Exploring the Implicit Link Between Red and Aggressiveness as Well as Blue and Agreeableness

Previous studies have found a link between red and aggressive behavior. For example, athletes who wear red uniforms in sports are considered to have a competitive advantage. So far, most previous studies have adopted self-report methods, which have low face validity and were easily influenced by the social expectations. Therefore, the study used two implicit methods to further explore the association between red and aggressiveness. A modified Stroop task was used in Experiment 1 to probe college students’ differences between “congruent” tasks (i.e., red–aggressiveness and blue–agreeableness) and “incongruent” tasks (i.e., red–agreeableness and blue–aggressiveness). Result showed that participants responded more quickly to the congruent tasks than the incongruent tasks. Then, in order to adapt to the competitive context, Experiment 2 used an implicit association test with photos of athletes as the stimulus to college students and athletes to evaluate “congruent” tasks (i.e., red uniform photo-aggressiveness and blue uniform photo-agreeableness) as well as “incongruent” tasks (i.e., red uniform photo-agreeableness and blue uniform photo-aggressiveness), respectively. According to the results, both college students and athletes respond faster to congruent tasks than to incongruent tasks. Besides, athletes’ reactions to the red–aggressiveness association are faster than college students, which may relate to the athletes’ professional experience. The athletes may be more aggressive and impulsive. Overall, the study has attempted to examine the association between red and aggressiveness through implicit methods, but in the future, researches are need to find a deep association from brain mechanism aspect.

An ERP Study of the Temporal Course of Gender–Color Stroop Effect

Pink and blue colors have been found to associate with gender stereotypes in previous Western studies. The purpose of the present study was to explore the neuropsychological processing basis of this effect in contemporary Chinese society. We presented stereotypically masculine or feminine occupation words in either pink or blue colors to Chinese college students in a modified Stroop paradigm, in which participants were asked to classify each occupation word by gender as quickly and accurately as possible. Event-related potential (ERP) signals were concurrently recorded in order to identify the temporal dynamics of gender stereotypical interference effect. The behavioral results showed that pink–masculine stimuli elicited a longer response time and lower accuracy than blue–masculine stimuli in the participants, while no such differences were observed between pink–feminine and blue–feminine conditions. The ERP results further revealed distinctive neural processing stages for pink–masculine stimuli (i.e., in comparison to the other three types of stimuli) in P200, N300, N400, and P600. Overall, our results suggested that pink but not blue was a “gendered” color in Chinese culture. Moreover, our ERP findings contributed to the understanding of the neural mechanism underlying the processing of gender–color stereotypes.

Understanding the influence of a cognitively demanding task on motor response times and subjective mental fatigue/boredom

BACKGROUND: Several methods are used to induce mental fatigue; predominantly the modified Stroop task, which arguably has little relation to daily lifestyle tasks. AIM: To investigate the influence of the modified Stroop task on mental fatigue, boredom and motor response times. METHOD: 15 subjects (24.3±2.3 years) completed a 30-min modified Stroop task (control condition: 30-min reading) and completed PRE, POST and POST 5-min subjective ratings of mental fatigue, mental effort and boredom. Participants' ability to use congruent and inhibit incongruent precues in a choice reaction time task (CRTT) was measured pre- and post- Stroop and control. RESULTS: Significantly higher subjective ratings of pre-post condition mental fatigue (pre:2.43±1.31 AU, post: 6.42±2.08 AU,p<0.01) and boredom (PRE: 1.65±1.49 AU, POST: 5.03±2.92 AU,p<0.01) were reported following the modified Stroop task condition compared to the control condition mental fatigue (PRE: 1.62±1.17 AU, POST: 2.10±0.92 AU,p>0.05) and boredom (PRE: 1.94±1.52 AU, POST: 3.32 ± 1.66 AU,p>0.05). No significant differences were found between conditions for the extent to which participants’ response times were affected by congruent (p=0.481) or incongruent (p=0.225) precues. CONCLUSION: Future research must adopt cognitive activities with higher contextual interference for greater ecological validity, and elucidate the impact of rest on recovery from mental fatigue.

