Research has demonstrated that social support is crucial in mitigating stress and enhancing mood. Not only do long-term, meaningful relationships contribute to well-being, but everyday social interactions, such as small talk, also offer psychological benefits. As social robots increasingly become more integrated into daily life, they present a potential avenue for stress interventions. In our online study, 98 participants underwent a stress induction using the Stroop task and were then assigned to one of three conditions: engaging in scripted small talk with a simulated NAO robot online, listening to a neutral story told by the same NAO robot, or no intervention (control condition). Results indicate that both interventions effectively reduced stress, with a tendency towards a stronger effect in the Small talk condition. Small talk not only helped maintain positive affect but also reduced negative affect. Notably, the benefits were more pronounced among individuals experiencing higher acute stress following the stress induction, but were less evident in those with chronically elevated stress levels. Furthermore, the effect of the intervention on stress reduction was mediated by changes in positive affect. These findings suggest that small talk with a social robot may serve as a promising tool for stress reduction and affect regulation.

Comments on the original article by Hochman et al. (see record 2025-49981-001) regarding cross-cultural study of the spatial-numerical association of response codes effect. Hochman et al. (2025) investigated how reading direction influences the spatial representation of numbers, known as spatial-numerical associations (SNAs). They compared SNAs between 50 left-to-right reading British and 55 right-to-left reading Iranian adults. The authors manipulated the task (parity and magnitude classification) and stimulus modality (auditory and visual numbers) and found similar SNAs across groups and conditions. Our commentary suggests that some of the choices around participant assessment and task selection may have limited the strength of their findings. We suggest more sensitive methods for future research and offer a broader contextualization of cross-cultural research into SNAs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The processing of temporal concepts is known to be intertwined with spatial cognition. For instance, reaction times (RTs) are shorter when participants classify past- and future-related words with left- and right-lateral responses, respectively, in line with the so-called mental time line hypothesis. While some research has addressed individual differences in processing temporal concepts, it still remains unclear how such space-time congruency effects are influenced by the most crucial time-related factor in our lives - age. To address this question, we asked 94 participants aged 19 to 80 years old to classify past, future, and neutral words as related to time by using left and right response keys. In addition, we collected information regarding participants' self-reported level of physical activity, as it was shown to be a predictor of healthy ageing. We found that younger participants processed future-related words faster than past-related words, whereas older participants processed past-related words faster than future-related words. This ageing effect was modulated by physical exercise: The higher the self-reported level of physical activity in older participants, the smaller the past-related RT bias. Finally, our data revealed an age-related decline in space-time congruency effects among participants with lower self-reported physical activity. These findings indicate that the conceptual representation of time undergoes lifelong changes influenced by multiple factors, including age and physical activity. We suggest an integrative construct of dynamic conceptual time whereby the individual's bodily and life-course experiences lead to gradual changes in the processing of temporal concepts.

Predictive processing posits that prediction-error minimization underlies all perception, action, and cognition. Yet, despite its considerable popularity and explanatory scope, it is unclear how this enables higher-level cognitive abilities, such as representing and reasoning over abstract concepts. We combine insights from predictive processing, structural representations and grounded cognition to address this issue. It has been argued from predictive processing and the free energy principle that an anticipatory model of the person-relevant environment is simulated. Structural representations state that these representations are isomorphic to, i.e., retain the relational pattern of the world. Building on this assembly, grounded cognition research provides three insights into how abstract concepts are represented. First, a hierarchical organization allows abstracting from specific sensory qualities. Second, language glues together sensory qualities into representations that share no intrinsic properties, and acts as a social tool. Third, metaphoric mapping allows fragments of concrete percepts to represent abstract concepts. By transplanting these three insights to predictive processing’s (structural) hierarchical generative model, we explain higher-level cognition through detached models of perception and action simulations, isomorphic to actual behavior. This constitutes a significant expansion to life-mind continuity approaches by providing specific mechanisms for how the principles driving the emergence of life also account for sophisticated higher-level cognition in humans. By synthesizing insights from these literatures, we generate a coherent description of higher-level cognition under predictive processing.

Number concepts are spatially organized along a mental-number line (MNL) with smaller magnitudes represented in left/lower space and larger magnitudes progressively toward right/upper space. Evidence for this association largely relies on simple button responses. We investigated the generality of this association with directional head movements. In a preliminary test, 31 neurotypical adults classified spoken numbers with lateralized buttons faster under MNL-congruent than incongruent conditions along both horizontal and vertical axes. Having established the standard number-space association, participants then performed a Go/No-go version of our task with concurrent horizontal or vertical head movements. The results showed a congruency effect between number magnitude and head direction—which was limited to the horizontal axis. Our results suggest that horizontal motion induces spatial attention shifts which facilitate spatially congruent magnitude processing, thus supporting a conceptual association of space and magnitude.

