Testing Causal Explanations of Viewing Time Measures of Sexual Interests

The term viewing time (VT) effect refers to a phenomenon whereby respondents typically take longer to judge the sexual attractiveness of targets from sexually preferred (versus nonpreferred) categories. Although frequently characterized as an unobtrusive measure of respondents’ sexually motivated reactions to the stimulus images themselves, the typical pattern of response times might be sufficiently explained by the task demands of the seemingly less relevant rating task. Utilizing three different VT variants, the present paper reports an experimental investigation (N = 136 heterosexual women and men) that tested hypotheses derived from hot stimulus-based processes versus cold cognitive task-based processes. Specifically, stimulus-based processes would predict VT effects even without a rating task, greater VT effects for sexually more suggestive images, and correlations of VT effects with individual sex drive differences. The task-based processes would not imply such predictions, but instead suggest identical response patterns for abstract non-pictorial stimuli that require the same feature integration. Results unanimously speak to the relevance of task demands but provide no support for stimulus-based processes. Implications of these findings for the causal explanation of VT effects are discussed.

Joint Analysis of Eye Blinks and Brain Activity to Investigate Attentional Demand during a Visual Search Task

In several fields, the need for a joint analysis of brain activity and eye activity to investigate the association between brain mechanisms and manifest behavior has been felt. In this work, two levels of attentional demand, elicited through a conjunction search task, have been modelled in terms of eye blinks, brain activity, and brain network features. Moreover, the association between endogenous neural mechanisms underlying attentional demand and eye blinks, without imposing a time-locked structure to the analysis, has been investigated. The analysis revealed statistically significant spatial and spectral modulations of the recorded brain activity according to the different levels of attentional demand, and a significant reduction in the number of eye blinks when a higher amount of attentional investment was required. Besides, the integration of information coming from high-density electroencephalography (EEG), brain source localization, and connectivity estimation allowed us to merge spectral and causal information between brain areas, characterizing a comprehensive model of neurophysiological processes behind attentional demand. The analysis of the association between eye and brain-related parameters revealed a statistically significant high correlation (R > 0.7) of eye blink rate with anterofrontal brain activity at 8 Hz, centroparietal brain activity at 12 Hz, and a significant moderate correlation with the participation of right Intra Parietal Sulcus in alpha band (R = −0.62). Due to these findings, this work suggests the possibility of using eye blinks measured from one sensor placed on the forehead as an unobtrusive measure correlating with neural mechanisms underpinning attentional demand.

Disentangling Doubt and Checking Behaviors and Examining Their Association With Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms

Experiencing doubt in an uncertain situation has been theorized to be an antecedent of compulsive checking. However, whether and when obsessive compulsive (OC) symptoms are associated with experiencing doubt and increased checking is unclear. In this study, we investigated the relationship between OC symptoms, the experience of doubt, and checking in a tone-discrimination task. Doubt was measured using mouse tracking, an indirect, unobtrusive measure. The results of two studies ( N = 119) showed that OC symptoms were associated with elevated experiences of doubt when uncertainty was low. However, OC symptoms were not associated with increased checking, but doubt was. Results highlight the utility of mouse-tracking measures to capture the tendency of individuals with OC symptoms to experience doubt even under neutral conditions. The unexpected null results concerning checking suggest some specific directions for research to determine the conditions under which doubt evolves into checking in obsessive compulsive disorder.

The Future is Less Concrete than the Present: A Neural Signature of the Concreteness of Prospective Thought Is Modulated by Temporal Proximity during Intertemporal Decision-Making

Why do people discount future rewards? Multiple theories in psychology argue that future events are imagined less concretely than immediate events, thereby diminishing their perceived value. Here we provide neuroscientific evidence for this proposal. First, we construct a neural signature of the concreteness of prospective thought, using an fMRI dataset where the concreteness of imagined future events is orthogonal to their valence by design. Then, we apply this neural signature in two additional fMRI datasets, each using a different delay discounting task, to show that neural measures of concreteness decline as rewards are delayed farther into the future.Significance StatementPeople tend to devalue, or discount, outcomes in the future relative to those that are more immediate. This tendency is evident in people’s difficulty in making healthy food choices or saving money for retirement. Several psychological theories propose that discounting occurs because delayed outcomes are perceived less concretely that more immediate ones. Here we build a brain decoder for the concreteness of future thought and use this unobtrusive measure to show that outcomes are processed less concretely as they occur farther into the future.

