Optimizing the 0-100 Number Line Estimation Task: Scale Reduction and Its Implications for Elementary Mathematical Cognition [Author Accepted Manuscript]

We investigate the optimal number of items for the 0-100 number line estimation task used in research on children’s mathematical cognition and learning. In this paper, we reanalyzed data involving N=234 students, applying an Item Response Theory- Graded Response Model to identify items with high discrimination parameters (>1.0), iteratively reducing the 23-item scale by including items with discrimination values close to 1.0 until the reduced scale produced comparable scores to the original. Our analysis identified a reduced scale of 15 items that maintained strong correlations with–and produced consistent patterns of developmental change and predictive capability compared to–the original scale. Our findings demonstrate that a reduced 0-100 number line estimation task can effectively measure numerical magnitude understanding (accuracy and linearity of estimates) from kindergarten through third grade while saving time and resources.reviewedacceptedVersio

Evaluating dynamic norm messages and alternative interventions to reduce meat consumption in cafeterias [Author Accepted Manuscript]

To meet UK Net-Zero emissions targets, meat consumption must decrease. We present results from two studies evaluating interventions to reduce purchasing of meat-containing meals across university cafeterias in Oxford, UK. Study 1 tested whether two dynamic descriptive norm messages changed meal purchasing. Over eight weeks, four cafeterias displayed a norm message incorporating a socially ‘close’ referent group and three cafeterias displayed a message incorporating a socially ‘distant’ referent group. Two cafeterias were assigned a no-message control condition. A generalised linear mixed effect model suggested both messages decreased odds of cafeteria diners purchasing vegetarian meals, in comparison to control, 'Close' Message: Ratio of Odds Ratios (ORs)=0.79, 95% 95% CI [0.72, 0.86]; 'Remote' Message: Ratio of ORs=0.84, 95% CI [0.76,0.92]. Study 2 involved three pre-post experiments testing whether different interventions changed meal purchasing: re-positioning vegetarian products, increasing vegetarian availability, and introducing vegetarian defaults. Generalised linear models suggested each intervention was associated with significant increases in odds of diners purchasing vegetarian meals, Positioning: OR=1.33, 95% CI [1.24,1.44]; Availability: OR=1.60, 95% CI [1.45, 1.75]; Defaults: OR=1.77, 95% CI [1.61, 1.95]. These study results could be due to norm messaging being less effective at promoting vegetarian meals than interventions in availability, defaults, and positioning. But, given the study designs, they could instead be due to self-selection effects, or regression to the mean.EB’s and EG’s time spent on the final writing up stage of the manuscript was financially supported by the Wellcome Trust (LEAP – Livestock Environment and People: 205212/Z/16/Z).reviewedacceptedVersio

Training diagnostic competencies (TRACE)

