Social networks have become an important phenomenon in the daily lives of many people, which is why in recent years they have aroused the interest of many researchers. This fact contrasts with the lack of normative psycholinguistic and affective indexes that facilitate their study within psychology. The aim of the present work is to provide a freely accessible database with words and icons related to the most used social networks. The responses of a sample of university students on familiarity, emotional valence and arousal of 42 words related to social networks and their corresponding icons are analyzed. Most of the stimuli were familiar, had positive valence and generated high arousal in the participants. Gender differences related to familiarity were obtained in some words and icons. The findings obtained in the present work allow us to broaden the understanding of the lexicon used in the field of social networks. Also, the stimuli provided can be used in experimental studies on the use, abuse or dependence on social networks in Spain.
This study examined the ability of a large language model, GPT-4o-mini, to predict age of acquisition (AoA) for Spanish words, as compared to human ratings. We found a strong correlation (rho=.75) between the model's AoA estimates and mean human ratings. This correlation was lower than the level of agreement observed between individual human raters (rho=.85), but we found that finetuning the model on a relatively small dataset of 2000 human AoA ratings has the potential to enhance the model's performance to a level comparable to human consensus. Our analyses further indicated that in large data analyses we risk confounding AoA with word familiarity if we use AoA estimates for words unknown to participants. In line with existing psycholinguistic theorizing, it is better to limit the study of AoA effects to words that are within the participants' vocabulary. We present a novel dataset of AoA estimates for 28,453 Spanish words likely known by adult speakers.
Our prior knowledge of what is about to occur, or perceptual expectations, influences how we perceive and interpret information, including the social context. The general objective of the present investigation was to replicate and extend the research conducted by Barnett et al. (2021) studying how gender stereotype-based expectations modulate the perception and categorization of faces, by employing a mouse tracking technique. To achieve this, mouse movements were continuously recorded while participants categorized the gender and emotion of a series of photos which could be congruent (angry male and happy female) or incongruent (happy male and angry female) with gender stereotypes. On each trial, participants responded by clicking with the mouse on the response buttons located at the top corners of the screen, which indicated the relevant gender or emotion categories. Analyses of the mouse trajectories revealed a higher degree of curvature and complexity while categorizing incongruent faces compared to congruent ones. In addition, Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) applied to the dynamics of mouse trajectories indicated that the impact of stereotypes fluctuated across time, exerting a larger effect towards the end points of movements. Overall, our results replicate and extend previous studies and highlight the advantages of using continuous behavioral recording techniques, in particular mouse tracking, to analyze not only the influence, but also the temporal impact of expectations on social perception and categorization.
The prevalence of pseudoscientific beliefs has increased in recent years, despite their potential harmful consequences. Previous research has suggested an association between the endorsement of pseudoscience and gullibility, i.e., the tendency to accept false premises despite indications of untrustworthiness. We studied the possible association between these two constructs by means of a scale measuring pseudoscientific beliefs, a scam email assessment task, and a gullibility self-report. We observed positive correlations between pseudoscience endorsement and 'persuadability', a subscale of the gullibility questionnaire, as well as, crucially, with ratings given to low-, but not high-, authenticity scam emails. Our results show an association between pseudoscience endorsement and gullibility, which would only be evident when the situations are more obviously deceptive. By contributing to the understanding of variability with regards to pseudoscience endorsement, our study might serve as a basis for future interventions aimed to promote critical thinking and informed decision-making.
The Retrieval Practice effect states that taking tests during learning enhances later correct retrieval compared to re-studying. However, introducing tests carries the risk of reinforcing the committed errors. A growing body of evidence on Errorful Learning suggests that error commission during learning is beneficial-rather than detrimental-to memory, particularly when errors are noticed and corrected through feedback. The main goal of the present study is to analyze the specific conditions under which errors during learning are beneficial. Specifically, we study whether the semantic relationship of the material and the recovery of the original error modulate Errorful Learning (Experiments 1 and 2). Furthermore, in order to explore potential differences in activation after previously experiencing an error or a correct answer, a priming procedure was used. We explored the processing times of the feedback-words compared with correct and errorful responses (Experiment 3). Our results showed a greater error correction when the study material was semantically related. Moreover, it was not necessary to recover the original errors to retrieve the correct answer. Additionally, participants took longer to respond to items for which they had previous error-experience, and they showed longer processing times for feedback-words during the priming task compared to errors and correct answers. These results might be taken to indicate that more controlled and with a previous error-experience.
