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The Interrelations Between Mood, Boundary Management Preferences, and Affective Work–Nonwork Spillover
No full textThis study aims to examine the interrelations between mood at work and in nonwork life, boundary management preferences, and affective work–nonwork spillover. For this, we deploy a two-wave cross-lagged panel analysis (two-week time lag)
Nutrition care in emergency departments
No full textThis research aims to identify the level of nutrition care provided to older adults attending emergency departments
Stimuli differences in visual crowding
No full textIn this study we aim to test the hypothesis that letters are more resilient to crowding than other types of stimuli, particularly in locations on the visual field where crowded letters are sampled during reading. For readers of English, this is in the right hemifield at smaller eccentricities. Further, letters are normally encountered in horizontally oriented strings, leading to the possibility that the spatial pattern of reduced crowding for letters may be specific to horizontal flankers. To test these hypotheses we will conduct 4 similar experiments. In each, targets will be presented in six locations across the horizontal meridian, and critical spacing will be measured for each location and condition using QUEST staircases. In experiments 1 and 2, targets will be letters or inverted versions of those letters, and in experiments 3 and 4, targets will be letters or Gabor patches. In experiments 1 and 3, targets will be flanked horizontally by two other stimuli from the same condition, and in experiments 2 and 4, targets will be flanked vertically by two other stimuli from the same condition. For each experiment, the critical spacing will be analyzed across the locations, looking for biases in the critical distance as a function of hemifield, eccentricity, and the stimuli conditions.
Note written on 6/23/2025 regarding the manuscript:
The experiments which investigated vertical crowding (3 and 4) rather than horizontal crowding (1 and 2) were not included in the manuscript because of a design problem that we uncovered once we finished data collection and then analyzed the data. This problem was related the fact that, as expected from prior research, the crowding distances were much lower in this experiment (due to the radial-tangential anisotropy of visual crowding). We observed that crowding distances for the vertical experiments were so low that for the 2 degree eccentricity location, the crowding thresholds were floored by the point at which the flanking and target stimuli were physically overlapping. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that while the horizontal size of the stimuli was equated across letters, inverted letters, and Gabor patches, the vertical size for letters was slightly larger than for Gabors. Hence, we observed a slightly reversed effect of lower scaled crowding distances for Gabor patches in the 2 degree eccentricity location, with its magnitude consistent with the slightly smaller distance Gabor patches could be spaced in this experiment without physically overlapping. These were not issues for the horizontal experiments where the flankers were lateral to the target, but in the vertical experiments, this meant that the data could not be clearly interpreted or modeled in the way we preregistered. Because of these issues, we did not include these experiments in the manuscript
Brohmer et al. IRSP Submission
No full textOne topic that repeatedly sparks debates in politics and the society is “gender-neutral language”. For instance, in languages such as German, French, or Hindi, plural forms of job occupations and societal roles are often in a generic-masculine form instead of a gender-neutral form. Although meant as “generic”, this generic-masculine form excludes women from everyday language and might even entail the cognitive effect that listeners and readers will less likely think of women. Several studies have demonstrated this and related cognitive effects in the past. Due to the societal relevance of gender-neutral language, we propose a direct replication and extension of a classic German study by Stahlberg, Sczesny, and Braun (2001, Experiment 2; https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X01020004004) in a multi-lab setting
Exploring an Interactive Technology for Supporting Embodied Geometric Reasoning
No full textRecent advances in research on mathematical cognition have demonstrated how mathematical thinking is embodied – tied to perception, action, spatial systems, and physical motions like gestures. For example, research shows that multisensory perceptions can help learners perceive structures in math that might not be available from symbolic representations (Gerofsky, 2007; Sinclair, 2005) and that math knowledge is revealed through gesture (Edwards, 2009; Kim, Roth & Thom, 2011; Pier et al., 2019; Ng & Sinclair, 2015a, b), action-oriented language (Nathan et al., 2014), and body-based and spatial metaphors (Lakoff & Núñez, 2000; Roth, 2011). However, theories of embodiment (e.g., Nathan & Walkington, 2017; Abrahamson & Sánchez-García, 2016; Hostetter & Alibali, 2008) seldom address the collaborative nature of embodiment that occurs in classrooms as students are learning in physical proximity. This is in part because much of the experimental work on embodiment and gesture in mathematics has been conducted with lab studies (e.g., Abrahamson & Trninic, 2015; Cook, Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2008; Edwards, 2009; Nathan & Walkington, 2017; Pier et al., 2019). Gesture research (e.g., Goldin-Meadow, 1999) present evidence and synthesize prior studies showing that the presence of multiple learners fundamentally changes the nature of how mathematical ideas can be embodied, in a way that is not describable as the sum of each individual’s actions. A theory of shared embodiment in mathematical domains – which we refer to as “collaborative embodiment”– is vital to understand mathematical cognition as it unfolds in classrooms and with increasingly prevalent technological innovations for collaborative learning.
