bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Self-repair increases abstraction of referring expressions
Authors: Mills Gregory , Redeker Gisela
Published: February 2022

When interlocutors repeatedly describe referents to each other, they rapidly converge on referring expressions which become increasingly systematized and abstract as the interaction progresses. Previous experimental research suggests that interactive repair mechanisms in dialogue underpin convergence. However this research has so far only focused on the role of other-initiated repair and has not examined whether self-initiated repair might also play a role. To investigate this question we report the results from a computer-mediated maze task experiment. In this task, participants communicate with each other via an experimental chat tool, which selectively transforms participants’ private turn-revisions into public self-repairs that are made visible to the other participant. For example, if a participant, A, types “On the top square”, and then before sending, A revises the turn to “On the top row”, the server automatically detects the revision and transforms the private turn-revisions into a public self-repair, e.g. “On the top square umm I meant row”. Participants who received these transformed turns used more abstract and systematized referring expressions, but performed worse at the task. We argue that is due to the artificial self-repairs causing participants to put more effort into diagnosing and resolving the referential coordination problems they face in the task, yielding better grounded spatial semantics and consequently increased use of abstract referring expressions.
Image in multimodal texts: does semantic connectivity with other text components affect visual perception parameters?
Authors: Puchkova Alexandra N. , Gorbacheva Aleksandra , Khenis Alexandra Berlin
Published: February 2022

This article describes the results of a pilot experimental study of the perception and understanding of digital multimodal texts using the methods of eye-tracking and linguistic analysis. The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that the distribution of visual attention during image perception in multimodal texts corresponds to the degree of semantic connectivity between the image and other parts of the stimulus. Multimodal texts in the format "static image + written utterance" selected from real expert practice were used as stimulus material. The study involved 84 participants of varying degrees of awareness of extremist discourse. In the first part of the experiment, respondents viewed and interpreted the content of the multimodal texts, while their eye movements were recorded; in the second part, respondents viewed, marked and commented on the same stimuli, with the task to find and explain the semantic correlations of image and verbal parts. The subjects of analysis were (a) the interest area (IA) dwell time normalized by area size (b) the number of views of the IA, (c) the average number of connections of the IA, reduced to (d) the average rank of connectivity of the area with other components. No significant differences were found depending on the respondents’ degree of awareness on extremist discourse, neither in the average number of IA correlations, nor in the distribution of ranks. IAs containing images of faces were found to have the highest number of views. In a single-factor analysis of variance, the ranks of connectivity had a significant effect on the number of IA views in all texts (p<0.05), with both direct and inverse correlations of these factors. According to these results, we can say that there is no universal connection between such parameters of viewing multimodal texts as dwell time normalized for area or the number of views and the number of connections of an image component with others. We suppose the effectiveness of the search for meanings that provide coherence to the components of a multimodal text does not depend on the amount of time and eye movements needed for visual perception, sufficient to understand the text.
Just let me check: The role of individual differences in self-reported anxiety and obsessive-compulsive features on subjective, behavioural, and physiological indices during a checking task
Authors: Morriss Jayne , Biagi Nicolò , Wake Shannon , van Reekum Carien M. , Verde Alberto Dalla
Published: February 2022

Checking behaviour has been described as a form of preventative behaviour used by an individual to establish control over the environment and avoid future misfortune. However, when compulsive, checking behaviours can become disabling and distressing and have been linked to the maintenance of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Despite this, there is limited literature across the field that has assessed the impact of dimensional measures of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive features (i.e., negative affect, uncertainty, and perfectionism) in driving checking behaviour. As such, the present study examined the impact of individual differences in self-reported anxiety and obsessive-compulsive features on subjective, behavioural, and physiological indices during a visual discrimination and checking task (n = 87). Higher self-reported anxiety and obsessive-compulsive features were associated with higher subjective ratings of unpleasantness and the urge to check during the task. Moreover, higher self-reported anxiety and obsessive-compulsive features related to general negative affect, uncertainty, and perfectionism were associated with greater checking frequency during the task. Lastly, stronger obsessional beliefs about perfectionism and the need for certainty were found to predict poorer accuracy, slower reaction times, and higher engagement of the corrugator supercilii during the task. In sum, these findings demonstrate how different anxiety and obsessive-compulsive features, in particular perfectionism and the need for certainty, may relate to and maintain checking behaviour in low threat contexts, which likely has implications for models of excessive and persistent checking in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
Debunking Giangrande and Turkheimer (2021): Every Dogma has its Day
Authors: Pesta Bryan J , Nijenhuis Jan te , Lasker Jordan , Kirkegaard Emil O. W. , Fuerst John
Published: February 2022

