During the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, fear of disease and its consequences, recommended lifestyle changes, and severe restrictions set by governments acted as stressors and affected people’s ...mood, emotions, mental health, and wellbeing. Many studies conducted during this crisis focused on affective and physiological responses to stress, but few studies examined how the crisis affected cognition. The present cross-sectional study examined the relationship between physiological, affective, and cognitive responses to the epidemic. In an online survey conducted at the height of the first wave of the epidemic in Slovenia (April 15–25, 2020), 830 Slovenian residents aged 18–85 years reported the effects of stressors (confinement, problems at home, problems at work, lack of necessities, and increased workload), experienced emotions, generalized anxiety, perceived stress, changes in health, fatigue and sleep quality, and perceived changes in cognition during the epidemic. Risk factors for stress (neuroticism, vulnerability, general health, gender, and age) were also recorded. We hypothesized that stressors and stress risk factors will be related to subjective cognitive decline, with negative emotions, generalized anxiety, perceived stress, and physical symptoms acting as mediator variables. On average, the results showed a mild subjective cognitive decline during the epidemic. In structural equation modeling, 34% of its variance was predicted by the mediator variables, with negative emotions and physical symptoms having the largest contribution. Stress risk factors were predictably related to the four mediator variables. Among the stressors, confinement showed the strongest effect on the four mediator variables, implying the importance of thoughtful communication about necessary restrictive measures during emergency circumstances. The results of this study indicate that the possibility of altered cognitive function should be considered when planning work and study activities during the epidemic.
The amount of educational material delivered to pupils and students through digital screens is increasing. This method of delivering educational materials has become even more prevalent during the ...COVID-19 pandemic. To be as effective as possible, educational material must be properly designed not only in terms of content, but also in terms of form, e.g., the typeface. The present study investigated the effect of letter shape on readers' feelings of pleasantness during reading, reading fluency, and text comprehension and memorisation.
To find out whether age influences the effects of typeface shape on reading measures, we divided the participants into a group of less experienced readers (children) and more experienced readers (adults). Both groups read texts in eight different typefaces: four of them were round or in rounded shape, and four were angular or in pointed shape. With an eye-tracker, the reading speed and the number of regressive saccades were recorded as measures of reading fluency and changes in pupil size as an indicator of emotional response. After reading each text, the participants rated the pleasantness of the typeface, and their comprehension and memorisation of texts were checked by asking two questions about the text content.
We found that compared to angular letters or letters in pointed shape, round letters or letters in round shape created more pleasant feelings for readers and lead to a faster reading speed. Children, as expected, read more slowly due to less reading experiences, but, interestingly, had a similar number of regressive saccades and did not comprehend or remember the text worse than university students.
We concluded that softer typefaces of rounder shapes should be used in educational materials, as they make the reading process easier and thus support the learning process better for both younger and adult readers. The results of our study also showed that a comparison of findings of different studies may depend on the differences among the used letter shapes.
Nowadays, video games have become the most popular form of entertainment. For this reason, it is crucial to investigate the positive and negative consequences of gaming. The action genre is the most ...played amongst gamers and is interesting for cognitive psychology research because gaming requires many perceptual and cognitive abilities. The present study examined the association between playing action video games and the ability to mentally rotate objects, track multiple objects, and switch between tasks. Using a sample of emerging and young adults (18–37 years old), we compared non-gamers (N = 81) and action video gamers (N = 82). Results showed that playing action video games was related to better mental rotation ability and higher attentional capacity. Although gamers switched between tasks faster than non-gamers, the groups did not differ in switching costs, which are an important indicator of cognitive flexibility. The results suggest that playing action video games is positively associated with information processing speed, attention, and visuospatial abilities, and suggest a possible use of such games to improve these abilities.
Social Influence in Rating Music Ivanec, Dragutin; Podlesek, Anja; Prišuta, Neven
Psihologijske teme,
04/2023, Letnik:
32, Številka:
1
Journal Article, Paper
Odprti dostop
The goal of this study was to examine the social influence on music liking with respect to individual musical taste. To measure musical taste, participants (N = 95, mean age 20.4 years) filled in the ...STOMP scale. They were then asked individually to listen to 16 musical excerpts from different genres using a computer program and rate how much they liked them. They were divided into three groups that were shown different information about other participants’ ratings of the same excerpts. The first group was shown ratings allegedly based on others’ positive judgments, the second group was shown ratings allegedly based on others’ negative judgments, and the third group was given no information. The results showed that the participants’ ratings were susceptible to social influence, i.e., they conformed towards the shown group norm. As expected, musical taste was related to the ratings of the music excerpts, but did not moderate the effect of social influence. Thus, the results show that social comparison, which has been confirmed by research in various areas of human judgment, also exists in rating music.
The COVID-19 pandemic created stress and trauma for many individuals. Traumatic experiences often trigger reflection on meaning in life, with subsequent growth or despair. This study evaluates the ...role of meaning in life in buffering stressors in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the negative effects of COVID-19 stressors (self-perceived stress, emotional state, and cognitive adaptation to stress in the pandemic) are influenced by meaning in life in the context of the early stages of the pandemic. Further, this study described differences in meaning in life observed across demographic groups.
Web-based surveys were completed by 831 Slovenian participants in April of 2020. Demographic data; perceptions of stressors related to lacking necessities, movement restrictions, and concerns at home; meaning in life; perceived overall health status; anxiety; emotional state; and perceived stress were measured.
A moderately strong sense of meaning in life (M = 5.0, SD = 0.74, range 1–7) was reported by participants, and meaning in life was associated with enhanced wellbeing (B = 0.06-0.28, p < .01). Both direct and indirect relationships were observed between stressors and wellbeing outcomes. The indirect effects of meaning in life were especially prominent in the relationship between stressors related to lacking necessities and concerns at home and outcomes of anxiety, perceived stress, and negative emotions, contributing 13–27% of the total observed effects. Increased meaning in life was observed across older age groups (F(5, 825) = 4.8, p < .001) and for those in partnered relationships (t(829) = -3.397, p <.001).