The TrACE project investigated how reliably teachers evaluate English essays written by up-per-secondary students and how this accuracy can be strengthened through training and au-tomated support. Using several thousand authentic argumentative essays from the Swiss MEWS project, TrACE first established a robust human rating framework focusing on three central dimensions of writing quality: language, structure, and content. These analyses showed that the dimensions are clearly distinguishable, enabling targeted feedback to learn-ers. They also revealed how student writing develops over time: while text structure improved most noticeably over the school year, gains in content were moderate and progress in lan-guage quality remained comparatively slow, with vocabulary emerging as a particular challenge. Building on these human ratings, the project developed automated essay scoring models that combine interpretable linguistic features with modern language-processing methods. These models successfully mirrored human judgments and offered transparent insights into why a text was scored in a particular way. Because they provide concrete, pedagogically meaningful information, they hold promise for formative classroom assessment as well as for future appli-cations in teacher education. Complementary analyses further showed that specific linguistic profiles can differentiate proficiency levels across writing tasks, underlining the potential of automated tools to support consistent, criterion-based assessment. The central focus of the project was the question of what explains the accuracy of teachers' judgments. By comparing thousands of assessments by teacher training students and teach-ers with human and automated machine reference values, it became clear that the quality of judgment varies greatly and is influenced by several factors. Experienced teachers evaluated the texts more critically and thus less accurately than teacher training students, while more careful reading and comparing several texts increased accuracy. Two pre-registered experi-ments investigated whether simple aids can improve the quality of judgment. Highlighting spelling mistakes increased accuracy in this area without bias, while highlighting argumenta-tive structures did not improve analytical accuracy but led to more precise overall assess-ments and reduced a recurring halo effect. In addition, the project developed a novel calcula-tion model that allows three previously independent components of judgment accuracy to be estimated simultaneously. This model is likely to be used frequently in related research.Das Projekt TrACE untersuchte, wie zuverlässig Lehrkräfte englische Schüleraufsätze der Oberstufe bewerten und wie sich diese Bewertungsgenauigkeit durch Training und automatisierte Unterstützung verbessern lässt. Ausgangspunkt waren mehrere tausend authentische argumentative Texte aus dem Deutsch-Schweizer MEWS-Projekt, für die zunächst ein belastbares System menschlicher Bewertungen entwickelt wurde. Die drei zentralen Qualitätsdimensionen – Sprache, Struktur und Inhalt – erwiesen sich als klar voneinander unterscheidbar, was gezieltes, kriterienbezogenes Feedback ermöglicht. Die Längsschnittanalysen zeigten außerdem deutliche Entwicklungsunterschiede: Während sich die Textstruktur im Laufe eines Schuljahres am stärksten verbesserte, war der Fortschritt im Inhalt moderat und bei der sprachlichen Qualität eher gering. Besonders der Wortschatz stellte sich als zentrale Herausforderung im Englischunterricht der Sekundarstufe II heraus. Auf dieser Grundlage entwickelte TrACE automatisierte Bewertungsverfahren, die interpretierbare linguistische Merkmale mit modernen Methoden der automatisierten Sprachverarbeitung kombinieren. Die Modelle konnten menschliche Urteile zuverlässig abbilden und lieferten transparente Hinweise darauf, warum ein Text eine bestimmte Bewertung erhielt. Dadurch eröffnen sie neue Möglichkeiten für formatives Feedback im Unterricht und für kriteriengeleitete Anwendungen in der Lehrkräftebildung. Ergänzende Analysen zeigten zudem, dass bestimmte sprachliche Profilmerkmale Kompetenzniveaus über verschiedene Schreibaufgaben hinweg klar unterscheiden können. Im Mittelpunkt des Projekts stand die Frage, wodurch sich die Genauigkeit der Urteile von Lehrkräften erklärt. Durch den Vergleich Tausender Bewertungen von Lehramtsstudierenden und Lehrkräften mit menschlichen und automatisierten Referenzwerten wurde deutlich, dass die Qualität der Urteile stark variiert und von mehreren Faktoren beeinflusst wird. Erfahrene Lehrkräfte bewerteten die Texte kritischer und damit weniger genau als Lehramtsstudierende, während sorgfältigeres Lesen und der Vergleich mehrerer Texte die Genauigkeit erhöhten. In zwei vorab registrierten Experimenten wurde untersucht, ob einfache Hilfsmittel die Qualität der Beurteilung verbessern können. Das Hervorheben von Rechtschreibfehlern erhöhte die Genauigkeit in diesem Bereich, während das Hervorheben von Argumentationsstrukturen die analytische Genauigkeit nicht verbesserte, aber zu präziseren Gesamtbewertungen führte und einen wiederkehrenden Halo-Effekt reduzierte. Vor allem wurde im Rahmen des Projekts ein neuartiges Berechnungsmodell entwickelt, mit dem drei bisher unabhängig berechnete Komponenten der Bewertungsgenauigkeit gleichzeitig geschätzt werden können. Dieses Modell wird wahrscheinlich häufig in der verwandten Forschung eingesetzt werden. Um einen nachhaltigen Transfer zu ermöglichen, entwickelte TrACE ein offenes, benchmark-basiertes Online-Trainingstool, das Lehrkräften das Üben mit authentischen Texten, den Ver-gleich mit Expertenurteilen und gezielte Rückmeldungen ermöglicht. Dieses Werkzeug unterstützt langfristige Kalibrierung und wird Ende 2025 öffentlich verfügbar sein. Trotz Herausforderungen – etwa bei der Bewertung sehr feingranularer Schreibmerkmale oder pandemiebedingter Verzögerungen – konnte TrACE entscheidende Fortschritte in der menschlichen und automatisierten Schreibbewertung erzielen. Das Projekt liefert neue Erkenntnisse darüber, wie sich Schreibkompetenzen entwickeln, wie Lehrkräfte Texte beurteilen und wie Technologie und Training zu faireren, transparenteren und verlässlicheren Bewertungspraktiken im Fremdsprachenunterricht beitragen können.unknow

