Centro Universitário Farias Brito: FB UNI Portal de Periódicos
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Responsible Research Assessment requires structural more than procedural reforms.
No full textIn their target articles, Schönbrodt et al. (2022) and Gärtner et al. (2022) propose new metrics and their practical implementation to improve responsible research assessment. Generally, I welcome the inclusion of open science and scientific rigor into evaluating job candidates. However, the proposed reform mainly focuses on the first stage of selecting candidates who then continue towards a second stage of in-depth evaluation of research quality. Yet, this second selection stage is underdeveloped but likely more critical concerning responsible research assessment and hiring decisions. I argue that an adequate assessment of research quality at this second stage requires the representation of specific knowledge in the subfield of a discipline that the candidate should be hired for by the hiring committee. This is rarely achieved given the current structural organization of departments, especially in German-speaking countries, and potentially explains the reliance on suboptimal indicators such as h-index and Journal Impact factor. Therefore, I argue that responsible research assessment requires structural reform to ensure that institutions have several researchers in permanent positions with specific knowledge in different subfields to provide an adequate and responsible assessment of research quality by hiring committees at all evaluation stages
Measuring Descriptive Representation at Scale: Methods for Predicting the Race and Ethnicity of Public Officials
No full textPolitical scientists have increasingly relied on Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) to predict individual-level race and ethnicity using surnames and geographic information. However, these predictions are prone to systematic measurement error when geographic variables are included as independent variables, leading to bias and an increased likelihood of false positives. We compare five estimation methods, including approaches that use names, geography, and images. We find that a hybrid approach that combines surname-based Bayesian estimation with the use of publicly available images in a convolutional neural network not only reduces bias in downstream analyses, but also improves predictive accuracy in a sample of over 16,000 local elected officials. We conclude with a discussion of ethical considerations and describe domains where the hybrid approach might be especially suitable
Role of Reinforcement,
No full textCement concrete is the material, construction industries using it most all over the world in spite of its inherent weakness to carry tension which is supplemented by the reinforcing bars added to it
The effect of pubertal status on self-regulation of behavior and executive functions – a systematic review
No full textBehavioral self-regulation (SR) refers to a set of abilities that enable flexible, adaptive,
and goal-directed behavior, including the abilities known as hot (emotional regulation)
and cool (e.g., controlled attention) executive functions (EF). Such abilities mature
during adolescence, a period marked by developmental brain changes due to
learning/experience as individuals grow older, and by changes in sex hormone levels
due to puberty, which influence brain maturation and can affect cognition. However, it
is unclear to what extent the maturation of SR/EF is determined by adolescents’ stage of
pubertal development – that is, their pubertal status – irrespective of their age. We
investigate this issue through a systematic review of the literature. Searching PubMed,
Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO, we found 125 studies about the relationship
between pubertal status and SR/EF. However, only 28 of these included results about
pubertal status adjusted for the confounding effects of age. These studies were
heterogeneous in their methods and reported mixed results with no clear patterns. The
literature was also fraught with conceptual and methodological shortcomings. As a
result, current evidence is inconclusive about pubertal status effects on SR/EF. We
discuss the implications of these findings for current theories of adolescent cognitive
development
Partisan Cueing and Preferences for Contentious European Integration Steps
No full textCan political parties steer public preferences for highly contested issues? European integration has become increasingly politicized, forcing governments to heed constituents’ preferences during international negotiations. Existing research suggests that parties can cue their voters, but it remains unclear whether public opinion responds to partisan cues on contentious, real-world European policies that directly affect national autonomy. To study the effects of in- and out-party cues on public preferences, we conduct a pre-registered information treatment experiment in five countries utilizing real-world treatments that avoid deception, while limiting the problem of pre-treatment. Applied to the case of joint European debt, we find that political parties can shape public opinion on fiscal integration, as both in- and out-party cues affect preferences. While our study focuses on EU politics, it has important implications for research on attitudes towards international cooperation more broadly
FEED your mind: The evolutionary roots of human food cognition
