The study explored differences in decision recall between junior and senior decision-makers, focusing on accuracy (ACC) and response times (RTs) under varying feedback conditions. 117 participants completed 10 real-life decision-making scenarios, and their decision recall was examined in relation to feedback valence (positive or negative), decision-making styles, and tendencies toward Maximization. Results indicated that both junior and senior decision-makers recalled decisions with positive feedback more accurately than those with negative feedback, aligning with the "positivity bias" theory, where individuals tend to remember positive experiences more than negative ones. Seniors showed stronger recall for decisions with positive feedback but weaker for those with negative feedback compared to juniors, who performed better with negative feedback decisions recall. This pattern may reflect differences in professional experience and feedback processing across career stages, consistent with research on positivity and negativity biases. Regarding RTs, seniors had slower recall for decisions with positive feedback, potentially reflecting deeper cognitive processing, while both groups were slower to recall decisions with positive information overall. The study also found that individuals with higher Maximization tendencies, especially juniors, recalled decisions with negative feedback better, while seniors with avoidant decision-making styles were less accurate in recalling decisions with negative feedback. These findings highlight the importance of feedback delivery in professional environments and suggest that balancing positive and negative feedback is critical to maintain motivation and performance. Future research should further explore how expertise and individual differences affect decision recall and consider a neuroscientific approach to better understand the cognitive processes involved.
Interpersonal conflict often impairs decision-making and communication. This study examined whether AI-enabled role-playing (AI-RP) can regulate behavioral intentions in conflict situations and how it compares with the human counsellor-guided role-playing. Two experiments and a linguistic analysis (LIWC and BERTopic) were conducted. Participants were assigned to AI, the human counsellor, or no-interaction conditions. Behavioral intentions and interaction texts were analyzed. Both AI- and human-guided role-playing reduced revenge intentions and increased understanding compared with the control condition. These effects were context-dependent and did not transfer to parallel scenarios. The AI and human counsellor conditions did not differ in revenge or understanding outcomes, but the AI condition was associated with higher willingness to communicate in the specific context of Study 2a. Linguistic analyses showed AI responses were more structured and function-oriented, whereas the human counsellor responses emphasized emotional validation. AI-RP and the human counseling play complementary roles in conflict intervention. AI may facilitate rapid de-escalation and communication initiation, whereas in this study the human counsellor's responses were more oriented toward emotional validation and relational repair.
Social cognition encompasses the emotional and cognitive processes that enable individuals to understand and respond to the emotions and mental states of others, which is essential for effective social interaction. Traditional assessments of social cognition have been criticized for providing limited contextual information, relying on static stimuli, and failing to reflect social cognitive functioning during real-life interactions. This review focuses on advancing virtual reality (VR) methods for assessing social cognition, highlighting their capability to create interactive and realistic social scenarios that enhance ecological validity. A focused narrative review was conducted using predefined eligibility criteria to identify VR-based tools for the assessment of social cognition in adults. Studies were selected based on their use of multidimensional approaches, particularly those assessing theory of mind alongside other social cognitive components and demonstrating potential for clinical application. REALSoCog Task, the VR version of the Norwegian adaptation of the Awareness of Social Inference Test (N-TASIT), and CogMap for Social Cognition (CogMap-SC) are prominent tools that utilize VR to assess various components of social cognition. These VR-based assessments provide a more sensitive and comprehensive approach to measuring social cognition. Although these tools offer significant advantages in assessing social cognitive functioning, it is crucial to acknowledge their limitations, including technological challenges and limitations in the evaluation of their psychometric properties. Overall, this review provides an overview of the potential of virtual reality-based tools in advancing the assessment of social cognition.
The other-race effect (ORE) is a robust phenomenon manifested as faster and more accurate recognition of same-race faces, and is particularly stable for female face recognition. However, the underlying mechanism of the female-face recognition advantage in the ORE remains unclear. The present study used two behavioral experiments to explore the ORE under supraliminal and subliminal conditions by systematically manipulating the presentation time of the first face. The results showed that the ORE became increasingly significant as the involvement of cognitive resources decreased in the supraliminal condition, and this effect was primarily driven by female-face materials. Under the subliminal condition, the ORE was attenuated overall but persisted for female-face materials. These findings suggest that the ORE is modulated by cognitive resource availability, and that same-race female face recognition may reflect a processing mode consistent with intuitive processing, potentially operating with limited cognitive resources.
