Asymmetric practices of reading and writing shape visuospatial attention and discrimination

Movement is generally conceived of as unfolding laterally in the writing direction that one is socialized into. In 'Western' languages, this is a left-to-right bias contributing to an imbalance in how attention is distributed across space. We propose that the rightward attentional bias exercises an additional unidirectional influence on discrimination performance thus shaping the congruency effect typically observed in Posner-inspired cueing tasks. In two studies, we test whether faces averted laterally serve as attention orienting cues and generate differences in both target discrimination latencies and gaze movements across left and right hemifields. Results systematically show that right-facing faces (i.e. aligned with the script direction) give rise to an advantage for cue-target pairs pertaining to the right (versus left) side of space. We report an asymmetry between congruent conditions in the form of right-sided facilitation for: (a) response time in discrimination decisions (experiment 1-2) and (b) eye-gaze movements, namely earlier onset to first fixation in the respective region of interest (experiment 2). Left and front facing cues generated virtually equal exploration patterns, confirming that the latter did not prime any directionality. These findings demonstrate that visuospatial attention and consequent discrimination are highly dependent on the asymmetric practices of reading and writing.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The spatial grounding of politics

In three studies, we advance the research on the association between abstract concepts and spatial dimensions by examining the spatial anchoring of political categories in three different paradigms (spatial placement, memory, and classification) and using non-linguistic stimuli (i.e., photos of politicians). The general hypothesis that politicians of a conservative or socialist party are grounded spatially was confirmed across the studies. In Study 1, photos of politicians were spontaneously placed to the left or right of an unanchored horizontal line depending on their socialist-conservative party affiliation. In Study 2, the political orientation of members of parliament systematically distorted the recall of the spatial positions in which they were originally presented. Finally, Study 3 revealed that classification was more accurate and faster when the politicians were presented in spatially congruent positions (e.g., socialist politician presented on the left side of the monitor) rather than incongruent ones (e.g., socialist on the right side). Additionally, we examined whether participants’ political orientation and awareness moderated these effects and showed that spatial anchoring seems independent of political preference but increases with political awareness.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of sugar-related claims on perceived healthfulness, caloric value and expected taste of food products

Food packaging usually includes multiple cues, including claims about nutrients that may modulate how the consumer perceives (and behaves towards) the product. In the current work, we systematically examined how different types of claims about sugar influenced the perception of food product categories (i.e., yogurts, ice creams, cookies, and breakfast cereals). In two experiments (combined n = 406), participants were asked to evaluate the perceived healthfulness, caloric value, and expected taste of products with (vs. without) sugar-related claims. Specifically, the claims were on the sugar content (“0% sugar”, “sugar-free”, “no added sugars”, “low sugar” - Experiment 1) or on the type of sugars or sweeteners of natural origin (“sucrose”, “cane sugar”, “honey” and “stevia” - Experiment 2). Experiment 1 revealed that all products with sugar-related claims were rated as healthier, less caloric, and less tasty than the regular alternatives. Still, products with the “low sugar” claim were perceived as the least healthy, most caloric, and tastiest. In Experiment 2, we observed that products with “stevia” claim were rated as healthier, less caloric, and less tasty than regular products. In both experiments, the frequency of consumption of products with sugar-related claims was positively associated with the general perception of these products, the influence of nutritional information on consumption decisions, attention to sugar intake, and interest in nutrition. Overall, our results show that sugar-related claims may influence consumer's perceptions about food products, but the direction of that influence depends on the type of claim and evaluative dimension.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Da cozinha ao hospital: Um pré-teste de comportamentos típicos de diferentes grupos profissionais

No presente artigo apresentam-se dois estudos com o objectivo de avaliar descrições de comportamentos típicos de seis grupos profissionais distintos: programador de computadores, trabalhador das obras, cozinheiro, médico, músico e agricultor. De um conjunto inicial de comportamentos gerados para cada grupo profissional por um grupo de 83 participantes, foram seleccionados 420 que foram avaliados por uma nova amostra de 122 participantes divididos em duas sub-amostras. Após a determinação de medidas de tendência central e intervalos de confiança a 95%, os comportamentos foram ordenados de acordo com a sua média de tipicidade. As listas de comportamentos obtidas constituem um recurso para investigação futura em diversas áreas da psicologia nomeadamente nas áreas da cognição situada e corporalizada e da memória de acção

