Working Desks as a Classification Tool for Personality Style: A Pilot Study for Validation

We shape our surroundings; form the rooms we live in, so that we feel comfortable in them. This shows parts of our personality – it can be inferred from our environment. In this study, we created stereotypical desks embodying different personality styles and let 190 students choose which desk fits – in their subjective perspective – the most to their personality. To determine their personality style, the personality style and disorder inventory (PSSI) was used. Correspondence analysis (CA) was conducted to investigate the relationship between personality styles and choice of desks. Results did not show convergence of personality styles and desks. Contrary to the popular scientific idea, personality and creation of surroundings were not related; regarding our study, the relation is uninterpretable suggesting an individual’s desk choice is not statistically dependent on one’s individual’s highest PSSI subscale. The study can be regarded as a pilot project for desk designs as classification tool for personality

The Impact of a Short Body–Focused Meditation on Body Ownership and Interoceptive Abilities

Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a brief body-focused meditation on body ownership, while considering interoceptive abilities, dissociative experiences, mood, trait mindfulness, and meditation experience. Method The sample consisted of 111 healthy students who participated in a randomized controlled trial and either listened to a 20-min meditation or audio-book reading. Before and after the intervention, the rubber hand illusion and a heartbeat detection task were completed. The rubber hand illusion consisted of a synchronous and an asynchronous condition and the illusion intensity was measured using a questionnaire and by assessing the proprioceptive drift. In the heartbeat detection task, participants were instructed to count their heartbeats, so interoceptive accuracy of their counting, confidence in their own abilities (interoceptive sensibility), and the correspondence between both measures (interoceptive awareness) could be determined. Results The intervention type had no effect on mood and interoceptive abilities. Independent of intervention type, valence increased, arousal decreased, and interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility improved over time. Additionally, trait mindfulness and interoceptive accuracy were negatively related to the subjective rubber hand illusion intensity. There was not a mere effect of the intervention on the rubber hand illusion, but an interaction of synchrony, time, group, and interoceptive awareness was found for both measures, showing that only participants with high interoceptive awareness experienced a weaker illusion following the meditation. Conclusions We concluded that meta-awareness of interoceptive abilities may help protecting oneself against manipulations of the body boundaries

Kernelization and Sparseness: the case of Dominating Set

We prove that for every positive integer $r$ and for every graph class $\mathcal G$ of bounded expansion, the $r$-Dominating Set problem admits a linear kernel on graphs from $\mathcal G$. Moreover, when $\mathcal G$ is only assumed to be nowhere dense, then we give an almost linear kernel on $\mathcal G$ for the classic Dominating Set problem, i.e., for the case $r=1$. These results generalize a line of previous research on finding linear kernels for Dominating Set and $r$-Dominating Set. However, the approach taken in this work, which is based on the theory of sparse graphs, is radically different and conceptually much simpler than the previous approaches. We complement our findings by showing that for the closely related Connected Dominating Set problem, the existence of such kernelization algorithms is unlikely, even though the problem is known to admit a linear kernel on $H$-topological-minor-free graphs. Also, we prove that for any somewhere dense class $\mathcal G$, there is some $r$ for which $r$-Dominating Set is W[$2$]-hard on $\mathcal G$. Thus, our results fall short of proving a sharp dichotomy for the parameterized complexity of $r$-Dominating Set on subgraph-monotone graph classes: we conjecture that the border of tractability lies exactly between nowhere dense and somewhere dense graph classes.Comment: v2: new author, added results for r-Dominating Sets in bounded expansion graph

Explicit and Implicit Affective Attitudes toward Sustainability: The Role of Mindfulness, Heartfulness, Connectedness to Nature and Prosocialness

