Pub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103975
Mingyuan Wang, Yunfei Guo
The successful execution of time-based prospective memory (TBPM) tasks demands self-initiation attentional resources. Mindfulness meditation can enhance attention, which may promote TBPM performance. This study investigates whether mindfulness meditation can facilitate TBPM via the improvement of attentional resources and whether such facilitation is modulated by time-monitoring conditions. The experiment, conducted with 95 participants, used a 2 (group: mindfulness meditation group, control group) × 2 (monitoring condition: limited, sufficient) between-subjects design. All 95 participants in this study were undergraduate students who volunteered. The results showed that, in the restricted condition, the TBPM accuracy of the mindfulness meditation group was better than that of the control group, indicating that mindfulness meditation indeed improves TBPM performance, but the facilitation of TBPM by mindfulness meditation is particularly susceptible to the influence of time-monitoring conditions.
{"title":"Mindfulness meditation can improve time-based prospective memory performance in restricted monitoring situation","authors":"Mingyuan Wang, Yunfei Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103975","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103975","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The successful execution of time-based prospective memory (TBPM) tasks demands self-initiation attentional resources. Mindfulness meditation can enhance attention, which may promote TBPM performance. This study investigates whether mindfulness meditation can facilitate TBPM via the improvement of attentional resources and whether such facilitation is modulated by time-monitoring conditions. The experiment, conducted with 95 participants, used a 2 (group: mindfulness meditation group, control group) × 2 (monitoring condition: limited, sufficient) between-subjects design. All 95 participants in this study were undergraduate students who volunteered. The results showed that, in the restricted condition, the TBPM accuracy of the mindfulness meditation group was better than that of the control group, indicating that mindfulness meditation indeed improves TBPM performance, but the facilitation of TBPM by mindfulness meditation is particularly susceptible to the influence of time-monitoring conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103975"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145745666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The human brain constructs a boundary between self and world by distinguishing self-generated sensory events from external ones. For events that are self-initiated, the brain attenuates its response, what is known as the sensory suppression effect. This effect is regarded as a proxy of the sense of agency, i.e., our feeling of being subjective agents controlling our actions and ensuing events in the world. In deep meditative states, where the self-world boundary blurs, phenomenological reports indicate a reduced or absent sense of agency, accompanied by neural oscillatory changes. However, definitive neural markers of agency have not been identified in these states. In our preregistered study, we engaged 46 experienced meditators in a button-pressing task during Magnetoencephalography (MEG) monitoring to assess how meditation-induced self-boundary dissolution affects sensory suppression. Participants’ self-reports indicated partial attainment of deep meditative states during the task. At the overall group level, dissolution states did not significantly modulate sensory suppression. However, individual variations showed a positive correlation between the depth of meditation and sensory suppression magnitude. This suggests that variation in the induced states might have obscured group-level effects. Our findings highlight the complex interplay between meditation depth, agency suspension, intention awareness, and sensory suppression.
{"title":"Action without agent, but with awareness? meditation and the modulation of agency induced sensory suppression","authors":"Yoav Schweitzer , Aviva Berkovich-Ohana , Yair Dor-Ziderman , Ohad Nave , Stephen Fulder , Fynn-Mathis Trautwein","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103960","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103960","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The human brain constructs a boundary between self and world by distinguishing self-generated sensory events from external ones. For events that are self-initiated, the brain attenuates its response, what is known as the sensory suppression effect. This effect is regarded as a proxy of the sense of agency, i.e., our feeling of being subjective agents controlling our actions and ensuing events in the world. In deep meditative states, where the self-world boundary blurs, phenomenological reports indicate a reduced or absent sense of agency, accompanied by neural oscillatory changes. However, definitive neural markers of agency have not been identified in these states. In our preregistered study, we engaged 46 experienced meditators in a button-pressing task during Magnetoencephalography (MEG) monitoring to assess how meditation-induced self-boundary dissolution affects sensory suppression. Participants’ self-reports indicated partial attainment of deep meditative states during the task. At the overall group level, dissolution states did not significantly modulate sensory suppression. However, individual variations showed a positive correlation between the depth of meditation and sensory suppression magnitude. This suggests that variation in the induced states might have obscured group-level effects. Our findings highlight the complex interplay between meditation depth, agency suspension, intention awareness, and sensory suppression.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103960"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145475709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103976
Gull Zareen , Céline Souchay , Krystian Barzykowski , Chris J.A. Moulin
Spontaneous metacognitive experiences, such as déjà vu, are notoriously difficult to study under controlled laboratory conditions. Barzykowski and Moulin (2023) proposed that experimental procedures known to elicit involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) may also trigger a broader range of spontaneous cognitive phenomena, including déjà vu, tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs), jamais vu, error detection, and zoning out. In this study, 96 participants completed a low-demand vigilance task commonly used to elicit IAMs. Participants were instructed to press the spacebar whenever they experienced a spontaneous thought or metacognitive state, and subsequently categorized and rated each experience. IAMs were the most frequently reported, followed by déjà vu, with other metacognitive phenomena (jamais vu, TOTs, error detection, and zoning out) occurring less frequently. These findings demonstrate that when attentional demands are low, a diverse range of spontaneous experiences naturally emerges. We discuss both the theoretical relevance and methodological utility of this paradigm for capturing the phenomenology of spontaneous cognition in the lab, and highlight promising directions for future research.
{"title":"Spontaneous metacognitive experiences and involuntary memories in the laboratory","authors":"Gull Zareen , Céline Souchay , Krystian Barzykowski , Chris J.A. Moulin","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103976","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103976","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Spontaneous metacognitive experiences, such as déjà vu, are notoriously difficult to study under controlled laboratory conditions. <span><span>Barzykowski and Moulin (2023)</span></span> proposed that experimental procedures known to elicit involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) may also trigger a broader range of spontaneous cognitive phenomena, including déjà vu, tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs), jamais vu, error detection, and zoning out. In this study, 96 participants completed a low-demand vigilance task commonly used to elicit IAMs. Participants were instructed to press the spacebar whenever they experienced a spontaneous thought or metacognitive state, and subsequently categorized and rated each experience. IAMs were the most frequently reported, followed by déjà vu, with other metacognitive phenomena (jamais vu, TOTs, error detection, and zoning out) occurring less frequently. These findings demonstrate that when attentional demands are low, a diverse range of spontaneous experiences naturally emerges. We discuss both the theoretical relevance and methodological utility of this paradigm for capturing the phenomenology of spontaneous cognition in the lab, and highlight promising directions for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103976"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145769979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103961
Matthias Forstmann , Pascal Burgmer
We developed and validated the Nature of Mind Scale (NOMS), a 24-item measure assessing lay beliefs about eight distinct philosophical positions on the mind–body relationship. Given the limitations of existing measures and the theoretical diversity of mind–body positions, our goal was to develop a comprehensive yet practical scale that could capture the full range of philosophical stances without reducing them to overly simplified dimensions. Across four studies with 1074 participants, we established the NOMS’s psychometric properties and nomological network. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we identified an eight-factor structure representing belief in substance dualism, interactionism, panpsychism, idealism, reductive physicalism, non-reductive physicalism, mystical monism, and neutral monism. Participants most strongly endorsed interactionism, non-reductive physicalism, and mystical monism, while showing the least support for idealism. The scale demonstrated good model fit and strong evidence of measurement invariance across samples. Convergent validity was established through correlations with existing mind–body belief measures. Construct validity was supported by theoretically consistent relationships with religiosity, free will beliefs, cognitive style, personality traits, and afterlife beliefs. The NOMS represents an extension of previous measures of mind–body relations, capturing the multifaceted nature of these beliefs while maintaining sufficient brevity for practical research applications.
{"title":"The nature of mind scale (NOMS): Validation of an eight-dimensional scale assessing beliefs about the relationship between mind and matter","authors":"Matthias Forstmann , Pascal Burgmer","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103961","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103961","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We developed and validated the Nature of Mind Scale (NOMS), a 24-item measure assessing lay beliefs about eight distinct philosophical positions on the mind–body relationship. Given the limitations of existing measures and the theoretical diversity of mind–body positions, our goal was to develop a comprehensive yet practical scale that could capture the full range of philosophical stances without reducing them to overly simplified dimensions. Across four studies with 1074 participants, we established the NOMS’s psychometric properties and nomological network. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we identified an eight-factor structure representing belief in substance dualism, interactionism, panpsychism, idealism, reductive physicalism, non-reductive physicalism, mystical monism, and neutral monism. Participants most strongly endorsed interactionism, non-reductive physicalism, and mystical monism, while showing the least support for idealism. The scale demonstrated good model fit and strong evidence of measurement invariance across samples. Convergent validity was established through correlations with existing mind–body belief measures. Construct validity was supported by theoretically consistent relationships with religiosity, free will beliefs, cognitive style, personality traits, and afterlife beliefs. The NOMS represents an extension of previous measures of mind–body relations, capturing the multifaceted nature of these beliefs while maintaining sufficient brevity for practical research applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103961"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145693625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2025-11-10DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103959
Kyle Napierkowski, Emily Cook
Dreams offer insight into how individual differences shape conscious experience in the absence of external input or task demands. This study examines whether synesthesia is linked to distinct patterns in dream content, suggesting underlying differences in cognitive architecture. Leveraging the statistical power of large-scale, naturalistic data, we analyzed 2,337 dream reports from Reddit, comparing 1,169 reports from self-identified synesthetes with 1,168 matched controls. Semantic embedding models and logistic regression achieved modest classification performance, indicating group-level differences in language use. Topic modeling revealed four themes—digital, interpersonal regret, diverse worlds, and violent conflict—that were significantly more prevalent in synesthete dreams. These results suggest that trait-level cognitive organization, as expressed in synesthetic perception, extends across states of consciousness and shapes the thematic content of dreams. The findings support theoretical accounts of dreaming as continuous with waking cognition and demonstrate how stable neurocognitive traits manifest in unstructured, self-generated thought.
{"title":"Synesthesia is associated with distinctive patterns in dream content","authors":"Kyle Napierkowski, Emily Cook","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103959","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103959","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dreams offer insight into how individual differences shape conscious experience in the absence of external input or task demands. This study examines whether synesthesia is linked to distinct patterns in dream content, suggesting underlying differences in cognitive architecture. Leveraging the statistical power of large-scale, naturalistic data, we analyzed 2,337 dream reports from Reddit, comparing 1,169 reports from self-identified synesthetes with 1,168 matched controls. Semantic embedding models and logistic regression achieved modest classification performance, indicating group-level differences in language use. Topic modeling revealed four themes—digital, interpersonal regret, diverse worlds, and violent conflict—that were significantly more prevalent in synesthete dreams. These results suggest that trait-level cognitive organization, as expressed in synesthetic perception, extends across states of consciousness and shapes the thematic content of dreams. The findings support theoretical accounts of dreaming as continuous with waking cognition and demonstrate how stable neurocognitive traits manifest in unstructured, self-generated thought.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103959"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145497308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social cognition, encompassing the mental processes involved in perceiving, interpreting, and responding to social information, remains a complex domain to model, particularly when considered in relation to self-awareness. As social cognition requires awareness of others, effective self-awareness is often assumed to be crucial for this process. Yet, the role of self-awareness in social cognition is still debated. This systematic review investigates the link between social cognition and self-awareness in adult populations. Following a PRISMA-guided literature search, 8,973 articles were identified, and 192 were selected for full-text screening. Eighty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria, which required quantifying at least one social cognitive process and one self-awareness component and exploring their relationship in healthy adults or patients with neurological or psychiatric conditions. Most studies focused on theory of mind, emotion recognition, and empathy, with insight and metacognition being the primary self-awareness dimensions explored. Theory of mind was most commonly linked to insight, while emotion recognition and empathy were associated with metacognition. Results varied depending on the cognitive processes studied, the population examined, and the methods employed. Notably, stronger correlations were observed when objective measures of self-awareness were used compared to subjective ones. Results point toward a potential bidirectional relationship. However, methodological heterogeneity, including variations in tools, constructs, and statistical analyses, may account for some conflicting findings. This systematic review emphasizes the need for integrative models, refined methodologies, and further research in underrepresented populations.
{"title":"A systematic review investigating the link between social cognition and self-awareness in adults","authors":"Mathilde Despres, Elodie Bertrand, Claire Dijoux, Pascale Piolino, Pauline Narme","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103945","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103945","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social cognition, encompassing the mental processes involved in perceiving, interpreting, and responding to social information, remains a complex domain to model, particularly when considered in relation to self-awareness. As social cognition requires awareness of others, effective self-awareness is often assumed to be crucial for this process. Yet, the role of self-awareness in social cognition is still debated. This systematic review investigates the link between social cognition and self-awareness in adult populations. Following a PRISMA-guided literature search, 8,973 articles were identified, and 192 were selected for full-text screening. Eighty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria, which required quantifying at least one social cognitive process and one self-awareness component and exploring their relationship in healthy adults or patients with neurological or psychiatric conditions. Most studies focused on theory of mind, emotion recognition, and empathy, with insight and metacognition being the primary self-awareness dimensions explored. Theory of mind was most commonly linked to insight, while emotion recognition and empathy were associated with metacognition. Results varied depending on the cognitive processes studied, the population examined, and the methods employed. Notably, stronger correlations were observed when objective measures of self-awareness were used compared to subjective ones. Results point toward a potential bidirectional relationship. However, methodological heterogeneity, including variations in tools, constructs, and statistical analyses, may account for some conflicting findings. This systematic review emphasizes the need for integrative models, refined methodologies, and further research in underrepresented populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103945"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145364830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-10-11DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103942
Herrick Fung , Medha Shekhar , Kai Xue , Manuel Rausch , Dobromir Rahnev
Visual stimuli can vary in multiple dimensions that affect accuracy and confidence in a perceptual decision-making task. However, previous studies have typically included just one or at most two manipulations, leaving it unclear whether each manipulation has a unique effect on accuracy vs. confidence. Subjects indicated whether a tilted Gabor patch was oriented clockwise or counterclockwise from 45°. We included manipulations of the task-defining feature (tilt offset) and four auxiliary, non-task-defining features (size, duration, spatial frequency, and noise level). We found that the four auxiliary manipulations had fairly similar effects on accuracy and confidence. In contrast, the task-defining tilt offset manipulation stood out by affecting accuracy more strongly than confidence. In addition, tilt offset exhibited a supraadditive interaction with all other manipulations for both accuracy and confidence, whereas all auxiliary manipulations exhibited either no interactions or subadditive interactions with each other. Furthermore, tilt offset was the only manipulation for which confidence in incorrect trials decreased with increasing difficulty, while all auxiliary manipulations exhibited the opposite trend. Overall, our results reveal a noticeable similarity among the effects of all four auxiliary (non-task-defining) manipulations on accuracy and confidence, as well as a prominent difference between them and the task-defining manipulation (tilt offset). These results enable a priori predictions of how novel manipulations would affect accuracy and confidence.
{"title":"Similarities and differences in the effects of different stimulus manipulations on accuracy and confidence","authors":"Herrick Fung , Medha Shekhar , Kai Xue , Manuel Rausch , Dobromir Rahnev","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103942","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103942","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Visual stimuli can vary in multiple dimensions that affect accuracy and confidence in a perceptual decision-making task. However, previous studies have typically included just one or at most two manipulations, leaving it unclear whether each manipulation has a unique effect on accuracy vs. confidence. Subjects indicated whether a tilted Gabor patch was oriented clockwise or counterclockwise from 45°. We included manipulations of the task-defining feature (tilt offset) and four auxiliary, non-task-defining features (size, duration, spatial frequency, and noise level). We found that the four auxiliary manipulations had fairly similar effects on accuracy and confidence. In contrast, the task-defining tilt offset manipulation stood out by affecting accuracy more strongly than confidence. In addition, tilt offset exhibited a supraadditive interaction with all other manipulations for both accuracy and confidence, whereas all auxiliary manipulations exhibited either no interactions or subadditive interactions with each other. Furthermore, tilt offset was the only manipulation for which confidence in incorrect trials decreased with increasing difficulty, while all auxiliary manipulations exhibited the opposite trend. Overall, our results reveal a noticeable similarity among the effects of all four auxiliary (non-task-defining) manipulations on accuracy and confidence, as well as a prominent difference between them and the task-defining manipulation (tilt offset). These results enable a priori predictions of how novel manipulations would affect accuracy and confidence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103942"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145271327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hypnotic suggestions can modulate unintentional emotional processing. However, the specific contributions of hypnotic induction and suggestion — two central components of the hypnotic procedure — remain unclear. The present study aims to disentangle the effects of hypnotic induction and emotional numbing suggestion on the modulation of attentional bias in two experiments. In Experiment 1, high suggestible individuals (N = 34) performed an online emotional Stroop task in a two-by-two within-subject experimental design in which we crossed hypnotic induction and suggestion. Results show that both the emotional numbing suggestion — whether delivered within or outside the hypnotic context — and the relaxation-based hypnotic induction led to equivalent modulation of attentional bias. Experiment 2 tested the potential confounding effects of demand characteristics and of session repetition on the modulation of attentional bias in low suggestible individuals (N = 38). Results from this second experiment show no significant modulation of attentional bias across the four experimental sessions in this group. Our findings suggest that relaxation-based hypnotic induction and emotional numbing suggestion contribute to the modulation of attentional bias in high suggestible individuals. The results are discussed in line with socio-cognitive perspectives of the hypnotic induction, acting as a relaxation suggestion supporting emotional numbing effects.
{"title":"Modulation of attentional bias by hypnosis: Disentangling the effect of induction and suggestion","authors":"Jeremy Brunel , Stéphanie Mathey , Mathieu Landry , Sandrine Delord","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103948","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103948","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hypnotic suggestions can modulate unintentional emotional processing. However, the specific contributions of hypnotic induction and suggestion — two central components of the hypnotic procedure — remain unclear. The present study aims to disentangle the effects of hypnotic induction and emotional numbing suggestion on the modulation of attentional bias in two experiments. In Experiment 1, high suggestible individuals (N = 34) performed an online emotional Stroop task in a two-by-two within-subject experimental design in which we crossed hypnotic induction and suggestion. Results show that both the emotional numbing suggestion — whether delivered within or outside the hypnotic context — and the relaxation-based hypnotic induction led to equivalent modulation of attentional bias. Experiment 2 tested the potential confounding effects of demand characteristics and of session repetition on the modulation of attentional bias in low suggestible individuals (N = 38). Results from this second experiment show no significant modulation of attentional bias across the four experimental sessions in this group. Our findings suggest that relaxation-based hypnotic induction and emotional numbing suggestion contribute to the modulation of attentional bias in high suggestible individuals. The results are discussed in line with socio-cognitive perspectives of the hypnotic induction, acting as a relaxation suggestion supporting emotional numbing effects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103948"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145395017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-10-17DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103939
Nicola Vasta , Francesco N. