Video game experience and its influence on visual attention parameters: An investigation using the framework of the Theory of Visual Attention (TVA)

Experts with video game experience, in contrast to non-experienced persons, are superior in multiple domains of visual attention. However, it is an open question which basic aspects of attention underlie this superiority. We approached this question using the framework of Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) with tools that allowed us to assess various parameters that are related to different visual attention aspects (e.g., perception threshold, processing speed, visual short-term memory storage capacity, top-down control, spatial distribution of attention) and that are measurable on the same experimental basis. In Experiment 1, we found advantages of video game experts in perception threshold and visual processing speed; the latter being restricted to the lower positions of the used computer display. The observed advantages were not significantly moderated by general person-related characteristics such as personality traits, sensation seeking, intelligence, social anxiety, or health status. Experiment 2 tested a potential causal link between the expert advantages and video game practice with an intervention protocol. It found no effects of action video gaming on perception threshold, visual short-term memory storage capacity, iconic memory storage, top-down control, and spatial distribution of attention after 15 days of training. However, observations of a selected improvement of processing speed at the lower positions of the computer screen after video game training and of retest effects are suggestive for limited possibilities to improve basic aspects of visual attention (TVA) with practice.     

Does recall of a past music event invoke a reminiscence bump in young adults?

Many studies of the reminiscence bump (RB) in music invoke memories from different autobiographical times by using stimulus specific prompts (SSPs). This study investigated the utility of a non-SSP paradigm to determine whether the RB would emerge when participants were asked to recall a single memorable musical event from “a time long ago”. The presence of a RB in response to music has not been obtained in such a manner for younger participants. Eighty-eight 20–22 year olds reported music episodes that peaked when their autobiographical age was 13–14 years. Self-selected stimuli included a range of musical styles, including classical and non-Western pop forms, such as J-pop and K-pop, as well as generational pop music, such as the Beatles. However, most participants reported pop/rock music that was contemporaneous with encoding age, providing support for the utility of published SSP paradigms using pop music. Implications for and limitations of SSP paradigms are discussed. Participants were also asked to relate the selected musical piece to current musical tastes. Most participants liked the music that they selected, with many continuing to like the music, but most also reported a general broadening of their taste, consistent with developmental literature on open-earedness.     

Dynamic adjustments of cognitive control during economic decision making

Decision making in the Ultimatum game requires the resolution of conflicts between economic self-interest and fairness intuitions. Since cognitive control processes play an important role in conflict resolution, the present study examined how control processes that are triggered by conflicts between fairness and self-interest in unfair offers affect subsequent decisions in the Ultimatum game. Our results revealed that more unfair offers were accepted following previously unfair, compared to previously fair offers. Interestingly, the magnitude of this conflict adaptation effect correlated with the individual subjects' focus on economic self-interest. We concluded that conflicts between fairness and self-interest trigger cognitive control processes, which reinforce the focus on the current task goal.     

Moment-to-moment changes in feeling moved match changes in closeness,tears, goosebumps,and warmth: time series analyses

Feeling moved or touched can be accompanied by tears, goosebumps, and sensations of warmth in the centre of the chest. The experience has been described frequently, but psychological science knows little about it. We propose that labelling one’s feeling as being moved or touched is a component of a social-relational emotion that we term kama muta (its Sanskrit label). We hypothesise that it is caused by appraising an intensification of communal sharing relations. Here, we test this by investigating people’s moment-to-moment reports of feeling moved and touched while watching six short videos. We compare these to six other sets of participants’ moment-to-moment responses watching the same videos: respectively, judgements of closeness (indexing communal sharing), reports of weeping, goosebumps, warmth in the centre of the chest, happiness, and sadness. Our eighth time series is expert ratings of communal sharing. Time series analyses show strong and consistent cross-correlations of feeling moved and touched and closeness with each other and with each of the three physiological variables and expert-rated communal sharing – but distinctiveness from happiness and sadness. These results support our model.     

The new growing block theory vs presentism

It was once held to be a virtue of the growing block theory that it combines temporal dynamism with a straightforward account of in virtue of what past-tensed propositions are true, and an explanation for why some future-tensed propositions are not true (assuming they are not). This put the growing block theory ahead of its principal dynamist rival: presentism. Recently, new growing block theorists have suggested that what makes true, past-tensed propositions, is not the same kind of thing as what makes true, present-tensed propositions. They have done so in an attempt to defuse a particular epistemic objection to their view. In this paper it is argued that the new growing block theorist faces a dilemma. The more unified a strategy is for responding to the epistemic objection, the more that strategy results in the new growing block model positing truthmakers that are similar to those posited by the presentist, which erodes the purported advantage of the growing block theory over presentism. On the other hand, versions of the new growing block theory that embrace disunified strategies are better able to differentiate themselves from presentism, but are unattractive because of their disunity.     

The Unique Groundability of Temporal Facts

The A‐theory and the B‐theory advance competing claims about how time is grounded. The A‐theory says that A‐facts are more fundamental in grounding time than are B‐facts, and the B‐theory says the reverse. We argue that whichever theory is true of the actual world is also true of all possible worlds containing time. We do this by arguing that time is uniquely groundable: however time is actually grounded, it is necessarily grounded in that way. It follows that if either the A‐theory or the B‐theory is actually false, then it is necessarily false.     

Salience from multiple feature contrast: Evidence from saccade trajectories

We used eye tracking to quantify the extent to which combinations of salient contrasts (orientation, luminance, and movement) influence a central salience map that guides eye movements. We found that luminance combined additively with orientation and movement, suggesting that the salience system processes luminance somewhat independently of the two other features. On the other hand, orientation and movement together influenced salience underadditively, suggesting that these two features are processed nonindependently. This pattern of results suggests that the visual system does not sum sources of salience linearly, but treats some sources of salience as redundant.

     

Belief in robust temporal passage (probably) does not explain future-bias

Philosophical Studies - Empirical work has lately confirmed what many philosophers have taken to be true: people are ‘biased toward the future’. All else being equal, we usually prefer...     

Strategies used by transmasculine and non-binary adults assigned female at birth to resist transgender stigma in healthcare

Abstract

Background: Transgender stigma is rampant within healthcare systems in the United States. Transgender adults assigned female at birth – including those identifying as transmasculine or non-binary – face unique barriers, such as stigma when accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare labeled as being for “women.” However, transgender and non-binary people are not passive victims to this stigma, and the medical community would benefit from understanding the actions this population takes to resist and reduce transgender stigma in healthcare. Yet, little research has attempted to understand such actions.

Aims: This qualitative study aims to explore how transmasculine and non-binary adults are actively resisting and reducing the impact of transgender stigma in healthcare.

Methods: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 transmasculine and non-binary adults assigned female at birth who were living in a metropolitan area in the mid-Atlantic United States. The research team analyzed qualitative interview data using content analysis.

Results: The 25 participants ranged in age from 21 to 57, with an average age of 33?years old. Six themes were identified related to resisting and reducing transgender stigma in healthcare: (a) using social support; (b) persistence to meet one’s own needs; (c) avoiding mainstream healthcare; (d) advocacy; (e) doing one’s own research; and (f) strategic disclosure of transgender/non-binary identity. We detail how privilege and intersectionality connect to the use of these strategies.

Discussion: Findings indicate there is value in using peer advocates and peer health literacy; in developing and nurturing support groups related to transgender/non-binary health; in developing “allies” employed within the healthcare system; in creating and maintaining lists of culturally responsive health providers and resources about navigating the healthcare system; and in offering trainings related to self-advocacy and health-related activism. These findings can be used to inform future health prevention and intervention efforts with transmasculine and non-binary adults.