Currently secondary and post-secondary geometry student use a mix of paper and pencil and computer-based Dynamic Geometry Systems (DGSs), interactive systems for making and manipulating shapes using a mouse, tablet or interactive whiteboard. We plan to recruit 200 undergraduates from a large Midwestern University in the United States..
It will contribute basic knowledge about collaborative embodied
cognitive processes while reasoning about mathematical conjectures. This study will use a randomized block design based on spatial ability pre-test scores. Pairs will be matched by spatial ability score and randomly selected and assigned to either work alone or work together. Participants will be asked to prove 8 geometry conjectures and no resources other than gesture for the first four and a GeoGebra simulation to the last four. Order will be counter-balanced using a Latin Square. Students will be asked to give oral proofs to each conjecture as they work through the conjecture set, and then will individually take a written posttest where they supply a proof for each conjecture. Students’ participation, movements, and verbal responses will be video recorded during the session for analysis
Face Mask Attenuated Speech & Listening Effort
No full textPupillometry data collected to assess impact of various types of face masks on cognitive effort during speech understandin
On the Role of Syntactic Hierarchical Dependencies in Verb Production
No full textResearch on how far ahead speakers plan a sentence before speech production has led to the idea that its scope may be flexible and, thus, may be influenced by varying factors (Ferreira & Swets, 2002; Michel Lange & Laganaro, 2014). The current study aims to investigate whether the scope of advance planning is affected by syntactic dependencies between the subject and the verb in simple Dutch unaccusative and unergative sentences such as ‘Het meisje valt’ (The girl is falling) and ‘Het meisje danst’ (The girl is dancing) respectively. It has been argued that the unaccusative subject is originally found in the object position, an internal argument, while the unergative subject originates in the subject position and is considered the external argument (Unaccusative Hypothesis; Perlmutter, 1978). According to Bock and Levelt (1994), grammatical information about the verb is retrieved with its lemma and is necessary in order for its internal arguments to be assigned a syntactic function, making them hierarchically dependent on the verb. This is not the case for external arguments.
Recent studies seem to agree that internal arguments (e.g., in unaccusative sentences) require the verb to be retrieved in advance in order to be articulated (Antón-Mendéz, 2020; Momma et al., 2018). However, there are inconsistent findings across and within studies as to which strategy is used when an external argument precedes the verb: advance planning, incremental processing or both.
A series of extended picture word interference experiments by Momma and Ferreira (2019) yielded heterogeneous results in English. The authors observed a semantic interference effect for unaccusative verbs before the subject onset (Onset + ‘The’) in sentences such as ‘The octopus below the spoon is boiling’ but no effect for unergative verbs anywhere in the sentence. In another experiment, they again observed a semantic interference effect for unaccusatives before the subject onset but also before the verb onset (‘spoon is’). As for unergatives, there was an interference effect before the verb onset, which was not present in the previous experiment. Momma and Ferreira (2019) simplified the task in two other experiments by removing the prepositional phrase (e.g., ‘The octopus is boiling’). The authors observed an interference effect for both unaccusative and unergative verbs before the subject onset. When adding a stop-signal task, there was again a semantic interference effect for both unaccusative and unergative verbs before subject onset but also an interference effect before the verb onset for unergative verbs.
An extended picture word interference paradigm will be used in order to answer the following research question: Do hierarchical dependencies impact advance planning in Dutch? The study will make use of the time between picture presentation and utterance onset and the duration of the articulation for the utterance part ‘Het meisje’ as the dependent measures reflecting advance planning and just-in-time retrieval respectively
Combined punishment and reward feedback through transition schedules
No full textProject investigating the utility of transition feedback schedules that switch between punishment and reward (and vice-versa) for learning and retention
Experiments S2 and S3
No full textIn this study, we present participants with images depicting individuals and dyads building block towers. When the tower is built by an individual, the actor alternates between using their left and right hands to place blocks atop the tower. Conversely, dyads distribute this task such that they take turns placing blocks on the tower. Occasionally, an action sequence violation occurs in which the same hand (individual condition) or the same actor (joint/dyad condition) places two blocks atop the tower in a row.
Upon seeing a block placed on the tower, participants will be asked to make rapid keypress responses to indicate which hand (individual condition) or actor (joint condition) they saw place the block.
We aim to test whether social contexts modulates observers predicted action sequences by comparing participants response times across individual and joint contexts
Educators' Knowledge and Awareness of Developmental Dyscalculia
No full textThe purpose of the present study is to explore educators' knowledge and awareness of developmental dyscalculia (DD) in the UK, Italy, Vietnam and South Africa and investigate whether educators from diverse settings (EYFS, primary, secondary math specialist, secondary non-math specialist) and job roles share similar misconceptions and knowledge gaps about dyscalculia. In addition, this study seeks to investigate whether any significant differences in pre-qualifying and in-service training in dyscalculia exist between educators working in different settings, and whether access to training reveals fewer misconceptions about DD