Can teaching calculation and estimation strategies improve financial decision-making? The role of emotions and deliberation [Author Accepted Manuscript]

Financial decision-making often requires numerical reasoning. For example, monetary lotteries—a common paradigm in economic psychology—demand evaluation of payoffs and probabilities. To make choices consistent with normative standards such as Expected Value (EV), individuals must perform accurate calculations. However, limited numerical skills often hinder EV-consistent choices and reduce potential earnings. This study tested whether brief interventions could improve financial decision-making and subsequent emotional responses, defined as lower negative emotions and/or higher positive emotions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Control, Calculation, or Calculation & Estimation. In the Control condition, participants made choices in ten monetary lotteries. In the Calculation condition, they received instructions on computing EV prior to the task. In the Calculation & Estimation condition, participants were additionally trained in estimation strategies designed to simplify computations. Although overall group differences did not reach statistical significance (p < .05), planned comparisons showed that participants in the Calculation condition made significantly more EV-consistent choices than those in the Control condition. Exploratory analyses further revealed that deliberation time mediated the link between condition and EV-consistent choices: participants in both intervention groups spent more time deliberating, which in turn contributed to improved financial outcomes. Individual differences also played a role: objective numeracy predicted more EV-consistent choices, both numeracy and math attitudes predicted deliberation time, and trait math anxiety predicted stronger negative emotional reactions. In sum, the findings suggest that teaching EV calculation can promote deliberation and support more rational economic choices, even through brief interventions.This work was financially supported by the National Science Centre, Poland (grant number 2018/31/D/HS6/02899).reviewedacceptedVersio

Supplementary materials to "Associations and interactions between neuroticism, adverse life events and health anxiety: Results from a large representative cohort" [Other]

Supplementary materials [Other]. The related article is Lamm, T. T., Mehlsen, M. Y., Carstensen, T. B. W., Wellnitz, K. B., Ørnbøl, E., Dantoft, T. M., Fink, P., Petersen, M. W., & Frostholm, L. (2025). Associations and interactions between neuroticism, adverse life events and health anxiety: Results from a large representative cohort. Clinical Psychology in Europe, 7(2), Article e14441. https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.14441The Supplementary Materials contain the following items: Appendix A: Syntax of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), Appendix B: Ordinal logistical regression models of the association between neuroticism, adverse life events, and health anxiety with interactions, Appendix C: Description of measures used in supplementary analyses and descriptive statistics, and Appendix D: Results of supplementary analyses.unknownunknow

Code for: The Acquisition of Tonal Hierarchies in Western Music During School Years: A Re-analysis of 40 Years of Research

Understanding the relationships between different pitches as a form of tonality is a key element of listening skills in Western tonal music. Tonal hierarchies (i.e., the genre-dependent differing prominence of tones) are reflected in internal representations of tonal hierarchies (IRTH) in long-term memory. Over the past 40 years, research on how students aged 6 to 20 acquire IRTH has yielded varied and sometimes contradictory conclusions about this process’ timeline and underlying mechanisms. This paper aims to synthesize the evidence and critically examine potential reasons for the heterogeneity in findings. To this end, three approaches were applied. First, a Bayesian meta-analysis of 60 effect sizes from 16 studies, reported in 13 articles, revealed a medium difference in IRTH sensitivity between younger and older participants (d = 0.57,95% CrI [0.37,0.77]). Second, a Bayesian network analysis indicated that tonal understanding continues to develop throughout school years into adulthood, challenging models suggesting that tonal development concludes by age 7 or 9. Third, a model comparison analysis based on cross-sectional data from a single study revealed a non-linear growth dynamic with a larger increase during adolescence as the best model solution to describe the relationship between sensitivity and age. We also examined the considerable heterogeneity observed within and between studies, particularly how task-specific features of the operationalizations might account for these differences. These findings contribute to the development of theoretical models about music-related skill acquisition and suggest directions for future research.unknownunknow

World beliefs predict self-reported sustainable behaviors beyond Big Five personality traits and political ideology