We reply to Giangrande and Turkheimer's (2021; hereafter, “G&T”) recent critique of our meta-analysis on racial/ethnic differences in the heritability of intelligence (Pesta et al., 2020). G&T misrepresented our paper and much of the relevant scientific literature, providing inaccurate comments about nearly every conceptual and methodological charge they leveled. Moreover, given a recent expert survey on this topic, even their claim that our viewpoints are “fringe” is ill-conceived. We addressed G&T’s critiques point-by-point in three sections. The first rebutted conceptual issues G&T raised. The second section quashed their claims of methodological, statistical, and interpretative issues, and showed that G&T fundamentally misunderstand this statistical technique. Third, we ran new analyses based on G&T’s speculations; results failed to support them. Our new analyses lead us to reemphasize that substantial racial/ethnic differences in the heritability of intelligence are unlikely despite Scarr’s original hypothesis clearly predicting otherwise. We conclude by discussing how G&T “took their ball and went home” regarding the journal Intelligence.
Variables involved in the acquisition and maintenance of racial aggression and its victims reactions
Authors: de Sousa Vinicius Pereira , Mizael Táhcita , de Rose Julio C.
Published: February 2022

This study aimed to investigate how behavior analysis can contribute to the understanding of some variables and processes involved in the acq uisition and maintenance of racial aggressors' behaviors, as well as the victims' reactions. We describe how the concepts of rule governed behavior and motivating operations may be involved in institutional racism: Individuals belonging to ethnic groups wh o hold the social administration in a context may keep important reinforcers available for their own group, while other racial groups may have their access to those reinforcers hindered. For these privileges to be perpetuated, the ruling group can arrange contingencies that reinforce the behavior of following certain rules that contribute to the maintenance of relevant reinforcers for the ruling group and exclusion of Black individuals and other people of color. For those underrepresented groups, motivating operations can be manipulated and reinforcers can be provided only when their responses are deemed appropriate by the dominant group. Individual learning through discriminative training, equivalence class formation, transfer of functions, stimulus generalization, and function altering were also discussed. Patterns such as aggression, escape, and avoidance, were identified in the actions of racial aggressors. Finally, the victim s reactions were also identified as escape, avoidance, or aggression of racialaggressors, but also as effects of processes such as learned helplessness, extinction after elimination of benefits, countercontrol, and respondent conditioning. Despite the lack of research in the field, behavior analysis has the power to elucidate some v ariables related to this theme, aiding, thus, evidence based intervention proposals.
An Examination of the Association between Altitude and Suicide Deaths, Suicide Attempts, and Suicidal Ideation among Veterans at both the Patient and Geospatial Level
Authors: Wang Xiange , Crivelli Silvia , Zamora-Resendiz Rafael , Shelley Courtney D. , Manore Carrie , Liu Xinlian , Oslin David W. , McMahon Benjamin , Beckham Jean C. , Kimbrel Nathan A. , Project Suicide Exemplar
Published: February 2022

Suicide is a major public health problem affecting US Veterans and the US in general. Many variables (e.g., demographic, clinical, biological, geographic) have been associated with risk for suicide and suicidal behavior, including altitude; however, the exact nature of the relationship between altitude and suicide remains unclear in part due to the fact that previous studies have used either geospatial data or individual-level data, but not both. Prior research has also failed to consider the full range of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, ranging from suicidal ideation to suicide deaths. Accordingly, the objective of the present research was to use both geospatial data (county and zip codes) and individual-level data to comprehensively assess the association between altitude and suicide mortality, suicide attempts, and suicidal ideation. Taken together, our results demonstrate that there is a strong correlation between altitude and suicide rates at all the levels investigated and using different statistical analyses and even after controlling for significant covariates such as percent of age >50yr, percent male, percent white, percent non-Hispanic, median household income, and population density. We show that there is a positive correlation between altitude and suicide attempts especially when controlling by the covariates and a weak correlation between altitude and suicide ideation and the combination of suicide, suicide attempts and suicide ideation.
Trust in science: considering whom to trust for knowing what is true
Authors: Bromme Rainer , Hendriks Friederike
Published: February 2022

The published version is now available here: https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781802200942/book-part-9781802200942-11.xml The chapter provides a conceptual clarification of the concept 'public trust in science'. Our starting point is the model of trust formulated by Mayer, Davis, and Schoormann (1995), which has been widely used in trust research since then. Here, it is now specified for the context of citizens' encounter with science, by using the example of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in particular the Hydroxychloroquine controversy (which started with a heavily criticized as methodologically flawed study by French microbiologist D. Raoult, who continued to sell the study’s claims on the media). We differentiate trust from trustworthiness; and propose a distinction between epistemic trust (depending on science regarding the validity of knowledge) and instrumental trust (depending on science regarding its impact on one’s aims). We then introduce the notion of informed trust to describe that public trust in science has a rational basis. Finally, challenges and ways for the promotion of public trust in science are outlined.
Response-Code Conflict in Dual-Task Interference and Its Modulation by Age
Authors: Paas Oliveros Lya Katarina , Pieczykolan Aleks , Pläschke Rachel N. , Eickhoff Simon B , Langner Robert
Published: February 2022

