Prediction Markets for Paper Evaluations

Title:

A behavioral database for masked form priming

Authors:

Davis, CJ, Adelman, J, Johnson, RL, McCormick, SF, McKague, M, Kinoshita, S, Bowers, JS, Perry, JR, Lupker, SJ, Forster, KL, Cortese, MJ, Scaltritti, M, Aschenbrenner, AJ, Coane, JH, White, L, Yap, MJ, Davis, C & Kim, J

Year:

2014

Journal:

Behavior Research Methods

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0442-y

Abstract:

Reading involves a process of matching an orthographic input with stored representations in lexical memory. The masked priming paradigm has become a standard tool for investigating this process. Use of existing results from this paradigm can be limited by the precision of the data and the need for cross-experiment comparisons that lack normal experimental controls. Here, we present a single, large, high-precision, multicondition experiment to address these problems. Over 1,000 participants from 14 sites responded to 840 trials involving 28 different types of orthographically related primes (e.g., castfe–CASTLE) in a lexical decision task, as well as completing measures of spelling and vocabulary. The data were indeed highly sensitive to differences between conditions: After correction for multiple comparisons, prime type condition differences of 2.90 ms and above reached significance at the 5% level. This article presents the method of data collection and preliminary findings from these data, which included replications of the most widely agreed-upon differences between prime types, further evidence for systematic individual differences in susceptibility to priming, and new evidence regarding lexical properties associated with a target word’s susceptibility to priming. These analyses will form a basis for the use of these data in quantitative model fitting and evaluation and for future exploration of these data that will inform and motivate new experiments.

Citations:

21

Citations per year:

4.2

Title:

A Computational Model of Human-Robot Spatial Interactions Based on a Qualitative Trajectory Calculus

Authors:

Dondrup, C, Bellotto, N, Hanheide, M, Eder, KI & Leonards, UB

Year:

2015

Journal:

Robotics

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/robotics4010063

Abstract:

In this paper we propose a probabilistic sequential model of Human-Robot Spatial Interaction (HRSI) using a well-established Qualitative Trajectory Calculus (QTC) to encode HRSI between a human and a mobile robot in a meaningful, tractable, and systematic manner. Our key contribution is to utilise QTC as a state descriptor and model HRSI as a probabilistic sequence of such states. Apart from the sole direction of movements of human and robot modelled by QTC, attributes of HRSI like proxemics and velocity profiles play vital roles for the modelling and generation of HRSI behaviour. In this paper, we particularly present how the concept of proxemics can be embedded in QTC to facilitate richer models. To facilitate reasoning on HRSI with qualitative representations, we show how we can combine the representational power of QTC with the concept of proxemics in a concise framework, enriching our probabilistic representation by implicitly modelling distances. We show the appropriateness of our sequential model of QTC by encoding different HRSI behaviours observed in two spatial interaction experiments. We classify these encounters, creating a comparative measurement, showing the representational capabilities of the model.

Citations:

4

Citations per year:

1

Title:

Ants determine their next move at rest: motor planning and causality in complex systems

Authors:

Hunt, ER, Baddeley, RJ, Worley, A, Sendova-Franks, AB & Franks, NR
(NB: this paper incorrectly listed as 'Dondrup et al., 2016' on the trading interface)

Year:

2016

Journal:

Royal Society Open Science

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150534

Abstract:

To find useful work to do for their colony, individual eusocial animals have to move, somehow staying attentive to relevant social information. Recent research on individual Temnothorax albipennis ants moving inside their colony’s nest found a power-law relationship between a movement’s duration and its average speed; and a universal speed profile for movements showing that they mostly fluctuate around a constant average speed. From this predictability it was inferred that movement durations are somehow determined before the movement itself. Here, we find similar results in lone T. albipennis ants exploring a large arena outside the nest, both when the arena is clean and when it contains chemical information left by previous nest-mates. This implies that these movement characteristics originate from the same individual neural and/or physiological mechanism(s), operating without immediate regard to social influences. However, the presence of pheromones and/or other cues was found to affect the inter-event speed correlations. Hence we suggest that ants’ motor planning results in intermittent response to the social environment: movement duration is adjusted in response to social information only between movements, not during them. This environmentally flexible, intermittently responsive movement behaviour points towards a spatially allocated division of labour in this species. It also prompts more general questions on collective animal movement and the role of intermittent causation from higher to lower organizational levels in the stability of complex systems.

Citations:

6

Citations per year:

2

Title:

Common variation near ROBO2 is associated with expressive vocabulary in infancy

Authors:

St Pourcain, B, Cents, RAM, Whitehouse, AJO, Haworth, CMA, Davis, OSP, O'Reilly, PF, Roulstone, S, Wren, Y, Ang, QW, Velders, FP, Evans, DM, Kemp, JP, Warrington, NM, Timpson, NJ, Ring, SM, Verhulst, FC, Hofman, A, Rivadeneira, F, Meaburn, EL, Price, TS, Dale, PS, Pillas, D, Yliherva, A, Rodriguez, A, Golding, J, Jaddoe, VWV, Jarvelin, MR, Plomin, R, Pennell, CE, Tiemeier, H, Smith, GD & Miller, L

Year:

2014

Journal:

Nature Communications

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5831

Abstract:

Twin studies suggest that expressive vocabulary at ~24 months is modestly heritable. However, the genes influencing this early linguistic phenotype are unknown. Here we conduct a genome-wide screen and follow-up study of expressive vocabulary in toddlers of European descent from up to four studies of the EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology consortium, analysing an early (15–18 months, ‘one-word stage’, NTotal=8,889) and a later (24–30 months, ‘two-word stage’, NTotal=10,819) phase of language acquisition. For the early phase, one single-nucleotide polymorphism (rs7642482) at 3p12.3 near ROBO2, encoding a conserved axon-binding receptor, reaches the genome-wide significance level (P=1.3 × 10−8) in the combined sample. This association links language-related common genetic variation in the general population to a potential autism susceptibility locus and a linkage region for dyslexia, speech-sound disorder and reading. The contribution of common genetic influences is, although modest, supported by genome-wide complex trait analysis (meta-GCTA h215–18-months=0.13, meta-GCTA h224–30-months=0.14) and in concordance with additional twin analysis (5,733 pairs of European descent, h224-months=0.20).

