Does unfairness sound wrong? A cross-domain investigation of expectations in music and social decision-making

This study was interested in investigating the existence of a shared psychological mechanism for the processing of expectations across domains. The literature on music and language shows that violations of expectations produce similar neural responses and violating the expectation in one domain may influence the processing of stimuli in the other domain. Like music and language, our social world is governed by a system of inherent rules or norms, such as fairness. The study therefore aimed to draw a parallel to the social domain and investigate whether a manipulation of melodic expectation can influence the processing of higher-level expectations of fairness. Specifically, we aimed to investigate whether the presence of an unexpected melody enhances or reduces participants’ sensitivity to the violations of fairness and the behavioural reactions associated with these. We embedded a manipulation of melodic expectation within a social decision-making paradigm, whereby musically expected and unexpected stimuli will be simultaneously presented with fair and unfair divisions in a third-party altruistic punishment game. Both behavioural and EEG responses were recorded. Results from the pre-planned analyses show that participants are less likely to punish when the melodic stimuli are more unexpected and that violations of fairness norms elicit MFN-life effects. However, since no significant interactions between melodic expectancy and fairness of the division were found, results fail to provide evidence of a shared mechanism for the processing of expectations. Exploratory analyses show two additional effects: i) unfair divisions elicit an early attentional component (P2), likely associated with stimulus saliency, and ii) mid-value divisions elicit a late MFN-like component, likely reflecting stimulus ambiguity. Future studies could build on these results to further investigate the effect of the cross-domain influence of music on the processing of social stimuli on these early and late components

Public perceptions of forests across Italy: An exploratory national survey

In a context of progressive expansion of the Italian forest area, we present the results of a national survey exploring public perception of forests across different geographical scales in Italy. Perceptions of forests are assessed in rela-tion to popular beliefs on relevant environmental issues such as countering climate change, protecting biodiversity, and promoting social cohesion and environmental education. Participants (N = 1059) living in five different regions of Northern (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Piemonte), Central (Lazio, Molise) and Southern Italy (Puglia), were recruited in the survey and completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Survey questions regarded the estimated percentage of forest cover, the perceived importance of different environmental issues and of different material and non-material forest products, as well as partici-pants’ perceptions regarding connectedness to nature. Results revealed a gen-eralized tendency to overestimate the extension of forest surface area in the participants’ region, in Italy, and in the European Union. Results also showed high scores for participants’ perceived importance of environmental issues, such as climate change and biodiversity protection, and in their belief that forests could play a positive role in addressing these issues and providing im-portant outcomes and benefits for the quality of human life, such as health and well-being or social cohesion

Are community gardening and horticultural interventions beneficial for psychosocial well-being? A meta-analysis

Recent literature has revealed the positive effect of gardening on human health; however, empirical evidence on the effects of gardening-based programs on psychosocial well-being is scant. This meta-analysis aims to examine the scientific literature on the effect of community gardening or horticultural interventions on a variety of outcomes related to psychosocial well-being, such as social cohesion, networking, social support, and trust. From 383 bibliographic records retrieved (from 1975 to 2019), seven studies with a total of 22 effect sizes were selected on the basis of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Meta-analytic findings on 11 comparisons indicate a positive and moderate effect of horticultural or gardening interventions on psychosocial well-being. Moderation analysis shows a greater effect size in individualistic than collectivistic cultures. A greater effect size was also observed in studies involving community gardening compared to horticultural intervention. Nevertheless, an effect of publication bias and study heterogeneity has been detected. Despite the presence of a large number of qualitative studies on the effect of horticulture/gardening on psychosocial well-being, quantitative studies are lacking. There is a strong need to advance into further high-quality studies on this research topic given that gardening has promising applied implications for human health, the community, and sustainable city management

Empirical agent-based modelling of everyday pro-environmental behaviours at work

We report on agent-based modelling work in the LOCAW project (Low Carbon at Work: Modelling Agents and Organisations to Achieve Transition to a Low Carbon Europe). The project explored the effectiveness of various backcasting scenarios conducted with case study organisations in bringing about pro-environmental change in the workforce in the domains of transport, energy use and waste. The model used qualitative representations of workspaces in formalising each scenario, and decision trees learned from questionnaire responses to represent decision-making. We describe the process by which the decision trees were constructed, noting that the use of decision trees in agent-based models requires particular considerations owing to the potential use of explanatory variables in model dynamics. The results of the modelling in various scenarios emphasise the importance of structural environmental changes in facilitating everyday pro-environmental behaviour, but also show there is a role for psychological variables such as norms, values and efficacy. As such, the topology of social interactions is a potentially important driver, raising the interesting prospect that both workplace geography and organisational hierarchy have a role to play in influencing workplace pro-environmental behaviours

