How we remember and what helps us remember is a key component in everyday function. Understanding the process of how memory is retained aids in investigating what is beneficial and what...Show more How we remember and what helps us remember is a key component in everyday function. Understanding the process of how memory is retained aids in investigating what is beneficial and what hinders learning processes. This study investigates the beneficial effect of mind-wandering (MW) on memory consolidation, aiming to replicate findings from Seli et al. (2013) and inspiration from Varma’s (2019) experimental procedure. Utilising a sample of 34 participants, the research employed a 4-block procedure: an auditory memory task which included the presentation of a wordlist and a memory recall test, followed by a metronome response task (MRT), and finally a surprise auditory memory recall. The MRT was implemented to quantify behavioural variability using the variable rhythmic response time variability (RRTv). The study hypothesised that MW would enhance memory consolidation and improve participant memory recall. The results supported our hypothesis of replicating Seli et al.'s (2013) findings on RRTv being a reliable proxy of MW as well as demonstrating a positive significant relationship between behavioural variability and memory score. These findings highlight the nuanced relationship between mental activities and their influence on memory processes, suggesting potential strategies for improving memory retention by managing MW tendencies. Proving further the reliability of RRTv as a measure of MW also opens new opportunities for researchers to extend what MW comprises.Show less
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
Meaning in life is an important factor for improving mental health, which is necessary in today’s society as mental health problems are rising. Many classical psychedelic users report that their...Show moreMeaning in life is an important factor for improving mental health, which is necessary in today’s society as mental health problems are rising. Many classical psychedelic users report that their psychedelic use is among one of their most meaningful experiences, thereby increasing the level of meaning in their life. Likewise, regular meditation practice also increases meaning by letting one focus on what is important in life. Considering this, psychedelic use and meditation can be potential treatments for mental health disorders. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which meditation practise is correlated with meaning in life among psychedelic users. To investigate this, we distributed an online survey that included items about demographics, prior psychedelic and meditation experience, the Freiberg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI), and the Three-Dimensional Meaning in Life Scale (3DM). For the data analyses, we used two independent samples t-tests and two simple linear regression analyses. We first investigated whether among psychedelic users, meaning in life would be positively associated with life-time meditation experience, but we could not find significant results. Nonetheless, we did find that meditation practitioners have greater meaning in life in comparison to psychedelic users that do not meditate. Next, we looked if the purpose component of meaning in life would have the strongest correlation with life-time meditation experience among psychedelic users, compared to the other two components of MiL. Again, the results were insignificant so we cannot be certain that this is the case. Lastly, we looked if among psychedelic users, individuals who practise Metta meditation combined with a second meditation type would report greater meaning in life compared to those who only practise one meditation type. The results of this analysis were also insignificant. Considering psychedelic use and meditation practice still seem promising for countering mental health problems, more research needs to be done to attain a full understanding of the impact these methods can have in a therapeutic setting.Show less
Vasten is steeds populairder geworden op sociale media in de afgelopen jaren. Er wordt geschreven dat vasten goed blijkt te zijn voor de gezondheid van de mens, maar in hoeverre vasten hierop...Show moreVasten is steeds populairder geworden op sociale media in de afgelopen jaren. Er wordt geschreven dat vasten goed blijkt te zijn voor de gezondheid van de mens, maar in hoeverre vasten hierop invloed heeft, wordt nog onderzocht. Deze studie onderzocht het effect van langdurig vasten (72 uur) op de reactietijd en wisselkosten met behulp van een taakwissel paradigma. Door middel van een mengvorm van een between- en within subject design is het effect onderzocht. Er hebben in totaal 47 participanten deelgenomen aan het onderzoek, waarvan 31 personen in de controlegroep en 16 personen in de