Difficulties in performing two tasks at once can arise from several sources and usually increase in advanced age. Tasks with concurrent bimodal (e.g., manual and oculomotor) responding to single stimuli consistently revealed crosstalk between conflicting response codes as a relevant source. However, how this finding translates to unimodal (i.e., manual only) response settings and how it is affected by age remains open. To address this issue, we had young and older adults respond to high- or low-pitched tones with one (single task) or both hands concurrently (dual task). Responses were either compatible or incompatible with the pitch. When responses with the same level of compatibility were combined in dual-task conditions, their response codes were congruent to each other, whereas combining a compatible and an incompatible response created mutually incongruent (i.e., conflicting) response codes, potentially inducing detrimental crosstalk. Across age groups, dual-task costs indeed were overall highest with response-code incongruency. In these trials, compatible responses exhibited higher costs than incompatible ones, even after removing trials with strongly synchronized responses. This underadditive cost asymmetry argues against mutual crosstalk as the sole source of interference and corroborates notions of strategic prioritization of limited processing capacity based on mapping-selection difficulty. As expected, the effects of incongruent response codes were found to be especially deleterious in older adults, supporting assumptions of age-related deficits in multiple-action control at the level of task-shielding. Overall, our results suggest that aging is linked to higher response confusability and less efficient flexibility for capacity sharing in dual-task settings.
Rare neurogenetic conditions and mental health of families during COVID-19
Authors: Charles Sarah Jane , Martin Jessica Alice , Runicles Abigail , Chi Zhaotian , Robertson Kathryn , Barker Edward D. , Richards Caroline , Scerif Gaia , Baker Kate , Tye Charlotte
Published: February 2022

Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wellbeing of parents and children in the general population has been well-documented. This study investigated wellbeing in parents of and children with rare neurogenetic conditions, who may have been at greater risk of negative impact on mental health and behavioural challenges during the first UK lockdown. Method: An online survey data was completed by parents of children with a rare neurogenetic condition between May and July 2020 (CoIN sample; N=123) and compared to responses from parents of children in the wider population (Co-SPACE sample; N=2121). Measures of wellbeing included the 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale for parents and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire for child behaviour. Results: Parent anxiety was significantly higher in CoIN (MedianAnx = 4) than Co-SPACE (MedianAnx = 2). Parent-rated internalising, externalising and impact of child behavioural difficulties were also significantly higher in CoIN (MedianInt = 9.5; MedianExt = 11, MedianImp = 8) than Co-SPACE (MedianInt = 6; MedianExt = 7, MedianImp = 1). Only group differences in child behaviour and impact remained significant when matching for demographic factors and were also larger than previously reported pre-pandemic differences. Discussion: Families of children with rare neurogenetic conditions reported poorer wellbeing during the first lockdown compared to the wider population, affecting both parents and children. This likely reflects pre-existing complex needs, which should be prioritised during future national crises. Investigation of changes in wellbeing in this population over the course of the pandemic is warranted.
Extended Perception Corroboration: A Pilot Study with Energy Medicine Practitioners
Authors: Wahbeh Helane , Speirn Paolo , Yount Garret
Published: February 2022

Reiki is a type of energy medicine with growing evidence for its benefit for various conditions and populations. The “energy” in energy medicine implies a life force rather than a conventional physics definition, and many people feel they can perceive this energy through extended perception beyond their traditional five senses. This study evaluated extended perception during Reiki energy medicine sessions. Six expert Reiki Masters gave 30-minute sessions to 40 participants. Participants had one or more of the following conditions: acute physical injury (such as broken bone), mental impairment (memory issues), and psychological symptoms (anxiety and/or depression). Six people vetted for extended visual perception made observations before, during, and after sessions using quantitative and qualitative measures. Participants and Reiki Masters also recorded their observations. Data were analyzed for corroboration: 1) within-perceivers, 2) between the Reiki Master and perceivers, 3) between the participant and Reiki Master, and 4) between the participant and perceivers. Participants’ well-being outcomes and potential predictors were also evaluated. Well-being improved after the sessions (F(3,159) = 12.3, p <0.00005; Baseline - 55.7 ± 18.8, Before - 58.9 ± 18.1, After - 73.2 ± 16.2, One-week later - 64.3 ± 20.3; effect size is 0.61, 95% confidence interval [0.39 to 0.59]). The perceivers generally reported similar information in free-form drawings and free text. Perceivers’ observations about the participants’ health were highly corroborated and matched participants’ self-report. No predictors revealed themselves, supporting the tradition that Reiki applies to anyone regardless of health condition. Furthermore, the symbols perceivers noted were meaningful to the participants, but perceivers did not see the same symbols nor ascribe the same meaning to them that the participants did. Future studies are needed to refine the methods developed here to continue the exploration of extended perception, its validity, and practical application in healthcare.
Investigating the Sources of Teacher Intercultural Self-Efficacy: A Three-Level Study Using TALIS 2018
Authors: Schwarzenthal Miriam , Daumiller Martin , Civitillo Sauro
Published: February 2022

