ORCID Profile
0000-0002-5270-4013
Current Organisations
University of Western Australia
,
University of Technology Sydney
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Cognitive Science | Psychology not elsewhere classified | Decision Making | Computer Perception, Memory and Attention | Biological Psychology (Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, Physiological Psychology) | Cognitive Science not elsewhere classified | Psychology
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Expanding Knowledge in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences | Civics and Citizenship | Learner and Learning Processes | The Media | Mental Health |
Related Links
Publications
Does truth matter to voters? The effects of correcting political misinformation in an Australian sample
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 12-2018
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.180593
Abstract: In the ‘post-truth era’, political fact-checking has become an issue of considerable significance. A recent study in the context of the 2016 US election found that fact-checks of statements by Donald Trump changed participants' beliefs about those statements—regardless of whether participants supported Trump—but not their feelings towards Trump or voting intentions. However, the study balanced corrections of inaccurate statements with an equal number of affirmations of accurate statements. Therefore, the null effect of fact-checks on participants’ voting intentions and feelings may have arisen because of this artificially created balance. Moreover, Trump's statements were not contrasted with statements from an opposing politician, and Trump's perceived veracity was not measured. The present study ( N = 370) examined the issue further, manipulating the ratio of corrections to affirmations, and using Australian politicians (and Australian participants) from both sides of the political spectrum. We hypothesized that fact-checks would correct beliefs and that fact-checks would affect voters’ support (i.e. voting intentions, feelings and perceptions of veracity), but only when corrections outnumbered affirmations. Both hypotheses were supported, suggesting that a politician's veracity does sometimes matter to voters. The effects of fact-checking were similar on both sides of the political spectrum, suggesting little motivated reasoning in the processing of fact-checks.
Has the butcher on the bus dyed his hair? When color changes modulate ERP correlates of familiarity and recollection
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2006
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2006.04.215
Abstract: Recognition memory is usually thought of as comprising two distinct memory processes, namely familiarity and recollection. This distinction is reflected in specific event-related potential (ERP) components associated with both subprocesses. A mid-frontal attenuated negativity for correctly recognized old items relative to new ones around 400 ms has been typically linked to familiarity, whereas a parietally accentuated, more pronounced positivity for old items from 500 to 800 ms has been connected with recollection. Recently, this classification has been challenged by relating the mid-frontal old/new effect to conceptual priming mechanisms. Moreover, the perceptual sensitivity of both old/new effects is still under debate. The present study used a recognition memory task for visual objects and nonsense figures in order to investigate the functional significance of both ERP old/new effects. With respect to study presentation, all items were either presented in a perceptually identical or a color-modified version at test. Old nonsense figures, despite being meaningless, elicited a reliable mid-frontal old/new effect, thereby strongly suggesting a close relationship to familiarity processes rather than conceptual priming. Additionally, both the mid-frontal and the parietal old/new effect for real objects were graded with respect to the perceptual similarity between study and test. We argue that not only recollection, but also familiarity processes can provide information about perceptual atttributes, which is used in the course of recognition memory decisions.
The Components of Working Memory Updating: An Experimental Decomposition and Individual Differences
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1037/A0017891
Abstract: Working memory updating (WMU) has been identified as a cognitive function of prime importance for everyday tasks and has also been found to be a significant predictor of higher mental abilities. Yet, little is known about the constituent processes of WMU. We suggest that operations required in a typical WMU task can be decomposed into 3 major component processes: retrieval, transformation, and substitution. We report a large-scale experiment that instantiated all possible combinations of those 3 component processes. Results show that the 3 components make independent contributions to updating performance. We additionally present structural equation models that link WMU task performance and working memory capacity (WMC) measures. These feature the methodological advancement of estimating interin idual covariation and experimental effects on mean updating measures simultaneously. The modeling results imply that WMC is a strong predictor of WMU skills in general, although some component processes-in particular, substitution skills-were independent of WMC. Hence, the reported predictive power of WMU measures may rely largely on common WM functions also measured in typical WMC tasks, although substitution skills may make an independent contribution to predicting higher mental abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).
Misinformation and how to correct it
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-05-2015
Working Memory Capacity Mediates the Relationship between Removal and Fluid Intelligence
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 15-03-2018
Abstract: A process of active, item-wise removal of information from working memory (WM) has been proposed as the core component process of WM updating. Consequently, we investigated the associations between removal efficiency, WM capacity, and fluid intelligence (gF) in a series of three in idual-differences studies via confirmatory factor analysis. In each study, participants completed a novel WM updating task battery designed to measure removal efficiency. In Study 1, participants additionally completed a WM capacity task battery. In Study 2, participants completed a battery of well-established measures of gF in addition to the updating battery. In Study 3, participants completed the updating, WM capacity, and gF task batteries. The results suggested that removal efficiency was related to both WM capacity and gF. Furthermore, based on a mediation analysis, the relationship between removal efficiency and gF was found to be entirely indirect via removal’s influence on WM capacity. The results were interpreted to suggest that removal ability may contribute to performance in reasoning tasks effectively through increasing WM capacity, presumably through reducing interference from distracting information.
User Involvement in Developing the MYPLAN Mobile Phone Safety Plan App for People in Suicidal Crisis: Case Study
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 16-04-2019
DOI: 10.2196/11965
Abstract: The effect of safety planning for people in suicidal crisis is not yet determined, but using safety plans to mitigate acute psychological crisis is regarded as best practice. Between 2016 and 2017, Australian and Danish stakeholders were involved in revising and updating the Danish MYPLAN mobile phone safety plan and translating the app into a culturally appropriate version for Australia. The objective of this study was to examine the negotiation of stakeholders’ suggestions and contributions to the design, function, and content of the MYPLAN app and to characterize significant developments in the emerging user-involving processes. We utilized a case study design where 4 focus groups and 5 user-involving workshops in Denmark and Australia were subjected to thematic analysis. The analyses identified 3 consecutive phases in the extensive development of the app: from phase 1, Suggesting core functions, through phase 2, Refining functions, to phase 3, Negotiating the finish. The user-involving processes continued to prevent closure and challenged researchers and software developers to repeatedly reconsider the app’s basic user interface and functionality. It was a limitation that the analysis did not include potentially determinative backstage dimensions of the decision-making process. The extended user involvement prolonged the development process, but it also allowed for an extensive exploration of different user perspectives and needs.
Best Practices for Ethical Conduct of Misinformation Research
Publisher: Hogrefe Publishing Group
Date: 07-2023
DOI: 10.1027/1016-9040/A000491
Abstract: Abstract: Misinformation can have noxious impacts on cognition, fostering the formation of false beliefs, retroactively distorting memory for events, and influencing reasoning and decision-making even after it has been credibly corrected. Researchers investigating the impacts of real-world misinformation are therefore faced with an ethical issue: they must consider the immediate and long-term consequences of exposing participants to false claims. In this paper, we first present an overview of the ethical risks associated with real-world misinformation. We then report results from a scoping review of ethical practices in misinformation research. We investigated (1) the extent to which researchers report the details of their ethical practices, including issues of informed consent and debriefing, and (2) the specific steps that researchers report taking to protect participants from the consequences of misinformation exposure. We found that fewer than 30% of misinformation papers report any debriefing, and almost no authors assessed the effectiveness of their debriefing procedure. Building on the findings from this review, we evaluate the balance of risk versus reward currently operating in this field and propose a set of guidelines for best practices. Our ultimate goal is to allow researchers the freedom to investigate questions of considerable scientific and societal impact while meeting their ethical obligations to participants.
Countering demand for ineffective health remedies
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 08-06-2021
Social endorsement influences the continued belief in corrected misinformation.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 09-2023
DOI: 10.1037/MAC0000080
Psychological Research on Misinformation
Publisher: Hogrefe Publishing Group
Date: 07-2023
A Public Health Research Agenda for Managing Infodemics: Methods and Results of the First WHO Infodemiology Conference (Preprint)
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 25-06-2021
Abstract: n infodemic is an overflow of information of varying quality that surges across digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. It leads to confusion, risk-taking, and behaviors that can harm health and lead to erosion of trust in health authorities and public health responses. Owing to the global scale and high stakes of the health emergency, responding to the infodemic related to the pandemic is particularly urgent. Building on erse research disciplines and expanding the discipline of infodemiology, more evidence-based interventions are needed to design infodemic management interventions and tools and implement them by health emergency responders. he World Health Organization organized the first global infodemiology conference, entirely online, during June and July 2020, with a follow-up process from August to October 2020, to review current multidisciplinary evidence, interventions, and practices that can be applied to the COVID-19 infodemic response. This resulted in the creation of a public health research agenda for managing infodemics. s part of the conference, a structured expert judgment synthesis method was used to formulate a public health research agenda. A total of 110 participants represented erse scientific disciplines from over 35 countries and global public health implementing partners. The conference used a laddered discussion sprint methodology by rotating participant teams, and a managed follow-up process was used to assemble a research agenda based on the discussion and structured expert feedback. This resulted in a five-workstream frame of the research agenda for infodemic management and 166 suggested research questions. The participants then ranked the questions for feasibility and expected public health impact. The expert consensus was summarized in a public health research agenda that included a list of priority research questions. he public health research agenda for infodemic management has five workstreams: (1) measuring and continuously monitoring the impact of infodemics during health emergencies (2) detecting signals and understanding the spread and risk of infodemics (3) responding and deploying interventions that mitigate and protect against infodemics and their harmful effects (4) evaluating infodemic interventions and strengthening the resilience of in iduals and communities to infodemics and (5) promoting the development, adaptation, and application of interventions and toolkits for infodemic management. Each workstream identifies research questions and highlights 49 high priority research questions. ublic health authorities need to develop, validate, implement, and adapt tools and interventions for managing infodemics in acute public health events in ways that are appropriate for their countries and contexts. Infodemiology provides a scientific foundation to make this possible. This research agenda proposes a structured framework for targeted investment for the scientific community, policy makers, implementing organizations, and other stakeholders to consider.
Chemotherapy outpatients' unplanned presentations to hospital: A retrospective study
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-05-2011
DOI: 10.1007/S00520-010-0913-Y
Abstract: This descriptive, retrospective study sought to identify the nature and magnitude of chemotherapy outpatients' unplanned presentations and admissions to the emergency department and/or cancer centre at a large metropolitan tertiary hospital, and to explore the antecedents to those presentations. Retrospective data were collected for outpatients who made an unplanned presentation to a large metropolitan hospital in Sydney, Australia between October 1, 2006 and September 30, 2007. Detailed information was collected for those who had received cytotoxic chemotherapy at the hospital's cancer centre within the 6 months prior to the unplanned presentation to hospital. Demographic and explanatory variables were identified, including: reasons for presentation, cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy regimens, and position in the chemotherapy trajectory. The Cancer Institute NSW figures indicate that each year approximately 518 outpatients are treated with chemotherapy at the participating cancer centre. During the study period, 316 cancer outpatients made 469 unplanned presentations to either the Cancer Centre or the hospital emergency department. Of those outpatients presented, 233 (73.7%) had received chemotherapy in the previous 6 months and made a total of 363 presentations. Of these 363 presentations, 253 (69.7%) occurred within 4 weeks of receiving chemotherapy. The majority of presentations by those who had received chemotherapy in the previous 6 months resulted in hospital admission (87.6%) for a median length of stay of 5 days. The most frequent presentation symptoms were nausea and/or vomiting (45.2%), pain (27%), fever and/or febrile neutropenia (23.4%), shortness of breath (19.3%), dehydration (12.1%), anaemia (8.8%), fatigue (8.8%), diarrhoea (8.8%), and anxiety and/or depression (5.5%). Chemotherapy outpatients have significant unmet needs following treatment, indicating an urgent need for improved continuity of care and better integration of primary and tertiary health care services.
Misinformation and Its Correction
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-09-2012
Abstract: The widespread prevalence and persistence of misinformation in contemporary societies, such as the false belief that there is a link between childhood vaccinations and autism, is a matter of public concern. For ex le, the myths surrounding vaccinations, which prompted some parents to withhold immunization from their children, have led to a marked increase in vaccine-preventable disease, as well as unnecessary public expenditure on research and public-information c aigns aimed at rectifying the situation. We first examine the mechanisms by which such misinformation is disseminated in society, both inadvertently and purposely. Misinformation can originate from rumors but also from works of fiction, governments and politicians, and vested interests. Moreover, changes in the media landscape, including the arrival of the Internet, have fundamentally influenced the ways in which information is communicated and misinformation is spread. We next move to misinformation at the level of the in idual, and review the cognitive factors that often render misinformation resistant to correction. We consider how people assess the truth of statements and what makes people believe certain things but not others. We look at people’s memory for misinformation and answer the questions of why retractions of misinformation are so ineffective in memory updating and why efforts to retract misinformation can even backfire and, ironically, increase misbelief. Though ideology and personal worldviews can be major obstacles for debiasing, there nonetheless are a number of effective techniques for reducing the impact of misinformation, and we pay special attention to these factors that aid in debiasing. We conclude by providing specific recommendations for the debunking of misinformation. These recommendations pertain to the ways in which corrections should be designed, structured, and applied in order to maximize their impact. Grounded in cognitive psychological theory, these recommendations may help practitioners—including journalists, health professionals, educators, and science communicators—design effective misinformation retractions, educational tools, and public-information c aigns.
Remembering perceptual features unequally bound in object and episodic tokens: Neural mechanisms and their electrophysiological correlates
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2010
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUBIOREV.2010.01.014
Abstract: We present a neurocognitive model of long-term object memory. We propose that perceptual priming and episodic recognition are phenomena based on three distinct kinds of representations. We label these representations types and tokens. Types are prototypical representations needed for object identification. The network of non-arbitrary features necessary for object categorization is sharpened in the course of repeated identification, an effect that we call type trace and which causes perceptual priming. Tokens, on the other hand, support episodic recognition. Perirhinal structures are proposed to bind intrinsic within-object features into an object token that can be thought of as a consolidated perceptual object file. Hippoc al structures integrate object- with contextual information in an episodic token. The reinstatement of an object token is assumed to generate a feeling of familiarity, whereas recollection occurs when the reinstatement of an episodic token occurs. Retrieval mode and retrieval orientation dynamically modulate access to these representations. In this review, we apply the model to recent empirical research (behavioral, fMRI, and ERP data) including a series of studies from our own lab. We put specific emphasis on the effects that sensory features and their study-test match have on familiarity. The type-token approach fits the data and additionally provides a framework for the analysis of concepts like unitization and associative reinstatement.
Exploring the Electrophysiological Correlates of Encoding Retractions of Misinformation
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 18-07-2018
Abstract: A plethora of behavioural research has suggested that the successful encoding of retracting information is required to minimise the lingering effects of misinformation. However, neuroscientific research in this area is much scarcer. Participants (n = 34) completed a typical continued-influence misinformation paradigm whilst electroencephalographic data were recorded. Two event-related potential (ERP) components associated with memory encoding and updating (a left-frontal positivity and the parietal P3b) were examined when participants processed misinformation retractions in comparison to when no misinformation was presented. Neither frequentist nor Bayesian analyses found differences between ERP litudes elicited by retractions and non-retractions. It is plausible that misinformation removal and the integration of corrective information are not temporally reliable across trials, resulting in suppressed litude in the ERP. Nonetheless, the high temporal resolution of ERPs may still be able to provide an informative perspective on the neural processes of misinformation processing in future research.
Examining the role of information integration in the continued influence effect using an event segmentation approach
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 18-07-2022
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0271566
Abstract: Misinformation regarding the cause of an event often continues to influence an in idual’s event-related reasoning, even after they have received a retraction. This is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). Dominant theoretical models of the CIE have suggested the effect arises primarily from failures to retrieve the correction. However, recent research has implicated information integration and memory updating processes in the CIE. As a behavioural test of integration, we applied an event segmentation approach to the CIE paradigm. Event segmentation theory suggests that incoming information is parsed into distinct events separated by event boundaries, which can have implications for memory. As such, when an in idual encodes an event report that contains a retraction, the presence of event boundaries should impair retraction integration and memory updating, resulting in an enhanced CIE. Experiments 1 and 2 employed spatial event segmentation boundaries in an attempt to manipulate the ease with which a retraction can be integrated into a participant’s mental event model. While Experiment 1 showed no impact of an event boundary, Experiment 2 yielded evidence that an event boundary resulted in a reduced CIE. To the extent that this finding reflects enhanced retrieval of the retraction relative to the misinformation, it is more in line with retrieval accounts of the CIE.
Factors Affecting Whether Or Not Cancer Patients Consider Using Acupuncture
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-2017
DOI: 10.1136/ACUPMED-2016-011115
Abstract: To explore the factors associated with utilisation of an acupuncture service in a tertiary oncology setting in an Australian public hospital. Cancer patients attending oncology clinics at a university teaching hospital were invited to participate in the evaluation of acupuncture services from June 2014 to May 2015. Patients had a prior diagnosis of cancer (albeit at different stages) and were planning to receive, or were already receiving, systemic and/or radiation cancer treatment. The majority (81%) of participants indicated that they would consider the use of acupuncture during their cancer treatment. The most common reasons given for not considering acupuncture included adequate control of symptoms already with medical treatment, inconvenient clinic timing, and needle phobia. The main reasons given for considering acupuncture use included its perceived capability of reducing fatigue, boosting energy levels, improving immune function, and reducing pain and anxiety. Patients considering acupuncture use also demonstrated significantly higher levels of stress (p .001), anxiety and depression (p .001), fatigue (p .001), and lower global quality of life (p .01) compared to those who were not considering acupuncture. The findings show that demand for acupuncture by cancer patients is high. A substantial proportion of cancer patients intend to use acupuncture to manage cancer and/or cancer treatment-related symptoms. Discussion with patients about acupuncture and other complementary therapies during the consultation may improve cancer care.
