Insensitivity of visual short-term memory to irrelevant visual information

Several authors have hypothesised that visuo-spatial working memory is functionally analogous to verbal working memory. Irrelevant background speech impairs verbal short-term memory. We investigated whether irrelevant visual information has an analogous effect on visual short-term memory, using a dynamic visual noise (DVN) technique known to disrupt visual imagery (Quinn & McConnell, 1996a). Experiment 1 replicated the effect of DVN on pegword imagery. Experiments 2 and 3 showed no effect of DVN on recall of static matrix patterns, despite a significant effect of a concurrent spatial tapping task. Experiment 4 showed no effect of DVN on encoding or maintenance of arrays of matrix patterns, despite testing memory by a recognition procedure to encourage visual rather than spatial processing. Serial position curves showed a one-item recency effect typical of visual short-term memory. Experiment 5 showed no effect of DVN on short-term recognition of Chinese characters, despite effects of visual similarity and a concurrent colour memory task that confirmed visual processing of the characters. We conclude that irrelevant visual noise does not impair visual short-term memory. Visual working memory may not be functionally analogous to verbal working memory, and different cognitive processes may underlie visual short-term memory and visual imagery

Incomplete neutralization and other sub-phonemic durational differences in production and perception: Evidence from Dutch

Words which are expected to contain the same surface string of segments may, under identical prosodic circumstances, sometimes be realized with slight differences in duration. Some researchers have attributed such effects to differences in the words’ underlying forms (incomplete neutralization), while others have suggested orthographic influence and extremely careful speech as the cause. In this paper, we demonstrate such sub-phonemic durational differences in Dutch, a language which some past research has found not to have such effects. Past literature has also shown that listeners can often make use of incomplete neutralization to distinguish apparent homophones. We extend perceptual investigations of this topic, and show that listeners can perceive even durational differences which are not consistently observed in production. We further show that a difference which is primarily orthographic rather than underlying can also create such durational differences. We conclude that a wide variety of factors, in addition to underlying form, can induce speakers to produce slight durational differences which listeners can also use in perception

Exploring and enriching a language resource archive via the web

The ”download first, then process paradigm” is still the predominant working method amongst the research community. The web-based paradigm, however, offers many advantages from a tool development and data management perspective as they allow a quick adaptation to changing research environments. Moreover, new ways of combining tools and data are increasingly becoming available and will eventually enable a true web-based workflow approach, thus challenging the ”download first, then process” paradigm. The necessary infrastructure for managing, exploring and enriching language resources via the Web will need to be delivered by projects like CLARIN and DARIA

A Federation of Language Archives Enabling Future eHumanities Scenarios

This paper describes the need for new infrastructures for future eScience scenarios in the humanities. Three projects working on different aspects of these infrastructures are examined in detail. The first project is trying to achieve a federation of archives, developing an integration layer at the level of localization, access to and referring to an archive’s raw data objects. The other two try to achieve interoperability at the level of semantic interpretation of linguistic data-types and tagging systems. The project’s different approaches to this problem show the trade-of between flexibility and the user’s workload. All three approaches give an impression about the necessary steps to come to an eHumanities scenario

Exercise-related major adverse cardiovascular events in asymptomatic recreational master athletes:A case series

BACKGROUND: In master athletes, atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) is the primary condition leading to major adverse cardiovascular events during sports. We report two cases of asymptomatic recreational athletes who suffered from an exercise-induced cardiovascular event. CASE SUMMARY: The first athlete is a 70-year-old male speed skater without known history of cardiovascular disease. He has no typical risk factors for CAD and denied preceding symptoms. During training at the speed skating rink, he suddenly experienced severe chest pain. Electrocardiogram (ECG) showed ST-segment elevation in the precordial leads. In the ambulance, an episode of ventricular fibrillation was converted to atrial fibrillation. Coronary angiography showed a thrombus in the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery, treated with a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor intravenously. The second athlete is a 59-year-old male endurance athlete who presented with chest pain during cycling. He had a history of cavotricuspid isthmus ablation and pulmonary vein isolation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and flutter but experienced no symptoms in the weeks prior to the event. He also had no risk factors for CAD. ECG showed ST-segment elevation in the inferior leads and reciprocal depression in V2–V4. Successful primary percutaneous intervention of the circumflex artery was performed. DISCUSSION: Limited data are available to guide recommendations for cardiovascular screening in master athletes. Since master athletes with CAD are often asymptomatic, more knowledge on the optimal pre-participation screening algorithm for identifying individuals at risk of adverse cardiac events is required

Cardiac telerehabilitation:current status and future perspectives

Multidisciplinary cardiac rehabilitation (CR) improves the prognosis and quality of life of patients with cardiovascular disease and has therefore received strong recommendations in international guidelines for the treatment of patients with chronic coronary syndromes and chronic heart failure. Aiming to both resolve several barriers that impede participation in CR and to improve the effectiveness of CR, cardiac telerehabilitation (CTR) has emerged as a cost-effective alternative to traditional, centre-based CR. Although the body of evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of CTR is large and still growing, real-life implementations are scarce, which may be due to insufficient knowledge about CTR interventions and due to the challenges its implementation comes with. Up to now, mainly exercise-related core components of CR and e‑coaching have been investigated in the setting of CTR. Translation of research findings to clinical practice may be hampered by methodological limitations present in most CTR studies, being selection bias of participants, lack of long-term follow-up, heterogeneity of studied interventions and the lack of robust outcome measures. Besides conducting highly needed implementation studies for CTR interventions, their implementation could be facilitated by the development of guideline-based, multidisciplinary and personalised CTR programmes and widespread reimbursement for CTR.</p