vastengroep. Tijdens de taak-wisseltaak werd de reactietijd gemeten in milliseconden per herhaaltaak en wisseltaak. Dit gebeurde op drie verschillende testmomenten door twee verschillende groepen. Om erachter te komen of er een effect was van vasten op executieve functies, werden de wisselkosten berekend uit de reactietijden. Deze wisselkosten zijn gebruikt als maat van mentale flexibiliteit, de executieve functie die in dit onderzoek werd bekeken. De resultaten laten zien dat de reactietijd en de wisselkosten afnemen per testmoment en er een significant effect was van de gemiddelde reactietijden over de drie tijdspunten ( p < .001). Ook is er gekeken naar de invloed van BMI op de wisselkosten, waar geen significant effect is gevonden, maar wel de conclusie getrokken kon worden dat hoe hoger de BMI-waarde was, hoe hoger de wisselkosten werden.Show less
De in het brein bestaande balans tussen stabiliteit en flexibiliteit wordt gereguleerd door neural gain: de allocatie van cognitieve resources die leidt tot een grondige (stabiele) of een meer...Show moreDe in het brein bestaande balans tussen stabiliteit en flexibiliteit wordt gereguleerd door neural gain: de allocatie van cognitieve resources die leidt tot een grondige (stabiele) of een meer basale (flexibele) benadering van een stimulus. Een stabiele benadering kent een hoge mate van neural gain en levert de beste resultaten in taken met een hogere moeilijkheidsgraad van stimuli, bijvoorbeeld conflicterende stimuli-informatie. De flexibele benadering kent daarentegen een lage mate van neural gain en heeft tot gevolg dat er gemakkelijk gewisseld kan worden tussen taken. Eerder is in onderzoek van Musslick en collega’s (2019) gevonden dat participanten gain verlagen in taken die flexibiliteit vereisen. In dit onderzoek wordt de aanpassing van neural gain onderzocht aan de hand van stabiliteit en gekoppeld aan verschillende onderzoeksgroepen met kenmerken van ADHD of Autisme Spectrum Stoornis. Een computertaak met frequent congruente en frequent incongruente stimuli wordt gebruikt om de neural gain van de onderzoeksgroepen in beide condities te meten. Verwacht wordt dat participanten uit de ADHD populatie over een lagere en participanten uit de ASS populatie juist over een hogere baseline beschikken. Uit dit onderzoek is gebleken dat participanten in het algemeen hun neural gain niet significant aanpassen aan een stabiliteit-vereisende conditie en dat de verwachtingen voor de ADHD en ASS onderzoeksgroepen ook niet bleken te kloppen. Wel werden op gedragsniveau significante effecten van de conditie en transitie op reactietijden en error rates gevonden. Onderzoek naar de inzet van neural gain kan dus uitgebreid worden en daardoor leiden tot een beter begrip van de mogelijkheid van mensen om neural gain aan te passen, maar ook de bereidheid daartoe.Show less
Deze studie richt zich op het debat over de aard van conceptuele representaties in het semantische geheugen. Amodale theorieën, uitgaand van amodale symbolen, zijn vrijwel alleen in staat...Show moreDeze studie richt zich op het debat over de aard van conceptuele representaties in het semantische geheugen. Amodale theorieën, uitgaand van amodale symbolen, zijn vrijwel alleen in staat theoretisch bewijs te leveren. Grounded theorieën, uitgaand van o.a. modaalspecifieke representaties, hebben moeite abstracties te verklaren. De distributed-plus-hub theorie van Patterson et al. (2007) daarentegen, is een hybride theorie uitgaand van modaalspecifieke representaties in combinatie met een amodale hub. Ervan uitgaande dat de anterior temporal lobe de locatie van de hub is voorspelt de theorie dat er een dominantie is voor het verwerken van vormen. Het doel van het onderzoek is om deze voorspelling te testen. Hiervoor is de volgende onderzoeksvraag opgesteld: Heeft vormincongruentie een grotere impact op reactietijd en accuratesse dan kleurincongruentie? Om een antwoord hierop te kunnen geven is een experiment uitgevoerd. Participanten werden dierachtige stimuli waar zij nog geen ervaring mee hadden gehad, genaamd Fribbles, met de eigenschappen vorm, kleur en geluid aangeleerd. Vervolgens werden zij blootgesteld aan incongruenties van deze eigenschappen. Er werd verwacht dat een incongruentie van vorm zou zorgen voor een grotere impact op reactietijd en accuratesse dan een incongruentie van kleur. De resultaten lieten een significant effect zien van modaliteit en congruentie op accuratesse. Zoals werd verwacht heeft vormincongruentie een grotere impact op accuratesse dan kleurincongruentie. Voor reactietijd werd alleen een significant effect gevonden van congruentie. De door uitval te kleine steekproef heeft mogelijk geleid tot een type II-fout. Vervolgonderzoek moet worden afgenomen om een modaliteiteffect op reactietijd aan te kunnen tonen.Show less