We investigated how individual experiences and contextual aspects at the school and country level are associated with teacher intercultural self-efficacy. Using the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2018 (TALIS) data from 91,768 teachers, 11,523 schools, and 46 countries, as well as MIPEX indicators, multilevel models revealed that individual experiences (i.e., intercultural professional development, teacher mobility) and contextual aspects (i.e., share of first- or second-generation immigrant students, multicultural climate/policy) at the school level but not the country level were positively associated with teacher intercultural self-efficacy. The findings highlight the need to consider individual and contextual aspects when examining teacher intercultural self-efficacy.
An Approximate Representation of Objects Underlies Physical Reasoning
Authors: Li Yichen , Wang YingQiao , Boger Tal , Smith Kevin , Gershman Samuel J. , Ullman Tomer David
Published: February 2022

People make fast and reasonable predictions about the physical behavior of everyday objects. To do so, people may be using principled approximations, similar to models developed by engineers for the purposes of real-time physical simulations. We hypothesize that people use simplified object approximations for tracking and action (the "body" representation), as opposed to fine-grained forms for recognition (the "shape" representation). We used three classic psychophysical tasks (causality perception, collision detection, and change detection) in novel settings that dissociate body and shape. People's behavior across tasks indicates that they rely on approximate bodies for physical reasoning, and that this approximation lies between convex hulls and fine-grained shapes.
Visual Attentional Orienting by Eye Gaze: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Gaze-Cueing Effect
Authors: McKay Kate T , Grainger Sarah , Coundouris Sarah , Skorich Daniel , Phillips Louise H , Henry Julie
Published: February 2022

Given limitations in the amount of visual information that a person can simultaneously process through to conscious perception, selective visual attention is necessary. Visual signals in the environment aid this selection process by triggering reflexive shifts of covert attention to locations of potential importance. One such signal appears to be others’ eye gaze. Indeed, a gaze-cueing effect, whereby healthy adults respond faster to targets presented at locations cued rather than miscued by eye gaze, has been consistently observed in the empirical literature. Critically though, the influences of task and cue features on this effect are not well understood. To address this gap, we report a meta-analytic integration of 423 gaze-cueing effects using a multi-level approach. A gaze-cueing effect emerged across all levels of all assessed task and cue features, indicating that others’ eye gaze reliably directs observers’ attention. We found that the magnitude of the gaze-cueing effect was moderated by whether direct gaze cues preceded directional gaze cues or not; the cue-target Stimulus Onset Asynchrony, whether participants had to detect, localize, or categorize targets; and the cue’s facial expression. Whether or not the gaze cue remained on screen after the target appeared, and whether schematic faces, computer-generated faces, or images of real faces were used as cues, did not appear to reliably function as moderators. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed, particularly in relation to the social attention system.
Good video game players look better: exploring the relationship between game skills, sexual dimorphism, and facial attractiveness
Authors: Li Xiangqian , Lei Xue , Xie Ruxue , Chen Shitao , Xu Chen , Han Chengyang , Deng Shichang
Published: February 2022

Few studies have been done on the effects of video games on social perception, especially on the faces of players. The present study investigated how people’s gaming skill influences their perceived facial attractiveness, and also how sexual dimorphism features (masculine and feminine) interplayed with displayed gaming skill. We asked players (N = 147) and non-players (N = 167) to evaluate the attractiveness of masculinized and feminized facial images, along with perception of gaming skills (high gaming skill or low gaming skill). The results indicated that game players perceived facial images accompanied by higher gaming skill information were more attractive than facial images accompanied by lower gaming skill information. However, for participants without gaming experience (i.e., non-players), gaming skill information did not influence their evaluation of attractiveness. We believe players might consider higher gaming skills as social knowledge which can positively influence people’s perception of their attractiveness; on the other hand, non-players did not perceive gaming skills as important social knowledge, hence attractiveness ratings were unaffected. We did not find any interactions between sexual dimorphism features and gaming skill information. To our surprise, only non-players exhibited classic sexual dimorphism effects in facial evaluations, whereas for players, the sexual dimorphism effect disappeared completely. We speculate that players rely more on social knowledge and less on configuration cues during facial evaluation, hence the effects of sexual dimorphism were obscured.
Unmet Expectations: Social Inclusion and the Interaction Between Social Anxiety and Ambiguous or Positive Feedback
Authors: Thériault Rémi , Dion-Cliche Flavie , Dandeneau Stéphane
Published: February 2022

