COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance: A Case of Interplay Between Political and Health Dimensions

Vaccines are essential for the eradication of diseases. Yet for many reasons, individuals do not embrace them completely. In the COVID-19 pandemic and with the possibility of the Brazilian population's immunization against the disease, both political and health-related dimensions might have had a role in individual COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. In two studies (n = 974), we tested the hypothesis that participants' vaccination acceptance is related to their past vote in the 2018 Brazilian presidential election (being or not being a Jair Bolsonaro voter) and their different levels of perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD). We further tested whether Bolsonaro's opposition or ambiguous messages towards vaccination (vs. control) increased vaccination rejection among those who have (vs. have not) voted for him and who are low (vs. high) in PVD. Results show that Bolsonaro (vs. non-Bolsonaro) voters accepted less vaccination, with higher rejection rates when participants expressed low (vs. high) PVD. Also, when primed either with Bolsonaro's opposed or ambiguous messages towards COVID-19 vaccination, such participants accepted less vaccines (vs. participants primed with neutral information). These findings are the first to show that the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance is related to their past vote and leadership influence but also different levels of perceived vulnerability to disease.     

Using serial interfaces and the C language for real-time experiments

The use of the serial interface of the IBM PC for timing and stimulus-response signaling is discussed. C language example programs, including two small software utility modules that expedite the programming of real-time experiments using a serial interface, are presented that are compilable with Borland’s Turbo C.     

TIMEX: A simple IBM AT C language timer with extended resolution

The simple timing method of reading the IBM-BIOS tick counter is extended from 55-msec to 54-µsec resolution by reading the 8254 hardware counter. Subroutine timex( ) implements the timer in Borland Turbo C on an IBM AT and on a PC or XT if the 8253 timer chip is replaced with an 8254 chip. A more limited version operates on an unmodified PC or XT.     

A generalized visual latency explanation of the Pulfrich phenomenon

The classical visual latency explanation of the Pulfrich phenomenon is generalized to allow for the possibility that the visual system uses velocity information from motion detectors to compensate for spatial lag due to time lag, in identifying the instantaneous position of a moving object. The results of the reported experiment verify one consequence of the generalized version: the elliptical apparent path is skewed away from the filtered eye. The results suggest also that the extrapolation factor increases with visual latency and that there is a different extrapolation factor for each eye when the eyes are illuminated unequally.     

Expanding the tactual field of view

Can tactual information be acquired simultaneously by several different fingers? Blind and sighted Ss were asked to scan vertical displays of braille (consisting of either one or two dots) with the index and middle fingers on each hand-using one, two, or four fingers at the same time. Stimuli were recognized most rapidly when the displays were scanned by two fingers on different hands and least rapidly when two fingers on the same hand were used; performance was similar with one finger and with four fingers. The results indicated some parallel perceptual processing of the inputs to the two hands and mutual interference in processing inputs from fingers on the same hand.     

Two-voice music programming system: The PDP-9 as an automatic electronic organ

A small computer was programmed to translate two-part musical scores into tables of numbers which were then used in the execution of the music through an amplifier and loudspeaker. The objective was to create sets of tape recordings to be used in psychophysical testing of the discriminabilities and preferabilities of music played on different pitch scales. The close tolerances in the timing of events in such stimulus materials demand special programming techniques and hardware components. The working system is described, and recommendations are made concerning the main features of an improved system.     

Sibling Teenage Pregnancy and Clinic-Referred Girls’ Condom Use: The Protective Role of Maternal Monitoring

Younger sisters of teenage parents have elevated rates of engaging in unprotected sex. This may result from changes in parenting behavior after a sibling becomes pregnant or impregnates a partner, and be particularly pronounced for girls seeking mental health treatment. The current study examines condom use over time in 211 African-American girls recruited from outpatient psychiatric clinics. Findings indicate that having a sibling with a teenage pregnancy history predicts less consistent condom use 2 years later. After accounting for earlier condom use and mental health problems, maternal monitoring moderates condom use such that for girls with a sibling with a pregnancy history, more vigilant maternal monitoring is associated with increased condom use, while for girls with no sibling pregnancy history, maternal monitoring is unrelated to adolescents’ condom use 2 years later. Findings suggest that targeted interventions to increase maternal monitoring of high-risk teens may be beneficial for girls with a sibling history of teenage pregnancy.