Building on the importance of sociality in grounding abstract concepts, this study investigated how concept type shapes recognition memory for social stimuli. Participants engaged in text-based dialogues about abstract or concrete concepts with virtual agents, after which recognition of names and faces, as well as perceived closeness, was measured. The procedure included a preliminary, context-based validation of linguistic dimensions adapted from Italian into Romanian, given the absence of prior norming studies. Discussions of abstract concepts elicited more uncertainty expressions, questions, turn-taking, general statements, affective content, and overt beliefs, thus offering converging evidence for the adequacy of the translated stimuli and previously reported differences in socio-cognitive engagement. Differential recognition effects facilitated by abstract concept conversations were observed for faces, but not for names. The higher salience of faces could not be ascribed straightforwardly to cognitive load or faster processing, as this interpretation was incompatible with the reaction times observed, which did not differ across conditions in either the encoding or the recognition phase. This, coupled with the absence of corresponding effects for names, which are typically recognized at least as well as faces in matched recognition paradigms, is consistent with a greater involvement of social cognitive processes during abstract concept processing. Overall, the results indicate that abstract concept processing modulates recognition memory for social stimuli. The experimental design is intended to be simple and reproducible, enabling cumulative future research on the relationship between concept types and other cognitive processes.
This study examines predictors of students’ perceived learning effectiveness from generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in higher education by integrating psychological, behavioral, and cognitive perspectives. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed. Quantitative data were collected through a survey of 658 higher education students and analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression to examine the statistical contribution of GenAI usage patterns, perceived critical-thinking change, trust in GenAI, attitudes toward GenAI, self-efficacy for learning with GenAI, and cognitive offloading, while controlling for GPA, instructor policy toward GenAI, language of study, access type, and frequency of use. The results showed that, in the theoretically specified order of entry, the psychological block—comprising self-efficacy, attitudes, and trust—produced the largest incremental increase in explained variance. Trust remained positively associated with perceived learning effectiveness, whereas cognitive offloading was not statistically significant in the final model. Contextual variables showed limited explanatory power after psychological, behavioral, and cognitive variables were introduced. The final model explained 68.8
This paper examines the claim that the phenomenal "for-me-ness" is the core feature of every conscious experience. Any conscious episode is intrinsically given as mine, and this mineness, while non-reflective and non-cognitive, belongs to the personal and phenomenal level. The compatibility checks for the for-me-ness thesis comes from cases such as depersonalization, schizophrenia, infancy and autism. I argue that this view lacks evidential support beyond the phenomenological descriptions it was built to interpret and that these phenomena receive better explanations that do not require positing for-me-ness.
Context reinstatement can be defined as an effect that enhances memory by reinstating contextual features from the encoding phase during retrieval. Early experimental studies revealed varying degrees of this effect in both recall and recognition memory tasks. These findings led to the development of different hypotheses regarding the factors influencing context reinstatement, often linking it to recollection-based memory processes. The main objective of the present review is to examine the methodological factors affecting context reinstatement with a primary focus on—but not limited to— two prevailing hypotheses: the outshining hypothesis and the item–context–ensemble hypothesis. In addition, the review critically considers the extent to which context reinstatement may be associated with recollection- and familiarity-based memory processes and the potential influence of response bias, an issue that has been largely overlooked in previous research. Reinstating the study context at test seems to aid memory in experimental designs where (i) the context was semantically rich, (ii) the stimulus was unfamiliar, (iii) the cue load was low, (iv) interactive encoding between the context and the stimulus was employed, and (v) the retention interval was relatively long. Methodological heterogeneity across studies and the tools used to assess memory accuracy may be key sources of conflicting findings. Building on the limitations of existing research, this review offers recommendations to support more systematic and insightful investigations of context effects on memory.
