Potentiation of the startle reflex is in line with contingency reversal instructions rather than the conditioning history

In the context of fear conditioning, different psychophysiological measures have been related to different learning processes. Specifically, skin conductance responses (SCRs) have been related to cognitive expectancy learning, while fear potentiated startle (FPS) has been proposed to reflect affective learning that operates according to simple associative learning principles. On the basis of this two level account of fear conditioning we predicted that FPS should be less affected by verbal instructions and more affected by direct experience than SCRs. We tested this hypothesis by informing participants that contingencies would be reversed after a differential conditioning phase. Our results indicate that contingency reversal instructions led to an immediate and complete reversal of FPS regardless of the previous conditioning history. This change was accompanied by similar changes on US expectancy ratings and SCRs. These results conform with an expectancy model of fear conditioning but argue against a two level account of fear conditioning

The contextual malleability of approach-avoidance training effects : approaching or avoiding fear conditioned stimuli modulates effects of approach-avoidance training

Previous research showed that the repeated approaching of one stimulus and avoiding of another stimulus typically leads to more positive evaluations of the former stimuli. In the current study, we examined whether approach and avoidance training (AAT) effects on evaluations of neutral stimuli can be modulated by introducing a regularity between the approach-avoidance actions and a positive or negative (feared) stimulus. In an AAT task, participants repeatedly approached one neutral non-word and avoided another neutral non-word. Half of the participants also approached a negative fear-conditioned stimulus (CS+) and avoided a conditioned safe stimulus (CS−). The other half of the participants avoided the CS+ and approached the CS−. Whereas participants in the avoid CS+ condition exhibited a typical AAT effect, participants in the approach CS+ condition exhibited a reversed AAT effect (i.e. they evaluated the approached neutral non-word as more negative than the avoided non-word). These findings provide evidence for the malleability of the AAT effect when strongly valenced stimuli are approached or avoided. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of our findings.© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Grou

Computer-supported laboratory for production-oriented electrotechnical systems

At the electrical engineering department of the K.U.Leuven an education research project was started in October 1997. The target is to develop a powerful environment to teach students to solve practice-oriented problems as they will encounter them in industry furtheron in their career. In order to give a wide use to the developed environment, a close collaboration has been established with three polytechnical engineering institutes. Self-dependence has to be stimulated by creating possibilities for real “hands-on experience”. Such an educational environment implicates time-problems, high investment costs and last but not least safety restrictions. The project contributes to the solution of these problems by using simulation- and softwareenvironments, without loosing the real hands-on feeling

Don't You Think It's a Bit...

‘Don’t You Think It’s a Bit’ is an electroacoustic composition with voices that responds to the artist's project Tiepido Cool, by Davide D'Elia. Tiepido Cool puts forward a notion of a human algorithm, and 'Don't You Think It's a Bit' explores this notion sonically. The piece has two layers. There is a fourteen-minute evolving soundscape produced by sound artist Jan Mertens, in conversation with me. This part draws on electronic sounds, orchestral sample libraries and a range of percussive noises. The sounds are arranged on a spectrum from warm to cool, using some common visual metaphors as organising principles (the idea that lower frequencies are ‘warmer’, for example, and that electronic sounds are ‘cooler’). The second layer of ‘Don’t You Think It’s a Bit’ emerges at the mid-point of the piece. Twenty different voices speak forty-five different words. These words are the product of the workshop held at the University of St Andrews in February 2023. As the participants entered the workshop, Jan and I recorded each of their voices and used the recordings to place them on a warm-cool spectrum, again, using our own subjective judgment. At the end of the workshop, I organised the participants into a warm-cool chorus and orchestrated a complex, live vocal gradient. These voices punctuate the soundscape in the finished piece in a kind of mesmerising chant

Don't You Think It's a Bit...