Perceived Evidence and Use of Autism Intervention Strategies in Early Intervention Providers
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 20-02-2019
Abstract: Background. Continued use of practices not supported by empirical evidence is an ongoing challenge in the field of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Knowledge and in idual attitudes to evidence-based practice, as well as accuracy of categorization of practices on their evidence base, have been linked to practice selection in allied health professionals. This study aimed to extend this research to early intervention staff, and investigated perceived evidence base of practices, and links to intended future use, along with in idual attitudes and sources of information accessed.Method. Participants included 86 early intervention staff who completed an online survey. They rated the evidence base of six ASD intervention practices (three unsupported by research, three empirically supported), along with current and intended future use of these, as well as attitudes to research and to evidence-based practice. Results. At a group level, participants reported using, and intending to use in future, the empirically supported practices more than unsupported practices, and generally accurately reported a higher evidence base for the empirically supported practices. However, a number of in idual participants showed inaccuracy in ratings varying by practice. Perceived evidence was linked to greater intention to use practices in the future, while few links to in idual attitudes were found. Conclusions. Our findings point to the influence of perceived evidence on intended use of practices. Perceived evidence may be impacted by lack of awareness and/or misinformation regarding the evidence base of practices. The need for accurate information about both empirically supported and unsupported practices, as well as strategies to seek and evaluate information are highlighted. Limitations of the self-report methodology, and future research directions including broader clinical decision-making processes are overviewed.
Refuting Spurious COVID-19 Treatment Claims Reduces Demand and Misinformation Sharing
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 06-2020
Whose knowledge is of value? Co-designing healthcare education research with people with lived experience
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2023
Working memory capacity predicts ongoing reliance on misinformation: A latent-variable analysis
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 20-03-2018
Abstract: Misinformation often affects inferences and judgments even after it has been retracted and discredited. This is known as the continued influence effect. Memory processes have been theorized to contribute to the continued influence effect, and much previous research has focussed on the role of long-term memory processes at the time misinformation is retrieved during inferential reasoning and judgments. Recently, however, experimental research has focussed upon the role of working memory (WM) processes engaged in the updating and integration of information, when the retraction is encoded. From an in idual differences perspective, susceptibility to continued influence effects should be predicted by a person’s WM abilities, if continued reliance on misinformation is influenced, at least in part, by insufficient integration of the initial misinformation and its subsequent retraction. Consequently, we hypothesized that WM capacity would predict susceptibility to continued influence effects uniquely and more substantially than short-term memory (STM) capacity. Participants (N = 216) completed a continued-influence task, as well as a battery of WM and STM capacity tasks. Based on a latent variable model, our hypothesis was supported (WM capacity: β = -.36, p = .013 STM capacity: β = .22, p = .187). Consequently, we suggest that low WM capacity is a measurable “risk factor” for continued reliance on misinformation.
Brief Report: Perceived Evidence and Use of Autism Intervention Strategies in Early Intervention Providers
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-12-2020
DOI: 10.1007/S10803-019-04332-2
Abstract: Use of empirically unsupported practices is a challenge in the field of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We explored whether attitudes and perceived evidence were linked to intended practice use in early intervention staff. Seventy-one participants completed ratings of the evidence base, current and future use of six ASD intervention practices, and reported attitudes to research and evidence-based practice. Participants reported greater use and rated the evidence base higher for the empirically supported practices. However, variability in accuracy of evidence base ratings was observed across in iduals. Higher perceived evidence was linked to greater future use intentions for empirically supported and unsupported practices. The need for accurate information across practice types is highlighted. Self-report methodology limitations and future research directions are discussed.
Reminders and Repetition of Misinformation
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 06-2017
Exploring the Electrophysiological Correlates of the Continued Influence Effect of Misinformation
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 18-07-2018
Abstract: Misinformation often affects inferences and judgments even after it has been retracted. This is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). Previous behavioural research into the effect’s underlying mechanisms has focussed on the role of long-term memory processes at the time misinformation is retrieved during inferential reasoning and judgments. We present the first investigation into the CIE using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants (N = 47) completed a continued-influence task whilst electroencephalographic data were recorded. Analysis was guided by previous ERP research investigating the effects of post-event misinformation. The ERP elicited at a left parieto-occipital region of interest was significantly more positive for incorrectly accepted retracted misinformation than correctly accepted true information at a late (800-900 ms) time window. This suggests that post-retraction reliance on misinformation is driven by particularly strong recollection of the misinformation, ostensibly following poor integration of the retraction into the initial, partially invalid mental model.
Refutations of Equivocal Claims: No Evidence for an Ironic Effect of Counterargument Number
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 25-07-2018
Abstract: This study investigated the refutation of equivocal claims using counterarguments. Common sense suggests that more counterarguments should be more effective at inducing belief change. However, some researchers have argued that in persuasive reasoning, using too many arguments might lead to counterproductive skepticism and reactance. Thus, there have been calls to actively curtail the number of counterarguments used in refutations to avoid risking an “overkill backfire effect”—an ironic strengthening of beliefs from too many counterarguments. In three experiments, we tested whether calls to limit the number of counterarguments are justified. We found that a larger number of counterarguments (between four and six) led to as much or more belief reduction compared to a smaller number of (two) counterarguments. This was not merely an effect arising from a simple numerosity heuristic, as counterarguments had to be relevant to affect beliefs: irrelevant counterarguments failed to reduce beliefs even though perceived as moderately persuasive.
Hippocampal integrity and neurocognition in first-episode schizophrenia: A multidimensional study
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-11-2011
DOI: 10.3109/15622975.2011.620002
Abstract: Impairments in memory and executive function are key components of schizophrenia. These disturbances have been linked to several subcortical and cortical networks. For ex le, anatomical and functional changes in the hippoc us have been linked to deficits in these cognitive domains. However, the association between hippoc al morphometry, neurochemistry and function is controversial. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relationship between hippoc al anomalies and their functional relevance. Fifty-seven first-episode schizophrenia patients (FE-SZ) and 61 healthy control subjects (HC) participated in this study. Hippoc al volumes were investigated using structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and hippoc al neurochemistry was determined using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS). Verbal memory was used as a hippoc us-dependent cognitive task whereas working memory and cognitive flexibility assessed frontal lobe function. FE-SZ presented smaller volumes of the left hippoc us, with a significant correlation between left hippoc al volume and verbal memory performance (immediate recall). There was also an inverse correlation between neurochemical ratios (NAA/Cho and Cho/Cr) and verbal memory (delayed recognition). Tests of cognitive flexibility and working memory were not correlated with MRI and 1H MRS values. Compared to HC, FE-SZ demonstrated reduced performance in all of the assessed neurocognitive domains. These results point to a relationship between verbal memory and hippoc al integrity in schizophrenia patients which might be independent from deficits in other memory domains. Disturbed verbal memory functions in FE-SZ might be linked specifically to hippoc al function.
‘Should it fit? Yes. Does it fit? No’: Exploring the organisational processes of introducing a recovery-oriented approach to mental health in Australian private health care
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 27-11-2021
Abstract: This article explores the implementation of an innovative approach to mental health care in a private health setting. Open Dialogue is a recovery-oriented approach to mental health that emerged in Finland, which emphasises family involvement, interdisciplinary collaboration and a flexible, needs-adapted approach. Early research is promising however, little research has explored Open Dialogue outside Finland. This study aimed to explore the introduction of this approach at a private, inpatient young-adult mental health unit in Australia. Drawing on data from a long-term ethnographic field study that included 190 hours of observation and qualitative interviews, the findings show that despite staff members being inspired by and supportive of Open Dialogue, the existing ideology and organisational structures of the unit conflicted with the integration of Open Dialogue principles. Dialogical ways of working were challenged by medical dominance and emphasis on economic efficiencies. This study emphasises the importance of a ‘good’ fit between organisational cultures and innovations. It also highlights the challenges of moving towards recovery-oriented and family-focused models of care in the Australian neoliberal health care context. There is a need for organisational and ideological change in health services that is receptive to, and meaningfully supports, efforts to implement recovery-oriented care.
The gut microbiota and blood pressure in experimental models
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 03-2019
“Attention: Myth Follows!” Facilitated Communication, Parent and Professional Attitudes towards Evidence-based Practice, and the Power of Misinformation
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-07-2015
Best Practices for Ethical Conduct of Misinformation Research: A Scoping Review and Critical Commentary
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 27-06-2022
Abstract: Misinformation can have noxious impacts on cognition, fostering formation of false beliefs, retroactively distorting memory for events, and influencing reasoning and decision making even after it has been credibly corrected. Researchers investigating the impacts of real-world misinformation are therefore faced with an ethical issue: they must consider the immediate and longer-term consequences of exposing participants to false claims. In this paper, we first present an overview of the ethical risks associated with real-world misinformation. We then report results from a scoping review of ethical practices in misinformation research. We investigated (1) the extent to which researchers report the details of their ethical practices, including issues of informed consent and debriefing, and (2) the specific steps that researchers report taking to protect participants from the consequences of misinformation exposure. We found that fewer than 30% of misinformation papers report any debriefing at all, and almost no authors assessed the effectiveness of their debriefing procedure. Building on the findings from this review, we evaluate the balance of risk versus reward currently operating in this field, and propose a set of guidelines for best practice. Our ultimate goal is to allow researchers the freedom to investigate questions of considerable scientific and societal impact, while meeting their ethical obligations to participants.
Misinformation and the sins of memory: False-belief formation and limits on belief revision.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2022
DOI: 10.1037/MAC0000090
Does Mud Always Stick? No Evidence for the Continued Influence of Misinformation on Person Impressions
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 12-07-2023
Abstract: Despite robust evidence that misinformation continues to influence event-related reasoning after a clear retraction, evidence for the continued influence of misinformation on person impressions is mixed. Across three experiments, we investigated the impact of person-related misinformation and its correction on dynamic (moment-to-moment) impression formation. Participants iteratively formed an impression of a protagonist, “John”, based on a series of behaviour descriptions, including misinformation that was later retracted. Person impressions were recorded after each behaviour description. As predicted, we found a strong effect of information valence on person impressions: negative misinformation had a greater impact on person impressions than positive misinformation (Experiments 1 and 2). Furthermore, in each experiment participants fully discounted the misinformation once retracted, regardless of whether the misinformation was positive or negative. This was true even when the other behaviour descriptions were congruent with (Experiment 2) or causally related to (Experiment 3) the retracted misinformation. Thus, we found no evidence for the continued influence of retracted misinformation on person impressions. Our findings help to address some of the discrepant findings in the literature, suggesting that following a clear retraction, person-related misinformation can be effectively discounted, at least for the scenarios considered in this study.
Terrorists brought down the plane!-No, actually it was a technical fault: Processing corrections of emotive information
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2011
DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2010.497927
Abstract: It is well known that people often continue to rely on initial misinformation even if this information is later corrected and even if the correction itself is remembered. This article investigated the impact of emotionality of the material on people's ability to discount corrected misinformation. The focus was on moderate levels of emotionality comparable to those elicited by real-world news reports. Emotionality has frequently been shown to have an impact upon reasoning and memory, but the generality of this influence remains unclear. In three experiments, participants read a report of a fictitious plane crash that was initially associated with either an emotionally laden cause (terrorist attack) or an emotionally more neutral cause (bad weather). This initial attribution was followed by a retraction and presentation of an alternative cause (faulty fuel tank). The scenarios demonstrably affected participants’ self-reported feelings. However, all three experiments showed that emotionality does not affect the continued influence of misinformation.
Examining the Reproducibility of Temporal Event Boundaries in Continued Influence Effect and Event Segmentation Paradigms
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 03-02-2022
Abstract: Event segmentation theory proposes that in iduals segment the incoming stream of information into meaningful events, separated by event boundaries that are triggered by contextual change. This segmentation has important implications for memory and learning. Following unexpected findings from a study that examined the effect of spatial event boundaries on information integration and updating in a continued influence effect (CIE) paradigm, the present study sought to reproduce the reported effects of temporal event boundaries on memory in two experiments. Participants read event narratives that manipulated the presence or absence of temporal event boundaries. Participants’ memory for pre-boundary information was then tested. While Experiment 1 showed no significant impact of a temporal event boundary on recall or recognition memory using event reports of the format used in typical CIE studies, Experiment 2 partially replicated previous research, finding that temporal event boundaries impaired recognition accuracy (though not response speed) when using linear event narratives from previous research. Results suggest that event boundaries impact memory only under specific conditions.
Men’s mental health: The case for a masculinities model
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 11-09-2017
Examining the replicability of backfire effects after standalone corrections
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 08-01-2023
Abstract: Corrections are a frequently used and effective tool for countering misinformation. However, concerns have been raised that corrections may introduce false claims to new audiences when the misinformation is novel. This is because boosting the familiarity of a claim can increase belief in that claim, and thus exposing new audiences to novel misinformation—even as part of a correction—may inadvertently increase misinformation belief. Such an outcome could be conceptualized as a familiarity backfire effect, whereby a familiarity boost increases false-claim endorsement above a control-condition or pre-correction baseline. Here, we examined whether standalone corrections—that is, corrections presented without initial misinformation exposure—can backfire and increase participants’ reliance on the misinformation in their subsequent inferential reasoning, relative to a no-misinformation, no-correction control condition. Across three experiments (total N = 1156) we found that standalone corrections did not backfire immediately (Experiment 1) or after a one-week delay (Experiment 2). However, there was some mixed evidence suggesting corrections may backfire when there is skepticism regarding the correction (Experiment 3). Specifically, in Experiment 3, we found the standalone correction to backfire in open-ended responses, but only when there was skepticism towards the correction. However, this did not replicate with the rating scales measure. Future research should further examine whether skepticism towards the correction is the first replicable mechanism for backfire effects to occur.
They Might Be a Liar But They’re My Liar: Source Evaluation and the Prevalence of Misinformation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-04-2019
DOI: 10.1111/POPS.12586
Reminders and repetition of misinformation: Helping or hindering its retraction?
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 06-2017
DOI: 10.1037/H0101809
Task Demands Differentially Affect Processing of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Object Features in Working Memory
Publisher: Hogrefe Publishing Group
Date: 11-2022
DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/A000572
Abstract: Abstract. Some argue that visual working memory operates on integrated object representations. Here, we contend that obligatory feature integration occurs with intrinsic but not extrinsic object features. Working memory for shapes and colors was assessed using a change-detection task with a central test probe, while recording event-related potentials (ERPs). Color was either an intrinsic surface feature of a shape or connected to the shape via a proximal but spatially disjunct extrinsic frame. There were two types of test: The direct test required memory for shape and color the indirect test required only shape memory. Study-test changes of color were therefore either task-relevant or task-irrelevant. We assessed performance costs and event-related potential (ERP) effects arising from color changes. In the direct test, performance was poorer for extrinsic than intrinsic stimuli task-relevant color changes elicited enhanced frontal negativity (N2, FN400) for both intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli. In the indirect test, performance costs and ERP effects associated with irrelevant color change were larger for intrinsic than extrinsic stimuli. This suggests intrinsic information is more readily integrated into the working-memory representation and evaluated against the test probe. Findings imply that feature integration is not obligatory under all conditions but influenced by stimulus-driven and task-related focus of attention.
Toolbox of Interventions Against Online Misinformation and Manipulation
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 16-12-2022
Abstract: The spread of misinformation through media and social networks threatens many aspects of society, including public health and the state of democracies. A wide range of in idual-focused interventions aimed at reducing harm from online misinformation have been developed in the behavioral and cognitive sciences. We, an international group of 26 experts, introduce and analyze our toolbox of interventions against misinformation, which includes an up-to-date account of the interventions featured in 42 scientific papers. A resource for scientists, policy makers, and the public, the toolbox delivers both a conceptual overview of the breadth of interventions, including their target and scope, and a summary of the empirical evidence supporting the interventions, including the methods and experimental paradigms used to test them. The toolbox covers 10 types of interventions: accuracy prompts, debunking, friction, inoculation, lateral reading, media-literacy tips, rebuttals of science denialism, self-reflection tools, social norms, and warning and fact-checking labels.
