The ageing of the social mind: replicating the preservation of socio-affective and the decline of socio-cognitive processes in old age

Anticipating population ageing to reach a historically unprecedented level in this century and considering the public goal of promoting well-being until old age, research in many fields has started to focus on processes and factors that contribute to healthy ageing. Since human interactions have a tremendous impact on our mental and physical well-being, scientists are increasingly investigating the basic processes that enable successful social interactions such as social affect (empathy, compassion) and social cognition (Theory of Mind). However, regarding the replication crisis in psychological science it is crucial to probe the reproducibility of findings revealed by each specific method. To this end, we aimed to replicate the effect of age on empathy, compassion and Theory of Mind observed in Reiter and colleagues' study (Reiter et al. 2017 Sci. Rep. 7 , 11046 ( doi:10.1038/s41598-017-10669-4 )) by using the same ecologically valid paradigm in an independent sample with similar age ranges. We were able to replicate the previously observed results of a preservation or even enhancement in socio-affective processes, but a decline in socio-cognitive processes for older adults. Our findings add to the understanding of how social affect and cognition change across the adult lifespan and may suggest targets for intervention studies aiming to foster successful social interactions and well-being until advanced old age.

A Comparison of Children Born Preterm and Full-Term on the Autism Spectrum in a Prospective Community Sample

Introduction: Previous research suggests children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD or “autism”) born extremely and very preterm face substantially delayed development than their peers born full-term. Further, children born preterm are proposed to show a unique behavioral phenotype, which may overlap with characteristics of autism, making it difficult to disentangle their clinical presentation. To clarify the presentation of autism in children born preterm, this study examined differences in key indicators of child development (expressive language, receptive language, fine motor, and visual reception) and characteristics of autism (social affect and repetitive, restricted behaviors).Materials and Methods: One fifty-eight children (136 full-term, twenty-two preterm) diagnosed with autism, aged 22–34 months, were identified prospectively using the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance tools during community-based, developmental surveillance checks in the second year of life. Those identified at “high likelihood” of an autism diagnosis were administered the Mullen Scales of Early Learning and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule.Results: The children born preterm and full-term did not differ significantly in their fine motor, visual reception, expressive language, or receptive language skills. No significant differences in social affect and repetitive and restrictive behavior traits were found.Discussion: The findings of this study differs from previous research where children diagnosed with autism born very or extremely preterm were developmentally delayed and had greater autistic traits than their term-born peers. These null findings may relate to the large proportion of children born moderate to late preterm in this sample. This study was unique in its use of a community-based, prospectively identified sample of children diagnosed with autism at an early age. It may be that children in these groups differ from clinic- and hospital-based samples, that potential differences emerge later in development, or that within the autism spectrum, children born preterm and full-term develop similarly. It was concluded that within the current sample, at 2 years of age, children diagnosed with autism born preterm are similar to their peers born full-term. Thus, when clinicians identify characteristics of autism in children born preterm, it is important to refer the child for a diagnostic assessment for autism.

Measurement of Social Effect in Social Entrepreneurial Ventures

In this reality accountability has turned into an institutional foundation and measurement defines value as per increasing requirements of stakeholders. The motivation behind this paper is to address change and its effects in progress on a social level. No matter the harbinger of change is social entrepreneurial ventures, social innovation or socially obligated activities, it deciphers into a change in business as standard of the society. In this way, the dialogue of our paper spins around quality, social issue, enterprise and it associates them to the effect on social level they produce by introducing the systems used to quantify this effect and their essential reservations. The systems for measuring the societal effect found in the literature inclines toward measurement in monetary sense and it tends to disregard the significance of the psychological influence an organization may have over its objective customers. Moreover, social effect is translated from organizational aspects and of the financial specialists, disregarding the clients that are the object of the influence. Additional discoveries expose that there is no appropriate legal enactment to manage this turf and no specific regulatory frameworks to administer the social affect. Three standards are proposed supporting social effect estimation model (supportability, included quality and adaptability).

