Volume 5, Issue 1

Identifying the contexts of episodes of (un)healthy food/drink intake could inform strategies for eating more healthily. This study assessed memories of recent episodes of healthy and unhealthy eating from adults in Mexico. For each (un)healthy eating episode participants recalled place, time of day, people present and food/drink intake. Categories were formed for the contextual features and foods/drinks that were reported, then the relative frequency of each category was tested between healthy and unhealthy eating episodes. Overall, there was a large set of categories of (un)healthy food/drink choices, and there were more healthy eating episodes with family at home and unhealthy eating episodes with friends out of home. However, as expected, a more specific context as well as food/drink intake was identified for each sort of recalled (un)healthy eating episode of the day. Additionally, eating out of home, later in the day and with people present were features related to higher estimated energy content across (un)healthy eating episodes. These findings support the assessment of self-reported memories of recent eating episodes to generate evidence that contribute to contexts that support healthy eating habits.

The question whether nonconscious processing could involve higher-level, semantic representations is of broad interest. Here, we demonstrate semantic processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant features of nonconscious primes within a novel, empirical test bed. In two experiments, musicians were visually primed with musical note triads varying in mode (i.e., major vs minor) and position (i.e., the arrangement of notes within a triad). The task required to discriminate only the mode in the following auditory target chord. In two experimental blocks, primes were either consciously visible or masked, respectively. Response times for auditory discrimination of the modes (relevant dimension) of heard triads were measured. Crucially, the targets also varied with respect to mode and position, creating different grades of congruency with the visual primes. Based on the Theory of Event Coding, we expected and found interactions between relevant and irrelevant semantic characteristics of masked primes, illustrating that even irrelevant prime meaning was processed. Moreover, our results indicated that both task-relevant and task-irrelevant prime characteristics are processed in nonconscious conditions only, and that practice in ignoring uninformative conscious primes can be transferred to a subsequent block. In conclusion, this study demonstrates cross-modal, automatic semantic processing using a novel approach to study such effects.

The arts are used clinically in a wide variety of applications, spanning from physical therapy to psychotherapy. We present a theoretical analysis of these clinical applications that is grounded in a unified model of the arts. Such an approach is based on an understanding of the relationships among the various art forms and how the arts are able to impact non-art functions via transfer effects. A unified model helps to clarify the distinction between near and far transfer in the clinical uses of the arts. The empirical evidence suggests that art applications for physical therapy tend to be based on near-transfer effects and show high specificity for the employed art forms. By contrast, art applications for psychotherapy tend to be based on far transfer and show less specificity for the employed art forms. We argue that a theory of the clinical uses of the arts has to be predicated on a unified model of the arts themselves. Such a model provides a rational basis for understanding how art forms are able to bring about their clinical effects.

Previous research indicates that nature and nature representations might have positive effects and noise negative effects on various facets of life, such as performance, perceived life quality, and physical and mental health. In this intervention, we observed whether posters showing a representation of nature (forests) can be used to reduce actual noise, perceived noise, and state anxiety in university library users. Measurements were taken twice daily for a 5-day period pre-intervention (before posters were installed) and again during the intervention, when posters were installed. No significant differences were found for perceived or actual noise levels or for self-report state anxiety levels between pre-intervention and intervention phase. Correlations between actual and perceived noise, and actual noise and state anxiety, were small in their magnitude and non-significant, with the exception of state anxiety and perceived noise during the intervention phase, suggesting a weak positive relationship. Finally, in hierarchical linear regression models, actual and perceived (overall and talking) noise and intervention phase were non-significant predictors of state anxiety. Small effect sizes of nature representations on state anxiety, as well as actual and perceived noise, suggest posters of forests to not be an effective intervention for anxiety and actual and perceived noise reduction in a university library.

A common goal for gender-fair language policies is to promote terms that elicit balanced activation of gender categories. Expanding previous research on the activation of feminine versus masculine categories through person nouns, we used a word-picture response priming design with gendered human faces as target stimuli, to explore whether a simultaneous activation of more than one gender category can be captured empirically. Focusing on Norwegian (Bokmål), we tested whether reading stereotypical (i.e. role nouns, e.g. “ care givers ”) and categorical gendered person nouns (i.e. name pairs, e.g. “ Elin and Sandra ”) facilitates the categorisation of face pairs that match the gender of the designated people. In Experiment 1 ( N = 32), gender-specific (feminine or masculine) word primes were tested, before gender-balanced word primes (non-stereotyped role nouns; pairs of a female and a male name) were added in Experiment 2 ( N = 39). In both experiments, the visual targets were pairs of faces (two female faces, two male faces, or one male and one female face). Consistent with previous results for English, we found gender-specific priming effects, supporting the notion that gender categories activated by linguistic stimuli may also exert influence outside of language processing. Most importantly, mixed-gender faces were successfully primed by non-stereotypical role nouns providing initial support for the idea of a balanced activation of gender categories.

The watching eyes effect has been shown to influence prosocial and antisocial behaviors. However, the eye characteristics which induce this effect remain unclear. This study explored how emotional expressions (anger, fear, happy, neutral), age (old, young), and sex (male, female) of eye images affect antisocial behavior, measured by stereotype endorsement. Participants rated their endorsement of 36 stereotype statements about race, gender, and religion topics, each paired with an eye image. Our findings indicated that stereotype endorsement did not differ significantly between neutral eye images and control flower images. We then used neutral eyes as control images to evaluate stereotype endorsement when being watched by eyes with other expressions. When comparing endorsement across age and sex in each expression, the data revealed higher endorsement for angry old male eyes and for happy young eyes (males and females), and lower endorsement for fearful eyes, except for old fearful female eyes. Therefore, varying the emotional expression, sex, and age of the eye images used in the watching eyes effect paradigm influences stereotype endorsement. To further unravel the underlying mechanisms behind the watching eyes effect, we encourage future research to explore how varying characteristics of the eyes affect responses/behaviors like stereotype endorsement.