Us and them: The experience of international nursing students engaged in team based learning: A qualitative descriptive study
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2020
Experiences of giving and receiving care in traumatic brain injury: An integrative review
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-03-2018
DOI: 10.1111/JOCN.14283
Abstract: To synthesise the literature on the experiences of giving or receiving care for traumatic brain injury for people with traumatic brain injury, their family members and nurses in hospital and rehabilitation settings. Traumatic brain injury represents a major source of physical, social and economic burden. In the hospital setting, people with traumatic brain injury feel excluded from decision-making processes and perceive impatient care. Families describe inadequate information and support for psychological distress. Nurses find the care of people with traumatic brain injury challenging particularly when experiencing heavy workloads. To date, a contemporary synthesis of the literature on people with traumatic brain injury, family and nurse experiences of traumatic brain injury care has not been conducted. Integrative literature review. A systematic search strategy guided by the PRISMA statement was conducted in CINAHL, PubMed, Proquest, EMBASE and Google Scholar. Whittemore and Knafl's (Journal of Advanced Nursing, 52, 2005, 546) integrative review framework guided data reduction, data display, data comparison and conclusion verification. Across the three participant categories (people with traumatic brain injury/family members/nurses) and sixteen subcategories, six cross-cutting themes emerged: seeking personhood, navigating challenging behaviour, valuing skills and competence, struggling with changed family responsibilities, maintaining productive partnerships and reflecting on workplace culture. Traumatic brain injury creates changes in physical, cognitive and emotional function that challenge known ways of being in the world for people. This alters relationship dynamics within families and requires a specific skill set among nurses. Recommendations include the following: (i) formal inclusion of people with traumatic brain injury and families in care planning, (ii) routine risk screening for falls and challenging behaviour to ensure that controls are based on accurate assessment, (iii) formal orientation and training for novice nurses in the management of challenging behaviour, (iv) professional case management to guide access to services and funding and (v) personal skill development to optimise family functioning.
Impact of community based nurse-led clinics on patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, patient access and cost effectiveness: A systematic review
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.IJNURSTU.2017.05.008
Abstract: The role and scope of nursing practice has evolved in response to the dynamic needs of in iduals, communities, and healthcare services. Health services are now focused on maintaining people in their communities, and keeping them out of hospital where possible. Community based nurse-led clinics are ideally placed to work towards this goal. The initial impetus for these services was to increase patient access to care, to provide a cost-effective and high quality streamlined service. This systematic review aimed to identify the impact of nurse-led clinics in relation to patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, impact on patient access to services, and cost effectiveness. A review of community based nurse-led clinic research in Medline, CINAHL and Embase was undertaken using MeSH terms: Nurse-managed centres, Practice, Patterns, Nurse, Ambulatory Care, keywords: nurse-led clinic, nurse led clinic, community and phrases primary health care and primary care. Papers were appraised using the Joanna Briggs Appraisal criteria. The final review comprised 15 studies with 3965 participants. Most studies explored patient satisfaction which was largely positive towards nurse-led clinics. Patient outcomes reported were typically from self-report, although some papers addressed objective clinical measures again positive. Access was reported as being increased. Cost-effectiveness was the least reported impact measure with mixed results. Nurse-led clinics have largely shown positive impact on patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, access to care and mixed results on cost-effectiveness. Future research evaluating NLCs needs to adopt a standardised structure to provide rigorous evaluations that can rationalise further efforts to set up community based nurse-led clinical services.
Correcting false information in memory: Manipulating the strength of misinformation encoding and its retraction
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-02-2011
DOI: 10.3758/S13423-011-0065-1
Abstract: Information that is presumed to be true at encoding but later on turns out to be false (i.e., misinformation) often continues to influence memory and reasoning. In the present study, we investigated how the strength of encoding and the strength of a later retraction of the misinformation affect this continued influence effect. Participants read an event report containing misinformation and a subsequent correction. Encoding strength of the misinformation and correction were orthogonally manipulated either via repetition (Experiment 1) or by imposing a cognitive load during reading (Experiment 2). Results suggest that stronger retractions are effective in reducing the continued influence effects associated with strong misinformation encoding, but that even strong retractions fail to eliminate continued influence effects associated with relatively weak encoding. We present a simple computational model based on random s ling that captures this effect pattern, and conclude that the continued influence effect seems to defy most attempts to eliminate it.
Navigating the role of clinician-researcher: Insights from a Constructivist Grounded Theory study in traumatic brain injury
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 10-2022
Abstract: Using the case of traumatic brain injury, this paper explores 1) challenges to academic and ethical integrity when in the role of clinician-researcher, and 2) potential strategies to enhance ethical qualitative research involving people with possible physical and/or emotional trauma and temporary or permanent cognitive disruption. When undertaking qualitative research with patients, families, and/ or health professionals, a researcher’s clinical background may stimulate insightful and relevant research questions, interviews, and/or field observations of care to inform meaningful and translatable practice improvements. However, there may be tension between clinician versus researcher values, and these priorities affect what the clinician sees and interprets in the field. A clinician’s ingrained values and professional socialisation can make it difficult to hold their professional assumptions about various phenomena at bay. The principles of human research merit and integrity, justice, beneficence, and respect, along with methodological clarity, can provide a rigorous foundation for discussion of ethical research in traumatic brain injury. This paper discusses challenges and strategies through: 1) examining clinical assumptions 2) determining capacity for consent 3) considering dependent or unequal power relationships 4) determining the scope for field observations 5) responding to unprofessional practice 6) discriminating between research interviews and clinical conversations and 7) critically reflecting on research data. Implications for clinical research are evident: seeing past one’s own construct of understanding is challenging for clinician-researchers aiming to illuminate both patient and family experiences of care, and nuanced clinical skills. Careful ethical and methodological planning can protect participants while illuminating elements of specialist practice.
Reducing Demand for Overexploited Wildlife Products: Lessons from Systematic Reviews from Outside Conservation Science
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 11-08-2020
Abstract: Conservationists have long sought to reduce consumer demand for overexploited wildlife products. More recently, health practitioners and others have begun calling for reductions in the wildlife trade to reduce the risk of pandemics. Despite this broadening interest, most wildlife-focused demand reduction c aigns have lacked rigorous evaluations and thus their impacts remain unknown. There is thus an urgent need to review the evidence from beyond conservation science to inform future demand-reduction efforts. We searched for systematic reviews of interventions that aimed to reduce consumer demand for harmful products (e.g., cigarettes and illicit drugs). In total, 41 systematic reviews were assessed, and their data extracted. Mass-media c aigns and incentive programs were, on average, ineffective. While advertising bans, social marketing and location bans were promising, there was insufficient robust evidence to draw firm conclusions. In contrast, the evidence for the effectiveness of risk warnings and appeals to norms was stronger, with some caveats.
Removal of information from working memory: A specific updating process
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2014
You don’t have to tell a story! A registered report testing the effectiveness of narrative versus non-narrative misinformation corrections
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2020
DOI: 10.1186/S41235-020-00266-X
Abstract: Misinformation often has an ongoing effect on people’s memory and inferential reasoning even after clear corrections are provided this is known as the continued influence effect. In pursuit of more effective corrections, one factor that has not yet been investigated systematically is the narrative versus non-narrative format of the correction. Some scholars have suggested that a narrative format facilitates comprehension and retention of complex information and may serve to overcome resistance to worldview-dissonant corrections. It is, therefore, a possibility that misinformation corrections are more effective if they are presented in a narrative format versus a non-narrative format. The present study tests this possibility. We designed corrections that are either narrative or non-narrative, while minimizing differences in informativeness. We compared narrative and non-narrative corrections in three preregistered experiments (total N = 2279). Experiment 1 targeted misinformation contained in fictional event reports Experiment 2 used false claims commonly encountered in the real world Experiment 3 used real-world false claims that are controversial, in order to test the notion that a narrative format may facilitate corrective updating primarily when it serves to reduce resistance to correction. In all experiments, we also manipulated test delay (immediate vs. 2 days), as any potential benefit of the narrative format may only arise in the short term (if the story format aids primarily with initial comprehension and updating of the relevant mental model) or after a delay (if the story format aids primarily with later correction retrieval). In all three experiments, it was found that narrative corrections are no more effective than non-narrative corrections. Therefore, while stories and anecdotes can be powerful, there is no fundamental benefit of using a narrative format when debunking misinformation.
Keeping track of ‘alternative facts’
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2019.03.014
Abstract: Upon receiving a correction, initially presented misinformation often continues to influence people's judgment and reasoning. Whereas some researchers believe that this so-called continued influence effect of misinformation (CIEM) simply arises from the insufficient encoding and integration of corrective claims, others assume that it arises from a competition between the correct information and the initial misinformation in memory. To examine these possibilities, we conducted two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. In each study, participants were asked to (a) read a series of brief news reports that contained confirmations or corrections of prior information and (b) evaluate whether subsequently presented memory probes matched the reports' correct facts rather than the initial misinformation. Both studies revealed that following correction-containing news reports, participants struggled to refute mismatching memory probes, especially when they referred to initial misinformation (as opposed to mismatching probes with novel information). We found little evidence, however, that the encoding of confirmations and corrections produced systematic neural processing differences indicative of distinct encoding strategies. Instead, we discovered that following corrections, participants exhibited increased activity in the left angular gyrus and the bilateral precuneus in response to mismatching memory probes that contained prior misinformation, compared to novel mismatch probes. These findings favour the notion that people's susceptibility to the CIEM arises from the concurrent retention of both correct and incorrect information in memory.
Updating Misinformation in Memory after Correction: An Event-Related Potentials (ERP) Study
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 18-07-2018
Abstract: A key component in correcting misinformation is the removal of incorrect information and subsequent updating of the associated mental model. Whilst a body of behavioural research has examined this phenomenon, neuroscientific research in the area is lacking. The current study aimed to examine differences in three event-related potential (ERP) components associated with memory encoding and updating: a left-frontal positivity, the feedback-related negativity, and the parietal P3b. Participants were 39 young adults who were presented with 70 statements that they were required to judge as myths or facts whilst electroencephalographic data were recorded, and then again after a one-week retention interval. Differences between ERP component litudes of correctly and incorrectly classified statements were analysed when feedback was presented to participants during testing period 1. Behavioural performance improved across testing periods, but frequentist and Bayesian analyses found no differences between ERP litudes elicited by correct or incorrect feedback. It is likely that no effect was observed due to memory removal and updating processes being variable in terms of onset and/or duration. Future research could consider employing analyses that do not include a temporal dimension or adjust for latency variability to investigate if any reliable non-time-locked electrophysiological modulations occur during misinformation correction.
Theories of Suicide: Past, Present, Future
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 05-03-2015
China and the International System
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 20-03-2013
Memory updating in sub-clinical eating disorder: Differential effects with food and body shape words
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.EATBEH.2015.01.008
Abstract: The present study investigated how eating disorder (ED) relevant information is updated in working memory in people with high vs. low scores on a measure of eating disorder pathology (the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, EDE-Q). Participants performed two memory updating tasks. One was a neutral control task using digits the other task involved food words and words relating to body-shape, and provided measures of updating speed and post-updating recall. We found that high EDE-Q participants (1) showed no sign of general memory updating impairment as indicated by performance in the control task (2) showed a general recall deficit in the task involving ED-relevant stimuli, suggesting a general distraction of cognitive resources in the presence of ED-related items (3) showed a relative facilitation in the recall of food words and (4) showed quicker updating toward food words and relatively slower updating toward body-shape-related words. Results are discussed in the context of cognitive theories of eating disorders.
Increased cortical inhibition deficits in first-episode schizophrenia with comorbid cannabis abuse
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-12-2010
Protecting consumers from fraudulent health claims: A taxonomy of psychological drivers, interventions, barriers, and treatments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Do people keep believing because they want to? Preexisting attitudes and the continued influence of misinformation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-09-2014
DOI: 10.3758/S13421-013-0358-X
Abstract: Misinformation-defined as information that is initially assumed to be valid but is later corrected or retracted-often has an ongoing effect on people's memory and reasoning. We tested the hypotheses that (a) reliance on misinformation is affected by people's preexisting attitudes and (b) attitudes determine the effectiveness of retractions. In two experiments, participants scoring higher and lower on a racial prejudice scale read a news report regarding a robbery. In one scenario, the suspects were initially presented as being Australian Aboriginals, whereas in a second scenario, a hero preventing the robbery was introduced as an Aboriginal person. Later, these critical, race-related pieces of information were or were not retracted. We measured participants' reliance on misinformation in response to inferential reasoning questions. The results showed that preexisting attitudes influence people's use of attitude-related information but not the way in which a retraction of that information is processed.
Convergent priorities and tensions: a qualitative study of the integration of complementary and alternative therapies with conventional cancer treatment
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-12-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S00520-017-4021-0
Abstract: Demand for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is high among cancer patients. This, alongside growing evidence for the efficacy of some CAM therapies, is driving change within cancer centres, where evidence-based CAM therapies are increasingly provided alongside standard cancer treatments. In Australia, commitment to equitable access to healthcare is strong, and some cancer centres are now providing integrative services at no cost to the patient. This represents a significant shift in healthcare provision. This study aimed to examine health professional and patient dynamics in an integrated cancer service where CAM is provided at no cost to patients alongside standard cancer treatments. It specifically sought to understand what might drive or hinder further integration of CAM with standard treatment in the cancer context. Qualitative interviews were undertaken with twenty key stakeholders-cancer patients, cancer nurses, and oncologists-who were delivering or receiving care in an Australian public hospital where acupuncture services are provided at no cost to patients alongside standard chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Findings point to key areas where the concerns and priorities of cancer patients, cancer nurses, and oncologists converge and erge in ways that reflect core personal and professional interests regarding patient care needs, the evidence base for CAM efficacy and safety, and rising healthcare costs. Understanding points of convergence and ergence could assist clinicians and service providers in negotiating ways forward for integrative cancer services.
Countering Demand for Ineffective Health Remedies: Do Consumers Respond to Risks, Lack of Benefits, or Both?
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 17-04-2020
Abstract: Objective: We tested whether targeting the illusion of causality and/or misperceptions about health risks had the potential to reduce consumer demand for an ineffective health remedy (multivitamin supplements).Design: We adopted a 2 (contingency information: no/yes) × 2 (fear appeal: no/yes) factorial design, with willingness-to-pay (WTP) as the dependent variable. The contingency information specified, in table format, the number of people reporting a benefit vs. no benefit from both multivitamins and placebo, plus a causal explanation for lack of efficacy over placebo. The fear appeal involved a summary of clinical-trial results that indicated multivitamins can cause health harms. The control condition received only irrelevant information. Main outcome measure: Experimental auctions measured people’s WTP for multivitamins. Experiment 1 (N = 260) elicited hypothetical WTP online. Experiment 2 (N = 207) elicited incentivised WTP in the laboratory.Results: Compared to a control group, we found independent effects of the contingency intervention (-22%) and the fear appeal (-32%) on WTP. The combined condition had the greatest impact (-50%) on WTP.Conclusion: We found compelling evidence that consumer choices are influenced by both perceptions of efficacy and risk. The combination of both elements can provide additive effects that appear superior to either approach alone.
Misinformation in Open and Closed Online Platforms
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Date: 2023
Evaluation of a template for countering misinformation—Real-world Autism treatment myth debunking
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 30-01-2019
Interference Control in Working Memory
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 23-01-2018
Abstract: Working memory (WM) is a limited-capacity system requiring an interference-control process to avoid being cluttered from irrelevant information. Recently, it has been suggested that this “housekeeping” mechanism can be attributed to an item-wise removal process serving to actively remove irrelevant information from WM. It has been theorized that this active removal process serves to facilitate both WM maintenance in the face of distraction as well as the updating of outdated information. An alternate view, however, is that interference control in WM relies on an inhibitory process that suppresses the activation of distractors against competing, task-relevant representations. This study is the first to assess the extent to which removal and inhibition represent the same cognitive process. One-hundred and thirty-eight undergraduate students from the University of Western Australia (M = 20.42, SD = 3.09) completed a novel removal task battery in addition to an inhibition task battery. Data were analysed using a hybrid path analytic and structural equation model. The modelling found that there was unique variance associated with the removal latent variable, and estimated that only approximately 9 % of the variance in the removal latent variable could be accounted for by the inhibition tasks, providing tentative support that removal should not be considered a process of cognitive inhibition. The findings support previous claims that removal is an independent WM updating process. The findings are also consistent with a class of computational WM models proposing that removal and inhibition operate on different levels.
Do false allegations persist? Retracted misinformation does not continue to influence explicit person impressions.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2020
Learning that cannot come from a book: An evaluation of an undergraduate alcohol and other drugs subject co-produced with experts by experience.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-12-2023
DOI: 10.1111/INM.13098
Abstract: Alcohol and other drugs (AOD) use is a significant public health issue and is associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. Despite this, people who use drugs are often reluctant to seek care due to the lack of trauma‐informed treatment and harm reduction treatment options, as well as experiences of stigma and discrimination in health services. Arguably, AOD education that is co‐produced with people who use alcohol and drugs can enhance future health professionals' ability to practice in ways that support the needs of this population. This paper reports on a qualitative co‐evaluation of a co‐produced undergraduate nursing AOD subject. The AOD subject was co‐planned, co‐designed, co‐delivered, and co‐evaluated with experts by experience, who have a lived experience of substance dependence and work as advocates and peer workers. Following the delivery of the subject in 2021 and 2022, focus groups were undertaken with 12 nursing students. Focus group data indicate that the co‐produced subject supported participants to understand and appreciate how stigma impacts on nursing care and how to recognize and undertake ‘good’ nursing care that was oriented to the needs of service users. Student participants noted that being co‐taught by people who use drugs was particularly powerful for shifting their nursing perspectives on AOD use and nursing care and took learning beyond what could be understood from a book. Findings indicate that co‐produced AOD education can shift nursing students' perceptions of AOD use by providing access to tacit knowledge and embodied equitable and collaborative relationships with people who use drugs.