Reorientation of attention is a fundamental part of human cognition. Spatial orientation is generally associated with dorsoparietal regions in the brain. Particularly, the posterior parietal cortex...Show moreReorientation of attention is a fundamental part of human cognition. Spatial orientation is generally associated with dorsoparietal regions in the brain. Particularly, the posterior parietal cortex, the lateral intraparietal cortex, and the right angular gyrus (AG) are assumed to mediate redirection of attention to behaviorally relevant stimuli. However, exact mechanisms and effect structures of reorienting to biologically significant stimuli have not been comprehensively identified. Time course and coordination in the dorsoparietal cortex remain unclear. Previous research has shown prioritized processing of emotional stimuli, particularly if threatening. Such affective processing is often associated with faster, subcortical activity. In the present study mediation by the right AG of reorienting to threat is examined. A spatial cueing paradigm was used and single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the right AG at different stimulus onset synchronies (SOA) after target onset. Threat was introduced by means of differential fear conditioning of the targets stimulus. General linear mixed models with logit transform were used for analysis. TMS was predicted to interfere with reorienting (during invalid-cue trials) at an early SOA when threat is present. No such effects were observed. Rather, mediation by the right AG appeared to predominantly facilitate a correct response for contralateral targets. Further, TMS at 210 ms SOA improved performance for valid-cue conditions, independent of threat, suggesting that the right AG may act as inhibitory control. The discussed findings indicate a need for further investigation and suggested replication of more fundamental assumptions, such as direction of effects and lateralization of the AG.Show less
Previous research has suggested that social perception can be greatly influenced by stress and anxiety during an interaction, however the research on the influence of mimicry in social interactions...Show morePrevious research has suggested that social perception can be greatly influenced by stress and anxiety during an interaction, however the research on the influence of mimicry in social interactions is scarce. In this study, we examine how different levels of anxiety influence how individuals evaluate virtual avatars that mimic their pupil dilation compared to when it is not mimicked. We additionally examine how likely individuals are to partake in a future interaction with the avatars. Participants were presented with 6 different avatars reiterating a different story each time. Their level of anxiety was measured using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) questionnaire prior to being presented with the avatars. Afterwards, participants filled out a questionnaire including questions measuring how the individuals perceived the avatars. The results from the questionnaire were taken and examined. Our findings showed that participants with high and low social anxiety did not evaluate the virtual avatars differently, regardless if mimicry occurred or not. However, we found that level of anxiety did influence responses on the Desire for a Future Interaction (DIF) questionnaire; those with low social anxiety are more likely to score higher on the DIF questionnaire, suggesting they are more likely to be willing to interact with the avatars again. However, given that previous research has found significant effects regarding how different levels of social anxiety influence social perception, we conclude that our findings do not support this; the level of social anxiety did not influence how participants evaluate the avatars, regardless if mimicry occurs or not.Show less
The present study investigated operating room (OR) traffic at the OR’s of two Dutch hospitals. OR traffic is one of the multiple causes of surgical site infections (SSIs). Hospitals are trying to...Show moreThe present study investigated operating room (OR) traffic at the OR’s of two Dutch hospitals. OR traffic is one of the multiple causes of surgical site infections (SSIs). Hospitals are trying to reduce their amount of OR traffic as much as possible in order to reduce the number of SSIs. Knowing how much variation of the amount of OR traffic occurs and knowing the reasons for its occurrence, is important to actually be able to reduce OR traffic to an tolerable level. For this study, OR traffic was investigated by observing OR traffic during surgeries (N = 83). On average, 4.29 door openings per hour occurred. Between the hospitals, the averages of OR traffic per hour differed greatly (hospital 1 M = 3.00, hospital 2 M = 5.23). Overall, there was a positive linear relation between the amount of OR traffic and the duration of a surgery. Two-way traffic was related to less overall OR traffic. Visible signs about the OR traffic policy did not seem effective in reducing OR traffic. Based on the results of this study, practical recommendations to improve OR traffic policy were proposed. Also, we advised on improving OR traffic registration and efficient behavior of OR personnel to reduce OR traffic.Show less
