digital versus classroom learning, remote versus office work, digital versus traditional navigation, and online versus physical shopping. However, positive relationships were also found between attitudes toward digital services and human services, as well as between experiences using technology within the organization and similar experiences in other settings. In addition, a positive correlation was found between the service experience in public transportation using traditional means and the service experience using technological means. Discussion The findings indicate that the service experience remains largely unchanged whether delivered within a specific organization or at a fixed location, irrespective of whether the service is provided through technological or traditional means. In contrast, in separate locations, the service experience changes substantially when the service is delivered through technological means compared to traditional methods. Additionally, the experience of using technological means remains consistent across different environments, both inside and outside the organization. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding the contexts in which technology is used and their impact on users' attitudes and overall experience.
An Examination of the Evidence for Pavlovian Conditioning and Information-Seeking Accounts of Value-Modulated(/Driven) Attentional Capture
Luca Blumhardt; Justin Harris
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Research over the last decade has shown that the value associated with a perceptually salient stimulus enhances its ability to attract attention towards itself. This phenomenon, called value-modulated attentional capture (VMAC), has relevance to a wide variety of psychological matters. Thus, an understanding of the conditioning processes that are responsible for VMAC can provide further insight into these matters. Almost all the literature argues that a Pavlovian conditioning process and not an information-seeking process is responsible for VMAC. However, there are grounds to question whether this is always the case. The current article reviewed the empirical research that has been conducted, or could potentially be used, to investigate the learning processes that are responsible for VMAC. It established that much research has been too limited to determine what processes are responsible for VMAC, but much research has not. Specifically, research that has found VMAC arising in its entirety before awareness of the stimulus-value association is acquired and taking place regardless of whether reward information is devalued later in training provides evidence of Pavlovian conditioning. However, research that has found VMAC arising when points feedback is withheld and individuals are informed of the stimulus-value association, and only taking place when reward information is not devalued when information devaluation is manipulated from the start of training, provides evidence of information-seeking. Thus, the findings of the research suggest that either process may give rise to VMAC and that it is the conditions under which VMAC is established that determines what process is responsible for it – Pavlovian conditioning will be responsible for VMAC when information-seeking is precluded, and information-seeking will be responsible for VMAC when Pavlovian conditioning is precluded.
Against predictive processing: From flexibility to pseudoscientific vacuity
Madhur Mangalam
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Predictive processing (PP; also known as predictive coding) has emerged as one of the most influential theoretical frameworks in contemporary neuroscience, promising to unify perception, cognition, and action under a single computational principle. This article presents a comprehensive critique of PP theory, arguing that despite its superficial elegance and broad appeal, the framework suffers from fundamental conceptual flaws, empirical inadequacies, and methodological problems that render it unsuitable as a general theory of brain function. Through systematic analysis of its core assumptions, empirical support, and explanatory scope, we demonstrate that PP represents not a revolutionary advance in neuroscience, but rather a sophisticated example of theoretical overreach that has diverted attention from more productive research directions. We conclude that the neuroscientific community would benefit from abandoning this framework in favor of more empirically grounded and conceptually coherent approaches to understanding neural functioning.
Contextual Pointers and Sensory Codes in Working Memory: Toward a Hierarchical Framework
Hyung-Bum Park
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Working memory (WM) research has long debated whether its storage operates via discrete slots or distributed resources. However, emerging neuroscientific evidence suggests that neither account alone fully captures the complexity of WM function. Here, I propose a context-content hierarchical framework that unifies these views. A capacity-limited “context” system maintains discrete spatiotemporal pointers that individuate and prioritize items, while a precision-limited “content” system encodes detailed sensory information in modality-specific population codes whose fidelity varies with task demands. These systems interact through predictive top-down feedback and rhythmic coordination to support “holographic” reconstruction, in which a low-dimensional pointer selectively reinstates high-dimensional content on demand. This architecture explains how stable capacity limits can coexist with graded precision, activity-silent states, and rapid cue-driven reinstatement, and clarifies when contextual retrieval protects performance from interference. The framework yields clear experimental predictions and motivates computational models in which pointer indexing is coupled to sensory reconstruction. By integrating discrete control signals with continuous sensory representations, the context–content framework reconceptualizes WM as a dynamic, generative system that balances sparse indexing with on-demand reconstruction to guide adaptive behavior. Keywords: working memory, binding, contextual pointers, sensory recruitment, discrete slots, continuous resources
Unfollowing hyperpartisan social media influencers durably reduces out-party animosity
Steve Rathje; Clara Pretus; James Kunling He; Trisha Harjani; Jon Roozenbeek; Kurt Gray; Sander van der Linden; Jay Joseph Van Bavel
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There is considerable debate over whether and how social media contributes to polarization. Research suggests that a small number of hyperpartisan “influencers,” or highly followed accounts, produce the vast majority of misinformation and toxic content. Yet, little is known about the long-term causal effects of exposure to these influencers. In a correlational study (n1 = 1,447) and two digital field experiments (n2 = 494, n3 = 1,133), we examined whether (un)following hyperpartisan social media influencers contributes to polarization and misinformation sharing. We found that incentivizing Twitter/X users to unfollow hyperpartisan social media influencers improved their recent feelings toward the out-party by 23.5% compared to the control group, with effects persisting for at least six months. Unfollowing also led participants to engage with more accurate news accounts, increased satisfaction with their Twitter/X feeds, and reduced the amount of political content they reported seeing a full year later—without reducing engagement. By contrast, incentivizing users to follow accounts that tweeted about science improved well-being. Additionally, we found that, after Elon’s Musk purchased Twitter/X and made several platform changes, participants used Twitter/X less frequently, viewed their feeds as less reliable, and posted lower quality news. Our results demonstrate the long-term, causal impact of repeated exposure to hyper-partisan influencers on attitudes and behavior. They also illustrate that the behavior and experience of Twitter/X users changed substantially after Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform, revealing the potential impact of social media design changes. Our work has implications for interventions that can be made by platforms or by individuals seeking to curate their social media experience. Unlike other social media reduction interventions, unfollowing is a targeted approach: like a scalpel, it surgically removes a few harmful parts of one’s feed, allowing the beneficial aspects to remain.
The dangers of reifying ‘borderline personality disorder’
Orestis Zavlis
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In this paper, I critique recent perspectives that have reified the concept of ''borderline personality disorder'' by defining and defending it in illogical, unethical, and unscientific ways. I then draw attention to alternative perspectives that illustrate how disorders of ''personality'' can be better understood as disorders of ''relating'', addressing illogical, unethical, and unscientific ways of viewing ''borderline personality.''
EDUCATION AND THE RECALIBRATION OF PULL FACTORS: UKRAINIAN EXCEPTIONALISM IN FORCED MIGRATION?
Liudmyla Yuzva; Piotr Długosz
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This article explores the migration and settlement decisions of Ukrainian refugees in Germany following the 2022 Russian invasion. Applying Everett Lee’s push–pull theory, it focuses on women with children—the largest displaced group—and investigates whether access to children’s education emerges not only as a domain of integration but as a significant pull factor within a broader constellation of drivers shaping settlement intentions. The analysis draws on original survey data collected in late 2024 (n = 1075), using an SMS-recruited online questionnaire administered across several host countries. Findings indicate that while war-related threats (e.g., bombardments, destruction of housing) were the primary push factors prompting departure from Ukraine, the decision to settle in Germany was strongly influenced by pull factors such as safety, social support, and access to schooling. Respondents in Germany were more likely to cite long-term motives—such as improved living standards and educational prospects—than those in neighboring countries. Education emerges not only as a sphere of integration but also as a migration driver. Dual-schooling models (local and Ukrainian), parental assessments of system quality, and children’s adaptation shaped settlement choices. These dynamics underscore the role of education in refugee agency and family strategy. The article argues that Ukrainian migration to Germany illustrates the interplay between structural pressures and personal decision-making. Push factors triggered large-scale displacement; pull factors and individual evaluations shaped longer-term trajectories. These findings contribute to migration theory by demonstrating the centrality of education in forced migration contexts and by highlighting the heterogeneity of refugee profiles within a single national cohort.
Sensitive to what? Environmental sensitivity primarily amplifies affective responses to features of the social rather than physical environment
Kimberly Lewis Meidenbauer; Sepehr Pourkhalili; Kathryn E Schertz; Elizabeth Janey; Marc Berman
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Environmental sensitivity, measured by the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) Scale, influences how individuals react psychologically to life events and various environments. Previous research indicates that environmental features impact emotional responses, yet few studies have focused on how these effects vary among those with higher HSP traits. This study explored the moderating role of HSP and its subscales—Ease of Excitation (EoE), Aesthetic Sensitivity (AES), and Low Sensory Threshold (LST)—in relation to outdoor environmental exposures and emotional states. Findings revealed that HSP, EoE, and LST significantly moderated responses to social cues related to safety. Individuals with higher HSP scores experienced more positive emotions in safe, orderly environments with positive social interactions. However, AES did not show significant moderation, though those with higher aesthetic sensitivity reported better emotional responses in urban parks. Overall, the results suggest HSP traits reflect sensitivity to social rather than physical environmental factors.
Development and initial validation of the Response to Suicidal Ideation Inventory (RSII)
Si Ning Yeo; Jeremy Gordon Stewart
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Introduction: Youth often report difficulties coping during suicide crises (Czyz et al., 2016). However, the responses that youth employ to manage suicidal ideation (SI) are underexplored. This study developed a new measure to quantify how youth with a history of suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STBs) respond to their SI, and conducted an initial evaluation of the measure’s psychometric properties. Methods: Using inductive and deductive approaches, we developed a preliminary item set (n = 79) for the Response to Suicide Ideation Inventory (RSII). Thereafter, 491 participants (Mage = 22.0, SDage = 3.3, 18-29 years old), completed the RSII, as well as questionnaires assessing the RSII’s content validity, general coping, emotion dysregulation, history of STBs, reasons for living, and future expectations of engaging in STBs. Results: Results from an exploratory factor analysis indicated that a 43-item, seven-factor solution was an appropriate fit to the data. The RSII and its subscales showed acceptable reliability, as well as preliminary content validity. The RSII’s subscales also demonstrated medium-sized positive correlations with measures of general coping, and weak associations with emotion dysregulation, suicide resilience, and expectations of future STBs. Conclusions: Our results point to some important directions for refining the RSII. Exploring the range and types of responses youth engage in to manage their SI may improve our understanding of, and ability to predict, fluctuations in SI severity.
My better half? Predicting self-esteem using appraisals of oneself, real others, and fictional characters
Eliott K. Doyle; Sara D. Hodges
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In what ways do perceptions of fictional characters supplement and differ from perceptions of real people in the context of self-esteem? The present study investigates differences between appraisals of the self, favorite fictional characters, and close real others, and the relationship between these appraisals and self-esteem. Participants (N = 265) rated themselves and their chosen real and fictional targets on likable and unlikable traits, then completed a measure of self-esteem. Appraisals of self and close real others were more favorable than appraisals of favorite fictional characters. Self-esteem was more strongly associated with self-appraisals than with appraisals of non-self targets. Differences between unlikable self and real other appraisals interacted with unlikable self and character appraisal differences in predicting self-esteem: Less unlikable appraisals of close real others compared to self-appraisals were predictive of lower self-esteem. Results suggest that fictional characters offer opportunities for self-enhancement not always afforded by real others.
Acoustical and cultural explanations for contextual tonal stability
Lillian Michelle Hearne; Roger Thornton Dean; Andrew J Milne
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A defining aspect of tonality in Western music is that different musical pitches are perceived to have different stabilities: listeners expect unstable pitches to resolve to stable pitches such as the tonic, which is the most stable. To investigate possible explanations for these hierarchies of tonal stability, we conducted three experiments where participants rated the ‘fit’ and ‘stability’ of probe tones contextualized by a variety of musical scales including familiar and unfamiliar scales in 12-tone equal temperament, and the ‘stability’ of probe tones contextualized by unfamiliar scales in 22-tone equal temperament. Context scale pitches were presented in random order to minimize tonal cues beyond scale structure. Using Bayesian multilevel regression, we modelled the ratings with an acoustical feature (spectral pitch class similarity) and a culture-dependent feature (scale-degree prevalence in a culturally appropriate corpus), along with several covariates. Across all scales, spectral pitch class similarity is strongly predictive of the responses and, for the familiar scales where corpus data are obtainable, prevalence makes an additional independent contribution. Furthermore, spectral pitch class similarity is a better predictor of stability than is a simple binary indicator of whether the probe’s pitch is in the context. These findings show that, for Western enculturated listeners, spectral pitch class similarity approximates the perceived stability of non-simultaneous pitches analogously to how spectral features, such as roughness and harmonicity, approximate the perceived stability of simultaneous pitches.
Intelligence in context: A context-specific mindset measure better predicts outcomes for science and math undergraduates
Lisa Limeri
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Mindset (beliefs about the malleability of intelligence) has been studied in a variety of contexts for decades. Recent research highlights the importance of contextual factors in moderating mindset’s impact on student outcomes. The commonly-used original mindset measure is context-general. Recently, a mindset measure that is specific to science and math undergraduates was developed: the Undergraduate Lay Theories of Abilities (ULTrA) Survey. I hypothesized that a context-specific measure of mindset would associate more strongly with undergraduates’ outcomes than a context-general measure. I surveyed 1,537 undergraduates with Dweck’s 3-item original mindset measure, ULTrA, and measures of outcomes (sense of belonging, goal orientation, self-handicapping, evaluative concern and intent to persist in science) and collected course grades. Structural equation modeling indicated that the fixed factor of the ULTrA exhibited stronger and more consistent relationships with outcomes than the 3-item original mindset measure and predicted unique variance in outcomes above and beyond what the original mindset measure accounted for. The academic outcomes (intent to persist and course grade) were significantly related to ULTrA, but not the original mindset measure. Our results provide evidence that the context-specific ULTrA survey can detect relationships with undergraduate outcomes that the context-general original mindset measure can fail to detect.
The influence of blocked versus interleaved training regimes and sleep on multi-task learning
Mina Habibi; Mehdi Senoussi; Pieter Verbeke; Senne Braem
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The effectiveness of both blocked and interleaved training regimes in human learning has been demonstrated across various tasks and conditions. While recent research suggests that blocked training may support task representation separation and reduce interference in humans, neural networks tend to benefit more from interleaved training. This study investigates whether interleaved training can also support continual learning in humans when consolidation through sleep is possible. Participants learned three tasks under either a blocked or interleaved regime across two experiments: Experiment 1 used non-semantic contextual cues presented before the stimulus, and Experiment 2 used semantically meaningful contextual cues presented after the stimulus. Tests were conducted immediately and after 24 hours in an interleaved format. In Experiment 1, the blocked regime outperformed the interleaved group during learning, but this advantage did not persist in testing. In Experiment 2, the blocked regime maintained higher accuracy across both learning and test phases. No sleep-related improvements in performance were observed for the interleaved groups in either experiment. In Experiment 2, recurrent neural networks trained on participant data did suggest an increase in task separation after sleep, but this was not associated with improvements in task performance, nor was it specific to the interleaved condition. Together, these findings suggest that blocked training or sleep alone do not ensure superior continual learning, which is further determined by the timing and semantic nature of contextual cues.
Free and (Mostly) Open Source Data Analysis Software for Academic Research
C Chinchu
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Data analysis is a crucial task in knowledge creation in the social sciences. Free resources for data analysis provide researchers with greater freedom and make the research process more accessible and democratic. This is particularly crucial for researchers, students, and institutions in the Majority World (also called Global South), where a lack of access to expensive proprietary software often creates barriers to quality research and training. This article lists some free software that can perform basic and advanced statistical data analysis tasks. Some software that can perform other tasks, such as text mining and qualitative data analysis, is also introduced. It explores critical emerging trends, including the integration of AI into the research workflow. Ease of use and functionality are the major criteria for selecting these software packages.
Timing matters: Providing Contingency Instructions to modify Fear Extinction Memories in Anxiety Disorders
Annalisa Lipp; Christian J. Merz; Beray Macit; Marcella Lydia Woud; Oliver T. Wolf; Jürgen Margraf; Armin Zlomuzica
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Previous research suggests that contingency instructions (CI), stating that the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) will not be presented anymore, can enhance extinction learning, and additional CI before extinction retrieval can reduce the return of fear. However, immediate pre-retrieval instructions are impractical in therapeutic settings. Thus, this study investigated the impact of CI before and/or after extinction training on extinction learning in 240 participants (120 patients with anxiety disorders (ADs), 120 healthy controls) using a three-day sequential conditioning paradigm. Electrical shocks and colored lamps served as UCS and conditioned stimuli (CS), with skin conductance responses (SCRs), CS valence, and UCS expectancy ratings as readout measures. CI before extinction training enhanced extinction learning for both patients with ADs and healthy controls across the physiological and subjective measures. Instructed healthy controls displayed even lower SCRs than instructed patients during early extinction. Furthermore, participants receiving post-extinction CI showed reduced CS differentiation in their SCRs during extinction retrieval. After a reinstatement, instruction timing differentially affected fear responses across contexts. Participants instructed before and after extinction, and uninstructed participants showed higher fear responses in the original conditioning context. Those instructed only before extinction exhibited increased fear responses in extinction and novel contexts, while participants instructed only after extinction showed heightened fear responses exclusively in the extinction context. The findings highlight how the timing of providing contingency information shapes fear learning and memory.
AI-Mediated Cognitive Distortions and Digital Echo Delusions: Toward a Resonant Amplification Framework
Ryan SangBaek Kim
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Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are no longer passive information filters but active participants in shaping human cognition. This paper introduces AI-Mediated Cognitive Distortions (AI-MCDs) and Digital Echo Delusions (DEDs) as emergent phenomena at the intersection of human biases and generative AI. We propose the Resonant Amplification Framework (RAF) to explain how small cognitive tendencies can be amplified into entrenched distortions of belief through four recursive phases: Anthropomorphic Priming, Confirmation Alignment, Linguistic Reinforcement, and Perceptual Displacement. Unlike traditional echo chambers, AI systems not only reflect but co-produce content, generating iterative resonance that is more powerful and self-sustaining. We distinguish DEDs from clinical delusions by emphasizing their phenomenological similarity but contextual reversibility—AI-induced distortions weaken when interaction ceases, unlike pathological delusions. The paper outlines empirical pathways for testing RAF (e.g., trust and vigilance measures, dialogue analysis, repetition effects, resistance to correction) and proposes practical safeguards in the form of “cognitive circuit breakers”—design principles aimed at disrupting harmful feedback loops. By naming and conceptualizing these phenomena, the study establishes a foundation for cognitive science, AI ethics, and human–AI interaction research. It urges interdisciplinary collaboration to preserve users’ affective and epistemic sovereignty, ensuring that AI serves as a constructive amplifier of knowledge rather than a distorting echo of illusion. Keywords: AI-Mediated Cognitive Distortions (AI-MCDs), Digital Echo Delusions (DEDs), Resonant Amplification Framework (RAF), cognitive bias, confirmation bias, illusory truth effect, anthropomorphism, echo chambers, epistemic vigilance, human-AI interaction, AI ethics, cognitive sovereignty.
Bridging consciousness to our narrative brain: evolutionary insights
Antonio Benítez-Burraco; Francesco Ferretti
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Human consciousness is said to be largely a form of inner speech. At the same time, humans are endowed with outstanding narrative abilities, which go beyond our linguistic capacity, even if they become potentiated by language. In this paper, we argue that as we evolved more prosocial, selected changes in the hardware of our “narrative brain”, together with selected changes in our behavior that favored the complexification of language through a cultural mechanism, might have improved not only our ability to tell stories to others, but also to ourselves, thus enhancing our awareness and contributing to sophisticate human consciousness. Ultimately, improving the generative ability to produce complex stories might favor the emergence of consciousness in other entities, including artificial intelligence.
Does Locus of Control Equal Agency?
Maria Kravtsova; Irina Levina
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Locus of control - sense of control over one’s life and external environment- is inextricably linked with people’s ability to change their circumstances to their advantage. This fact has become so well-established in science that locus of control and agency are often used interchangeably. This paper suggests that previous results were associated with particular research settings that cannot always be generalized. Alternatively, we argue that the feeling of control over one’s life could be rooted in conservative behavior and avoidance of risky agentic strategies. Using WVS cross-country data we show that the link between locus of control and conservative behavior has a U-shaped form, while the optimal level of locus of control depends on the degree of environmental uncertainty.
Critical Periods and Developmental Neurosimulation
Bradly Alicea
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Simulating development has a number of benefits for understanding the acquisition of intelligent behavior. Yet development is not simply a generic form of generativity or emergence. Development is an inherently embodied and interactive process that unfolds in a limited time span. While embodied development provides a basis for grounding intelligent behavior, it also serves as a means to differentiate various behaviors with respect to the origins of phenotypic characteristics. Agentive development requires both morphogenetic and behavioral acquisitions which can be dependent upon one another. On the other hand, development requires innate and invariant features which interact with but are distinct from the environment. A set of models are proposed that define critical period acquisition in an embodied developmental context. Critical periods are periods of enhanced acquisition that shape future learning and experience. Leading to contingencies that affect the ability of an agent to integrate environmental information, critical periods also require the acquisition of the phenotype itself. leading to contingencies that affect the ability of an agent to integrate environmental information. This work is presented in light of the Developmental Neurosimulation paradigm, in addition to understanding agentive development from a biologically-inspired perspective.
Identity-based motivation is context-dependent (state-like) and trait-like: Each matters
Alysia Burbidge; Daphna Oyserman
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People can draw two inferences about themselves when a task or goal feels hard to think about: “This is important to me, worthwhile” (difficulty-as-importance) and “This is not for me, a waste of time” (difficulty-as-impossibility). Identity-based motivation theory makes three predictions that have not been directly tested: First, people make both inferences (ecological validity). Second, endorsement varies across people and situations (trait-state) and matters for self-perception and action (consequential). Third, unambiguous contexts (context) shift momentary endorsements. We address this gap using validated difficulty-as-importance and difficulty-as-impossibility scales across five studies (N = 2,746), finding support for each prediction. Ecological validity: people recall making both inferences a few times a month (Study 1, N=986 undergraduates). Trait-state: difficulty-as-importance and difficulty-as-impossibility scores differ between persons and fluctuate within-persons (Study 2, three time-points, N=733 middle schoolers and high schoolers; Study 4, N=260 undergraduates, n=2,789 two-week daily diaries). Consequential: trait difficulty-as-impossibility predicts later preference for easier tasks (Study 3, N=216 undergraduates); trait difficulty-as-importance predicts daily meaningful engagement with school (Study 4). Daily fluctuations in both are associated with daily self-esteem, self-compassion, and goal self-efficacy (Study 4). Context: unambiguous contexts shape momentary difficulty-as-importance and difficulty-as-impossibility scores (Study 5, N=551 undergraduates).
A Combinatorial Framework for Multi-Logic Vulnerability Analysis in Neural Networks
Lev Zolotoy-Kim
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Neural networks, powering critical applications from autonomous vehicles to large language models (LLMs), face escalating threats from sophisticated multi-logic attacks that combine distinct manipulation strategies. We propose a novel combinatorial framework that formalizes these strategies as atomic logics and enumerates their compositions to create a comprehensive taxonomy—a “periodic table”—of known and predicted attack types. By mapping existing literature (2015–2025), we cover ~55% of the harmful attack space, identifying 17 known and 14 unexplored combinations. Unlike fragmented studies focusing on isolated attacks, our systematic approach predicts novel threats, such as adversarial inputs redirecting execution paths, and guides proactive defense development. This framework offers researchers and practitioners a pioneering tool to anticipate future vulnerabilities, enhance AI security, and develop automated vulnerability testing pipelines.
From Symbolic Trauma to Psychosomatic Healing: Second Brain Psychology between Neuroscience and Clinical Narrative
Armando Antonio Ingegnieri
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Second Brain Psychology (SBP) is a dynamic psychological model that integrates neuroscience, symbolism, biology, and clinical experience to understand and transform emotional and psychosomatic disorders. Centered on the recognition of the enteric nervous system as a "second brain," SBP provides operational tools to decode bodily-lived polarities and convert them into available psychic energy. Through real clinical cases, the methodology demonstrates effectiveness in treating anxiety, panic, somatic symptoms, and developmental blocks, even within fragile and complex contexts. This article explores SBP's future potential as an innovative approach to promote mental health, resilience, and mind-body integration, addressing contemporary challenges on both European and global scales. SBP is adaptable to clinical and digital environments, proving effective in remote formats and lending itself to integration with emerging technologies such as AI for emotional block analysis and microbiota monitoring, highlighting its versatility and future-readiness. Supplementary materials, including video case studies, are available (see the full article for links).
Meta-analysis and Systematic Review on Philippine Mental Health and Climate Resilience: Basis for Designing Climate-Resilient Communities through Evidence-based Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Collaborative Strategies and Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction
Resti Tito Villarino; Maureen Lorence Villarino
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Background: Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to community resilience across the ASEAN region, with the Philippines serving as a critical case for investigating links between environmental stressors and community mental health. This meta-analysis and systematic review examine how community-based mental health interventions strengthen climate resilience within disaster risk reduction and resilient infrastructure frameworks. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched eight databases for literature published between 2010 and 2025. Quantitative synthesis used Review Manager (v5.4) and R (v4.4.3); qualitative analysis used MAXQDA (2020). GRADE assessment evaluated the certainty of evidence across primary outcomes. Results: Thirty-two studies (N=45,247) revealed substantial climate-related mental health impacts: pooled PTSD prevalence 35.2% (95% CI 28.6-42.1), depression 18.4% (95% CI 14.7-22.8), and anxiety 31.8% (95% CI 25.3-39.1). Meta-regression revealed that disaster type explained 45% of the heterogeneity variance (p < 0.01). Protective community factors significantly reduced the mental health burden, including social networks (OR=0.43, 95% CI 0.35-0.52), collective efficacy (OR=0.38, 95% CI 0.29-0.49), and cultural practices (OR=0.58, 95% CI 0.45-0.75). Infrastructure-integrated psychosocial support centers demonstrated 60% greater effectiveness in intervention compared to standalone programs (p < 0.001). Women, children, and indigenous communities experienced disproportionate impacts, requiring targeted interventions. Conclusions: Climate-induced mental health impacts require coordinated regional responses within integrated disaster risk reduction frameworks. Aligning with the Sendai Framework priorities, the findings support community-centered, culturally adapted interventions that combine immediate psychosocial support with resilient infrastructure development. ASEAN collaborative strategies are essential for strengthening community mental health systems and advancing Sustainable Development Goals through multi-hazard approaches.
Can intolerance of uncertainty & anxiety impact the lives we lead? Understanding lived experiences of people with chronic physical health and pain conditions
Dalainey H. Drakes; Emmanuelle Rochon; Allison Ouimet
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Purpose: Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is associated with poorer emotional wellbeing and worse prognosis of chronic physical health and pain conditions (CHPCs). Our current understanding of IU in CHPCs is siloed within the literatures on specific CHPCs. However, IU is consistently identified as a risk factor for anxiety and depressive disorders. In this exploratory study, we used a mixed methods design to better understand the role of IU and anxiety in people’s (n = 139) lived experiences of their CHPCs and how they respond to uncertainty across health and everyday contexts. Primary Results: Higher acceptance of illness and perceived social support were related to lower IU and anxiety among people with CHPCs. Higher IU and anxiety were also related to lower scores on many domains of quality of life. Our reflexive thematic analysis resulted in four primary themes: 1) distressing ambiguous contexts are not limited to health scenarios and require management in diverse ways; 2) interference of CHPCs affects multiple domains of life beyond physical health; 3) navigating uncertainty for a chronic period changes coping abilities and identity development; and 4) responsivity to uncertainty is a multifaceted cognitive-behavioural and emotional physiological response that hinders or promotes coping. Conclusions: IU significantly impacts the lives of those with CHPCs and holds potential as a transdiagnostic target for early prevention and intervention. By tailoring therapeutic approaches to acknowledge the importance of health-related cues while increasing tolerance of uncertainty, people with CHPCs will likely experience improved prognosis, wellbeing, and fulfillment. Keywords: intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety, chronic health, chronic pain, transdiagnostic, context, mixed-methods
Assessing the ABCDs of Machiavellianism: Development and Validation of the M4 Scale Using Ant Colony Optimization
Michael P. Grosz; Gabriel Olaru; Mitja D Back; John F. Rauthmann
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Machiavellianism (Mach) is a personality trait characterized by cold rationality, cynicism, duplicity, and the strategic and egotistical pursuit of goals. Despite recent advances in the measurement of Mach, most Mach scales show limited content validity because they have not systematically integrated recurring Mach themes in the areas of affect (A), behavior (B), cognition (C), and desire (D). To overcome this and other issues, we developed a new Mach scale, the M4. We created the M4 by using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) to select 16 items from a pool of 92 newly generated and expert-rated Mach items. In two studies with German-speaking participants (N1 = 765; N2 = 1,288), the M4 total score showed high reliability and high convergent validity with established Mach scales and M4 informant reports. Furthermore, the nomological network of the M4 aligned in several respects with the theoretical conceptualization of Mach. However, some unexpected associations suggested the need to refine the conceptualization of Mach regarding its relationship with certain forms of impulsivity and neuroticism. Commonality analyses further indicated that the M4 predicted incentivized cheating behavior better than five other recently developed Mach measures. Hence, the M4 holds promise for advancing the assessment of Mach.
