Falsifying the Insufficient Adjustment Model: No Evidence for Unidirectional Adjustment From Anchors

After considering a more or less random number (i.e., an anchor), people’s subsequent estimates are biased toward that number. Such anchoring phenomena have been explained via an adjustment process that ends too early. We present a formalized version of the insufficient adjustment model, which captures the idea that decreasing the time that people have to adjust from anchors draws their estimates closer to the anchors. In four independent studies (N = 898), we could not confirm this effect of time on anchoring. Moreover, anchoring effects vanished in the two studies that deviated from classical paradigms by using a visual scale or a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm to allow faster responses. Although we propose that the current version of the insufficient adjustment model should be discarded, we believe that adjustment models hold the most potential for the future of anchoring research, and we make suggestions for what these might look like

Theoretical and Quantitative Disconnect When Modeling Adverse Childhood Experiences Using a Common Factor Framework: An Argument for Causal Indicator Models in Stressor Research

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are highly impactful stressors that increase individuals’ risk for a plethora of negative health outcomes. Further, minoritized groups and under-resourced individuals are at higher risk for ACEs, positioning these stressors as plausible mechanisms driving health disparities. Given this fact, a strong methodological foundation is necessary to ensure maximal clinical value. As emphasized by Jensen, Bernard, & Lanier (2024), this foundation must start with rigorous ACEs measurement—a goal that requires careful matching between ACEs measures and the scoring procedures used. To amplify their message while advocating for an alternative approach that may better reflect ACEs conceptualization, we write this commentary to highlight the merits of causal indicator models as a better match between theory and methodology

Wider than the Sky: An Alternative to “Mapping” the World onto the Brain

This paper reevaluates the conventional topographic model of brain function, stressing the critical role of philosophical inquiry in neuroscience. Since the 1930s, pioneering studies by Penfield and subsequent advancements in visual neuroscience by Hubel and Wiesel have popularized the concept of cortical maps as representations of external and internal states. Yet, contemporary research in various sensory systems, including visual cortices in certain animals, questions the universal applicability of this model. We critique the restrictive influence of this paradigm and introduce an alternative conceptualization using the olfactory system as a model. This system's genetic diversity and dynamic neural encoding serve as a foundation for proposing a rule-based, adaptive framework for neural processing, akin to the dynamic routing in GPS technology, which moves beyond fixed spatial mappings

Why Self-Determination Theory Needs Computational Modelling: The Case of Competence and Optimal Challenge

Computational modelling is a powerful tool to specify psychological theories, render them severely testable, and implement them into digital applications. Yet it has seen little uptake in Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Here, we demonstrate that SDT’s verbal definitions of competence and optimal challenge are underspecified in theoretically and practically relevant ways. Conceptual analyses of key texts identifies four verbal facets of competence definitions that need not co-occur and are inconsistently reflected in common self-report measures and operationalisations. Optimal challenge is insufficiently specified to be severely tested or implemented in practice, and entails a logical and empirical incoherence. Finally, SDT lacks a cognitive model of competence. We outline how computational modelling, inspired by the AI field of computational intrinsic motivation, can help resolve resulting issues

Behavioral and neuroanatomical effects of soccer heading training in virtual reality: A longitudinal fMRI case study

Virtual reality (VR) technology has received considerable attention over the last few years, with applications in many performance domains including training of sports-related mental and motor skills. The exact psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underlying potential VR training effects in athletes, however, remain largely unknown. The present longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) case study reports behavioral and neuroanatomical effects of VR soccer (a.k.a. football) heading training in a male adult amateur player. The study was conducted over 8 weeks, starting with a pre-test, followed by a 4-week VR training phase, during which weekly fMRI assessments and the first behavioral post-test were conducted. After an additional 4-week retention phase, the final fMRI assessment and the second behavioral post-test were conducted. Substantial improvement in real-life heading performance was accompanied by both structural and functional neuroanatomical changes. The comparison of the T1-weighted images revealed an increase in GM volume in the left thalamus and an increase in WM volume in the bilateral cerebellum. Furthermore, the analysis of the surface images showed an increase in cortical thickness in the right insula, left inferior temporal gyrus, left parahippocampal gyrus, left lingual gyrus, left posterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex. The seed-based correlation analyses of the resting-state fMRI data revealed manifold increases in functional connectivity within and between important brain networks. This study contributes to the growing literature on VR training in athletes and provides the world’s first evidence on fundamental neurobiological mechanisms underlying neuroplasticity related to VR training effects in sports