Source-Credibility Information and Social Norms Improve Truth Discernment and Reduce Engagement with Misinformation Online
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 04-2023
Abstract: Misinformation on social media is a pervasive challenge. In this study (N = 415) a social-media simulation was used to test two potential interventions for countering misinformation: a credibility badge and a social norm. The credibility badge was implemented by associating accounts, including participants’, with a credibility score. Participants’ credibility score was dynamically updated depending on their engagement with true and false posts. To implement the social-norm intervention, participants were provided with both a descriptive norm (i.e., most people do not share misinformation) and an injunctive norm (i.e., sharing misinformation is the wrong thing to do). Both interventions were effective. The social-norm intervention led to reduced belief in false claims and improved discrimination between true and false claims. It also had some positive impact on social-media engagement, although some effects were not robust to alternative analysis specifications. The presence of credibility badges led to greater belief in true claims, lower belief in false claims, and improved discrimination. The credibility-badge intervention also had robust positive impacts on social-media engagement, leading to increased flagging and decreased liking and sharing of false posts. Cumulatively, the results suggest that both interventions have potential to combat misinformation and improve the social-media information landscape.
Using the COVID-19 Economic Crisis to Frame Climate Change as a Secondary Issue Reduces Mitigation Support
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 02-07-2020
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has understandably dominated public discourse,crowding out other important issues such as climate change. Currently, if climate change enters the arena of public debate, it primarily does so in direct relation to the pandemic. In two experiments, we investigated (1) whether portraying the response to the COVID-19 threat as a “trial run” for future climate action would increase climate-change concern and mitigation support, and (2) whether portraying climate change as a concern that needs to take a “back seat” while focus lies on economic recovery would decrease climate-change concern and mitigation support. We found no support for the effectiveness of a trial-run frame in either experiment. In Experiment 1, we found that a back-seat frame reduced participants’ support for mitigative action. In Experiment 2, the back-seat framing reduced both climate-change concern and mitigation support a combined inoculation and refutation was able to offset the drop in climate concern but not the reduction in mitigation support.
A Combination of Ice Ingestion and Head Cooling Enhances Cognitive Performance during Endurance Exercise in the Heat
Publisher: Journal of Sports Science and Medicine
Date: 08-11-2021
Abstract: his study assessed the effectiveness of head cooling during exercise in the heat on cognitive performance, either alone or with ice ingestion. Ten healthy males, non-acclimatized to heat, ran (70% V̇O2peak) for 2×30 min in heat (35 ± 0.9°C, 68.2 ± 6.9% RH). Participants completed 3 trials: 10 min of head cooling during exercise (HC) precooling with crushed ice (7gikg-1) and head cooling during exercise (MIX) or no-cooling/control (CON). Working memory was assessed using the automated operation span task (OSPAN) and serial seven test (S7). Following MIX, S7 scores were improved compared to CON (12 ± 9.5, p = 0.004, d = 1.42, 0.34-2.28) and HC (4 ± 5.5, p = 0.048, d = 0.45, -0.47 to 1.3) during exercise. Moderate to large effect sizes were recorded for S7 and OSPAN following MIX and HC compared to CON, suggesting a tendency for improved cognitive performance during exercise in heat. Following precooling (MIX), core body temperature (Tc) and forehead temperature (Th) were lower compared to baseline (-0.75 ± 0.37°C, p 0.001 -0.31 ± 0.29°C, p = 0.008, respectively) but not in HC or CON (p 0.05). Thermal sensation (TS) was lower in MIX and HC compared to CON during exercise (p 0.05). The reduction in Tc, Th and TS with MIX may have attenuated the effect of heat and subsequently improved working memory during exercise in heat.
Not wallowing in misery – retractions of negative misinformation are effective in depressive rumination
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 14-10-2019
DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1533808
Abstract: People often continue to rely on misinformation in their reasoning after they have acknowledged a retraction this phenomenon is known as the continued-influence effect. Retractions can be particularly ineffective when the retracted misinformation is consistent with a pre-existing worldview. We investigated this effect in the context of depressive rumination. Given the prevalence of depressotypic worldviews in depressive rumination, we hypothesised that depressive rumination may affect the processing of retractions of valenced misinformation specifically, we predicted that the retraction of negative misinformation might be less effective in depressive ruminators. In two experiments, we found evidence against this hypothesis: in depressive ruminators, retractions of negative misinformation were at least as effective as they were in control participants, and more effective than retractions of positive misinformation. Findings are interpreted in terms of an attentional bias that may enhance the salience of negative misinformation and may thus facilitate its updating in depressive rumination.
Not ‘Just a Talking Head’: Experiences of Australian Public Mental Health Clinicians Implementing a Dialogical Family Therapy Approach for Young People with Severe Mental Health Concerns
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2020
DOI: 10.1002/ANZF.1407
Memory Without Consolidation: Temporal Distinctiveness Explains Retroactive Interference
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-12-2015
DOI: 10.1111/COGS.12214
Abstract: Is consolidation needed to account for retroactive interference in free recall? Interfering mental activity during the retention interval of a memory task impairs performance, in particular if the interference occurs in temporal proximity to the encoding of the to-be-remembered (TBR) information. There are at least two rival theoretical accounts of this temporal gradient of retroactive interference. The cognitive neuroscience literature has suggested neural consolidation is a pivotal factor determining item recall. According to this account, interfering activity interrupts consolidation processes that would otherwise stabilize the memory representations of TBR items post-encoding. Temporal distinctiveness theory, by contrast, proposes that the retrievability of items depends on their isolation in psychological time. According to this theory, information processed after the encoding of TBR material will reduce the temporal distinctiveness of the TBR information. To test between these accounts, implementations of consolidation were added to the SIMPLE model of memory and learning. We report data from two experiments utilizing a two-list free recall paradigm. Modeling results imply that SIMPLE was able to model the data and did not benefit from the addition of consolidation. It is concluded that the temporal gradient of retroactive interference cannot be taken as evidence for memory consolidation.
Working memory capacity, removal efficiency and event specific memory as predictors of misinformation reliance
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 31-05-2021
A systematic review examining the effectiveness of blending technology with team-based learning
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEDT.2016.08.012
Abstract: Technological advancements are rapidly changing nursing education in higher education settings. Nursing academics are enthusiastically blending technology with active learning approaches such as Team Based Learning (TBL). While the educational outcomes of TBL are well documented, the value of blending technology with TBL (blended-TBL) remains unclear. This paper presents a systematic review examining the effectiveness of blended-TBL in higher education health disciplines. This paper aimed to identify how technology has been incorporated into TBL in higher education health disciplines. It also sought to evaluate the educational outcomes of blended-TBL in terms of student learning and preference. A review of TBL research in Medline, CINAHL, ERIC and Embase databases was undertaken including the search terms, team based learning, nursing, health science, medical, pharmaceutical, allied health education and allied health education. Papers were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP). The final review included 9 papers involving 2094 student participants. A variety of technologies were blended with TBL including interactive eLearning and social media. There is limited evidence that blended-TBL improved student learning outcomes or student preference. Enthusiasm to blend technology with TBL may not be as well founded as initially thought. However, few studies explicitly examined the value of incorporating technology into TBL. There is a clear need for research that can discern the impact of technology into TBL on student preference and learning outcomes, with a particular focus on barriers to student participation with online learning components.
Co‐design and evaluation of a multidisciplinary teaching resource on mental health recovery involving people with lived experience
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-01-2023
Abstract: Students from a range of health disciplines need to learn from people with lived experience of mental distress and recovery to develop recovery capabilities for mental health practice. The aims of this study are to describe the co‐design of a teaching resource, to explore the experience of people with lived experience during the resource development, and to evaluate the outcome of the resource on student recovery capabilities. Using a sequential mixed method, a project group consisting of six people with lived experience and 10 academics from five health disciplines was convened to co‐develop teaching resources. People with lived experience met independently without researchers on several occasions to decide on the key topics and met with the research team monthly. The teaching resource was used in mental health subjects for two health professional programmes, and the Capabilities for Recovery‐Oriented Practice Questionnaire (CROP‐Q) was used before and after to measure any change in student recovery capabilities. Scores were compared using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. The people with lived experience were also interviewed about their experience of being involved in constructing the teaching resources. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analysed thematically. The finished resource consisted of 28 short videos and suggested teaching plans. Occupational therapy and nursing student scores on the CROP‐Q prior to using the educational resource ( n = 33) were 68 (median) and post scores ( n = 28) were 74 (median), indicating a statistically significant improvement in recovery capability ( P = 0.04). Lived experience interview themes were (i) the importance of lived experience in education (ii) personal benefits of participating (iii) co‐design experience and (iv) creating the resource. Co‐design of teaching resources with people with lived experience was pivotal to the success and quality of the final product, and people with lived experience described personal benefits of participating in resource development. More evidence to demonstrate the use of the CROP‐Q in teaching and practice is needed.
Using the president’s tweets to understand political diversion in the age of social media
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-11-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-020-19644-6
Abstract: Social media has arguably shifted political agenda-setting power away from mainstream media onto politicians. Current U.S. President Trump’s reliance on Twitter is unprecedented, but the underlying implications for agenda setting are poorly understood. Using the president as a case study, we present evidence suggesting that President Trump’s use of Twitter erts crucial media (The New York Times and ABC News) from topics that are potentially harmful to him. We find that increased media coverage of the Mueller investigation is immediately followed by Trump tweeting increasingly about unrelated issues. This increased activity, in turn, is followed by a reduction in coverage of the Mueller investigation—a finding that is consistent with the hypothesis that President Trump’s tweets may also successfully ert the media from topics that he considers threatening. The pattern is absent in placebo analyses involving Brexit coverage and several other topics that do not present a political risk to the president. Our results are robust to the inclusion of numerous control variables and examination of several alternative explanations, although the generality of the successful ersion must be established by further investigation.
Corrections of Political Misinformation: No Evidence for an Effect of Partisan Worldview in a U.S. Convenience Sample
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 20-08-2020
Abstract: Misinformation often has a continuing effect on people’s reasoning despite clear correction. One factor assumed to affect post-correction reliance on misinformation is worldview-driven motivated reasoning. For ex le, a recent study with an Australian undergraduate s le found that when politically-situated misinformation was retracted, political partisanship influenced the effectiveness of the retraction. This worldview effect was asymmetrical, that is, particularly pronounced in politically-conservative participants. However, the evidence regarding such worldview effects (and their symmetry) has been inconsistent. Thus, the present study aimed to extend previous findings by examining a s le of 429 pre-screened U.S. participants supporting either the Democratic or Republican Party. Participants received misinformation suggesting that politicians of either party were more likely to commit embezzlement this was or was not subsequently retracted, and participants’ inferential reasoning was measured. While political worldview (i.e., partisanship) influenced the extent to which participants relied on the misinformation overall, retractions were equally effective across all conditions. There was no impact of political worldview on retraction effectiveness, let alone evidence of a backfire effect, and thus we did not replicate the asymmetry observed in the Australian-based study. This pattern emerged despite some evidence that Republicans showed a stronger emotional response than Democrats to worldview-incongruent misinformation.
Verbatim Theater: Prompting Reflection and Discussion about Healthcare Culture as a Means of Promoting Culture Change
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-06-2020
Higher operating theatre temperature during burn surgery increases physiological heat strain, subjective workload, and fatigue of surgical staff
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 02-06-2023
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0286746
Abstract: Raising the ambient temperature of the operating theatre is common practice during burn surgeries to maintain the patient’s core body temperature however, the effects of operating in the heat on cognitive performance, manual dexterity, and perceived workload of surgical staff have not been assessed in a real-world context. Therefore, the aim was to assess the real-time impact of heat during burn surgeries on staff’s cognitive function, manual dexterity, and perceptual measures (workload, thermal sensation, thermal comfort, perceived exertion, and fatigue) and physiological parameters (core temperature, heart-rate, fluid loss, and dehydration). Ten burn surgery staff members were assessed in CON (24.0±1.1°C, 45±6% relative humidity [RH]) and HOT (30.8±1.6°C, 39±7% RH) burn surgeries (average 150 min duration). Cognitive performance, manual dexterity, and perceptual measures were recorded pre- and post-surgery, while physiological parameters were recorded throughout surgery. HOT conditions did not significantly affect manual dexterity or cognitive function ( p .05), however HOT resulted in heat strain (increased heart-rate, core temperature, and fluid loss: p .05), and increased subjective workload, discomfort, perceived exertion, and fatigue compared to CON conditions ( p .05). Cognitive function and manual dexterity were maintained in hot conditions, suggesting that operating in approximately 31°C heat is a safe approach for patient treatment. However, job burnout, which is positively correlated with perceived workload, and the impact of cumulative fatigue on the mental health of surgery staff, must be considered in the context of supporting an effective health workforce.
Losses, hopes, and expectations for sustainable futures after COVID
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-11-2021
DOI: 10.1057/S41599-021-00961-0
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense distress but also created opportunity for radical change. Two main avenues for recovery from the pandemic have been discussed: A “back to normal” that foregrounds economic recovery, and a sustainable and progressive “build back better” approach that seeks to address global problems such as inequality and climate change. The article reports two experiments conducted on representative British and American s les ( N = 600 and N = 800, respectively, for the two experiments) that show that people in both countries overall prefer a progressive future to a return to normal, although that preference is stronger on the political left and center-left with ambivalence prevailing on the right. However, irrespective of political leanings, people consider a return to normal more likely than a progressive future. People also mistakenly believe that others want the progressive scenarios less, and the return to normal more, than they actually do. The ergence between what people want and what they think others want represents an instance of pluralistic ignorance, which arises when public discourse is not reflecting people’s actual opinions. Publicizing public opinion is thus crucial to facilitate a future with broad support. In additional open-ended items, participants cited working from home, reduced commuting, and a collective sense of civility as worth retaining post pandemic.
Can Corrections Spread Misinformation to New Audiences? Testing for the Elusive Familiarity Backfire Effect
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 22-04-2020
Abstract: Misinformation often continues to influence inferential reasoning after clear and credible corrections are provided this effect is known as the continued influence effect. It has been theorized that this effect is partly driven by misinformation familiarity. Some researchers have even argued that a correction should avoid repeating the misinformation, as the correction itself could serve to inadvertently enhance misinformation familiarity and may thus backfire, ironically strengthening the very misconception it aims to correct. While previous research has found little evidence of such familiarity backfire effects, there remains one situation where they may yet arise: when correcting entirely novel misinformation, where corrections could serve to spread misinformation to new audiences who had never heard of it before. This article presents three experiments (total N = 1,718) investigating the possibility of familiarity backfire within the context of correcting novel misinformation claims and after a one-week study-test delay. While there was variation across experiments, overall there was substantial evidence against familiarity backfire. Corrections that exposed participants to novel misinformation did not lead to stronger misconceptions compared to a control group never exposed to the false claims or corrections. This suggests that it is safe to repeat misinformation when correcting it, even when the audience might be unfamiliar with the misinformation.
Sensitivity to misinformation retractions in the continued influence paradigm: Evidence for stability
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-10-2021
DOI: 10.1177/17470218211048986
Abstract: Research has consistently shown that misinformation can continue to affect inferential reasoning after a correction. This phenomenon is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). Recent studies have demonstrated that CIE susceptibility can be predicted by in idual differences in stable cognitive abilities. Based on this, it was reasoned that CIE susceptibility ought to have some degree of stability itself however, this has never been tested. The current study aimed to investigate the temporal stability of retraction sensitivity, arguably a major determinant of CIE susceptibility. Participants were given parallel forms of a standard CIE task 4 weeks apart, and the association between testing points was assessed with an intra-class correlation coefficient and confirmatory factor analysis. Results suggested that retraction sensitivity is relatively stable and can be predicted as an in idual-differences variable. These results encourage continued in idual-differences research on the CIE and have implications for real-world CIE intervention.
Would I Lie To You? Party Affiliation is More Important Than Brexit in Processing Political Misinformation
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 08-01-2023
Abstract: In recent years the United Kingdom has become ided along two key dimensions, party affiliation and Brexit position. We explored how ision along these two dimensions interacts with the correction of political misinformation. Participants saw accurate and inaccurate statements (either balanced or mostly inaccurate) from two politicians from opposing parties but the same Brexit position (Experiment 1), or the same party but opposing Brexit positions (Experiment 2). Replicating previous work, fact-checking statements led participants to update their beliefs, increasing belief after fact affirmations and decreasing belief for corrected misinformation, even for politically aligned material. After receiving fact-checks participants had reduced voting intentions and more negative feelings towards party-aligned politicians (likely due to low baseline support for opposing party politicians). For Brexit alignment the opposite was found: participants reduced their voting intentions and feelings for opposing (but not aligned) politicians following the fact-checks. These changes occurred regardless of the proportion of inaccurate statements, potentially indicating participants expect politicians to be accurate more than half the time. Finally, although we found ision based on both party and Brexit alignment, effects were much stronger for party alignment, highlighting that even though new isions have emerged in UK politics, the old ides remain dominant.