This study examined the effect of problematic short-video use on attention network performance among college students. Based on the screening results of the SPAI, the adapted IAT, and a scale adapted from the DSM-5 IGD symptom criteria, 34 college students were included in the problematic short-video use group and 37 in the control group. Both groups completed the Attention Network Test (ANT), with reaction time and accuracy recorded, and the effects of the alerting, orienting, and executive control networks calculated. Independent-samples t tests and repeated-measures analysis of variance were used to compare group differences. The results showed that the orienting network effect in the problematic short-video use group was significantly lower than that in the control group, whereas no significant differences were found in the alerting network effect or the executive control network effect. Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed a significant main effect of cue condition on reaction time and a significant group × cue condition interaction; the main effect of target condition was significant, but the group × target condition interaction was not significant. Accuracy results showed that the problematic short-video use group had lower overall accuracy than the control group, but the group × cue condition and group × target condition interactions were not significant. College students with problematic short-video use mainly showed a reduced orienting network effect, suggesting that they may have lower efficiency in using spatial cues, shifting attention, and locating targets, rather than a general decline in attention function. This study provides preliminary behavioral evidence for understanding the relationship between problematic short-video use and attention network performance.
Little research has been conducted on how the two cerebral hemispheres are involved when readers generate inferences about the emotion of characters in a text. It is unclear how the cerebral hemispheres process inference-related information about text that is positively and negatively valenced. In the current study, participants read texts which promoted an inference about either a positive (Experiment 1) or negative (Experiment 2) emotional state of a character. Using the divided visual-field paradigm, participants performed a lexical decision task for target words consistent with the inferred character's emotional state, which were presented to either the left visual field-right hemisphere or the right visual field-left hemisphere. Results showed facilitation in both hemispheres when readers generated negatively-valenced character inferences, but no facilitation effects were found for positively-valenced character inferences. A negativity bias may be present in which readers more quickly infer negatively-valenced character emotions compared to positively-valenced character emotions in a text.
There is growing interdisciplinary interest in the potential for ‘nature-based interventions’ (NBIs) to foster physical, social, cognitive, and emotional well-being in children. This review aims to identify the methodological strengths and weaknesses of NBIs and analyze the various activities conducted in NBIs that enhance developmental domains in children. The systematic search was conducted using electronic databases such as PubMed, PsycINFO, Taylor and Francis, and Google Scholar from inception to the present. Children aged 4–12 without health or developmental conditions were eligible to participate in the review. Out of 5168 studies, 12 quantitative studies were selected with an overall sample size of (N = 2,444) inclusion/exclusion criteria. Two authors independently performed the literature search, record screening, data extraction, and quality assessment of each included systematic review. The risk of bias in the systematic reviews was assessed using a well-established modified McMaster Critical Review Form for quantitative studies. Due to the heterogeneity of activities delivered in interventions and measurements, there is a lack of evidence to draw firm conclusions regarding the effectiveness of NBIs. Despite the need to overcome some challenges and knowledge gaps, the studies consistently suggest that NBIs profoundly affect children's socio-emotional, physical, and cognitive domains.
Readers are frequently exposed to background speech while reading, which slows reading speed and reduces comprehension accuracy-a phenomenon known as the irrelevant speech effect (ISE). The Semantic Interference Hypothesis proposes that only intelligible speech disrupts reading, whereas the Phonological Interference Hypothesis predicts that both intelligible and unintelligible speech cause disruption. However, empirical findings have not provided unequivocal support for either account. The present study addressed this issue by using a three-level meta-analysis. After a systematic search and screening, 30 studies were included, yielding 606 effect sizes. The results showed that, compared to the silence condition, intelligible speech slowed down the whole reading processing and prolonged lexical processing. Unintelligible speech also slowed down reading and affected post-lexical stages of lexical processing, as reflected in longer go-past time and total fixation duration. Importantly, intelligible speech exerted a stronger disruptive effect than unintelligible speech, by increasing reading time and delaying lexical processing across all stages. These results suggest that both intelligible and unintelligible speech interfere with reading, but intelligible speech causes greater disruption than unintelligible speech. The Phonological and the Semantic Interference Hypotheses only provide partial accounts for these findings, whereas the Process Interference Hypothesis offers a more comprehensive explanation.