A strong sense of meaning in life was associated with improved well-being, even for individuals who experienced pandemic-related stressors. Public health initiatives and media may help improve resilience to pandemic trauma by emphasizing the collective meaning in challenging situations.
•Stress related to COVID-19 diminished wellbeing for many individuals.•Reflection on meaning in life can be triggered by stress or suffering.•Meaning in life may filter detrimental effects of stress on wellbeing.•Perceived meaning in life is highly associated with wellbeing.
The primary purpose of the study was to compare the results of neuropsychological assessments with results obtained using a translated Cognitive Change Index (CCI) on patients with diagnosed brain ...pathology. Our study included 54 patients diagnosed with neurologic pathology (stroke, TBI, or brain tumor) at the University Rehabilitation Institute Soca (average age = 51 years, SD = 15 years). The results of neuropsychological evaluations and anamnestic data were also obtained for the clinical subsample. Confirmatory factor analysis of the translated CCI performed on responses of 151 normative elderly participants supported a one-factor structure of the questionnaire. Cronbach's α was 0.77 in the clinical sample. A significant correlation was found between lower scores for attention and visual abilities using objective measurement tools and a person's self-assessment of impairment in their own cognitive functions (score on CCI). Individuals can perceive that their attention and visual abilities are impaired when those abilities also score low in diagnostic tests.
Background
Stigma about mental illness—both public and self—is one of the most important factors hindering help-seeking. Stigma can occur during an acute episode of mental illness or be anticipatory. ...One group affected by stigma, but often neglected, is mental health professionals. This study examined the anticipated form of mental-illness and help-seeking self-stigma and the anticipated form of public stigma of suicidal behavior among members of the International Association for Suicide Prevention. We hypothesized that suicidologists with a history of suicidality or mental illness would anticipate greater stigma from the public and self.
Methods
The study received ethical approval from the Commission for Medical Ethics of the Republic of Slovenia. Data from 83 participants who completed an online survey (February to May 2020) with informed consent were analyzed using path analysis. We tested a model predicting help-seeking self-stigma based on (i) personal experience of mental illness using anticipated self-stigma of mental illness as a mediating variable and (ii) history of suicidal behavior using anticipated public stigma of suicidal behavior as a mediating variable.
Results
Personal experience of mental illness predicted anticipation of self-stigma of mental illness (β = 0.26). History of suicidality predicted anticipation of public stigma of suicidal behavior (β = 0.29). Anticipated self-stigma of mental illness proved to be a stronger predictor of help-seeking self-stigma (β = 0.40) than anticipated public stigma of suicidal behavior (β = 0.07).
Conclusions
It is important to intentionally support the mental health of suicide prevention professionals, as they are not immune to mental illness or various types of stigma. Because our sample was small and diverse, further research to better understand stigma concepts in this population is warranted.
Glede na sodobne dokumente in smernice tako na nacionalni kot na ravni EU je treba razmišljati o udejanjanju koncepta inkluzivnosti kot transformacije šolskega sistema, ki vključuje tudi načelo ...medkulturnosti. Prispevek analizira stališča (bodočih) pedagoških delavcev do načinov vključevanja otrok priseljencev v šolski sistem. V raziskavi so študenti (n = 411) izražali manj negativna stališča do otrok priseljencev ter bolj pozitivna stališča do kulturne raznolikosti in pomoči otrokom priseljencem kot pedagoški delavci (n = 763). V članku so predstavljeni nekateri razlogi za dobljene ugotovitve in možnosti vplivanja na spremembo nekonstruktivnih stališč strokovnih delavcev v šolstvu.
Executive functions enable and support most of our daily cognitive functioning. Within the number of executive functions proposed, updating, inhibition and shifting are most often considered as the ...three core executive functions. Cognitive training paradigms provide a platform for a possible enhancement of these functions. Since updating training has been studied to a greater extent, we wanted to investigate the effectiveness of inhibition and shifting training in this study. Emerging adults (psychology students) were randomly assigned either to the inhibition training (based on the Simon task; n = 36) or to the shifting training (based on the task switching paradigm; n = 35). Both groups underwent twelve 20-minute sessions distributed over four weeks. Measurements before and after the training included criterion tasks (i.e. the training tasks), near-transfer tasks (i.e. tasks that address the trained functions but use different types of stimuli or rules to respond), and far-transfer tasks (i.e., tasks that address untrained cognitive functions). The control participants (n = 36) were tested with a combination of these tasks. Both training groups improved their criteria task performance over time, while convincing training-related gains were not found in either near- or far-transfer tasks. This study raises some conceptual questions for the training of executive functions with respect to a sample of emerging adults with above-average cognitive abilities, motivational elements of training, and the role of executive functions in more complex everyday cognitive activities.
Melody prediction is an important aspect of music listening. The success of prediction, i.e., whether the next note played in a song is the same as the one predicted by the listener, depends on ...various factors. In the paper, we present two studies, where we assess how music familiarity and music expertise influence melody prediction in human listeners, and, expressed in appropriate data/algorithmic ways, computational models. To gather data on human listeners, we designed a melody prediction user study, where familiarity was controlled by two different music collections, while expertise was assessed by adapting the Music Sophistication Index instrument to Slovenian language. In the second study, we evaluated the melody prediction accuracy of computational melody prediction models. We evaluated two models, the SymCHM and the Implication-Realization model, which differ substantially in how they approach melody prediction. Our results show that both music familiarity and expertise affect the prediction accuracy of human listeners, as well as of computational models.
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