Non-verbal communication is an import social skill we humans have mastered. The eyes of others are of particular interest to us. Gaze direction in combination with the emotional expression on...Show moreNon-verbal communication is an import social skill we humans have mastered. The eyes of others are of particular interest to us. Gaze direction in combination with the emotional expression on someone’s face, provides a plethora of information about location and evaluation. Theory of mind is important in understanding this information. There is evidence that depression can cause a bias towards negative stimuli, however not all studies regarding this subject find similar results. To investigate whether depression influences attention in a negative matter a gaze cueing paradigm was used. The level of depression was measured using the BDI. Our findings indicated an effect of cue validity, but not of emotion. The level of depression did not influence attention.Show less
This study investigated the role trait anxiety on attention in a gaze cueing experiment with neutral and fearful emotional expressions. We focused on trait anxiety because high anxious individuals...Show moreThis study investigated the role trait anxiety on attention in a gaze cueing experiment with neutral and fearful emotional expressions. We focused on trait anxiety because high anxious individuals tend to have more trouble with controlling attention. This can result in having a hard time ignoring threatening information and negative thoughts can take over the thought process. Participants viewed photographs of faces whose gaze was directed to the left, to the right or forward. Target letters then appeared at the left or the right side of the photograph. The faces that were used had different emotional expressions (neutral or fearful). The results of this study showed that high anxious participants were not faster in orienting attention in response to the averted gaze in comparison to low anxious participants. In addition, high anxious participants were not slower in looking away from attention in response to a direct cue in comparison to low anxious participants. This effect does not seem to be enhanced by a fearful expression. This indicated that the orientation of attention can shift in the direction of the gaze even when it is opposed to intentions.Show less
In hospitals, preventable incidents still occur and safety management may have reached its peak. Therefore, learning from these incidents is imperative to reduce preventable harm. A prerequisite...Show moreIn hospitals, preventable incidents still occur and safety management may have reached its peak. Therefore, learning from these incidents is imperative to reduce preventable harm. A prerequisite for learning is the willingness of staff to report. A safety management mode known as Safety-II may yield benefits in reporting behavior. Based on existing literature, reporting behavior may be influenced by personality. This study aimed to investigate if the proposed safety management mode will increase reporting behavior. Additionally, this study investigated if personality is a significant predictor in reporting behavior. To test this, participants consisting of two groups i.e., calamity investigators (with training in Safety-II) and random medical staff (without training) were compared. Data was gathered by distributing questionnaires among participants; one for personality and one for reporting behavior. The reporting questionnaire was distributed on a second occasion, to measure implications over time. It was expected that training in Safety-II leads to an increase in reporting behavior. Additionally, it was expected that personality influenced reporting behavior. Results showed a significant difference in one facet of reporting behavior (i.e., perceived blame) between groups with training in Safety-II and without training. Extraversion and neuroticism were found to be predictors for one facet of reporting behavior (i.e., perceived criteria for events that should be reported). Implications may be that the training main focus is to exempt blame from being a factor in reporting. Implications may also be that personality is not a great predictor of reporting behavior. Future lines of research may focus on increasing the number of participating hospitals, perhaps even broadening the study across different nations, to examine cultural differences.Show less