Computational constraints in cognitive theories of forgetting
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2012
Refutations of equivocal claims: No evidence for an ironic effect of counterargument number.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1037/H0101834
The hidden persuaders break into the tired brain
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2009
How Stories in Memory Perpetuate the Continued Influence of False Information
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-08-2019
DOI: 10.1002/JCPY.1135
No evidence for a role of reconsolidation in updating of paired associates
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-07-2017
Refuting spurious COVID-19 treatment claims reduces demand and misinformation sharing.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 06-2021
DOI: 10.1037/H0101793
Examining the replicability of backfire effects after standalone corrections
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-07-2023
DOI: 10.1186/S41235-023-00492-Z
Abstract: Corrections are a frequently used and effective tool for countering misinformation. However, concerns have been raised that corrections may introduce false claims to new audiences when the misinformation is novel. This is because boosting the familiarity of a claim can increase belief in that claim, and thus exposing new audiences to novel misinformation—even as part of a correction—may inadvertently increase misinformation belief. Such an outcome could be conceptualized as a familiarity backfire effect , whereby a familiarity boost increases false-claim endorsement above a control-condition or pre-correction baseline . Here, we examined whether standalone corrections—that is, corrections presented without initial misinformation exposure—can backfire and increase participants’ reliance on the misinformation in their subsequent inferential reasoning, relative to a no-misinformation, no-correction control condition. Across three experiments (total N = 1156) we found that standalone corrections did not backfire immediately (Experiment 1) or after a one-week delay (Experiment 2). However, there was some mixed evidence suggesting corrections may backfire when there is skepticism regarding the correction (Experiment 3). Specifically, in Experiment 3, we found the standalone correction to backfire in open-ended responses, but only when there was skepticism towards the correction. However, this did not replicate with the rating scales measure. Future research should further examine whether skepticism towards the correction is the first replicable mechanism for backfire effects to occur.
Context effects on familiarity are familiarity effects of context - An electrophysiological study
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.IJPSYCHO.2007.01.005
Abstract: Within dual-process accounts of recognition memory, familiarity (as opposed to recollection) is often referred to as a rather automatic and context-free process. Thus, in episodic object recognition, familiarity and its electrophysiological ERP signature are supposed to index prior occurrence of an object independent of the context the object was originally encountered in, e.g., [Ecker, U.K.H., Zimmer, H.D., Groh-Bordin, C., in press. Color and context: An ERP study on intrinsic and extrinsic feature binding in episodic memory. Mem. Cogn.]). Yet, contextual sensitivity of familiarity has also been reported (e.g., [Tsivilis, D., Otten, L.J., Rugg, M.D., 2001. Context effects on the neural correlates of recognition memory: An electrophysiological study. Neuron 31, 497-505.]). We argue that considering attentional and perceptual factors of target processing is vital in understanding these conflicting results. Presenting target objects on contextual landscape scenes, we introduced a cueing technique designed to focus subjects' attention on target processing. We demonstrate that context effects on familiarity are diminished if the attentional impact of contextual stimuli is experimentally controlled, arguing that contextual influences on object familiarity are indirect and mediated by factors such as salience and attentional capture. Results suggest that salient context stimuli may elicit an independent familiarity signal instead of directly impacting on the familiarity signal of the target object. We conclude that (a) object familiarity is in principle a rather automatic and context-free process, and that (b) the study of episodic memory can profit substantially from adopting a dynamic processing perspective.
Peer Support and Open Dialogue: Possibilities for Transformation and Resistance in Mental Health Services
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 11-12-2020
Working memory capacity mediates the relationship between removal and fluid intelligence
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2018
The integration of formal and informal care provision: An exploratory study of the experiences of primary support persons of chemotherapy outpatients
Publisher: Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
Date: 16-12-2016
DOI: 10.5334/IJIC.2797
Masculinities, emotions and men’s suicide
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-03-2021
Abstract: Men account for approximately 75% of the one million annual suicide deaths worldwide. Emerging research indicates a link between suicide and men's active pursuit of hegemonic masculinity via emotional restriction. However, little is known of the continuum of suicidal men's emotional practice, and particularly how men mobilise emotions to actively pursue or resist hegemonic masculine ideals. This theorised life‐history study aimed to explore the emotional lives of 18 Australian men who had attempted suicide. Findings indicate that men in this study experienced a range of emotions. However, during childhood, they learned that expressing emotions such as sadness reduced masculine standing, whereas expressing emotions such as anger through acts of violence could enhance masculine status. Although the gendering of emotions offered participants multiple avenues of action to pursue or contest masculine ideals, they remained vulnerable to suicide. For some men, it became impossible to conceal escalating feelings of distress. For other men, displays of anger and violence resulted in job loss, relationship breakdown or criminal conviction. Many participants indicated that suicide presented a means of ending painful emotions. Paradoxically, suicide could also become an alternative means of demonstrating masculinity, whereby the body became both the vehicle and object of violence.
Grace Under Pressure: a drama-based approach to tackling mistreatment of medical students
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 07-10-2017
DOI: 10.1136/MEDHUM-2016-011031
Abstract: A positive and respectful learning environment is fundamental to the development of professional identities in healthcare. Yet medical students report poor behaviour from healthcare professionals that contradict professionalism teaching. An interdisciplinary group designed and implemented a drama-based workshop series, based on
Working memory updating involves item-specific removal
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2014
Beyond Misinformation: Understanding and Coping with the “Post-Truth” Era
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2017
The Effects of Subtle Misinformation in News Headlines
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2014
DOI: 10.1037/XAP0000028
The role of familiarity in correcting inaccurate information.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2017
DOI: 10.1037/XLM0000422
Abstract: People frequently continue to use inaccurate information in their reasoning even after a credible retraction has been presented. This phenomenon is often referred to as the continued influence effect of misinformation. The repetition of the original misconception within a retraction could contribute to this phenomenon, as it could inadvertently make the "myth" more familiar-and familiar information is more likely to be accepted as true. From a dual-process perspective, familiarity-based acceptance of myths is most likely to occur in the absence of strategic memory processes. Thus, we examined factors known to affect whether strategic memory processes can be utilized: age, detail, and time. Participants rated their belief in various statements of unclear veracity, and facts were subsequently affirmed and myths were retracted. Participants then rerated their belief either immediately or after a delay. We compared groups of young and older participants, and we manipulated the amount of detail presented in the affirmative or corrective explanations, as well as the retention interval between encoding and a retrieval attempt. We found that (a) older adults over the age of 65 were worse at sustaining their postcorrection belief that myths were inaccurate, (b) a greater level of explanatory detail promoted more sustained belief change, and (c) fact affirmations promoted more sustained belief change in comparison with myth retractions over the course of 1 week (but not over 3 weeks), This supports the notion that familiarity is indeed a driver of continued influence effects. (PsycINFO Database Record
Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 05-05-2017
Age-related changes in working memory: Age affects relational but not conjunctive feature binding.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 05-2018
DOI: 10.1037/PAG0000249
Abstract: In contrast to long-term memory, age-related association deficits in working memory are found only inconsistently. The authors hypothesized that type of binding is critical for the occurrence of such deficits. Relational binding abilities (associating separate visual units) should degrade with age, whereas more automatic conjunctive binding abilities (associating features within an object) should not. They contrasted associative memory and item memory using a change-detection task with colors and shapes in younger (18-33 years) and older (64-82 years) healthy adults. Color was either a surface feature of the shape (conjunctive binding) or a feature of a shape-external frame (relational binding). In a direct test of associative memory, participants memorized color-shape associations in an indirect item memory test, participants were required to memorize only the shapes, and the authors measured the costs of ignoring task-irrelevant color changes from study to test. In the direct test, associative memory was poorer when relational binding was required rather than conjunctive binding, and associative memory was poorer in the older group, but no age-related association deficit was apparent. In the indirect test, by contrast, type of binding interacted with age: younger participants showed study-test congruence effects independent of the type of binding, but older adults showed enhanced congruence effects for conjunctive stimuli, indicating intact or even enhanced conjunctive binding, and practically no costs for relational stimuli, indicating poor relational binding. This stimulus-specific effect of a task-irrelevant feature change indicates that relational and conjunctive binding in working memory are differently affected by healthy aging. (PsycINFO Database Record
Combining Refutations and Social Norms Increases Belief Change
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 25-05-2022
Abstract: Misinformed beliefs are difficult to change. Refutations that target false claims typically reduce false beliefs, but tend to be only partially effective. In this study, a social norming approach was explored to test whether provision of peer norms could provide an alternative or complementary approach to refutation. Three experiments investigated whether a descriptive norm—by itself or in combination with a refutation—could reduce the endorsement of worldview-congruent claims. Experiment 1 found that using a single point estimate to communicate a norm affected belief but had less impact than a refutation. Experiment 2 used a verbally-presented distribution of four values to communicate a norm, which was largely ineffective. Experiment 3 used a graphically-presented social norm with 25 values, which was found to be as effective at reducing claim belief as a refutation, with the combination of both interventions being most impactful. These results provide a proof of concept that normative information can aid in the debunking of false or equivocal claims, and suggests that theories of misinformation processing should take social factors into account.
Combining refutations and social norms increases belief change
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 15-07-2022
DOI: 10.1177/17470218221111750
Abstract: Misinformed beliefs are difficult to change. Refutations that target false claims typically reduce false beliefs, but tend to be only partially effective. In this study, a social norming approach was explored to test whether provision of peer norms could provide an alternative or complementary approach to refutation. Three experiments investigated whether a descriptive norm—by itself or in combination with a refutation—could reduce the endorsement of worldview-congruent claims. Experiment 1 found that using a single-point estimate to communicate a norm affected belief but had less impact than a refutation. Experiment 2 used a verbally presented distribution of four values to communicate a norm, which was largely ineffective. Experiment 3 used a graphically presented social norm with 25 values, which was found to be as effective at reducing claim belief as a refutation, with the combination of both interventions being most impactful. These results provide a proof of concept that normative information can aid in the debunking of false or equivocal claims, and suggests that theories of misinformation processing should take social factors into account.
Verbal predicates foster conscious recollection but not familiarity of a task-irrelevant perceptual feature - An ERP study
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2009
DOI: 10.1016/J.CONCOG.2009.04.005
Abstract: Research on the effects of perceptual manipulations on recognition memory has suggested that (a) recollection is selectively influenced by task-relevant information and (b) familiarity can be considered perceptually specific. The present experiment tested ergent assumptions that (a) perceptual features can influence conscious object recollection via verbal code despite being task-irrelevant and that (b) perceptual features do not influence object familiarity if study is verbal-conceptual. At study, subjects named objects and their presentation colour this was followed by an old/new object recognition test. Event-related potentials (ERP) showed that a study-test manipulation of colour impacted selectively on the ERP effect associated with recollection, while a size manipulation showed no effect. It is concluded that (a) verbal predicates generated at study are potent episodic memory agents that modulate recollection even if the recovered feature information is task-irrelevant and (b) commonly found perceptual match effects on familiarity critically depend on perceptual processing at study.
Political Attitudes and the Processing of Misinformation Corrections
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2018
DOI: 10.1111/POPS.12494
Correction Format has a Limited Role when Debunking Misinformation
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 15-11-2021
Abstract: Given that being misinformed can have negative ramifications, finding optimal corrective techniques has become a key focus of research. In recent years, several ergent correction formats have been proposed as superior corrective methods based on distinct theoretical frameworks. However, these correction formats have not been compared in controlled settings, so the suggested superiority of each format remains speculative. Across four experiments, the current paper investigated how altering the format of corrections influences peoples’ subsequent reliance on misinformation. We examined whether myth-first, fact-first, fact-only, or myth-only correction formats were most effective, using a range of different materials and participant pools. Experiments 1 and 2 focused on climate change misconceptions participants were Qualtrics online panel members and students taking part in a massive open online course, respectively. Experiments 3 and 4 used misconceptions from a erse set of topics, with Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdworkers and university student participants. We found that the impact of a correction on beliefs and inferential reasoning was largely independent of the specific format used. The clearest evidence for any potential relative superiority emerged in Experiment 4, which found that with a delayed retention interval, the myth-first format was more effective at myth correction than the fact-first format. However, in general it appeared that as long as the key ingredients of a correction were presented, format did not appear to make a considerable difference. This suggests that simply providing corrective information, regardless of format, is far more important than how the correction is presented.
Impression formation stimuli: A corpus of behavior statements rated on morality, competence, informativeness, and believability
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 03-06-2022
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0269393
Abstract: To investigate impression formation, researchers tend to rely on statements that describe a person’s behavior (e.g., “Alex ridicules people behind their backs”). These statements are presented to participants who then rate their impressions of the person. However, a corpus of behavior statements is costly to generate, and pre-existing corpora may be outdated and might not measure the dimension(s) of interest. The present study makes available a normed corpus of 160 contemporary behavior statements that were rated on 4 dimensions relevant to impression formation: morality, competence, informativeness, and believability. In addition, we show that the different dimensions are non-independent, exhibiting a range of linear and non-linear relationships, which may present a problem for past research. However, researchers interested in impression formation can control for these relationships (e.g., statistically) using the present corpus of behavior statements.
Electrophysiological correlates of exemplar-specific processes in implicit and explicit memory
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-10-2012
DOI: 10.3758/S13415-011-0065-7
Abstract: The present ERP study investigated the retrieval of task-irrelevant exemplar-specific information under implicit and explicit memory conditions. Subjects completed either an indirect memory test (a natural/artificial judgment) or a direct recognition memory test. Both test groups were presented with new items, identical repetitions, and perceptually different but conceptually similar exemplars of previously seen study objects. Implicit and explicit memory retrieval elicited clearly dissociable ERP components that were differentially affected by exemplar changes from study to test. In the indirect test, identical repetitions, but not different exemplars, elicited a significant ERP repetition priming effect. In contrast, both types of repeated objects gave rise to a reliable old/new effect in the direct test. The results corroborate that implicit and explicit memory fall back on distinct cognitive representation and, more importantly, indicate that these representations differ in the type of stimulus information stored. Implicit retrieval entailed obligatory access to exemplar-specific perceptual information, despite its being task irrelevant. In contrast, explicit retrieval proved to be more flexible with conceptual and perceptual information accessed according to task demands.
Correction Format has a Limited Role when Debunking Misinformation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2021
DOI: 10.1186/S41235-021-00346-6
Abstract: Given that being misinformed can have negative ramifications, finding optimal corrective techniques has become a key focus of research. In recent years, several ergent correction formats have been proposed as superior based on distinct theoretical frameworks. However, these correction formats have not been compared in controlled settings, so the suggested superiority of each format remains speculative. Across four experiments, the current paper investigated how altering the format of corrections influences people’s subsequent reliance on misinformation. We examined whether myth-first, fact-first, fact-only, or myth-only correction formats were most effective, using a range of different materials and participant pools. Experiments 1 and 2 focused on climate change misconceptions participants were Qualtrics online panel members and students taking part in a massive open online course, respectively. Experiments 3 and 4 used misconceptions from a erse set of topics, with Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdworkers and university student participants. We found that the impact of a correction on beliefs and inferential reasoning was largely independent of the specific format used. The clearest evidence for any potential relative superiority emerged in Experiment 4, which found that the myth-first format was more effective at myth correction than the fact-first format after a delayed retention interval. However, in general it appeared that as long as the key ingredients of a correction were presented, format did not make a considerable difference. This suggests that simply providing corrective information, regardless of format, is far more important than how the correction is presented.
Social Endorsement Influences the Continued Belief in Corrected Misinformation
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 07-09-2022
Abstract: Reliance on misinformation often persists in the face of corrections. However, the role of social factors on people’s reliance on corrected misinformation has received little attention. In two experiments, we investigated the extent to which social endorsement of misinformation and corrections influences belief updating. In both experiments misinformation and fact-checks were presented as social-media posts, and social endorsement was manipulated via the number of “likes”. In Experiment 1, social endorsement of the initial misinformation had a significant influence on belief participants believed misinformation with high social endorsement more than misinformation with low endorsement. This effect was observed pre-fact-check and post-fact-check. High social endorsement of the fact-checks was associated with reduced misinformation belief however, evidence for the persistence of this effect was mixed. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2. Our findings indicate that social endorsement can moderate our beliefs in misinformation and the fact-checks designed to correct these beliefs.