Citations:

28

Citations per year:

5.6

Title:

Denoising spinal cord fMRI data: Approaches to acquisition and analysis

Authors:

Eippert, F, Kong, Y, Jenkinson, M, Tracey, I & Brooks, JCW

Year:

2016

Journal:

NeuroImage

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.09.065

Abstract:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the human spinal cord is a difficult endeavour due to the cord's small cross-sectional diameter, signal drop-out as well as image distortion due to magnetic field inhomogeneity, and the confounding influence of physiological noise from cardiac and respiratory sources. Nevertheless, there is great interest in spinal fMRI due to the spinal cord's role as the principal sensorimotor interface between the brain and the body and its involvement in a variety of sensory and motor pathologies. In this review, we give an overview of the various methods that have been used to address the technical challenges in spinal fMRI, with a focus on reducing the impact of physiological noise. We start out by describing acquisition methods that have been tailored to the special needs of spinal fMRI and aim to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and reduce distortion in obtained images. Following this, we concentrate on image processing and analysis approaches that address the detrimental effects of noise. While these include variations of standard pre-processing methods such as motion correction and spatial filtering, the main focus lies on denoising techniques that can be applied to task-based as well as resting-state data sets. We review both model-based approaches that rely on externally acquired respiratory and cardiac signals as well as data-driven approaches that estimate and correct for noise using the data themselves. We conclude with an outlook on techniques that have been successfully applied for noise reduction in brain imaging and whose use might be beneficial for fMRI of the human spinal cord.

Citations:

12

Citations per year:

4

Title:

Disinhibited eating mediates differences in attachment insecurity between bariatric surgery andidates/recipients and lean controls

Authors:

Wilkinson, L, Rowe, A, sheldon, C, Johnson, A & Brunstrom, J

Year:

2017

Journal:

International Journal of Obesity

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.157

Abstract:

Previous research has shown that attachment anxiety is a good predictor of body mass index. This relationship is significantly mediated by disinhibited (over-) eating and is likely to reflect a specific form of affect regulation. This study explored whether obese bariatric surgery candidates (BSC; N=34) and bariatric surgery recipients (BSR; N=15) would show higher levels of attachment insecurity (higher attachment anxiety and/or higher attachment avoidance) than a group of age and gender-matched lean controls (N=54). Mediation analyses showed that compared to lean controls (M=2.96, SE=0.1), both BSC (M=3.5, SE=0.2) and BSR (M=3.4, SE=0.2) groups had a more insecure attachment orientation. These relationships were significantly mediated by disinhibited eating (BSC: lower limit confidence interval (LLCI)=0.06 and upper limit confidence interval (ULCI)=0.62; BSR: LLCI=0.02 and ULCI=0.76). There was no such relationship when the BSC and BSR groups were compared (LLCI=−0.15 & ULCI=0.3). These observations suggest that attachment insecurity may be a risk factor for obesity and bariatric surgery because of associated disinhibited eating. Moreover, these factors may be important to consider when bariatric surgery results in poor outcomes.

Citations:

1

Citations per year:

0.5

Title:

Distance-dependent pattern blending can camouflage salient aposematic signals

Authors:

Barnett, J, Cuthill, I & Scott-Samuel, N

Year:

2017

Journal:

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Weblink:

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0128

Abstract:

The effect of viewing distance on the perception of visual texture is well known: spatial frequencies higher than the resolution limit of an observer's visual system will be summed and perceived as a single combined colour. In animal defensive colour patterns, distance-dependent pattern blending may allow aposematic patterns, salient at close range, to match the background to distant observers. Indeed, recent research has indicated that reducing the distance from which a salient signal can be detected can increase survival over camouflage or conspicuous aposematism alone. We investigated whether the spatial frequency of conspicuous and cryptically coloured stripes affects the rate of avian predation. Our results are consistent with pattern blending acting to camouflage salient aposematic signals effectively at a distance. Experiments into the relative rate of avian predation on edible model caterpillars found that increasing spatial frequency (thinner stripes) increased survival. Similarly, visual modelling of avian predators showed that pattern blending increased the similarity between caterpillar and background. These results show how a colour pattern can be tuned to reveal or conceal different information at different distances, and produce tangible survival benefits.

Citations:

5

Citations per year:

2.5

Title:

Drawing Firmer Conclusions: Autistic Children Show No Evidence of a Local Processing Bias in a Controlled Copying Task

Authors:

Smith, AD, Kenny, L, Rudnicka, A, Briscoe, J & Pellicano, L

Year:

2016

Journal:

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2889-z

Abstract:

Drawing tasks are frequently used to test competing theories of visuospatial skills in autism. Yet, methodological differences between studies have led to inconsistent findings. To distinguish between accounts based on local bias or global deficit, we present a simple task that has previously revealed dissociable local/global impairments in neuropsychological patients. Autistic and typical children copied corner elements, arranged in a square configuration. Grouping cues were manipulated to test whether global properties affected the accuracy of reproduction. All children were similarly affected by these manipulations. There was no group difference in the reproduction of local elements, although global accuracy was negatively related to better local processing for autistic children. These data speak against influential theories of visuospatial differences in autism.