Objective. The current study examines the effects of preferential inclusion on fulfilling fundamental needs after having received ambiguous or positive social feedback and investigates how social insecurity moderates this effect. Method. 438 participants (58.7% women, mean age 39) either received positive or ambiguous social feedback, then participated either in a social participation (Cyberball/control task) or a preferential social inclusion (Überball/experimental manipulation) task, then finally reported the fulfillment of their fundamental needs. Participants also completed a measure of social insecurity and other personality measures. Results. The two main results emerging from the current study are: (a) Überball—the preferential social inclusion condition—leads to higher fulfillment of fundamental needs than Cyberball; and (b) socially anxious individuals (those high in fear of negative evaluation) significantly benefit from preferential social inclusion (Überball) when receiving positive feedback but not when receiving ambiguous feedback. Conclusion. Overall, this research shows that Überball leads to higher fulfillment of fundamental needs than a social participation task like Cyberball Inclusion. This study is a valid and valuable condition to study the protective effects of social inclusion. It also suggests that socially insecure individuals benefit most from being preferentially socially included after receiving positive social feedback than simply being included.
Early Experience Unpredictability in Child Development as a Model for Understanding the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Translational Neuroscience Perspective
Authors: Liu Sihong , Fisher Philip
Published: February 2022

Extensive evidence links adverse experiences during childhood to a wide range of negative consequences in biological, socioemotional, and cognitive development. Unpredictability is a core element underlying most forms of early adversity; it has been a focus of developmental research for many years and has been receiving increasing attention recently. In this article, we propose a conceptual model to describe how unpredictable and adverse early experiences affect children’s neurobiological, behavioral, and psychological development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We first highlight the critical role of unpredictability in child development by reviewing existing conceptual models of early adversity as they relate to subsequent development across the lifespan. Then, we employ a translational neuroscience framework to summarize the current animal- and human-based evidence on the neurobiological alterations induced by early experience unpredictability. We further argue that the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a global “natural experiment” that provides rare insight to the investigation of the negative developmental consequences of widespread, clustered, and unpredictable adverse events among children. We discuss how the pandemic helps advance the science of unpredictable early adverse experiences. As unpredictability research continues to grow, we highlight several directions for future studies and implications for policymaking and intervention practices.
The effect of visualising and re-expressing evidence of policy effectiveness on perceived effectiveness: a population-based survey experiment
Authors: Reynolds James , Hobson Alice , Ventsel Minna , Pilling Mark Andrew , Marteau Theresa , Hollands Gareth J
Published: February 2022

Communicating evidence that a policy is effective can increase public support although the effects are small. We investigate whether two interventions can enhance evidence communication: i. visualisation of evidence, and ii. re-expressing evidence into a more interpretable form. We conducted an online experiment in which participants were randomly allocated to one of five groups differing in how evidence of policy effectiveness was presented. We used a 2 (text only vs visualisation) X 2 (no re-expression vs re-expression) design with one control group. Participants (n = 4500) representative of the English population were recruited. The primary outcome was perceived effectiveness and the secondary outcome was public support. Evidence of effectiveness increased perceptions of effectiveness, d = .14, p < .001. There was no evidence that visualising, d = .02, p = .605, or re-expressing, d = -.02, p = .507, changed perceptions of effectiveness. Policy support increased with evidence, d = .08, p = .034, but this was not statistically significant after Bonferroni adjustment, α = .006. Communicating evidence of policy effectiveness increased perceptions that the policy was effective. Neither visualising nor re-expressing evidence increased perceived effectiveness of policies more than merely stating in text that the policy was effective.
Preprint Non-Residential Fatherhood and Father-Child Relationships Among Curaçaoan and Dutch Adolescents and Young Adults
Authors: Osinga Mariëlle , van Brummen- Girigori Odette , van Bergen Diana , Kretschmer Tina
Published: February 2022

