Gender and perceived cooperation modulate visual attention in a joint spatial cueing task

This research investigated how interactive social contexts shape basic visual attention. It has been shown that social information can modulate inhibition of return effects in joint spatial cueing tasks. We predicted that if perceptions of cooperativeness explain this phenomenon, we would then observe larger inhibition of return effects for more cooperative individuals and in highly cooperative contexts. Experiments 1a and 1b found larger inhibition of return effects and greater perceptions of cooperativeness for female compared to male participants, consistent with the literature on gender stereotypes and the behavioural evidence that females are more cooperative than males. In Experiment 2a and 2b, we experimentally manipulated the cooperativeness of the task, describing it as either a team or an individual game. This time, we found larger inhibition of return effects and greater perceptions of cooperativeness for male participants in the team compared to the individual game. We conclude that construing interactive contexts as cooperative plays an important role in the joint spatial orienting of visual attention, and we propose this as an example of socially distributed cognition

Video meeting signals: experimental evidence for a technique to improve the experience of video conferencing

We found evidence from two experiments that a simple set of gestural techniques can improve the experience of online meetings. Video conferencing technology has practical benefits, but psychological costs. It has allowed industry, education and social interactions to continue in some form during the covid-19 lockdowns. But it has left many users feeling fatigued and socially isolated, perhaps because the limitations of video conferencing disrupt users' ability to coordinate interactions and foster social affiliation. Video Meeting Signals (VMS™) is a simple technique that uses gestures to overcome some of these limitations. First, we carried out a randomised controlled trial with over 100 students, in which half underwent a short training session in VMS. All participants rated their subjective experience of two weekly seminars, and transcripts were objectively coded for the valence of language used. Compared to controls, students with VMS training rated their personal experience, their feelings toward their seminar group, and their perceived learning outcomes as significantly higher. Also, they were more likely to use positive language and less likely to use negative language. A second, larger experiment replicated the first, and added a condition where groups were given a version of the VMS training but taught to use emoji response buttons rather than gestures to signal the same information. The emoji-trained groups did not experience the same improvement as the VMS groups. By exploiting the specific benefits of gestural communication, VMS has great potential to overcome the psychological problems of group video meetings

Oxygenation-sensitive CMR for assessing vasodilator-induced changes of myocardial oxygenation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As myocardial oxygenation may serve as a marker for ischemia and microvascular dysfunction, it could be clinically useful to have a non-invasive measure of changes in myocardial oxygenation. However, the impact of induced blood flow changes on oxygenation is not well understood. We used oxygenation-sensitive CMR to assess the relations between myocardial oxygenation and coronary sinus blood oxygen saturation (SvO₂) and coronary blood flow in a dog model in which hyperemia was induced by intracoronary administration of vasodilators.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During administration of acetylcholine and adenosine, CMR signal intensity correlated linearly with simultaneously measured SvO₂(<it>r</it>²= 0.74, <it>P </it>< 0.001). Both SvO₂and CMR signal intensity were exponentially related to coronary blood flow, with SvO2 approaching 87%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Myocardial oxygenation as assessed with oxygenation-sensitive CMR imaging is linearly related to SvO₂and is exponentially related to vasodilator-induced increases of blood flow. Oxygenation-sensitive CMR may be useful to assess ischemia and microvascular function in patients. Its clinical utility should be evaluated.</p

Coulomb dissociation of O-16 into He-4 and C-12

We measured the Coulomb dissociation of O-16 into He-4 and C-12 within the FAIR Phase-0 program at GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt, Germany. From this we will extract the photon dissociation cross section O-16(alpha,gamma)C-12, which is the time reversed reaction to C-12(alpha,gamma)O-16. With this indirect method, we aim to improve on the accuracy of the experimental data at lower energies than measured so far. The expected low cross section for the Coulomb dissociation reaction and close magnetic rigidity of beam and fragments demand a high precision measurement. Hence, new detector systems were built and radical changes to the (RB)-B-3 setup were necessary to cope with the high-intensity O-16 beam. All tracking detectors were designed to let the unreacted O-16 ions pass, while detecting the C-12 and He-4

Where you come from matters: familial class background plays a greater role for status-related judgments in France than in the United States

The present research investigated to what extent two Western cultures, France, and the United States, differed in making status-related judgments based on a person’s familial class background. Consistent with the eco-historical origins of French and American status beliefs, Study 1 (N = 77) showed that French more than American participants perceived an unknown community member with higher (compared to lower) familial class background to have greater status-related characteristics. Study 2 (N = 213) showed that French more than American participants also expected a job candidate with higher (compared to lower) familial class background to attain higher status in the workplace. Study 3 (N = 231) experimentally manipulated upward mobility beliefs in a mono-cultural sample of American participants. Results showed that when participants were made to believe that upward mobility in society was low (but not when high), information about a person’s familial class background was the basis of status-related judgments. Our findings speak to the importance that sociocultural contexts play for the understanding of different aspects of social class.</p

The dual function of social gaze.

Ears cannot speak, lips cannot hear, but eyes can both signal and perceive. For human beings, this dual function makes the eyes a remarkable tool for social interaction. For psychologists trying to understand eye movements, however, their dual function causes a fundamental ambiguity. In order to contrast signaling and perceiving functions of social gaze, we manipulated participants' beliefs about social context as they looked at the same stimuli. Participants watched videos of faces of higher and lower ranked people, while they themselves were filmed. They believed either that the recordings of them would later be seen by the people in the videos or that no-one would see them. This manipulation significantly changed how participants responded to the social rank of the target faces. Specifically, when they believed that the targets would later be looking at them, and so could use gaze to signal information, participants looked proportionally less at the eyes of the higher ranked targets. We conclude that previous claims about eye movements and face perception that are based on a single social context can only be generalized with caution. A complete understanding of face perception needs to address both functions of social gaze