Citations:

1

Citations per year:

0.33

Title:

Early Visual Evoked Potentials and Mismatch Negativity in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment

Authors:

Stothart, G, Kazanina, N, Näätänen, R, Haworth, J & Tales, A

Year:

2015

Journal:

Journal of Alzheimer's Disease

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-140930

Abstract:

Background: Cortical visual association areas are highly vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease (AD) microscopic pathology. Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) provide the tools to examine the functional integrity of these areas and may provide useful indicators of early disease progression. Objective:To assess the functional integrity of visual association area processing in AD and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) using VEPs. Methods:We investigated the visual processing of healthy older adults (n = 26), AD (n = 20), and aMCI (n = 25) patients in a visual oddball paradigm designed to elicit the visual P1, N1, and visual mismatch negativity (vMMN). Results:AD patients showed a significant reduction of P1 and N1 VEP amplitudes and aMCI patients showed a reduction in N1 amplitude compared to healthy older adults. P1 amplitude in response to deviant stimuli and vMMN amplitude were found to be associated with the degree of cognitive impairment as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination. Conclusions:Changes in VEPs in AD may be a consequence of the microscopic AD pathology typically found in the extrastriate cortex. Neural measures of visual processing may help to better characterize subgroups of aMCI patients likely to develop AD. Additionally, VEPs and vMMN may provide objective markers of cognitive decline.

Citations:

16

Citations per year:

4

Title:

Food reward. What it is and how to measure it

Authors:

Rogers, PJ & Hardman, CA

Year:

2015

Journal:

Appetite

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.02.032

Abstract:

We investigated the contribution of hunger and food liking to food reward, and the relationship between food reward and food intake. We defined liking as the pleasantness of taste of food in the mouth, and food reward as the momentary value of a food to the individual at the time of ingestion. Liking and food reward were measured, respectively, by ratings of the pleasantness of the taste of a mouthful, and ratings of desire to eat a portion, of the food in question. Hunger, which we view as primarily the absence of fullness, was rated without food being present. Study 1 provided evidence that hunger and liking contribute independently to food reward, with little effect of hunger on liking. Food intake reduced liking and reward value more for the eaten food than uneaten foods. The results were ambiguous as to whether this food-specific decline in reward value (‘sensory-specific satiety’) involved a decrease in ‘wanting’ in addition to the decrease in liking. Studies 2 and 3 compared desire to eat ratings with work-for-food and pay-for-food measures of food reward, and found desire to eat to be equal or superior in respect of effects of hunger and liking, and superior in predicting ad libitum food intake. A further general observation was that in making ratings of food liking participants may confuse the pleasantness of the taste of food with the pleasantness of eating it. The latter, which some call ‘palatability,’ decreases more with eating because it is significantly affected by hunger/fullness. Together, our results demonstrate the validity of ratings of desire to eat a portion of a tasted food as a measure of food reward and as a predictor of food intake.

Citations:

34

Citations per year:

8.5

Title:

Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses

Authors:

Okbay, A, Baselmans, BML, De Neve, J-E, Turley, P, Nivard, MG, Fontana, MA, Meddens, SFW, Linnér, RK, Rietveld, CA, Derringer, J, Gratten, J, Lee, JJ, Liu, JZ, de Vlaming, R, Ahluwalia, TS, Buchwald, J, Cavadino, A, Frazier-Wood, AC, Furlotte, NA, Garfield, V, Geisel, MH, Gonzalez, JR, Haitjema, S, Karlsson, R, van der Laan, SW, Ladwig, K-H, Lahti, J, van der Lee, SJ, Lind, PA, Liu, T, Matteson, L, Mihailov, E, Miller, MB, Minica, CC, Nolte, IM, Mook-Kanamori, D, van der Most, PJ, Oldmeadow, C, Qian, Y, Raitakari, O, Rawal, R, Realo, A, Rueedi, R, Schmidt, B, Smith, AV, Stergiakouli, E, Tanaka, T, Taylor, K, Wedenoja, J, Wellmann, J, Westra, H-J, Willems, SM, Zhao, W, Amin, N, Bakshi, A, Boyle, PA, Cherney, S, Cox, SR, Davies, G, Davis, OSP, Ding, J, Direk, N, Eibich, P, Emeny, RT, Fatemifar, G, Faul, JD, Ferrucci, L, Forstner, A, Gieger, C, Gupta, R, Harris, TB, Harris, JM, Holliday, EG, Hottenga, J-J, De Jager, PL, Kaakinen, MA, Kajantie, E, Karhunen, V, Kolcic, I, Kumari, M, Launer, LJ, Franke, L, Li-Gao, R, Koini, M, Loukola, A, Marques-Vidal, P, Montgomery, GW, Mosing, MA, Paternoster, L, Pattie, A, Petrovic, KE, Pulkki-Råback, L, Quaye, L, Räikkönen, K, Rudan, I, Scott, RJ, Smith, JA, Sutin, AR, Trzaskowski, M, Vinkhuyzen, AE, Yu, L, Zabaneh, D, Attia, JR, Bennett, DA, Berger, K, Bertram, L, Boomsma, DI, Snieder, H, Chang, S-C, Cucca, F, Deary, IJ, van Duijn, CM, Eriksson, JG, Bültmann, U, de Geus, EJC, Groenen, PJF, Gudnason, V, Hansen, T, Hartman, CA, Haworth, CMA, Hayward, C, Heath, AC, Hinds, DA, Hyppönen, E, Iacono, WG, Järvelin, M-R, Jöckel, K-H, Kaprio, J, Kardia, SLR, Keltikangas-Järvinen, L, Kraft, P, Kubzansky, LD, Lehtimäki, T, Magnusson, PKE, Martin, NG, McGue, M, Metspalu, A, Mills, M, de Mutsert, R, Oldehinkel, AJ, Pasterkamp, G, Pedersen, NL, Plomin, R, Polasek, O, Power, C, Rich, SS, Rosendaal, FR, den Ruijter, HM, Schlessinger, D, Schmidt, H, Svento, R, Schmidt, R, Alizadeh, BZ, Sorensen, T, Spector, TD, Steptoe, A, Terracciano, A, Thurik, AR, Timpson, NJ, Tiemeier, H, Uitterlinden, AG, Vollenweider, P, Wagner, GG, Weir, DR, Yang, J, Conley, DC, Smith, GD, Hofman, A, Johannesson, M, Laibson, DI, Medland, SE, Meyer, MN, Pickrell, JK, Esko, T, Krueger, RF, Beauchamp, JP, Koellinger, PD, Benjamin, DJ, Bartels, M, Cesarini, D & LifeLines Cohort Study