Corrigendum to ‘Put your money where your feet are:The real-world effects of StepBet gamified deposit contracts for physical activity’ [Internet Interv., volume 31, March 2023, 100610] (Internet Interventions (2023) 31, (S2214782923000106), (10.1016/j.invent.2023.100610))

The authors regret that the Standard Deviation (SD) for those who failed their challenge (n = 19,693) was erroneously reported in the Abstract (page 1) and Table 2 of the Results section (page 6) as 3013 steps. The correct Standard Deviation that should have been reported there is 2993 steps. Furthermore, in the Results section under header 3.3 Exploratory Analyses (page 6) we erroneously state that exploratory analyses were performed on a subsample of 29,001 participants. The correct number that should have been reported there is 29,002 participants. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.corrigendum voor DOI 10.1016/j.invent.2023.100610Design AestheticsApplied Ergonomics and Desig

Testing the validity of implicit measures of wanting and liking

Author version made available in accordance with the publisher's policy for non-mandated open access submission. Under Elsevier's copyright, non-mandated authors are permitted to make work available in an institutional repository.Background and objectives: Over the last decade, there has been a surge of studies examining implicit processes underlying addiction. Some implicit measures are assumed to reflect “liking” whereas other implicit measures are assumed to reflect “wanting”. There is, however, little evidence to back up this claim. We examined whether implicit and explicit measures of wanting and of liking are differentially sensitive to manipulations of wanting and expected that these manipulations would affect primarily measures of wanting. Methods: Smokers and non-smokers performed both implicit and explicit measures that are assumed to assess wanting and liking for nicotine. Smokers were tested once immediately after smoking, and once after 12 hours of nicotine-deprivation. Results: IAT results suggested that smokers showed more implicit liking for nicotine when they were deprived than when they were satiated, whereas there were no differences in wanting. Smokers also seemed to show both more implicit wanting and more implicit liking for nicotine compared to non-smokers. Explicit measures did yield the expected results in that smokers reported to want nicotine more when they were deprived, whereas there were smaller differences in liking. Conclusions: We found little support for the assumption that implicit measures of wanting and liking capture different processes. Researchers should thus be cautious in drawing conclusions about wanting and liking on the basis of these measures

Investigating Rewards and Deposit Contract Financial Incentives for Physical Activity Behavior Change Using a Smartphone App: Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Financial incentive interventions for improving physical activity have proven to be effective but costly. Deposit contracts (in which participants pledge their own money) could be an affordable alternative. In addition, deposit contracts may have superior effects by exploiting the power of loss aversion. Previous research has often operationalized deposit contracts through loss framing a financial reward (without requiring a deposit) to mimic the feelings of loss involved in a deposit contract. Objective This study aimed to disentangle the effects of incurring actual losses (through self-funding a deposit contract) and loss framing. We investigated whether incentive conditions are more effective than a no-incentive control condition, whether deposit contracts have a lower uptake than financial rewards, whether deposit contracts are more effective than financial rewards, and whether loss frames are more effective than gain frames. Methods Healthy participants (N=126) with an average age of 22.7 (SD 2.84) years participated in a 20-day physical activity intervention. They downloaded a smartphone app that provided them with a personalized physical activity goal and either required a €10 (at the time of writing: €1=US $0.98) deposit up front (which could be lost) or provided €10 as a reward, contingent on performance. Daily feedback on incentive earnings was provided and framed as either a loss or gain. We used a 2 (incentive type: deposit or reward) × 2 (feedback frame: gain or loss) between-subjects factorial design with a no-incentive control condition. Our primary outcome was the number of days participants achieved their goals. The uptake of the intervention was a secondary outcome. Results Overall, financial incentive conditions (mean 13.10, SD 6.33 days goal achieved) had higher effectiveness than the control condition (mean 8.00, SD 5.65 days goal achieved; P=.002; ηp2=0.147). Deposit contracts had lower uptake (29/47, 62%) than rewards (50/50, 100%; P<.001; Cramer V=0.492). Furthermore, 2-way analysis of covariance showed that deposit contracts (mean 14.88, SD 6.40 days goal achieved) were not significantly more effective than rewards (mean 12.13, SD 6.17 days goal achieved; P=.17). Unexpectedly, loss frames (mean 10.50, SD 6.22 days goal achieved) were significantly less effective than gain frames (mean 14.67, SD 5.95 days goal achieved; P=.007; ηp2=0.155). Conclusions Financial incentives help increase physical activity, but deposit contracts were not more effective than rewards. Although self-funded deposit contracts can be offered at low cost, low uptake is an important obstacle to large-scale implementation. Unexpectedly, loss framing was less effective than gain framing. Therefore, we urge further research on their boundary conditions before using loss-framed incentives in practice. Because of limited statistical power regarding some research questions, the results of this study should be interpreted with caution, and future work should be done to confirm these findings. Trial Registration Open Science Framework Registries osf.io/34ygt; https://osf.io/34yg