Growing up with a non-resident biological father has been portrayed as problematic for different aspects of father-child relationships, but it is unclear whether experiencing non-residential fatherhood is less problematic in countries where this family structure is more common and thus probably less stigmatized. Cross-country research into non-residential fatherhood is scarce, especially including Caribbean countries where many children grow up without their biological father in the home. This study examined associations between non-residential fatherhood and father-child relationship quality and fathers’ parenting behaviors among Curaçaoan and Dutch adolescents and young adults. Curaçaoan (n = 450) and Dutch (n = 585) participants completed a digital questionnaire in class, using the same procedures on Curaçao and in the Netherlands. We estimated structural equation models of perceived avoidant and anxious father-child attachment and paternal emotional warmth, rejection, and monitoring for both groups separately, because of measurement variance across countries. Non-residential fatherhood was unrelated to perceptions of most aspects of father-child relationships among both Curaçaoan and Dutch participants. This study adds an important cross-country perspective to the current literature on non-residential fatherhood and tentatively suggests that correlates of non-residential fatherhood for father-child relationships might be less evident than previous studies suggest. Instead, young people’s SES and the frequency of contact between fathers and children seem to be more important for father-child attachment and paternal rearing behaviors. Further research across demographic characteristics and child outcomes is required to understand whether, when, and how non-residence of the biological father might affect child well-being and development in different countries.
The Global Home Advantage in Soccer: Status, developments and causes
Authors: Riedl Dennis , Staufenbiel Kathrin , Strauss Bernd , Heuer Andreas
Published: February 2022

This study investigates the global home advantage in soccer, the sport where it is most striking. We analysed data from the highest (premier) league in 194 of 208 FIFA countries. Available data ranged from 1888 up to the season 2011/2012, resulting in a total of N = 684,162 games. The study includes several variables from previous literature that have been discussed as potential moderators for home advantage in soccer.
Efficiently Irrational: Illuminating the Riddle of Human Choice
Authors: Glimcher Paul
Published: February 2022

For the past half century cognitive and social scientists have struggled with the irrationalities of human choice behavior; people consistently make choices that are logically inconsistent. Is human choice behavior evolutionarily adaptive or is it an inefficient patchwork of competing mechanisms? This review presents an interdisciplinary synthesis arguing for a novel interpretation; choice is efficiently irrational. Connecting findings across disciplines suggests that observed choice behavior reflects a precise optimization of the trade-off between the costs of increasing the choice mechanism’s precision and the declining benefits that come as precision increases. Under these constraints a rationally imprecise strategy emerges which works towards optimal efficiency, rather than towards optimal rationality. This approach rationalizes many of the puzzling inconsistencies of human choice behavior, explaining why these inconsistencies arise as an optimizing solution in biological choosers.
Extending the social category label effect to stigmatized groups: Lesbian and gay people’s reactions to “homosexual” as a label
Authors: Matsick Jes , Kruk Mary , Palmer Lindsay , Layland Eric , Salomaa Anna
Published: February 2022

The social category label effect describes how labels influence people’s perceptions of social groups. Though the label “homosexual” versus “lesbian/gay” decreases some heterosexual people’s support for sexual minorities, it is unknown how lesbian and gay (LG) people respond to “homosexual” as a label used to describe them. Across three experiments in a largely U.S. context (N=831), we examined how use of “homosexual” influenced people’s responses on psychological instruments, preferences for demographic questions, and evaluations of individuals who use “homosexual.” The use of different labels in psychological measures did not influence LG people’s responses (Study 1). However, LG people reacted less positively to “homosexual” compared to “lesbian/gay” in demographic questions and in interpersonal exchanges (Studies 2-3), whereas heterosexual people’s reactions were largely unaffected. LG people’s more negative reactions to “homosexual” than “lesbian/gay” were partially explained by them perceiving the “homosexual” label user as less culturally competent (i.e., less inclusive, less engaged in LGBTQ activism). In this article, we make progress in new empirical territory (sexual orientation-based cues research), propose the notion of linguistic heterosexism, and discuss the sociopolitical implications of people’s language choices.
Sexual Identity-Behaviour Discordance in Canada
Authors: Silva Tony , Fetner Tina
Published: February 2022

This paper uses two nationally representative surveys to examine sexual identity-behaviour discordance in Canada. The first is the Sex in Canada survey (SCS), which is a private survey of 2,303 Canadians. The second is the 2015-2016 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), which is a large government-administered survey with 109,659 respondents. Results from the CCHS show that identity-behaviour discordance and overall rates of same-sex contact are lower in Canada than in the U.S., U.K., or Australia. Still, an estimated 65,700 males and 255,100 females aged 15 to 64 identify as heterosexual yet have had same-sex contact. Age is the only demographic factor which is associated with discordance. Results from the SCS show that about two-thirds of heterosexuals with identity-behaviour discordance are moderately supportive of LGBQ rights and one-third are ambivalent towards them. Future research will need to uncover why a lower proportion of Canadians report same-sex partners and identity-behaviour discordance than their counterparts in the U.S., U.K., or Australia.
An Investigation of Malaysian Secondary School Teachers and Students’ Perspectives towards Computer Technology in Education during the Covid‑19 Pandemic
Authors: Muniandy Rajantheran , S.Kandasamy Sillalee , Subramaniam Manimaran , Farashaiyan Atieh
Published: February 2022

