Memory consolidation has been shown to be strengthened by sleep as well as wakeful rest. This study examines the impact of mind-wandering on consolidation. There is an ongoing debate in the...Show moreMemory consolidation has been shown to be strengthened by sleep as well as wakeful rest. This study examines the impact of mind-wandering on consolidation. There is an ongoing debate in the scientific community, however, on how to appropriately measure mind-wandering as well as its role in consolidation. Multiple experiments have been done already, yet, their flawed design invalidated the results (Brokaw et al., 2016; Craig et al., 2014; Varma et al., 2019; Varma et al., 2018). This experiment used the metronome response task (MRT) and measured memory performance, with the goal of finding out if rhythmic reaction time variability can be used as a proxy for mind-wandering. Results show that participants with higher mind-wandering tendency are significantly more likely to mind-wander during the MRT. Rhythmic reaction time variability (RRTv) for off-task probes is significantly higher than for on-task probes. Overall RRTv values do not have a significant correlation with the Mind-Wandering Spontaneous questionnaire scores. Lastly, people with higher RRTv during mind-wandering probes have higher memory scores. In general, the results show RRTv to be a behavioral proxy for mind-wandering, and mind-wandering may improve consolidation.Show less
New forms of explicit racism find their way on social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, through hate speech and social exclusion. This study looks at mechanisms behind social judgment...Show moreNew forms of explicit racism find their way on social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, through hate speech and social exclusion. This study looks at mechanisms behind social judgment online and the influence of race and emotion. An online experiment was designed to test whether Black faces are rated as less friendly compared to White (hypothesis 1) and whether positive Tweets lead to a higher friendliness rating compared to negative or neutral (hypothesis 2). Further, an interaction effect between race and emotionality on friendliness judgment was assessed assuming that the difference between friendliness rating of Black and White faces depends on the emotionality of the Tweet (hypothesis 3). Finally, a questionnaire was administered to test for cultural diversity awareness (CDA), assuming heightened CDA is connected to less racial bias (hypothesis 4). Findings indicate that there is a significant effect of race on friendliness decision, but contrasting hypothesis 1 it was revealed that Black faces were instead rated as more friendly. The effect of emotionality was found significant, indicating that positive Tweets lead to higher friendliness ratings. The interaction effect was non-significant and no difference in friendliness judgment between the two races across the emotionality categories was found. Lastly, a significant negative correlation was found between CDA and racial bias, suggesting a positive influence of CDA. The findings give an important indication for the role racial biases and emotionality play in judgment formation.Show less
Decades of memory research have shown that memories are acquired in a fragile state and are strengthened over time, a process called consolidation. The research focused on the process of...Show moreDecades of memory research have shown that memories are acquired in a fragile state and are strengthened over time, a process called consolidation. The research focused on the process of consolidation and what benefits and harms it. It was believed that rest and sleep are most beneficial for the consolidation of memories, but recently there have been studies showing that not all mental effort interferes with the quality of the consolidation. Autobiographical thinking might harm the process by introducing novel episodic memory processing while a 2Back task might suppress this phenomenon while not draining the episodic memory resources. In this study, we used a modified 0Back and 2Back delay period to ascertain how memory performance would be affected by different task difficulty and consequently different quality and quantity of thoughts. Participants went through an encoding period, where they learned faces, followed by the delay period, and lastly, a memory test was administered. Thought propensity was measured by random thought probes during the delay period. We hypothesized task-related thoughts to be associated with the 2Back condition and task-unrelated thoughts with 0Back. Furthermore, we expected similar memory performance in the two conditions. Our results showed that there were significant differences in the types of thoughts the frequency of them in the two conditions. Adding to that, 2Back memory performance was positively correlated with task-related thoughts. In conclusion, our results suggest substantial differences in types of thoughts between the conditions and relation between task-related thoughts and memory consolidation.Show less