Current cognitive theories cast attention as a perceptual selection mechanism, largely neglecting the role of the body. We advance an embodied account, proposing that hand position, posture and action readiness systematically shape attentional performance. After outlining the historical shift from selection for perception to selection for action, we sketch a grounded, embodied and situated account of attention. We then review evidence from classic paradigms (Posner, Eriksen, Egly, Stroop), showing that attention signatures (detection, interference, selection, control) are systematically modulated by action readiness, and argue that the traditional 'office-worker' posture underlying these paradigms may have shaped how attention itself has been theoretically conceptualized. We discuss how action-linked visual processes and bodily contributions to cognitive control account for attention modulation and address reliability and contextual challenges. Finally, we propose to integrate physiological measures, motor states and real-world contexts into future research on embodied attention with the aim of eventually reframing attention as a functional enactive process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Embodied cognition suggests numbers are linked to physical actions and sensory experiences. Additionally, sensory processing, thoughts or actions are modulated by attentional shifts/control. This study investigates how learned motor associations in individuals (finger-counting habits) shape brain responses to digit symbols. We examined how covert attention to motor associations influences neural responses during passive viewing of symbolic numbers, using event-related potentials (ERPs) and time-frequency analysis. We examined whether the P2 component, linked to attentional processing, correlates with motor habits and alpha wave activity. Results showed stronger P2 component when number-hand associations aligned, with no significant alpha wave changes was observed. Right-starters exhibited enhanced attention and number processing, with higher P3 amplitudes and faster responses for all digits. Taken together, these findings provide preliminary support for the idea that attention to learned motor associations may influence neural responses to numerical information. We discuss these findings within our proposed theoretical framework termed Feature-based Attention to Learned Motor (FALM) processing.

The left-digit bias (LDB) is a tendency to estimate differences between numbers sharing the same leftmost digit (e.g., 47 and 49) as smaller than between numbers with different leftmost digits (e.g., 49 and 51) in nonspatial evaluations and number-to-position tasks. In the present study, we examined motoric consequences of LDB by measuring angles of spatial-localization responses in circular space as participants localized spoken numbers (1-12.5 in 0.5-unit increments; e.g., "two point five") on a clock-face arrangement. To test the role of visual feedback, the task was performed either with (N = 27) or without vision (N = 23). After correcting for cyclical errors in angular localization, we found that targets sharing the same leftmost digit were indeed placed closer together in angular space than equidistant targets with different leftmost digits, regardless of visual feedback. This LDB manifested as compression of decimal targets toward the lower boundary of their leftmost digit category. Our findings demonstrate the robustness of LDB signatures across task settings, extend them to angular measures, and point to cognitive rather than perceptual origins. They are consistent with the overweighting of leftmost digits during number processing, which asymmetrically compresses representational space toward lower same-digit boundaries. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

This target article provides a valuable biological basis for life-mind continuity approaches. These explain cognition in the context of the origin and evolution of life itself. We argue that the features which are critical to sophisticated human cognition in late phylogenetic development are already present in the traits highlighted in the target article as pivotal for the development of cognitive complexity.

Background: The rise of antimicrobial resistance as leading infection-related cause of death will necessitate trans-sectoral efforts on a global level. While many antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) incentives target healthcare workers, addressing undergraduates offers new and hitherto neglected opportunities. Methods: We describe the pilot phase of a novel undergraduate elective (“stewards for future”, SFF) for medical students at the Saarland University, Germany, between 2021 and 2023. We focused on knowledge and attitudes relevant to AMS. To allow for full immersion, we applied case-based learning, problem-based learning, and peer teaching in a small group teaching format spanning 15 hours, including AMS ward rounds. We obtained students’ pre- and post-course self-assessment regarding AMS topics using 5-point Likert scales modified from the previously published ASSURE elective, as well as their subjective experience using the German short intrinsic motivation inventory. Results: Over four terms, 23 undergraduate medical students from the clinical phase participated in the elective. Participants reported an increase in their ability to explain the concept of AMS (mean and standard deviation, pre 3.26±0.94 vs. post 4.74±0.44, p<0.0001), their confidence in choosing the appropriate antibiotic (pre 2.22±0.78 vs. post 3.57±0.58, p<0.0001), their ability to judge potential drug side effects (pre 2.09±0.72 vs. post 3.43±0.71, p<0.0001), their confidence in communicating with colleagues about antibiotics (pre 2.30±0.86 vs. post 3.52±0.83, p<0.0001), their understanding of diagnostics as an AMS tool (pre 4.22±0.41 vs. post 4.91±0.28, p<0.0001), and their ability to evaluate the roles of all AMS team members including their own (pre 2.52±0.77 vs. post 4.13±0.68, p<0.0001). Participants reported having enjoyed the course (4.6±0.5), while they were moderately satisfied with their performance (3.8±1.0). Pressure and anxiety levels were reported to be low (1.8±0.9 and 2.0±1.0 each). Conclusions: Student participants of the elective SFF reported increased competencies relevant to AMS, while enjoying the course format. Sustainability and scalability will ultimately depend on the implementation into the core curriculum.

