Volume contents

Volume Contents

Volume contents     

The effects of social comparison,emotion induction,and parent vaccination status on parental intentions for COVID-19 vaccine uptake in children

Parental vaccine hesitancy—delays in vaccine uptake for children—is a significant public health concern. Using an online adult sample of U.S. parents (N = 183), the current research experimentally examined how exposure to cautious or risky social comparison models on social media (in terms of their COVID-19 beliefs and behaviors) influenced parental intentions to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. Additionally, we examined whether the influence of social comparison models was moderated by emotional state (fear or contentment) and parental vaccination status. Overall, we found that parents exposed to cautious (vs. risky) comparison models and vaccinated (vs. unvaccinated) parents reported greater vaccine intentions for their children. We further found that vaccination intentions were highest among unvaccinated parents after exposure to cautious (vs. risky) comparison models, whereas intentions were highest among vaccinated parents after exposure to risky (vs. cautious) comparison models (but only when induced to feel content). Overall, our findings highlight the importance of understanding the additive and interactive impact of psychological and situational factors in shaping parental vaccine hesitancy.     

Dynamics of 1:2 Coordination: Temporal Scaling, Latent 1:1, and Bistability

The simplest interlimb multifrequency coordination of 1:2 can be performed at different speeds and in at least two different styles or modes. The effects of speed and mode (in-phase or antiphase) were evaluated in a bimanual 1:2 rhythmic task in which participants (N = 8) oscillated hand-held pendulums with identical or different uncoupled frequencies. A motion equation in relative phase that captures the asymmetries of components and task predicted the 1:2 coordination equilibria resulting from temporal scaling. According to the experimental results, both coordination modes proved to be equally stable. More detailed analyses of individual trials showed signs that the more fundamental 1:1 coordination intruded into the 1:2 coordination.     

Interviewing older adults: validity of self-reports of satisfaction

Respondents in a personal interview study were asked to evaluate several domains of their lives using several different response scales that included both verbal and pictorial response alternatives. Structural equation models were specified to permit estimation of the validity of these survey measures. Across all of the items, the concept factors explain an average of about one half of the total variance, method factors explain about one tenth of the variance, and the remaining one third or so of the variance is unique to each item. Comparisons of the validity of reports by respondents of different ages indicate that method factors explain almost twice as much of the variance in the responses of older respondents as in those of younger respondents.     

Intraseptal Flumazenil Enhances, while Diazepam Binding Inhibitor Impairs, Performance in a Working Memory Task

GABA_A/benzodiazepine receptors in the medial septum modulate the activity of cholinergic neurons that innervate the hippocampus. Injection of benzodiazepine (BDZ) agonists into the medial septum impairs working memory performance and decreases high-affinity choline transport (HAChT) in the hippocampus. In contrast, intraseptal injection of the BDZ antagonist flumazenil increases HAChT and prevents the memory deficits induced by systemic BDZs. The present studies attempted to further characterize the behavioral effects of medial septal injections of flumazenil to an endogenous negative modulator of the GABA_A/BDZ receptor complex, diazepam binding inhibitor (DBI). Male Sprague–Dawley rats were cannulated to study the effects of intraseptal injections of these BDZ ligands on spatial working memory, anxiety-related behaviors in the elevated plus maze, and on general locomotor activity. Intraseptal flumazenil (10 nmol/0.5 μl) produced a delay-dependent enhancement of DNMTS performance after an 8-h, but not a 4-h, delay interval. This promnestic dose of flumazenil had no effect on locomotor activity and did not produce changes in measures of anxiety on the plus maze. Intraseptal injection of DBI had no effect (8 nmol/0.5 μl) or slightly impaired (4 nmol/0.5 μl) DNMTS radial maze performance following an 8-h delay, without producing changes in locomotion or plus maze behavior. These data demonstrate that flumazenil has a unique profile of activity in enhancing working memory following intraseptal injection.     

Automobile Driving as Seen by the Actor,the Active Observer,and the Passive Observer1

This research utilizes the actor-observers paradigm (Jones & Nisbett, 1971) to study driving interactions from the actor, active observer, and passive observer perspectives. Videos of interactions in three driving situations were used to elicit personal and situational causal attributions from subjects. For each interaction, three videos were made, corresponding with each of the three perspectives. Results for two of the interactions were in accordance with the Jones and Nisbett hypothesis, while those of the third were not. Of note was that passive observers gave consistently lower attributional ratings, both personal and situational, compared to actors and active observers. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance to driving behavior and education.     

What's in an accent? General spontaneous biases against nonnative accents: An investigation with conceptual and auditory IATs

Nonnative accents are prevalent in our globalized world and constitute highly salient cues in social perception. Whereas previous literature has commonly assumed that they cue specific social group stereotypes, we propose that nonnative accents generally trigger spontaneous negatively biased associations (due to a general nonnative accent category and perceptual influences). Accordingly, Study 1 demonstrates negative biases with conceptual IATs, targeting the general concepts of accent versus native speech, on the dimensions affect, trust, and competence, but not on sociability. Study 2 attests to negative, largely enhanced biases on all dimensions with auditory IATs comprising matched native–nonnative speaker pairs for four accent types. Biases emerged irrespective of the accent types that differed in attractiveness, recognizability of origin, and origin‐linked national associations. Study 3 replicates general IAT biases with an affect IAT and a conventional evaluative IAT. These findings corroborate our hypotheses and assist in understanding general negativity toward nonnative accents.     

The Wisdom of Many in One Mind: Improving Individual Judgments With Dialectical Bootstrapping

ABSTRACT— The "wisdom of crowds" in making judgments about the future or other unknown events is well established. The average quantitative estimate of a group of individuals is consistently more accurate than the typical estimate, and is sometimes even the best estimate. Although individuals' estimates may be riddled with errors, averaging them boosts accuracy because both systematic and random errors tend to cancel out across individuals. We propose exploiting the power of averaging to improve estimates generated by a single person by using an approach we call dialectical bootstrapping . Specifically, it should be possible to reduce a person's error by averaging his or her first estimate with a second one that harks back to somewhat different knowledge. We derive conditions under which dialectical bootstrapping fosters accuracy and provide an empirical demonstration that its benefits go beyond reliability gains. A single mind can thus simulate the wisdom of many.