Ecological validity of experimental set-up affects parietal involvement during letter production

AbstractIn this paper, we provide an in-depth cognitive analysis of a specific humor strategy we coin “trumping”, a multi-agent language game that revolves around the subversion of the linguistic forms of exchange. In particular, we illustrate how, in a conversational setting, agents can “reflect” and “distort” the linguistic-conceptual construal of each others' utterances. Because this reflection or parallelism in the trumping game can be situated on different levels of linguistic organization, a multi-dimensional semantic-pragmatic account is proposed. Using insights from cognitive linguistics, we show that adversarial agents exploit the conceptual mechanisms underlying the opponent's utterances in order to turn the tables in the humor game. In doing so, an agent can trump an adversary by demonstrating a “hyper-understanding” of the lexico-conceptual meaning of an opponent's utterance. This subversion of construal operations like metaphor, metonymy and salience leads to a sudden manipulation of the discourse space that has been set up in the previous utterance(s) (Langacker 2001). In general, by providing an analysis in terms of basic principles of semantic construal, we argue that a cognitive linguistic treatment of humor has an ecological validity that is lacking in most linguistic humor research.

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Exploring the Brain Activity Related to Missing Penalty Kicks: An fNIRS Study

Frontiers in Computer Science ◽

10.3389/fcomp.2021.661466 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Max W. J. Slutter ◽

Nattapong Thammasan ◽

Mannes Poel

Keyword(s):

Near Infrared ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Ecological Validity ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Lateral Asymmetry ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Professional Soccer ◽

And Performance ◽

Set Up ◽

The Brain

At vital moments in professional soccer matches, penalties were often missed. Psychological factors, such as anxiety and pressure, are among the critical causes of the mistakes, commonly known as choking under pressure. Nevertheless, the factors have not been fully explored. In this study, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate the influence of the brain on this process. An in-situ study was set-up (N = 22), in which each participant took 15 penalties under three different pressure conditions: without a goalkeeper, with an amiable goalkeeper, and with a competitive goalkeeper. Both experienced and inexperienced soccer players were recruited, and the brain activation was compared across groups. Besides, fNIRS activation was compared between sessions that participants felt anxious against sessions without anxiety report, and between penalty-scoring and -missing sessions. The results show that the task-relevant brain region, the motor cortex, was more activated when players were not experiencing performance anxiety. The activation of task-irrelevant areas was shown to be related to players experiencing anxiety and missing penalties, especially the prefrontal cortex (PFC). More particularly, an overall higher activation of the PFC and an increase of PFC lateral asymmetry were related to anxious players and missed penalties, which can be caused by players' worries about the consequences of scoring or missing the penalty kicks. When experienced players were feeling anxious, their left temporal cortex activation increased, which could be an indication that experienced overthink the situation and neglect their automated skills. Besides, the left temporal cortex activation is higher when inexperienced players succeeded to score a penalty. Overall, the results of this study are in line with the neural efficiency theory and demonstrate the feasibility and ecological validity to detect neurological clues relevant to anxiety and performance from fNIRS recordings in the field.

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A Virtual Reality set-up for the combined assessment of behavioral and psychophysiological cue-reactivity in gambling disorder

10.1101/2020.08.07.237826 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Luca R. Bruder ◽