Year:

2016

Journal:

Nature Genetics

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3552

Abstract:

Very few genetic variants have been associated with depression and neuroticism, likely because of limitations on sample size in previous studies. Subjective well-being, a phenotype that is genetically correlated with both of these traits, has not yet been studied with genome-wide data. We conducted genome-wide association studies of three phenotypes: subjective well-being (n = 298,420), depressive symptoms (n = 161,460), and neuroticism (n = 170,911). We identify 3 variants associated with subjective well-being, 2 variants associated with depressive symptoms, and 11 variants associated with neuroticism, including 2 inversion polymorphisms. The two loci associated with depressive symptoms replicate in an independent depression sample. Joint analyses that exploit the high genetic correlations between the phenotypes (|ρ^| ≈ 0.8) strengthen the overall credibility of the findings and allow us to identify additional variants. Across our phenotypes, loci regulating expression in central nervous system and adrenal or pancreas tissues are strongly enriched for association.

Citations:

172

Citations per year:

57.33

Title:

Harnessing the uncertainty monster: Putting quantitative constraints on the intergenerational social discount rate

Authors:

Lewandowsky, S, Freeman, MC & Mann, ME

Year:

2017

Journal:

Global and Planetary Change

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2017.03.007

Abstract:

There is broad consensus among economists that unmitigated climate change will ultimately have adverse global economic consequences, that the costs of inaction will likely outweigh the cost of taking action, and that social planners should therefore put a price on carbon. However, there is considerable debate and uncertainty about the appropriate value of the social discount rate, that is the extent to which future damages should be discounted relative to mitigation costs incurred now. We briefly review the ethical issues surrounding the social discount rate and then report a simulation experiment that constrains the value of the discount rate by considering 4 sources of uncertainty and ambiguity: Scientific uncertainty about the extent of future warming, social uncertainty about future population and future economic development, political uncertainty about future mitigation trajectories, and ethical ambiguity about how much the welfare of future generations should be valued today. We compute a certainty-equivalent declining discount rate that accommodates all those sources of uncertainty and ambiguity. The forward (instantaneous) discount rate converges to a value near 0% by century's end and the spot (horizon) discount rate drops below 2% by 2100 and drops below previous estimates by 2070.

Citations:

0

Citations per year:

0

Title:

Human preferences for sexually dimorphic faces may be evolutionarily novel

Authors:

Scott, IM, Clark, AP, Josephson, SC, Boyette, AH, Cuthill, IC, Fried, RL, Gibson, MA, Hewlett, BS, Jamieson, M, Jankowiak, W, Honey, PL, Huang, Z, Liebert, MA, Purzycki, BG, Shaver, JH, Snodgrass, JJ, Sosis, R, Sugiyama, LS, Swami, V, Yu, DW, Zhao, Y & Penton-Voak, IS

Year:

2014

Journal:

PNAS

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1409643111

Abstract:

A large literature proposes that preferences for exaggerated sex typicality in human faces (masculinity/femininity) reflect a long evolutionary history of sexual and social selection. This proposal implies that dimorphism was important to judgments of attractiveness and personality in ancestral environments. It is difficult to evaluate, however, because most available data come from large-scale, industrialized, urban populations. Here, we report the results for 12 populations with very diverse levels of economic development. Surprisingly, preferences for exaggerated sex-specific traits are only found in the novel, highly developed environments. Similarly, perceptions that masculine males look aggressive increase strongly with development and, specifically, urbanization. These data challenge the hypothesis that facial dimorphism was an important ancestral signal of heritable mate value. One possibility is that highly developed environments provide novel opportunities to discern relationships between facial traits and behavior by exposing individuals to large numbers of unfamiliar faces, revealing patterns too subtle to detect with smaller samples.