No full textResearch on food cognition has largely overlooked that our modern food environment strongly differs from the environment in which our ancestors lived. When foraging for food in wild environments, our ancestors had to distinguish edible food resources from myriad inedible and potentially toxic entities. In contrast, in most cultures today, many decisions about food are made during a trip to the grocery store or a meal at a restaurant, where we might ask ourselves: Is this item healthy? but certainly not: Is this item edible or toxic? Here we argue that the scope of the problem humans faced with respect to food included navigating through wild environments to Find candidate food items, Evaluating the nutritional benefits of the potential foods, Excluding the costs of making a mistake and consuming a harmful food item, and Deciding which food items to ingest and include in their diet. We call this the FEED problem and argue that it provides an organizing framework for thinking about the wide array of cognitive processes involved in human food psychology. The FEED problem can also be used as a generative theory to produce new testable empirical predictions about what cognitive mechanisms drive our modern food behaviors and provides a roadmap for future research in the field of food cognition
From a Single Punch to Weapon Use: An Event Typology of Public Place Violence
No full textPublic place violence has been linked to the night-time economy and alcohol intoxicated male strangers, but it remains understudied whether other types of violence are also found in public settings. In addressing this gap, we apply latent class analysis to develop an inductive event typology of public place violence. We analyze a sample of 500 police reported public assaults from Copenhagen, Denmark, which have been systematically coded for a range of situational and individual properties. Five event-types of public violence are identified—in addition to the well-known night-time economy related type, we found classes characterized by excessively violent behaviors; revenge among familiar persons; weapon use and severe victim injuries; and disrespect encounters in everyday contexts. We consider how our findings may evaluate the generalizability of key micro-interactional theories of violence, and discuss the implications of our typology for crime prevention
Virtual Reality as a Tool to Understand Spatial Navigation
No full textSpatial navigation, the ability to explore, learn, and remember one’s environment, is a skill that is fundamental to everyday goals. Navigation is challenging to study because it requires understanding and integrating multiple sources of information from the environment and the body as well as many cognitive processes including perception, attention, memory, and decision making. Virtual Reality (VR), the presentation and experience of a synthetic sensory environment, provides a method to study spatial navigation in controlled, ecologically valid, and innovative ways. In this review, we describe VR as a tool to study spatial navigation with the perspective that basic science questions and applications mutually inform one another. We focus on how VR has advanced an understanding of the spatial cues, spatial knowledge, and individual differences involved in spatial navigation and discuss the role and implications of different VR technologies that allow for these investigations
Depression, Self-Criticism, and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: A Prospective Investigation in Young Adults
No full textNonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is associated with significant distress, impairment, and suicide risk among young adults. Negative affectivity and self-critical cognitions are linked to NSSI but have rarely been considered jointly alongside indicators of NSSI severity. To address this gap, we examined depressive symptoms and self-criticism as concurrent and prospective predictors of NSSI urges among depressed young adults over six weeks. Baseline NSSI severity was positively related to baseline depressive symptoms, which predicted follow-up NSSI urges; however, baseline depressive symptoms did not predict later NSSI urges when controlling for baseline NSSI severity. In contrast, self-criticism was not associated with baseline NSSI severity but predicted follow-up NSSI urges, even when controlling for prior NSSI severity. Using within-person longitudinal path models, depressive symptoms were positively associated with NSSI urges at the same assessment but did not prospectively predict later NSSI urges; however, self-criticism did predict later NSSI urges but not concurrent NSSI urges. Thus, depressive symptoms may indicate overall NSSI risk but may be less informative than self-criticism in predicting within-person changes in NSSI urges over time. These findings inform NSSI theories and highlight potential NSSI prevention and intervention targets
No gifts returned: Surprise bonuses reduce productivity in a natural field experiment
No full textThe gift exchange hypothesis posits that workers reciprocate above-market wages with increased productivity. This paper tests this hypothesis in a natural field experiment where one or both workers in a pair received a discretionary bonus after an initial round of data-entry tasks. Bonuses were assigned based on one of three criteria: (i) relative productivity in the initial round, (ii) economic need, or (iii) an arbitrary decision. Two conditions where neither or both workers received a bonus served as the baseline. Contrary to the gift exchange hypothesis, we found a significant decline in post-bonus productivity, especially when both workers received the bonus. This result suggests that workers interpreted the bonus as a signal of employer contentment, allowing them to reduce their effort. We conjectured that the post-bonus productivity decline may result from either (a) a lower perceived risk of repercussions from slacking, such as early dismissal, or (b) a reduced sense of obligation to reciprocate the employer's kindness. A follow-up experiment replicated the primary result, providing moderate evidence for the explanation based on reduced fear of dismissal. The main effect of bonuses on productivity was substantial, with effort reductions of 15.1% in the first experiment and 8.4% in the follow-up relative to baseline. In cases where only one worker received a bonus, non-recipients' inequality aversion appeared to decrease productivity markedly in the economic need treatment, while status-seeking behavior slightly increased productivity by bonus recipients in the productivity treatment