Explicit warnings reduce but do not eliminate the continued influence of misinformation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2010
DOI: 10.3758/MC.38.8.1087
Evaluation of a Culturally Adapted Online Basic Psychosocial Skills Training Program for International Frontline Workers in Under-Resourced Contexts During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
DOI: 10.1017/DMP.2023.106
Abstract: Frontline workers report negative mental health impacts of being exposed to the risk of COVID-19, and of supporting people struggling with the effects of the virus. Uptake of psychological first-aid resources is inconsistent, and they may not meet the needs of frontline workers in under-resourced contexts. This study evaluates a culturally adapted basic psychosocial skills (BPS) training program that aimed to meet the needs of frontline workers in under-resourced settings. A cross-sectional survey administered to frontline workers who completed the program between 2020 and 2022, investigated their perceived confidence, satisfaction, and skill development, as well as their views on relevance to context and accessibility of the program. Out of the 1000 people who had undertaken the BPS program, 118 (11.8%) completed the survey. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction and improved confidence in, and knowledge of, psychosocial skills. Participants reported that the BPS program was culturally and contextually relevant, and some requested expansion of the program, including more interactivity, opportunities for anonymous participation, and adaption to other cultural contexts, including translation into languages other than English. Findings indicate a need for free, online, and culturally adapted psychosocial skills training program that is designed with key stakeholders to ensure relevance to social and cultural contexts.
User Involvement in Developing the MYPLAN Mobile Phone Safety Plan App for People in Suicidal Crisis: Case Study (Preprint)
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 17-08-2018
Abstract: he effect of safety planning for people in suicidal crisis is not yet determined, but using safety plans to mitigate acute psychological crisis is regarded as best practice. Between 2016 and 2017, Australian and Danish stakeholders were involved in revising and updating the Danish MYPLAN mobile phone safety plan and translating the app into a culturally appropriate version for Australia. he objective of this study was to examine the negotiation of stakeholders’ suggestions and contributions to the design, function, and content of the MYPLAN app and to characterize significant developments in the emerging user-involving processes. e utilized a case study design where 4 focus groups and 5 user-involving workshops in Denmark and Australia were subjected to thematic analysis. he analyses identified 3 consecutive phases in the extensive development of the app: from phase 1, Suggesting core functions, through phase 2, Refining functions, to phase 3, Negotiating the finish. The user-involving processes continued to prevent closure and challenged researchers and software developers to repeatedly reconsider the app’s basic user interface and functionality. It was a limitation that the analysis did not include potentially determinative backstage dimensions of the decision-making process. he extended user involvement prolonged the development process, but it also allowed for an extensive exploration of different user perspectives and needs.
Can corrections spread misinformation to new audiences? Testing for the elusive familiarity backfire effect
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-08-2020
DOI: 10.1186/S41235-020-00241-6
Abstract: Misinformation often continues to influence inferential reasoning after clear and credible corrections are provided this effect is known as the continued influence effect. It has been theorized that this effect is partly driven by misinformation familiarity. Some researchers have even argued that a correction should avoid repeating the misinformation, as the correction itself could serve to inadvertently enhance misinformation familiarity and may thus backfire, ironically strengthening the very misconception that it aims to correct. While previous research has found little evidence of such familiarity backfire effects, there remains one situation where they may yet arise: when correcting entirely novel misinformation, where corrections could serve to spread misinformation to new audiences who had never heard of it before. This article presents three experiments (total N = 1718) investigating the possibility of familiarity backfire within the context of correcting novel misinformation claims and after a 1-week study-test delay. While there was variation across experiments, overall there was substantial evidence against familiarity backfire. Corrections that exposed participants to novel misinformation did not lead to stronger misconceptions compared to a control group never exposed to the false claims or corrections. This suggests that it is safe to repeat misinformation when correcting it, even when the audience might be unfamiliar with the misinformation.
'Shadowing' as a management strategy for chemotherapy outpatient primary support persons.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-01-2017
DOI: 10.1111/SCS.12410
Abstract: Despite growing numbers of patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy in outpatient settings and the corresponding increase in care demands on family and close friends, little is known about the experiences of those informal carers supporting people with cancer during their chemotherapy trajectories. Using an interpretivist theoretical framework, this study explored the experiences of primary support persons of chemotherapy outpatients through in-depth interviews with 17 participants nominated as their primary support persons by people receiving chemotherapy at a large tertiary hospital in Australia. The study demonstrates that primary support persons of chemotherapy outpatients face distinct challenges, being at the frontline of treatment and managing side effects with minimal support at home. This role involves sensitive provision of complex medical and social care in circumstances that profoundly challenge the everyday worlds of both patient and carer. From the moment of diagnosis, informal carers in this context face the 'double whammy' of needing to 'manage' the cancer diagnosis experience as well as the chemotherapy trajectory experience. This study points to the significant level of responsibility that primary support persons take on, and the extent to which patients and clinicians rely on their support and management skills. It also points, however, to the lack of recognition they receive for assuming this role, and their sense of frustration in the face of this invisibility. The conceptualisation of the informal carer role as a 'shadowing' role explicitly represents the protective, vigilant, but almost invisible, support role described by the participants in this study.
A working memory test battery for MATLAB
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-2010
DOI: 10.3758/BRM.42.2.571
Refutations of equivocal claims
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 03-2019
Trends and socio-economic determinants of suicide in India: 2001-2013.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-12-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S00127-017-1466-X
Abstract: To investigate trends and socio-economic determinants of suicide in India over the period of 2001-2013. Suicide rates between 2001 and 2013 were calculated using suicide statistics provided by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and census data provided by Census of India, stratified by sex, age group, and geographical region, to investigate trends in suicide over the study period. Multilevel negative binomial regression models were specified to investigate associations between state-level indicators of economic development, education, employment and religious factors and sex-specific suicide rates. Male suicide rates remained relatively steady (~ 14 per 100,000) while female suicide rates decreased over the study period (9 to 7 per 100,000). The age group of 45-59 years had the highest suicide rate among males while the age group of 15-29 years had the highest suicide rate among females. On average, higher male and female suicide rates were observed in states with: higher levels of development, higher levels of agricultural employment, higher levels of literacy, and higher proportions of people identifying with Hinduism. Higher male suicide rates were also observed in states with higher levels of unemployment. The process of modernization might be contributing towards higher suicide risk in more developed parts of India. Also, increase in farmer suicides since economic liberalization might be contributing towards higher suicide rates among more agricultural regions. Furthermore, ancient sanctions towards religious suicide are possibly still influencing modern Hindu suicides.
Polarity and attitude effects in the continued-influence paradigm
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2019
Peer work in Open Dialogue: A discussion paper
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-03-2018
DOI: 10.1111/INM.12457
Abstract: Open Dialogue is a resource-oriented approach to mental health care that originated in Finland. As Open Dialogue has been adopted across erse international healthcare settings, it has been adapted according to contextual factors. One important development in Open Dialogue has been the incorporation of paid, formal peer work. Peer work draws on the knowledge and wisdom gained through lived experience of distress and hardship to establish mutual, reciprocal, and supportive relationships with service users. As Open Dialogue is now being implemented across mental health services in Australia, stakeholders are beginning to consider the role that peer workers might have in this model of care. Open Dialogue was not, initially, conceived to include a specific role for peers, and there is little available literature, and even less empirical research, in this area. This discussion paper aims to surface some of the current debates and ideas about peer work in Open Dialogue. Ex les and models of peer work in Open Dialogue are examined, and the potential benefits and challenges of adopting this approach in health services are discussed. Peer work in Open Dialogue could potentially foster democracy and disrupt clinical hierarchies, but could also move peer work from reciprocal to a less symmetrical relationship of 'giver' and 'receiver' of care. Other models of care, such as lived experience practitioners in Open Dialogue, can be conceived. However, it remains uncertain whether the hierarchical structures in healthcare and current models of funding would support any such models.
Electrophysiological correlates of the continued influence effect of misinformation: an exploratory study
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 16-11-2020
What Simon “knows” about cultural differences: The influence of cultural orientation and traffic directionality on spatial compatibility effects
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-09-2023
DOI: 10.3758/S13421-022-01360-9
Abstract: Previous research has suggested that culture influences perception and attention. These studies have typically involved comparisons of Westerners with East Asians, motivated by assumed differences in the cultures’ self-concept or position on the in idualism-collectivism spectrum. However, other potentially important sources of cultural variance have been neglected, such as differences in traffic directionality shaped by the urban spatial environment (i.e., left-hand vs. right-hand traffic). Thus, existing research may potentially place too much emphasis on self-concepts or the in idualism-collectivism dimension in explaining observed cultural differences in cognition. The present study investigated spatial cognition using a Simon task and tested participants from four nations (Australia, China, Germany, and Malaysia) that differ in both cultural orientation (collectivistic vs. in idualistic) and traffic directionality (left-hand vs. right-hand traffic). The task used two possible reference frames underlying the Simon effect: a body-centered one based on global stimulus position relative to the screen’s center versus an object-centered one based on local stimulus position relative to a context object. As expected, all groups showed a reliable Simon effect for both spatial reference frames. However, the global Simon effect was larger in participants from countries with left-hand traffic. In contrast, the local Simon effect was modulated by differences in cultural orientation, with larger effects in participants from collectivistic cultures. This pattern suggests that both sources of cultural variation, viz. cultural orientation and traffic directionality, contribute to differences in spatial cognition in distinct ways.
A Comparison of Prebunking and Debunking Interventions for Implied versus Explicit Misinformation
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 04-06-2021
Abstract: Psychological research has offered valuable insights into how to combat misinformation. The studies conducted to date, however, have three limitations. First, pre-emptive (“prebunking”) and retroactive (“debunking”) interventions have mostly been examined in parallel, and thus it is unclear which of these two predominant approaches is more effective. Second, there has been a focus on misinformation that is explicitly false, but misinformation that uses literally true information to mislead is common in the real world. Finally, studies have relied mainly on questionnaire measures of reasoning, neglecting behavioural impacts of misinformation and interventions. To offer incremental progress towards addressing these three issues, we conducted an experiment (N = 735) involving misinformation on fair trade. We contrasted the effectiveness of prebunking versus debunking and the impacts of implied versus explicit misinformation, and incorporated novel measures assessing consumer behaviours (i.e., willingness-to-pay information seeking online misinformation promotion) in addition to standard questionnaire measures. In general, we found debunking to be more effective than prebunking, although both were able to reduce misinformation reliance. We also found that in iduals tended to rely more on explicit than implied misinformation both with and without interventions.
Ice Ingestion Maintains Cognitive Performance during a Repeated Sprint Performance in The Heat
Publisher: Journal of Sports Science and Medicine
Date: 15-03-2022
Abstract: This study investigated the effects of precooling via crushed ice ingestion on cognitive performance during repeated-sprint cycling in the heat. Nine males, non-heat acclimatised to heat (mean age: 28.2 ± 2.7 y height: 175.7 ± 9.7 cm body-mass: 76.9 ± 10.6 kg) completed a 30 min bout of repeated-sprint (36 × 4 s sprints, interspersed with 56 s rest-breaks) on a cycle ergometer in a climate chamber (35°C, 70% relative humidity). Crushed ice ingestion (7g·kg-1, -0.4°C, ICE) or no cooling (CON) interventions were completed at rest, in the climate chamber, 30 min prior to exercise. Working memory was assessed via the serial seven test (S7) and the automated operation span task (OSPAN) at various time points before, during, and post-exercise. Core body temperature (Tc), forehead temperature (Th), and thermal sensation (TS) were assessed throughout the protocol. Working memory significantly declined during exercise in CON as measured by S7 (p = 0.01) and OSPAN (p = 0.03) however, it was preserved in ICE with no change at the end of exercise in either S7 or OSPAN scores compared to baseline (p = 0.50, p = 0.09, respectively). Following precooling, Th (-0.59°C, p 0.001) and Tc (-0.67°C, p = 0.005) were significantly decreased in ICE compared to CON. At the end of the exercise, ICE significantly reduced Tc compared to CON (p = 0.03), but no significant differences were recorded for Th. Further, TS was lower following precooling in ICE (p = 0.008) but not during exercise. In conclusion, ice ingestion significantly reduced Th and Tc and facilitated maintenance of cognitive performance during repeated-sprint exercise in the heat, which may lead to better decision making.
Why rebuttals may not work: the psychology of misinformation
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-04-2017
Effective Correction of Misinformation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2023
Comparing thermal strain in outdoor maintenance and indoor service workers in the mining industry during summer
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 05-10-2023
A comparison of prebunking and debunking interventions for implied versus explicit misinformation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-12-2022
DOI: 10.1111/BJOP.12551
Abstract: Psychological research has offered valuable insights into how to combat misinformation. The studies conducted to date, however, have three limitations. First, pre‐emptive (“prebunking”) and retroactive (“debunking”) interventions have mostly been examined in parallel, and thus it is unclear which of these two predominant approaches is more effective. Second, there has been a focus on misinformation that is explicitly false, but implied misinformation that uses literally true information to mislead is common in the real world. Finally, studies have relied mainly on questionnaire measures of reasoning, neglecting behavioural impacts of misinformation and interventions. To offer incremental progress towards addressing these three issues, we conducted an experiment ( N = 735) involving misinformation on fair trade. We contrasted the effectiveness of prebunking versus debunking and the impacts of implied versus explicit misinformation, and incorporated novel measures assessing consumer behaviours (i.e., willingness‐to‐pay information seeking online misinformation promotion) in addition to standard questionnaire measures. In general, both prebunking and debunking reduced misinformation reliance. We also found that in iduals tended to rely more on explicit than implied misinformation both with and without interventions.
Removal of information from working memory is not related to inhibition
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 06-05-2020
Abstract: Working memory (WM) is a system for maintenance of and access to a limited number of goal-relevant representations in the service of higher cognition. Because of its limited capacity, WM requires interference-control processes, allowing us to avoid being distracted by irrelevant information. Recent research has proposed two interference-control processes, which are conceptually similar: (1) an active, item-wise removal process assumed to remove no-longer relevant information from WM, and (2) an inhibitory process assumed to suppress the activation of distractors against competing, goal-relevant representations. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which removal and inhibition are the same construct. Results showed acceptable to good reliabilities for nearly all measures. Similar to previous studies, a structural equation modeling approach identified a reliable latent variable of removal. However, also similar to some previous studies, no latent variable of inhibition could be established. This was the case even when the correlation matrix used to compute the latent variable of inhibition was disattenuated for imperfect reliability. Critically, the in idual measures of inhibition were unrelated to the latent variable of removal. These results provide tentative support for the notion that removal is not an inhibitory process. This suggests that the removal process should be conceptualized as a process independent of inhibition, as proposed in computational WM models that implement removal as the “unbinding” of a WM item from the context in which it occurred.
Executive Function and the Continued Influence of Misinformation: A Latent Variable Analysis
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 03-06-2022
Abstract: Misinformation can continue to influence reasoning after correction this is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). Theoretical accounts of the CIE suggest failure of two cognitive processes to be causal, namely memory updating and suppression of misinformation reliance. Both processes can also be conceptualised as subcomponents of contemporary executive function (EF) models specifically, working-memory updating and prepotent-response inhibition. EF may thus predict susceptibility to the CIE. The current study investigated whether in idual differences in EF could predict in idual differences in CIE susceptibility. Participants completed several measures of EF subcomponents, including those of updating and inhibition, as well as set shifting, and a standard CIE task. The relationship between EF and CIE was then assessed using a correlation analysis of the EF and CIE measures, as well as structural equation modelling of the EF-subcomponent latent variable and CIE latent variable. Results showed that EF can predict susceptibility to the CIE, especially the factor of working-memory updating. These results further our understanding of the CIE’s cognitive antecedents and provide potential directions for real-world CIE intervention.
Using the COVID-19 economic crisis to frame climate change as a secondary issue reduces mitigation support
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Listening to misinformation while driving: Cognitive load and the effectiveness of (repeated) corrections.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 09-2023
DOI: 10.1037/MAC0000057
Processing political misinformation: comprehending the Trump phenomenon
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 03-2017
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.160802
Abstract: This study investigated the cognitive processing of true and false political information. Specifically, it examined the impact of source credibility on the assessment of veracity when information comes from a polarizing source (Experiment 1), and effectiveness of explanations when they come from one's own political party or an opposition party (Experiment 2). These experiments were conducted prior to the 2016 Presidential election. Participants rated their belief in factual and incorrect statements that President Trump made on the c aign trail facts were subsequently affirmed and misinformation retracted. Participants then re-rated their belief immediately or after a delay. Experiment 1 found that (i) if information was attributed to Trump, Republican supporters of Trump believed it more than if it was presented without attribution, whereas the opposite was true for Democrats and (ii) although Trump supporters reduced their belief in misinformation items following a correction, they did not change their voting preferences. Experiment 2 revealed that the explanation's source had relatively little impact, and belief updating was more influenced by perceived credibility of the in idual initially purporting the information. These findings suggest that people use political figures as a heuristic to guide evaluation of what is true or false, yet do not necessarily insist on veracity as a prerequisite for supporting political candidates.
The psychological drivers of misinformation belief and its resistance to correction
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-01-2022
The (Mis)Information Game: A social media simulator
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-07-2023
DOI: 10.3758/S13428-023-02153-X
Abstract: Given the potential negative impact reliance on misinformation can have, substantial effort has gone into understanding the factors that influence misinformation belief and propagation. However, despite the rise of social media often being cited as a fundamental driver of misinformation exposure and false beliefs, how people process misinformation on social media platforms has been under-investigated. This is partially due to a lack of adaptable and ecologically valid social media testing paradigms, resulting in an over-reliance on survey software and questionnaire-based measures. To provide researchers with a flexible tool to investigate the processing and sharing of misinformation on social media, this paper presents The Misinformation Game—an easily adaptable, open-source online testing platform that simulates key characteristics of social media. Researchers can customize posts (e.g., headlines, images), source information (e.g., handles, avatars, credibility), and engagement information (e.g., a post’s number of likes and dislikes). The platform allows a range of response options for participants (like, share, dislike, flag) and supports comments. The simulator can also present posts on in idual pages or in a scrollable feed, and can provide customized dynamic feedback to participants via changes to their follower count and credibility score, based on how they interact with each post. Notably, no specific programming skills are required to create studies using the simulator. Here, we outline the key features of the simulator and provide a non-technical guide for use by researchers. We also present results from two validation studies. All the source code and instructions are freely available online at misinfogame.com .