A qualitative study about college students' attitudes, knowledge and perceptions regarding sugar intake

Excessive sugar intake has been associated with multiple health conditions (e.g., higher risk for non-communicable diseases). Hence, health organizations have issued guidelines defining the maximum daily intake of free or added sugars. However, data from several countries suggests that these guidelines are rarely met, particularly by young adults. For example, almost half of Portuguese adolescents and young adults exceed the recommended sugar intake. In this work, we aim to further explore college students' attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions about sugar intake, as well as about sugar intake guidelines. A thematic analysis on data from five focus groups (N = 40) indicated that participants reported difficulty in the comprehension of added/free sugars definition and sugar intake recommendations. Overall, attitudes toward sugar were ambivalent. Sugar was simultaneously perceived as pleasurable and needed, but also as addictive and harmful. Although aware of the potential negative health outcomes associated with excessive sugar intake, most participants did not perceive being at risk due to their youth, exercise habits, or type of diet. The few concerns expressed were mostly associated with the negative impact of high sugar intake on body image (e.g., weight gain). The main barriers to reducing sugar intake identified were environmental (e.g., time restrictions, food available at the university). Still, participants could identify several individual strategies to effectively regulate sugar intake. By identifying knowledge gaps and sources of bias related to sugar consumption, our findings are useful to inform future interventions aiming to address the problem of high sugar intake among university students.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Gostar ou elevar…Eis a questão: Normas de valência e de conteúdo espacial de uma lista de palavras

Este estudo apresenta normas de valência (positiva/negativa) e de conteúdo espacial (cima/baixo) de 336 palavras. A partir das avaliações independentes da valência e do conteúdo espacial de uma lista de palavras foi possível calcular, para cada dimensão, a média, intervalos de confiança e desvio--padrão de cada palavra. Esta análise permitiu identificar 63 palavras de valência positiva, 61 de valência negativa e 94 neutras na dimensão de valência. Identificaram-se ainda 66 palavras associadas ao construto espacial “cima”, 79 ao construto espacial “baixo” e 45 a uma localização espacial “intermédia”. Os resultados revelaram também uma associação entre valência e conteúdo espacial, indicando que palavras “positivas” se associam ao construto espacial “cima”, enquanto que as “negativas” se associam ao construto espacial “baixo”. A avaliação nas duas dimensões apresenta uma correlação forte e positiva indicando que quanto mais “positiva” a avaliação da valência das palavras mais estas se associam ao construto espacial “cima”. Este material estímulo poderá contribuir para clarificar os mecanismos subjacentes à relação metafórica valência/posição espacial vertical, permitindo, nomeadamente a manipulação ortogonal e, consequentemente, a identificação do contributo individual de cada dimensão para as associações observadas

Lightness and darkness are mentally represented during language processing

A growing evidence from a sentence-picture verification paradigm suggests rapid integration of implied perceptual context during sentence processing. This evidence, however, is usually criticized for not providing a strong test of the mechanisms underlying such integration. We addressed this question in relation to the situation describing different sources of light. We hypothesized that if comprehenders simulate the perceptual state of affairs implied by the sentence, then response times should be faster only when pictures are fully (not partially) congruent with sentence content. Participants (N=200) read sentences like “The sun/the moon is shining onto a horse” followed by pictures depicting mentioned (Experiment 1) or non-mentioned (Experiment 2) objects in either a matching or a mismatching perceptual context (sunny/moony background). Verification times (analyzed with linear-mixed-models) were shorter only when the mentioned (but not non-mentioned) objects matched the perceptual context implied by the sentence. The results are discussed in support of simulation account

Representation of object state-changes of semantically similar objects

Many studies show that language comprehenders track multiple object state-changes during event comprehension. In this research, we investigate if comprehenders are sensitive to object state-changes of semantically similar objects. In Experiments 1 to 3, participants were asked to verify whether the object depicted in a picture was mentioned in the previously read sentence. Crucially, the picture either showed the original/modified state of an object that was mentioned in the sentence (Experiment 1) or not (Experiments 2 and 3). In Experiment 1, participants were faster to verify that an object was mentioned in the sentence if its pictured state matched the state implied by the sentence. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants were slower to verify pictured objects (e.g., cake) after reading a sentence that implied multiple states for a semantically similar (e.g., egg) rather than dissimilar (e.g., thermometer) object. Thus, comprehenders are sensitive to object state-changes of semantically similar objects