Applied Cognitive Psychology最新文献

This study pioneers the exploration of the attentional orienting effect in experienced drivers: stroke survivors and healthy drivers. The Orienting Hazard Prediction Test (OHPT) consisted of 39 short videos shot in a naturalistic setting, including a target hazard situation just before the end of the video. Three conditions were manipulated: simple, valid, and invalid trials. A total of 69 experienced drivers took part in this experiment: a healthy control group (N = 37) and a stroke group (N = 32). The results replicated the expected main effect of orientation, now in complex driving situations. A significant group effect was also found: healthy drivers performed better than stroke survivors. Moreover, the drop in performance in the invalid trials was enhanced in the stroke group. By observing the performance of stroke survivors on this test, we can find its concurrent validity with other neuropsychological assessments: TMT (Trail Making Test) and UFOV (Useful Field of View).

Research on neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) has led us to refine our theoretical and methodological approaches. We explore whether new deficit clusters in line with the Research Domain Criteria, a novel multifactorial framework, optimally explain known conditions such as ADHD, DLD, or SLD in reading. Following the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews, we assimilated relevant literature from 2015 to 2025 on the RDoC framework and the above conditions. We retrieved 3486 studies focusing on the RDoC Cognitive Systems domain from databases, including PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. Studies were processed with the RayYan software. Fifteen studies met all inclusion criteria. Findings show that RDoC-informed neural and cognitive phenotypes were only partially aligned with DSM-based diagnoses. Moreover, deficits in Cognitive Control and Working Memory cut across known diagnoses, thus serving as transdiagnostic markers. The RDoC framework helps distinguish the neural, cognitive, linguistic, and behavioral deficits that cut across NDDs.

The increased perceived threat of conspiracy theories (CTs) and misinformation has led to research on strategies to reduce their spread. One method is to encourage stronger critical scientific appraisal skills, known as the scientific reasoning intervention (SRI). This study examined whether the SRI could reduce CT endorsement and engagement with misinformation content with targeted qualities (i.e., that do not overlap with CTs) in an online context through a simulated social media platform. After completing baseline measures of CT endorsement and misinformation engagement, 184 participants were randomly allocated to the SRI or control condition. A repeated measures analysis found people exposed to the SRI showed a lower endorsement of CT beliefs and were less likely to positively engage (i.e., like/share) with false posts compared with the control group. The findings suggest that the SRI can encourage some small reductions in CT endorsement and online engagement with misinformation.

Research on list-method directed forgetting (LMDF) shows that previously encountered material can be voluntarily forgotten. Here, we examined LMDF of news contents. Experiment 1 found that a first set of news headlines from a supposedly untrustworthy source could be voluntarily forgotten, which benefited memory for a second set of news headlines from a supposedly trustworthy source. Experiment 2 used fictitious news reports as study materials and also found intact voluntary forgetting for Set 1 as well as a benefit for Set 2. Moreover, Experiment 2 clarified that the results were not affected by whether the news source for Set 1 was characterized as trustworthy or untrustworthy. News contents can be voluntarily forgotten, but whether this curtails the spread of untrustworthy information may depend on an individual's goals and motivation. Future work is needed to better understand how voluntary forgetting operates in applied settings.

We investigated whether the phenomenological experience of a negative autobiographical memory changes when the self is presumably distanced from it. In session 1, participants described and phenomenologically rated an important negative event. One week later, in session 2, they imagined and described the event as if either a similar or a dissimilar friend experienced it. Afterward, they once more rated the original event that they described in session 1. Results showed increased observer perspective and decreased vividness, accessibility, and reliving of the original event after imagining that a friend experienced it. Importantly, when the negative event was imagined as experienced by a friend, preoccupation with overwhelming emotions related to the event, the event's emotional intensity, and its centrality to identity and life story also decreased. When the imagined friend was dissimilar, the emotional valence of the memory became more positive, and the emotional distance to the memory increased.

Spatial optimism is the tendency to underestimate the severity of environmental threats in local relative to global contexts. We investigated whether spatial optimism was evident in people's beliefs about the estimated duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants from 15 countries provided estimates of (i) when the pandemic would be brought under control and (ii) infection rates for their country and globally. Overall, individuals estimated that the pandemic would end sooner and with a lower infection rate in their own country relative to the rest of the world. This spatial optimism bias was moderated by the severity of COVID-19 at the country level, such that the bias was greatest in countries with lower levels of pandemic severity. Findings parallel those observed for environmental threats and provide evidence for a spatial optimism bias in a distinct domain of collective thought. Implications for public-health messaging are discussed.