As previous studies show a positive relationship between present time orientation and psychological well-being, the purpose of the current within-subjects study is to examine whether a present time...Show moreAs previous studies show a positive relationship between present time orientation and psychological well-being, the purpose of the current within-subjects study is to examine whether a present time orientation, and otherwise mindfulness, can be found in word use of suicidal musicians over time. Fewer words referring to the present, compared to the past and the future were expected. Moreover, a decrease in the use of present time words, and an increase in the use of past and future time words, closer to the moment of suicide, was expected. The different means of the time categories were calculated with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to test for differences in these means. To test for change over time in the time categories, the Kendall’s Tau B correlation coefficients were used. Present time orientation (M = 8.449) had a mean greater than both the mean of past time orientation (M = 2.308) and the future time orientation (M = 1.500). Moreover, future time orientation had a mean greater than past time orientation. I found that these differences were statistically significant. There was a significant decrease in words referring to the past (τb = -.113, p = .005) and a non-significant decrease in words referring to the future (τb = -.071, p = .081). Lastly, there was a significant decrease in words referring to the present (τb = -.153, p < .001). The finding of a decrease in present time, and the finding of less words referring to the future, compared to the past, are in line with previous studies on this topic. It is concluded that fewer words referring to the future, compared to the past and present, and a decrease in present time words over time can be an indication of suicide risk.Show less
The level of mental effort when performing everyday activities depends on many factors, and it is constrained by the working memory capacity. Factors such as the type of work, the work schedule,...Show moreThe level of mental effort when performing everyday activities depends on many factors, and it is constrained by the working memory capacity. Factors such as the type of work, the work schedule, and special events like exams, deadlines, or holidays may cause temporary increases or decreases to the cognitive load of daily routines. Given the dominance of circadian clocks in human behaviours and cognitive output, is mental effort also consistently influenced by the time of day? This study explored the possibility that cognitive load fluctuates in a consistent temporal pattern that is close to diurnal cycles observed in human behaviour and cognition. The approach was based on the assumption that smartphones tapping data can act as a proxy for cognitive load levels in order to capture the daily dynamic changes unobtrusively and in vivo. The sample data was collected from 64 healthy individuals, with a duration period on average of 33 days. A spectral analysis on the time-series of the tapping sessions revealed the existence of a diurnal cycle of 24 h in both low and high cognitive load measures, with no significant differences in the cycles’ amplitude. This suggests that people distribute their mental effort consistently across the day with similar intensity between activities that require low and high cognitive resources. This finding was again confirmed at the individual level by a cross correlation analysis. Interestingly, the participants exhibit barely visible weekly cycles with relatively weak signals, which could be a reflection of the time of the study during coronavirus lockdown; hence the influence of weekday/weekend rhythm may be diminished. Further research should examine the time of day when cognitive load peaks and declines, as well as the individual differences. The information can be valuable for various domains that are concerned with learning, performance and health.Show less
Smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives. Along with this integration comes a concern for smartphone and internet addictions. In order to fully understand how these addictions...Show moreSmartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives. Along with this integration comes a concern for smartphone and internet addictions. In order to fully understand how these addictions might work, it is imperative that we develop more accurate measures of smartphone behaviours. Past studies have often included selfreported questionnaires that gathered data about the duration of smartphone use and other smartphone behaviours, but it is now known that self-reports are not entirely reliable. This study will investigate the difference between the self-reported duration of smartphone use and the actual duration provided by the users’ smartphones. Additionally, the study will explore the possibility of habitual checking behaviours as a predictor of recall error. Data collected from 122 participants were analysed via one-sample t-tests and multiple linear regressions. Results from the one-sample ttests support previous research, showing that participants were indeed inaccurate at recalling the time spent on their phones. Thus, smartphones are an important tool for providing objective data on smartphone behaviour. Contrary to former research, the level of smartphone usage did not make a difference on the amount of recall error, such that participants were inaccurate regardless of actual time spent on their smartphones. The multiple linear regressions found a relationship between one measure of time-based checking habits and recall error, but not between tap-based checking habits and recall error. These results indicate that unconscious, automatic smartphone habits may play a role in the inability to accurately recall smartphone behaviour.Show less