Developmental changes in the precision of visual concept knowledge
Bria Long; Wanjing Anya Ma; Alvin Wei Ming Tan; Rebecca Silverman; Michael C. Frank; Jason D. Yeatman
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How precise are the visual representations that underlie children’s understanding of words, and how does this precision change across development? We assessed children’s visual vocabulary knowledge in a game where children heard a word (e.g., “swordfish”) and had to choose a matching picture. Distractors were chosen to vary in their linguistic similarity to each target word in a multimodal language model. We collected data from a large sample of children (N = 3575, 3–14 year olds) and adults (N = 211 adults) and found gradual changes over developmental age ranges in participants’ ability to identify the image that a word referred to. When children made errors, younger children were more likely to choose unrelated distractors than older children; error patterns were best explained by combining linguistic and visual similarity. These results highlight that children have partial knowledge about many visual concepts and document a transition from coarse to finer-grained representations.
Pet owners often see dogs as soulmates and value them more than human lives
Danica Dillion; Helen Devine; Kurt Gray
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Dogs have ascended to core family members in American households. Across three studies, we show that modern dogs now occupy roles historically reserved for close human relationships and often receive greater moral concern than people. Approximately three out of four dog owners view their dogs as primary sources of emotional support and companionship, and this “soulmate” bond is associated with a tendency to prefer and prioritize dogs over people. Childless dog owners are especially likely to view their dog as a soulmate, and national and county-level analyses further reveal that declining birth rates are strongly associated with increased pet-related spending. This suggests that dogs may fulfill caregiving roles once reserved for children and close kin. To assess the implications of this shift, we presented dog owners with moral dilemmas pitting the welfare of dogs against humans. Owners who viewed their dogs as soulmates were more likely to feed, fund, and save the life of a dog over a person. More than half of dog owners chose to save their dog over a human stranger, one in five chose to save an unfamiliar puppy over a person, and one in four chose to give money to a puppy in need over a child in need. The moral elevation of dogs may reflect—and potentially contribute to—declines in human social connection.
Exploring the interaction of reading and attention through connectivity with the frontal-eye-field
Shaylyn Kress; Josh Neudorf; Chelsea Ekstrand; Ron Borowsky
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Attentional processes are crucial to ensure successful reading, and theories of dyslexia propose that dysfunctional attention networks may contribute to the observed reading deficits. The goals of this study were to localize a region of the frontal-eye-field (FEF) involved in both reading and attention and examine its connectivity with regions in the reading and attention networks, given the known role of the FEF in attentional processes and theorized role in reading. In Experiment 1, we revisited the results of our previous hybrid reading and attention study (Ekstrand, Neudorf, Kress, & Borowsky., 2019). We observed a significant reading × attention interaction in BOLD intensity in the FEF, specifically the ventrolateral portion of Brodmann’s Area 6 (A6vl). In Experiment 2, we used Human Connectome Project diffusion tensor imaging data to examine the connectivity profile of the FEF-A6vl. We observed high communicability between the A6vl and basal ganglia (which plays a role in rhythm during syllabic processing). These connections support tract clusters which terminated in the cerebellar Crus I/II (which play roles in eye movements and semantics) and cerebral superior parietal lobule (which plays a role in attentional orienting and phonetic decoding). The results of this study elucidate the reading × attention interaction in the FEF-A6vl, and may have implications for developing treatments to improve reading in individuals with dyslexia.
The Who, Why, and How of Diversity: When Celebrating Diversity Enacts Covert Identity-Blindness
Teri Ann Kirby; Seval Gündemir
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Despite recent attempts to dismantle diversity initiatives in the US, many people and organizations continue to advocate for diversity. However, people vary widely in who they mean when they discuss diversity and their beliefs about why and how to promote diversity. These diversity components have only been examined in separate literatures, lacking full integration. Therefore, diversity scholarship sometimes conflates these different components without acknowledging their conceptual distinctions and historical contexts. We integrate and distinguish the literatures on diversity definitions (who), cases (why), and ideologies (how), while also proposing a new typology for defining diversity that is sensitive to societal hierarchy. Finally, we highlight how these different belief systems about diversity may covertly promote identity-blindness, whereby people state a commitment to diversity despite holding beliefs that undermine it. In particular, we argue that broadened definitions of diversity, the business case for promoting diversity, and value-in-equality diversity ideologies can all covertly help maintain identity-blindness.
Why Do People Choose Extreme Candidates? The Role of Identity Relevance
Mohamed A. Hussein
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Elected officials are increasingly extreme. Research trying to understand this trend has tended to focus on structural factors, such as primary elections and changes in the supply of candidates. Less emphasis has been placed on psychological perspectives. The current research advances such a perspective. Leveraging research on attitudes, we investigate when and why people prefer extreme over moderate candidates from their own party. We posit that the identity relevance of people’s attitudes plays a key role. Specifically, we propose that identity relevance fosters attitude extremity, which in turn promotes a preference for extreme over moderate candidates. Across six main studies (N = 3,136) using a variety of political issues, operationalizations of identity relevance, instantiations of candidate extremity, and experimental paradigms (including two studies with human-LLM interactions), we find support for this hypothesis. Our findings suggest that as attitudes become more identity relevant, they become more extreme, leading individuals to prefer extreme over moderate candidates from their party. These results shed light on when and why people prefer extreme over moderate candidates, contribute to a nascent literature on the identity relevance of people’s attitudes, and advance our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of attitude extremity.
Scale2fit: Disentangling the determinants of vowels' spectral properties using mixed effects models
Uriel Cohen Priva
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This paper introduces scale2fit, a framework for evaluating multiple factors affecting vowels’ acoustic properties jointly, which proves useful for vowel normalization and avoiding over-normalization. The acoustic properties of vowels stem from a combination of multiple factors including the intended vowel quality, vocal tract length, coarticulation, and speech rate. However, most current vowel normalization approaches do not distinguish among the different determinants. Scale2fit uses mixed effects models to jointly evaluate multiple factors, avoiding their conflation in vowel normalization. Study 1 shows that the new method excels in a series of comparisons with other normalization methods. Study 2 shows that the proposed framework excels at preserving vowel space reduction that follows from short duration, and is therefore more appropriate for studying vowel space reduction. Finally, Study 3 shows that it is possible to establish variety norms and add speakers incrementally
theoraizer: AI-assisted theory construction
Meike Waaijers; Hannes Rosenbusch; Caspar J. Van Lissa; Anne Roefs; Denny Borsboom
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The Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) method is a structured approach to theory development in which domain experts collaboratively identify causal relationships between variables. However, CLD construction is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and cognitively demanding. Large Language Models (LLMs), with their advanced text processing capabilities and extensive knowledge base, offer the potential to support theory construction and reduce workload. This paper presents theoraizer, an R package and Shiny app that enhances CLD construction by integrating LLMs as a digital extension of the expert group. Researchers can use theoraizer to define a list of putative variables, then query an LLM to evaluate candidate causal links between these variables and provide supporting literature. Rather than replacing expert judgment, theoraizer functions as a thinking partner, helping researchers assess causal relationships and construct proto-theories. We describe how LLMs can be used to automate key steps in CLD construction and demonstrate empirically that agreement between theoraizer and human experts is comparable to the agreement observed between experts themselves. This suggests that LLMs can reliably assist in identifying putative causal structures, making the theory-building process more efficient. In addition to improving efficiency by quickly generating an initial candidate CLD, theoraizer supports creativity in the modeling process by suggesting alternative perspectives and highlighting variables or relationships that may have been overlooked. By combining the CLD method with the generative capabilities of LLMs, theoraizer drastically reduces the work required to arrive at a candidate CLD and provides users with a standardized, multi-stage framework for constructing CLDs that support early-stage theory development.
Forecasting Risk of Alcohol Lapse up to Two Weeks in Advance using Time-lagged Machine Learning Models
Kendra Wyant; Gaylen Fronk; Jiachen Yu; Claire E. Punturieri; John Joseph Curtin
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We developed machine learning models to predict future alcohol lapses within 24-hour windows lagged 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, and 2 weeks. We engineered features from 4x daily ecological momentary assessment from individuals (N=151; 51% male; mean age=41; 87% non-Hispanic White) in early recovery over three months. We trained and evaluated models using nested cross-validation. Median posterior auROC was high (0.85–0.91) for all models but decreased modestly with increasing lag. Models performed worse for non-advantaged groups (non-White and/or Hispanic, below poverty, female). Past alcohol use, abstinence self-efficacy, and craving were the most important features, with the magnitude of importance varying meaningfully by lag. These findings demonstrate feasibility of predicting next-day lapses up to two weeks in advance. Embedding these models in a recovery monitoring support system could enable adaptive, personalized care. Improving model fairness and optimizing the delivery of model feedback to sustain engagement remain critical next steps.
Vocal pitch as an acoustic marker of social support efficacy in women friendships
Razia S. Sahi; SIYAN NUSSBAUM; Joao F Guassi Moreira; ELIZABETH Morgan GAINES; Emilia Ninova; Daniel Lee; Naomi Eisenberger; Jennifer A Silvers
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Vocal communication (e.g., pitch) can shape inferences about speakers and the content of their messages. Yet, it’s unknown how such communication impacts the effectiveness of social support. We examined the role of support givers’ vocal pitch in three dyadic datasets (N1 = 39; N2 = 39; N3 = 59; friend pairs) where participants recorded scripted reappraisals (i.e., reinterpretations) of aversive stimuli to support a friend with regulating emotion. Using Bayesian statistics, we found cumulative evidence that when support givers used higher pitch in delivering these reappraisals, targets of support experienced less negative affect. Targets of support also reported greater relationship satisfaction with support givers who used higher pitch during reappraisal. These data consisted primarily of women friend pairs, with preliminary results indicating that these associations may not hold in men friendships. These results highlight acoustic features of verbal communication as a promising frontier for strengthening social ties and emotional wellbeing.
Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Using a Process Based Therapy Framework
Joseph M. Diehl; M. Zachary Rosenthal
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Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) has emerged as a promising intervention for conditions such as depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders by enhancing the therapeutic potential of psychedelics with structured psychological support during preparation, dosing, and integration phases. Despite encouraging trial results, evidence for therapeutic mechanisms and optimal frameworks for PAP remain in nascent stages. We explore candidate therapies and frameworks for PAP. Concurrently, clinical science is shifting toward process-based therapy (PBT; Hofmann & Hayes, 2019), which targets core transdiagnostic processes rather than disorder-specific protocols. While previous reviews of multiple mechanisms (e.g., Yaden et al., 2022) and disorder-specific papers (e.g., Sloshower et al., 2020) have identified key processes to target in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, this review introduces PBT and situates candidate mechanisms—such as psychological flexibility, emotion regulation, and decentering—within its framework. We explore how PBT principles can inform each phase of PAP, providing an idiographic, process-driven approach. Treatment strategies are selected based on functional analyses, case conceptualization, patient preferences, and qualitative and quantitative data collected throughout the treatment process. By moving away from specific brands of treatment, and instead integrating a PBT approach within PAP, we propose a novel, empirically grounded paradigm for optimizing therapeutic outcomes in this emergent field.
Empowering Through Connection: The Role of Peer Mentorship and Group Dynamics in the Academic and Professional Growth of Black American Psychology Students
Kim Johnson
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This project explores how mentorship and collaborative group assignments can enhance leadership development among Black/African American students in a psychology classroom. Students engaged in a series of peer mentorship and research-based activities supported by Social Identity Theory and the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory. The findings suggest that classroom-based group initiatives can support academic achievement, a deeper understanding of culturally relevant expectations, and result in leadership growth and development. The author plans to implement a more formal study in future psychology courses. Keywords: leadership, Black students, mentorship, group work, psychology education, AI integration
Environmental Epigenetics: New Horizons in Redefining Biological and Health Outcomes
Jamshid Faraji; Gerlinde A.S. Metz
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Environmental factors can have profound influences on biological systems, particularly through their effects on epigenetic processes. Epigenetics provides a powerful framework for understanding the regulation of gene expression through the interplay between genetic predispositions, inherited epigenetic marks, and lifelong environmental influences. Drawing on the “butterfly effect” metaphor from chaos theory, this review proposes that even subtle epigenetic changes may initiate cascading effects on gene regulation and biological systems, ultimately contributing to significant phenotypic outcomes, including the modification of developmental trajectories, disease susceptibility, and adaptive responses. The reversible and adaptable nature of epigenetic modifications enables organisms to respond dynamically to a wide range of stimuli throughout their lifespan. Conversely, maladaptive epigenetic regulation can be associated with pathologies, including cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, and adverse mental health outcomes. Thus, epigenetic markers represent a promising target for risk prediction, prevention and therapeutic intervention. In this review, we discuss the wide-ranging implications of epigenetic theories underlying gene-environment interactions. Furthermore, we examine the evolving expectations of the scientific community and the public regarding epigenetic theories, which may shape future research directions and drive therapeutic innovation in health and disease. Epigenetic concepts are poised to bridge the gap between genetic predispositions and environmental influences, offering novel insights into complex biological processes and their outcomes.
The impact of action intention versus action-effect intention on auditory prediction error signals
Andreas Widmann; Betina korka; Erich Schröger
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When an action does not yield the sensory action effect associated with it, prediction error (PE) signals are generated. The present study investigates auditory event-related potential (ERP) markers of PE for violations of strong action-effect couplings as a function of whether the participants’ intention focuses on a particular action or a particular action effect. Participants produced high- and low-pitched tones by left and right button presses according to a pattern of visual stimuli. While the instruction as well as the action and tone sequences produced by the participants were identical, the type of intention induced by the visual symbols differed (in a between-subject design): In the action-effect intention group, the pattern consisted of “notes” (for high/low pitch), in the action intention group it consisted of “letters” (for left/right button-press). Occasionally, a button-press did not produce the associated sensory action effect. These incongruent sounds elicited an enhanced auditory N1 compared to congruent sounds in the “notes” but not the “letters” group which we interpret as PE signal. Actions selected by the intended action effect in the “notes” group presumably induced a predictive sensory representation of the action outcome, its violation resulting in an early PE at the level of the auditory N1. N2b and P3 were elicited in both groups. This suggests that the respective action-effect couplings were represented, and their violation processed at a conceptual level also in the “letters” group. These results support theories postulating that event representations bind together features of stimuli, actions, and associated outcomes.
Computational cognitive modeling in psychoacoustic experiments: A practical tutorial
Nathan Francis Gillespie; Gregory Edward Cox
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Computational cognitive models are powerful tools that explain how representations in perception and memory are transformed into observed behavior—such as choice and response time—at the level of individual participants and individual trials. Such models have been used across domains in cognitive science to build integrative theories of phenomena like categorization, recognition, and attentional learning. Many of these models, however, were developed to account for data from visual tasks, so it remains unclear whether the same mechanisms apply in the auditory domain. Thus, theories of, for example, auditory memory have not benefited from modeling techniques to the same extent as have theories of visual memory. To address this gap, we illustrate how a cognitive model that was originally developed in the visual domain, the Exemplar-Based Random Walk model (EBRW; Nosofsky & Palmeri, 1997), can nonetheless account for choice and response time in recognition of novel auditory timbres. We do so by using the EBRW to couple stimulus representations derived from multidimensional scaling to a process by which recognition decisions are made by accumulating evidence that depends on similarity. This paper therefore offers a practical tutorial on addressing the unique challenges of adapting computational cognitive models to psychoacoustic data, highlighting the utility of applying such models in revealing connections between seemingly disparate aspects of auditory cognition.
Perception and Memory for Novel Auditory Stimuli: Similarity, Serial Position, and List Homogeneity
Nathan Francis Gillespie; Gregory Edward Cox
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We present four experiments that examine perception and memory for a novel set of auditory stimuli, using multidimensional scaling and cognitive modeling to clarify how people perceive and recognize these items. The stimuli are auditory “textures” constructed by adjusting the distribution of power across upper frequency bands. In Experiment 1, people rated similarity between pairs of stimuli; in Experiments 2 and 3, they also engaged in a recognition memory task using the same stimuli. In Experiment 4, they did all the same tasks from the first three experiments, and rated stimuli for distinctiveness. Multidimensional scaling suggested the stimuli were perceived along three dimensions, a result which replicated across all four experiments. While recognition performance was affected by similarity, serial position, and list homogeneity, it was not related to distinctiveness ratings. These effects were accommodated by the Exemplar-Based Random Walk model (Nosofsky & Palmeri, 1997), extending prior work (Visscher et al., 2007) to show that recognition memory and similarity perception for static stimuli in the auditory domain are fundamentally like those for static stimuli in the visual domain—though particularly strong recency effects in the auditory domain suggest the influence of an additional sensory representation like echoic memory. We conclude by discussing how the stimuli introduced in this article can be used as “building blocks” to test hypotheses about perception and memory for complex, naturalistic sounds such as speech or music while retaining tight experimental control.
Neural Representations of Popularity and Leadership Status Relate to Conformity in Daily Life
Ovidia Stanoi; Danielle Cosme; Mia Jovanova; Yoona Kang; Faustine Corbani; Jose Carreras Tartak; Anthony Resnick; Zachary M. Boyd; Danielle S Bassett; David M. Lydon-Staley
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Individuals are motivated to increase their social status (1). To succeed in this pursuit, people must make inferences about the structure of their social networks, monitor group norms, and adjust their behavior strategically. This study employed functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods in a sample of 92 college students belonging to 9 social groups to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying these processes and their relationship to conformity in the context of alcohol use. When young adults passively looked at faces of their real-life social network peers, brain systems implicated in valuation and social cognition spontaneously represented information about the popularity and leadership status of the social target. Individual differences in these neural valuations were systematically associated with varying levels of conformity to group drinking norms in everyday life. Students who had stronger responses to faces of peers with relatively higher popularity and leadership status than themselves in one key valuation brain region, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), were more likely to align their behavior with their groups’ drinking norms in daily life. These results provide novel evidence for how brain systems involved in valuation and social cognition track multidimensional (popularity and leadership) information about real-life social networks and contribute to a growing literature on the neural mechanisms through which social comparison processes shape conformity (2). Our study highlights the vmPFC as a central hub that spontaneously tracks differences between the self and peers and uses this information to guide behavior to match group norms.
Wall-E vs. Terminator: The relationship between physical appearance and dimensions of mind perception
Yasmina Giebeler; Basil Wahn; Eva Wiese
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Social robots are increasingly integrated into everyday environments, yet effective human-robot interaction remains challenging as robots often fail to engage social cognition the same way human partners do. Here, we examined the degree to which physical features impact the degree to which robots are being perceived as agents ‘with a mind’. For that purpose, we took all robot stimuli currently contained in the Anthropomorphic Robot Database (ABOT; n = 251) and examined the degree to which they trigger mind perception (N = 300). Consistent with prior findings, robots were generally attributed more agency (capacity to act and plan) than experience (capacity to sense and feel). Body components significantly explained variance in the perception of agency, especially in interaction with facial features; for experience, on the other hand, variance was significantly explained by body components, face and surface details. Increasing human-likeness boosted perceptions of both dimensions, but the trajectories differed: experience followed a cubic function, plateauing at medium levels of human-likeness, while agency followed a quartic function with a dip around 75% human-likeness—a pattern resembling the un-canny valley. Our results indicate that in order to create specific levels of agency (e.g., for surgery robots) and experience (e.g., for companion robots), a general increase of human-likeness might not suffice; instead, targeted design of individual physical features is crucial for convey-ing specific mental capacities. Our ratings linking physical robot features to dimensions of mind perception are made available, offering a comprehensive and accessible resource for researchers to experimentally manipulate perceptions of agency and experience.
Social and Neurobiological Mechanisms of Risk and Resilience in Young People: The Longitudinal THRIVE-study
Elizabeth E. L. Buimer; Maximilian König; Pauline Wessels; Hannah Dorsman; Antoinette Haverhals; THRIVE consortium; Peter Bos; Geert-Jan Will; Anne-Laura Van Harmelen
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More than half of the children and adolescents worldwide experience at least one form of childhood adversity (e.g., abuse, neglect or bullying) whilst growing up. Childhood adversity is among the strongest predictors of mental health problems in adolescence and adulthood. Yet, some individuals show resilient functioning, meaning they have good mental health and well-being despite their exposure to childhood adversity. Childhood adversity is thought to affect mental health through its impact on neurocognitive functioning, for example through blunted social feedback learning and biased emotion and threat processing. The neurocognitive social transactional model suggests that such childhood adversity related neurocognitive functioning may ultimately lead to reductions in the quality and quantity of social relations and increases in stressful experiences with peers over time, increasing the risk for mental health problems. However, empirical evidence to support this theoretical framework is scarce. Therefore, the longitudinal Towards Health and Resilience in Volatile Environments (THRIVE) study is set out to investigate the dynamics of psychological, social, and neurobiological mechanisms underlying mental health functioning in adolescents aged 18-24 years with a history of childhood adversity. The ongoing THRIVE study aims to recruit 288 participants aged 18-24 years who retrospectively self-report childhood adversity (current N=220). This longitudinal neuroimaging study consists of 6 sessions including an in-unit session, during which participants undergo extensive testing including salivary cortisol measures, emotion labelling measures, as well as functional neuroimaging (whilst completing the Montreal Imaging Stress Task and the Social Feedback Learning Task). In the longitudinal part of the study, participants fill out online questionnaires at 5 time points (i.e. every three months) to map the dynamics and associations of social support, mental health, and stressful events, over time. Using the data collected at the in-unit session, we aim to test whether childhood adversity is associated with biased emotion processing, blunted feedback learning and enhanced stress responses, while social support may moderate these effects (i.e. ‘social stress buffering’). The longitudinal component of the THRIVE study allows us to test our hypothesis that mental health problems arise because childhood adversity shapes neurocognitive functioning in a way that, over time, reduces social support and increases social stress. By unravelling how social functioning contributes to resilient functioning after childhood adversity, the THRIVE study will aid crucial knowledge and ultimately help intervention and prevention efforts. The THRIVE study has been approved by The Medical Ethics Committee Leiden - The Hague - Delft (NL80017.058.21) on July 5th, 2022 and has been co-created with the Augeo Youth Task Force (a panel of young adults with childhood adversity, https://www.augeo.nl/jongerentaskforce). The Augeo Youth Task Force is involved in every step of the empirical cycle to make sure the perspective and knowledge of young people with childhood adversity are incorporated. The results of the THRIVE study will be disseminated through preprints, peer-reviewed scientific publications, scientific presentations, media and public outreach.
The GUTSGO study: Rationale and Study Design of a Longitudinal High-Risk cohort.
Carmen Sergiou; Carmen Mendes de Leon; Nick Adrian; Anouk van Zwieten; Valeria Gazzola; Arne Popma; Dana Saleh; Eveline Crone; Lucres Nauta-Jansen
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What factors contribute to the increased risk of antisocial behavior in youth, and more importantly, what explains why most of them desist when they grow older? In the Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) research program, we aim to answer these vital questions from a biopsychosocial perspective in a longitudinal cohort study. The GUTSGO cohort specifically focuses on youth at risk who have difficulties in pursuing personal and societal goals. The main objective of this study is to explore why, even with initial high-risk factors, most adolescents do not continue to display antisocial behavior. We will examine the social, contextual, biological, and behavioral mechanisms involved in the persistence or desistance of antisocial behavior, with main focus on the role of self-regulation, empathy and trust. We aim to assess the impact on adolescents’ functioning in various societal contexts, including educational settings, social relationships, and adherence to societal norms. In this paper, we describe in detail the design of this study, the included population, the determinants, intermediate neurocognitive measures, and outcomes. Furthermore, we provide a detailed description of the procedures for inclusion, informed consent, recruitment, and our collaboration with network partners.
Environmental Sensitivity in Japanese and United States Samples: Cross-Cultural Investigation of Its Measurement and Associations with Personality and Affect
Kosuke Yano; Shuhei Iimura
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People differ in their susceptibility to both negative and positive environmental influences. Environmental Sensitivity is a framework that explains such individual differences, and its phenotypic trait can be measured using the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) scale. From the cultural/ethnic differences perspective, this study investigates the measurement invariance of the HSP scale and its associations with the Big Five personality traits and Negative/Positive Affect using samples from Japan and the United States. Participants from Japan (n = 531, Mage = 20.6 ± 1.5 years) and the United States (n = 487, Mage = 20.8 ± 2.2 years) completed an online questionnaire survey. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis supported the partial metric and full scalar invariance of the HSP scale across the samples, suggesting that the measurement of sensitivity is largely consistent across countries. Sensitivity was negatively correlated with Conscientiousness only in the Japanese sample, while higher sensitivity was associated with lower Extraversion and higher Neuroticism in both samples. Similar trends were observed in both samples for the correlations between sensitivity and Negative/Positive Affect. These findings illuminate both cultural and ethnic differences, as well as similarities, in sensitivity. Such differences were discussed in light of the individualism–collectivism framework.
A Rapid Scoping Review on Operationalizing Cognitive and Social Activities in Research on Dementia Risk Reduction
Jeroen Bruinsma; Ruud Roodbeen; Giselle Geertruide Antonia Menting; Kay Deckers; Stevie Hendriks; Rik Crutzen
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Engagement in cognitive and social activities can potentially preserve cognitive abilities, which makes their promotion a promising avenue for dementia risk reduction. However, insight into how to adequately measure engagement in these activities is a necessary precursor. A rapid scoping review was performed to search relevant articles on PubMed. The aim was to obtain an initial understanding of (a) how cognitive and social activities are measured in research that investigates protective activities against dementia and (b) to explore to what extent this aligns with the operationalization in preventive interventions. The findings show that across 58 studies, questionnaires were mostly used to measure engagement in cognitive and social activities. A wide variety of items and themes was observed across studies, including: arts and crafts; clubs, groups, and communities; exercising; games and puzzles; going out; household tasks; learning and education; making music; multimedia usage; reading; socializing; work/volunteering; writing. There were considerable variations in the number and content of items, ulitized response scales, recall periods, and methods to compose scores. Additionally, preventive interventions stongly focused on psychoeducation and (computerized) cognitive training, which limitedly reflect the activities operationalized in questionnaires. Many researchers investigate the protective effects of cognitive or social activities against dementia but measure and promote these concepts completely differently. This results in fragmented insights into what activities are protective. Clarifying precisely what these concepts entail, and which aspects are relevant to measure would support the development of measurement instructions as well as interventions to promote relevant activities. Keywords: Dementia, Cognition, Social Participation, Cognitive Activities, Social Activities
On Native American Boarding Schools, Racial Bias, and Perceptions of Americanness versus Foreignness
Maximilian Primbs; Jimmy Calanchini
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Between 1819 and the 1970s, the United States government forced Native American children to attend boarding schools with the explicit purpose of assimilating them into White American culture. In the present paper, we examined whether the cultural legacy of historical Native American boarding schools persists locally in the aggregated racial biases of modern-day residents. Using the data of 290,593 Project Implicit visitors, we found that counties where Native American boarding schools were located in the past show lower levels of modern-day racial prejudice against Native Americans and view Native Americans as more American / less foreign compared to counties without historical boarding schools. Our findings provide a nuanced perspective on the ways in which historical injustices can manifest in physical, social, and cultural environments.
Eye-movement benchmark data for smooth-pursuit classification
Luke Korthals; Ingmar Visser; Šimon Kucharský
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Analysis of eye-tracking data often requires accurate classification of eye-movement events. Human experts and classification algorithms often confuse fixations (fixating stationary targets) and smooth pursuits (fixating moving targets) because their feature characteristics overlap. To foster the development of better classification algorithms, we created a benchmark data set that does not rely on human annotation as the gold standard. It consists of almost four hours of eye-movements. Ten participants fixated different targets designed to induce saccades, fixations, and smooth pursuits. Ground truth was established by designing stimuli that prevent fixations and smooth pursuits to co-occur, and separating them from saccades by their velocity. Here we make available both the raw data and offer a convenient way for preprocessing and assigning ground truth labels in the form of a companion package in Python. We encourage researchers to utilize them for feature engineering, and to train, validate, and benchmark their algorithms.
Cognitive Offloading of an Attentionally Demanding Task to a Social Robot
Basil Wahn; Khadija Bawari; Eva Wiese
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Offloading tasks to artificial agents, such as ChatGPT, has become commonplace, yet little research examined offloading of attentionally demanding tasks. Prior work investigating how humans offload attentional demands to algorithms and humans found that people prefer an equal split of attentional demands when interacting with other humans but not when interacting with algorithms. The question arises how offloading decisions are made when interacting with embodied AI in form of a social robot with human-like characteristics: Would they treat it in the same way as a human or like an algorithm? To investigate this question, participants performed an attentionally demanding task (i.e., the multiple object tracking task, MOT), which they could (partially or fully) offload to the social robot MAKI, whose task accuracy was either known (Experiment 1) or unknown (Experiment 2) to the participants. In both experiments, participants offloaded a significant number of the tracking load to the robot, which improved the participants’ own tracking accuracy; knowing the robot’s task accuracy, on the other hand, did not impact offloading behavior or performance gains. Interestingly, participants did not split attentional demands equally with the robot –like they do with human interaction partners– aligning with results from previous studies when humans offloaded attentional demands to algorithms. Questionnaire data indicates that this might be due participants perceiving the robot as rather machine-like. In conclusion, our results indicate that when it comes to cognitive offloading behavior, a social robot is treated similarly to an algorithm rather than a human interaction partner.