Generalized beliefs about the world—termed ‘primal world beliefs’ or ‘primals’—have been hypothesized to affect behavior, since they contain information which influences the perceived costs, benefits, and justifications for different behaviors. For example, people who see the world as highly improvable may view prosocial behaviors as having more benefits and therefore be more inclined to work harder on making things better. Three preregistered studies (N = 1,534 US participants) investigated the relationship between primals and several measures of people’s propensity toward sustainable behavior. Beliefs that the world is less hierarchical, but more improvable, cooperative, harmless, meaningful, and abundant were weakly to moderately associated with self-reported ethically-minded consumer behavior, pro-environmental behavior, and behavioral intentions. These relationships were largely robust to controlling for Big Five traits and political ideology, although some of the relationships were subsumed by the more general belief that the world is good. Changes in two world beliefs (cooperative, harmless) over a three-week period weakly predicted pro-environmental behavior intentions when controlling for people’s previously reported pro-environmental behavior. These correlational findings suggest some possible avenues for future research: if these beliefs are found to be causally prior to environmental attitudes, they may offer a promising target for interventions aimed at increasing sustainable behavior.peerReviewedpublishedVersio

The Impact of Language Control State on Cognate Facilitation: What Happens to the L1?

Cognates are translation-equivalent words that are similar or even identical across languages in phonological and orthographic form. Previous research has shown that pictures of cognates are more easily named by bilinguals than non-cognates. However, such cognate facilitation may depend on the exact task demands and language control state a bilingual is in. To investigate further the mechanisms of cognate facilitation, we conducted Experiment 1 where we manipulated the frequency of cognates versus non-cognates within blocks of a L2 picture naming task. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found larger cognate facilitation in blocks with more cognates. In this follow-up (Experiment 2), our goal is 1) to replicate the observed larger cognate facilitation in majority cognate blocks and 2) to better understand the underlying cognitive mechanism behind it. To do the latter, participants will additionally engage in a L1 fragment completion task between L2 naming blocks, which includes “old” (translations of non-cognate words included in the L2 naming blocks) and “new” words, to measure how activation of L1 words may be adjusted during L2 naming in majority cognate vs. majority non-cognate blocks. We make predictions as to how L1 production of “old” and “new” words should differ, depending on the presumed underlying cognitive control processes (e.g., word-specific L1 inhibition or activation).unknownothe

Materials for: Athlete Burnout and Health: Testing Longitudinal Mediation via Biomarkers

Abstract (prior to peer review): Athletes often face pressure in competitive sports, which can cause physical and mental health problems including athlete burnout. Burnout is becoming increasingly prevalent in athletes and not only affects mental health but heightens the risk for further physical and mental health consequences. While studies have supported this link, few of these examinations have assessed the possible explanatory mechanisms. Therefore, this study aimed to test whether biomarkers of key physiological systems may mediate the relationship between athlete burnout and mental and physical health outcomes over time. We recruited 64 competitive athletes who completed measures of athlete burnout, physical symptoms, depressive symptoms, and insomnia as well as provided saliva samples for the analysis of biomarkers (testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone-sulphate [DHEA-S], secretory Immunoglobulin A [sIgA]) at three timepoints over six months. At the between level, burnout was associated with all questionnaire measures, while testosterone was associated with physical symptoms. At the within level, burnout predicted depressive symptoms and sIgA predicted insomnia. Exploratory analyses with a Bayesian approach further showed burnout to predict reductions in testosterone, DHEA-S and sIgA. In contrast to our hypotheses, we found no indirect effects linking burnout with potential health consequences via changes in biomarkers. Thus, burnout appears to affect physical and mental health through predominantly direct links.This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Sport Science (P2023-0139).unknownunknow

Art Matters: Exploring the Effects of Historical Artwork Representation and Narration on Luso-Tropicalism

Portugal's colonial past, often idealized through artwork and historical narratives, has played a central role in shaping national identity, particularly through the lens of lusotropicalism. While previous research has examined colonial narratives, the influence of artwork descriptions on lusotropicalism ideology remains underexplored. This study aims to investigate the impact of different descriptions of Portuguese colonial artwork—critical, non-critical, and control—on lusotropicalist beliefs, with a particular focus on the underlying roles of collective guilt, moral shame, intergroup empathy, and historical defensiveness. Additionally, the study will explore whether different forms of national ingroup positivity, specifically collective narcissism and ingroup satisfaction, moderate these effects. To achieve these objectives, two studies will be conducted: a pilot study to pretest two potential control/baseline conditions and a main experiment to test the proposed hypotheses.unknownothe