This study examined whether a conditioned place preference (CPP) could be established for a virtual reality (VR) room that previously contained virtual alcohol stimuli. 298 undergraduates with varying levels of alcohol use completed six, three-minute conditioning sessions in which they were confined to one of two visually-distinct VR rooms: one of the VR rooms contained virtual alcohol cues (CS+) while the other VR room was neutral (CS-). Following conditioning, participants completed a three-minute test session during which they had unrestricted access to both VR rooms and neither room contained any alcohol-related cues. Although no virtual alcohol cues were present, participants with alcohol use (n = 248) spent significantly longer in CS+ relative to CS- compared to participants with alcohol non-use (n = 50) during the test session. This is the first study to show that a CPP can be established using virtual alcohol cues, in the absence of any actual alcohol administration. However, participants with alcohol use did not subjectively report enjoying CS+ more than CS- and explicitly chose CS- as their preferred room. Interestingly, these findings suggest that implicit and explicit measures of CPP may tap into distinct, separable processes and should be investigated further.

This study examined whether persuasive health messages embedded in shooter games have broad or targeted effects on players’ willingness to engage in risk behaviors (N = 145). Participants presented with in-game health messages discouraging alcohol-impaired driving of motor vehicles showed reduced willingness to drink alcohol and to operate both motor and nonmotor vehicles, compared to those in a no-message gaming control condition. There were no spillover effects on willingness to smoke cigarettes or marijuana, thus implying targeted persuasive effects. In addition, players experiencing high instead of low cognitive load showed decreased postexperiment willingness to drink and operate nonmotor vehicles, thus suggesting that playing a game under high cognitive load can influence players’ attitudes. The findings replicate previous research and further expand on knowledge-activation and thought-disruption mechanisms underlying the persuasiveness of health messages.

OBJECTIVE Prior research has demonstrated that psychological immersion (or "transportation") into virtual gaming worlds can heighten influence from health-promotion messages embedded in the backgrounds of gaming scenes. However, research to date has only studied the effectiveness of embedding graphic, fear-based messages in the background of violent, first-person videogames. This study sought to examine whether transportation into a nonviolent videogame can heighten persuasion from low-fear, nongraphic health messages. METHODS Willingness to drive under the influence of alcohol (DUI) was measured in an undergraduate sample (MAGE = 19) at the start of the semester, and n = 220 returned 0-3 months later to play a car-racing videogame. All were randomly assigned to play either a version of the game containing background billboards that delivered simple, text-based anti-DUI messages or consumer advertising. Self-reported levels of transportation were assessed, as well as postgame willingness to DUI. RESULTS Exposure to anti-DUI messages from within the game predicted lower postgame willingness to DUI. Moreover, replicating prior research, the effect of message exposure was largest among those who reported higher levels of pregame willingness to DUI, and higher levels of in-game transportation. CONCLUSION This study replicates prior research by suggesting that immersive videogames that promote transportation can be used to effectively deliver health communications. Results also expand prior research by providing the first evidence that such effects can generalize when health messaging orients around nongraphic, lower fear messages embedded within immersive but lower fear videogames.

Research suggests that media images depicting aggression against sexually objectified women may promote hostile sexism in men. We empirically tested if such effects might occur when men commit simulated acts of aggression against sexualized female opponents in video games, and if such effects might be heightened by psychological immersion (i.e,. the sensation of “presence” while gaming). In two studies, male participants played a first-person-shooter game, with the sex and sexualization of opponents experimentally manipulated. Results indicated that game play increased hostile sexism, to the extent that players reported feeling present in the virtual environment and provided that opponents were depicted as sexualized females, not males or nonsexualized females. No effects on benevolent sexism were observed. These results suggest that the increasingly immersive nature of modern video games might amplify their influence on players, including effects that promote hostility and aggression towards women.

OBJECTIVE:This project considered how inattention to left-out variable error and measurement correspondence in the assessment of explicit measures can result in upwardly biased estimates of the predictive utility of implicit measures designed to predict health behaviors.METHOD:A pilot study (n = 96) used a cross-sectional design to predict beer consumption and a main study (n = 132) used a longitudinal design to predict binge drinking. In each study, a battery of 4 implicit inventories (implicit association test, personalized implicit association test, evaluative priming, and attribution misattribution paradigm) and a battery of correspondent explicit measures (based on the Reasoned Action Model and the Prototype Willingness Model) were administered to college youth.RESULTS:The Implicit Association Test and evaluative priming measures were not predictive of alcohol consumption in either study, but the personalized implicit association test (PIAT) and affective misattribution paradigm (AMP) accounted for between 5% and 12% in behavioral criteria, when analyzed in isolation or after explicit measures were statistically controlled following measurement conventions in this research domain. When implicit measures were folded into a structural equation model derived from the Reasoned Action and Prototype Willingness Models, The PIAT was no longer a significant predictor of behavior and the AMP resulted in a 1%-2% incremental increase in accounted for variance.CONCLUSION:Left-out variable error and measurement correspondence are core principles that need to be considered when modeling the relative contributions of implicit and explicit constructs in the prediction of health behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record

With the general public spending increasing amounts of time in virtual gaming worlds, it is relevant to explore social influence dynamics that can occur in virtual reality settings. Three studies tested the hypothesis that transportation into a virtual game heightens susceptibility to influence from in-game health communications. Study 1 participants played a first-person shooter game that had either landscape paintings or graphic anti-DUI (drive under the influence of alcohol) messages embedded in the background of scenes. Results indicated that, to the extent gamers were transported into the virtual experiences in the game, willingness to DUI was reduced by the presence of anti-DUI graphic messages. Study 2 explored potential mechanisms driving this effect and revealed evidence that transportation disrupts counter-arguing among individuals who might otherwise resist real-world influence attempts. Study 3 replicated Studies 1 and 2 findings but also pointed to a potential “boomerang effect” that can occur when transportation is not achieved in a game. Discussion focused on the potential positive and negative consequences of embedding persuasive health communications into the background of virtual gaming worlds.