Research concerned with emotion perception has typically relied on posed, static stimuli, and employed a forced-choice paradigm, limiting ecological validity and likely overlooking biases in...Show moreResearch concerned with emotion perception has typically relied on posed, static stimuli, and employed a forced-choice paradigm, limiting ecological validity and likely overlooking biases in perception. The current study employed an alternative methodology to assess differences in perception of real and matching avatar faces, as well as in their perceived intensity and judgment confidence. Additionally, the effects of gender of the perceiver, gender of the stimulus, and exposure to violence in videogames were examined. Seventy-nine participants were presented with 64 real and matching avatar expressions and rated the extent to which they perceived eight different emotions, as well as their judgment confidence and the intensity of the stimuli. On average, less happiness, and more anger and disgust was perceived in the avatar than real faces. Additionally, real stimuli received higher average ratings of intensity and confidence than their avatar counterparts. Finally, in contrast to previous research, gender of the stimulus and of the perceiver, as well as the exposure to violence in videogames had no effect on emotion perception. The cluster analysis uncovered several patterns in participants’ interpretations, suggesting unequivocal perception of emotions in stimuli. Overall, these findings suggest that the process of interpreting facial expressions is too complex and heterogenous to be fully captured by forced-choice paradigms. The study contributes to the field of emotion perception by proposing a methodology better suited to examine individual differences and biases in emotion perception.Show less
The incidental encoding of semantic foils (new targets in a memory test) during a memory-for-foils paradigm was investigated in an online version of Vogelsang et al. (2016) replication of Jacoby!s ...Show moreThe incidental encoding of semantic foils (new targets in a memory test) during a memory-for-foils paradigm was investigated in an online version of Vogelsang et al. (2016) replication of Jacoby!s (2005) memory-for-foils paradigm. We measured 31 participants with a semantic / vowel-judgement (Phase 1) based recognition memory test (Phase 2) followed by a surprise memory test (Phase 3); to measure whether Subsequent Memory Effects (SMEs) of semantic foil encoding would be influenced by the introduction of repetition as another condition. We found that the introduction of repetition increased SMEs for every other condition except for the semantic 1-time condition. However, the semantic 1-time encoding condition performed better than the non-semantic 4-time. We also found that the addition of repetition stabilises the mean reaction times for Phase 3. In conclusion, it would seem that the effects of deep encoding only work with a few trials: any more, and the effects of repetition take over.Show less
Models on social anxiety disorder, such as the Cognitive Behavioral Model by Rapee and Heimberg (1997) suggested that maladaptive attentional processes are strongly involved in the disorder’s...Show moreModels on social anxiety disorder, such as the Cognitive Behavioral Model by Rapee and Heimberg (1997) suggested that maladaptive attentional processes are strongly involved in the disorder’s etiology and maintenance. The current study aimed to build upon recent findings in highly socially anxious individuals by testing a non-clinical population for a positive relation between the attentional bias towards angry faces and social anxiety trait levels. Additionally, attentional biases to other emotional facial expressions (i.e., angry, happy, sad, and fearful) were explored for their relationship with social anxiety trait levels, as was the influence of context on the relationship between the attentional bias towards angry faces and social anxiety trait levels. 104 healthy participants completed the dot-probe task showing an emotional facial expression. This was done in in two natural settings (Apenheul or Night of Discoveries) and one lab setting. Results indicated a marginal significant trend of individuals with higher social anxiety trait levels also presenting stronger attentional biases towards angry faces. The additional exploratory investigations yielded no significant results. Based on the current results it was concluded that the relation between the attentional bias towards threat and social anxiety levels, which is quite consistently found in individuals with clinical levels of social anxiety, existed also in a weaker form in a healthy population, and might increase with higher social anxiety trait scores. This provides insight on how attentional biases might affect the general population’s behavior and how a potentially beneficial evolutionary function can turn dysfunctional in socially anxious individuals.Show less