Numbers and time are closely linked to space. Two key effects illustrate this: the SNARC effect, associating smaller numbers with the left visual field and larger ones with the right, and the STEARC effect, linking the past to the left and the future to the right visual fields. This study examined whether time influences visual-spatial attention and memory by affecting attention shifts toward relevant visual fields and facilitating memory retrieval. To investigate this, we employed four experimental tasks: the SNARC task, the STEARC task, the visual-spatial attention task, and the visual-spatial memory task. In the SNARC task, participants pressed a key to determine whether the presented numbers were smaller or larger than 5. In the STEARC task, they assessed whether temporal words referred to the past or future. The SNARC and STEARC tasks confirmed number-space and time-space interactions, a necessary step before further investigation. During the visual-spatial attention task, participants responded to images presented in the left or right visual field following temporal reference words. We employed a single-key procedure for responses to eliminate any facilitation effects from response keys. In the visual-spatial memory task, participants indicated whether they had seen the images displayed previously. Our findings confirm the presence of the SNARC and STEARC effects. However, no detectable effect of temporal reference on visual-spatial attention was observed under the current task conditions. Similarly, no reliable effect was found in the visual-spatial memory task. Taken together, these findings suggest that temporal-spatial mappings may not be robustly observed in visual attention tasks that do not involve explicit left-right responses.
The Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) is widely used to assess English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students' metacognitive regulation of reading across three strategy dimensions (Global, Problem-Solving, Support), yet this three-factor structure has rarely undergone confirmatory validation. This study introduces HiLoLev, a theory-driven two-factor measurement reconceptualisation that distinguishes higher-level integrative/monitoring strategies from lower-level decoding/support strategies. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on data from 554 Swedish upper-secondary ESL students, legacy three-factor specifications (oblique, higher-order) were contrasted with the proposed theory-driven HiLoLev model based on SORS items. The original structures showed poor fit with high interfactor correlations and substantial cross-loadings; by contrast, an 11-item HiLoLev model fit well (RMSEA = 0.051, SRMR = 0.045) and offered clearer interpretability. While the full SORS remains pedagogically useful, its subscales should not be assumed to represent stable latent constructs for inferential analyses. For research applications (e.g., regression models, mediation analyses, or group comparisons), confirm the structure in-sample via CFA or consider using the 11-item HiLoLev model as a compact, cognitively grounded latent specification of SORS items.
Language assessment tools have traditionally used black-and-white line drawings. However, recent research highlights color as a key feature to distinguish visually similar concepts. Emojis are simplified and conventionalized visual representations that integrate salient visual-perceptual attributes, such as shape and color, into the representation of concepts. This study aimed to compare semantic and lexical access to living (LTs) and non-living things (NLTs) across black-and-white drawings, colored drawings, and emojis. Ninety healthy adults completed a computerized oral-naming task including 64 stimuli (32 living and 32 non-living items) presented in one of the three visual formats. Accuracy was analyzed using a generalized linear mixed-effects model (GLMM), and reaction times were analyzed using a linear mixed-effects model (LMM). Accuracy analyses revealed a main effect of semantic domain, with higher accuracy for the NLTs domain, and a significant format and domain interaction, but no main effect of format was identified. The disadvantage in naming LTs was most evident for black-and-white drawings and was reduced for colored drawings and emojis. Reaction time analyses showed main effects of domain and format as well as a significant interaction, with slower naming of LTs in black-and-white format. Overall, the results suggest that performance across visual formats was broadly similar when considered globally, but that differences emerged when semantic domain was taken into account. LTs were particularly affected by the absence of color. This study highlights the potential of emojis as an experimental visual format and suggests that their role in oral naming and language assessment should be further examined.