The present study aims at investigating the perspectives of Malaysian secondary school teachers and students towards computer technology in education during the Covid‑19 Pandemic. A questionnaire adapted from Christensen and Knezek (1998) was used as a data collection instrument in this study. The participants included 49 secondary school teachers, 63 student teachers and 125 secondary school students. The main result of the study indicates that teachers have the most positive perspectives towards computers than that of student teachers and senior high school students. In contrast, senior high school students do not have positive perspectives towards the use of computer technology. In addition, they have different perspectives concerning different constructs including enthusiasm, email, vocation, aversion and enjoyment. The results of this research offer an understanding of Malaysian secondary school teachers’ and students’ perspectives to computer technology in education. Therefore, it can help promulgate computer usage in secondary education. In addition, the findings will inform policy-makers and stakeholders of secondary schools to prepare particular strategies for diverse targeted groups to enhance computer applications.
An Exploratory Study into EFL Teachers’ Implementation of New Technologies and Distance Teaching During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Authors: Foltyn Marzena , Polok Krzysztof
Published: February 2022

Over the past two years, the Coronavirus exposed the educational division across the globe. The ruling parties, faced with time pressure, sprang into action, quickly imposing new guidelines on school academic units to migrate the entire EFL curriculum online. Moreover, among many academic organizations, the Polish educational system is one in which many limitations and challenges have been appearing. Thus, the contribution of the present work is to examine the avenues and experiences that are significant on the way to implement new technology and which need improvement from the EFL teachers’ perspectives in this new context. Overall, 180 EFL Polish teachers participated in the exploratory survey study, which explored their (un)readiness, capacities, support, efficacy, and obstacles in technology integration. Respondents’ perceptions enable thoughts, further implications, and recommendations on a more instructive, interactional, and rewarding approach that could be implemented while integrating EFL teaching with a technology-based mode of lesson delivery. It was discovered that not only teachers may establish better EFL remote practices, but also – all the language education policy stakeholders.
Gender and Race Differences in Pathways Out of In-Work Poverty in the US
Authors: Struffolino Emanuela , Van Winkle Zachary
Published: February 2022

Research on in-work poverty has focused on the probability of being employed while living in an impoverished household, but no studies have investigated pathways of labor market attachment and economic vulnerability following in-work poverty. We use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to establish a typology of employment pathways out of in-work poverty and to estimate differences by gender and race. By using the Sequence Analysis Multistate Model procedure, we identify five distinct pathways characterized by varyingdegrees of labor market attachment, economic vulnerability, and volatility. White men are most likely exit in-work poverty into stable employment outside of poverty, while Black men and women often experience recurrent spells of in-work poverty. Gender and race differences persist even after controlling for labor market and family demographic characteristics. Our results indicate that work-related anti-poverty strategies must be coupled with adequately high wages and employment protection legislation to effectively raise working households out of poverty.
Social security or insecurity? The experience of welfare participation by financially vulnerable households in the Netherlands.
Authors: Simonse Olaf , Vanderveen Gabry , van dillen lotte , van Dijk Wilco , van Dijk Erik
Published: February 2022

Social welfare aims to support financially vulnerable households by protecting them from financial shocks and providing them with a basic standard of living. Many eligible households, however, do not take up social welfare. We present the results of in-depth interviews with 31 members of financially vulnerable households in two large Dutch cities about their experiences with welfare. We examined the role that money played in their lives, what inhibited them from taking up social welfare, and how they sought support. For many interviewed households, money was a source of stress. We found that the fear of reclaims and mistrust in government institutions were the main inhibitors for participating in welfare programs. Whereas the experience of shame and stigma were substantial inhibitors for claiming local welfare benefits, they were not for participating in national welfare programs. Both formal and informal help promoted welfare participation, but many participants lacked access to both forms of help. We discuss policies that could decrease the uncertainty associated with benefits receipt and give directions for future research.
Detecting the unknown in a sea of knowns: health surveillance, knowledge infrastructures, and the quest for classification egress
Authors: Lee Francis
Published: February 2022