Smartphone use duration is associated with serious health consequences such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. To examine to which degree smartphone use duration affects the health of...Show moreSmartphone use duration is associated with serious health consequences such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. To examine to which degree smartphone use duration affects the health of individuals, self-report measurements are used to determine smartphone use duration. However, self-report measurements of smartphone use duration are prone to inaccuracy, since people seem to have a distorted time perception while using the smartphone. The aim of this study is to find a discrepancy between actual smartphone use duration and reported smartphone use duration, by considering two time references, per day and yesterday. Furthermore, the study investigated whether higher smartphone use duration and higher number of unique apps increase the discrepancy between the actual and reported smartphone use duration. This study used a survey containing the questions; “For how many min per day do you use your phone? For how many min did you use your phone yesterday?” and using the log data captured by a tracker app. From 122 respondents, 97 individuals were eligible for inclusion in the study. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that individuals tend to inaccurately recall their smartphone use duration. However, contradictory to earlier findings this study proposes that greater smartphone use duration per day is negatively associated with the transformed relative recall error per day. The number of unique apps use predicted transformed relative recall error yesterday significantly positively. Future research should aim at focusing on reliable measurements for smartphone use duration in order to investigate the association between smartphone use duration and health consequences in more depth.Show less
Background: Interventions for increasing physical activity (PA) are using various forms of encouragement. Those means of motivation include financial incentives (FIs) in the form of rewards...Show moreBackground: Interventions for increasing physical activity (PA) are using various forms of encouragement. Those means of motivation include financial incentives (FIs) in the form of rewards allocated or a previously transferred deposit being earned back as well as feedback framing to either highlight gains or losses. Furthermore, factors influencing PA are increasingly examined, with one being self-efficacy (SE) which represents confidence in one’s own capability. Current study: An experimental study was conducted aiming at increasing the participants’ daily step count to investigate the effect of framing and FIs as well as SE on PA increase. Methods: A 2x2 design with a reward gain, reward loss, deposit gain and deposit loss as well as a control condition was used. A sample of mostly young students living in the Netherlands (N = 91) was divided randomly across those five groups. The participants used an app for 20 days which provided them daily feedback matching their condition on their step count in comparison to their goal. Results: A two-way ANOVA displayed no effect of FIs (p = .16), framing (, p = .10), or the interaction thereof (p = .69). Furthermore, SE did not predict the days of goal achievement (p = .80). Discussion: No effect of FIs or framing on PA was found. SE did not influence the performance within the intervention. Caution is advised when interpreting the results due to unmet assumptions. Further research to clarify the discrepancies and investigate underlying mechanisms of PA increasing interventions is necessary.Show less
Eerder onderzoek heeft aangetoond dat de uitputting van iemands wilskracht afhankelijk is van diens overtuiging of wilskracht gelimiteerd is. Personen die denken dat wilskracht ongelimiteerd is,...Show moreEerder onderzoek heeft aangetoond dat de uitputting van iemands wilskracht afhankelijk is van diens overtuiging of wilskracht gelimiteerd is. Personen die denken dat wilskracht ongelimiteerd is, zouden eenvoudiger impulsen kunnen onderdrukken. Hierdoor zouden ze efficiënter langetermijndoelen kunnen behalen. Wij verwachtten dat mensen met deze overtuiging anderen minder snel om hulp zouden vragen, omdat zij wellicht denken dat ze alles alleen kunnen. Anderen om hulp vragen heeft echter voordelen, die mensen met een ongelimiteerde wilskrachtovertuiging zouden missen. Voor dit onderzoek is daarom onderzocht of mensen met een ongelimiteerde wilskrachtovertuiging anderen minder snel om hulp vragen. Dit is onderzocht door middel van online vragenlijsten, bestaande uit 12 vragen over wilskrachtovertuiging en 12 vragen over anderen om hulp vragen. Deze variabelen bleken zwak gecorreleerd, waarbij toeval niet kon worden uitgesloten. Dit onderzoek kon geen verband aantonen tussen wilskrachtovertuiging en de mate waarin diegene anderen om hulp vraagt. Het verwachte negatieve effect van een ongelimiteerde wilskrachtovertuiging kon zodoende ook niet worden aangetoond. Extra onderzoek rondom dit onderwerp is aanbevolen. Zo kan onderzocht worden welke andere eventuele nadelige bijkomstigheden mensen met een ongelimiteerde wilskrachtovertuiging ervaren.Show less