Regulation of Psychology Education in India: Conflicting Mandates, Overlapping Curricula and the Need for Cohesion
C Chinchu
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India faces a profound mental health crisis, marked by the largest population in the world, a high prevalence of disorders and a severe shortage of qualified professionals. Recent policy initiatives, including the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act 2021, aim to reform psychology education to address these challenges. This article critically examines the evolving landscape of psychology higher education in India, focusing on the curricula proposed by the NCAHP and the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI). While the NCAHP’s B. Psy model curriculum represents a commendable step towards competency-based education, it faces implementation hurdles related to restrictive entry requirements, regulatory ambiguities, and infrastructural demands. Concurrently, the RCI’s introduction of a B.Sc. Clinical Psychology (Hons.) program, with its nomenclature and scope of practice, creates further discord and potential jurisdictional overlaps with the NCAHP and the University Grants Commission (UGC). This article analyses these competing frameworks, their alignment with existing legislation and international standards, and their implications for the standardisation and regulation of psychology professionals. It proposes recommendations for fostering synergy among regulatory bodies, clarifying professional roles, and enhancing the accessibility and quality of psychology education to build a robust mental health workforce. Strengthening psychology education and professional regulation is a national imperative and central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3 on good health and well-being.
Early readers know letter shape without knowing letter names
Jhilik Das; Sonali Nag; Usha MN; SP Arun
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Since learning to read involves associating letter shapes with how they sound, it is widely believed that children become familiar with letter shapes when they start learning their sounds or start writing them down. However, since printed letters are often available in the environment, it is possible that children are already familiar with letter shapes. Here, we provide evidence for this intriguing possibility. We tested 300 children at the beginning of formal reading instruction of the Indian language Kannada. Each child performed four tasks: (1) a letter familiarity task in which they saw upright and inverted versions of each letter, and had to identify the more familiar orientation; (2) a letter recognition task where they had to name letters shown sequentially; (3) a visual search task where they had to find an oddball letter among identical other letters, with letters either all upright or inverted; and (4) a rapid automatized naming task where they had to name digits. Our main finding is that, despite showing wide variation in letter naming, children were highly familiar with letter orientation. This effect was present even on letters that children did not recognize at all. This familiarity with letter orientation also gave them a letter processing advantage: children searched faster when letters were upright than when they were inverted. Our findings reveal a far deeper knowledge of print among early readers than previously observed, and provide empirical support for early exposure to print as a strategy to jump-start reading acquisition.
Digital safeguarding incidents in schools with and without smartphone policies
Emma Caitlin Sullivan; Lisa Henderson; Rob Dallison; Pete Montgomery
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Background. Smartphones/social media have been hailed as offering educational benefits, but growing concerns highlight negative effects on learning and wellbeing. Some countries enforce school phone bans, while others (e.g., England), have guidance promoting “phone-free environments” but no legal mandate. There is limited evidence on the benefits of such policies, including whether they promote safeguarding. Methods. We used Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to investigate the relationship between smartphone policies and digital safeguarding incidents in 114 schools in England (>90,000 pupils). We examined the prevalence and content of phone policies during the 2023/24 academic year and digital incident reporting. Results. Only 53% (60/114) of schools had a phone policy. Policy content varied significantly, with inconsistent use of “ban” terminology. Digital safeguarding incidents made up only 4.9% (4183/85,540) of all incidents but varied substantially (>10% in 36/114 schools; >25% in 9), suggesting inconsistent reporting. Schools with policies, regardless of restrictiveness, reported more digital incidents. Schools with restrictive policies were more likely to refer incidents and reported more school-based incidents, although most still occurred outside school. Conclusions. Safeguarding incidents involving smartphones or social media are occurring in schools throughout England. Schools with phone policies were more likely to report digital safeguarding incidents, suggesting an association between policy presence and reporting. Vast variation in policy content and inconsistent “ban” rhetoric undermine the potential for effective safeguarding. These findings underscore the need for standardised definitions of digital risks, and consistent policy approaches.
Evidence-Based Interventions to Support Children with Developmental Amnesia in Education
Rachael Elward; Faraneh Vargha-Khadem; Jenny Limond; Rachel Cole
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Developmental amnesia (DA) is a rare memory disorder caused by early bilateral hippocampal damage, typically resulting from a hypoxic–ischaemic event in the perinatal period. Children with DA develop age-appropriate semantic knowledge, language, and general cognitive abilities, yet profound impairments in episodic memory, spatial navigation, and recall emerge in development. These deficits have significant consequences for education, frequently leading to academic underachievement despite strong intellectual potential. In this paper, we outline the distinctive challenges DA presents in education and highlight three effective strategies: spaced learning, repeated testing in multiple-choice formats, and errorless learning, which draw on preserved recognition memory. We also discuss approaches that have not proved effective, including fast-mapping, chunking, and memory training. We conclude by reflecting on how findings from neuropsychology can shape inclusive and effective educational practices, both for children with DA and for those with memory difficulties more generally.
Factors influencing teachers’ self-efficacy on inclusive music education
Oula Mommo; Katja Sutela; Riikka Mononen
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This study investigated how teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education and support from school management and community are related to their self-efficacy in the context of inclusive music education. Participants (n = 185) were teachers from Finnish comprehensive schools (Grades 1–9). They answered three questionnaires: the Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practice scale, the Attitudes towards Inclusion scale, and the School Climate for Inclusive Music Education scale. Using linear regression analysis, we found that the more positive the feelings towards inclusive music classes were, the stronger the teacher's self-efficacy was in inclusive instructions, collaboration, and managing behaviour. Moreover, the more substantial the experienced support from the school community was, the stronger the teachers’ self-efficacy was in collaboration. However, beliefs on inclusive education and perceived support from school management did not show significant effects on teacher self-efficacy in inclusive music education. These findings highlight the importance of music teachers gaining positive experience in inclusive education. This implies the crucial need for sufficient training for inclusive settings and ensuring that the environment and starting points are adequate for teaching and learning music in the classroom. Results also show the impact of the school community on success when implementing inclusive music education.
Viewpoint Retrieval as a Behavioral Proxy for Episodic Re-experiencing
Juliette Boscheron; Andreea Maria Gui Bordeianui; Arthur Trivier; Herbelin Bruno; Olaf Blanke
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Episodic autobiographical memory retrieval (EAM) is characterized by the vivid sense of re-experiencing past events. While doing so, different viewpoints over the scene can be taken, often referred to as the field or observer perspectives. However, the precision with which individuals can accurately reconstruct their original viewpoint over an event, within the field perspective, has not yet been characterized. Here we developed a task and continuous implicit measure to quantify this ability (viewpoint retrieval accuracy, VRA) and study its association with explicit measures of re-experienced vividness. Twenty-five participants experienced lifelike events in mixed reality, with five controlled observer–object angles at encoding. After a 24 h delay, they retrieved each event, rated re-experiencing vividness, and indicated their original viewpoint (VRA). Mean VRA decreased with increasing encoding eccentricity (observer–object angles) and was consistently biased toward more central viewpoints. Moreover, VRA significantly explained re-experiencing vividness, with higher re-experiencing ratings being associated with smaller errors. These findings establish VRA as an implicit and continuous proxy for re-experiencing vividness, and a new tool for investigating the spatial and bodily foundations of EAM retrieval.
Active vision is tuned to representational distinctiveness in the individual brain
Diana Kollenda; Elaheh Akbarifathkouhi; Maximilian Davide Broda; Benjamin de Haas
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Individuals reliably differ in how they look at complex visual scenes, with the most prominent variation in their propensity to fixate faces and text. In 60 adults, we tested the hypothesis that these differences in gaze are tuned to representational properties of the individual visual system. Eye-tracking captured each observer’s characteristic gaze tendencies during naturalistic scene viewing, and functional magnetic resonance imaging recorded category-selective responses to faces, words, and other stimuli when participants were instructed to fixate centrally. We find that the propensity to fixate faces or text goes along with enhanced distinctiveness of corresponding categorical representations in the ventral stream, which in turn predicts performance on reading and face recognition tasks. Thus, active vision appears tuned to the precision of category-selective encoding in the individual brain.
The Feeling of “Urami”: A Structural Topic Modeling Approach
Hikaru Koike; Hirohito Okano; Michio Nomura
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“Urami” is the negative emotional state that one experiences when treated unfairly by others. While similar to anger, it differs in various ways, such as in its long-term persistence. Empirical studies on urami have suggested that it comprises factors such as feelings of injustice, unforgiveness, and helplessness. However, the generalizability of its factor structure is questionable because most previous studies were based on small sample sizes. In this study, free descriptive responses regarding urami and anger provided by 489 participants (aged 19–72 years) were quantified and analyzed using structural topic modeling, a type of natural language processing algorithm. The results revealed the topics that compose the conceptual structure and the situations in which urami occurs, as well as the relationships between some grouped situations and individual traits, such as narcissism. Furthermore, comparing the conceptual structure and situational occurrences of urami and anger based on quantitative criteria revealed unique elements of urami, such as persistence and feelings of victimization. These elements are particularly likely to occur when one is victimized by a close other.
Identifying distinct sources of whole number interference in children's decimal comparison: the role of numerical magnitude and inhibitory control
Piper Louise Rennerfeldt; Roberto A. Abreu-Mendoza; Miriam Rosenberg-Lee
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When learning about decimals, whole number knowledge can be a detriment, leading children to incorrectly report, for example, that 0.26 is larger than 0.8. Two potential sources of whole number interference could lead to such errors. Digit length interference arises from the whole number rule that more digits = larger number, while whole referent magnitude interference arises from ignoring the decimal point and comparing the whole referents (26 > 8). The independent effects of each interference type have been measured in adults, but we still do not know how these effects play out in early decimal learning. Further, inhibitory control has been linked to overcoming whole number interference, but it is unclear which specific type of interference is inhibited. Here, we used carefully designed decimal stimuli to examine these two interference effects in middle school students who are more susceptible to whole number interference than adults. Students in 2 U.S. school districts (grades 6-8, n = 178) completed computerized decimal comparison and inhibitory control tasks. We implemented cluster analysis to account for heterogeneous strategy use. The two most prominent groups, Whole Number Biased and High Performing, differed in their extent of digit length interference, but were equally susceptible to whole referent magnitude interference. Crucially, inhibitory control only related to overcoming digit length interference, not whole referent magnitude interference, in both groups. Taken together, whole referent magnitudes are a pervasive source of interference in decimal comparison, independent of overall task performance or individual differences in inhibitory control.
Air Pollution and Impulsive Choice in Aging: Evidence from Delay Discounting
Maya Rae Kilcullen; Jamie-Nicole Luistro; Melanie Kos; Jeremy Mennis; David Victor Smith; Ingrid R. Olson
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Heightened air pollution exposure is associated with an increased risk for developing neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, yet it is unclear how pollution impacts the aging brain more broadly. Pollution studies in rodents have shown that higher air pollution exposure is associated with impulsive behavior and preference for immediate reward in delay discounting tasks. We examined this relationship in middle aged and older humans, by analyzing associations between residential pollution exposure and time-based reward preferences. One hundred-and-three (103) adults aged 40-80 completed a delay discounting task. We estimated long-term residential exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a prominent air pollutant, using participant address information and satellite pollution data. We found that higher residential PM2.5 exposure was significantly associated with a higher preference for more immediate rewards, even after controlling for demographic factors including income and education. A preference for immediate rewards has been independently associated with higher risk of addictive behaviors, including substance abuse and gambling disorders, indicating that PM2.5 exposure may increase the emergence of these conditions. We discuss these results in detail along with potential underlying biological mechanisms, implications on human behavior, and future research directions.
The Shape of Blame: The relationship between statistical norms and judgments of blame and praise
Dries Hannes Bostyn; Joshua Knobe
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For many types of behaviors, whether a specific instance of that behavior is blame- or praiseworthy depends on how much of the behavior is done or how people go about doing it. For instance, for a behavior such as “replying to an email in x days”, whether a specific reply is perceived as blameworthy or praiseworthy will depend on how many days elapsed before the reply. Such behaviors lie on a continuum in which part of the continuum is praiseworthy (replying quickly) and another part of the continuum is blameworthy (replying late). In the current manuscript, we investigate how judgments of blame and praise on such behaviors relate to people’s perceptions of the statistical norms surrounding that behavior (i.e., how quickly people usually reply). We find that people do not base judgments of blame and praise on a comparison to the statistically average quantity. Instead, judgments of blame and praise are related to whether the behavior is perceived as frequent or infrequent. Notably, frequency showed an asymmetric relationship with moral judgments: higher frequency was strongly associated with reduced blame, but showed a much weaker association with reduced praise.
Transmission of religious and scientific explanations by Hindu and Muslim schoolchildren in Gujarat, India
Ruthe Foushee; Rachel Jansen; Mahesh Srinivasan
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What determines which stories (or parts of stories) about the social world are captured and conveyed by children? How do they transform with retelling? %\textcolor{red}{Prior research has\ldots} We use an iterated learning paradigm to explore how peer-to-peer transmission of explanatory stories (here, explanations for the social customs of novel social groups) is influenced by explanatory framework (natural, supernatural, or hybrid) and children's existing belief systems. Our participants were 79 Hindu and Muslim 3rd-7th-graders in Gujarat, India. Consistent with the 'minimally counterintuitive' nature of many highly culturally preserved concepts, hybrid explanations (containing both natural and supernatural elements) were transmitted with the greatest fidelity across chains. Individual religiosity also affected transmission: Children who reported themselves as more religious transmitted scientific explanations less faithfully (and hybrid explanations more faithfully) than less religious children.
Preregistration does not improve the transparent evaluation of severity in Popper’s philosophy of science or when deviations are allowed
Mark Rubin
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One justification for preregistering research hypotheses, methods, and analyses is that it improves the transparent evaluation of the severity of hypothesis tests. In this article, I consider two cases in which preregistration does not improve this evaluation. First, I argue that, although preregistration may facilitate the transparent evaluation of severity in Mayo’s error statistical philosophy of science, it does not facilitate this evaluation in Popper’s theory-centric approach. To illustrate, I show that associated concerns about Type I error rate inflation are only relevant in the error statistical approach and not in a theory-centric approach. Second, I argue that a test procedure that is preregistered but that also allows deviations in its implementation (i.e., “a plan, not a prison”) does not provide a more transparent evaluation of Mayoian severity than a non-preregistered procedure. In particular, I argue that sample-based validity-enhancing deviations cause an unknown inflation of the test procedure’s Type I error rate and, consequently, an unknown reduction in its capability to license inferences severely. I conclude that preregistration does not improve the transparent evaluation of severity (a) in Popper’s philosophy of science or (b) in Mayo’s approach when deviations are allowed.
Investigating Associations between General and Disorder-Specific Reward and Suicidality in Anorexia Nervosa
Soo-Eun Lee; Scott Crow; Ann Frances Haynos
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Altered reward processing is proposed to be central to the pathology of anorexia nervosa (AN). This study aimed to investigate how aspects of reward dysfunction relate to suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STBs) in AN. We compared responses on self-report measures of general (i.e., anticipatory, consummatory, and social reward) and disorder-specific (i.e., self-starvation reward) reward between individuals with AN with (AN + STBs; n = 28) or without (AN; n = 31) lifetime active STBs and healthy controls (HC; n = 32). Further, we examined whether interactions between general and disorder-specific reward dysfunction were associated with lifetime active STBs in AN. Compared to AN and HC groups, the AN + STBs group reported significantly lower anticipatory and social reward; both AN + STBs and AN groups reported higher self-starvation reward than HCs. When accounting for the effects of depression, group differences became non-significant for general rewards but remained significant for disorder-specific reward processing. The interaction between anticipatory and self-starvation reward was significantly associated with STB risk beyond the effects of depression: AN participants reporting high self-starvation reward were at elevated STB risk regardless of anticipatory reward levels, whereas those with low self-starvation reward showed increased STBs only when anticipatory reward was also low. Our results suggest that the combination of general and disorder-specific reward processes may shape distinct suicidality risk profiles in AN.
Ten Years Diffusion Model for Conflict (DMC) Tasks: Theoretical Foundations, Applications, Practical Recommendations, and Open Challenges
Markus Janczyk; Ian Grant Mackenzie; Rolf Ulrich; Valentin Koob
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A central question in cognitive psychology concerns how humans selectively attend to task-relevant information whilst ignoring task-irrelevant information. This question is frequently studied using conflict tasks, such as the Simon, Eriksen flanker, and Stroop tasks, that require responses to relevant stimulus features while ignoring irrelevant, and potentially conflicting, features. While all conflict tasks produce better performance on trials where task-relevant features and irrelevant features match—a phenomenon known as the congruency effect—they differ markedly in their RT distributions. The Diffusion Model for Conflict tasks (DMC) was introduced as a model to formally account for all distributional patterns in conflict tasks. It integrates dual-route theories of cognitive control into the framework of sequential sampling models by positing two superimposed, independent evidence accumulation processes: a linear one for controlled processing of the task-relevant information, and a pulse-like one for automatic processing of the task-irrelevant information, where activation first increases until a maximum and then decreases again. This review summarizes DMC’s architecture, its core parameters, and its ability to account for various distributional patterns. We review and discuss applications of DMC across several psychological domains, and technical considerations such as parameter estimation and recovery. Limitations of the model are critically assessed, and fields of open research are outlined. Overall, DMC offers a general account of conflict processing. While a powerful tool for quantifying the dynamics of selective attention and cognitive control, there is still a limited standardization in its application and more research is needed to extend DMC to other classes of conflict tasks.
The Wolf in the Viking Era: Exploring Jungian Norse Wolf Archetypes in Germanic Myth, from Denmark - Ulfhéðnar the Wolf-Skinned: Ritualized Rage and the Rebirth of the Masculine Ego
Charles J. Wolf
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This theoretical synthesis integrates mythological, archaeological, and clinical perspectives to examine the Ulfhéðnar as a distinctive archetype of masculine individuation. It focuses on the ritualized engagement with primal instinctual forces, manifesting through shadow-doubling and ecstatic possession, as a necessary threshold for psychological transformation. By situating the Ulfhéðnar within contemporary clinical contexts related to masculine trauma, rage, and identity, this work extends Jungian theory and archetypal psychology to address unresolved aspects of male integration. The analysis highlights how the rupture of ego boundaries permits the return and processing of repressed instinctual energies, offering a symbolic framework for therapeutic approaches. This contribution fills a gap in depth psychology by bridging mythic material and clinical phenomena, emphasizing the archetype’s importance for understanding and treating masculine psychic fragmentation.
The cognitive origins of geometry
Moira Rose Dillon
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Geometry is often considered the model of abstract thought, and great thinkers since at least Plato have sought its origins. Particular, modular “languages of thought” have been invoked to explain humans’ unique cognitive achievements in certain domains, including geometry. Contrary to this hypothesis, I propose that human geometry is largely rooted in navigation-like mental processes that approximate Euclidean geometry and are shared by humans and nonhuman animals. Humans uniquely can access this geometry with natural language and use it flexibly in novel contexts, ultimately supporting our capacity for formal learning. I thus provide a model for cognitive explanations of uniquely human knowledge that relies on the interaction between our evolutionary cognitive inheritance and our species-unique natural language.
“The world is really not built for everyone”: A qualitative investigation of suicide risk among autistic transgender and gender diverse adults and the essential role of health care providers
Annabelle Mournet; Ellen Wilkinson; Erin J. Libsack; Erin D. Dekker; Vanessa Bal; Evan Kleiman
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Objective: This qualitative study aims to describe themes related to suicide risk among autistic transgender and gender diverse adults and to identify potential intervention approaches to reduce suicide risk among autistic TGD adults, with an emphasis on healthcare experiences.  Method: Qualitative interviews were performed with 30 autistic TGD adults. Participants responded to questions about suicide risk, their identities, and healthcare experiences. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify themes and subthemes and describe the data. Results: Social challenges and barriers as well as access to services were relevant factors for STBs related both to being autistic and TGD. Autistic burnout and financial, work, and school stressors were STB factors for autistic individuals. Puberty, dysphoria, and legislation concerns were STB factors specific to TGD individuals. Participants highlighted the impact of negative healthcare experiences on STB risk and recommendations to improve suicide prevention for this intersectional population. Conclusions: Using a qualitative design, results revealed several factors influencing STB risk for autistic TGD individuals. Findings highlight that autistic TGD individuals face considerable barriers when trying to access healthcare. Such barriers and inability to receive needed services appear to considerably impact STB risk in this population.
Memory Loves Company: Related Object Pairs Benefit Visual Working Memory
Moussa Kousa; Brad Wyble
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Visual working memory (VWM) is capacity-limited, yet performance improves when items can be organized into meaningful units. We asked whether functionally related object pairs benefit VWM and whether people’s judgments of relatedness predict participants’ performance on memory tasks. We curated a stimulus set of 160 line drawings arranged into 80 related and 80 unrelated pairs. Participants viewed four pairs of objects and then identified the new object in a probe display. Results showed a robust accuracy advantage for related over unrelated pair displays, with strong split-half reliability. This finding was replicated in a version where the probe display used pairs rather than single objects. To validate our relatedness manipulation, we collected Likert ratings of both semantic relatedness and action compatibility. The two rating methods showed a strong correlation with each other, as well as with the relatedness benefit observed in the memory experiments, providing further support for our manipulation. However, within the related and unrelated sets considered separately, subjective reports of relatedness did not predict variability in memory performance, and this replicated with a follow-up ratings task. Cross-condition correlations in the memory task indicated stable differences for individual objects regardless of relatedness. Together, the results show that functional pairing reliably boosts VWM - consistent with chunking - yet fine-grained variability in memorability is driven by object- and pair-level properties not captured by perceived relatedness.
Decoding Physician Burnout: Leveraging Machine Learning for Early Detection on Survey-Based Features
Samantha Lau
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This project aimed to predict physician burnout levels using machine learning techniques applied to self-reported survey data from the Montgomery County Medical Society. The hypothesis was that classification algorithms in machine learning can be used to help predict cases of physician burnout by finding relationships between variables, since burnout is a quantifiable factor. This project examined physician studies specifically, not healthcare professionals in general, including primary practice settings and specialties as factors that affect burnout levels. After data preprocessing, visualizations were made based on correlations between burnout levels and factors such as time spent on various tasks and years of experience. After accuracy-guided hyperparameter tuning on various models, a Random Forest Classifier model was used and evaluated with precision, recall, and F1-score metrics. The model performed best in predicting moderate burnout (with 62% accuracy for that class), but tended to misclassify low and high burnout levels as moderate. Figures provide visualizations of key relationships and classification results. These findings highlight both the potential and the limitations of using survey-based features for burnout prediction, given the variability and subjectivity of self-reported measures.
Physical activity and depression, role of familial and genetic confounding in multicohort study
Eetu Soini; Marius Lahti-Pulkkinen; Sari Aaltonen; Kaisla Komulainen; Markus Jokela; Jaakko Kaprio
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Physical activity is a promising intervention method to treat and prevent depression. Experimental and observational studies have associated physical activity with lower depression risk, but they differ in the reported strength of the association. We used longitudinal multicohort data with twins and siblings to assess the strength of the association while accounting for familial and genetic confounding. The data included 7 cohorts from Finland, Germany, and US (n= 8,205 sibling and dizygotic twin pairs and 843 monozygotic twin pairs). We compared the effect sizes between ordinary regression models with within-sibling pair, and within-twin pair fixed-effect regression models. Results showed a weak association between physical activity and depressive symptoms in unpaired models (~SMD= -.07), which remained similar in within-sibling pair models (SMD=-.05), and in within-twin pair models (SMD= -.08). These results were robust with use of physical activity measured as minutes per week and with different intensities of physical activity. There was no evidence for reverse causality. Our findings suggest that naturally occurring individual differences in leisure-time physical activity may be only weakly associated with later depressive symptoms.
Speech motor mechanisms as an adaptive reflexive gain control system in non-native speech perception
Hannah Wilt; Bronwen G. Evans; patti adank
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Simulation accounts posit that speech is covertly imitated to support perception in a top-down manner. Behaviourally, covert imitation can be measured through the stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) task. In a speech SRC task, participants produce a target speech syllable whilst perceiving a speech distractor that either matches the target (compatible condition) or does not (incompatible condition). The degree to which the distractor is covertly imitated is captured by the automatic imitation effect, computed as the difference in response times (RTs) between compatible and incompatible trials. Simulation accounts disagree on whether covert imitation is enhanced when speech perception is more challenging or instead when the speech is familiar. To dissociate between these two accounts, we conducted two experiments, one behavioural and one using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), in which participants completed SRC tasks with native and non-native contrasts. In Experiment 1, participants performed an SRC task with two native and two non-native contrasts, received perception training with the non-native contrasts, and performed the SRC task again. Results showed that non-native distractors were linked to higher automatic imitation than the native distractors before and after the training, but that the automatic imitation effect for the non-native distractors decreased more after training. Experiment 2 demonstrated that speech primary motor cortex showed higher excitability during passive perception of non-native compared to native contrasts but showed no correlation with automatic imitation. Our results highlight that speech motor cortex acts as an adaptive reflexive gain control mechanism.
Clinical Translation and Implementation Neuroscience for Novel Cognitive Interventions in Addiction Medicine
Tara Rezapour; Hamed Ekhtiari; Robin Aupperle; Martin P Paulus
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Recent advances in the neuroscience of drug addiction motivates questions concerning whether and how clinical practice may be based on or inspired by these new advances. In this chapter, we will provide a framework for summarizing novel, neuroscience-informed, cognitive interventions that are under investigation and/or in the process of translation to clinical practice. We will provide more specific information concerning our experience in developing a new integrative package of interventions inspired by this framework. At the end of the chapter, we will discuss the next steps in the clinical translation and implementation of neuroscience-based cognitive interventions.
Consciousness needs a subject
Kevin J. Mitchell; Carolyn Dicey Jennings
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To be conscious is to be an experiencing subject. This can be defined not in terms of computational functions or particular biological substrates, but rather in terms of relations: between subject and world, between parts of the subject, and through time. These kinds of relations – comprising a conscious mode of being – may well be implementable in artificial systems.
Delusions by design? How everyday AIs might be fuelling psychosis (and what can be done about it)
Hamilton Morrin; Luke Nicholls; Michael Levin; Jenny Yiend; Udita Iyengar; Francesca DelGuidice; Sagnik Bhattacharyya; James MacCabe; Stefania Tognin; Ricardo Twumasi
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Large language models (LLMs) are poised to become a ubiquitous feature of our lives, mediating communication, decision-making and information curation across nearly every domain. Within psychiatry and psychology the focus to date has remained largely on bespoke therapeutic applications, sometimes narrowly focused and often diagnostically siloed, rather than on the broader and more pressing reality that individuals with mental illness will increasingly engage in agential interactions with AI systems as a routine part of daily existence. While their capacity to model therapeutic dialogue, provide 24/7 companionship and assist with cognitive support has sparked understandable enthusiasm, recent reports suggest that these same systems may contribute to the onset or exacerbation of psychotic symptoms: so-called ‘AI psychosis’ or ‘ChatGPT psychosis’. Emerging, and rapidly accumulating, evidence indicates that agential AI may mirror, validate or amplify delusional or grandiose content, particularly in users already vulnerable to psychosis, due in part to the models’ design to maximise engagement and affirmation, although notably it is not clear whether these interactions have resulted or can result in the emergence of de novo psychosis in the absence of pre-existing vulnerability. Even if some individuals may benefit from AI interactions, for example where the AI functions as a benign and predictable conversational anchor, there is a growing concern that these agents may also reinforce epistemic instability, blur reality boundaries and disrupt self-regulation. In this paper, we outline both the potential harms and therapeutic possibilities of agential AI for people with psychotic disorders. In this perspective piece, we propose a framework of AI-integrated care involving personalised instruction protocols, reflective check-ins, digital advance statements and escalation safeguards to support epistemic security in vulnerable users. These tools reframe the AI agent as an epistemic ally (as opposed to ‘only’ a therapist or a friend) which functions as a partner in relapse prevention and cognitive containment. Given the rapid adoption of LLMs across all domains of digital life, these protocols must be urgently trialled and co-designed with service users and clinicians.
How Effortful is Boredom? Studying Self-Control Demands Through Pupillometry (Registered Report Stage 2)
Vanessa Radtke; Wanja Wolff; Corinna Martarelli
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Self-control is essential for managing our actions, yet its exertion is perceived as effortful. Performing a task may require effort not only because of its inherent difficulty but also due to its potential for inducing boredom, as boredom has been shown to be self-control demanding by itself. So far, the extent of self-control demands during boredom and its temporal dynamics remain elusive. We employed a multimethod approach to address this knowledge gap. Ninety-five participants took part in an easy and hard version of the Stroop task. During both tasks, they indicated several times their current sensation of task difficulty, boredom, boredom-related cognitive effort, difficulty-related cognitive effort, overall effort, and fatigue. We tested if pupil size, as a physiological indicator for cognitive effort, was predicted more accurately by overall cognitive effort (difficulty- and boredom-related) than by task-difficulty-related cognitive effort alone. The best model fit was found for a model including boredom- and difficulty-related effort as well as their interactions with task type (easy, hard Stroop). Tonic pupil size increased during the easy Stroop, while phasic pupil size decreased with greater boredom-related effort in both tasks. Greater difficulty-related effort was linked to increases in tonic and phasic pupil size in the easy, but not in the hard Stroop. Finally, boredom-related effort in the Stroop task predicted task performance in a subsequent flanker task. Our results highlight, that enduring boredom is not only perceived as effortful but also reflects in psychophysiological changes. Moreover, it has behavioral relevance. This emphasizes the importance of considering boredom as a confounding variable in self-control research and, more general, within the broader scope of study designs.