Evaluation of a Template for Countering Misinformation—Real-world Autism Treatment Myth Debunking
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 29-08-2018
Abstract: Misinformation poses significant challenges to evidence-based practice. In the public health domain specifically, treatment misinformation can lead to opportunity costs or direct harm. Alas, attempts to debunk misinformation have proven sub-optimal, and have even been shown to “backfire”, including increasing misperceptions. Thus, optimized debunking strategies have been developed to more effectively combat misinformation. The aim of this study was to test these strategies in a real-world setting, targeting misinformation about autism interventions. In the context of professional development training, we randomly assigned participants to an “optimized-debunking” or a “treatment-as-usual” training condition and compared support for non-empirically-supported treatments before, after, and six weeks following completion of online training. Results demonstrated greater benefits of optimized debunking immediately after training thus, the implemented strategies can serve as a general and flexible debunking template. However, the effect was not sustained at follow-up, highlighting the need for further research into strategies for sustained change.
The (Mis)Information Game: A Social Media Simulator
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 13-07-2022
Abstract: Given the negative impact reliance on misinformation can have on in iduals and society, substantial effort has gone into understanding the factors that influence misinformation belief and propagation. However, despite the rise of social media often being cited as a fundamental driver of misinformation exposure and false beliefs, how people process (mis)information on social-media platforms has been under-investigated. This is partially due to a lack of adaptable and ecologically valid social-media testing paradigms, resulting in an overreliance on survey software and questionnaire-based measures. To provide researchers with a flexible tool to investigate the processing and sharing of (mis)information on social media, this paper presents The Misinformation Game—an easily adaptable, open-source online testing platform that simulates key characteristics of social media. Researchers can customize posts (e.g., headlines, images), source information (e.g., handles, avatars, credibility), and engagement information (e.g., a post’s number of likes and dislikes). The platform allows a range of response options for participants (like, share, dislike, flag) and supports comments. Further, the simulator can provide customized dynamic feedback to participants, via changes to a participant’s follower count and credibility score, based on how they interact with each post. Notably, no specific programming skills are required to use the simulator. Here we outline the key features of the simulator and provide a non-technical guide for use by researchers, including instructions for integrating the simulator into the online survey platform Qualtrics. We also present results from two validation studies. All source code and instructions are freely available online at themisinformationgame.github.io/.
Effects of prestudy and poststudy rest on memory: Support for temporal interference accounts of forgetting
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-09-2015
DOI: 10.3758/S13423-014-0737-8
Abstract: According to interference-based theories of memory, including temporal-distinctiveness theory, both prestudy and poststudy rest should have beneficial impacts on memory performance. Specifically, higher temporal isolation of a memorandum should reduce proactive and/or retroactive interference, and thus should result in better recall. In the present study, we investigated the effects of prestudy and poststudy rest in a free recall paradigm. Participants studied three lists of words, separated by either a short or a long period of low mental activity (a tone-detection task). Recall targeted the second list this list was studied in one of four conditions, defined by the fully crossed factors of prestudy and poststudy rest duration. Two experiments revealed a beneficial effect of prestudy rest (and, to a lesser extent, of poststudy rest) on list recall. This result is in line with interference-based theories of memory. By contrast, a beneficial effect of prestudy rest is not predicted by consolidation accounts of memory and forgetting our results thus require additional assumptions and/or a better specification of the consolidation process and its time course in order to be reconciled with consolidation theory.
Political Attitudes and the Processing of Misinformation Corrections
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 03-11-2017
Abstract: Misinformation often continues to influence people’s memory and inferential reasoning after it has been retracted this is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). Previous research investigating the role of attitude-based motivated reasoning in this context has found conflicting results: Some studies have found that worldview can have a strong impact on the magnitude of the CIE, such that retractions are less effective if the misinformation is congruent with a person’s relevant attitudes, in which case the retractions can even backfire. Other studies have failed to find evidence for an effect of attitudes on the processing of misinformation corrections. The present study used political misinformation—specifically fictional scenarios involving misconduct by politicians from left-wing and right-wing parties—and tested participants identifying with those political parties. Results showed that in this type of scenario, partisan attitudes have an impact on the processing of retractions, in particular (1) if the misinformation relates to a general assertion rather than just a specific singular event, and (2) if the misinformation is congruent with a conservative partisanship.
He did it! She did it! No, she did not! Multiple causal explanations and the continued influence of misinformation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
Models of cognition and constraints from neuroscience: A case study involving consolidation
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2012
The influence of object and background color manipulations on the electrophysiological indices of recognition memory
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.BRAINRES.2007.09.047
Abstract: In a recognition memory experiment, the claim was tested that intrinsic object features contribute to familiarity, whereas extrinsic context features do not. We used the study-test manipulation of color to investigate the perceptual specificity of ERP old-new effects associated with familiarity and recollection. Color was either an intrinsic surface feature of the object or a feature of the surrounding context (a frame encasing the object) thus, the same feature was manipulated across intrinsic/extrinsic conditions. Subjects performed a threefold (same color/different color/new object) decision, making feature information task-relevant. Results suggest that the intrinsic manipulation of color affected the mid-frontal old-new effect associated with familiarity, while this effect was not influenced by extrinsic manipulation. This ERP pattern could not be explained by basic behavioral performance differences. It is concluded that familiarity can be perceptually specific with regard to intrinsic information belonging to the object. The putative electrophysiological signature of recollection - a late parietal old-new effect - was not present in the data, and reasons for this null effect are discussed.
Can You Believe it? An Investigation into the Impact of Retraction Source Credibility on the Continued Influence Effect
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 20-08-2020
Abstract: The continued influence effect refers to the finding that people often continue to rely on misinformation in their reasoning even if the information has been retracted. The present study aimed to investigate the extent to which the effectiveness of a retraction is determined by its credibility. In particular, we aimed to scrutinize previous findings suggesting that perceived trustworthiness but not perceived expertise of the retraction source determines a retraction’s effectiveness, and that continued influence arises only if a retraction is not believed. In two experiments, we found that indeed source trustworthiness but not source expertise influences retraction effectiveness, with retractions from low-trustworthiness sources entirely ineffective. We also found that retraction belief is indeed a predictor of continued reliance on misinformation, but that substantial continued influence effects can still occur with retractions designed to be and rated as highly credible.
Color and context: An ERP study on intrinsic and extrinsic feature binding in episodic memory
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2007
DOI: 10.3758/BF03193618
Abstract: Episodic memory for intrinsic item and extrinsic context information is postulated to rely on two distinct types of representation: object and episodic tokens. These provide the basis for familiarity and recollection, respectively. Electrophysiological indices of these processes (ERP old-new effects) were used together with behavioral data to test these assumptions. We manipulated an intrinsic object feature (color Experiment 1) and a contextual feature (background Experiments 1 and 2). In an inclusion task (Experiment 1), the study-test manipulation of color affected object recognition performance and modulated ERP old-new effects associated with both familiarity and recollection. In contrast, a contextual manipulation had no effect, although both intrinsic and extrinsic information was available in a direct feature (source memory) test. When made task relevant (exclusion task Experiment 2), however, context affected the ERP recollection effect, while still leaving the ERP familiarity effect uninfluenced. We conclude that intrinsic features bound in object tokens are involuntarily processed during object recognition, thus influencing familiarity, whereas context features bound in episodic tokens are voluntarily accessed, exclusively influencing recollection. Figures depicting all the electrodes analyzed are available in an online supplement at rchive.
Correcting vaccine misinformation: A failure to replicate familiarity or fear-driven backfire effects
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 12-04-2023
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0281140
Abstract: In iduals often continue to rely on misinformation in their reasoning and decision making even after it has been corrected. This is known as the continued influence effect, and one of its presumed drivers is misinformation familiarity. As continued influence can promote misguided or unsafe behaviours, it is important to find ways to minimize the effect by designing more effective corrections. It has been argued that correction effectiveness is reduced if the correction repeats the to-be-debunked misinformation, thereby boosting its familiarity. Some have even suggested that this familiarity boost may cause a correction to inadvertently increase subsequent misinformation reliance a phenomenon termed the familiarity backfire effect. A study by Pluviano et al. (2017) found evidence for this phenomenon using vaccine-related stimuli. The authors found that repeating vaccine “myths” and contrasting them with corresponding facts backfired relative to a control condition, ironically increasing false vaccine beliefs. The present study sought to replicate and extend this study. We included four conditions from the original Pluviano et al. study: the myths vs. facts, a visual infographic, a fear appeal, and a control condition. The present study also added a “myths-only” condition, which simply repeated false claims and labelled them as false theoretically, this condition should be most likely to produce familiarity backfire. Participants received vaccine-myth corrections and were tested immediately post-correction, and again after a seven-day delay. We found that the myths vs. facts condition reduced vaccine misconceptions. None of the conditions increased vaccine misconceptions relative to control at either timepoint, or relative to a pre-intervention baseline thus, no backfire effects were observed. This failure to replicate adds to the mounting evidence against familiarity backfire effects and has implications for vaccination communications and the design of debunking interventions.
Dialogical inquiry: multivocality and the interpretation of text
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 07-2021
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to describe a novel form of qualitative inquiry, dialogical inquiry, which allows for multiple investigators from different positions or traditions to collaboratively interpret qualitative data, engaging in a process of mutual influence to enrich both themselves and the process of analysis. We provide a clearly operationalized method, which is inspired by the philosophy of Bakhtin, as reimagined through practices from Open Dialogue, a social network–based approach to dialogical psychotherapy. Drawing on a specific text analysis of Jay Neugeboren’s novel “Imagining Robert,” we demonstrate how our dialogical inquiry approach can bring reflexive practice in qualitative research to life through mutual reflections among investigators. We show how dialogical inquiry can generate appreciation for multiple perspectives, awareness of affective and epistemic positions, and new knowledge production. This approach could be particularly suited for research teams that wish to actively generate new kinds of knowledge, or to privilege the voices of coresearchers from erse social, political, and epistemic positions.
The cranky uncle game—combining humor and gamification to build student resilience against climate misinformation
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 14-06-2023
Seasonal influence on cognitive and psycho-physiological responses to a single 11-h day of work in outdoor mine industry workers
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-05-2023
Reduced cortical inhibition in first-episode schizophrenia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2008
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCHRES.2008.06.001
Abstract: Disturbances in cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical circuits in schizophrenia have been described by previous neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) provides a neurophysiological technique for the measurement of cortical excitability, especially of the motoneural system. Previous studies using paired-pulse TMS to investigate short-interval cortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF), mainly involving chronic schizophrenia patients, have been inconsistent and only one study in first-episode patients has been conducted so far. We assessed SICI (interstimulus interval, ISI, 3 milliseconds, ms) and ICF (ISI 7 ms) in 29 first-episode schizophrenia patients (FE-SZ) with limited exposure to antipsychotic treatment against measures of 28 healthy controls (HC). Amplitudes of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were measured from the left and right first dorsal interosseus muscle (FDI). The conditioning stimulus was set at 80% intensity of resting motor threshold (RMT) and the test stimulus (TS) was set at an intensity that produced an MEP litude of about 1 mV. For SICI conditions, FE-SZ demonstrated significantly higher MEP litudes from left motor cortex (right FDI) compared to HC, and for MEPs from right motor cortex (left FDI) a similar trend was observable (FE-SZ 41% vs. HC 21% of TS, p=0.017 for left motor cortex, and FE-SZ 59% vs. HC 31% of TS, p=0.059 for right motor cortex Mann-Whitney U-test). No significant difference in MEPs could be detected for ICF on either hemisphere. In addition, there was no difference in left and right RMT comparing patients and control subjects. Our result of a reduced SICI in a large s le of well characterized first-episode schizophrenia patients suggests that a GABAergic deficit may be involved in schizophrenic pathophysiology, already early in the disease course, supporting the intracortical dysconnectivity hypothesis.
Beyond the Medical Model.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 26-06-2017
Abstract: The medical model continues to dominate research and shape policy and service responses to suicide. In this work we challenge the assumption that the medical model always provides the most effective and appropriate care for persons who are suicidal. In particular, we point to service user perspectives of health services which show that interventions are often experienced as discriminatory, culturally inappropriate, and incongruent with the needs and values of persons who are suicidal. We then examine “humanistic” approaches to care that have been proposed as a corrective to an overly medical model. We argue that the focus on improving interpersonal relations set out in humanistic approaches does not mitigate the prevailing risk management culture in contemporary suicide prevention and may impede the provision of more effective care. Finally, we draw attention to the tradition of non-medical approaches to supporting persons who are suicidal. Using Maytree (a U.K. crisis support service) as a case study, we outline some of the key features of alternative service models that we consider central to the design of more culturally appropriate and effective interventions. We conclude by making three key recommendations for improving services to persons who are suicidal.
Toward effective government communication strategies in the era of COVID-19
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-01-2021
DOI: 10.1057/S41599-020-00701-W
Abstract: Several countries have successfully reduced their COVID-19 infection rate early, while others have been overwhelmed. The reasons for the differences are complex, but response efficacy has in part depended on the speed and scale of governmental intervention and how communities have received, perceived, and acted on the information provided by governments and other agencies. While there is no ‘one size fits all’ communications strategy to deliver information during a prolonged crisis, in this article, we draw on key findings from scholarship in multiple social science disciplines to highlight some fundamental characteristics of effective governmental crisis communication. We then present ten recommendations for effective communication strategies to engender maximum support and participation. We argue that an effective communication strategy is a two-way process that involves clear messages, delivered via appropriate platforms, tailored for erse audiences, and shared by trusted people. Ultimately, the long-term success depends on developing and maintaining public trust. We outline how government policymakers can engender widespread public support and participation through increased and ongoing community engagement. We argue that a ersity of community groups must be included in engagement activities. We also highlight the implications of emerging digital technologies in communication and engagement activities.
Binding of intrinsic and extrinsic features in working memory.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 02-2013
DOI: 10.1037/A0028732
Abstract: There is ongoing debate concerning the mechanisms of feature binding in working memory. In particular, there is controversy regarding the extent to which these binding processes are automatic. The present article demonstrates that binding mechanisms differ depending on whether the to-be-integrated features are perceived as forming a coherent object. We presented a series of experiments that investigated the binding of color and shape, whereby color was either an intrinsic feature of the shape or an extrinsic feature of the shape's background. Results show that intrinsic color affected shape recognition, even when it was incidentally studied and irrelevant for the recognition task. In contrast, extrinsic color did not affect shape recognition, even when the association of color and shape was encoded and retrievable on demand. This strongly suggests that binding of intrinsic intra-item information but not extrinsic contextual information is obligatory in visual working memory. We highlight links to perception as well as implicit and explicit long-term memory, which suggest that the intrinsic-extrinsic dimension is a principle relevant to multiple domains of human cognition.
A Public Health Research Agenda for Managing Infodemics: Methods and Results of the First WHO Infodemiology Conference
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 15-09-2021
DOI: 10.2196/30979
Abstract: An infodemic is an overflow of information of varying quality that surges across digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. It leads to confusion, risk-taking, and behaviors that can harm health and lead to erosion of trust in health authorities and public health responses. Owing to the global scale and high stakes of the health emergency, responding to the infodemic related to the pandemic is particularly urgent. Building on erse research disciplines and expanding the discipline of infodemiology, more evidence-based interventions are needed to design infodemic management interventions and tools and implement them by health emergency responders. The World Health Organization organized the first global infodemiology conference, entirely online, during June and July 2020, with a follow-up process from August to October 2020, to review current multidisciplinary evidence, interventions, and practices that can be applied to the COVID-19 infodemic response. This resulted in the creation of a public health research agenda for managing infodemics. As part of the conference, a structured expert judgment synthesis method was used to formulate a public health research agenda. A total of 110 participants represented erse scientific disciplines from over 35 countries and global public health implementing partners. The conference used a laddered discussion sprint methodology by rotating participant teams, and a managed follow-up process was used to assemble a research agenda based on the discussion and structured expert feedback. This resulted in a five-workstream frame of the research agenda for infodemic management and 166 suggested research questions. The participants then ranked the questions for feasibility and expected public health impact. The expert consensus was summarized in a public health research agenda that included a list of priority research questions. The public health research agenda for infodemic management has five workstreams: (1) measuring and continuously monitoring the impact of infodemics during health emergencies (2) detecting signals and understanding the spread and risk of infodemics (3) responding and deploying interventions that mitigate and protect against infodemics and their harmful effects (4) evaluating infodemic interventions and strengthening the resilience of in iduals and communities to infodemics and (5) promoting the development, adaptation, and application of interventions and toolkits for infodemic management. Each workstream identifies research questions and highlights 49 high priority research questions. Public health authorities need to develop, validate, implement, and adapt tools and interventions for managing infodemics in acute public health events in ways that are appropriate for their countries and contexts. Infodemiology provides a scientific foundation to make this possible. This research agenda proposes a structured framework for targeted investment for the scientific community, policy makers, implementing organizations, and other stakeholders to consider.