‘Don’t You Think It’s a Bit’ is an electroacoustic composition with voices that responds to the artist's project Tiepido Cool, by Davide D'Elia. Tiepido Cool puts forward a notion of a human algorithm, and 'Don't You Think It's a Bit' explores this notion sonically. The piece has two layers. There is a fourteen-minute evolving soundscape produced by sound artist Jan Mertens, in conversation with me. This part draws on electronic sounds, orchestral sample libraries and a range of percussive noises. The sounds are arranged on a spectrum from warm to cool, using some common visual metaphors as organising principles (the idea that lower frequencies are ‘warmer’, for example, and that electronic sounds are ‘cooler’). The second layer of ‘Don’t You Think It’s a Bit’ emerges at the mid-point of the piece. Twenty different voices speak forty-five different words. These words are the product of the workshop held at the University of St Andrews in February 2023. As the participants entered the workshop, Jan and I recorded each of their voices and used the recordings to place them on a warm-cool spectrum, again, using our own subjective judgment. At the end of the workshop, I organised the participants into a warm-cool chorus and orchestrated a complex, live vocal gradient. These voices punctuate the soundscape in the finished piece in a kind of mesmerising chant

New Guidelines for Null Hypothesis Significance Testing in Hypothetico-Deductive IS Research

The objective of this research perspectives article is to promote policy change among journals, scholars, and students with a vested interest in hypothetico-deductive information systems (IS) research. We are concerned about the design, analysis, reporting, and reviewing of quantitative IS studies that draw on null hypothesis significance testing (NHST). We observe that although debates about misinterpretations, abuse, and issues with NHST have persisted for about half a century, they remain largely absent in IS. We find this to be an untenable position for a discipline with a proud quantitative tradition. We discuss traditional and emergent threats associated with the application of NHST and examine how they manifest in recent IS scholarship. To encourage the development of new standards for NHST in hypothetico-deductive IS research, we develop a balanced account of possible actions that are implementable in the short-term or long-term and that incentivize or penalize specific practices. To promote an immediate push for change, we also develop two sets of guidelines that IS scholars can adopt immediately

Independent associations between sedentary time, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and cardio-metabolic health : a cross-sectional study

We aimed to study the independent associations of sedentary time (ST), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and objectively measured cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) with clustered cardio-metabolic risk and its individual components (waist circumference, fasting glucose, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure). We also investigated whether any associations between MVPA or ST and clustered cardio-metabolic risk were mediated by CRF. MVPA, ST, CRF and individual cardio-metabolic components were measured in a population-based sample of 341 adults (age 53.8 +/- 8.9 years; 61% men) between 2012 and 2014. MVPA and ST were measured with the SenseWear pro 3 Armband and CRF was measured with a maximal exercise test. Multiple linear regression models and the product of coefficients method were used to examine independent associations and mediation effects, respectively. Results showed that low MVPA and low CRF were associated with a higher clustered cardio-metabolic risk (beta = -0.26 and beta = -0.43, both p<0.001, respectively). CRF explained 73% of the variance in the association between MVPA and clustered cardio-metabolic risk and attenuated this association to non-significance. After mutual adjustment for MVPA and ST, CRF was the most important risk factor for a higher clustered cardio-metabolic risk (beta = -0.39, p<0.001). In conclusion, because of the mediating role of CRF, lifestyle-interventions need to be feasible yet challenging enough to lead to increases in CRF to improve someone's cardio-metabolic health

Fear expression and return of fear following threat instruction with or without direct contingency experience

Prior research showed that mere instructions about the contingency between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) can generate fear reactions to the CS. Little is known, however, about the extent to which actual CS US contingency experience adds anything beyond the effect of contingency instructions. Our results extend previous studies on this topic in that it included fear potentiated startle as an additional dependent variable and examined return of fear (ROF) following reinstatement. We observed that CS US pairings can enhance fear reactions beyond the effect of contingency instructions. Moreover, for all measures of fear, instructions elicited immediate fear reactions that could not be completely overridden by subsequent situational safety information. Finally, ROF following reinstatement for instructed CS+s was unaffected by actual experience. In summary, our results demonstrate the power of contingency instructions and reveal the additional impact of actual experience of CS US pairings