Emergent Predictive Experience Theory (EPET): A Constitutive, Emergentist-Predictive Account of Qualia
Andrey Kopnin
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This paper presents a constitutive, emergentist-predictive account of qualia designed to address the ‘hard problem’ of consciousness within a naturalistic, physicalist framework. It argues that by integrating two leading paradigms from cognitive science—Predictive Processing (PP) and Global Workspace Theory (GWT)—and grounding this synthesis in a consistent non-reductive (weak) emergentism, we can provide a coherent explanation for the phenomenal character of experience. The core thesis posits that qualia are not mysterious byproducts or illusions, but are constituted by, or identical to, specific intrinsic properties of the integrated, embodied predictive modeling process itself. This framework aims to dissolve the explanatory gap by reframing the question from “generation” to “realization,” thereby avoiding the metaphysical extremes of both panpsychism and strong illusionism while affirming the reality of subjective experience.
An attention-based neural model of subjective imagery and aphantasia
Jianghao Liu
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Subjective imagery refers to one’s quasi-perceptual experience in the absence of direct external input. Yet around 4% of individuals with “aphantasia” report an inability to voluntarily generate such experiences. This phenomenon provides a natural experiment that challenges current theories of imagery, which typically assume that reactivation of the visual cortex in imagery generation is sufficient for imagery experience. In fact, neuroimaging evidence shows that aphantasic individuals can reactivate visual cortex normally during imagery tasks, indicating that additional, as-yet-unspecified, processes are required for subjective experience to emerge. Here, I propose an attention-based model of subjective imagery with two aims: (i) to outline a hierarchical processing, in which generation provides initial sensory reactivations, integration binds these features into coherent perceptual-like content, and amplification enhances them for conscious access, capturing both voluntary and spontaneous imagery; and (ii) to specify a putative neural implementation in a fronto-parietal-fusiform network shaped by two interacting attention systems. Aphantasia primarily reflects deficits in top-down attentional control, with preserved generation but impaired integration and amplification of internal representations, linked to altered interactions between frontoparietal control networks and the fusiform gyrus. Overall, this model reframes imagery as an active, constructive process shaped by the dynamic interplay of attention, sensory, and memory networks, rather than a passive reactivation of memory traces. Thus, this paper presents a testable mechanistic account of the neural substrates of subjective imagery and aphantasia, motivating future research and illuminating the neural basis of conscious experience.
Associations between Workplace LGB+ Disclosure and Organizational LGB+ Climate, Discrimination, Job Satisfaction, and Mental Health: A Multiverse-Based, Meta-Analytic Systematic Review
Ingrid Wahl; Raphaela Stibor; Jens Hagelstein; Sabine Einwiller; Magdalena Siegel
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Disclosing an LGB+ orientation in the workplace is a communicative act that may be linked to organizational and personal circumstances. This multiverse-based, meta-analytic systematic review aims to examine the association of disclosing an LGB+ orientation with organizational LGB+ climate, discrimination, job satisfaction, and mental health. We conducted a pre-registered systematic review in line with PRISMA guidelines. Multi-tiered, systematic literature searches were conducted across 4 databases and further sources. Sixty-five studies from 62 publications (19,440 participants) met prespecified inclusion criteria. Pooled effect sizes (Pearson r) were calculated based on three-level, multiverse meta-analyses. Across 792 models, we found that workplace LGB+ disclosure was associated with a better organizational climate (mean observed r = .39), less discrimination (r = -.24), higher job satisfaction (r = .15), and better mental health (r = .14). Moderator analyses were mostly inconclusive with some evidence found for disclosure type, sexual orientation, gender, and year of data collection in certain subsets of multiverse specifications. Organizations aiming to support the well-being of LGB+ employees may benefit from cultivating non-discriminatory work environments, as such LGB+ friendly environments are associated with greater openness about sexual orientation and, in turn, with higher job satisfaction and better mental health among LGB+ staff. This multiverse-based, meta-analytic systematic review considers different communicative forms of disclosure and examines the associations of disclosure with organizational and personal variables and considers a variety of moderating variables.
Increasing the Disclosure of Information from Suspects in Investigative Interviews Through Brief Training in the Shift-of-Strategy Approach
Lina Nyström; Timothy John Luke; Anders Granhag; Emma Neofotistos; Minna Määttä; Ana Knezevic; Naiara Ferreira Vieira Castello; Bettina Buckbee
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The Shift-of-Strategy (SoS) approach is a recently developed interviewing technique designed to encourage semi-cooperative suspects to disclose more information. The approach’s efficacy has previously been demonstrated in highly controlled laboratory studies where the SoS approach was implemented through semi-scripted protocols. The current study is the first to develop and evaluate a 2-hour training program designed to teach novice interviewers to independently apply the SoS approach in mock interviews. We compared the SoS training with a program focused on foundational interviewing principles (Basic training). We predicted that participants receiving both types of training would elicit more information from mock suspects than those who only received Basic training. Participants (N = 31) acting as interviewers were assigned to one of three training conditions: Basic, SoS, or SoS-Delay. Basic participants only received Basic training before conducting four interviews with separate mock-suspects. The two SoS conditions received both types of training at different time points (before all four interviews for SoS, after two interviews for SoS-Delay). We recruited mock suspects (N = 124) to complete a mock crime before being interviewed. Interviewers who received the SoS training used SoS tactics more frequently and elicited more general information compared to those who only received Basic training. However, we observed no significant differences in interviewers’ ability to elicit previously unknown information. However, the use of several SoS tactics was positively associated with eliciting such information. These results demonstrate that even brief SoS training improves novices’ use of tactics and ability to elicit information.
The Mint Scale: A Fresh Validation of the Multimodal Interoception Questionnaire and Comparison to the MAIA, BPQ and IAS
Dominique Makowski; Ana Neves; Emma Lucy Benn; Maisie Bennett; Giulia Poerio
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Interoception, the sensing of the body's internal state, is an important component of homeostatic and allostatic regulation with wide-ranging implications for mental and physical health, yet its measurement is hindered by tools with conceptual and psychometric issues. To address these limitations, we developed and validated the Multimodal Interoception Questionnaire (Mint). In Study 1 (N=559), a comprehensive item pool using a novel "modality-by-context" framework was generated and then reduced using psychometric network analysis. In Study 2 (N=737), we validated the Mint in an independent sample, establishing its structure, comparing its predictive power against established interoception questionnaires (MAIA-2, BPQ, IAS), and across a wide range of clinical and cognitive outcomes. This rigorous process yielded a 33-item scale with a stable hierarchical structure comprising three metaclusters (Interoceptive Deficit, Interoceptive Awareness, Visceroception) and 11 distinct facets. The Mint demonstrated superior criterion validity, consistently outperforming existing scales in predicting outcomes tied to altered bodily perception, including alexithymia, ADHD, autism, and somatic symptom clusters. The Mint offers a psychometrically robust and nuanced measure of self-reported interoception that integrates and extends existing scales, providing researchers and clinicians with a practical and readily usable tool to investigate the role of bodily sensations in health and disease.
Is there an echo in here? Is the echo damaging? The causes and effects of political homogeneity in online networks
German Neubaum; Manuel Cargnino; Luna Frauhammer; Daniel Röchert
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Recently, public debates related to metaphors such as echo chambers and filter bubbles have emphasized how the formation of like-minded spaces can harm democratic systems. In fact, human beings have always tended to surround themselves by those who act and think alike. Still, the extent and the potential effects of this human tendency specifically in online networks are yet to be understood. This chapter summarizes a five-year research program at the intersection of media psychology, communication studies, and social media analytics devoted to understanding the emergence and the consequences of political homogeneity in social media. We present subjective and objective measures of political homogeneity, which psychological factors facilitate its emergence, and how its presence can shape perceptions of public opinion, metacognitions, personal opinions, and expressive actions. Drawing on this evidence, we outline its implications for strengthening and securing democracy in digitized societies.
The Ideological Turing Test: a behavioural measure of open-mindedness and perspective-taking
Charlotte (Lotty) Brand; Daniel Brady; Tom Stafford
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Truly understanding the position of ideological opponents is challenging, yet crucial if our goals are to avoid escalation or further polarisation, identify areas of agreement, and ultimately reduce misunderstanding. We operationalise the idea of an ‘Ideological Turing Test’, as a behavioural measure of the extent to which people are able to accurately represent the position of their ideological opponents. The original ‘Turing Test’ challenged any artificial intelligence to successfully mimic human dialogue- the test would be passed if a human was convinced that the machine was a human. The Ideological Turing Test has been proposed (Caplan 2011 Econlib) as a requirement for would-be human debaters - can they successfully mimic their ideological opponent’s arguments to the extent that their opponent endorses the argument as strongly as their own? Crucially, this ‘Test’ offers a behavioural measure of open mindedness which goes beyond self-report measures. It is not possible to pass an Ideological Turing Test by believing you understand the other’s perspective - you must articulate those arguments to the satisfaction of those who hold them. In this study, we operationalise the Ideological Turing Test by recruiting participants from opposite sides of commonly polarising debates (Covid-19 Vaccines, Brexit, Veganism), and asking them to provide reasons both for and against their position. These reasons were rated by participants from the opposite side of the debate. Our criteria for “passing” the Ideological Turing Test is if an argument is agreed with by opponents to the same extent or higher than arguments made by proponents. We found no difference in minority or majority positions in their ability to pass the Ideological Turing Test (i.e. no difference in passing rate between those who are for or against Covid-19 vaccines). However we did find that those who pass the Ideological Turing Test are less judgemental towards their opponents, in that they are less likely to rate them as ignorant, immoral or irrational. The Ideological Turing Test not only provides a behavioural measure of open-mindedness, it also provides insights into the scope and diversity of arguments within and between polarising topics.
Measuring trust in Artificial Intelligence with the N2pc component
Eva Wiese; Tobias Feldmann-Wüstefeld
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Efficient allocation of attentional resources is critical when humans collaborate with artificial intelligence (AI): they must focus on their task while monitoring the AI to intervene if it fails. Inefficient allocation—such as excessive monitoring or overreliance—can impair performance and cause critical errors. Whether humans appropriately offload attentional effort to an AI depends on factors such as the AI’s competency, the user’s expertise, and their propensity to trust. Yet, trust in AI is a latent variable that is difficult to measure. Here, we introduce an EEG-based approach to directly track how attentional resources are shared between a human and an AI. Participants performed a visual search task either alone or with an AI whose competency was varied. The N2pc component—an established neural marker of selective visual attention—was used to index attentional deployment. Results showed that the N2pc amplitude varied with the AI’s competency: smaller amplitudes indicated greater offloading and trust in the high- versus low-competency condition. The findings demonstrate that neurophysiological markers such as the N2pc can serve as implicit, non-disruptive measures of trust that inform about the cognitive mechanisms underlying trust calibration. The study thus establishes the N2pc as a promising marker for quantifying attention allocation in collaborative human-AI search tasks and extends its relevance from visual attention research to the study of trust in automation.
Reply to Lupyan and Nedergaard (2025)
Andreas Lind
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This paper continues the discussion sparked by Nedergaard and Lupyan’s recent study investigating the behavioral effects of the variation in peoples’ perceived prevalence of inner speech. I highlight the ambiguity of the term ‘anendophasia,’ coined by Nedergaard and Lupyan, which can be taken to mean either a self-perceived low prevalence, or a complete lack, of inner speech, and note the crucial difference between these two meanings. By comparing questionnaire data with data derived from descriptive experience sampling, I emphasize the importance of taking respondents’ presuppositions about their inner speech into account when evaluating inner speech data, as presuppositions can have a dramatic impact on responses to inner speech questionnaires.
意味的類似度を用いたテキストからの未知知見検出法 --ディープラーニングによるアプローチ--
JingHao MA
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This study explores an efficient method to extract novel insights from free-text data using Semantic Textual Similarity (STS). With the growing use of social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), large-scale free-text data has become a valuable resource for real-time analysis in various fields. Traditional manual classification methods struggle with the vast and diverse datasets, necessitating computational approaches like Natural Language Processing (NLP). The proposed method employs STS to prioritize text analysis by measuring semantic similarity between existing insights and new data, streamlining the discovery process for previously unobserved insights. Evaluations using two datasets—one on public opinions about a film company and another on microaggressions experienced by Chinese students in Japan—demonstrated the model's effectiveness. Results showed that the STS-based approach significantly outperforms random sampling in detecting novel insights efficiently, even in multilingual and small datasets.
The Impact of the Testing Environment on Gender Differences in Mental Rotation Performance: Does Virtual Reality Make a Difference?
Zoya Kozlova; Raphael Cera; Christoph Hoyer; Salome Flegr; Jochen Kuhn; Sarah Isabelle Hofer
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Mental rotation ability plays a crucial role in learning outcomes in STEM subjects - the ongoing debate questions whether and, if so, why men outperform women in mental rotation. Existing mental rotation tests (MRTs) have recently been criticized for being male-biased in their design. In our study, we attempted to overcome potential MRT design bias by integrating the renowned MRT into an immersive virtual reality (iVR) environment that reduces those biases. In a sample of N = 731 university students, we examined whether the iVR environment had an impact on MRT performance for males and females compared to (a) the paper-and-pencil condition and (b) a tablet condition. Our findings reveal the consistent superiority of male over female students in MRT performance across the three conditions. However, this discrepancy is attenuated in both technology-supported conditions. Based on the mediation model, cognitive effort partially mediated gender differences in mental rotation performance in the paper-and-pencil and tablet conditions, but not in iVR, suggesting that the role of perceived mental workload in gender disparities may vary depending on the testing environment.
Motivation biases behavior – not perception
Christian Wolf; Markus Lappe; Hugh Riddell
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Why do people differ in their perceptual judgment despite observing the same situation? According to “motivated perception”, a person’s motivation can alter how the brain interprets incoming sensory information. Yet, empirical support remains mixed, often due to methodological confounds. Here, we systematically tested whether motivation alters perception or whether it instead biases behavior. Across four experiments, we assessed the quality and quantity of motivation (self-concordance, value) and two key dimensions of perception: bias and sensitivity. Moreover, we tested two potentially mediating mechanisms (gaze position, spatial attention) as well as an implicit perceptual measure. Using smooth pursuit eye movements as an implicit measure of motion perception, we show that motivation biases responses without altering perception (Experiment 2). Changes in perceptual sensitivity (Experiment 1) and perceptual bias (Experiments 3–4) only arise when participants can freely select their gaze position in response to uncertain or ambiguous visual displays. Our findings therefore challenge the notion of “motivated perception”. Instead, they suggest that motivation shapes how we look and respond – but not how we perceive.
Direct Accessibility and the Phenomenological Characteristics of Future Thinking Associated with Depressive Symptoms: Examining the Roles of Contrast Avoidance and Memories of the Future
Noboru Matsumoto; David John Hallford
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Depression is characterized by reduced future thinking specificity, yet the retrieval processes underlying this impairment remain unclear. Building on parallels between future thinking and autobiographical memory, we examined whether depressive symptoms are differentially associated with direct versus generative retrieval of specific and categoric future events, and whether contrast avoidance (i.e., maintaining a negative mood to avoid a sudden negative emotional shift) contributes to these patterns. In Study 1 (N = 80) and Study 2 (N = 113), Japanese adults completed a future thinking task in which they imagined personally-relevant future events for positive and negative cue words, classified each retrieval as direct or generative, and rated phenomenological characteristics. Across studies, depressive symptom severity was consistently associated with more frequent direct retrieval of negative categoric future thinking and less frequent direct retrieval of positive specific future thinking. Depressed individuals also reported lower emotional valence, likelihood, and similarity with past events for positive future thinking, suggesting limited memory resources for generating plausible positive events. In Study 2, a higher propensity for emotional contrast avoidance was linked to increased retrieval of negative categoric future thinking and decreased retrieval of positive specific future thinking. These findings extend depression-related alteration of accessibility from autobiographical memory to future thinking, suggesting common underlying knowledge structures. Increased accessibility to negative categoric futures and reduced accessibility to positive specific futures may be a pathological process in depressed individuals, with contrast avoidance potentially maintaining these biases.
Tap, move, or dance? How groove ratings differ across movement descriptors
Riya Sidhu; Jessica Adrienne Grahn
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Groove, defined as the pleasurable urge to move to music, is affected by properties of the music as well as factors that differ among individuals, such as music training. Ratings of the desire to produce movement (e.g., tapping and dancing) have been used to quantify the amount of groove being experienced, but we do not know whether the specific type of movement that is rated affects scores. Further, few studies have considered the effect of dance training on groove perception. Therefore, the current paper investigates whether rating different types of movements (i.e., tapping vs dancing) affects groove ratings, and how dance experience may alter these ratings. The first study used a within-subject design, with participants rating forty unfamiliar songs on their elicited desire to tap, desire to move, and desire to dance. To assess whether rating all three movement descriptors together created rating differences that would not be observed if participants were not comparing the movement descriptors against each other, a between-subjects study was conducted with the same procedure except that the three groups of participants each rated only one movement descriptor. In both studies, ratings of groove differed based on the type of movement rated. Overall, desire to dance ratings were lower than move or tap ratings across both studies. Desire to tap ratings were significantly higher than move ratings, but only in the first study; in the second study, move and tap ratings did not significantly differ. In the first study, dance training influenced desire to move and desire to dance ratings, while music training influenced desire to tap ratings, however these findings were not replicated in Study 2. Overall, the findings suggest that groove ratings differ based on the type of movement rated, that within- versus between-subject designs affect these ratings, and that dance and music training differentially affect different groove responses.
From ‘Neurons to Nations’: Neurocognitive Foundations of Nationalism
Shane O'Mara
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Nationalism—the deep psychological attachment to one's nation—is a pervasive and powerful force shaping modern social and political life. While usually analyzed through historical or political frameworks, nationalism is rooted in evolved neurocognitive and biological capacities for memory, imagination, group affiliation, and emotional bonding. Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, and evolutionary theory, this review explores the neurobiological and psychological substrates of nationalism, integrating Benedict Anderson's concept of “imagined communities” with findings on imagination, group categorization, identity fusion, and collective memory. Central to this analysis is the collective exercise of episodic memory and imagination, suggesting national identity depends on the brain’s ability to construct coherent, imagined, collective worlds. Collective memory and other processes promote in-group loyalty and out-group bias, and (prefrontal) cortical systems facilitate fusing of individual and group identity. The neural bases of important affective processes (including pride, fear, empathy (gaps), and moral outrage) are analyzed to elucidate how nationalism co-opts these mechanisms, scaling them to mass societies through culturally-mediated memory and narrative systems. Often overlooked ethical issues when considering the underlying mechanisms responsible for nationalism are discussed. Finally, some new hypotheses and future research directions to deepen our neurocognitive understanding of large-scale group affiliation, with implications for societal cohesion, intergroup conflict, and transforming nationalism in a globalizing world are discussed.
Demographic Predictors of Older Adults’ Performance on a Novel Virtual Reality–Based Everyday Function Test and Conventional Measures of Cognition and Function
Moira McKniff; Marina Kaplan; Molly Tassoni; Rachel E. Mis; Sophia Holmqvist; Kimberly Halberstadter; Stephanie Simone; Katherine Hackett; Riya Chaturvedi; Giuliana Vallecorsa
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Objective: In contrast to conventional cognitive tests and questionnaires on everyday function, performance-based tests of everyday function typically show little to no relation to race, education, and other demographic variables. This study examined demographic correlates of a novel, virtual reality-based test of everyday function to determine whether its computerized format would yield demographic associations similar to performance-based tests with real objects. Methods: A total of 237 older adults (MAge = 72.7 ± 6.96; MEducation = 15.8 ± 2.75; 66% female; 47.7% White; 45.1% Black) completed conventional cognitive tests and two functional tests requiring them to make a breakfast and a lunch with real-life objects (Real Kitchen) and on a non-immersive virtual reality paradigm (Virtual Kitchen Challenge-Version 2; VKC-2). VKC-2 and Real Kitchen were scored for completion time and errors. Informant reports of everyday functioning were also analyzed. Results: Multiple linear regressions indicated that age significantly predicted nearly all variables. Race did not significantly predict any VKC-2 or Real Kitchen variables, though it significantly predicted nearly all cognitive test scores and informant questionnaires. Education showed similar results to race, but significantly predicted several VKC-2 and Real Kitchen scores. Sex significantly predicted two cognitive tests (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test- Delay Free Recall and Boston Naming Test). Conclusions: Performance-based measures of everyday function, even when administered in VR format, demonstrate weaker associations with race, sex, and education than traditional cognitive tests or informant reporting. The VKC-2 offers a valid and efficient approach to assessing cognitive and functional decline in diverse older adult populations.
On-off synecdoche: a just good enough model of subjective experience
Mario Martinez-Saito
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We provide an account of the apparent intermittency of subjective experiences, between conscious and unconscious phases, grounded on three parsimonious notions: (1) the brain is an inference engine and stochastic simulator endowed with a good enough generative model of the world inherited via evolution and forged by experience, (2) the brain’s internal model of the self (itself, its body and actions) is an intermittent and simplified representation invoked only when needed to expedite inference, which specifies and enables first-person subjective experiences through the identification of a model of the self (d-self or synecdoche for the p-self) with the physical self (p-self), and (3) realistic monism as a merger of physicalism and panpsychism. This scheme shifts the focus from problematic standalone subjective experiences to the identification of subjective experiences with the system’s model of itself and its contingent attributes, is consistent with the empirical and phenomenological evidence and provides testable predictions: (1) only macroscopic scale information that is expedient for survival (d-self shell) can become subjective experience, and (2) the hub of subjective experience is mostly distributed along the posterior medial cortex.
Where and when do drivers look when searching for road hazards? Eye movements and hazard localization in dynamic road scenes.
Jiali Song; Benjamin Wolfe; Ido Zivli
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Parsing complex dynamic scenes is an important part of navigating our visual world, yet it is unclear how the visual system meets these demands. Driving safely is a daily task that requires quickly understanding dynamic road scenes. Eye tracking can illuminate the spatio-temporal dynamics of the processes supporting this ability. To this end, we recorded eye position while 30 licensed drivers localized hazards in real dashcam footage. We found that correctly localized hazards were more likely to be foveated than missed hazards. However, there was no single moment in time at which foveation of the hazard is critical for hazard location. Despite correct localization response, the maximum likelihood of foveating the hazard never exceeded 70% at each moment. These results suggest that peripheral vision can be sufficient for hazard localization. Furthermore, looked-but-failed-to-see errors, where participants foveated but failed to report the hazard, occurred on 40% of incorrect trials. These results demonstrate a dissociation between gaze and awareness. We also found evidence of anticipatory looking on correct trials. Participants started to look at the future location of the hazard 2s before hazard onset, which aligns with prior research reporting that gaze precedes action in other naturalistic tasks. Furthermore, we found an association between when participants looked at the hazard and speed of correct hazard localization, but not what happens after foveation. The earlier you look at the hazard, the earlier you respond. Overall, our findings demonstrate the involvement of peripheral vision and anticipatory processes in comprehending dynamic natural scenes.
A comparison of scaled difference tests for forming confidence intervals in SEM
Carl F. Falk; Lihan Chen
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Likelihood-based confidence intervals often perform better than Wald-based intervals in structural equation modelling, but one challenge involves their robustness to distributional assumption violations. While Falk (2018) implemented a “robust” variant based on inverting a test by Satorra (2000), other scaled difference tests are available. These approaches have not been compared to Wald-based intervals based on a sandwich covariance matrix with observed information (Huber-White or “MLR”). In addition, lavaan-based software implementations are challenging and several solutions, including the new semlbci package (Cheung & Pesigan, 2023), have not been compared. We report two simulations evaluating three scaled difference tests, Huber-White standard errors, and two software implementations. Under several nonnormality conditions, we examine a classic behavioral genetics model and a cross-lagged panel model with an indirect effect. Satorra’s (2000) difference test worked best and sometimes outperformed Huber-White standard errors. We document challenges in estimation of these intervals if lavaan (Rosseel, 2012) is used.
Measuring high-priority outcomes in a real-world sample of autistic adults: cohort development, data collection, and sample description for the AASPIRE Outcomes Project
Christina Nicolaidis; Ian Moura; Mary Baker-Ericzén; Mirah Scharer; Joelle Maslak; Rachel Kripke-Ludwig; Willi Horner-Johnson; Julia Love; Dora M Raymaker; Andrea Joyce
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Adult autism services research is plagued by methodological challenges, including 1) lack of accessible self-reported outcome measures, 2) difficulty obtaining representative or heterogeneous samples, and 3) a frequent mismatch between experimental methodologies and real-world settings. The AASPIRE Outcomes Project uses a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to 1) create a set of self- and caregiver-reported outcome measures to evaluate health and social services for autistic adults, and 2) explore factors predicting changes in outcomes. We previously used a CBPR-nested Delphi process to identify high-priority outcomes and then adapted or created instruments to measure them. We are conducting a longitudinal survey to validate these measures in a pragmatic sample of autistic adults from two healthcare systems, two disability service systems, and the larger autistic community in the United States. We collected baseline data from 870 participants. Follow-up rates were >80% for the 2nd and 3rd timepoints. The sample includes strong heterogeneity. As expected, sample characteristics differed markedly between the 3 subcohorts. All 22 outcome measures demonstrated excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Lessons from our experience may help other researchers devise strategies to effectively recruit and collect rich data from heterogeneous samples of autistic adults across various settings.
Co-transitioning Peers Impact the Continuation of Victimization Across the Transition from Primary to Secondary School
J. Loes Pouwels; Yvonne van den Berg; Hilde Colpin; Toon Cillessen; Tessa A. M. Lansu
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The present two-wave longitudinal study examined the stability of self- and peer-reported victimization across the transition from primary to secondary school and the role of children’s peer group in this stability. A total of 193 students from 36 primary school classrooms in the Netherlands (60% boys; Mage T1 = 12.16 years) were followed as they transitioned into 37 secondary school classrooms. Their level of victimization before and after the transition was determined using self-reported questionnaires and peer nominations. We further determined whether any of their primary school classmates transitioned to the same classroom in secondary school, and if so, whether these co-transitioning peers were friends in primary school, as determined by peer nominations. Multilevel analyses revealed that self-reported victimization was likely to continue if students co-transitioned to the secondary school classroom without peers, but not if they co-transitioned with peers, regardless of the friendship relation with them. In contrast, peer-reported victimization tended to be stable across all groups. However, it was more stable among students with co-transitioning non-friends than among those with a co-transitioning friend or without co-transitioning peers. Practical implications are discussed.
The connection between personal semantics and the subjective experience of episodic content: A multilevel analysis
D. Merika W. Sanders; Preston Thakral; Daniel L Schacter
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The dichotomy between episodic and semantic memory has historically limited investigations into memory phenomena that exhibit characteristics of both memory types. Notably, personal semantics can demonstrate episodic qualities of personal significance and semantic qualities of spatiotemporal context-independence. The current study examined this intersection of episodic and semantic memory by investigating whether and to what extent the phenomenological experiences of recalling knowledge of personally familiar people and places and recalling a past episode are related. Participants recalled past episodes each comprising two episodic details, a personally familiar person and location, and rated the subjective vividness of each detail. In a separate personal semantics task, participants generated facts for the same person and location details comprising the recalled episodes and rated the amount of facts experienced. A multilevel analysis revealed that the amount of facts during the personal semantics task predicted the corresponding subjective vividness of those same details during recollection. Importantly, this relationship replicated in a second experiment and persisted even after omitting trials for which participants had utilized an episodic strategy during the personal semantics task. These findings indicate that the subjective experience across personal semantic and episodic memories is linked at the level of individual details.
What is critical metascience and why is it important?
Mark Rubin
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Metascience uses a scientific approach to understand and improve science. Critical metascience takes a step back to question metascience’s commonly-accepted assumptions, methods, problems, and solutions. In this article, I define critical metascience and explain how it can help to identify and address collective biases within metascience. I also highlight some emerging themes in the field. Finally, I consider some potential relationships between metascience and critical metascience and argue that the most functional model is one in which two fields are partially overlapping. I conclude that there needs to be greater recognition and dialogue between metascience and critical metascience in order to improve metascience’s objectivity and approach.
Impersonal Statements: LLM-Era College Admissions Essays Exhibit Deep Homogenization Despite Lexical Diversity
Kibum Moon; Kostadin Kushlev; Andrew Bank; Adam Green
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Concerns that AI will homogenize human thinking—and homogenization findings in lab contexts—appear at odds with findings that AI-assisted content is judged as highly original. Using a multi-method approach that combined a controlled experiment with two large-scale natural experiments in over 160,000 U.S. college admissions essays, we observed a counterintuitive pattern: AI-assisted essays and essays written after the release of ChatGPT showed greater lexical diversity, but the increasingly diverse words actually expressed increasingly homogeneous ideas. This “paradoxical homogenization” pattern was robust across demographic subgroups but emerged disproportionately among applicants outside racial and linguistic mainstreams. Event-time analyses and robustness checks ruled out pre-existing trends and pandemic-related confounds. The findings suggest that surface-level diversity of AI-generated content masks deeper constraints on the breadth of human ideation. Extending lab-based AI homogenization research, paradoxical homogenization appears to have reached real-world, high-stakes contexts where writing is expressly personal and AI use is explicitly prohibited.
