Time pressure and question difficulty can trigger stress and cognitive overload in web-based surveys, compro mising data quality and user experience. Most stress detection methods are based on low-resolution self-reports, which are poorly suited for capturing fast, moment-to-moment changes during short online tasks. Addressing this gap, we conducted a 2 & times; 2 within-subjects study (N = 29), manipulating question difficulty and time pressure in a web-based multiple-choice questionnaire. Participants completed general knowledge and cognitive questions while we collected multimodal data: mouse dynamics, eye tracking, electrocardiogram, and electroder mal activity. Using condition-based and self-reported labels, we used statistical and machine learning models to model stress and question difficulty. Our results show distinct physiological and behavioral patterns within very short timeframes. This work demonstrates the feasibility of rapidly detecting cognitive-affective states in digital environments, paving the way for more adaptive, ethical, and user-aware survey interfaces.
Contact between speakers and languages may play a key role in driving language change. During interaction, speakers tend to adapt to their interlocutors' speech, which can cumulatively lead to longer-term changes. Yet it remains unclear how innovations emerge, and who drives their adoption. These questions are addressed through two experiments on Italian motion-events framing. Study 1 examines German-Italian bilinguals with varying cumulative German contact, exploring whether exposure to innovative satellite-framed constructions triggers adaptation within Italian and across languages. Study 2 tests Italian monolinguals to assess adaptation in the absence of cross-linguistic influence. Results show that both bilinguals and monolinguals adapt to innovative structures at an abstract level, but only bilinguals with a high degree of German contact maintain these changes in a post-test, highlighting the role of bilingual experience. Findings suggest language contact may enhance the uptake of innovations, providing insight into the cognitive mechanisms underlying language change.
This study examines partnership preferences of male refugees from Afghanistan and Syria who arrived in Germany between 2014 and 2016 and female residents of similar age. Using two comparable factorial survey experiments implemented in the first wave of the PARFORM panel and the ninth wave of the CILS4EU-DE panel, we analyse general tendencies in partnership preferences as well as partnership preferences based on education and religion. Our findings reveal a high willingness among recent male refugees to partner with resident women, whereas resident women exhibit significantly lower openness towards romantic relationships with male refugees. Comparing partnership preferences regarding the religion and education of a potential partner between male refugees and female residents who share similar characteristics reveals that homophily largely governs partner preferences on both sides, but deviations from this pattern point to alternative mechanisms, including status maximization and preservation of cultural identity. Overall, our findings indicate that beyond educational aspirations, cultural and religious distinctions can shape the expression of partner preferences, contributing to substantial asymmetry in intergroup partnership dynamics.
Metacognitive judgments and decisions involve uncertainty and rely on probabilistic cues. Prior research shows that people integrate multiple cues when making judgments of learning (JOLs). The present study examined whether metacognitive control decisions are influenced by multiple cues as well. In each of two experiments, participants studied 60 words varying on two cues (Experiment 1: concreteness, emotionality; Experiment 2: font format, word frequency). In Experiment 1, all participants made restudy choices to maximize later recall, whereas in Experiment 2, half made restudy choices, and the other half provided JOLs. Participants who made restudy choices restudied their selected items, and all participants completed a recall test at the end of the experiment. At the group level, both cues influenced restudy choices in Experiment 1, but only one cue did so in Experiment 2. Individual-level analyses of Experiment 2 revealed that most participants used both cues, yet the direction of cue use differed across participants: Some participants more often selected items with cue values associated with lower JOLs, whereas others more often selected items with cue values associated with higher JOLs. Overall, effect sizes for cue effects on restudy choices were smaller than those for JOLs. These findings suggest that multiple cues guided metacognitive control decisions, but that cue integration and cue use were weaker and varied more across individuals than in metacognitive judgments. This pattern indicates that the alignment between monitoring and control is reduced by other factors influencing restudy choices.
The pervasive rise of social media has placed visual content, especially photographs, at the forefront of digital marketing in tourism. As marketers strategically leverage emotionally resonant content on these platforms, this research explores the relationship between hedonic and utilitarian dimensions embedded in pictorial representations and their impact on user engagement in tourism. By utilising a machine-generated semantic differential, this study analyses 33,001 image-based posts from popular destinations on Instagram. The findings reveal that user engagement dynamics vary across themes, with multimodal excursions (e.g., modes of transportation) emphasising informativeness over fun and thrill, while art and sculpture benefit from the integration of functional cues. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this study examines how the emotional connotations of visual content shape potential tourists’ engagement. Overall, this paper underscores the importance of tailoring content strategies to specific thematic contexts and challenges the assumption of a universal appeal of certain pictorial elements.
