1,720,983 research outputs found
Cognitive strategies and circadian typology
No full textIn recent years many studies have been published trying to establish the differences among individuals depending on their circadian typology (morning-, neither-, and evening-type). This is an individual difference underlying differences in the rhythmic expression of both biological and behavioural parameters, especially the circadian period. In general, morning-type subjects show phase advances with respect to evening-type subjects, which vary from 2 to 12 hours, depending on the variable studied. The neither-type group is usually in an intermediate position regarding the extreme groups (morning- and evening-type), although many studies do not contemplate this group despite the fact that it is predominant in the general population (around 60 %). Our study exposes the optimal moments of efficiency according to the type of cognitive ability that healthy subjects must perform depending on their circadian typology. This aspect is of vital importance for the subjects’ performance at school and work, and also when the environmental conditions of the light-dark cycle (jet-lag and shift-work) are modified. We also comment on the observed differences in eating habits, consumption of psychoactive substances, and preferred spare-time activities among chronotypes, which in general are healthier in the morning-type than in the evening-type. Finally, we present data on the associations found between other personality characteristics, such as extraversion or impulsivity, and with the vulnerability to suffer certain psychopathologies such as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), bulimia nervosa or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The relevance of this individual difference makes it advisable that research which is not directly interested in the study of this variable, but which evaluates the parameters involved in the circadian typology, should have an adequate control of it
Do scales for measuring morningness-eveningness exist all over the world?
No full textMorningness-Eveningness has been theoricized as a continuum along which subjects can be arranged or classified into coarsely determined categories: owls (or Evening-types), intermediate and larks (or Morning-types). This trait is thought to be universal chiefly because it is biologically and genetically determined. The number of categories changes to 5 after adding the “Definitively Evening” and “Definitively Morning” extreme types. This procedure is justified for epidemiological, clinical and research purposes, is common in psychology but raises a number of concerns we shall discuss in this chapter.
To proceed, one first needs some valid instrument: the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire is the most widely used scale though others exist that deserve attention. Reliability is a necessary but insufficient property on the road toward validity for a scale’s score. Next, beyond the fact that the common used methods for categorisation are not theoretically sound or equivocal (i.e. for what reasons should we use extreme deciles or extreme quartiles? how are the cut-off scores determined?), the most important criticism is that demographical variables such as age and gender are not taken into consideration. Some recent data emphasize that evening-types are not rare in middle-aged, an erroneous conclusion derived from the rigid categorization. To say it simpler, norms for Morningness scores have not been determined. Moreover, we as others have claimed that cross-cultural validity is a desirable property for scales intended to measure personality traits including Morningness-Eveningness. This property might be extended to the factors extracted in the studied cultures leading to the problem of factorial invariance.
In this chapter, we review the existing scales and their general properties in different cultures before focusing on the problem of categorization with examples showing its limits (e.g. lack of coherence between types determined on different scales). We will eventually propose some remedies. Finally, we will address the issue of cross-gender and cross-cultural factorial invariance of these scales. We conclude that the way is long that will lead to between groups valid comparisons in terms of Morningness-Eveningness scores and/or frequencies of the corresponding types
Season of birth and handedness in young adults
No full textThis study explored the relationship between season of birth and handedness, taking into account gender and nationality variables. Young adults from three countries (2120 females and 1353 males; 877 Spanish, 2184 Italian, and 412 French), aged from 18 to 30 years, filled the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI). According to the literature, the percentage of left-handed participants in the whole sample was 9.30%. The distribution of left- and right-handed participants was not significantly different among the seasons of birth. The present data do not support a significant season of birth effect on handedness in young adults
Comparing three morningness scales: age and gender effects, structure and cut-off criteria
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Morningness-eveningness preference and sensation seeking
No full textThe aim of this study was to explore the relationship between circadian preference and sensation seeking. To this aim 1041 university students
(408 males and 633 females), ranging in age between 18 and 30 years, filled the reduced version of the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire
(MEQr) and the Sensation Seeking Scale-Form V (SSS-V). Males scored higher than females in SSS-V total score and all subscales, except
experience seeking (ES). As regards circadian preference, evening types scored higher than morning types in SSS-V total score and all subscales,
except boredom susceptibility (BS) where they significantly differed only from intermediate types. On the whole our results highlight a significant
relationship between circadian preference and sensation seeking
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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