The sociological study of knowledge infrastructures and classification has traditionally focused on the politics and practices of classifying things or people. However, actors’ work to escape dominant infrastructures and pre-established classification systems has received little attention. In response to this, this article argues that it is crucial to analyze, not only the practices and politics of classification, but also actors’ work to escape dominant classification systems. The article has two aims: First, to make a theoretical contribution to the study of classification by proposing to pay analytical attention to practices of escaping classification, what the article dubs classification egress. This concept directs our attention to—not only the practices and politics of classifying things—but also how actors work to escape or resist classification systems in practice. Second, the article aims to increase our understanding of the history of quantified and statistical health surveillance. In this, the article investigates how actors in health surveillance assembled a knowledge infrastructure for surveilling, quantifying, and detecting unknown patterns of congenital malformations in the wake of the Thalidomide disaster in the early 1960s. The empirical account centers on the actors’ work to detect congenital malformations and escaping the dominant nosological classification of diseases, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), by replacing it with a procedural standard for reporting of symptoms. Thus, the article investigates how actors deal with the tension between the-already-known-and-classified and the unknown-unclassified-phenomenon in health surveillance practice.
Interventions and participatory clinical research for the enhancement of health systems interfacing with displaced Afghan women
Authors: Ramos Amaya Alexandra
Published: February 2022

In light of the 2021 United States military withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as the humanitarian crises of mass displacement and subsequent health system strain that have ensued, practitioners worldwide will need to develop a more nuanced understanding of the adverse life experiences that women from Afghanistan frequently endorse. As they bear a disproportionate impact of constraints within Afghan society, and as patriarchal systems affect most of their life domains, women from Afghanistan may present with high levels of baseline trauma upon resettlement, and health systems may seek to attenuate this distress; However, the nature of these traumatogenic events may shape women's receptivity to psychosocial interventions, particularly those which are at least partially rooted in Western modalities. In the absence of sufficient literature on evidence-based interventions for this population, a diversity of ethnographic and clinical literature is synthesized, including literature on interventions alleged to be compatible with Afghan norms. As it will be essential to support Afghan women's mental health following social reorganization on a massive scale, considerations arising from the interdisciplinary literature are offered so that they may inform the development of structured, trauma-focused interventions and so that the health systems with which they interface may be better prepared to serve them.
Investigating Saudi Female Students’ Familiarity of Word-Formation Processes Related to COVID-19 Pandemic Terminology
Authors: Alqahtani Salma Musleh
Published: February 2022

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, new words appeared in English. EFL learners need to learn the new words. Learners depend on many strategies to help them learn new terms. Investigating this topic is significant because it will contribute to the knowledge of teaching and learning new words that appeared rapidly and suddenly. This study aims to investigate the acquisition of word-formation processes related to COVID-19 terms. The research seeks to answer two questions: (1) Are Saudi female EFL learners familiar with English word-formation processes? (2) Do word-formation processes aid Saudi female EFL students in learning COVID-19 pandemic terms? The study used a quantitative method. The data was collected from 71 Saudi female students via a multiple-choice electronic questionnaire. The results revealed that the percentages of incorrect responses were higher than the percentages of correct ones, thus suggesting that the students were not familiar with word-formation processes. The findings showed that they had similar results in words formed via compounding and blending, indicating they failed to distinguish between the two processes. The findings show that the Saudi female students did not prefer to use a word-formation process over the other. Further, results showed that even though some of the common COVID-19 terms frequently were used on a daily basis, the students failed to predict and use the correct word-formation processes for those terms. The findings as a whole reveal that Saudi learners had difficulty in learning word-formation processes deriving COVID-19 terms. The study proposes some recommendations for further research.
CatMapper: A user-friendly tool for integrating data across complex categories
Authors: Hruschka Daniel , Bischoff Robert , Peeples Matthew , Hsiao I-Han , Sarwat Mohamed
Published: February 2022

We introduce CatMapper (catmapper.org), a set of user-friendly, web-based tools designed to help researchers overcome a common bottleneck in comparative research—integrating data across diverse datasets by complex categories (e.g., ethnicities, languages, religions, archaeological artifact types) that are often encoded very differently from dataset to dataset. We illustrate CatMapper's planned architecture and capabilities with the SocioMap tool (catmapper.org/sociomap) which focuses on four inter-related domains—ethnicities (>9000), religions (>1000), districts (> 200,000), and languages, language families and dialects (>25,000). Categories in these diverse domains share commonalities that make them challenging to work with, including large numbers of categories at multiple nested scales that can also change through time. To assist users in merging data by these categories, SocioMap will include four core functions: (1) explore contextual information about specific categories, (2) translate new sets of categories from existing datasets and published studies, (3) integrate novel combinations of datasets for researchers’ custom analysis needs, including automatically generated syntax (e.g., R, Stata) to merge datasets of interest, and (4) share merging templates for public re-use and open science. We outline current progress on the development of CatMapper/SocioMap, plans for future development, and potential expansion to other domains, such as artifact types in archaeology and material goods used in asset-based wealth indices.