When individuals encounter familiar situations, they may apply behaviors from past experiences. This could be due to recognizing similarities between the situations or inferring characteristics from the past to the present, leading to similar responses. Recognition becomes more cautious in negative contexts, showing increased discrimination and ability to discern differences, known as the "negative affective effect of recognition". Conversely, generalized inference in negative situations tends to overgeneralize past attributes to current contexts, termed the "negative affective effect of inference". This study examines how recognition and inference interact under different affective states and their impact on cognitive processing. It employed an symmetrical design with affective contexts (positive, neutral, negative) to evaluate performance in two task sequences: inference-recognition and recognition-inference, using Signal Detection Theory under varying time pressures. The findings reveal that the sequence of cognitive tasks influences the magnitude of negative affective effects in recognition and inference, particularly indicating a complex, bidirectional interaction between these processes.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, like ChatGPT, are now widely integrated into a plethora of contexts. Although they present potential benefits like increased efficiency and reduced lower-level cognitive load, they are accompanied by serious risks such as over reliance and impacted independent critical reasoning. Research on how critical thinking and cognitive offloading interact with AI use is limited. Furthermore, research on attitudes towards AI and how they may influence how people offload cognition and engage in critical thinking is further understudied. Our mixed-methods study aims to reduce this gap. Initially, 124 participants were considered for the study. After filtering out the outliers, 120 young adults (AI group n = 57, Manual group n = 63) participated, with a subsample of 54 who were thematically analysed. Our experimental design incorporated a logical fallacies identification task (with/without ChatGPT) and three quantitative questionnaires: Artificial Intelligence Attitude Scale, Critical Thinking Rubric and Mental Effort Rating Scale. Nonparametric analyses (Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman’s rho) revealed that the AI group were able to attain higher correct responses (H = 7.044, p < .01). Additionally, they reported significantly lower mental effort (H = 27.434, p < .01) for the experimental task. Qualitative trends saw high independent reasoning, verification, and metacognitive monitoring in manual participants. Conversely, a mix of complete delegation and selective use/strategic engagement was observed under the AI condition. Overall, we conclude that although AI improves task accuracy and lowers mental effort, it does not necessarily save time or uniformly enhance or reduce critical thinking. Moreover, we suggest that a user’s approach to AI (delegation vs. strategic engagement) determines whether it acts as a replacement or scaffold. We highlight the need for intentional, reflective use of AI in educational contexts.
Previous studies have shown that social cues, such as gaze direction, typically direct space-based attention rather than object-based attention in the two-rectangle paradigm. However, the inherent connection between eye gaze and facial expressions leaves unresolved questions about whether and how facial expressions influence gaze-driven selective attention. The present study aimed to explore the effects of facial expressions on both space- and object-based attention triggered by gaze cues. We used a modified two-rectangle paradigm incorporating gaze information from negative, neutral, and positive facial expressions while manipulating cue-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) at 150 ms, 300 ms, and 600 ms. The results revealed that facial expressions did not modulate space-based attention; however, distinct patterns emerged for object-based attention. Specifically, negative facial expressions did not induce object-based attention, while positive facial expressions produced a stronger object-based attentional effect compared to neutral expressions at 150 ms and 300 ms SOA conditions. These findings suggest that facial expressions in gaze cues elicit object-based attention, with positive expressions guiding attention to the entire object. This study provides new empirical evidence for investigating of social cognition and selective attention.
This study utilizes the metaphor aptness rating task (how appropriate a metaphor was in the given context) and the feature arrangement task (participants arrange each of the presented features so that words with similar meanings are close together) to investigate the relationships between the semantic distances of topic (e.g., “an anxiety”), vehicle (e.g., “a dense fog”), features (e.g., “dark,” “isn’t clear,” and “unclear”), and metaphor aptness (e.g., “an anxiety is a dense fog”). The results revealed that the number of topic-and-vehicle applicable features affected the metaphor aptness ratings. Furthermore, the results implied that the closer the semantic distances between features, the higher the metaphor aptness rating. These results suggest that not only the number of topic-and-vehicle applicable features but also the semantic integration and coherence among features play an important role in metaphor aptness. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the feature arrangement task provides a non-rating-based method for evaluating participants’ similarity judgments at the feature level, offering a complementary approach to traditional rating-based measures of metaphor processing.
Responsible forgetting refers to an adaptive process whereby individuals intentionally forget information that does not need to be remembered. This study examined whether responsible forgetting is influenced by the forgetfulness of a partner in collaborative recall. Participants imagined preparing for a camping trip with a hypothetical friend. Each camping item was paired with a cue (You or Friend) indicating whether the participant or friend was responsible for remembering it. Participants in the forgetful condition were told that their friend was forgetful, whereas no information was provided about the friend in the control condition. Results demonstrated that the interaction effect between partner unreliability and memory-responsibility cue on recall performance was statistically significant (OR = 0.39, 95