Secondary Trauma in Children and School Personnel

A review of childhood secondary trauma is presented. Secondary trauma involves the transfer and acquisition of negative affective and dysfunctional cognitive states due to prolonged and extended contact with others, such as family members, who have been traumatized. As such, secondary trauma refers to a spread of trauma reactions from the victim to those who have close contact with the traumatized individual. Assessment devices are reviewed and most of these appear to be designed to assess secondary or vicarious traumatization in therapists rather than in the general population of adults. The majority of scales lack cutoff scores and this is a significant weakness. The modified Stroop procedure is presented as non-paper and pencil method of assessing secondary trauma reactions. The evaluation of the efficacy of therapeutic interventions for secondary traumatization is virtually non-existent. Systematic studies of secondary trauma are in their infancy and a good deal of further research is needed.

Sub-Chronic Consumption of Dark Chocolate Enhances Cognitive Function and Releases Nerve Growth Factors: A Parallel-Group Randomized Trial

Previous research has shown that habitual chocolate intake is related to cognitive performance and that frequent chocolate consumption is significantly associated with improved memory. However, little is known about the effects of the subchronic consumption of dark chocolate (DC) on cognitive function and neurotrophins. Eighteen healthy young subjects (both sexes; 20–31 years old) were randomly divided into two groups: a DC intake group (n = 10) and a cacao-free white chocolate (WC) intake group (n = 8). The subjects then consumed chocolate daily for 30 days. Blood samples were taken to measure plasma levels of theobromine (a methylxanthine most often present in DC), nerve growth factor (NGF), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and to analyze hemodynamic parameters. Cognitive function was assessed using a modified Stroop color word test and digital cancellation test. Prefrontal cerebral blood flow was measured during the tests. DC consumption increased the NGF and theobromine levels in plasma, enhancing cognitive function performance in both tests. Interestingly, the DC-mediated enhancement of cognitive function was observed three weeks after the end of chocolate intake. WC consumption did not affect NGF and theobromine levels or cognitive performance. These results suggest that DC consumption has beneficial effects on human health by enhancing cognitive function.

No Evidence that Smartphone Notifications Lead to Goal-Neglect

These days, young people report to be in a state of permanent alertness due to their smartphones. This state has been defined as smartphone vigilance, an awareness that one can always get connected to others in combination with a permanent readiness to respond to incoming smartphone notifications. We argue that receiving a notification makes users vigilant and activates goals (e.g., checking the message) that interfere with other goals needed to perform a task. We thus hypothesized that smartphone vigilance impairs maintenance of current task-goals in working memory, resulting in increased goal-neglect. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a preregistered experiment that examined the effect of smartphone vigilance (incoming notifications) on goal-neglect in a modified Stroop task. We found evidence that participants perceived notifications as distracting, but vigilance did not lead to increased goal-neglect. To the contrary, there was tentative evidence that vigilant participants performed better at the task.

Selective attentional bias to food-related stimuli in healthy individuals with characteristics towards orthorexia nervosa

Purpose It has been argued that orthorexia nervosa (ON) is a unique type of disordered eating of food considered by the individual to be healthy. Given that in other eating disorder populations attentional preference for food-related cues influences eating behaviours, is it also likely that these biases may be a characteristic of ON tendency. Methods Eighty healthy individuals completed the ORTO-15 questionnaire (ON tendency), a modified Stroop task containing words related to healthy and unhealthy foods and perceived hunger levels pre- and post-testing. The ORTO-15 was used to identify participants within this sample who demonstrated more or less of the characteristics of ON. Results Results suggest that the presence of attentional bias to healthy, but not for unhealthy food-related stimuli independently predict increased ON tendency. Increased attentional bias towards healthy food-related stimuli is associated with increased scores on the ORTO-15. Conclusion Attentional bias, as a deficit in information processing, towards healthy food-related stimuli accounts for variability in ON characteristics. Level of evidence Level I, experimental study.

Does long-term focus increase victim-blaming? A study on the just-world hypothesis using the modified Stroop task

According to the just-world hypothesis (Lerner, 1980), people have an inherent need to believe that the world is a just place, where people generally get wha t they deserve. One of the benefits of holding this conviction is that it can promote investing in long-term goals. Acts of secondary victimization, such as blaming or derogating the victim can also be explained by just-world beliefs. This study looked at the effect of perceiving an innocent victim (a supposed threat to the belief in a just world) and long-term focus on the activation of the justice motive. We measured participants’ reaction times for justice-related and other stimuli with the help of the modified Stroop task (N=66). A significant difference between justice-related and neutral words has been found after being confronted with the threat to the belief in a just world, indicating that it indeed activated participants’ justice motive. Long-term focus did not have any significant effect. Higher levels of belief in a random world have been associated with greater victim-blaming tendencies.