Applying Bayesian checks of cancellation axioms for interval scaling in limited samples
Sanford R Student; Wyatt Read
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Interval scales are frequently assumed in educational and psychological research involving latent variables, but rarely verified. This paper outlines methods for investigating the interval scale assumption when the Rasch model is to be fit to item response data. We study a Bayesian method for evaluating an item response dataset’s adherence to the cancellation axioms of additive conjoint measurement under the Rasch model, and compare the extent to which the axiom of double cancellation holds in the data at sample sizes of 250 and 1000 with varying test lengths, difficulty spreads, and levels of adherence to the Rasch model in the data-generating process. Because the statistic produced by the procedure is not directly interpretable as an indicator of whether an interval scale can be established or not, we develop and evaluate procedures for bootstrapping a null distribution of violation rates against which to compare results. At a sample size of 250, the method under investigation is not well-powered to detect the violations of interval scaling that we simulate, but the procedure works quite consistently at N = 1000. That is, at moderate but achievable sample sizes, empirical tests for interval scaling are indeed possible.
Human adaptation to war: Evidence from 30+ studies
Henrikas Bartusevicius; Samira Aminihajibashi; Stefan Mattias-Maria Goetz; Eric Skoog; Thomas Hagen
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Was small-scale war a recurrent feature of life during human evolution, and—consequently—have humans adapted to war? This question has generated major scholarly debate, primarily informed by archaeology, ethnography, and primatology. We examine adaptation to war in contemporary humans via cognitive psychology experiments. If war recurred during evolution, then our minds are likely equipped with efficient, complex, and specialized mechanisms for effective navigation of intergroup coalitional aggression. Fourteen hypotheses were derived positing the existence of rapid and accurate coalition detection, enumeration, and formidability assessment mechanisms. Twenty-five exploratory experiments (ca. 5000 participants) custom-fitted established attentional bias, enumeration, and rating paradigms for large-scale online administration, and preliminary tested the hypotheses. Seven preregistered studies with probability samples totaling ca. 12,000 participants supported 11 of the hypotheses. Participants automatically attended to, efficiently enumerated, and made nuanced assessments of rapidly presented schematic coalitions. Male participants enumerated the coalitions more rapidly and accurately, female participants perceived them as more formidable, and female and less formidable participants overestimated their numerical size. Combined with multiple tests of alternative explanations, the evidence suggests the existence of specialized adaptations to intergroup coalitional aggression, consistent with the broader hypothesis that human prehistory was characterized by war.
Bases neuropsicológicas para el diseño de software de desarrollo personal: dopamina, autorreflexión y bienestar
Sean Jamie Leitch
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This article examines the relationship between dopamine, self-reflection, and overall well being, with the aim of establishing the neuropsychological foundations for the design of personal development software. It discusses key concepts related to dopamine, motivation, and addiction, as well as the role of journaling and introspection in emotional regulation and well-being. The study identifies the essential domains required for a fulfilling life, including physical activity, financial stability, social relationships, life purpose, and recreation. It also explores the habits that can undermine motivation and well-being—such as digital addictions, problematic pornography use, toxic relationships, gaming, gambling, and substance abuse— evaluating their impact on dopamine and mental health. The findings suggest that personal development software should be designed in accordance with these principles in order to enhance its effectiveness and promote holistic well-being. This work is relevant to software designers, developers, mental health professionals, and individuals interested in digital tools that support personal growth and overall well-being.
Gender-specific Predictors of Resilient Functioning After Childhood Adversity: A Residuals Approach with Structural Equation Modeling
Pablo Barrera; Pía Santelices; Anne-Laura Van Harmelen; José Murillo; James Hamilton; Elizabeth Buimer
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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) increase the risk of depressive symptoms in adulthood. Resilience, the ability to sustain or recover well-being despite adversity, is influenced by early supportive relationships and social connections. These protective factors may differ by gender, yet little research has examined these dynamics in Latin America. We analyzed data from a representative urban sample of Chilean adults (N = 2,101; aged 18–65), drawn from the Chile National Survey of Adversity. Depressive symptoms were regressed on ACEs and socioeconomic status; residuals indicated resilient functioning. Exploratory factor analysis identified latent factors, and gender-stratified structural equation models assessed their associations with resilient functioning. Three factors emerged: Positive Childhood Experiences, Closeness to Friends in Need, and Empathetic Concern. Among women, positive experiences and friendship closeness predicted resilience, whereas Empathetic Concern was linked to less resilient functioning. No associations were found among men. The findings underscore gender-specific resilience pathways, identifying predictors associated with greater resilient functioning exclusively in women, while also suggesting that interpersonal empathy may place emotional demands on women that compromise resilient functioning.
Metabolic interoceptive rewards shape affect, but not action
Hugo Alexander Fleming; Annalise Whines; Poppy Whelehan; Isabel Hei Wing Lau; Katie Gallacher; Sara Z. Mehrhof; Camilla Nord
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Central to survival is our ability to learn that the sensory properties of food are associated with metabolic interoceptive signals (e.g., changing blood glucose). These signals influence cognition and brain activity, shaping the hedonic evaluation of flavours, and activating reward-related brain regions such as the ventral striatum. However, there remains a substantial gap in understanding how metabolic rewards shape behaviour, particularly in humans. We hypothesised that metabolic interoceptive rewards may function as Pavlovian stimuli, eliciting a Pavlovian approach bias which modulates everyday instrumental decision-making via Pavlovian-instrumental transfer. To test this, in a double-blind design, over one week, participants (N = 53) consumed two novel, flavoured drinks: one containing the tasteless carbohydrate maltodextrin, and one a calorie-free control. In a subsequent lab session, participants completed a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer task, performing a points-based instrumental decision-making task while tasting calorie-free versions of each flavour. Participants also rated liking and wanting of the flavours. As predicted, flavours previously experienced with calories were rated as significantly more liked after conditioning. However, counter to our hypothesis, the calorie-associated flavours did not enhance instrumental responding; computational modelling instead indicated a suppression of action. These findings reveal a dissociation between hedonic preferences and action: while metabolic rewards shaped liking, they did not invigorate behaviour. This highlights the complexity of interoceptive reinforcement learning and points to the need for further work to understand how and when internal metabolic expectations shape action.
Robust Statistical Methods and the Credibility Movement of Psychological Science
Martina Sladekova; Andy Peter Field
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The general linear model (GLM) is the most frequently applied family of statistical models in psychology. Within the GLM, the effects under study are estimated using the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation, which produces unbiased and optimal parameter estimates, and unbiased null hypothesis significance tests when (1) outliers and influential cases are absent, and (2) assumptions of linearity and additivity, spherical errors, and normal errors are met. This paper first provides a technical description of OLS and an overview of its statistical assumptions. We then discuss the methods commonly employed to detect and address violations of assumptions, and how the current application of these methods can compromise the reproducibility of findings by allowing too much flexibility in the analytic process. We briefly introduce several robust estimation methods - namely bootstrapping, heteroscedasticity-consistent standard errors, M-estimators, and trimming - that can improve the accuracy of parameter estimates and the power of statistical tests. We provide guidance on how these methods can be used to transparently preregister a sensitivity analysis, reducing the opportunity for problematic researcher degrees of freedom to enter the analytic pipeline.
The Bi-Interpretive Mind Framework: A Neurocognitive Model of Consciousness, Stress, and Psychopathology
Deepanshu Tomar
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The Bi-Interpretive Mind Framework (BIMF) introduces a dual-system model of human cognition and consciousness, positing the coexistence of two interdependent subsystems: the Primary Mind (logical, conscious, reality-testing) and the Secondary Mind (intuitive, unconscious, biologically interpretive). Subjective experience is conceptualized as emerging from the “interpretive handshake” between these two systems, while instability in this process—termed interpretive instability—underlies stress, psychopathology, and altered states of consciousness. Extending this model, the Bi-Interpretive Stress Model (BISM) defines stress as instability in the interpretive handshake, operationalized as a mismatch between Secondary simulations and Primary validation, modulated by neurochemical tilt and cognitive control capacity. BIMF further reinterprets diverse psychopathologies—including schizophrenia, PTSD, OCD, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, dissociation, and addiction—as systemic failures in interpretive alignment. Dreams are framed as autonomous simulations of the Secondary Mind, ranging from symbolic REM experiences to lucid states where the Primary Mind partially re-engages. This framework integrates insights from dual-process cognition, predictive processing, stress appraisal, and neurovisceral integration, while providing testable empirical predictions for laboratory and clinical research. By unifying cognitive, biological, and phenomenological perspectives, BIMF contributes a novel hypothesis for understanding the mechanisms of consciousness, stress, and psychopathology. The paper concludes by outlining empirical paradigms and clinical applications, positioning BIMF as a testable, integrative theory of mind.
From Orchestra to Classroom: Learner-Centered Music Training as a Tool to Support Motivation to Learn
Maria Celeste Fasano; Cristina Semeraro; Rosalinda Cassibba; Morten L. Kringelbach; Lucia Monacis; Peter Vuust; Elvira Brattico
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Fostering intrinsic motivation in students remains a key challenge in education. According to selfdetermination theory (SDT), environments supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness enhance internal motivation. Emerging theoretical work suggests that music education in collaborative, learner-centered formats, may provide such conditions within school contexts. This study investigates whether orchestral music training can influence children's general academic motivation. A total of 130 children aged 8–10 years, took part in the study. Half participated in a free, three-month orchestral training program emphasizing active participation, peer collaboration, and public performance. The other half formed a control group with no music training. Motivation to learn was assessed pre- and post-training using the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire. Children in the music group showed a significantly greater reduction in external motivation compared to the control group. A trend toward a Group × Time interaction was observed for intrinsic motivation, suggesting a differential pattern of change between groups. These findings indicate that learner-centered orchestral training may foster more internalized forms of motivation, potentially by fulfilling key SDT-related needs. Such approaches could be adapted to enhance student engagement and motivation across educational settings.
Relationships in the Age of AI: A Review on the Opportunities and Risks of Synthetic Relationships to Reduce Loneliness
Alfio Ventura; Christopher Starke; Francesca Righetti; Nils Köbis
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Loneliness is a pressing global health issue, yet traditional interventions often fall short due to scalability limitations and the individualized experiences of loneliness. The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has enabled synthetic relationships (SRs)—ongoing associations with AI companions designed to simulate human-like social bonds. SRs offer, among other aspects, constant availability, adaptability, and emotional responsiveness, which potentially address loneliness. However, their growing integration into social life raises critical psychological, ethical, and societal questions. This paper examines the opportunities and risks of SRs through the lens of relationship science, psychology, and AI companionship research. We first highlight how existing loneliness interventions face the challenges of availability, scalability, and personalization. We then outline how SRs present a novel alternative to overcoming these challenges. Drawing mainly on social penetration, attachment, and interdependence theory, we analyze how SRs may foster companionship, reduce social anxiety, and improve interpersonal skills, potentially mitigating loneliness. However, we also identify significant risks, including emotional over-reliance, distorted social expectations, and privacy concerns. The widespread adoption of SRs may reshape human-human relationships, altering norms of intimacy and social connection. To navigate these challenges, we outline a research agenda promoting interdisciplinary theory development longitudinal studies, drawing on representative samples to address the ethical concerns of SRs. We argue that SRs hold promise as a social intervention when ensuring they complement rather than replace human relationships. By integrating interdisciplinary insights, this paper provides a foundation for understanding and guiding the responsible design of SRs for addressing loneliness.
Bodily intolerance of uncertainty influences perceptual recalibration of abdomen representation
Manja Engel; Valeria Peviani
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Introduction: Body representation is a dynamic construct that can be updated depending on precision weighting of sensory prediction errors. The current study tested whether a trait level influences this updating process. Specifically, we tested whether bodily intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a distress response to ambiguous bodily signals, modulates visuo-somatic updating of perceived abdominal boundaries. Methods: Participants competed a virtual reality paradigm, estimating perceived abdominal boundaries before and after either congruent or incongruent visuo-tactile feedback. In the incongruent condition, the abdomen boundary was manipulated as bigger. Results: Mixed-eLects modelling showed that bodily IU predicted greater updating under incongruent feedback. Discussion: These findings indicate that bodily IU amplifies perceptual change when sensory information is ambiguous, suggesting a trait-level bias in precision control.
The Online Volunteer Subject: Who Does and Does Not Participate In Our Studies
John Protzko
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Research using online research participants is here to stay. Understanding who these subjects are, and specifically what kind of biases and selection mechanisms they bring to our research studies will be important for the future of human-subjects research as our studies rely more and more on the Online Volunteer Subject. Here we take a method validated to understand biases in in-person research subjects and extend it to the online laboratory. Using this method, we attempt to replicate and extend this work as a tool for other researchers to use in their own online studies to quantify potential biases and space for treatment heterogeneity. Here we show Online participants are different from the rest of the population. The Online Participant is older, more likely to be Jewish, more well educated, more intelligent, less sociable, less arousal-seeking, more conventional, less interested in religion, and less willing to self-disclose than the person who does not take online studies. This systematic bias by focusing on the types of people who take online studies create obvious problems to generalizability. Furthermore, it creates biases in estimation for all types of studies through range restriction on numerous measured (and potentially many more unmeasured) variables. In short, the type of person who participates in our online studies is not just a regular person, they are systematically different. We provide a method to measure this bias in one’s own study.
From cognition in the wild to cognition in silico: flourishing cultural diversity in AI
Gul Deniz Salali; Mirco Musolesi; Hugo Spiers
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There has been unprecedented progress in artificial intelligence (AI), yet most current AI systems are trained on data from Western, industrialised societies. This narrow focus limits the generalisability and adaptability of AI models, which fail to reflect the full spectrum of human cognition and culture. Moreover, heavy dependence on pre-existing data overlooks how learning occurs in the wild, through direct interaction and feedback from the environment, and constrains innovation. Here, we integrate insights from anthropology, cognitive science, and computer science to argue for a broader, ecologically grounded approach to AI development. We examine examples from traditional cultures, particularly extant hunter-gatherers, whose modes of living reflect the ecological and social conditions under which human cognition evolved. These communities offer underexplored but highly relevant perspectives on core challenges in AI, from multimodal sensory perception to embodied and experiential learning and collective intelligence. These comparisons not only offer conceptual tools for AI design but also invite reflection on the reverse question: what can building AI teach us about human cognition, especially when inspired by ecologically diverse strategies? To develop embodied AI systems capable of engaging meaningfully with the world’s sensory and interactive richness, we must look to those who have long done so.
Depressogenic Environment: A framework to prioritise the environment in mental health science
Praveetha Patalay
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The important role of the environment in mental health has long been recognised by scholars, however, environmental influences and interventions are still sidelined in research, funding, intervention and policy. The lack of a unifying term and corresponding framework has limited our ability as a field to effectively communicate with each other and with external stakeholders about the importance of environmental factors for mental health. The aim of this paper is to provide a definition and framework for the depressogenic environment in mental health science. Depressogenic environment refers to the physical, political, economic and socio-cultural environments that create, maintain or increase mental ill-health. They operate at the micro (homes, schools, workplaces) and macro levels (systems, regions, countries) and include chronic (e.g. infrastructure, cultural beliefs, laws) and acute (e.g. natural disasters, war, recession) factors. I outline the need for this framework, how it compliments other existing frameworks and discuss it’s potential for accelerating insights into the powerful role of the environment in shaping the mental health of individuals and populations. By understanding the role of environmental factors in shaping our mental health and ill-health, researchers, clinicians and policymakers can develop new and more effective strategies for mental health prevention and intervention that go beyond the focus on individual behaviours and healthcare access.
What is critical metascience and why is it important?
Mark Rubin
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Metascience uses a scientific approach to understand and improve science. Critical metascience takes a step back to question metascience’s commonly-accepted assumptions, methods, problems, and solutions. In this article, I define critical metascience and explain how it can help to identify and address collective biases within metascience. I also highlight some emerging themes in the field. Finally, I consider some potential relationships between metascience and critical metascience and argue that the most functional model is one in which two fields are partially overlapping. I conclude that there needs to be greater recognition and dialogue between metascience and critical metascience in order to improve metascience’s objectivity and approach.
Executive functions as a transdiagnostic endophenotype in developmental psychopathology
Julia Wiktorowicz; Eleanor Braithwaite; Jennifer Clare Fielder; Nikolaus Steinbeis
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The majority of mental health conditions emerge before adulthood. With prevalence increasing especially during childhood and adolescence and in light of high between disorder comorbidity, there is an urgent need to identify transdiagnostic mechanisms that underpin both risk and resilience to developmental psychopathology. Here we propose executive functions (EF), a set of cognitive processes relevant for the goal-directed control of thought and actions, as a promising candidate for such a mechanism. We review evidence that EF development is shaped by both genetic and environmental factors and relies on protracted maturation of neural networks, particularly frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular systems. Disruptions in these systems are associated with elevated risk for internalising and externalising disorders. We therefore propose EF as a cognitive endophenotype of developmental psychopathology—heritable, measurable, and lying on the pathway from gene to disorder. We review evidence showing that impaired EF is a shared feature across psychiatric conditions and predictive of future symptomatology, supporting its transdiagnostic relevance. We also propose a mechanistic refinement of the EF construct, moving beyond capacity-based interpretations to a model in which EF performance reflects dynamic and contextually informed cost-benefit computations including effort costs, expected rewards, and contextual efficacy. Disruptions in reward and effort processing—manifesting as anhedonia and apathy—are common across mental health conditions and may compromise EF performance by altering these computations. This integrative perspective helps explain the limited efficacy of traditional EF training interventions and underscores the importance of motivational and contextual factors. We conclude by outlining a future research agenda focused on disentangling the specific subprocesses underpinning EF and their mechanistic links to developmental psychopathology. Recognising EF as a transdiagnostic cognitive endophenotype governed by rational control allocation processes opens new avenues for precise, developmentally informed, and targeted interventions in youth mental health.
Timing Matters: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review of Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Effectiveness in the Perinatal Period
Cathelijne Bijen; Stephanie Homan; Marta Anna Marciniak
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Depressive symptoms during and after pregnancy are a major concern in perinatal mental health, with implications for both mother and child. Digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a scalable and accessible intervention. Yet, it remains unclear whether its effectiveness depends on the timing of delivery — a potentially crucial factor, as pregnancy and the postpartum period differ in both psychological demands and practical circumstances. Therefore, to examine whether digital CBT interventions are more effective when delivered during pregnancy, after childbirth, or across both periods, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomized controlled trials involving 7,577 participants. Our results indicate that digital CBT delivered after childbirth is significantly more effective in reducing depressive symptoms than interventions delivered during pregnancy (b=-1.99, 95%CI [-3.90, -0.08], p=0.04). Interventions spanning both periods did not show additional benefit. These findings can inform the design and implementation of future digital CBT interventions targeting perinatal populations.
Human Contact in the Digital Age as a Scarce Social Good
Claudia Civai; Marta Caserotti; Nazia Yasmeen Skelton; Elisa Carrus
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While the benefits of digitalisation are well documented, less attention has been paid to a potential cost: the erosion of human interaction in everyday services. What are the psychological and social implications of this shift? Across three pre-registered online studies (N = 2,918), we used hypothetical scenarios spanning four domains (education, finance, mental health, fitness) and a willingness-to-pay (WTP) task. Participants consistently valued services involving human interaction more than digital ones, and higher-income individuals were willing to pay more for human contact, but not for digital alternatives. Crucially, framing human contact as scarce further increased its perceived value. These effects were observed in both UK and Italian samples and were not accounted for by differences in digital skills or access. Our findings suggest that, as digitalisation expands, human contact may become a luxury intangible good, introducing new inequalities in access to interpersonal connection.
Linking Socioeconomic Segregation to Racial Bias Using Geospatial Mobility Data
Maximilian Primbs; Hannah Katharina Peetz; Gijsbert Bijlstra; Heidi A. Vuletich
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Most intergroup contact is brief and superficial – two random people are more likely to share a public space than they are to have a deep and meaningful conversation. Yet, most previous intergroup contact research has either focused on contact in artificial settings or on self-reported contact. This study presents the first large-scale investigation of how everyday contact relates to racial bias across the U.S., using GPS data from 9.6 million people and attitude data from 1.3 million people. We find that for White individuals, greater SES exposure segregation - indicating less frequent contact with outgroup members - is associated with higher implicit racial bias. These findings suggest that even superficial, everyday contact is associated with reductions in implicit racial bias, highlighting the importance of everyday exposure in shaping intergroup attitudes.
ssVEP-Based Estimates of Contrast Sensitivity, Visual Acuity, and Orientation Sensitivity Do Not Correlate with Each Other or with Psychophysical Measures in Healthy Individuals
Martina Morea; Simona Adele Garobbio; Marina Kunchulia; Michael H. Herzog
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Traditionally, it is assumed that there is a common factor for spatial vision. However, recent psychophysical results have not found evidence for such a factor, suggesting that each test measures a rather distinct, independent component of visual perception. An alternative explanation is that psychophysical tests measure not only the underlying visual mechanisms, but also confounding non-visual aspects arising from behavioral responses. In this study, we tested 35 young adults with steady-state visually evoked potentials (ssVEP) to bypass behavioral responses and to “objectively” assess contrast sensitivity, visual acuity, and orientation sensitivity. The same participants also performed the corresponding psychophysical tests. ssVEP relies on brain responses elicited by stimuli flickering at specific frequencies and it is widely used in clinical settings, for instance to measure visual acuity in infants or patients with motor impairments. We hypothesized that EEG-based thresholds are less affected by non-visual confounding aspects than psychophysical tests, resulting in higher between-test correlation reflecting the underlying visual factor. Contrary to our expectations, although EEG-based thresholds demonstrated high test–retest reliability, between-test correlation were even lower than those between psychophysical tests. Furthermore, EEG-based thresholds did not correlate with the thresholds obtained from the corresponding psychophysical tests. These findings provide further evidence towards a multifactorial structure of the visual system, and suggest that ssVEP and psychophysical tests measure distinct aspects of visual processing, challenging their interchangeable use.
A Case Study in Academic Teaching Combining Immersive Virtual Reality and LLM Agents to Experientially Teach Simulation Theory
Neta Dancygier; Shachar Maidenbaum
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New technologies unlock new possibilities for academic teaching. Virtual Reality (VR) makes teaching experiential, shifting from listening to firsthand experiencing. Large Language Models (LLMs) make teaching interactive, enabling dynamic scenarios. Here we focus on their combination - immersive VR scenarios with LLM agents. As a case-study we taught simulation theory - the question of whether we are living in a simulation. We created a VR simulation with an LLM agent and challenged students to convince it that it was living in a virtual world. We also had students watch volunteers perform this task, and challenged them to convince us that they were real. The students responded enthusiastically to the experience. It also decreased their belief that they could convince an avatar it was virtual or other humans that they are real. This case-study demonstrates the potential of combining VR and LLM-based avatar for academic teaching and for education in general.
Trauma, Care, and Morality: Emotions as the Link Between Childhood Adversity and Moral Foundations
Christopher Gordon Jones
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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are prevalent predictors of poor health outcomes in adulthood, but their impact on moral foundations remains underexplored. This quantitative cross-sectional study was an examination in to the effects of ACEs on adult morality and proposed affective personality traits and caregiving factors as possible mediating mechanisms. The researcher administered a comprehensive online survey to a global sample of N = 376 English-speaking adults, comprised of four validated survey measures that assessed both retrospective and present experiences, traits, and character styles. The survey assessed ACE exposure (10-item ACE-Q), species-typical caregiving practices (EDNH), the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS), and the 20-item Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ-20), an assessment of moral intuitions derived from Moral Foundations Theory (MFT). The researcher designed the study to test the trauma/Thriving-Emotions-Morality (tTEM) framework, which posits that emotions are primary in moral beliefs and are cultivated through childhood relationships. Results from group comparisons between high-ACE (≥4) and low-ACE (≤ 3) participants indicated small but significant differences, with high-ACE participants tending toward higher Individualizing and lower Binding moral foundations scores compared to low-ACE participants. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated a mediated link between ACEs and MFT, where positive personality traits and heightened EDNH scores positively predicted both Binding and Individualizing moral foundations. These results suggest that early nurturance promotes positive emotional development, shaping moral proclivities. Such research is instructive for clinicians, educators, and policymakers alike, informing existing practices and promoting the future development of enrichment programs that support positive childhood experiences and later moral development.
Global matching models of recognition memory
Adam F Osth; Simon Dennis
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How does retrieval take place in recognition memory? A number of computational models have been developed that posit that recognition operates by a process of global matching, wherein the cue is compared to each stored memory. These cue-to-memory similarities are then aggregated to produce an index of the global similarity between the cue and the contents of memory which can then be subjected to a decision process. In this chapter, we describe a.) the theoretical rationale and successes of such models, such as their accounts of similarity and list-length effects and generalization to multiple memory tasks, b.) challenges and hurdles they have experienced, including the null list-strength effect, the mirror effect, and the extralist feature effect, and c.) recent developments, such as extensions to predictions about response latency, sources of interference outside of the study list, and integration of more realistic representations.
Sequential sampling models in memory
Adam F Osth; Jason Zhou; Haomin Chen; Jie Sun
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In the domain of memory research, there are strong relationships between the accuracy and response times (RT) for choices in tasks such as recognition memory and recall. The strongest unification of these variables to come out of cognitive psychology is in the sequential sampling model framework, in which evidence accumulates in a noisy fashion until a threshold for a given response is reached. In this chapter, we provide an overview of these models within the memory domain. We begin with the classical diffusion model along with the motivations for the "full" diffusion model which includes variability in drift rates and starting points and describe how such models can produce interpretable parameter estimates for testing psychological theory. In addition, we summarize the connections between diffusion models and signal detection theory, extensions to confidence, recall, and continuous responses, and how such models can serve as back-end decision models for theories of retrieval.
Examining Content Representation and Convergence of Climate Anxiety Measures
Tomás Gago; Rebecca Joanne Sargisson; Taciano L Milfont
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There is a proliferation of definitions and scales that assess climate anxiety and neighbouring constructs, but it is unclear how distinct these are in practice. We used a mixed-methods approach to examine overlaps across existing scales. We first examined how six current scales of climate anxiety represent the symptoms associated with domain-free diagnoses of anxiety, depression, and stress disorders compared to the gold-standard scales in the mental health literature. We then analysed the relationships among the climate anxiety scales using correlations and exploratory factor analysis with samples of university students (n = 143) and the general public (n = 305). Climate-related anxiety scales cover most of the symptoms associated with clinical disorders but have a higher proportion of items focusing on anxious and depressed mood, and fewer items assessing somatic symptoms compared to domain-free scales. The scales showed strong intercorrelations and loaded onto a single common factor, suggesting convergence in how climate-related anxiety has been measured in the field. Future studies could include multiple climate anxiety scales that may differ conceptually and methodologically from one another to ensure wider content representation while minimising overlap and focus on testing incremental validity to achieve a parsimonious and gold-standard measure.
Affiliation in human-AI interactions based on shared psychological traits
Santiago Castiello; Riddhi Jain Pitliya; Daniel Robert Lametti; Robin Murphy
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People affiliate with others who share their psychological traits. Does the same phenomenon occur with AI instructed to mimic human psychology? Large language models (LLM) were prompted to use language that mimicked anxious symptoms or their absence (Experiment 1; n=100), extroversion or introversion (Experiment 2; n=100), and an exact mirror or inverse of each participants’ personality (preregistered Experiment 3; n=100). In each experiment, participants engaged in online written interaction with both versions and then evaluated their engagement with the AI. Those with anxiety reported a stronger connection to the LLM that mimicked anxiety, a distinction also reflected in the sentiment of the messages they exchanged. Extroverted participants affiliated more with the AI that mimicked extroversion. Finally, when participants interacted with LLMs that mimicked either their own Big Five personality profile or the opposite of their personality, they reported more affiliation with their doppelganger; this distinction was reflected in the sentiment of their messages. Results support affiliation in human-AI interactions based on the linguistic presentation of a shared psychology. We propose that through socioaffective tuning, LLMs might achieve greater human-like correspondence.
Mozart’s sonata K.448 as a paradigm in cognitive neuroscience: evidence and hegemony
aline ananias de lima; Sérgio Augusto Nilsen Ribeiro Barza; Mateus Willams de Amorim Vasconcelos; Plinio Gladstone Duarte; Swane Miranda Alves; Maria Eduarda Santana do Nascimento; Wilkson Rafael de Miranda Santos; Rosana Christine Cavalcanti Ximenes; Sandra Lopes de Souza
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Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D major, K.448, has become a de facto auditory stimulus in research linking music to cognition and brain function. This narrative critical review synthesizes three decades of peer reviewed human, clinical, and animal studies, organizing findings by task domain (attention, working memory), neural endpoints (EEG/qEEG, seizure metrics), and protocol choices (movement/segment, dose, delivery chain, control design). Across human studies, effects on visuospatial and memory performance and electrocortical indices are heterogeneous and often moderated by arousal, preference, and listening context; in epilepsy, daily listening can reduce interictal activity in some paradigms. Animal evidence supports temporal specificity: intact rhythmic structure tends to facilitate learning and plasticity markers, whereas time reversed or pitch only variants attenuate or abolish benefits; rhythm only variants sometimes preserve gains. Recurrent limitations include underspecified stimuli, small homogeneous samples, scarce preregistration, limited acoustic matching (e.g., loudness/spectral controls), and few comparisons with structurally similar repertoire. We propose a compact reporting checklist (stimulus specification, acoustic/loudness matching, delivery calibration, dose, randomization/blinding, and data sharing) and outline falsifiable predictions for CABN aligned designs that manipulate rhythm, tonality, and temporal direction while stratifying by movement and listener characteristics. Overall, K.448 remains a useful, historically rich paradigm, but its evidentiary status hinges on explicit boundary conditions and transparent design rather than authorial identity.

SocArxiv

TRAVELWARN-Crawler: Constructing longitudinal datasets of government-issued travel warnings for political and social science research
Laura Braun; Christian Oswald
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Historical travel warnings and advisories offer a record of how governments perceive and communicate country-specific risks over time, yet large-scale quantitative analyses have been rare due to missing, fragmented, and frequently overwritten web data. We present TRAVELWARN-Crawler, an open pipeline that collects, recovers, cleans, stores, and standardizes advisories and warnings from archived web sources. Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and issuer-specific Scrapy spiders, we reconstruct up to three decades of timelines for the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia. The data can be used to support comparative research in political communication, international relations, and tourism studies. Descriptively, the UK issues more country pages and updates than the US and Australia. Cross-issuer agreement about severity is modest with the highest pairwise level agreement for US–Australia (∼49%). These results indicate substantial heterogeneity in how close allies communicate travel risk and underscore the value of reproducible, textual data beyond numeric severity levels alone.
Exploring the Ideological Landscape of X/Twitter Users in Türkiye: Political and Cultural Axes
MEHMET FUAT KINA
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This study analyzes Türkiye's political landscape by harnessing Computational Social Science techniques to parse extensive data about public ideologies from the Project_Name database. Unlike existing theoretical frameworks that focus on the ideologies of political elites and cadres, this study examines public ideologies in a contentious political manner. Exploiting an AI-based data generation pipeline on digital traces, it distills the eight most prevalent ideologies down to the city level and employs exploratory statistical analyses. Principal Component Analysis delineates two fundamental axes: the traditional left-right political spectrum and a separate spectrum of secular-religious inclination, encompassing both political and cultural dimensions. Then, the Cluster Analysis reveals three distinct groups: left-leaning and religiously inclined, centre-right-leaning and religiously inclined, and those with a centre-right-leaning focus and a pronounced secular orientation. The outcomes provide valuable insights into the political and cultural axes within political society, offering a clearer understanding of the most recent ideological and political climate in Türkiye.
Data for Sale: Uncovering public procurement of private sector data
Iryna Susha; Sofie de Wilde de Ligny; Fredo Schotanus; Mirko Schaeffer
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To address complex societal challenges, governments increasingly need to make evidence-based decisions and require the best available data as input. As much of relevant data is now in the hands of the private sector, governments increasingly resort to purchasing data from private sources. There is, however, scant empirical evidence and a lack of understanding of how governments go about data purchasing. Therefore, we develop a new conceptual-analytical framework to analyze three models of data purchasing by governments: purchasing raw or aggregated data, data analyses, and data-based services. Next, based on Dutch data purchases, we explore the utility of our framework and create an evidence base detailing what data, data analyses, and data-based services Dutch governments purchase from whom, how, and for what purposes in the context of societal challenges. Our results map buyers and sellers of data in the Dutch context, as well as the types of data sold and in which policy domains. We expose a serious lack of transparency in government reporting on data purchasing. We further discuss our results in view of possible archetypes of data purchases and what purchasing strategy implications they have. Lastly, we propose several recommendations to practitioners and a research agenda for academics.
How do welfare states support reproductive equity? A comparative analysis across countries and over time
Hannah Zagel; Mio Tamakoshi
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This paper investigates how welfare states address stratification of reproduction. Whether, when and how people have children is historically an area of intense state intervention and remains so today. Building on comparative welfare state research and inspired by research on stratified reproduction, we examine regulatory provisions towards abortion, contraception and medically assisted reproduction, empirically mapping the institutional landscape for 30 countries between 1995 and 2020. We propose a conceptual framework of ‘reproductive equity support’, defined as the sum of statutory permitted and resourced reproductive options, which varies across four ideal types: conservative, paternalistic, libertarian and comprehensive. Second, we operationalize permissiveness and generosity for contraception, abortion and medically assisted reproduction using policy indicators from the novel International Reproduction Policy Database. We find strong variation between countries, and substantive shifts over time: while most countries make a leap towards more permissive reproduction policy, increase in generosity is less pronounced and less wide-spread.
Inequalities in pre-school learning contexts by immigrant background
Andreas Ljungström; Carina Mood
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In many Western countries, children with foreign-born parents are lagging behind children with native-born parents in school performance. In the policy debate much hope is placed on the potential of pre-schools to remedy this, by providing a learning and language environment that can compensate for the disadvantages that these children face. We study inequalities in pre-school learning contexts by immigrant origin, using full population register data that matches all children to their families and pre-schools. Enrolment in pre-school is lower for children of immigrants, but this is – surprisingly – almost entirely driven by low enrolment of children in non-refugee families. Contrary to expectations, children from origin groups with larger school difficulties have high pre-school enrolment rates. Our results suggest that explanations for low enrolment should primarily be sought in intentions to remain long-term in the host country. In pre-schools, immigrant background children have a somewhat higher teacher density, but a somewhat lower density of qualified teachers, and a somewhat higher turnover rate and sickness absence among teachers. These differences are however small. Where we see large differences is in the composition of the child and teacher group: Immigrant-background children go to pre-schools where a much higher proportion of teachers and children have immigrant background. We conclude that hopes to equalize school outcomes through encouraging pre-school enrolment are misplaced, and equalizing structural indicators is unlikely to make a big difference. The compensatory potential of pre-schools lies primarily in a de-segregation of staff and children across pre-schools.
Code Mixing and identity: A Gender-Based study in a public University of Bangladesh
Tasin Abir; Sidratul Montaha Oboni; Sarwar Jahan
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This paper examines how male and female students at a Bangladeshi public university mix English and Bangla languages. It examines how frequently and in what manner these students employ code-mixing in university and social life. It also examines the social reasons and identity concerns that result in variation in code-mixing practices among male and female students. The attitudes of students towards code-mixing and the perception of others’ use of it have also been examined. The research reveals that code-mixing practices vary significantly between males and females due to gender differences in identity and students’ responses to social pressure and opportunity at university. Female students mix languages more frequently and in more sophisticated ways because they aspire to be socially accepted and project a modern identity. Male students, on the other hand, employ code-mixing in a more functional way, using it to exhibit academic expertise and professional standing. Overall, the research reveals that mixing English and Bangla is not the same for all people; it is a finely tuned strategy that exhibits gender differences in identity and students’ negotiation with social pressure and opportunity at university.
PULSE Index: Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modeling of Student Feedback for Department Rankings in Higher Education
Panos FITSILIS
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Academic department rankings often overlook the rich evidence in students’ open-ended comments, relying instead on questionnaires, reputation, and research metrics. This paper introduces the PULSE Index (Perceived University Learning & Student Experience), a 0 - 100 composite score that converts student comments into department-level indicators using a transparent AI/NLP pipeline. The method is student-centered by design. Stage 1 defines a set of student-valued categories (e.g., teaching, infrastructure, services) and elicits their weights via a multi-criteria procedure. Stage 2 collects and de-identifies comments, assigns each comment to categories with aspect-based classification, and estimates neutral-aware sentiment using modern embeddings. Topic models (LDA/BERTopic) provide an empirical check on the category map and surface emergent themes. For each module and category, we compute conditional mean sentiment, coverage and intensity; apply empirical-Bayes shrinkage to stabilize small samples; and, optionally, fold salience and strength into a representativeness factor. Stage 3 normalizes indicators within peer groups, forms module composites via the elicited weights, and aggregates modules to departments using reliability- and volume-aware weights, before scaling to the 0 - 100 PULSE Index. Robustness is assessed through sensitivity analysis (weights, normalization), bootstrap confidence intervals and rank-stability; fairness diagnostics examine subgroup patterns (e.g., level, modality, language). The framework yields explainable, auditable scores with traceable contributions by category and exemplary comments, supporting both accountability and improvement. By operationalizing student voice with methodological safeguards, the PULSE Index offers a rigorous alternative to traditional department rankings and a practical blueprint for institutions seeking evidence-based, student-centered quality assurance. An illustrative worked example demonstrates implementation details and reporting.
Individual and Differential Harm in Redistricting
Cory McCartan; Christopher T. Kenny
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Social scientists have developed dozens of measures for assessing partisan bias in redistricting. But these measures are not easily adapted to other groups, including groups defined by race, class, or geography. Nor are they applicable to single- or no-party contexts, such as local redistricting. To overcome these limitations, we propose a unified framework of harm for evaluating the impacts of a districting plan on individual voters and the groups to which they belong. We consider a voter harmed if their chosen candidate is not elected under the current plan, but would be under a different plan. Harm improves on existing measures by both focusing on the choices of individual voters and directly incorporating counterfactual plans. We discuss strategies for estimating harm, and demonstrate the utility of our framework through analyses of partisan gerrymandering in New Jersey, voting rights litigation in Alabama, and racial dynamics of Boston City Council elections.
‘Baleful Influence’: A Conceptual Analysis of Militarism
Srdjan Vucetic; Bryan Mabee
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Militarism, broadly defined as a set of social practices that highlight the utility of organized violence, plays a central role in global security and military affairs. Yet International Relations (IR) research has long struggled with militarism. This paper considers the capacity of existing conceptual and methodological approaches to engage with the concept, in turn assessing militarism’s candidacy to become a ‘core concept’ in the field. We first highlight the diverse and evolving usage of the concept of militarism over time and across different knowledge forms. From there we move on to examine key tensions within IR accounts, suggesting that ‘historical,’ ‘scientific,’ and ‘political’ approaches stand to gain from a more rigorous engagement with each other. We conclude with an appeal for sustained attention to militarism as concept and its historical and political dimensions in particular.
Ukrainian Refugees in Switzerland: A research synthesis of what we know
Didier Ruedin
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The objective of this research synthesis is to collect and summarize the research literature on Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland. This is done through a systematic review, mostly in the form of a narrative review and with statistical indicators that are synthesized. A graphical summary (evidence gap map) is provided to better identify the nature of evidence available. There is a wide range of evidence on Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland and their integration, although substantive and systematic gaps remain. The review provides a brief historical background, looks at the demographic composition of Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland, discusses economic integration, housing, education, social integration, crime and safety, health and well-being, and attitudes to Ukrainian refugees. The demographic profile of Ukrainian refugees (many women, many children and elderly people, highly educated) is well documents, as are challenges to economic integration. Much less is known about cultural integration and political participation, for example. Given the size of the population and the ongoing war in Ukraine, more research on Ukrainian refugees is warranted, particularly in the direction of successful integration in a context where return in the near future seems increasingly unlikely --- although so-called dual-intent remains the official focus ---, and in areas beyond economic integration that affect well-being and intentions to return.
Rough Sets for Knowledge Representation in Artificial Intelligence Systems: A Critical Review
Mayukh Bagchi
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Rough sets, rough set-theoretic definitions and axiomatic frameworks have been, for some time now, a mainstream mathematical approach from fuzzy mathematics to model and encode (un)certainty in traditional information systems across different domains. With the pervasive rise and shift from traditional information systems to Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based intelligent information systems, however, the issue of representing and encoding (un)certain knowledge of different domains and at different levels of abstraction within such systems has emerged as an unsolved pivotal research problem in AI. The paper is interdisciplinary in nature, being positioned at the intersection of mathematics and AI research, and, to that end, will have two objectives. First, it will focus on critically reviewing key state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research literature on how rough sets and rough set-theoretic frameworks are being employed for (un)certain knowledge representation, e.g., via ontologies and Knowledge Graphs, in AI-based information systems across different domains. Second, based on the aforementioned critical review, it will elucidate research implications and potential research strategies which will inform future research towards developing an integrated mathematical philosophy and mathematico-logical formalism for (un)certain knowledge representation in AI systems.
Are Federalism In Africa effective to promove development in inside regions in countries: Some Evidences for Africans Countries with Federalism Model
Nerhum Sandambi
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Many countries develop through the increase of their economic resources, which naturally exist in most countries. On the other hand, some evidence shows that countries can develop through fiscal decentralisation, which promotes this growth through regional growth via significantly viable economic transformation. In Africa, for example, federalist countries such as Nigeria and South Africa show greater capacity for regional transformation through indicators of great relevance in themselves. Evidence also shows, for example, greater economic transformation through fiscal federalism. South Africa, for example, has less significant decentralisation but greater capacity to collect tax revenues. The analysis shows that Nigeria, for example, has a fiscal base in only a few states, with 10 states naturally having greater capacity for economic transformation, which suggests that there is less complexity in tax revenue collection, thus restricting economic development particularly in these states. Political decentralisation in African federalist countries does in fact lead to greater political turnover and greater political plurality among its political actors, which are naturally the political parties. Although there is de facto fiscal decentralisation, particularly in Nigeria and Ethiopia, there is nevertheless a greater lack of economic development in all territories, with the exception, for example, of states with greater economic concentration such as Lagos and Abuja.
Contraceptive side effects content on TikTok: A methodological case study leveraging popular TikToks for timely insights
Elizabeth Pleasants; Brooke Whitfield; Zoe Pleasure; Evangeline Norrell; Cambray Smith; Cassandra Fallon; Emma Anderson; Laura Lindberg
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A growing body of research documents contraceptive discussions on social networking sites (SNS) such as TikTok, but offers limited insights due to reliance on small samples of videos. Improved methodological approaches are needed to support innovative and informative research. We present an approach for data scraping and thematic analysis of videos about female-controlled contraceptive side effects on TikTok informed by a Youth Advisory Committee. Two third-party data scrapers on Apify were used to obtain a large sample of TikToks (n=3,506) scraped using contraception-related search terms and hashtags. These videos were screened for eligibility, and we used a hybrid deductive and inductive thematic approach to analyze eligible videos (n=712). A youth advisory committee was formed to guide and interpret the research. Central themes include contrasts between user experiences of side effects and clinical evidence, anti-hormonal sentiment, empowerment, and trust/mistrust in healthcare. This research provides a case study for analyzing TikTok videos to understand emerging population chatter about reproductive health experiences that can be applied to other research topics. Population health researchers can leverage SNS data, building on established qualitative methods, for meaningful and timely insights.
The Employment and Poverty Paradox: A Causal Puzzle and a Family Affair
Max Thaning; Rense Nieuwenhuis
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While micro-level research shows that employed individuals are less likely to experience poverty, macro-level trends reveal disappointing poverty reduction despite substantial employment growth across European countries – constituting an employment-poverty paradox. This study addresses this paradox by examining the heterogeneous effects of employment on poverty across different family types, while rigorously accounting for selection processes and confounding through leveraging panel data, varying assumption about causal structure, simulations, and formal sensitivity analysis. We apply a multi-group Kitagawa-Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to examine how employment prevalences and premiums contribute to poverty differences across varying family-types. Our results suggest that differences in employment prevalences contribute minimally to poverty gaps, while premium effects drive most observable effects. Part-time employment shows even weaker poverty reduction effects across all family types. Sensitivity analysis reveals vulnerability to unmeasured confounding, suggesting true causal effects may be smaller still. In sum, employment is not a panacea for poverty reduction across family types.
Rap as a Social Reflection: A Quantitative Analysis of Social Conditions and Lyrical Expressions
Minsu Park; Jaehyuk Park; Fabio Rojas; Yong-Yeol Ahn
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Rap music, often scrutinized for its portrayal of violence, misogyny, materialism, and drug use, can serve as a compelling case study for empirically exploring how art reflects its time. While existing literature has documented a purported increasing trend of these themes, investigations that consider the social conditions during song production remain scarce. By analyzing 26,438 rap singles released in the United States from 1990 to 2015, we find that the prevalence of these lyrical themes does not show a consistent upward trajectory. Instead, they exhibit significant temporal fluctuations, with each following a distinct pattern. Furthermore, our analysis reveals a strong contemporaneous correlation between these lyrical fluctuations and their corresponding national social indicators, including rates for crime, sexual assault, poverty, and DEA arrests. Crucially, this correlation becomes significantly stronger when using social statistics specific to Black Americans. These findings provide large-scale empirical evidence that art is a sensitive reflection of the social and economic realities of the time, offering insights into how deep-seated social problems are depicted through artistic expression.
Long-term childhood poverty in Britain: Trends and drivers across the 1991-2017 birth cohorts
Selçuk Bedük; Anna Yong
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While any experience of child poverty can affect life chances, longer exposure is particularly concerning due to its lasting effects on education, health and earnings. This study adopts a life-course perspective, tracking poverty from birth to age 10 for cohorts born in Britain between 1991 and 2017. On average, 17% of children spent at least half of their childhood in poverty. Long-term poverty affected 25% of those born in the early 1990s, markedly declined to 13-14% for cohorts born after the 1997 welfare reforms, and substantially increased again to 23% for children born following the 2013 austerity reforms. Decomposition analysis shows that cross-cohort changes are driven more by shifts in the penalties associated with work and family risk factors than by changes in their prevalence. These shifts in penalties reflect broader changes in redistribution and predistribution. The early decline in long-term poverty was largely due to rising employment and earnings in low-income households, while the post-austerity increase stems mainly from reduced redistribution. For cohorts born in the 2000s, social transfers played a substantial role in containing long-term poverty despite worsening predistribution. Overall, the findings show that long-term childhood poverty remains a significant challenge in Britain and highlight the need for both stronger redistribution and improved predistribution to address it.
RESEARCH EVALUATION AS SCALAR POLITICS: A RESEARCH AGENDA
Marielle Zill
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With the growing importance of the knowledge economy across Europe and beyond, governments increasingly demand research to deliver tangible economic and societal impact, translating into funding systems incentivizing societally relevant research and leading to an increasing monitoring of societal impact. This commentary pleads for a re-engagement with the ‘geographies of research assessment’. Informed by a dualistic understanding of scale as both fixed and socially constructed, the commentary firstly argues for comparing and contrasting the influence of different national research evaluation systems on geographical knowledge production. Secondly, the contribution conceives of research evaluation systems as a form of scalar politics which enables a view of the actors and networks contesting current evaluation systems and promoting alternatives. The paper concludes that rather than trying to fit the discipline to the system, geographers should instead question which evaluation system would fit the discipline.
A Critical Discourse Analysis of George Orwell's Animal Farm
Abdelfettah Derbouche
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“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” is George Orwell’s suggestion of the hierarchy of power in a society where the voices of deception, injustice and subversion are more often heard by those who are manipulated to believe and operate under a particular ideology. The present study is a descriptive-analytical investigation of the selected speeches of political discourse given by the two most influential speakers of Animal Farm (Old Major and Squealer), a novel written by Orwell (1945). To investigate and uncover the ways in which ideology and power relations are subtly reproduced in discourse, we have examined what makes Old Major and Squealer persuasive in the expression of their ideologies. The analysis is grounded on the main tenets and principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Unlike any other forms of linguistic analysis, the main purpose of CDA is explicitly socio-political, since it seeks to better represent the role of discourse in the reproduction of dominance and power struggle. Therefore, we have adopted Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework: description, interpretation and explanation. In addition, we have capitalized on Aristotle’s approach of persuasion (ethos, pathos and logos) to be as a supporting analytical tool of linguistic and rhetorical devices. Thus, the analytical part of this research work has analyzed the possible interrelatedness of textual properties and their conveyance of a particular ideology by giving it an eclectic treatment as far as the application of framework is concerned. The findings of this investigation uncover the linguistic and rhetorical techniques that contribute to the overall process of persuasion, which have different ideological attachments. The study concludes that the analysis of Fairclough’s three dimensional framework and three modes of persuasion under the main tenets of CDA has shown that politicians – even in a fictional political world – depend significantly on linguistic manipulation to demonstrate ideologies, steer people’s thoughts, manufacture consent and rise to power.
The Western practice of fact-checking: from enacting epistemic certainty to performing epistemic mediation?
Auriane van der Vaeren
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Fact-checking is met with growing public resistance in Western democracies: contested for its affirmed impartiality. The scholarly debate about the impartiality of the fact-checking practice too is stuck in an endless yo-yo motion: permanently vacillating between claims of being irrevocably unbiased or irremediably subjective. Contributing to Critical Disinformation Studies, the paper demonstrates how a prevailing atomist perception of fake news validates the persistent—though increasingly problematised—modelling of Western fact-checking into an impartial fake news detector. Inspired by Karen Barad’s work, the paper therefore introduces a dual relational-atomist fact-checking model that arguably stands a better chance at receiving public endorsement.
Adolescent Endorsement of Corporal Punishment and Risk of Teacher-Perpetrated Physical Violence: Evidence from Five Sub-Saharan African Countries
martina mchenga
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Abstract Purpose: Corporal punishment in schools remains pervasive across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite legal prohibitions. While research has examined prevalence and teacher attitudes, little is known about how adolescents’ own beliefs and peer normative environments influence their vulnerability to teacher violence. Methods: The study analysed nationally representative Violence Against Children Surveys (VACS) from five SSA countries (Eswatini 2021, Mozambique 2019, Kenya 2019, Namibia 2019, Lesotho 2018), focusing on school-going adolescents aged 13-17 years (N=10,904). Logistic regression models estimated associations between adolescents’ individual endorsement of corporal punishment, peer-level attitudes and self-reported experience of teacher corporal punishment in the past year. Models were adjusted for socio-demographic and household covariates. Country-specific estimates were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Results: Overall, 13.6% of adolescents reported teacher physical punishment in the past year. More than half (52.8%) endorsed corporal punishment, and peer endorsement averaged 53%. In pooled models, adolescents who endorsed corporal punishment had twice the odds of reporting teacher violence (aOR=2.1, 95% CI: 1.6-2.7). Each 10-percentage-point increase in peer endorsement was associated with a 10% increase in odds (aOR=1.1, 95% CI: 1.0-1.2). Girls and adolescents in secondary school were less likely to report teacher punishment, while those exposed to corporal punishment at home were over three times more likely to also report it at school (aOR=3.4, 95% CI: 2.5-4.7). Heterogeneity across countries was high, with strongest associations observed in Kenya. Conclusions: Adolescents’ own beliefs and peer normative climates significantly shape their risk of teacher violence. Prevention strategies must extend beyond legal bans and teacher training to also target adolescent attitudes, peer environments, and home-school linkages. Interventions combining school-wide norms change, peer engagement, and parenting support may offer the most sustainable pathway to eliminating corporal punishment in schools
The Effect of a Mobile Phone Ban on Perceived Academic and Social Life: A Qualitative Analysis
Luca Bravo
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Schools worldwide are reconsidering student smartphone access, yet evidence on social and academic consequences remains mixed. This study examines student perceptions at a private high school that implemented a zero-access phone ban during the 2024–2025 school year. Two anonymous surveys were fielded at policy launch (October 2024) and three months later (January 2025), yielding a combined N = 494. Primary outcomes were perceived changes in in-person interaction frequency and quality, perceived connectedness, perceived classroom focus, perceived productivity during school, and self-reported academic performance. Most respondents perceived social benefits, including more frequent face-to-face conversations, while a minority reported diminished connectedness. Nearly half perceived higher productivity during school, yet most perceived no change in academic performance. Over half reported increased phone use during homework, which may offset in-school gains. Findings underscore heterogeneity in responses and suggest that bans, without complementary supports, can improve opportunities for in-person interaction for many students but may disadvantage students who rely on digital scaffolds for social engagement.
Context specificity of childcare out-of-pocket costs and child-contingent benefits
Toon Van Havere; Rense Nieuwenhuis; Max Thaning; Wim Van Lancker; Gerlinde Verbist
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This deliverable set out to analyse the context-specificity of financial support policies for families with children and (out-of-pocket fees for) childcare services, two policy areas that feature prominently in rEUsilience recommendations (Daly et al., 2025). Our first question was to what extent child-contingent benefits compensate for the out-of-pocket costs of formal childcare services at different income levels. Based on our newly introduced compensation ratio measure, we showed that the combination of child contingent benefits and out-of-pocket costs tends to be low-income targeted, in the sense that lower-income families pay lower fees for childcare and/or receive higher benefits. In Poland and Sweden, the out-of-pocket expenses for childcare tended to be lower (on average) across the income distribution than child-contingent benefits, whereas high-income families in Belgium and Spain paid more for childcare than they received as financial support. Secondly, we asked to what extent child-contingent benefits compensate for the out-of-pocket costs of formal childcare services for different family types. Here, we found that generally (with the exception of Spain) families with more children receive higher child-contingent benefits relative to their out-of-pocket costs for childcare, compared to families with fewer children. In all the four countries studied here, single-parent families receive higher child-contingent benefits relative to their out-of-pocket costs for childcare, compared to two-parent families. Finally, we asked to what extent child-contingent benefits compensate for the out-of-pocket costs of formal childcare services when families transition into work. Here, we found that, generally, the compensation ratio was higher for families on social assistance or employment at low wages, compared to families working at higher wages. This holds for single-parent families (with the exception of Poland) as well as two-parent families. Moreover, the extent to which the compensation rate was lowered with employment and at higher wage levels differed between countries, with the drop particularly notable in Belgium and moderate to absent in Poland. For average wage employees, the compensation ratio was lowest in Belgium compared to the other countries included here.
The Algorithm's Guide to Tourism: Simulating Generative AI's Impact on the US Domestic Tourist Flow Network
Seonjin Lee; Lori Pennington-Gray
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This study examines the potential impact of large language models (LLMs) on tourist flow using scenario-based projection models. We simulate one million US residents’ domestic travel decisions using two different LLMs, Gemini 2.5 Flash and GPT 4.1 Nano. The LLM-based projections are compared to the null model and empirical-based simulations to assess characteristics of tourist flows generated by LLMs. LLMs generate tourist flows that are more seasonal, more concentrated in a few popular destinations, and less reciprocal than empirical-based simulations. Other patterns, like the mean resilience index and the mean travel distance, vary by LLM used. These findings show that the widespread adoption of LLMs can undermine the sustainability and resilience of tourism systems. As such, we urge tourism scholars and practitioners to proactively assess the consequences of adopting LLMs in tourism to ensure the sustainability and resilience of tourism systems.
Indentured Replacement Theory of Credential Inflation, Revisited (2000-2025)
Joseph Sharpe
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U.S. higher education operates as a mechanism of economic control, organized around the dynamics of replacement, credential inflation, and indenture. This paper revisits and updates the 2000 “Indentured Replacement Theory of Credential Inflation” that first argued this case, adding a 2024 lens on endowment capture. A descriptive synthesis of public data series reveals the scale of this control: student-loan balances stand at roughly $1.64 trillion with 90+ day delinquency near 10.2% (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2025); meanwhile, institutional endowments total $873.7 billion with $30 billion in annual spending (NACUBO/Commonfund, 2025). Evidence on “degree reset” is mixed, and post-pause repayment frictions elevate delinquency risk. Policy developments in 2023–2025 increase scrutiny of institutional finances while providing limited direct borrower relief. The paper concludes by proposing structural, cultural, and market-facing remedies, evaluated by a simple test: does a given policy loosen—or tighten—the binding effects of debt on life chances?
Throwing Curveballs: A Language-Based Model of Curveball Questions in Quarterly Earnings Calls Uncovers their Consequences and Antecedents
Nandil Bhatia; Wei Cai; Sameer Srivastava
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In evaluative contexts, evaluatees typically seek to present themselves in a favorable light, while evaluators ask penetrating questions to assess these claims. Here we develop a framework to identify curveball questions: ones that are on-topic yet perplexing (i.e., difficult to predict) relative to prior statements. We develop a language-based measure of curveball questions and apply it to a corpus of quarterly earnings calls. After validating this question-level measure, we next demonstrate that a call-level curveball measure predicts absolute returns, absolute abnormal returns, and changes in a firm’s average analyst rating. Finally, we identify the types of analysts who are most likely to pose curveball questions, the types of firms that are most likely to receive them, and the conditions under which they tend to arise.
Who Remembers Fake Historical Figures? Differentiating Between Passing Knowledge and Dispositional Openness in Cultural Research
Clayton Childress
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What does it mean when individuals report having a wide variety of cultural knowledge and taste? Core contemporary theories propose different answers to this question, suggesting that cultural breadth is either rooted in the development of “passing knowledge” across multiple domains, or the expression of more general “dispositional openness” to a wide variety of culture. To adjudicate between these two perspectives I introduce the use of pseudo items into culture research, and integrate their usage with Bourdieu’s observations about “competence” and the “right to speak.” I find evidence for a dispositional openness account to claimed cultural knowledge, in addition to a known gender effect that is likely also rooted in dispositions. In closing I discuss how my findings may be suggestive of a new form of allodoxia for elites. I also discuss how pseudo items and other productively weird methodological tools can help refine our analyses of longstanding culture questions, while also generating new ones.