Mimicry facilitates social bonding and increases the feelings of affiliation and liking. However, not every individual perceives mimicry in the same way. Previous research showed that there are...Show moreMimicry facilitates social bonding and increases the feelings of affiliation and liking. However, not every individual perceives mimicry in the same way. Previous research showed that there are consistent differences among various groups. Nevertheless, previous studies failed to establish whether gender can also play a role in evaluating explicit mimicry. Unlike the previous studies, the focus of this research is implicit mimicry. Since mimicry does not always occur on explicit level, investigating mimicry that occurs on implicit level, such as pupil dilation mimicry, might lead to a different result. In this study, the aim is to investigate whether gender has an influence on the evaluation of avatars which mimic or does not mimic the participants pupil dilation. For the purposes of this study, avatar is defined as an artificial intelligence figure representing a real person. To test the effect of gender on mimicry, 19 females and 10 males interacted with 6 avatars. 3 of them mimicked the participant’s pupil dilation while the other 3 avatars did not. Afterwards, participants evaluated how much they liked the avatar and how much they would like to meet the speaker in real life. Overall, female participants evaluated both mimicking and non-mimicking avatars more negatively than the male participants. However, female participants reported a higher desire for the future interaction with non-mimicking avatars in comparison to males. The study did not yield a significant result. However, the difference between genders in mimicry evaluation was still observed.Show less
Behavioral mimicry and pupil dilation have both been seen to have positive effects on liking and trust between people in social interactions. For people with social anxiety, however, this effect...Show moreBehavioral mimicry and pupil dilation have both been seen to have positive effects on liking and trust between people in social interactions. For people with social anxiety, however, this effect may be impaired due to their self-focused attention and fear of other’s judgments. We investigate the effects of pupil dilation mimicry on evaluation of and trust in virtual avatars in high and low socially anxious individuals. Participants interacted with six avatars who each told a story, during which the avatar’s pupil size was manipulated to dilate randomly or to mimic the participant’s pupil dilations. After each story, the participants answered questionnaires regarding liking and played an investment game to measure trust. Contrary to our predictions, the results yielded no between-group differences in the evaluation of- or trust in the avatars. The implications of this and the limitations to our study are discussed, and we offer recommendations for future research.Show less
Mimicry is the replication of another person’s behaviour and/or physiological state in short temporal succession of the original behaviour. It can be differentiated into autonomic mimicry and motor...Show moreMimicry is the replication of another person’s behaviour and/or physiological state in short temporal succession of the original behaviour. It can be differentiated into autonomic mimicry and motor mimicry, with the former denoting mimicry of autonomic nervous system activity such as heart rate, with visible behaviours such as blushing or pupil dilation, whereas motor mimicry is any mimicry of motor movements. Together, these two types of autonomic mimicry result in emotional mimicry, also called emotional contagion. The primary aspect of emotional mimicry is reciprocal evaluation, as people with positive affiliation towards each other exhibit it the most. However, socially anxious people have deficiencies in motor mimicry and do not prefer a mimicking partner. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether highly socially anxious people would evaluate virtual characters exhibiting autonomic mimicry less positively than low socially anxious individuals. Within the study, 29 people with different levels of social anxiety were exposed to autonomic mimicry through pupil dilation by three virtual characters telling three different stories, whilst three others told stories without mimicking the participants, but still exhibiting occasional pupil dilation. Comfortability around the characters was measured through the desire for future interaction scale, and liking through an avatar evaluation questionnaire. Two repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) and two mixed ANOVA were conducted and yielded no significant differences in evaluation between the mimicry conditions, nor any significant mediation of these differences by the social anxiety group, suggesting that differences in peoples’ evaluations of mimicry are primarily reserved to motor mimicry.Show less