Citations:

47

Citations per year:

9.4

Title:

Intrinsically organized resting state networks in the human spinal cord

Authors:

Kong, Y, Eippert, F, Beckmann, CF, Andersson, J, Finsterbusch, J, Büchel, C, Tracey, I & Brooks, JCW

Year:

2014

Journal:

PNAS

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414293111

Abstract:

Spontaneous fluctuations in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals of the brain have repeatedly been observed when no task or external stimulation is present. These fluctuations likely reflect baseline neuronal activity of the brain and correspond to functionally relevant resting-state networks (RSN). It is not known however, whether intrinsically organized and spatially circumscribed RSNs also exist in the spinal cord, the brain’s principal sensorimotor interface with the body. Here, we use recent advances in spinal fMRI methodology and independent component analysis to answer this question in healthy human volunteers. We identified spatially distinct RSNs in the human spinal cord that were clearly separated into dorsal and ventral components, mirroring the functional neuroanatomy of the spinal cord and likely reflecting sensory and motor processing. Interestingly, dorsal (sensory) RSNs were separated into right and left components, presumably related to ongoing hemibody processing of somatosensory information, whereas ventral (motor) RSNs were bilateral, possibly related to commissural interneuronal networks involved in central pattern generation. Importantly, all of these RSNs showed a restricted spatial extent along the spinal cord and likely conform to the spinal cord’s functionally relevant segmental organization. Although the spatial and temporal properties of the dorsal and ventral RSNs were found to be significantly different, these networks showed significant interactions with each other at the segmental level. Together, our data demonstrate that intrinsically highly organized resting-state fluctuations exist in the human spinal cord and are thus a hallmark of the entire central nervous system.

Citations:

35

Citations per year:

7

Title:

Neural mechanisms underlying visual attention to health warnings on branded and plain cigarette packs

Authors:

Maynard, OM, Brooks, JCW, Munafò, MR & Leonards, U

Year:

2017

Journal:

Addiction

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/add.13699

Abstract:

Aims. To (1) test if activation in brain regions related to reward (nucleus accumbens) and emotion (amygdala) differ when branded and plain packs of cigarettes are viewed, (2) test whether these activation patterns differ by smoking status and (3) examine whether activation patterns differ as a function of visual attention to health warning labels on cigarette packs. Design. Cross‐sectional observational study combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with eye‐tracking. Non‐smokers, weekly smokers and daily smokers performed a memory task on branded and plain cigarette packs with pictorial health warnings presented in an event‐related design. Setting. Clinical Research and Imaging Centre, University of Bristol, UK. Participants. Non‐smokers, weekly smokers and daily smokers (n = 72) were tested. After exclusions, data from 19 non‐smokers, 19 weekly smokers and 20 daily smokers were analysed. Measurements. Brain activity was assessed in whole brain analyses and in pre‐specified masked analyses in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens. On‐line eye‐tracking during scanning recorded visual attention to health warnings. Findings. There was no evidence for a main effect of pack type or smoking status in either the nucleus accumbens or amygdala, and this was unchanged when taking account of visual attention to health warnings. However, there was evidence for an interaction, such that we observed increased activation in the right amygdala when viewing branded as compared with plain packs among weekly smokers (P = 0.003). When taking into account visual attention to health warnings, we observed higher levels of activation in the visual cortex in response to plain packaging compared with branded packaging of cigarettes (P = 0.020). Conclusions. Based on functional magnetic resonance imaging and eye‐tracking data, health warnings appear to be more salient on ‘plain’ cigarette packs than branded packs.

Citations:

3

Citations per year:

1.5

Title:

Neural networks learn highly selective representations in order to overcome the superposition catastrophe

Authors:

Bowers, JS, Vankov, II, Damian, MF & Davis, CJ

Year:

2014

Journal:

Psychological Review

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0035943

Abstract:

A key insight from 50 years of neurophysiology is that some neurons in cortex respond to information in a highly selective manner. Why is this? We argue that selective representations support the coactivation of multiple “things” (e.g., words, objects, faces) in short-term memory, whereas nonselective codes are often unsuitable for this purpose. That is, the coactivation of nonselective codes often results in a blend pattern that is ambiguous; the so-called superposition catastrophe. We show that a recurrent parallel distributed processing network trained to code for multiple words at the same time over the same set of units learns localist letter and word codes, and the number of localist codes scales with the level of the superposition. Given that many cortical systems are required to coactivate multiple things in short-term memory, we suggest that the superposition constraint plays a role in explaining the existence of selective codes in cortex.

Citations:

10

Citations per year:

2

Title:

On the origin of islands

Authors:

Yoshida, M, Kazanina, N, Pablos, L & Sturt, P

Year:

2014

Journal:

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2013.788196

Abstract:

There is considerable controversy on island constraints on wh-dependencies in the psycholinguistic literature. One major point of contention is whether islands result from processing limitations such as working memory capacity or from domain-specific linguistic knowledge. The current study investigates whether islands can be reduced to processing considerations, by examining processing of another long-distance dependency, cataphora. If wh-dependencies with the licensing element (the verb or preposition) falling inside an island entail an unbearable memory load on the parser, then other dependencies, including cataphora, with a licensing element (the antecedent), falling inside an island, should yield a similar processing difficulty. The results from a self-paced reading experiment demonstrate that online formation of a cataphoric dependency is not affected by island constraints. We conclude that islands are not fully reducible to processing considerations and therefore must – at least in part – be of grammatical origin.

Citations:

14

Citations per year:

2.8

Title:

Overcoming Indecision by Changing the Decision Boundary

Authors:

Malhotra, G, Leslie, D, Ludwig, C & Rafal, B
(NB: this paper incorrectly listed as 'Yoshida et al., 2017' on the trading interface)

Year:

2017

Journal:

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000286

Abstract:

The dominant theoretical framework for decision making asserts that people make decisions by integrating noisy evidence to a threshold. It has recently been shown that in many ecologically realistic situations, decreasing the decision boundary maximizes the reward available from decisions. However, empirical support for decreasing boundaries in humans is scant. To investigate this problem, we used an ideal observer model to identify the conditions under which participants should change their decision boundaries with time to maximize reward rate. We conducted 6 expanded-judgment experiments that precisely matched the assumptions of this theoretical model. In this paradigm, participants could sample noisy, binary evidence presented sequentially. Blocks of trials were fixed in duration, and each trial was an independent reward opportunity. Participants therefore had to trade off speed (getting as many rewards as possible) against accuracy (sampling more evidence). Having access to the actual evidence samples experienced by participants enabled us to infer the slope of the decision boundary. We found that participants indeed modulated the slope of the decision boundary in the direction predicted by the ideal observer model, although we also observed systematic deviations from optimality. Participants using suboptimal boundaries do so in a robust manner, so that any error in their boundary setting is relatively inexpensive. The use of a normative model provides insight into what variable(s) human decision makers are trying to optimize. Furthermore, this normative model allowed us to choose diagnostic experiments and in doing so we present clear evidence for time-varying boundaries.

