Patterns of Bronchial Challenge Testing in Canada

Background: Bronchial challenge testing (BCT) measures airway hyperresponsiveness; asthma guidelines recommend using BCT when symptoms manifest despite normal spirometry. Improper application of these guidelines commonly results in the misdiagnosis of asthma. Yet, statistics concerning BCT remain largely obscure. The current paper addresses this gap and explores how various health variables may elucidate adherence to asthma guidelines and patterns of BCT across Canadian provinces. Methods: Using the Access to Information Act, medical financial claims for BCT (or equivalent procedures) were requested from each of the Canadian provinces and territories. Based on the available information (from provinces only), correlations between frequency of BCT claims and medical demographics (e.g., prevalence of respirologists, health expenditures) are reported. Results: Controlling for population or for people with asthma, physicians from Québec claim four times more BCT per year than those in other provinces; physicians from Alberta close to eight-fold fewer. The number of respirologists per capita and BCT per capita correlated moderately, r(132) = 0.582, p \u3c 0.001, [95% CI 0.421, 0.716]. Excluding “outliers” (i.e., British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan) greatly strengthened this correlation, r(87) = 0.930, p \u3c 0.001, [95% CI 0.883, 0.958]. Discussion: These findings demonstrate that provinces vary in their use of BCT. This result seems to stem, at least in part, from differences in the prevalence of respirologists. Interestingly, geographic region appears to wield a strong influence; in the correlation between number of tests and number of respirologists, physicians from Western provinces (i.e., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia) administered fewer tests than their Eastern colleagues. Given the association between inadequate application of BCT and misdiagnosis of asthma, physicians should pay special attention to the Canadian guidelines when considering an asthma diagnosis

The Rubber Hand Illusion: Top-down Attention Modulates Embodiment

The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) creates distortions of body ownership through multimodal integration of somatosensory and visual inputs. This illusion largely rests on bottom-up (automatic multisensory and perceptual integration) mechanisms. However, the relative contribution from top-down factors, such as controlled processes involving attentional regulation, remains unclear. Following previous work that highlights the putative influence of higher-order cognition in the RHI, we aimed to further examine how modulations of working memory load and task instructions—two conditions engaging top-down cognitive processes—influence the experience of the RHI, as indexed by a number of psychometric dimensions. Relying on exploratory factor analysis for assessing this phenomenology within the RHI, our results confirm the influence of higher-order, top-down mental processes. Whereas task instruction strongly modulated embodiment of the rubber hand, cognitive load altered the affective dimension of the RHI. Our findings corroborate that top-down processes shape the phenomenology of the RHI and herald new ways to improve experimental control over the RHI

Body Swapping with a Black Person Boosts Empathy: Using Virtual Reality to Embody Another

Perspective-taking, whether through imagination or virtual-reality interventions, seems to improve intergroup relations; however, which intervention leads to better outcomes remains unclear. This preregistered study collected measures of empathy and race bias from 90 participants, split into one of three perspective-taking groups: embodied perspective-taking, mental perspective-taking, and a control group. We drew on virtual-reality technology alongside a Black confederate across all conditions. Only in the first group, participants got to exchange real-time viewpoints with the confederate and literally “see through the eyes of another.” In the two other conditions, participants either imagined a day in the life of the Black confederate or in their own life, respectively. Our findings show that, compared with the control group, the embodied perspective-taking group scored higher on empathy sub-components. On the contrary, both perspective-taking interventions differentially affected neither explicit nor implicit race bias. Our study suggests that embodiment of an outgroup can enhance empathy

Self-Concept Clarity and the Bodily Self: Malleability Across Modalities

The self has fascinated scholars for centuries. Although theory suggests that the self-concept (cognitive self-understanding) and bodily self (pre-reflective awareness of one’s body) are related, little work has examined this notion. To this end, in Study 1, participants reported on self-concept clarity (SCC) and completed the rubber hand illusion (RHI), a paradigm in which synchronous (vs. asynchronous) stimulation between a prosthetic hand and one’s own hand leads one to “embody” the prosthetic hand. Whereas participants were equally susceptible to the RHI during synchronous stroking, low-SCC individuals were more vulnerable to the illusion during asynchronous stroking, when the effect is unwarranted. Conceptually replicating and extending this finding, in Study 2, low-SCC individuals were more susceptible to the body-swap illusion—the impression that another person’s body is one’s own. These findings suggest that a clear sense of self implies clarity and stability of both the self-concept and the bodily self

rempsyc: Convenience functions for psychology

CRAN resubmission rempsyc 0.1.6.2 nice_table: now converts sigma to its unicode counterpart ("\u03C3") "z" and "Z" are now formatted to two digits instead of zero digits to comply with the Wald Z statistics in SEM (with lavaan and lavaanExtra) now supports conversion of "CI_lower_B" and "CI_upper_B" columns to "95% CI (b*)". nice_t_test: argument warning becomes verbose to align with other packages. rempsyc 0.1.6.1 Breaking news: APA 7th edition actually advises against using beta to represent standardized coefficients, but suggests instead to use a lowercase italic b followed by an asterisk: b*. rempsyc will follow this APA recommendation going forward.If you use this software, please cite our article in the Journal of Open Source Software

L’importance de la science ouverte en recherche en psychologie

La crise de réplication scientifique que le domaine de la psychologie traverse en ce moment remet en question la réputation de notre discipline et notre confiance dans une majorité de recherches passées et présentes. La communauté scientifique identifie deux causes principales à la crise de réplication en psychologie : les pratiques de recherche questionnables et le manque de transparence. Heureusement, la science ouverte, qui met au cœur de sa démarche la transparence, la reproductibilité et les bonnes pratiques de recherche, permet d’adresser ces deux problématiques directement. Celle-ci recommande notamment : (a) le préenregistrement de l’étude; (b) le rapport enregistré; (c) la mise en ligne publique des données désidentifiées; (d) la mise en ligne des matériels et de la syntaxe; (e) l’utilisation de logiciels libres tels que R; (f) la prépublication; et (g) la publication en libre accès. Cet article couvre brièvement ces différentes pratiques

Comparing the effects of mental and embodied perspective-taking on prejudice and empathy

Prejudice, the preconceived negatively biased opinion against outgroups, represents a central concern that can lead to discrimination and violence. It is thus important to explore, compare, and validate old and new strategies alike to reduce prejudice and increase empathy. Although we know perspective-taking lowers prejudice, it remains unclear whether any specific technique of perspective-taking works best. To address this gap in knowledge, 90 participants randomly assigned to one of three perspective-taking conditions completed measures of explicit race bias (symbolic racism), implicit race bias, and empathy. The embodied perspective-taking group experienced illusory embodiment of the body of a Black confederate using virtual reality equipment (i.e., to "see through another's eyes"). The mental perspective-taking group imagined a day in the life of a Black individual, while the control group imagined a day in their own life. In this pre-registered study, we compared groups using multiple regressions with planned contrasts. The perspective-taking interventions did not differentially affect symbolic racism or implicit race bias; however, participants in the embodied perspective-taking group scored higher on some sub-components of empathy (empathic concern, personal distress, and peripheral responsivity). Participants in both perspective-taking groups also reported feeling about 1.5 times closer to a Black confederate than those in the control group. Overall, these strategies do not appear to effectively reduce race bias, but they may help improve intergroup relations by increasing empathy. More research will enable the identification of the most effective interventions to foster prosocial intergroup behaviours.Les préjugés représentent une préoccupation centrale pouvant mener à la discrimination et la violence. Il est donc important d'explorer, de comparer et de valider d'anciennes et de nouvelles stratégies pour réduire les préjugés et augmenter l'empathie. Bien que nous sachions que la prise de perspective peut réduire les préjugés, le type qui fonctionne le mieux reste à déterminer. Pour adresser ce manque de connaissances, 90 participants aléatoirement assigné à un de trois groupes de prise de perspective ont complété des mesures de racisme symbolique, de biais raciaux implicites et d'empathie. Le groupe de prise de perspective incarnée a expérimenté une incarnation illusoire du corps d'un complice noir grâce à de l'équipement de réalité virtuelle (c.-à-d. pour « voir à travers les yeux de l'autre »). Les participants du groupe de prise de perspective mentale ont imaginé une journée dans la vie d'une personne noire, tandis que ceux du groupe contrôle ont imaginé une journée dans leur propre vie. Dans cette étude préenregistrée, nous avons comparé les groupes à l'aide de régressions multiples avec contrastes planifiés. Les interventions de prise de perspective n'ont pas affecté le racisme symbolique ou les biais raciaux implicites; néanmoins, les participants du groupe de prise de perspective incarnée ont obtenu de plus hauts scores dans certaines sous-composantes de l'empathie (préoccupation empathique, détresse personnelle et sensibilité périphérique). Les participants des deux groupes de prise de perspective se sont également sentis environ 1,5 fois plus proches d'un complice noir que ceux du groupe contrôle. Dans l'ensemble, ces stratégies ne semblent pas réduire les biais raciaux efficacement, mais elles pourraient aider à améliorer les relations intergroupes. Davantage de recherche permettra l'identification des interventions les plus efficaces afin de favoriser les comportements intergroupes prosociaux