Can you believe it? An investigation into the impact of retraction source credibility on the continued influence effect
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-01-2021
Interference control in working memory: Evidence for discriminant validity between removal and inhibition tasks
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 02-12-2020
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0243053
Abstract: Working memory (WM) is a system for maintenance of and access to a limited number of goal-relevant representations in the service of higher cognition. Because of its limited capacity, WM requires interference-control processes, allowing us to avoid being distracted by irrelevant information. Recent research has proposed two interference-control processes, which are conceptually similar: (1) an active, item-wise removal process assumed to remove no-longer relevant information from WM, and (2) an inhibitory process assumed to suppress the activation of distractors against competing, goal-relevant representations. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the tasks used to assess removal and inhibition measure the same interference-control construct. Results showed acceptable to good reliabilities for nearly all measures. Similar to previous studies, a structural equation modeling approach identified a reliable latent variable of removal. However, also similar to some previous studies, no latent variable of inhibition could be established. This was the case even when the correlation matrix used to compute the latent variable of inhibition was disattenuated for imperfect reliability. Critically, the in idual measures of inhibition were unrelated to the latent variable of removal. These results provide tentative support for the notion that removal is not related to the interference-control processes assessed in inhibition tasks. This suggests that the removal process should be conceptualized as a process independent of the concept of inhibition, as proposed in computational WM models that implement removal as the “unbinding” of a WM item from the context in which it occurred.
The effectiveness of short‐format refutational fact‐checks
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-03-2020
DOI: 10.1111/BJOP.12383
Letting the Gorilla Emerge From the Mist: Getting Past Post-Truth
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2017
Exploring the neural substrates of misinformation processing
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA.2017.10.003
Abstract: It is well known that information that is initially thought to be correct but then revealed to be false, often continues to influence human judgement and decision making despite people being aware of the retraction. Yet little research has examined the underlying neural substrates of this phenomenon, which is known as the 'continued influence effect of misinformation' (CIEM). It remains unclear how the human brain processes critical information that retracts prior claims. To address this question in further detail, 26 healthy adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while listening to brief narratives which either involved a retraction of prior information or not. Following each narrative, subjects' comprehension of the narrative, including their inclination to rely on retracted information, was probed. As expected, it was found that retracted information continued to affect participants' narrative-related reasoning. In addition, the fMRI data indicated that the continued influence of retracted information may be due to a breakdown of narrative-level integration and coherence-building mechanisms implemented by the precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus.
Working memory capacity, short-term memory capacity, and the continued influence effect: A latent-variable analysis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2018
‘Every single minute and hour is scrutinised’: neoliberalism and Australian private mental health care
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-2020
Abstract: There is little understanding of how recovery-oriented approaches fit within contemporary mental healthcare systems, which emphasise biomedical approaches to care, increased efficiency and cost-cutting. This article examines the established models of service delivery in a private, youth, mental health service and the impacts of the current system on staff. It explores whether the service is prepared or capable of adopting recovery-oriented approaches to care. Qualitative interviews were undertaken with staff and thematically analysed to understand the everyday practices on the unit. Data suggest that economic efficiencies and biomedical dominance largely shaped how health care was organised and delivered, which was perceived by staff as inflexible to change. Additionally, findings suggest that market-oriented principles associated with neoliberalism restricted the capacity of in iduals to transform services in line with alternative models of care and lowered staff morale. These finding suggest that, while neoliberal ideologies and biomedical approaches remain dominant in organisations, there will be challenges to adopting alternative recovery-oriented models of care and promoting healthcare systems that understand mental health issues in broader socio-political contexts and can flexibly respond to the needs of service users.
We Are Barometers of the City; Collected Poems by Psychologists
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-08-2019
Refuting Spurious COVID-19 Treatment Claims Reduces Demand and Misinformation Sharing
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 30-09-2020
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a surge of health misinformation, which has had serious consequences including direct harm and opportunity costs. We investigated (N = 678) the impact of such misinformation on hypothetical demand (i.e., willingness-to-pay) for an unproven treatment, and propensity to promote (i.e., like or share) misinformation online. This is a novel approach, as previous research has used mainly questionnaire-based measures of reasoning. We also tested two interventions to counteract the misinformation, contrasting a tentative refutation based on materials used by health authorities with an enhanced refutation based on best-practice recommendations. We found prior exposure to misinformation increased misinformation promotion (by 18%). Both tentative and enhanced refutations reduced demand (by 18% and 25%, respectively) as well as misinformation promotion (by 29% and 55%). The fact that enhanced refutations were more effective at curbing promotion of misinformation highlights the need for debunking interventions to follow current best-practice guidelines.
Executive function and the continued influence of misinformation: A latent-variable analysis
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 05-04-2023
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0283951
Abstract: Misinformation can continue to influence reasoning after correction this is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). Theoretical accounts of the CIE suggest failure of two cognitive processes to be causal, namely memory updating and suppression of misinformation reliance. Both processes can also be conceptualised as subcomponents of contemporary executive function (EF) models specifically, working-memory updating and prepotent-response inhibition. EF may thus predict susceptibility to the CIE. The current study investigated whether in idual differences in EF could predict in idual differences in CIE susceptibility. Participants completed several measures of EF subcomponents, including those of updating and inhibition, as well as set shifting, and a standard CIE task. The relationship between EF and CIE was then assessed using a correlation analysis of the EF and CIE measures, as well as structural equation modelling of the EF-subcomponent latent variable and CIE latent variable. Results showed that EF can predict susceptibility to the CIE, especially the factor of working-memory updating. These results further our understanding of the CIE’s cognitive antecedents and provide potential directions for real-world CIE intervention.
Towards epistemic justice doing: Examining the experiences and shifts in knowledge of lived experience researchers over the course of a mental health research training programme
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-07-2021
DOI: 10.1111/INM.12910
Abstract: Participation of people with lived experience (LE) in mental health research is vital for improving the quality and relevance of research priorities, outcomes, and knowledge translation. Inclusion of people with LE is also recognized as central for achieving health service reform including commitments to human rights, social, and epistemic justice. Although a lack of research training is cited as a barrier to LE participation, few studies have examined the value of training for, or the specific requirements of, people with LE. This study seeks to address this gap. It reports on a longitudinal, qualitative study examining shifts in experience and knowledge, and unmet needs, of people with LE over the course of a coproduced research training programme. Findings indicate that the programme enabled participants to understand the role, value, and levels of LE participation in research. Participants also stressed the importance of the ‘embodied lived expertise’ of LE researchers who co‐delivered the training programme. Nonetheless, participants indicated that they felt unprepared for the challenges of working in systems where LE knowledge is subordinated, and experiences of being silenced and powerless could mirror those previously experienced in mental health services and the community. Participants indicated a need for training that provided them with the epistemic resources to render such experiences intelligible. Findings also indicate that training in participatory research is required for conventional mental health researchers, to support them to navigate power asymmetries and value LE knowledge contributions.
A focus shift in the evaluation of misinformation interventions
Publisher: Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics, and Public Policy
Date: 05-10-2023
DOI: 10.37016/MR-2020-124
Using the president’s tweets to understand political diversion in the age of social media
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 30-10-2020
Abstract: (This paper is in press, Nature Communications). Social media has arguably shifted political agenda-setting power away from mainstream media onto politicians. Current U.S. President Trump's reliance on Twitter is unprecedented, but the underlying implications for agenda setting are poorly understood. Using the president as a case study, we present evidence suggesting that President Trump's use of Twitter erts crucial media (The New York Times and ABC News) from topics that are potentially harmful to him. We find that increased media coverage of the Mueller investigation is immediately followed by Trump tweeting increasingly about unrelated issues. This increased activity, in turn, is followed by a reduction in coverage of the Mueller investigation---a finding that is consistent with the hypothesis that President Trump's tweets may also successfully ert the media from topics that he considers threatening. The pattern is absent in placebo analyses involving Brexit coverage and several other topics that do not present a political risk to the president. Our results are robust to the inclusion of numerous control variables and examination of several alternative explanations, although the generality of the successful ersion must be established by further investigation.
Can Corrections Spread Misinformation to New Audiences? Testing for the Elusive Familiarity Backfire Effect
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 30-04-2020
Abstract: Misinformation often continues to influence inferential reasoning after clear and credible corrections are provided this effect is known as the continued influence effect. It has been theorized that this effect is partly driven by misinformation familiarity. Some researchers have even argued that a correction should avoid repeating the misinformation, as the correction itself could serve to inadvertently enhance misinformation familiarity and may thus backfire, ironically strengthening the very misconception it aims to correct. While previous research has found little evidence of such familiarity backfire effects, there remains one situation where they may yet arise: when correcting entirely novel misinformation, where corrections could serve to spread misinformation to new audiences. The present paper presents three experiments (total N = 1,718) investigating the possibility of familiarity backfire within the context of correcting novel misinformation claims. While there was variation across experiments, overall there was substantial evidence against familiarity backfire. Corrections that repeated novel misinformation claims did not lead to stronger misconceptions compared to a control group never exposed to the false claims or corrections. This suggests that it is safe to repeat misinformation when correcting it, even when the audience might be unfamiliar with the misinformation.
Corrections of political misinformation: no evidence for an effect of partisan worldview in a US convenience sample
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 22-02-2021
Abstract: Misinformation often has a continuing effect on people's reasoning despite clear correction. One factor assumed to affect post-correction reliance on misinformation is worldview-driven motivated reasoning. For ex le, a recent study with an Australian undergraduate s le found that when politically situated misinformation was retracted, political partisanship influenced the effectiveness of the retraction. This worldview effect was asymmetrical, that is, particularly pronounced in politically conservative participants. However, the evidence regarding such worldview effects (and their symmetry) has been inconsistent. Thus, the present study aimed to extend previous findings by examining a s le of 429 pre-screened US participants supporting either the Democratic or Republican Party. Participants received misinformation suggesting that politicians of either party were more likely to commit embezzlement this was or was not subsequently retracted, and participants' inferential reasoning was measured. While political worldview (i.e. partisanship) influenced the extent to which participants relied on the misinformation overall, retractions were equally effective across all conditions. There was no impact of political worldview on retraction effectiveness, let alone evidence of a backfire effect, and thus we did not replicate the asymmetry observed in the Australian-based study. This pattern emerged despite some evidence that Republicans showed a stronger emotional response than Democrats to worldview-incongruent misinformation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms’.
Cognitive impairment of executive function as a core symptom of schizophrenia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1080/15622970701849986
Abstract: Cognitive dysfunction is a common finding in schizophrenia. Nevertheless the specific pattern of neuropsychological impairment in schizophrenia compared to other severe mental illnesses has not been intensively studied. Twenty-four patients with schizophrenia belonging to different stages of the disease (11 first-episode patients, 13 patients with multiple episodes), 18 patients with bipolar disorder and 23 healthy control subjects underwent standardized neuropsychological assessment. Statistical analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated that, compared to control subjects, patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse in the trail-making test (P = 0.012), verbal fluency (category letter, P = 0.004), verbal learning/memory (P = 0.005), and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) (P = 0.004 for administered trials P = 0.025 for perseverative responses, T value) indicating significant deficits in attention and psychomotor performance, and in particular in verbal working memory and cognitive flexibility for schizophrenic patients. A significant difference between schizophrenic and bipolar patients was found only in the WCST. Schizophrenic patients made significantly more perseverative responses (P = 0.002, ANCOVA), indicating a more pronounced and specific deficit in cognitive flexibility and frontally based executive function. In conclusion, these results may suggest a cognitive endophenotype in schizophrenia and underline the role of the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenic pathophysiology.
ERP evidence for flexible adjustment of retrieval orientation and its influence on familiarity
Publisher: MIT Press - Journals
Date: 10-2009
Abstract: The assumption was tested that familiarity memory as indexed by a mid-frontal ERP old–new effect is modulated by retrieval orientation. A randomly cued category-based versus exemplar-specific recognition memory test, requiring flexible adjustment of retrieval orientation, was conducted. Results show that the mid-frontal ERP old–new effect is sensitive to the manipulation of study-test congruency—that is, whether the same object is repeated identically or a different category exemplar is presented at test. Importantly, the effect pattern depends on subjects' retrieval orientation. With a specific orientation, only same items elicited an early old–new effect (same & different = new), whereas in the general condition, the old–new effect was graded (same & different & new). This supports the view that both perceptual and conceptual processes can contribute to familiarity memory and demonstrates that the rather automatic process of familiarity is not only data driven but influenced by top–down retrieval orientation, which subjects are able to adjust on a flexible basis.
Would I lie to you? Party affiliation is more important than Brexit in processing political misinformation
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 02-2023
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.220508
Abstract: In recent years, the UK has become ided along two key dimensions: party affiliation and Brexit position. We explored how ision along these two dimensions interacts with the correction of political misinformation. Participants saw accurate and inaccurate statements (either balanced or mostly inaccurate) from two politicians from opposing parties but the same Brexit position (Experiment 1), or the same party but opposing Brexit positions (Experiment 2). Replicating previous work, fact-checking statements led participants to update their beliefs, increasing belief after fact affirmations and decreasing belief for corrected misinformation, even for politically aligned material. After receiving fact-checks participants had reduced voting intentions and more negative feelings towards party-aligned politicians (likely due to low baseline support for opposing party politicians). For Brexit alignment, the opposite was found: participants reduced their voting intentions and feelings for opposing (but not aligned) politicians following the fact-checks. These changes occurred regardless of the proportion of inaccurate statements, potentially indicating participants expect politicians to be accurate more than half the time. Finally, although we found ision based on both party and Brexit alignment, effects were much stronger for party alignment, highlighting that even though new isions have emerged in UK politics, the old ides remain dominant.
Impaired memory updating associated with impaired recall of negative words in dysphoric rumination—Evidence for a removal deficit
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.BRAT.2017.03.008
Abstract: We present evidence that dysphoric rumination involves a working memory (WM) updating deficit. Sixty-one undergraduates-pre-screened with rumination and depression scales-completed a novel task providing a specific measure of WM updating. This task involved the substitution of emotionally-valenced words, and provided an online measure of the time taken to remove outdated items from WM. Results showed that dysphoric ruminators spent less time removing outdated words from WM when the new to-be-remembered word was negative. This effect was (1) associated with impaired subsequent recall of negative words, arguably caused by interference from the insufficiently removed outdated words and (2) correlated with participants' rumination scores. This is the first study to use the novel removal task to investigate the nature of WM-updating impairments in rumination. The findings are consistent with a negative attentional bias in rumination, and provide preliminary evidence that rumination is associated with a valence-generic removal deficit during WM updating. Reducing the attentional bias could thus be an intervention target in the treatment of dysphoric rumination.
Co-producing a Drug and Alcohol Nursing Subject With Experts by Experience
Publisher: Bond University
Date: 15-02-2021
DOI: 10.53300/001C.21146
Abstract: Nurses are frontline workers and have an important role to play in reducing the harms associated with alcohol and other drugs (AOD) dependence. AOD dependence is a major cause of preventable illness, particularly since the overprescribing of opioids has led to a worldwide overdose crisis. However, nurses receive little education in their undergraduate training about AOD or harm reduction strategies. Additionally, the ‘war on drugs’ and associations with criminality, often means that nurses hold negative attitudes towards people with AOD dependence. There is evidence that education can improve nurses’ attitudes towards people with AOD use, especially when it includes narratives, knowledge and expertise of people with lived experience. In this paper, we outline how experts by experience (people with an experience of AOD dependence) and nurse educators developed a high-quality AOD undergraduate nursing subject using a co-production framework. We discuss how the co-production process allowed for the development of a unique and innovative nursing subject that provides students with a humanistic, realistic and pragmatic view of AOD dependence.
Reducing demand for ineffective health remedies
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 15-11-2018
DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2018.1508685
Abstract: We tested a novel intervention for reducing demand for ineffective health remedies. The intervention aimed to empower participants to overcome the illusion of causality, which otherwise drives erroneous perceptions regarding remedy efficacy. A laboratory experiment adopted a between-participants design with six conditions that varied the amount of information available to participants (N = 245). The control condition received a basic refutation of multivitamin efficacy, whereas the principal intervention condition received a full contingency table specifying the number of people reporting a benefit vs. no benefit from both the product and placebo, plus an alternate causal explanation for inefficacy over placebo. We measured participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for multivitamin products using two incentivized experimental auctions. General attitudes towards health supplements were assessed as a moderator of WTP. We tested generalisation using ratings of the importance of clinical-trial results for making future health purchases. Our principal intervention significantly reduced participants' WTP for multivitamins (by 23%) and increased their recognition of the importance of clinical-trial results. We found evidence that communicating a simplified full-contingency table and an alternate causal explanation may help reduce demand for ineffective health remedies by countering the illusion of causality.
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