Psychometricians strive to eliminate random error from their psychological inventories. When random error affecting tests is diminished, tests more accurately characterize people on the psychological dimension of interest. We document an unusual property of the scoring algorithm for a measure used to assess a wide range of psychological states. The “D-score” algorithm for coding the Implicit Association Test (IAT) requires the presence of random noise in order to obtain variability. Without consequential degrees of random noise, all individuals receive extreme scores. We present results from an algebraic proof, a computer simulation, and an online survey of implicit racial attitudes to show how trial error can bias IAT assessments. We argue as a result that the D-score algorithm should not be used for formal assessment purposes, and we offer an alternative to this approach based on multiple regression. Our critique focuses primarily on the IAT designed to measure unconscious racial attitudes, but it applies to any IAT developed to provide psychological assessments within clinical, organizational, and developmental branches of psychology—and in any other field where the IAT might be used.

The Silicon Vertex Detector (SVD) is the main diagnostic tool in the ALPHA-experiment. It provides precise spatial and timing information of antiproton (antihydrogen) annihilation events (vertices), and most importantly, the SVD is capable of directly identifying and analysing single annihilation events, thereby forming the basis of ALPHA's analysis. This paper describes the ALPHA SVD and its upgrade, installed in the ALPHA's new neutral atom trap.

Evaluating others is a fundamental feature of human social interaction--we like those who help more than those who hinder. In the present research, we examined social evaluation of those who not only intentionally performed good and bad actions but also those to whom good things have happened (the lucky) and those to whom bad things have happened (the unlucky). In Experiment 1a, subjects demonstrated a sympathetic preference for the unlucky. However, under cognitive load (Experiment 1b), no such preference was expressed. Further, in Experiments 2a and 2b, when a time delay between impression formation (learning) and evaluation (memory test) was introduced, results showed that younger (Experiment 2a) and older adults (Experiment 2b) showed a significant preference for the lucky. Together these experiments show that a consciously motivated sympathetic preference for those who are unlucky dissolves when memory is disrupted. The observed dissociation provides evidence for the presence of conscious good intentions (favoring the unlucky) and the cognitive compromising of such intentions when memory fails.

The Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPF-C) mission presented here is an existence proof for a flagship-class internal coronagraph space mission capable of detecting and characterizing Earth-like planets and planetary systems at visible wavelengths around nearby stars, using an existing launch vehicle. TPF-C will use spectroscopy to measure key properties of exoplanets including the presence of atmospheric water or oxygen, powerful signatures in the search for habitable worlds.

The Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPF-C) is a deep space mission designed to detect and characterize Earth-like planets around nearby stars. TPF-C will be able to search for signs of life on these planets. TPF-C will use spectroscopy to measure basic properties including the presence of water or oxygen in the atmosphere, powerful signatures in the search for habitable worlds. This capability to characterize planets is what allows TPF-C to transcend other astronomy projects and become an historical endeavor on a par with the discovery voyages of the great navigators.

Predictions of contrast performance for the Eclipse coronagraphic telescope are based on computational models that are tested and validated with laboratory experience. We review recent laboratory work in the key technology areas for an actively-corrected space telescope designed for extremely high-contrast imaging of nearby planetary systems. These include apodized coronagraphic masks, precision deformable mirrors, and coronagraphic algorithms for wavefront sensing and correction, as integrated in the high contrast imaging testbed at JPL. Future work will focus on requirements for the Terrestrial Planet Finder coronagraph mission.

We present an overview of the ACS on-orbit performance based on the calibration observations taken during the first three months of ACS operations. The ACS meets or exceeds all of its important performance specifications. The WFC and HRC FWHM and 50% encircled energy diameters at 555 nm are 0.088" and 0.14", and 0.050" and 0.10". The average rms WFC and HRC read noises are 5.0 e- and 4.7 e-. The WFC and HRC average dark currents are ~ 7.5 and ~ 9.1 e-/pixel/hour at their operating temperatures of - 76°C and - 80°C. The SBC + HST throughput is 0.0476 and 0.0292 through the F125LP and F150LP filters. The lower than expected SBC operating temperature of 15 to 27°C gives a dark current of 0.038 e-/pix/hour. The SBC just misses its image specification with an observed 50% encircled energy diameter of 0.24" at 121.6 nm. The ACS HRC coronagraph provides a 6 to 16 direct reduction of a stellar PSF, and a ~1000 to ~9000 PSF-subtracted reduction, depending on the size of the coronagraphic spot and the wavelength. The ACS grism has a position dependent dispersion with an average value of 3.95 nm/pixel. The average resolution λ/Δλ for stellar sources is 65, 87, and 78 at wavelengths of 594 nm, 802 nm, and 978 nm.

Optical coronagraphy is a promising possibility for finding and characterizing Earth-like planets that orbit nearby stars. This approach begins with a large unobscured conventional telescope, but significant modifications are needed to achieve adequate suppression of the glare of the star. Three techniques are under consideration for suppression of the aperture diffraction which redirects starlight into the planet's pixel; once this is satisfied, extraordinary precision and stability in the wavefront are needed as well to suppress scatter of the starlight into that pixel. We discuss the central choices in the setting of error budgets, a summary of key allocations in that budget, optical model results that demonstrate the operation and performance of the system, and key hardware requirements.