Citations:

7

Citations per year:

3.5

Title:

Parental beliefs about portion size, not children's own beliefs, predict child BMI

Authors:

Potter, C, Ferriday, D, Griggs, RL, Hamilton-Shield, JP, Rogers, PJ & Brunstrom, JM

Year:

2017

Journal:

Pediatric Obesity

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12218

Abstract:

Background. Increases in portion size are thought by many to promote obesity in children. However, this relationship remains unclear. Here, we explore the extent to which a child's BMI is predicted both by parental beliefs about their child's ideal and maximum portion size and/or by the child's own beliefs. Methods. Parent–child (5–11 years) dyads (N = 217) were recruited from a randomized controlled trial (n = 69) and an interactive science centre (n = 148). For a range of main meals, parents estimated their child's ‘ideal’ and ‘maximum tolerated’ portions. Children completed the same tasks. Results. An association was found between parents' beliefs about their child's ideal (β = .34, p < .001) and maximum tolerated (β=.30, p < .001) portions, and their child's BMI. By contrast, children's self‐reported ideal (β=.02, p=.718) and maximum tolerated (β=−.09, p=.214) portions did not predict their BMI. With increasing child BMI, parents' estimations aligned more closely with their child's own selected portions. Conclusions Our findings suggest that when a parent selects a smaller portion for their child than their child self‐selects, then the child is less likely to be obese. Therefore, public health measures to prevent obesity might include instructions to parents on appropriate portions for young children.

Citations:

1

Citations per year:

0.5

Title:

Perceiving polarization with the naked eye: characterization of human polarization sensitivity

Authors:

Temple, SE, McGregor, JE, Miles, C, Graham, L, Miller, J, Buck, J, Scott-Samuel, NE & Roberts, NW
(NB: this paper incorrectly listed as 'Potter et al., 2015' on the trading interface)

Year:

2015

Journal:

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0338

Abstract:

Like many animals, humans are sensitive to the polarization of light. We can detect the angle of polarization using an entoptic phenomenon called Haidinger's brushes, which is mediated by dichroic carotenoids in the macula lutea. While previous studies have characterized the spectral sensitivity of Haidinger's brushes, other aspects remain unexplored. We developed a novel methodology for presenting gratings in polarization-only contrast at varying degrees of polarization in order to measure the lower limits of human polarized light detection. Participants were, on average, able to perform the task down to a threshold of 56%, with some able to go as low as 23%. This makes humans the most sensitive vertebrate tested to date. Additionally, we quantified a nonlinear relationship between presented and perceived polarization angle when an observer is presented with a rotatable polarized light field. This result confirms a previous theoretical prediction of how uniaxial corneal birefringence impacts the perception of Haidinger's brushes. The rotational dynamics of Haidinger's brushes were then used to calculate corneal retardance. We suggest that psychophysical experiments, based upon the perception of polarized light, are amenable to the production of affordable technologies for self-assessment and longitudinal monitoring of visual dysfunctions such as age-related macular degeneration.

Citations:

11

Citations per year:

2.75

Title:

Speaking two languages at once: Unconscious native word form access in second language production

Authors:

Spalek, K, Hoshino, N, Wu, YJ, Damian, M & Thierry, G

Year:

2014

Journal:

Cognition

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.06.016

Abstract:

Bilingualism research has established language non-selective lexical access in comprehension. However, the evidence for such an effect in production remains sparse and its neural time-course has not yet been investigated. We demonstrate that German-English bilinguals performing a simple picture-naming task exclusively in English spontaneously access the phonological form of –unproduced– German words. Participants were asked to produce English adjective-noun sequences describing the colour and identity of familiar objects presented as line drawings. We associated adjective and picture names such that their onsets phonologically overlapped in English (e.g., green goat), in German through translation (e.g., blue flower – ‘blaue Blume’), or in neither language. As expected, phonological priming in English modulated event-related brain potentials over the frontocentral scalp region from around 440 ms after picture onset. Phonological priming in German was detectable even earlier, from 300 ms, even though German was never produced and in the absence of an interaction between language and phonological repetition priming at any point in time. Overall, these results establish the existence of non-selective access to phonological representations of the two languages in the domain of speech production.

Citations:

17

Citations per year:

3.4

Title:

The contribution of pre-stimulus neural oscillatory activity to spontaneous response time variability

Authors:

Bompas, A, Sumner, P, Muthumumaraswamy, SD, Singh, KD & Gilchrist, ID

Year:

2015

Journal:

NeuroImage

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.11.057

Abstract:

Large variability between individual response times, even in identical conditions, is a ubiquitous property of animal behavior. However, the origins of this stochasticity and its relation to action decisions remain unclear. Here we focus on the state of the perception–action network in the pre-stimulus period and its influence on subsequent saccadic response time and choice in humans. We employ magnetoencephalography (MEG) and a correlational source reconstruction approach to identify the brain areas where pre-stimulus oscillatory activity predicted saccadic response time to visual targets. We find a relationship between future response time and pre-stimulus power, but not phase, in occipital (including V1), parietal, posterior cingulate and superior frontal cortices, consistently across alpha, beta and low gamma frequencies, each accounting for between 1 and 4% of the RT variance. Importantly, these correlations were not explained by deterministic sources of variance, such as experimental factors and trial history. Our results further suggest that occipital areas mainly reflect short-term (trial to trial) stochastic fluctuations, while the frontal contribution largely reflects longer-term effects such as fatigue or practice. Parietal areas reflect fluctuations at both time scales. We found no evidence of lateralization: these effects were indistinguishable in both hemispheres and for both saccade directions, and non-predictive of choice — a finding with fundamental consequences for models of action decision, where independent, not coupled, noise is normally assumed.

Citations:

19

Citations per year:

4.75

Title:

The Effects of Attachment Priming on Depressed and Anxious Mood

Authors:

Carnelley, K, Otway, L & Rowe, A

Year:

2015

Journal:

Clinical Psychological Science

Weblink:

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2167702615594998

Abstract:

Correlational evidence links attachment insecurity (attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance) to depression and anxiety, but the causal directions of these relationships remain unspecified. Our aim (Study 1, N = 144) was to prime attachment anxiety and avoidance and test causal relationships between these attachment patterns and depressed and anxious mood. Attachment anxious-primed participants reported higher depressed mood than secure-primed participants. Furthermore, avoidant-primed and anxious-primed participants reported higher anxious mood compared with secure-primed participants. In Study 2 (N = 81) we tested the effectiveness of repeatedly priming attachment security (versus a neutral prime), in the laboratory and via texts, on improving depressed and anxious mood. Secure-primed (compared with neutral-primed) participants reported less anxious mood postprime and one day later. Repeated secure-primed (compared with neutral) participants reported marginally less depressed mood postprime and one day later. Discussion considers possible clinical implications for repeated security priming.

Citations:

11

Citations per year:

2.75

Title:

The Practical and Principled Problems with Educational Neuroscience

Authors:

Bowers, JS

Year:

2016

Journal:

Psychological Review

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000025

Abstract:

The core claim of educational neuroscience is that neuroscience can improve teaching in the classroom. Many strong claims are made about the successes and the promise of this new discipline. By contrast, I show that there are no current examples of neuroscience motivating new and effective teaching methods, and argue that neuroscience is unlikely to improve teaching in the future. The reasons are twofold. First, in practice, it is easier to characterize the cognitive capacities of children on the basis of behavioral measures than on the basis of brain measures. As a consequence, neuroscience rarely offers insights into instruction above and beyond psychology. Second, in principle, the theoretical motivations underpinning educational neuroscience are misguided, and this makes it difficult to design or assess new teaching methods on the basis of neuroscience. Regarding the design of instruction, it is widely assumed that remedial instruction should target the underlying deficits associated with learning disorders, and neuroscience is used to characterize the deficit. However, the most effective forms of instruction may often rely on developing compensatory (nonimpaired) skills. Neuroscience cannot determine whether instruction should target impaired or nonimpaired skills. More importantly, regarding the assessment of instruction, the only relevant issue is whether the child learns, as reflected in behavior. Evidence that the brain changed in response to instruction is irrelevant. At the same time, an important goal for neuroscience is to characterize how the brain changes in response to learning, and this includes learning in the classroom. Neuroscientists cannot help educators, but educators can help neuroscientists.

Citations:

28

Citations per year:

9.33

Title:

The relative importance of perceptual and memory sampling processes in determining the time course of absolute identification

Authors:

Guest, D, Kent, C & Adelman, J

Year:

2017

Journal:

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000438

Abstract:

In absolute identification, the extended generalized context model (EGCM; Kent & Lamberts, 2005, 2016) proposes that perceptual processing determines systematic response time (RT) variability; all other models of RT emphasize response selection processes. In the EGCM-RT the bow effect in RTs (longer responses for stimuli in the middle of the range) occurs because these middle stimuli are less isolated, and as perceptual information is accumulated, the evidence supporting a correct response grows more slowly than for stimuli at the ends of the range. More perceptual information is therefore accumulated in order to increase certainty in response for middle stimuli, lengthening RT. According to the model reducing perceptual sampling time should reduce the size of the bow effect in RT. We tested this hypothesis in 2 pitch identification experiments. Experiment 1 found no effect of stimulus duration on the size of the RT bow. Experiment 2 used multiple short stimulus durations as well as manipulating set size and stimulus spacing. Contrary to EGCM-RT predictions, the bow effect on RTs was large for even very short durations. A new version of the EGCM-RT could only capture this, alongside the effect of stimulus duration on accuracy, by including both a perceptual and a memory sampling process. A modified version of the selective attention, mapping, and ballistic accumulator model (Brown, Marley, Donkin, & Heathcote, 2008) could also capture the data, by assuming psychophysical noise diminishes with increased exposure duration. This modeling suggests systematic variability in RT in absolute identification is largely determined by memory sampling and response selection processes.

Citations:

0

Citations per year:

0

Title:

Time-varying decision boundaries: insights from optimality analysis

Authors:

Malhotra, G, Leslie, D, Ludwig, C & Rafal, B

Year:

2017

Journal:

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1340-6

Abstract:

The most widely used account of decision-making proposes that people choose between alternatives by accumulating evidence in favor of each alternative until this evidence reaches a decision boundary. It is frequently assumed that this decision boundary stays constant during a decision, depending on the evidence collected but not on time. Recent experimental and theoretical work has challenged this assumption, showing that constant decision boundaries are, in some circumstances, sub-optimal. We introduce a theoretical model that facilitates identification of the optimal decision boundaries under a wide range of conditions. Time-varying optimal decision boundaries for our model are a result only of uncertainty over the difficulty of each trial and do not require decision deadlines or costs associated with collecting evidence, as assumed by previous authors. Furthermore, the shape of optimal decision boundaries depends on the difficulties of different decisions. When some trials are very difficult, optimal boundaries decrease with time, but for tasks that only include a mixture of easy and medium difficulty trials, the optimal boundaries increase or stay constant. We also show how this simple model can be extended to more complex decision-making tasks such as when people have unequal priors or when they can choose to opt out of decisions. The theoretical model presented here provides an important framework to understand how, why, and whether decision boundaries should change over time in experiments on decision-making.