The present study aims to investigate explicit and implicit affective attitudes toward sustainability, aspects of mindfulness, and their related factors. Therefore, different areas of sustainability (e.g., mobility, nutrition, packaging) were considered. We focused mainly on the indirect effects of mindfulness on attitudes through prosocialness and connectedness to nature. Furthermore, heartfulness, as the emotional quality of mindfulness, was considered. 458 subjects answered a series of questionnaires (mindfulness, connectedness to nature, prosocial behavior, gratitude, and self-compassion questionnaire) and completed an explicit affective evaluation task, as well as an affective priming task measuring implicit attitudes. The participants explicitly evaluated sustainable concepts more positively in comparison to non-sustainable ones. There was no significant correlation between implicit and explicit affective attitudes. Furthermore, the results of structural equation modeling revealed inner awareness and insight as predictors for prosocialness, and prosocialness in turn for the explicit affective attitudes toward sustainability. In addition, exploratory analyses showed a significant relationship between self-compassion and explicit attitudes toward sustainable concepts and a significant overall relation between gratitude, prosocialness, and explicit attitudes toward sustainable concepts. None of the relations to the implicit attitudes was significant. Our findings suggest prosocialness as a relevant mediating factor for the relation of explicit attitudes toward sustainability and mindfulness. However, this connection might be more complex, and the differentiation of mindfulness aspects inner and outer awareness seems insightful and should be considered even more in further research

Diverging implicit measurement of sense of agency using interval estimation and Libet clock

Besides relying on explicit agency ratings, research concerning the sense of agency seeks to employ implicit measures. One such measure is intentional binding, i.e., the shortening of the perceived temporal interval between an action and its consequence. Multiple paradigms have been used to measure intentional binding. Our aim was to compare two common paradigms within the same participants: interval estimation and the Libet clock paradigm. As both are supposed to measure intentional binding, we hypothesized the two measures correlated positively. In two experiments, we used Bayes factors as a stopping criterion for data collection in a correlational study design resulting in valid samples of 46 and 36 healthy adult students. Despite good reliability, Bayes factors showed moderate evidence for intentional binding from the two paradigms to be uncorrelated. Implications for future research of sense of agency and the necessity for nomological validity of its measures are discussed

Mental rotation with abstract and embodied objects as stimuli: evidence from event-related potential (ERP)

This study investigated sex differences in performance and neuronal activity in a mental rotation task with abstract and embodied figures. Fifty-eight participants (26 females and 32 males) completed a chronometric mental rotation task with cube figures, human figures, and body postures. The results are straightforward: depending on angular disparity, participants had a faster reaction time and a higher accuracy rate for embodied stimuli compared to cube figures. The electroencephalogram (EEG) activity pattern showed a higher negative amplitude modulation in the frontal electrodes for females compared to males during the late (400-600 ms) time interval. From 200 to 400 ms after stimulus onset, there was a different activation pattern in the parietal and central electrodes, whereas frontal electrodes did not show differences between embodied and abstract stimuli. From 400 to 600 ms after stimulus onset, there was a different pattern in the central and frontal electrodes but not in the parietal areas for embodied figures in compared to cube figures. Concluding, even though there were no sex differences in the behavioral data, the EEG data did show alterations at the late time interval. Thus, the disparate results regarding sex differences that depend on the type of analysis (behavioral versus neurophysiological) should be more thoroughly investigated. Furthermore, the difference in processing embodied stimuli in an object-based mental rotation task could be confirmed in EEG activity pattern for the first time

Affective explicit and implicit attitudes towards vegetarian and vegan food consumption: The role of mindfulness

Objectives: It was the main goal of this study to investigate the explicit and implicit affective attitudes towards vegetarian food and the role of mindfulness. The results were related to goal intention in the stage model of self regulated sustainable behavior change. Methods: 182 participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a mindfulness and a compassion scale, and answered questions about goal intention, personal and social norms. Besides, they completed an explicit rating task and an affective priming task. Results: The results showed that people with an omnivorous diet explicitly rated meat-based food as more positive, while vegetarians and vegans rated vegetarian food as more positive. However, all participants rated vegetarian food implicitly as more positive. The observing aspect of mindfulness correlated only with the explicit attitude and with goal intention. The relation between observing and goal intention was mediated by personal norms. Compassion was not related to any attitude. Conclusion: This study provides first evidence, that the relation of mindfulness with the explicit and implicit attitude towards vegetarian food differs and that explicit attitudes are influenced by the own nutrition habit. The results are discussed with respect to the topic of sustainability