Experimental effects of climate messages vary geographically

Social science scholars routinely evaluate the efficacy of diverse climate frames using local convenience or nationally representative samples. For example, previous research has focused on communicating the scientific consensus on climate change, which has been identified as a ‘gateway’ cognition to other key beliefs about the issue6,7,8,9. Importantly, although these efforts reveal average public responsiveness to particular climate frames, they do not describe variation in message effectiveness at the spatial and political scales relevant for climate policymaking. Here we use a small-area estimation method to map geographical variation in public responsiveness to information about the scientific consensus as part of a large-scale randomized national experiment (n = 6,301). Our survey experiment finds that, on average, public perception of the consensus increases by 16 percentage points after message exposure. However, substantial spatial variation exists across the United States at state and local scales. Crucially, responsiveness is highest in more conservative parts of the country, leading to national convergence in perceptions of the climate science consensus across diverse political geographies. These findings not only advance a geographical understanding of how the public engages with information about scientific agreement, but will also prove useful for policymakers, practitioners and scientists engaged in climate change mitigation and adaptation.MacArhur Foundation, Energy Foundatio

Mindful Aging: The Effects of Regular Brief Mindfulness Practice on Electrophysiological Markers of Cognitive and Affective Processing in Older Adults

There is growing interest in the potential benefits of mindfulness meditation practices in terms of counteracting some of the cognitive effects associated with aging. Pursuing this question, the aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of mindfulness training on executive control and emotion regulation in older adults, by means of studying behavioral and electrophysiological changes. Participants, 55 to 75 years of age, were randomly allocated to an 8-week mindful breath awareness training group or an active control group engaging in brain training exercises. Before and after the training period, participants completed an emotional-counting Stroop task, designed to measure attentional control and emotion regulation processes. Concurrently, their brain activity was measured by means of 64-channel electroencephalography. The results show that engaging in just over 10 min of mindfulness practice five times per week resulted in significant improvements in behavioral (response latency) and electrophysiological (N2 event-related potential) measures related to general task performance. Analyses of the underlying cortical sources (Variable Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography, VARETA) indicate that this N2-related effect is primarily associated with changes in the right angular gyrus and other areas of the dorsal attention network. However, the study did not find the expected specific improvements in executive control and emotion regulation, which may be due to the training instructions or the relative brevity of the intervention. Overall, the results indicate that engaging in mindfulness meditation training improves the maintenance of goal-directed visuospatial attention and may be a useful strategy for counteracting cognitive decline associated with aging

On the fallibility of human memory for future actions

Human memory is a system that is inherently fallible and prone to distortion, and our memory for future actions is no exception. Prospective memory is defined either as remembering to carry out a task at a particular moment in the future or as the timely execution of a previously formed intention. For a variety of reasons, one may miss this prearranged moment and thus fail to fulfill an intention. This thesis focuses on the factors that may affect the fulfilment of a delayed intention and contribute to prospective memory failures. As the rather scant literature on the effect of stress on prospective memory functioning has produced contradictory findings, Part One of this Thesis investigates the role of stress in prospective memory failures in a strict sense, namely forgetting to carry out intended actions at the appointed time and place. One study involving healthy participants examines the disruptive effect of daily stress on prospective memory functioning and explores the moderating role of individual factors in modulating the harmful consequences associated with stress in everyday life. Another study carried out with healthcare workers investigates how work stress and burnout may contribute to forgetting clinical tasks, which may result in potential adverse events jeopardizing patient safety. Besides stress, misremembering future intentions may also arise from the lingering effect of misinformation on our memory, attitudes, and behaviors. Part Two of this Thesis, encompassing 6 experiments on healthy participants, shows how inaccurate and invalid information survive despite sophisticated correction attempts, influencing memory and reported future intentions. Overall, the results of the studies presented in this Thesis prove the fallibility of our memory for future actions. Various techniques to reduce the risks associated with memory failures are discussed