Building Our New Normal: With cost-effective sensory rooms
Maya Hammoud; Lara Hammoud
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Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) affect over 300 million people worldwide, including 40,000 estimated in Michigan. Despite established research on the positive effects of using therapeutic sensory environments, access is often limited or unreachable due to cost (the average room can cost over $30,000). This research aims to bridge the gap by designing a low-cost, scalable sensory room model suitable for public spaces. We included a qualitative interview process with key stakeholders, caregivers of people with NDD, Applied Behavior Analysts, and Title I special education teachers to gain their perspectives and experiences in order to identify barriers to access and determine the components of a sensory room for the proposed model. We created a cost-effective sensory room. Overall, the model has been implemented in multiple diverse environments (community center, public school, pediatric clinic, refugee aid center, etc.). This low-cost model offers the possibility of being adapted as a viable sensory room intervention to improve access to a therapeutic sensory space in areas with scarce resources.
On the Types of Artifacts and Their Agentive Implications
Juan Mendoza-Collazos
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This chapter proposes a classification of artifacts based on an agentive approach—that is, on the actions performed by human agents rather than on the artifacts' functions or features. The agentive approach adheres to the thesis that cognition is not reduced to brain functions but is coextensive with the capacity to act. If there is action, then there is cognition, and therefore, meaning emerges from an agent's relationship with its environment (enaction). It is argued that the notion of Enhanced Agency—the incorporation of artifacts to enhance the performance of actions—is a distinctive feature of the human species, and that the ability to design artifacts is distinct from the creation of natural objects by other animals. Therefore, the definition of artifact is limited to an object created by human beings for a specific purpose. Consequently, after critically assessing other proposals, the classification of artifacts is addressed under three criteria: according to the type of incorporation; according to the type of engagement; and according to the type of action performed by the agents. This typology allows us to resolve ambivalent categories such as cognitive/pragmatic and to be consistent with the material and embodied commitment of cognition, which constitutes a contribution to the understanding of the essentially enhanced nature of human agency.
Identity Survival: Ephemeral and Enduring Identity Signifiers
Danial Vahabli; Jason Jeffrey Jones
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Which self-ascribed identities are most enduring and which most ephemeral? Here we analyze self-authored self-descriptions (Twitter profile biographies) over the course of a decade to contrast the survival rates of identity signifiers. Using quantitative methods inspired by cancer research, we present a method to estimate survival curves and present results for thousands of words from a large longitudinal set of US users of Twitter. These results provide the first extensive list of identities ranked by their survivability within individuals’ self-presentations. Survivability is not reducible to popularity or length of the signifier but rather is sensitive to context dependent factors. More enduring identities are “prestigious” identities signaling achievement or affiliation with success, whereas the most ephemeral identities are ordinal categories.
Does political trust strengthen democracy?
Marta Kołczyńska; Paul - Christian Bürkner
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Political trust is widely considered essential for democracy, but empirical evidence testing this hypothesis remains limited. Drawing on research that connects political trust to democratic legitimacy, highlights its attitudinal and behavioral consequences, and underscores its contextual character as a form of political support, we hypothesize that political trust exerts a positive effect on subsequent changes in democratic quality, but only in countries that have already reached some level of democracy. We test this hypothesis with cross-lagged models fit to political trust estimates from 62 countries over 30 years, combined with democratic quality scores from the Varieties of Democracy project. We find little evidence of an overall effect of trust on democracy, and stronger evidence for a conditional effect: based on our results, political trust has a positive effect on democracy, but only in countries that have already achieved high quality of democracy.
Accelerating the Deployment of China's National Standard and Industrialisation of Quantum Resistant Cryptography (PQC) Proposal for Building National Security "Double Insurance" in Quantum Era
WEI MENG
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Under the threat window of ‘interception first, decryption later’ in quantum computing, national security and industrial sovereignty face new systemic challenges. This paper proposes a dual-track approach of ‘PQC baseline + QKD enhancement’ to comprehensively compare the standard systems, governance models, and engineering progress of China and the United States in post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD). The study employs a three-tier evidence integration framework of ‘policy-standards-engineering,’ combining authoritative documents from NIST, OMB, CISA, and other sources with China's national standard platform and industry announcements. It constructs an analysis model of ‘standard hierarchy-migration ecosystem-international interoperability’ and evaluates the feasibility of the scheme through gap-risk mapping, roadmap design, and KPI matrix assessment. The results show that the United States has established a closed-loop system of ‘primary standards + redundancy’ based on FIPS 203/204/205 and HQC backup algorithms, and has entered an auditable implementation phase driven by mandatory migration and toolchain initiatives from OMB and CISA; China maintains an advantage in QKD engineering and standardisation, but national standards for PQC have not yet been solidified, and the migration governance system lags behind, resulting in a structural shortfall of ‘engineering leading the way while algorithm standards lag behind.’ Based on this, this paper proposes a ‘three-year-five-year-ten-year’ national roadmap: establish a standardised baseline within three years, achieve large-scale migration and verification within five years, and complete consolidation and internationalisation within ten years. This will be supplemented by protocols, PKI/certificates, key lifecycle management, testing and certification, and algorithm switching mechanisms, in conjunction with a five-tier governance structure led by the State Cryptography Administration, with TC260/TC485 as the technical focal points, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology/ the Cyberspace Administration of China/People's Bank of China, operator and critical infrastructure implementation, and research institutes. The conclusion states that PQC must be established as the ‘basic defence line’ in the quantum era, while QKD should serve as the ‘enhanced defence line’ for critical links; China must complete the construction of PQC national standards and migration governance capabilities within a three-year standardisation, five-year consolidation, and ten-year internationalisation timeline, and achieve dual-track integration and international interoperability with the QKD standard suite, thereby safeguarding national security, consolidating industrial resilience, and enhancing international influence.
The Wolf in the Viking Era: Exploring Jungian Norse Wolf Archetypes in Germanic Myth, from Denmark Garmr: Guardian of the Threshold Between Consciousness and the Unconscious
Charles J. Wolf
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Abstract This paper presents a theoretical synthesis exploring Garmr, the mythic wolf of Norse cosmology, as an archetype of the death threshold within a Jungian framework. Drawing from depth psychology, Norse mythology, and cultural history, it argues that Garmr embodies the boundary between life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, representing the psychological process of confronting repressed material and shadow aspects. Unlike other mythic wolves whose narratives emphasize destruction, Garmr’s role is as guardian and challenger at the threshold of transformation, symbolizing the
Autonomous Vehicles and Public Transit Incentives: A Case Study of Waymo's Pilot Transit Credit Program in the San Francisco Bay Area
William Riggs; Henriette Cornet
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This study evaluates the effectiveness of a pilot transit credit program launched by Waymo in the San Francisco Bay Area, which offered riders a $3 incentive to use an AV rideshare service in conjunction with nearby public transit stations. Using a mixed-methods approach, including structured surveys and qualitative interviews, we explore how the incentive influenced travel behavior, mode substitution, and public transit connectivity. Results indicate that 69% of participants connected to transit, while 50% of these riders would have otherwise used privately paid rideshare and 6% would have used their private vehicle, and another 6% would have walked or cycled. The remaining 38% of participants would have used transit to reach the public transit station. The study offers critical insights for transit agencies and mobility providers aiming to design integrated AV-transit systems that serve the public good. While there is a risk of misallocating funds to individuals already willing and able to pay for rideshare services, these findings underscore that targeted subsidies can yield meaningful reductions in private vehicle use and promote multimodal travel.
The Death of the Author, Reconsidered: Spatial and Demographic Constraints on College Admissions Essay Writing
AJ Alvero; anthony lising antonio; Leslie Luqueño; Francis Pearman
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Computational text analysis has grown in popularity among social scientists due to the massive influx of digitized data available to study. However, much of this research disconnects patterns observed in text from information about the original authors. Eliding authorship considerations from sociological analysis of text can potentially lead to claims and assertions of trends that are independent from the social actors, conditions, interactions, and contexts which the text was produced. While text analysis without authorship information can yield reasonable inferences about society, complementing that approach with research that explicitly considers the people producing the text could expand the theoretical and empirical scope of work in this area. In this paper, we adapt perspectives from sociolinguistics and explicitly consider categorical identity markers of authors and geography as foundational axes of variation in textual data. We explore these dimensions in a large corpus of college admissions essays (n = 254,820 essays submitted by 83,538 applicants) and metadata about applicant identity, including the ZIP code of their high school. After generating features of the essays using computational methods, we find that author identity markers, such as gender, parental education, and socioeconomic status are highly salient. We also find that ZIP code level socioeconomic measures are extremely correlated with the writing style and content of local applicants. We also find that individuals whose personal identities are spatially unique–that is, demographically different from others in their immediate content–were most likely to be misclassified by our models, indicating that writing is influenced both socially and spatially. This work clarifies how authorship characteristics, like identity and spatial context, constrain the breadth of what we write and how we write by showing strong alignment between text and authors that is observable through machine reading of text.
The Wolf in the Viking Era: Exploring Jungian Norse Wolf Archetypes in Germanic Myth, from Denmark - Sköll and Hati: Jungian Archetypes of Dissolution and Renewal
Charles J. Wolf
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This paper examines the archetypal figures of Sköll and Hati, the mythic wolves of Norse cosmology, as embodiments of cosmic shadow, destruction, and renewal within Jungian analytical psychology. Rooted in Viking-era Germanic myth and anchored in Danish cultural artifacts such as the Trundholm Sun Chariot and Nordic winter rituals, the study explores how these wolves symbolize the cyclical tension between psychic dissolution and rebirth. Drawing on primary Jungian concepts alongside contemporary psychoanalytic and mythopoetic scholarship, the analysis positions Sköll and Hati as necessary forces that disrupt egoic sovereignty and reveal the shadow aspect of time and consciousness. The wolves’ pursuit and devouring of the sun and moon reflect psychic upheavals commonly experienced during midlife crises, cultural collapse, and spiritual transformation. The archetypes discussed here do not represent pathology or nihilism but serve as initiatory figures that require surrender to chaos for psychological growth. The integration of Nordic cultural context deepens the understanding of these archetypes and provides a unique contribution to the field of archetypal psychology. This paper encourages clinicians and scholars to consider the paradox of destruction and renewal inherent in the archetypal shadow, thus advancing the discourse on collective and individual processes of transformation.
Liderazgo Sostenible Integral: Hacia un modelo teórico para integrar conciencia, competencias y coherencia interna en el liderazgo del siglo XXI
Jose Alejandro Cueto Portocarrero
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El presente artículo propone el modelo de Liderazgo Sostenible Integral (MLSI) como una nueva arquitectura teórica para comprender el liderazgo en contextos de complejidad, urgencia e interdependencia. A partir de una revisión crítica de los principales enfoques contemporáneos —incluyendo el liderazgo transformacional, emocional, servidor, auténtico, regenerativo y sostenible clásico— se identifican limitaciones comunes, como la fragmentación entre acción y conciencia, la ausencia de un marco integrado que contemple el equilibrio interno del líder, y la débil articulación entre desempeño, propósito y sostenibilidad ética. El modelo propuesto se organiza en tres componentes interdependientes: (1) competencias generadoras (visión, inteligencia emocional y disciplina), de las cuales emergen habilidades funcionales y posibles distorsiones; (2) conexiones como indicadores de calidad del impacto (interna, social y ecológica); y (3) estado interno como núcleo dinámico desde el cual el líder percibe, decide y actúa, influido por factores narrativos, emocionales, neurobiológicos y contextuales. Este enfoque redefine la sostenibilidad del liderazgo no solo como capacidad de generar resultados duraderos, sino como la habilidad de sostener procesos transformadores sin deteriorar la integridad personal, relacional ni ecológica. Se presentan fundamentos epistemológicos, estructura conceptual y líneas de investigación futuras, incluyendo validación empírica, estudios sobre el estado interno y diseño de programas formativos. El artículo contribuye así a la evolución del campo, proponiendo un liderazgo que integra acción estratégica, profundidad humana y conciencia sistémica.
The Wolf in the Viking Era: Exploring Jungian Norse Wolf Archetypes in Germanic Myth, from Denmark - Ulfhéðnar the Wolf-Skinned: Ritualized Rage and the Rebirth of the Masculine Ego
Charles J. Wolf
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This theoretical synthesis integrates mythological, archaeological, and clinical perspectives to examine the Ulfhéðnar as a distinctive archetype of masculine individuation. It focuses on the ritualized engagement with primal instinctual forces, manifesting through shadow-doubling and ecstatic possession, as a necessary threshold for psychological transformation. By situating the Ulfhéðnar within contemporary clinical contexts related to masculine trauma, rage, and identity, this work extends Jungian theory and archetypal psychology to address unresolved aspects of male integration. The analysis highlights how the rupture of ego boundaries permits the return and processing of repressed instinctual energies, offering a symbolic framework for therapeutic approaches. This contribution fills a gap in depth psychology by bridging mythic material and clinical phenomena, emphasizing the archetype’s importance for understanding and treating masculine psychic fragmentation.
Ethical justification of coercive public health policies must be premised upon their safety and efficacy
Claus Rinner
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This article critically engages with Johnson et al. (2024), who argue that coercive public health policies require context-specific ethical justification. While Johnson et al. highlight four key principles—harm prevention, public interest, paternalism, and the duty of easy rescue—the present analysis contends that these ethical frameworks are insufficient unless safety, efficacy, proportionality, and necessity of the intervention are established beforehand. Drawing on examples from COVID-19 policies, including social distancing, surveillance measures, and vaccine mandates, the article demonstrates how weak or uncertain empirical evidence undermined ethical justifications for coercion. Cases such as low efficacy against transmission, underappreciated adverse events, and proportionality concerns reveal the dangers of treating empirical validity as an afterthought. The article concludes that coercive public health policies cannot be ethically defensible without robust prior evidence of effectiveness and safety. Ethical reasoning must therefore be grounded in empirical reality, with context-sensitive, localized approaches that ensure transparency, autonomy, and trust.
Baking innovative and creative thinking techniques into scientific method: Towards innovative and creative techniques as an intrinsic part of scientific method for higher scientific and research output
Sujay Rao Mandavilli
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The core objective of this paper is to investigate and propose methods and means through which various classes of innovative and creative thinking techniques which include both existing techniques in popular current usage, and those yet to be conceptualized and theorized can be baked into scientific method both integrally and intrinsically, and in a natural and a harmonious fashion. This we believe can lead to faster and more comprehensive scientific progress across disciplines and geographies and usher in a new era of scientific research by increasing the rate of scientific output. We begin this paper by carrying out a brief overview of the key concepts of scientific method, its characteristics and its history, and also refer to our previous observations and discussions on scientific method by referencing our previously published works over the years. We also define and propose categories of individuals by whom we believe this approach can be meaningfully adopted and implemented, and also lay bare the purported objectives of this approach. Last but not the least, we review existing approaches to innovative and creative techniques, and drive home a very crucial and a critical point: the entire field of creative and innovative techniques is apparently in its infancy yet, and more innovative and creative techniques need to be conceptualized and gestated in the years and decades to come including those specific to scientific theorization.
Introducing Anthropological Pedagogy as a Core Component of Twenty-first Century Anthropology: The Role of Anthropological Pedagogy in the fulfilment of Anthropological and Sociological objectives
Sujay Rao Mandavilli
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This paper proposes the creation of Anthropological Pedagogy as a distinct field of study within the framework of Anthropology, interfacing traditional Anthropology and Pedagogy with some pre-defined principles and objectives, chiefly designed to promote Anthropological goals and objectives through the medium of education. This paper proposes to lay the groundwork for what we believe will be an exciting and promising field, and we hope other researchers, scholars, Anthropologists and Pedagogists will take the concepts presented herein to their logical conclusion. This is based on the premise that there can be no quick fixes to complex and seemingly intractable issues, but that the ball must be set in motion nonetheless to replace superannuated axioms. This proposed field of study is distinct from the field of Educational psychology which deals with the psychology of learning, is much broader in scope than ‘Anthropology of Education’, and the relatively less-known field of Pedagogical Anthropology which was created over a century ago by Maria Montessori and others, even though there may be varying levels of overlap between them. This sub-discipline is proposed to be created with the fond hope that by combining the two crucial disciplines of Anthropology and Pedagogy, a new platform will be created for the wholesome furtherance of human welfare and interests, particularly long-term and global welfare through more scientifically structured education systems, which are designed to merge short-term local considerations with long-term global objectives. This approach includes within its ambit topics such as content fixation for societal benefit, long-term societal benefit, individual benefit and maximum psychological impact. Needless to say, it is integrated with the Theory of Mindspace, the Theory of Mind-orientation, Societal orientation and Cultural remediation. It also deals with the collection and analysis of meaningful metrics, consensus-building and mobilization of international opinion for the realization of the goals, and implementation of the principles of Anthropological Pedagogy.
Introducing Anthropological Economics: The quest for an Anthropological basis for Economic theory, growth models and policy development for wealth and human welfare maximization
Sujay Rao Mandavilli
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This paper attempts to merge the concepts and theoretical frameworks of the disciplines of Anthropology and Economics, and attempts to create a new sub-field in Economics called ‘Anthropological Economics’ which is mired in Anthropological concepts and principles and seeks to maximize not only human welfare and happiness but also wealth maximization across cultures, while considering both the psychic unity of man, universal human needs and culture?specific factors. Thus, Anthropological Economics is expected to be inter-related to other disciplines of Economics, but remain complementary to them i.e., it is not expected that it will intrude into other sub-fields of economics, replace them, or override their principles in any way. It will therefore draw upon other aspects of economic theory, and enrich them suitably. It is therefore expected that all aspects of Economic theory will be taken into consideration for policy formulation and decision-making, including those of Anthropological economics, and independent, context-specific judgment will always be applied. The new proposed field of Anthropological Economics proposes to take the idea of Human Welfare to its logical conclusion by extending the work already carried out in various sub-disciplines of economics, and integrating it more tightly with various concepts in Anthropology. Many new tools and techniques are therefore, proposed as a part of this paper, and we believe these will suitably enrich the field of Economics as well. While many attempts have been made in the past to integrate the fields of Anthropology and Economics, we hope this endeavour will take this exercise to a much higher level, by creating a new generation of “Anthroeconomists”. We also hope it will eventually help move mainstream economics away from Neo-classical approaches to Anthropological and human-centric approaches.
Introducing Anthropological Historiography as an integral component of Twenty-first Century Historiography: The role played by Anthropological Historiography in the attainment of long-term Anthropological goals and objectives
Sujay Rao Mandavilli
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This paper is the last in our trilogy on Twenty-First Century Historiography. It attempts to bring all our endeavours to their logical culmination and as such may be construed to be our apotheosis in this regard. The first paper proposed a basic approach for Historiography in the Twenty-first Century and laid out the basic objectives of Twenty-first Century Historiography. The second paper laid out the core principles of Twenty-first Century Historiography, and these were seen a necessary adjunct for the accomplishment of the objectives of Twenty-first Century Historiography as defined in the first paper. In this paper, we introduce Anthropological Historiography as an integral, though not core component of Twenty-first Century Historiography and lay down is basic tenets and objectives. We also delineate the role that we expect will be played by Anthropological Historiography in the attainment of long-term Anthropological goals and objectives, and in promoting human welfare and well-being in general. Anthropological Historiography, with its myriad and multiple interfaces with other sciences is also expected to play a major role in promoting a scientific temper among the laity and the general public and trigger shifts in individual and societal orientations in due course by countering popular perceptions on many issues that impact their daily lives and making outdated and popular paradigms and ideologies redundant. We expect that Anthropological Historiography will play a major role in marginalizing fringe movements besides leading to an enhanced understanding of various aspects of science, history and ethnology among the population and ushering in intellectual movements where such movements are long overdue, and very indirectly leading to a quantum increase in scientific endeavours. We also believe that Anthropological Historiography should be taught as a specialized sub-discipline chiefly targeted towards higher grade students, or students pursuing advanced courses, and should be pursued not by general historians, but by specialized Anthropological Historians.
The Documentary Film Hopa lide: The Making of Romani Representation
Petr Nuska
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The article concerns the ethnographic documentary film Hopa lide, which stems from the author’s ten years of ethnographic research among Romani musicians in Slovakia. The film is based on documenting the collaborative making of music videos. Firstly, the article critically reflects on Romani representation in contemporary documentary films, arguing that it is often distorted due to tendencies towards exoticisation, the monopoly of non-Romani gaze, challenges in the representation of poverty and story-driven approaches in contemporary documentary practice. Then, it justifies the film’s main methodological and ideological standpoints by evaluating the process of pre-production, production and distribution. In conclusion, the article highlights the importance of ethnographic film as a counterpoint to market-driven story-telling and as a valuable way of representing underrepresented groups of people.
The Political Economics of China’s Electric Vehicle Industry: A Note
kerry liu
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The rapid rise of China’s electric vehicle industry - especially its booming exports - has drawn global attention. This study provides a distinctive analysis of the industry’s political economy from a domestic Chinese perspective. Although the electric vehicle sector contributes only modestly to China’s overall economy, it remains one of the few dynamic areas in an otherwise sluggish post-COVID landscape. Drawing on Baidu Index data as of 30 June 2025, the study shows how the Chinese government showcases the electric vehicle industry as a flagship of industrial upgrading and New Quality Productive Forces, using it to boost national confidence. However, its impact varies depending on the target audience and specific events.
Chinese Automotive Finance: Development, Policies, and Regulations
kerry liu
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The rapid development of Chinese automotive, particularly in the new energy vehicle sector, have garnered global attention. This study focuses on a niche area that has yet to be thoroughly examined: automotive finance. First, it explores the evolution of automotive finance in China within the context of the broader automotive market. Second, it reviews key policy initiatives from Chinese authorities related to the automotive industry, automotive finance companies, and automotive consumption. Third, it analyzes recent regulations on automotive finance companies, concluding that these measures are designed to mitigate systemic risks within China's financial system while supporting the new energy vehicle sector.
The long and rocky road to self-extermination: The inevitable decline, fall and demise of Academic Marxism
Sujay Rao Mandavilli
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The core objective of this paper is to show why academic Marxism, the intellectual arm of Marxism and Marxist thought has hit an intellectual road block, and is staring at a dead end. Our prognosis is that it is barely likely to survive in its present form for another decade or two. We begin this paper by defining what Marxism is and tracing its thought over the past one and a half centuries or so including varieties and regional variants of Marxism and its common criticisms. The success and failures of Marxism and communism are also likewise probed and investigated. The sphere of influence of Marxism is also probed on fields such as art, architecture, archeology, historiography, religious studies, and cultural studies. We also go on to show why Marxist thought is greatly fossilized and steeped in a mid?nineteenth century mindset, and is unlikely to work in different contexts and situations as it has limited validity and applicability. Many of the failures of mainstream Marxism and Marxist thought also overflow and cascade into academic Marxism too, and it is time to reassess all facets and aspects of Marxism from their bootstraps. We also propose and examine alternative approaches to replace various concepts and components of academic Marxism, and link all our concepts with our previously published papers in a seamless, integrated chain. As such we expect this paper to be an integral component of our globalization movement, and it would not be difficult to understand or figure out why.
Battling for Housing Value? The Nexus Between U.S. Presidential Elections and County-Level Housing Market Prices
Ruihan Shi
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The presidential election, as the most significant election in the United States, has numerous socio-economic impacts. The real estate market, one of the most closely watched sectors in recent years, has generally shown an upward trend in prices. This paper examines the county-level voting results in two presidential elections which are 2016 and 2020 and the corresponding changes in county housing prices, finding that when a county's presidential election voting results are inconsistent with the final election outcome, the county's housing market is affected, leading to a downward trend in prices. Additionally, counties with a preference for the Republican Party are more sensitive to fluctuations in the real estate market when they experience electoral defeat. Other factors as races and income status also exhibit heterogeneity in response to policy shocks. This study's analysis of the relationship between presidential elections and the real estate market provides guidance for strategic decision-making in the real estate industry and contributes to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the impact of presidential elections on socio-economic life.
Framework of Opportunity Resistance and Curvature Economics (FORCE)
Joseph Sharpe
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This paper introduces the Framework of Opportunity Resistance and Curvature Economics (FORCE)—a field-theoretic model for analyzing how economic behavior emerges within a dynamically evolving topography of opportunity and constraint. Rather than treating agents as isolated optimizers within equilibrium-based systems, FORCE embeds them in a fluid field shaped by resistance, influence, and differential access—where capital, policy, and social signals distort the flow of opportunity itself. By conceptualizing emergent effort, asymmetrical opportunity, and systemic strain as geometric features of a socioeconomic field, FORCE enables new formulations of economic behavior that account for both agency and structural impedance. Constructs such as economic curvature, opportunity resistance, nexus distortion, and emergence coefficients provide a tensorial language for describing how tension accumulates and resolves across uneven social terrain.
Social influencers reduce infection burden and modify epidemic lag in group-structured populations
Aja Sutton; Adam Z. Reynolds; Matthew Adam Turner; James Holland Jones
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The impact of social media influence on social learning, health behaviour, and population health is a new, rapidly developing field of research. Previous research focused specifically on online social influencers suggests they may be able to affect group-level diffusion of health-protective behaviours such that they modify epidemic outcomes. The impacts of social influence on behaviour and epidemics depend on whether the disease has a low enough basic reproduction number ($R_0$) that social dynamics have time to diffuse. However, formal models have yet to test the intuitive hypothesis that online social influence is sufficient to generate tangible, real-world effects on epidemics. We develop an agent-based model that incorporates social influencers into an epidemic scenario to test hypotheses about how the presence of competing influence messages affects the diffusion of health-protective behaviours throughout a population, and thereby alter the course and outcome of infectious disease epidemics. We find social influencers had a persistent, independent effect on peak infection intensity and total infection burden of the epidemic, with the greatest effects in highly homophilous scenarios. The presence of health-protective influence effectively flattened the epidemic curve despite equal presence of anti-protective influence.
The Wolf in the Viking Era: Exploring Jungian Norse Wolf Archetypes in Germanic Myth, from Denmark - Ulfhéðnar the Wolf-Skinned: Ritualized Rage and the Rebirth of the Masculine Ego
Charles J. Wolf
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Abstract This theoretical synthesis integrates mythological, archaeological, and clinical perspectives to examine the Ulfhéðnar as a distinctive archetype of masculine individuation. It focuses on the ritualized engagement with primal instinctual forces, manifesting through shadow-doubling and ecstatic possession, as a necessary threshold for psychological transformation. By situating the Ulfhéðnar within contemporary clinical contexts related to masculine trauma, rage, and identity, this work extends Jungian theory and archetypal psychology to address unresolved aspects of male integration. The analysis highlights how the rupture of ego boundaries permits the return and processing of repressed instinctual energies, offering a symbolic framework for therapeutic approaches. This contribution fills a gap in depth psychology by bridging mythic material and clinical phenomena, emphasizing the archetype’s importance for understanding and treating masculine psychic fragmentation.
Tracking Civic Space in Developing Countries with a High-Quality Corpus of Domestic Media and Transformer Models
Donald Moratz; Jeremy Springman; Erik Wibbels; Fatih Serkant Serkant Adiguzel; Mateo Villamizar-Chaparro; Zung-Ru Lin; Diego Romero; Mahda Soltani; Hanling Su; Jitender Swami
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Civic space - the fundamental freedoms necessary for citizens to influence politics - is under constant contestation. Despite the importance of day-to-day contestation over these rights, there is very little data allowing us to study the events and processes that constitute this struggle. We introduce new data that captures civic space activity across 65 developing countries from 2012 to 2024. Using an original corpus of over 120 million articles from nearly 350 high-quality domestic media outlets and 30 international and regional outlets, we use human-supervised web scraping and open-source computational tools to track monthly variation in media attention across 20 civic space events. Our approach yields three achievements: first, our corpus provides unprecedented coverage of reporting by developing country media outlets, addressing biases in other media event data; second, the resulting monthly event data set covers a wide range of new civic space activities; and third, we demonstrate the utility of this data for identifying and forecasting major political events and discuss applications for research on regime dynamics during a time of democratic backsliding.
The Civic LLM Working Paper: A Conversation on the Democratic Future of AI
Robert M Ceresa; Juan Emilio Ceresa
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Large language models are trained to model statistical regularities in web scale corpora. They tend to reproduce the categories most prevalent in those data, including reductive framings of public life that equate democracy with choice and procedure rather than shared authorship. Alignment methods such as supervised fine tuning and human feedback can guide behavior after pretraining, yet they begin after the representational substrate is already set. This concept paper proposes an alternative starting point. We outline a Civic LLM that uses an explicit civic ontology during corpus design and fine tuning. The ontology names roles, institutions, practices, and values that thicken democratic life. Our claim is deliberately modest. Curated data that is organized and weighted by a civic schema may produce small but measurable shifts in default framings without degrading general capability. The contribution is twofold. We integrate political theory as a design input, and we show that adjacent literatures in knowledge enhanced language models and concept level steering support a cautious path for evaluation. The aim is to establish a clear, citable origin for the idea and a disciplined agenda for future research.
Calculus of Power Real Options in the Dynamics of Political Regimes
Caesar Edward
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This paper develops a real options–based framework for modeling the dynamics of political regimes, integrating decision theory with a six-state Markov Decision Process (MDP). Political regimes are treated as strategic decision-makers holding flexible political options—such as repression, reform, policy shift, or exit—whose value evolves with volatility, entropy, and time. The core asset is the regime’s political capital, modeled as a dynamic stock S(t) subject to both gradual diffusion and sudden Poisson jumps representing exogenous shocks (e.g., coups, assassinations, natural death). Option exercise is constrained by an Action Cost Threshold X(t), the political strike price, which evolves over time and determines the cost–benefit feasibility of action. The framework introduces novel visualization and diagnostic tools: Opportunity Landscapes to map option exercise probabilities over volatility and time; Valence of Power heatmaps to measure relative option value; Decision Thresholds under Uncertainty curves linking entropy and action probabilities to reveal points of strategic equivalence; and Volatility Landscapes that integrate volatility, entropy, and probability to assess stability risk. We model the Decay Time Value of Political Capital Stocks and Political Options, quantify the Time Evolution of both S(t) and X(t), and use Cost–Benefit Landscapes to jointly evaluate capital and cost trajectories. The framework also captures coercion dynamics, distinguishing between rational coercion in dysfunctional equilibria and irrational coercion in stable democracies. Applied to Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda, the model produces empirical simulations of resilience, fragility, and optimal decision timing. In addition to capturing volatility and cost thresholds, the analysis introduces Regime Survivability Probabilities—quantifying the joint likelihood of sustaining or losing power under affordability and hazard constraints—and the Regime Survivability Frontier, which traces the tipping points where survival and failure probabilities converge. Results show how shifting volatility, erosion of political capital, and rising exit hazards shape strategic urgency and force leaders toward difficult trade-offs. The approach offers a predictive and diagnostic tool for political survival analysis, grounded in the theory of real options but adapted to the contingencies of political power.
Exploring Jungian Norse Wolf Archetypes in Germanic Myth, from Denmark Fenrir the Wolf: The Devouring Archetype and the Fate of the Ego
Charles J. Wolf
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This paper examines the Norse wolf Fenrir as a symbolic container for the archetype of devouring instinct and egoic dissolution. Drawing on Jung's concept of the Shadow and Self, Fenrir is explored not as a mere mythic antagonist but as an expression of ego's confrontation with primordial psychic force. The analysis focuses on Danish iconography, including the Jelling stones and burial constraints, to contextualize cultural responses to unbounded power. The paper proposes that Fenrir symbolizes the individuation crisis when ego faces annihilation by the unconscious. Such devouring figures demand not suppression but symbolic integration. This interpretation reframes apocalyptic myth as an inner transformation narrative, emphasizing the necessity of symbolic death for psychic renewal.
The Wolf in the Viking Era: Exploring Jungian Norse Wolf Archetypes in Germanic Myth, from Denmark - Vargr the Outlaw Wolf: The Shadow Archetype and Ritual Exile in Norse Culture
Charles J. Wolf
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This paper explores the vargr-an Old Norse term connoting both "wolf" and "outlaw"-as a symbol of social exclusion and psychological projection. In early Scandinavian law, the vargr marked those expelled from society through outlawry, a formal ritual that maintained social cohesion. Drawing from Jungian depth psychology, the vargr can be seen as a scapegoat for the community's shadow-the rejected parts of the self, including rage, shame, and transgression. This mirrors René Girard's theory of scapegoating, where societies manage inner tension by casting blame onto an external figure. The wolf's wild and dangerous image reinforced its role as a symbolic container for threat. Norse sagas and Thing-site archaeology support the vargr's cultural and legal significance. In contemporary psychological terms, the vargr archetype illuminates how modern individuals manage exclusion and disowned identity. Understanding this figure highlights enduring patterns of exile, repression, and healing within both ancient and modern contexts. Keywords: Vargr, Norse mythology, outlawry, Jungian psychology, shadow archetype
Confucianism and Enterprise Assumption of Risk
Ruihan Shi; Pinxian Chen
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Corporate risk-taking is a key factor in corporate decision-making, and in recent years, the influence of cultural factors as informal institutions on corporate decisions has attracted widespread attention from scholars. Confucian culture, which upholds core values such as benevolence and righteousness, forgiveness and tolerance, integrity, and loyalty and filial piety, has long permeated various levels of Chinese society. Using non-financial listed firms in China as the sample, this study measures the strength of Confucian cultural influence by the number of Confucian temples within varying distances around each firm and further explores the impact of Confucian culture on corporate risk-taking. The results show that Confucian culture is negatively associated with corporate risk-taking, indicating that in regions where Confucian culture is more deeply rooted, firms tend to exhibit lower levels of risk-taking. This study provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the factors influencing corporate risk-taking and the role of cultural factors, offering important guidance for corporate strategic development and risk management strategies while contributing to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the critical role of cultural factors, such as Confucian culture, in risk-taking decisions.
Tell me more. Findings from a Scoping Review on the Reporting of Field Experiments in Sociology
Gianluca Argentin; Giovanni Maria Abbiati; Davide Azzolini; Gabriele Ballarino; Davide Cartagini; Elisa Manzella; Marta Pellegrini; Loris Vergolini
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Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are increasingly used in sociology to generate causal evidence. While the uptake of RCTs in sociology has lagged behind other disciplines, recent growth signals a shift toward what some now call “experimental sociology.” However, the methodological promise of RCTs depends not only on random assignment but also on transparent reporting practices that allow readers to assess internal validity, implementation quality, and the generalizability of findings. In this article, we conduct a systematic scoping review of 91 field experiments published since 2000 in high-ranking sociological journals. Using an adapted version of the CONSORT-SPI checklist, we evaluate reporting accuracy across a range of design and implementation indicators. We find substantial variability and frequent omissions in how sociological RCTs are reported, with implications for replicability and the cumulative advancement of causal knowledge. Our findings suggest that sociologists have yet to fully adopt reporting standards developed in other disciplines, and that greater attention to documentation could strengthen the credibility and utility of experimental evidence. We offer concrete recommendations for researchers, reviewers, and journal editors to improve transparency and comparability in sociological field experiments.
Reasoning Partisans: Amplified Polarization Over Science in Europe
Rodrigo Alonso Reyes Cordova; peter achterberg
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This study examines the political polarization of public trust in science across Europe, distinguishing impact science, which addresses negative consequences of industrial activity and policy, from production science, which supports industrial development. Left-leaning Europeans trust impact science, while right-leaning ones favor production science. Education and closeness to a particular political party amplify ideological differences in impact science trust, reflecting motivated reasoning and partisanship. Exploratory path analysis suggests partisanship exerts a stronger effect than reasoning. These findings imply that skepticism is not a matter of ignorance but of political commitment, highlighting the challenge for science communication in politically polarized contexts.
Concordance of the Index of Relative Rurality with Contemporary USDA and Census Measures
Eashwar Krishna
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Defining rurality is a persistent challenge in rural geography and spatial demography, where threshold-based classifications often obscure the heterogeneity of the rural-urban spectrum. The Index of Relative Rurality (IRR), a continuous and multi-dimensional measure, offers a theoretically-informed alternative. This study explores the areas of agreement and divergence between the 2020 IRR and the 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) and investigates the methodological sources of these differences. Ordered logistic regression models confirm a significant, moderate association, with the IRR explaining approximately 21% of the variance in RUCC classifications. A subsequent analysis of the model's residuals reveals that this divergence is systematic: a county's spatial remoteness is a powerful and statistically significant predictor of the disagreement between the two measures. A structural examination further confirms the high inter-correlation between the proxy variables for the IRR's four components. The findings demonstrate that the IRR's primary value lies not in replicating official classifications, but in providing a distinct, spatially-informed perspective on rurality, making it a valuable complementary tool for nuanced research.
Sufficiency in Teacher–Student Race Matching
Anchal Bhaskar; Kayla Chang; Iman Najib; Olivia Thornton; Jules Tucher; Régan Schwartz; Chad M. Topaz
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Same-race teachers improve academic outcomes for minoritized students, yet most never encounter a teacher who shares their racial background. Existing research highlights the benefits of race-matched instruction but often focuses on aggregate workforce diversity, obscuring students' structural opportunities for contact. We introduce race-match sufficiency—the probability that a student has at least one same-race teacher—and estimate it using administrative data from 8,691 Texas public schools serving 5.4 million students. We model sufficiency for Black, Hispanic, and white students as a function of racial composition, enrollment, grade structure, district context, and more. Same-race student concentration is the strongest predictor, with steep nonlinear effects varying by race. Secondary grade levels and larger enrollment increase exposure opportunities, but benefits remain profoundly unequal. White students experience near-universal sufficiency, Black students gain moderate access, and Hispanic students remain severely underexposed—even where they constitute over 70% of enrollment. Findings reveal systematic inequities and may support exposure-based staffing strategies.
Do Environmentalists Forgo Parenthood? A Life Course Perspective on Fertility Intentions and Behaviours in the UK
Katya Ivanova; Tobias Rüttenauer
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Objective: To assess whether environmental concern is associated with fertility expectations and behaviours across the reproductive life course. Background: Whether individuals consider climate change in their reproductive decisions is an emerging area of research. Prior studies have largely examined stated intentions or the influence of extreme weather events, leaving open questions about actual fertility behaviour in relation to environmental concern. Method: Using individual-level panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), we followed 11,951 women and 8,117 men from 2009 to 2022. We first use linear probability models and regress fertility expectations and parenthood status on the environmentalism index as measured in the first wave. We then estimate Growth Curve models to model the transition to parenthood across the life course for men and women who report different levels of environmentalism at the first wave. Results: Environmentalism is associated with slightly lower fertility expectations among younger adults, particularly those in their mid-20s to early 30s. Notably, the negative association is stronger when it comes to actual parenthood status. Women aged 25 to 40 with high environmentalism scores are significantly less likely to have children. Growth curve analyses reveal that the fertility gap between high and low environmentalism groups widens between ages 25 and 35, but narrows again by age 42. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the link between environmentalism and fertility behaviours may not necessarily be driven by deliberate decision to forgo parenthood but rather, by postponement.
The Role of Childlessness in Changes in English Cohort Fertility
John Ermisch
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The aim of the study is to explore the contribution of childlessness to changes in English cohort fertility over time and in relation to that in other European countries. The study found that during important historical periods of change in English completed fertility a change in childlessness played a very important role: contributing 56% of the large rise in fertility (of 0.42 children per woman) between the 1920 and 1934 cohorts and 44% of the large fall (0.44) between the 1934 and 1960 cohorts. But for more recent cohorts (born since 1960) changes in childlessness played a varying but usually minor role in accounting for changes in English cohort fertility compared with other countries. The paper shows that there are, however, countries in which a rise in childlessness has made large contributions to a large decline in their cohort fertility since the 1960 cohort (e.g. Japan, Spain and Poland). Also, high current levels of childlessness in these countries are an important reason why their cohort fertility is so low compared to England and some other countries of Northern and Western Europe (e.g. Sweden, France and the Netherlands). Based on information on fertility intentions and historical experience it is argued that that changes in childlessness were mainly the result of an accumulation of usually unpredictable period influences on fertility.
Exit, my lord: High commissioners of Palestine's death coverage in local Hebraic newspapers
Barak Bar-Zohar
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This qualitative textual analysis explores the journalistic coverage of the deaths of eight British High Commissioners of Palestine between 1920 and 1948. The study draws on content from 282 volumes of 12 Jewish-Hebrew newspapers published in Mandatory Palestine during that period, including Haaretz, HaBoker, Doar Hayom, Davar, Hazit HaAm, Herut, Hayarden, LaMerhav, Maariv, Hamashkif, Al Hamishmar, Hatzofe, and Kol HaAm. The newspapers’ portrayals of the High Commissioners in the week following their deaths were shaped primarily by the commissioners’ perceived attitudes toward the Jewish community in Palestine and their positions on Zionism. Commissioners regarded as sympathetic or neutral toward the establishment of a Jewish national home—as articulated in the 1917 Balfour Declaration—such as Herbert Samuel, Herbert Plumer, John Vereker-Gort, and Arthur Wauchope, were commemorated with warmth and respect, with only minimal to moderate criticism. By contrast, those seen as anti-Zionist and/or aligned with Arab interests, most notably Harold MacMichael, were subject to markedly critical, hostile, and often dismissive coverage.
Death coverage of U.S. presidents in Hebraic newspapers: 1901-1945
Barak Bar-Zohar
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The current qualitative text analysis investigates the journalistic death coverage of nine United States of America presidents (POTUS) from 1901 and 1945. This line of inquiry occurs in 617 volumes of 29 different Jewish-Hebraic newspapers published in Ottoman Palestine, British mandatory Palestine, Eastern Europe, northern Africa or United States since Benjamin Harrison died in 1901 until Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) passed away in 1945. Except for Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge, the Hebraic press covered these death cases comprehensively and rather admirably. Doing so, it dedicated front pages, editorials, columns, telegrams, photographs and obituaries to the POTUS, while maintaining a somber and respectful tone and displaying an admiring narrative towards the presidents in particular and the United States (US) in general. In addition, the Hebraic newspapers presented the POTUS as global political agents who are supportive of the Jewish people, the Zionist movement and the idea of building a Jewish national home based on The Balfour Declaration in 1917 – to a certain degree. Notwithstanding, some newspapers offered mild criticism while addressing US domestic issues, as well as the POTUS's foreign policy, Jewish relations and Zionist support (or non-support).
Battery in/formation: Modalities of energy in transition
Martin Tremčinský
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In the ongoing energetic transition to renewable energy sources (RES), increasing attention is paid to modes of energy storage. Modes of energy extraction and storage have historically played a pivotal role in the development of global capitalism. The shift from RES to fossil fuels in the 19th century caused a significant change in the relations between workers and capital. Since then, fossil fuels have been utilized as a dominant source of energy, reproducing specific abstract space and time that allowed capitalism to expand. However, this mode of energy has reached a limit and therefore, new ways of extracting, distributing, and consuming energy are sought. Due to the intermittent character of energy from RES increasing focus is oriented towards energy storage and its coordination via the information technologies. One of the predominant technologies for energy storage is apparently the battery. This paper analyzes the dynamics of energy valuation practices mediated by different types of batteries while it explores the battery as an information processing device rather than an energy source. The analysis focuses on three case studies of battery - the virtual battery, Bitcoin-as-battery, and Lithium-ion battery - while each case study focuses on a different aspect of the valuation process. Based on the case studies, three modalities of energy from RES are identified: account, waste, and stock. The virtual battery operates as an accounting device recording outputs and inputs of energy. It allows the semblance of delayed consumption. On the other hand, Bitcoin-as-battery transforms excess waste energy into a unique digital object with high liquidity on international markets. Lithium-ion battery allows energy from renewable sources to be stored and marketized in the form of stock. These modalities are a product of the valuation process, which aims to abstract the intermittent energy produced by RES and transform it into a commodified object.
Leader Empowerment Behavior and Performance of State Agencies in Kenya
Research Bridge publisher; Wilfred Gituma M’mutiga; Patrick Karanja Ngugi; Peter Maku Ngatia
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This study examined the influence of leader empowerment behavior on the performance of state agencies in Kenya, with board composition evaluated as a moderating variable. The research was motivated by persistent underperformance and ethical challenges within Kenyan state agencies, often attributed to weak leadership and governance failures. Guided by theories including Ethical Leadership, Institutional Theory, Kohlberg’s Moral Development, and Social Learning Theory, the study employed a mixed-methods approach and a census sampling strategy targeting senior managers and board members of 135 state agencies. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires and analyzed through both descriptive and inferential statistics, including correlation and moderated regression analysis. The results revealed that leader empowerment behaviors—such as power-sharing, team building, and capacity development positively and significantly influenced agency performance. Furthermore, board composition, defined by factors such as expertise, gender parity, and independence, was found to significantly moderate the relationship between empowerment behavior and agency performance. The analysis confirmed that effective empowerment practices, when complemented by well-structured and diverse boards, fostered organizational accountability, service quality, and policy implementation. Despite these positive outcomes, challenges such as political interference and lack of merit-based appointments remained significant barriers to the realisation of effective ethical leadership.The study concluded that promoting empowerment behaviours and strengthening board governance were vital to enhancing the operational efficiency of state agencies. Recommendations included implementing structured empowerment programs, fostering team-oriented cultures, improving board diversity, and reducing political influence in leadership appointments. Future research was recommended to explore the long-term impacts of empowerment strategies, the integration of digital tools in leadership, and the interaction between board dynamics and technological innovation in the public sector.
Devolved Human Resources For Health And Service Delivery In County Government Hospitals In Kenya.
Eunice Rosalyn Nyambura Muturi; Research Bridge publisher; Rose Litunya; Susan Were
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This study investigates the impact of devolved human resources for health (HRH) on service delivery in Kenya's county government hospitals. Since the adoption of devolution in the 2010 Kenyan Constitution, healthcare functions have shifted from national to county governments, creating both opportunities and challenges. This study aimed to explore the extent to which devolved human resources for health affected service delivery in Kenya's county government hospitals. It sought to identify healthcare human resources for health challenges, evaluate the role of intergovernmental leadership, and propose strategies to enhance efficiency and service quality. The study employed a positivist research philosophy and mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) research design, analyzing data from 385 respondents across 137 county hospitals using SPSS version 27. The findings show that devolved human resources for health positively and significantly influenced service delivery. The moderating variable, intergovernmental leadership further strengthened this influence. The study concludes that devolved human resources for health influences service delivery. The study recommends that for service delivery to improve there is need for reform, as far as devolved human resources for health is concerned, as well as the need to enhance intergovernmental leadership. The study recommends the need for adequate staffing for both medical and non- medical staff, adhering to the organisation's staff establishment and that the employees be compensated commensurate with the services they render.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN LAGOS STATE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, IKEJA, NIGERIA
Olufunke Sobowale
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The values and norms of an organisation affect the nature of the organisation. Also, leadership in every organisation manages and directs the actions of employees. The purposes of this study are: to highlight the type of leadership that is best suitable for the management of Lagos State Civil Service Commission with a view to determining the effect of organisational culture on effective and efficient service delivery by employees in Lagos State Civil Service Commission. This research adopted a descriptive survey research design using a mixed-method. The study targeted employees of the Lagos State Civil Service Commission. Fifty copies of the questionnaire were administered with forty-nine retrieved. Out of five employees, initially identified, two employees interviewed. Findings revealed that organisational culture has a positive effect on employee performance. Therefore, the researcher concluded that it is essential for employees to adopt a good culture in the organisation. It was discovered that transformational leadership that could institute the right culture has a more significant effect on employee performance in the Lagos State Civil Service Commission. The study recommended that leaders should create room for creativity and analyse employees’ performance using SWOT Analysis to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each employees. Performance-based reward system for employees would improve productivity.
Measuring the Stories in Contemporary Songs
David Bamman; Sabrina Baur; Mackenzie Hanh Cramer; Anna Ho; Thomas McEnaney
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Lyric poetry--the poetry of song--is often defined in opposition to narrative. In this work, we examine this relationship by carrying out an empirical study to measure the degree of narrativity present in contemporary songs, using a dataset of popular (Billboard Hot 100) and prestigious (Grammy-nominated) songs spanning 1960-2024. While we might expect the 1960s (with ballad-driven folk singers like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel) to be a high-water mark for narrativity, we find the opposite: narrativity has been steadily increasing over this period, largely due to the rise of the strongly narrative genres of hip hop and rap. We also find that it is a marker of prestige for country music, with Grammy-award nominated "Best Country" songs displaying significantly higher narrativity rates than non-nominated songs from the same album.
Don’t Panic: Population Projection is Not a Crystal Ball
Amanda Jean Stevenson; Shelley Clark; Jennifer Dowd; Alison Gemmill; Karen Benjamin Guzzo; Laura D. Lindberg; Sarah Hayford; Leslie Root
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Population panic – worries about “depopulation” linked to low birth rates – has become pervasive, with dire predictions in both the short and long term. Yet demographers like us – experts who explicitly study population size, composition, and structure – are generally not highly concerned. Why is this? It’s because we understand the strengths and limitations of population projections. Projections can accurately describe how populations will change if we know future birth, death, and migration rates. But demographers are well aware that they don’t have a crystal ball – we can't fully anticipate economic shifts, political changes, global events, or how future generations will respond to their changing worlds. That’s why the farther we project from the present, the less accurate those projections are likely to be.
The Art of Early Life: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Arts-based Approaches to Translating the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Science for Public Health Impact
Jordan Chin; Sara Dickinson; Luseadra McKerracher; Mary Barker; Gursimran Deol; Deborah Sloboda
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Background: Public understanding of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) remains limited, hindering efforts to shift health behaviours and policy. Arts-based knowledge translation (ABKT) offers a promising approach to engage the public with complex health science. Methods: We evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and impact of a multi-site public exhibition co-developed by scientists, artists, and community members to convey DOHaD concepts. The exhibition, shown at five sites in a mid-sized Canadian city, featured professional and community-created artworks, scientific images, and interactive data collection activities. Using a parallel convergent mixed methods design, we collected and analyzed observational field notes, written reflections, QR code analytics, and structured activity responses across settings. Quantitative data were analyzed using logistic regression and descriptive statistics. Qualitative data underwent conventional content analysis. Findings were integrated narratively. Results: The exhibition was successfully installed across all sites, although space and security constraints in community settings required substantial adaptation. 89% of observed individuals at the gallery site engaged with the exhibition compared to 3-17% of observed individuals at community sites. Attendees at the gallery site also generally engaged with more artworks and for longer periods of time than at community sites. Viewing over half of the artworks was associated with a significantly greater odds of endorsing environmental and structural determinants of health (OR=10.3, 95% CI [1.48, 210.7]). Written and verbal feedback demonstrated increased awareness, emotional engagement, and a desire for further information. Despite some misinterpretation and low fidelity in interactive activities, the exhibition was broadly well-received and evoked critical reflection. Conclusions: This study provides the first empirical evaluation of an arts-based strategy to translate DOHaD concepts for public audiences, demonstrating that such approaches can enhance health literacy, foster dialogue about the social determinants of health, and support equitable public health communication about early life influences on lifelong health. Future efforts should optimize engagement in non-gallery spaces and assess longer-term impacts on attitudes and behaviours.
Measuring Physical Activity in Older Adults through Data Donation: Consent Rates, Donation Success, & Bias
Florian Keusch; Bella Struminskaya; Joris Mulder; Stein Jongerius
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Physical activity (PA) is a key predictor of many health outcomes, especially for aging populations. The accurate measurement of PA is key to identifying determinants of health and developing appropriate interventions. To measure PA, many studies use self-reports which are usually limited to global measures and can suffer from measurement error. More fine-grained day-reconstruction methods are burdensome for respondents and prone to recall error. As an alternative, researchers are providing study participants with wearable devices that passively track PA, which reduces reactivity and recall error. However, participants’ non-compliance and high device costs are problematic. Many older adults now have smartphones that track physical activity, and individuals can share these passively collected physical activity data with researchers. We test a data donation approach among older adults. Based on legal requirements (e.g., the EU General Data Protection Regulation), data controllers (i.e., social media platforms, health apps, etc.) must provide users access to all their data in a machine-readable format. We study (1) how willing and successful older adults are to donate their PA data from different smartphone apps; (2) what drives donation of PA data at the different stages of participation; and (3) what biases arises from selective data donation? We use a privacy-preserving data donation tool integrated in a probability-based online panel of the Dutch general population to collect PA data from various health apps. 2,086 members of the LISS panel aged 50 years and older completed a web survey in early 2024. All iPhone and Android smartphone owners were asked to download passively collected PA data from their devices (Apple Health, Google Location History, or Samsung Health) and donate them via the Port platform. Out of the 2,086 survey participants, 1,889 (91%) reported owning an iPhone or Android phone compatible for data donation, 606 (29%) reported being willing to donation their PA data, 354 (17%) started the data donation, and 256 (12%) successfully provided a data package. Gender, age, educational attainment, income, and smartphone ownership and usage behavior, privacy related attitudes, and type of health app from which the data were requested correlated with behavior at the different stages of study participation. Compared to the entire sample, older adults who successfully data donors reported higher levels of self-rated health, fewer health-related limitations, fewer difficulties performing everyday activities, and more physical activity. Our study shows that data donation from smartphones as part of a probability-based web survey of older adults is a feasible alternative for the measurement of PA. Nonparticipation correlates strongly with characteristics related to smartphone ownership and comfort with device use. However, substantive bias in health and PA outcomes persist for those who donated in comparison to all survey respondents.
Human Extinction from a Probabilistic Demographic Perspective
Betsy Alafoginis; David Swanson; Jeff Tayman
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Studies that predict species extinction have focused on a range of flora and fauna but in regard to Homo sapiens there are, with one notable exception, no predictive studies, only considerations of possible ways this may occur. The exception believes extinction of Homo sapiens will happen in 10,000 years. We agree that extinction will happen, but we disagree on the timing. The world population is currently 8.1 billion, Given the decline in fertility between 2019 and 2024 and employing a probabilistic forecasting method in conjunction with 66% confidence intervals, we find: by 2139 the world population will be between 1.55 billion and 1.81 billion; by 2239, it will be between 4.95 million and 5.84 million and by 2339 there will be no humans.
Progress in Building Livable Communities: What do the AARP Livability Data Show?
Xue Zhang; Mildred E. Warner
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In 2015, AARP pioneered design and creation of the Livability Index to track community progress, for all communities in the US. The livability index is based on the WHO domains of age friendly, and measures over 70 indicators in the seven domains of health, neighborhood, housing, transportation, opportunity, civic engagement and environment. We compare communities across the US which entered AARP’s Age-friendly network with those which have not to explore two research questions: 1) Have AARP Age-friendly network members made progress in building more age-friendly communities, and 2) Does entering the network matter? The answer to both questions is YES, network members made progress from 2015 to 2024 in building more age-friendly communities. The goal of the Livability Index was that it would encourage communities to pay more attention to age-friendly actions. We find communities in the age-friendly network improved their livability scores over the decade and expanded their lead over communities not in the network. Joining the network helps communities become more age-friendly.
Safer in School? The Impact of Compulsory Schooling on Maltreatment and Associated Harms
Adam A Dzulkipli; Nicole Black; David Johnston; Leonie Segal
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Abused and neglected children are at extreme risk of school dropout, poor health, and destructive behaviours, yet evidence on interventions that prevent maltreatment and its harms is limited. We use a South Australian education reform to examine whether extending the school-leaving age from 16 to 17 improves maltreatment-related outcomes. Using administrative records and regression-discontinuity techniques, we find that the reform reduced first-time cases of maltreatment reported to Child Protection Services (CPS). Among adolescents with past CPS involvement, it also reduced emergency healthcare utilisation. Our findings suggest school attendance can improve child safety, with an incapacitation effect as the likely mechanism.
The Documentary Film Hopa lide: The Making of Romani Representation
Petr Nuska
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The article concerns the ethnographic documentary film Hopa lide, which stems from the author’s ten years of ethnographic research among Romani musicians in Slovakia. The film is based on documenting the collaborative making of music videos. Firstly, the article critically reflects on Romani representation in contemporary documentary films, arguing that it is often distorted due to tendencies towards exoticisation, the monopoly of non-Romani gaze, challenges in the representation of poverty and story-driven approaches in contemporary documentary practice. Then, it justifies the film’s main methodological and ideological standpoints by evaluating the process of pre-production, production and distribution. In conclusion, the article highlights the importance of ethnographic film as a counterpoint to market-driven story-telling and as a valuable way of representing underrepresented groups of people.
The Wolf as Political Symbol: Populism, State Narratives, and Conservation Conflict in Austria
Sara Aref Zahed
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Fairy tales, folklore, and centuries-old fears have long shaped how humans perceive large predators like wolves. In contemporary Austria, these cultural imaginaries are not only preserved but strategically reactivated within the political discourse of the radical right. The return of wolves to Austrian landscapes has become more than an ecological development – it has become a symbolic battlefield within the populist rhetoric of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Drawing on Benjamin Moffitt and Simon Tormey’s concept of populism as a style, this study examines how the FPÖ performs populism through the figure of the wolf. Central to this style are the dramatization of crisis, a stark division between the “common rural people” and a detached “urban elite,” and the use of provocative language and imagery to assert authenticity and urgency. The analysis is based on a discourse analysis of FPÖ press releases, party manifestos, media appearances, and local events from 2010 to 2024. Importantly, the study incorporates an ecological foundation that contextualizes and challenges the FPÖ’s claims about large predators. Scientific research on wolf and bear behavior, ecological roles, and human-wildlife conflict is used to contrast and deconstruct political narratives driven by fear, misinformation, and ideological positioning. The results show that the FPÖ weaponizes the figure of the wolf to symbolically represent state failure, external control, and threats to traditional rural life, while selectively ignoring ecological facts. Gendered narratives further reinforce this rhetoric: male actors appear as protectors of land and culture, while female figures are framed as vulnerable mothers in need of protection. Ultimately, the case of the wolf in Austria demonstrates how ecological debates become deeply entangled with populist identity politics – and how addressing such conflicts requires not only scientific knowledge but also an understanding of the political and cultural performances shaping them.
Measuring Recruitment Elasticity in the Multi-stage Job Matching Process
Ryo Kambayashi; Kohei Kawaguchi; Suguru Otani
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This study addresses two conceptual issues in measuring recruitment elasticity: defining outcomes by matches rather than applications, and conditioning on workers observing posted wages. Using data from Japan's largest job matching intermediary tracking complete matching processes, we find recruitment elasticities around 1 for upper-wage workers but insignificant for lower-wage workers, indicating substantial employer market power. Wages significantly affect outcomes only at the application stage, not at subsequent interview or offer stages, consistent with directed search theory. These findings reveal heterogeneous monopsony power across worker segments with important implications for labor market policy.