Lisa Scharer ◽

Jan Peters

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Gambling Disorder ◽

Electrodermal Activity ◽

Ecological Validity ◽

Cue Reactivity ◽

Critical Role ◽

Temporal Discounting ◽

Sports Betting ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Set Up

AbstractIncreased reactivity to addiction related cues (cue-reactivity) plays a critical role in the maintenance of addiction. Studies assessing cue-reactivity in gambling disorder often suffer from low ecological validity due to the usage of picture stimuli in a neutral lab environment. Here we describe a novel virtual reality (VR) set-up for the concurrent assessment of behavioral and psychophysiological cue-reactivity in gambling disorder. On two days, thirty-four healthy non-gambling participants explored two rich and navigable VR-environments (neutral: cafe vs. gambling-related: casino and sports-betting facility), while their electrodermal activity was measured using remote sensors. In addition, participants completed a temporal discounting task implemented in each VR environment. On a third day, participants performed the task in a standard lab testing context. We then used comprehensive computational modeling using both standard softmax and drift diffusion model (DDM) choice rules to assess the reliability of discounting model parameters assessed in VR. Test-retest reliability estimates were good to excellent for the discount rate log(k), whereas they were poor to moderate for additional DDM parameters. Differences in model parameters between standard lab testing and VR, reflecting reactivity to the different environments, were mostly numerically small and of inconclusive directionality. Finally, while exposure to VR generally increased tonic skin conductance, this effect was not modulated by the neutral vs. gambling-related VR-environment. Taken together this proof-of-concept study in non-gambling participants demonstrates the feasibility assessing both physiological and behavioral cue-reactivity in VR. We show that temporal discounting measures obtained in VR are reliable, suggesting that VR is a promising tool for an ecologically valid assessment of cue-reactivity in gambling disorder.

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Memory-based Deception Detection: Extending the Cognitive Signature of Lying from Instructed to Self-Initiated Cheating

10.31219/osf.io/hgdj4 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Linda Marjoleine Geven ◽

Gershon Ben-Shakhar ◽

Merel Kindt ◽

Bruno Verschuere

Keyword(s):

Deception Detection ◽

Response Times ◽

Ecological Validity ◽

Real Life ◽

Concealed Information Test ◽

Truth Telling ◽

Set Up ◽

Mock Crime ◽

Study Participants ◽

Concealed Information

From a cognitive perspective, lying can be regarded as a complex cognitive process requiring the interplay of several executive functions. Meta-analytic research on 114 studies encompassing 3307 participants (Suchotzki et al., 2017) suggests that computerized paradigms can reliably assess the cognitive burden of lying, with large reaction time differences between lying and truth telling. These studies, however, lack a key ingredient of real-life deception, namely self-initiated cheating. Research participants have typically been instructed to commit a mock crime and conceal critical information, whereas in real life, people freely choose whether or not to engage in antisocial behavior. In this study, participants (n = 433) engaged in a trivia quiz and were provided with a monetary incentive for high accuracy performance. Participants were randomly allocated to either a condition where they were instructed to cheat on the quiz (mimicking the typical laboratory set-up) or to a condition in which they were provided with the opportunity to cheat, yet without explicit instructions to do so. Assessments of their response times in a subsequent Concealed Information Test (CIT) revealed that both instructed cheaters (n = 107) and self-initiated cheaters (n = 142) showed the expected RT-slowing for concealed information. The data indicate that the cognitive signature of lying is not restricted to explicitly instructed cheating, but can also be observed for self-initiated cheating. These findings are highly encouraging from an ecological validity perspective.

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The Effects of Drying Techniques on Clay-Rich Soil Texture

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100052341 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 32 ◽

pp. 466-467

Author(s):

T. G. Naymik

Keyword(s):

Critical Point ◽

Liquid Nitrogen ◽

Liquid Nitrogen Temperature ◽

Drying Methods ◽

Air Drying ◽

Freeze Dried ◽

Critical Point Drying ◽

Set Up ◽

The Relationship ◽

Quartz Grains

Three techniques were incorporated for drying clay-rich specimens: air-drying, freeze-drying and critical point drying. In air-drying, the specimens were set out for several days to dry or were placed in an oven (80°F) for several hours. The freeze-dried specimens were frozen by immersion in liquid nitrogen or in isopentane at near liquid nitrogen temperature and then were immediately placed in the freeze-dry vacuum chamber. The critical point specimens were molded in agar immediately after sampling. When the agar had set up the dehydration series, water-alcohol-amyl acetate-CO2 was carried out. The objectives were to compare the fabric plasmas (clays and precipitates), fabricskeletons (quartz grains) and the relationship between them for each drying technique. The three drying methods are not only applicable to the study of treated soils, but can be incorporated into all SEM clay soil studies.