Citations:

6

Citations per year:

3

Title:

When and how does labour lead to love? The ontogeny and mechanisms of the IKEA effect

Authors:

Marsh, LE, Kanngiesser, P & Hood, B

Year:

2018

Journal:

Cognition

Weblink:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.10.012

Abstract:

We elevate our constructions to a special status in our minds. This ‘IKEA’ effect leads us to believe that our creations are more valuable than items that are identical, but constructed by another. This series of studies utilises a developmental perspective to explore why this bias exists. Study 1 elucidates the ontogeny of the IKEA effect, demonstrating an emerging bias at age 5, corresponding with key developmental milestones in self-concept formation. Study 2 assesses the role of effort, revealing that the IKEA effect is not moderated by the amount of effort invested in the task in 5-to-6-year olds. Finally, Study 3 examines whether feelings of ownership moderate the IKEA effect, finding that ownership alone cannot explain why children value their creations more. Altogether, results from this study series are incompatible with existing theories of the IKEA bias. Instead, we propose a new framework to examine biases in decision making. Perhaps the IKEA effect reflects a link between our creations and our self-concept, emerging at age 5, leading us to value them more positively than others’ creations.

Citations:

3

Citations per year:

3

Title:

We are More Selfish than We Think: The Endowment Effect and Reward Processing within the Human Medial-Frontal Cortex

Authors:

Hassall, CD, Silver, A, Turk, DJ & Krigolson, OE

Year:

2016

Journal:

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Weblink:

https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1091849

Abstract:

Perceived ownership has been shown to impact a variety of cognitive processes: attention, memory, and—more recently—reward processing. In the present experiment we examined whether or not perceived ownership would interact with the construct of value—the relative worth of an object. Participants completed a simple gambling game in which they gambled either for themselves or for another while electroencephalographic data were recorded. In a key manipulation, gambles for oneself or for another were for either small or large rewards. We tested the hypothesis that value affects the neural response to self-gamble outcomes, but not other-gamble outcomes. Our experimental data revealed that while participants learned the correct response option for both self and other gambles, the reward positivity evoked by wins was impacted by value only when gambling for oneself. Importantly, our findings provide additional evidence for a self-ownership bias in cognitive processing and further demonstrate the insensitivity of the medial-frontal reward system to gambles for another.

Citations:

3

Citations per year:

1

Title:

An internet-delivered handwashing intervention to modify influenza-like illness and respiratory infection transmission (PRIMIT): a primary care randomised trial

Authors:

Little, P, Stuart, B, Hobbs, FDR, Moore, M, Barnett, J, Popoola, D, Middleton, K, Kelly, J, Mullee, M, Raftery, J, Yao, G, Carman, W, Fleming, D, Stokes-Lampard, H, Williamson, I, Joseph, J, Miller, S & Yardley, L

Year:

2015

Journal:

Lancet

Weblink:

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60127-1

Abstract:

Background. Handwashing to prevent transmission of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) has been widely advocated, especially during the H1N1 pandemic. However, the role of handwashing is debated, and no good randomised evidence exists among adults in non-deprived settings. We aimed to assess whether an internet-delivered intervention to modify handwashing would reduce the number of RTIs among adults and their household members. Methods. We recruited individuals sharing a household by mailed invitation through general practices in England. After consent, participants were randomised online by an automated computer-generated random number programme to receive either no access or access to a bespoke automated web-based intervention that maximised handwashing intention, monitored handwashing behaviour, provided tailored feedback, reinforced helpful attitudes and norms, and addressed negative beliefs. We enrolled participants into an additional cohort (randomised to receive intervention or no intervention) to assess whether the baseline questionnaire on handwashing would affect handwashing behaviour. Participants were not masked to intervention allocation, but statistical analysis commands were constructed masked to group. The primary outcome was number of episodes of RTIs in index participants in a modified intention-to-treat population of randomly assigned participants who completed follow-up at 16 weeks. This trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN75058295. Findings. Across three winters between Jan 17, 2011, and March 31, 2013, we enrolled 20 066 participants and randomly assigned them to receive intervention (n=10 040) or no intervention (n=10 026). 16 908 (84%) participants were followed up with the 16 week questionnaire (8241 index participants in intervention group and 8667 in control group). After 16 weeks, 4242 individuals (51%) in the intervention group reported one or more episodes of RTI compared with 5135 (59%) in the control group (multivariate risk ratio 0·86, 95% CI 0·83–0·89; p<0·0001). The intervention reduced transmission of RTIs (reported within 1 week of another household member) both to and from the index person. We noted a slight increase in minor self-reported skin irritation (231 [4%] of 5429 in intervention group vs 79 [1%] of 6087 in control group) and no reported serious adverse events. Interpretation. In non-pandemic years, an effective internet intervention designed to increase handwashing could have an important effect in reduction of infection transmission. In view of the heightened concern during a pandemic and the likely role of the internet in access to advice, the intervention also has potential for effective implementation during a pandemic.

Citations:

23

Citations per year:

5.75