‘I’d rather be alone.’ Examining the Interactive Effects of Social Proximity and Social Preference on Suicidal Thinking

Introduction: Emerging and young adulthood is associated with heightened risk for suicide, with interpersonal factors potentially exerting disproportionate effects during this critical life stage. Research examining the interplay of subjective and objective interpersonal factors for suicide ideation (SI) in daily life is limited. Methods: Dynamic structural equation models were used to analyze ecological momentary assessment data (21 days; 7 semi-random daily surveys) in a sample of at-risk young adults (N = 140) to test within-person main and interactive effects of objective social proximity (alone vs. not alone) and subjective social preference (desire to be alone or with others), on SI severity concurrently and prospectively over 2-hour intervals in daily life. Results: Preferring to be alone (while alone or with others) was associated with intraindividual near-term increases in SI severity, whereas, preferring to be with others (while alone or with others) was associated with near-term decreases in SI severity. Conclusions: Being with others can either be a risk or protective factor for near-term SI severity depending on whether the present company is desired. Considering multiple interpersonal factors combined may be necessary to understand and treat SI, as these factors may either buffer or confer greater near-term risk depending on other factors

Causal Effects of Social Media Use on Self-esteem, Mindfulness, Sleep and Emotional Well-being: A Social Media Restriction Study

The question whether social media use (SMU) has a causal influence on mental health sparks a lot of interest. Empirical research to date shows no consensus on the causal effects of SMU on mental well-being. Therefore, the present study assessed if experimentally implemented restrictions in SMU led to improvements in well-being outcomes using a combination of self-report and passive sensing data. After a two week baseline phase, participants (M age = 21.42 years) were randomly assigned to an experimental (N = 35) or a passive control (N = 32) condition. Participants in the experimental condition were asked to limit their SMU to a maximum of 30 minutes (divided across their preferred apps) per day for two consecutive weeks, while participants in the control condition were instructed to continue their SMU as usual. After the intervention phase, participants in both conditions were followed up for two weeks during which all restrictions were removed. During the experiment, we monitored self-esteem, mindfulness, sleep, and emotional well-being. Results indicate a main effect of time for most outcomes, but the implemented SMU restriction did not moderate these effects. In conclusion, this study found no benefits from a temporary social media reduction on mental health

Episodic details are better remembered in plausible relative to implausible counterfactual simulations

People often engage in episodic counterfactual thinking, or mentally simulating how the experienced past might have been different from how it was. A commonly held view is that mentally simulating alternative event outcomes aids in managing future uncertainty and improving behavior, for which episodic counterfactual simulations need to be remembered. Yet, the phenomenological factors influencing the memorability of counterfactual simulations remain unclear. To investigate this, we conducted two experiments using a paradigm where participants recalled autobiographical memories. After one week, they created counterfactual mental simulations of these memories, integrating a new object into each one and rating them on various phenomenological characteristics. Memory for these counterfactual mental simulations was tested the next day by recalling the new object. Across the two experiments we found that objects included in more plausible counterfactual simulations were better remembered compared to implausible counterfactual simulations. Our findings suggest that generating episodic counterfactual simulations perceived as plausible enhances their memorability, similar to other memory phenomena in which schematic knowledge improves subsequent episodic memory

The three world problem: How to do philosophy of mind without metaphysics

This article suggests that the influence of philosophy of mind and metaphysics in the study of consciousness, has become excessive and is not well-founded. Metaphysical terms are often ill-defined and equivocal, and philosophy of mind relies largely on weak, concrete arguments which lack the power of more abstract mathematical formulations. An example is given of a mathematical argument, the Three Worlds Problem, which cannot be adequately addressed or challenged within a traditional metaphysical framework

Threat and Worry, but not Issue Salience, Show Similar Patterns in Means, Correlations, and Ideological Associations

Societal threat perception, worry, and issue salience are central to research in psychology and political science, and previous research suggests considerable overlap between the three measures. Yet, they have not yet been empirically distinguished. This study addresses whether the empirical patterns of these three measures are consistent and whether they yield congruent conclusions about political ideology across twelve societal issues. Using data from a diverse Dutch sample (N = 1863), we first show that threat and worry, but not salience, produce similar empirical patterns in terms of means and correlations, as citizens find issues more important than threatening or worrying. Next, we find that threat and worry correlate similarly with ideology, whereas issue salience often overestimates this relationship (Type M error) but rarely reverses its direction (Type S error). These findings clarify the unique roles of threat, worry, and issue salience in (political) psychology, offering a framework for future research on the threat-politics link