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Evaluation of Freezing Methods by Low Temperature X-Ray Diffraction

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100079176 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 330-333

Author(s):

T. Gulik-Krzywicki ◽

M.J. Costello

Keyword(s):

Biological Materials ◽

Molecular Organization ◽

X Ray Diffraction ◽

Glass Capillary ◽

X Ray ◽

Rate Dependent ◽

Before And After ◽

Freeze Etching ◽

Diffraction Patterns ◽

Set Up

Freeze-etching electron microscopy is currently one of the best methods for studying molecular organization of biological materials. Its application, however, is still limited by our imprecise knowledge about the perturbations of the original organization which may occur during quenching and fracturing of the samples and during the replication of fractured surfaces. Although it is well known that the preservation of the molecular organization of biological materials is critically dependent on the rate of freezing of the samples, little information is presently available concerning the nature and the extent of freezing-rate dependent perturbations of the original organizations. In order to obtain this information, we have developed a method based on the comparison of x-ray diffraction patterns of samples before and after freezing, prior to fracturing and replication.Our experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 1. The sample to be quenched is placed on its holder which is then mounted on a small metal holder (O) fixed on a glass capillary (p), whose position is controlled by a micromanipulator.

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Eels Under Standing Wave Conditions

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100054911 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 40 ◽

pp. 492-495

Author(s):

O.L. Krivanek ◽

J. TaftØ

Keyword(s):

Standing Wave ◽

Wave Conditions ◽

Set Up ◽

A Site ◽

Complex Crystal

It is well known that a standing electron wavefield can be set up in a crystal such that its intensity peaks at the atomic sites or between the sites or in the case of more complex crystal, at one or another type of a site. The effect is usually referred to as channelling but this term is not entirely appropriate; by analogy with the more established particle channelling, electrons would have to be described as channelling either through the channels or through the channel walls, depending on the diffraction conditions.

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Low-Loss Images in a Stem/Tem Microscope

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010009244x ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 496-497 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David C. Joy ◽

Dennis M. Maher

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Surface Topography ◽

Beam Direction ◽

Low Loss ◽

Specimen Holder ◽

Glancing Angle ◽

High Resolution Images ◽

Set Up ◽

Conventional Manner ◽

Objective Type

High-resolution images of the surface topography of solid specimens can be obtained using the low-loss technique of Wells. If the specimen is placed inside a lens of the condenser/objective type, then it has been shown that the lens itself can be used to collect and filter the low-loss electrons. Since the probeforming lenses in TEM instruments fitted with scanning attachments are of this type, low-loss imaging should be possible.High-resolution, low-loss images have been obtained in a JEOL JEM 100B fitted with a scanning attachment and a thermal, fieldemission gun. No modifications were made to the instrument, but a wedge-shaped, specimen holder was made to fit the side-entry, goniometer stage. Thus the specimen is oriented initially at a glancing angle of about 30° to the beam direction. The instrument is set up in the conventional manner for STEM operation with all the lenses, including the projector, excited.

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UHV-TEM studies of laser-induced damage

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100087471 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 49 ◽

pp. 632-633

Author(s):

T.S. Savage ◽

R. Ai ◽

D. Dunn ◽

L.D. Marks

Keyword(s):

Surface Science ◽

Rapid Heating ◽

Local Heating ◽

Routine Practice ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Northwestern University ◽

Laser Induced Damage ◽

Set Up ◽

Focusing Lens ◽

Diffusion Of Impurities

The use of lasers for surface annealing, heating and/or damage has become a routine practice in the study of materials. Lasers have been closely looked at as an annealing technique for silicon and other semiconductors. They allow for local heating from a beam which can be focused and tuned to different wavelengths for specific tasks. Pulsed dye lasers allow for short, quick bursts which can allow the sample to be rapidly heated and quenched. This short, rapid heating period may be important for cases where diffusion of impurities or dopants may not be desirable.At Northwestern University, a Candela SLL - 250 pulsed dye laser, with a maximum power of 1 Joule/pulse over 350 - 400 nanoseconds, has been set up in conjunction with a Hitachi UHV-H9000 transmission electron microscope. The laser beam is introduced into the surface science chamber through a series of mirrors, a focusing lens and a six inch quartz window.

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