There is a long debate about how the meaning of words cues our spatial attention. For implicitly spatial words such as “ROOF” or “BASEMENT”, it was recently shown that processing both the cue word and a subsequent spatial target stimulus was necessary for spatial congruity effects to emerge. Here we challenge this work by documenting that word cues alone suffice to induce congruity effects if they are processed deeply. Sixty-three healthy adults detected vertically displaced targets after looking at centrally presented cue words under three counterbalanced instructions, imposing increasing processing depth: Lexical decision, non-spatial categorization, and spatial categorization. Target detection speed revealed spatial congruity effects for both spatial and non-spatial categorization but not for lexical decision. An interpretation in terms of covert attention deployment was corroborated by concomitant vertical displacements of eye gaze. Our results reveal minimal requirements for covert and overt semantic cueing of spatial attention.

Gaze data is a well-established indicator of cognitive load levels during human-computer interaction. The design characteristics of virtual learning environments can be a source of extraneous cognitive load, which can, in turn, strongly impact the gaze behavior of learners. The cognitive load experienced by learners can be classified into three components: intrinsic, extraneous and germane. This study aims to systematically investigate the relations between the design of virtual reality environments, gaze data, and cognitive load. Therefore, a randomized control trial (N = 285) using an experimental-control group with a pre-post-test design was conducted in a physics lab course. The two conditions of the experimental and control groups differed only in the design of the e-learning environment, which led to higher extraneous cognitive load in the experimental group, while reports for intrinsic and germane cognitive load did not differ. The eye-tracking results revealed systematically and significantly different gaze behavior between the two groups (medium effect size). The results provide important insights into the design of future virtual reality learning environments, specifically about minimizing the cognitive load and increasing the efficacy of the learning unit.

ABSTRACTBackgroundArtificial intelligence, particularly natural language processing (NLP), enables automating the formative assessment of written task solutions to provide adaptive feedback automatically. A laboratory study found that, compared with static feedback (an expert solution), adaptive feedback automated through artificial neural networks enhanced preservice teachers' diagnostic reasoning in a digital case‐based simulation. However, the effectiveness of the simulation with the different feedback types and the generalizability to field settings remained unclear.ObjectivesWe tested the generalizability of the previous findings and the effectiveness of a single simulation session with either feedback type in an experimental field study.MethodsIn regular online courses, 332 preservice teachers at five German universities participated in one of three randomly assigned groups: (1) a simulation group with NLP‐based adaptive feedback, (2) a simulation group with static feedback and (3) a no‐simulation control group. We analysed the effect of the simulation with the two feedback types on participants' judgement accuracy and justification quality.Results and ConclusionsCompared with static feedback, adaptive feedback significantly enhanced justification quality but not judgement accuracy. Only the simulation with adaptive feedback significantly benefited learners' justification quality over the no‐simulation control group, while no significant differences in judgement accuracy were found.Our field experiment replicated the findings of the laboratory study. Only a simulation session with adaptive feedback, unlike static feedback, seems to enhance learners' justification quality but not judgement accuracy. Under field conditions, learners require adaptive support in simulations and can benefit from NLP‐based adaptive feedback using artificial neural networks.

Professional knowledge deficits and knowledge differences in interprofessional discharge planning: A questionnaire study Abstract: Background: This study focuses on discharge planning (DP), specifically on knowledge deficits and differences between nurses and physicians in Germany. Objectives: To determine and compare the current level of knowledge, as well as potential knowledge deficits and differences, among the studied professional groups with regard to DP. Methods: A knowledge test on DP was developed and content validated. The test consisted of 16 items covering four dimensions of DP knowledge, covering both conceptual and procedural aspects: knowledge of time aspects, knowledge of responsibilities and task sharing, knowledge of legal aspects of insurance, and knowledge of follow-up care. A total of 177 participants completed the knowledge test. The data were analysed descriptively and using Linear Mixed Models (LMM). Results: The results showed that physicians had descriptively satisfactory knowledge (70%) of DP, whereas nursing staff only had sufficient knowledge (60%). With regard to the knowledge dimensions, the participants differed greatly in terms of both conceptual and procedural aspects. In addition, there was a small effect of the professional group on procedural knowledge of responsibilities and task allocation: physicians scored better in the test. No significant differences were found with regard to professional experience. Conclusions: The results suggest that neither professional group has sufficient knowledge to independently fulfil the defined key areas of care in DP.

The Uncanny Valley hypothesis proposes that as robots become more human-like, they are initially liked better but then elicit a feeling of eeriness, peaking just before achieving full human resemblance. It remains unclear whether context can modify this effect. In an online experiment, participants were primed with a vignette about either robots as social companions (social context priming) or a neutral topic, and then rated images of robots on human-likeness, likability, trust, and creepiness. We found a negative linear relationship between a robot's human-likeness and its likability and trustworthiness and a positive linear relationship between a robot's human-likeness and creepiness. Social context priming improved overall likability and trust of robots but did not modulate the Uncanny Valley effect. This indicates that, while presenting robots in a social context can improve their acceptance, this does not change our inherent discomfort with increasing human-like robots.