Questionnaire-Based Everyday Reaction Time: Reliable, Valid, and Unobtrusive Measure of Cognition

Experience sampling paradigms provide new opportunity for early identification of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We investigated two research questions: (1) is time to complete a repeatedly administered survey (i.e., questionnaire-based everyday reaction time, q*bert) a reliable and valid measure of cognition? (2) does this measure distinguish MCI status? To answer these questions, we leveraged ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data from the Einstein Aging Study, where older adults (N=240) completed six daily surveys and cognitive assessments on smartphones over 14 days. Q*bert had good between-person reliability after two days (~11 EMAs) and excellent reliability from three to fourteen days. Q*bert moderately correlated with ambulatory cognitive measures of processing speed and memory binding (p’s < .001) and was significantly slower in those with MCI (p < .001). We propose q*bert as a reliable, valid, and unobtrusive measure of cognition when ambulatory cognitive assessments are not feasible.

Lost in Learning: Hypertext Navigational Efficiency Measures Are Valid for Predicting Learning in Virtual Reality Educational Games

The lostness measure, an implicit and unobtrusive measure originally designed for assessing the usability of hypertext systems, could be useful in Virtual Reality (VR) games where players need to find information to complete a task. VR locomotion systems with node-based movement mimic actions for exploration and browsing found in hypertext systems. For that reason, hypertext usability measures, such as “lostness” can be used to identify how disoriented a player is when completing tasks in an educational game by examining steps made by the player. An evaluation of two different lostness measures, global and local lostness, based on two different types of tasks, is described in a VR educational game using 13 college students between 14 and 18 years old in a first study and extended using 12 extra participants in a second study. Multiple Linear Regression analyses showed, in both studies, that local lostness, and not global lostness, had a significant effect on a post-game knowledge test. Therefore, we argued that local lostness was able to predict how well-participants would perform on a post-game knowledge test indicating how well they learned from the game. In-game experience aspects (engagement, cognitive interest, and presence) were also evaluated and, interestingly, it was also found that participants learned less when they felt more present in the game. We believe these two measures relate to cognitive overload, which is known to have an adverse effect on learning. Further research should investigate the lostness measure for use in an online adaptive game system and design the game system in such a way that the risk of cognitive overload is minimized when learning, resulting in higher retention of information.

In Their Own Words

Wilderness orientation programs, as a special type of orientation, have become commonplace at many colleges and universities. The First Ascent (FA) program is an example of one such program and is a small piece of a comprehensive first-year experience offered at Appalachian State University (ASU). This program evaluation is intended to uncover the meaning of First Ascent through students' voices. Specifically, this qualitative study used naturally occurring data as an unobtrusive measure to gether feedback from participants over the eight-year period in which First Ascent has been in existence. Analysis of the data revealed that students spoke of the interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of the experience as well as the importance of the natural world as a medium. Issues of personal welfare were notable but not prevalent.

Shocking secret you won’t believe! Emotional arousal in clickbait headlines

Purpose Clickbait has become a popular strategy for attracting online users by enticing them to follow the link to a particular website to read further. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature by providing empirical evidence of how clickbait headlines affect online users’ emotional and behavioral responses, specifically emotional arousal and intention to read news. In addition, it is an early attempt to examine pupillary dilation response as an indicator of emotional arousal in the online news context. Design/methodology/approach An experiment was conducted primarily to examine the levels of emotional arousal evoked by two treatment groups of online news headlines, news and clickbait, compared to a neutral control group. Emotional arousal was assessed using two approaches – pupillary dilation response recorded by an eye-tracking device and the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) – and the results were compared. The influence of emotional arousal on intention to read news was hypothesized and tested. Findings The level of emotional arousal evoked by the headlines varies. In general, clickbait headlines generate a higher level of emotional arousal than do the neutral headlines but a lower level than the news headlines. The results also indicate that the level of emotional arousal measured by pupillary dilation response and by SAM are somewhat consistent. Emotional arousal appears to be a significant predictor of intention to read news. Originality/value This study is an initial attempt to investigate how clickbait headlines influence online users’ perceptions and responses, which will be of interest to researchers and news media publishers. The current study also provides evidence for adopting pupillary dilation response, an unobtrusive measure of emotional response, as an alternative methodology for future studies that investigate emotional arousal related to textual information in the online news context.