ABSTRACT Recent declines in Finnish students' reading performance highlight the need for efficient assessment tools that identify specific processes underlying reading comprehension. This study aimed to adapt and validate the deep cloze test for Finnish sixth graders. The test is designed to measure the ability to draw global coherence inferences for reading comprehension and has previously been validated for adults. The test was adapted for Finnish‐speaking early adolescents through a structured, two‐phase process designed to ensure developmental and linguistic appropriateness while preserving the intended inference demands of the original measure. Students ( N = 275, M age = 12.72) completed the deep cloze test as well as tests of sentence verification, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the unidimensional structure of the deep cloze test. Consistent with the design of the task and previous research, the underlying dimension was interpreted as reading comprehension that requires readers to draw global coherence inferences. Item Response Theory (IRT) analyses showed that each item had reliable discriminatory power. Deep cloze test scores were associated with scores on a normed multiple‐choice reading comprehension test, a vocabulary knowledge test, and a sentence verification test, providing evidence of convergent and concurrent validity. The results suggest that the deep cloze test is a promising measure for assessing reading comprehension processes that require readers to draw global coherence inferences.
ABSTRACT Informal family care for a child with a mental disorder may negatively impact work capacity and decrease income. We compare prolonged sex‐specific personal income progression between informal family caregivers of children/young adults with and without mental disorders. We evaluate mediation via cumulated unemployment. This observational matched cohort study included register data on Danish residents between 2000 and 2018, analyzing personal income each year during a 10‐year follow‐up period (T1–T10) following incidence of children/young adults with mental disorders (T0). Case caregivers were matched 1:5 to control caregivers of children without mental disorders by age, sex, education, child's age, sex, and baseline (2000–2017) and follow‐up calendar years (2001–2018). We analyzed sex‐stratified income ratios between case and control caregivers using generalized estimating equations log‐linear regression models. Both unadjusted and adjusted analyses were performed. Adjusted associations controlled for age, sex, and socio‐demographic factors. Mediation was assessed by comparing ratio estimates of models with and without accounting for cumulated weeks of unemployment. We analyzed 2,339,240 case caregiver and 11,696,200 control caregiver observations based on 204,607 unique case (age: mean = 43.2, SD = 7.3) and 1,371,097 control caregiver (age: mean = 43.0, SD = 7.6) individuals. At T5, unadjusted analysis showed a lower income among case caregivers, females (Income Ratio = 0.956, 95% CI = 0.952–0.959) and males (Ratio = 0.933, 95% CI = 0.929–0.937), relative to controls (Ratios = 1.000). Adjusting for confounders attenuated the associations, although the income differences remained statistically robust (females: Ratio = 0.969, 95% CI = 0.965–0.972; males: Ratio = 0.962, 95% CI = 0.957–0.966). Accounting for cumulated weeks of unemployment reduced income‐ratio estimates marginally, suggesting poor mediation. The present results underscore family costs of informal caregivers of children/young adults with mental disorders, who experience weaker personal income progression than caregivers of other children. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT06441461
ABSTRACT Waste separation prevents material contamination, which is key to sustainable recycling. Evidence suggests that waste bin design can influence the way people separate waste when recycling. However, this evidence comes from field studies with relatively low internal validity. We report results from a controlled experiment ( N = 100) using a novel waste sorting task to isolate the effect of bin design on recycling behavior. We focused on whether participants accurately placed refundable bottles/cans in special waste bins (called “deposit collection tubes”). Results showed that a blue/experimental deposit collection tube improved sorting of refundable bottles/cans compared to a gray/conventional version. This effect was quite large (odds ratio = 2.25), remained consistent after statistical control of individual differences (e.g., recycling norms, habits), and was explained by the blue tube's superior noticeability. These results show that waste bin design really matters to recycling behavior and that an appropriate design can guide people to a desirable outcome. Design and policy implications are discussed.
ABSTRACT Conspiracy beliefs are consequential for politics, public health, and trust in science, yet less is known about the psychosocial characteristics associated with different patterns of endorsement across conspiracy domains. The aim was to identify latent profiles of conspiracy belief and test whether profiles differ on psychosocial characteristics. Adults ( n = 252) recruited via Prolific completed the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale and measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, conservatism, loneliness, alienation, societal discontent, relative deprivation, and paranoid thoughts. Latent profile analysis supported four profiles: Low Conspiracy Endorsement, Low‐to‐Average Conspiracy Endorsement, Elevated Institution‐Focused Conspiracy Endorsement, and High Conspiracy Endorsement. Conspiracy belief increased progressively across the four profiles, although the two highest‐endorsing profiles did not differ on Government Malfeasance or Information Control. The High Conspiracy Endorsement profile was instead distinguished by greater endorsement of Malevolent Global, Extraterrestrial, and Personal Wellbeing conspiracies relative to the Elevated Institution‐Focused Conspiracy Endorsement profile. ANOVAs revealed profile differences in societal discontent, grandiose narcissism, paranoid thoughts, vulnerable narcissism, and conservatism, with the High Conspiracy Endorsement profile scoring significantly higher than the Low Conspiracy Endorsement profile. However, no significant differences were observed between profiles for relative deprivation, loneliness, or alienation. These findings identify societal discontent, narcissism, conservatism, and paranoid thoughts as psychosocial characteristics associated with current conspiracy belief profiles.
Self-esteem is a subjective evaluation of one's own worth and serves as a core psychological resource for cognitive processing. This study examined the relationship between self-esteem and attentional selection. High self-esteem (HSE) and low self-esteem (LSE) participants completed a visual search task in which a target was presented with either a salient distractor (distractor-present, DP) or a non-salient distractor (distractor-absent, DA). Behaviorally, both groups showed longer reaction times in DP than DA trials, revealing a reliable attentional capture effect. In addition, this effect was significantly larger in the LSE group. The ERP results showed that, relative to the HSE group, the LSE group exhibited a reduced target-elicited N2pc in DA trials, reflecting weaker target processing, and an enhanced distractor-elicited N2pc in DP trials, suggesting greater susceptibility to attentional capture by salient distractors. These findings suggested that low self-esteem might be associated with reduced attentional selection efficiency.