Genres as Social Affect: Cultivating Moods and Emotions through Playlists on Spotify

This article bridges work on media technologies and affect theories through an analysis of how users appropriate playlists on Spotify. Our study draws on 30 interviews with users of music streaming services in Costa Rica and an analysis of their accounts on these platforms. We discuss how users create playlists as a means to cultivate affect. The notion of cultivation stresses the dynamic and ritual work involved in producing, capturing, and exploring moods and emotions. We argue that playlists work as “genres”—fusions of musical substance, sociotechnological assemblages, and sociomaterial practices—to respond to the exigencies of affect. This helps turning the platform into an obligatory intermediary in the establishment of a utilitarian relationship between users and music. We draw on Berlant’s notion of “intimate public” to analyze how playlists form the basis of collective experiences that serve Spotify’s political-economic project. As material embodiments of cultivated affect, playlists offer a promise of identification and belonging to “intimate publics” formed by strangers through the specific bonds between music, technology, and affect they enact (as genres). Our analysis concludes with a discussion of the implications of our study for rethinking the relationship between technology, affect, and genre.

Comparison of three different eye-tracking tasks for distinguishing autistic from typically developing children and autistic symptom severity

Altered patterns of visual social attention preference detected using eye-tracking and a variety of different paradigms are increasingly proposed as sensitive biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder. However, few eye tracking studies have compared the relative efficacy of different paradigms to discriminate between autistic compared with typically developing children and their sensitivity to specific symptoms. To target this issue, the current study used three common eye tracking protocols contrasting social versus non-social stimuli in young (2-7 years old) Chinese autistic (n = 35) and typically developing (n = 34) children matched for age and gender. Protocols included dancing people vs. dynamic geometrical images, biological motion (dynamic light point walking human or cat) vs. non-biological motion (scrambled controls) and child playing with toy vs. toy alone. Although all three paradigms differentiated autistic and typically developing children, the dancing people versus dynamic geometry pattern paradigm was the most effective, with autistic children showing marked reductions in visual preference for dancing people and correspondingly increased one for geometric patterns. Furthermore, this altered visual preference in autistic children was correlated with the ADOS social affect score and had the highest discrimination accuracy. Our results therefore indicate that decreased visual preference for dynamic social stimuli may be the most effective visual attention-based paradigm for use as a biomarker for autism in Chinese children. Clinical trial ID: NCT03286621 (clinicaltrials.gov); Clinical trial name: Development of Eye-tracking Based Markers for Autism in Young Children.Lay summaryEye-tracking measures may be useful in aiding diagnosis and treatment of autism, although it is unclear which specific tasks are optimal. Here we compare the ability of three different social eye-gaze tasks to discriminate between autistic and typically developing young Chinese children and their sensitivity to specific autistic symptoms. Our results show that a dynamic task comparing visual preference for social (individuals dancing) versus geometric patterns is the most effective both for diagnosing autism and sensitivity to its social affect symptoms.

Air passenger travel forecasting model based on both dynamical individual behavior and social influence force

Air passenger travel forecasting is necessary and becomes very valuable for airline company, because accurately obtaining practical requirements of air passenger, which can not only help airline company to improve air passenger satisfaction degree and enhance user experience so as to gain huge revenue, but also can help air passengers discover suitable travel plan quickly. In order to generate the air passenger travel forecasting model, this paper aims to analyze the internal driving force and social affect factor simultaneously, which was based on dynamical personal behaviors and air passenger social relationship exactly. In particular, three aspects in terms of dynamical personal behaviors, effect of fellow air passenger, and influence of similar air passenger are all considered simultaneously, and then the data from these aspects are further trained so as to obtain weight allocation in many different scenarios. Besides, workday and non-workday are separately considered in order to make the forecasting model feasible and effective.

Social Affect and Political Disagreement on Social Media

The perception of political disagreement is more prevalent on social media than it is in face-to-face communication, and it may be associated with negative affect toward others. This research investigates the relationship between interpersonal evaluations (i.e., perceived similarity, liking, and closeness) and perceived political disagreement in social media versus face-to-face settings. Relying on a representative survey of adult internet users in the United States ( N = 489), the study first examines the differences between social media and face-to-face settings in terms of interpersonal evaluations and relates them to parallel differences in perceived disagreement. Results are discussed in light of important, ongoing scholarly conversations about political disagreement, tolerance toward the other side in politics, and the “affective turn” in public communication about politics.