What determines how we see nature? Perceptions of naturalness in designed urban green spaces

1. The multiple benefits of ‘nature’ for human health and well-being have been documented at an increasing rate over the past 30 years. A growing body of research also demonstrates the positive well-being benefits of nature-connectedness. There is, however, a lack of evidence about how people's subjective nature experience relates to deliberately designed and managed urban green infrastructure (GI) with definable ‘objective’ characteristics such as vegetation type, structure and density. Our study addresses this gap.2. Site users (n = 1411) were invited to walk through woodland, shrub and herbaceous planting at three distinctive levels of planting structure at 31 sites throughout England, whilst participating in a self-guided questionnaire survey assessing reactions to aesthetics, perceived plant and invertebrate biodiversity, restorative effect, nature-connectedness and socio-demographic characteristics.3. There was a significant positive relationship between perceived naturalness and planting structure. Perceived naturalness was also positively related to the perceived plant and invertebrate biodiversity value, participants’ aesthetic appreciation and the self-reported restorative effect of the planting. A negative relationship was recorded between perceived naturalness and perceived tidiness and care. Our findings showed that participants perceived ‘naturalness’ as biodiverse, attractive and restorative, but not necessarily tidy. Perceived naturalness was also related to participants’ educational qualifications, gender and nature-connectedness, with women and more nature-connected participants perceiving significantly greater levels of naturalness in the planting.4. These findings are highly significant for policymakers and built environment professionals throughout the world aiming to design, manage and fund urban GI to achieve positive human health and biodiversity outcomes. This applies particularly under austerity approaches to managing urban green spaces where local authorities have experienced cuts in funding and must prioritise and justify GI maintenance practices and regimes

Reduced prediction error responses in high-as compared to low-uncertainty musical contexts

Abstract Theories of predictive processing propose that prediction error responses are modulated by the certainty of the predictive model or precision . While there is some evidence for this phenomenon in the visual and, to a lesser extent, the auditory modality, little is known about whether it operates in the complex auditory contexts of daily life. Here, we examined how prediction error responses behave in a more complex and ecologically valid auditory context than those typically studied. We created musical tone sequences with different degrees of pitch uncertainty to manipulate the precision of participants’ auditory expectations. Magnetoencephalography was used to measure the magnetic counterpart of the mismatch negativity (MMNm) as a neural marker of prediction error in a multi-feature paradigm. Pitch, slide, intensity and timbre deviants were included. We compared high-entropy stimuli, consisting of a set of non-repetitive melodies, with low-entropy stimuli consisting of a simple, repetitive pitch pattern. Pitch entropy was quantitatively assessed with an information-theoretic model of auditory expectation. We found a reduction in pitch and slide MMNm amplitudes in the high-entropy as compared to the low-entropy context. No significant differences were found for intensity and timbre MMNm amplitudes. Furthermore, in a separate behavioral experiment investigating the detection of pitch deviants, similar decreases were found for accuracy measures in response to more fine-grained increases in pitch entropy. Our results are consistent with a precision modulation of auditory prediction error in a musical context, and suggest that this effect is specific to features that depend on the manipulated dimension—pitch information, in this case. Highlights The mismatch negativity (MMNm) is reduced in musical contexts with high pitch uncertainty The MMNm reduction is restricted to pitch-related features Accuracy during deviance detection is reduced in contexts with higher uncertainty The results suggest a feature-selective precision modulation of prediction error Materials, data and scripts can be found in the Open Science Framework repository: http://bit.ly/music_entropy_MMN DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/MY6T

Emergency department triage: an ethical analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Emergency departments across the globe follow a triage system in order to cope with overcrowding. The intention behind triage is to improve the emergency care and to prioritize cases in terms of clinical urgency.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>In emergency department triage, medical care might lead to adverse consequences like delay in providing care, compromise in privacy and confidentiality, poor physician-patient communication, failing to provide the necessary care altogether, or even having to decide whose life to save when not everyone can be saved. These consequences challenge the ethical quality of emergency care. This article provides an ethical analysis of "routine" emergency department triage. The four principles of biomedical ethics - viz. respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice provide the starting point and help us to identify the ethical challenges of emergency department triage. However, they do not offer a <it>comprehensive </it>ethical view. To address the ethical issues of emergency department triage from a more comprehensive ethical view, the care ethics perspective offers additional insights.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>We integrate the results from the analysis using four principles of biomedical ethics into care ethics perspective on triage and propose an integrated clinically and ethically based framework of emergency department triage planning, as seen from a comprehensive ethics perspective that incorporates both the principles-based and care-oriented approach.</p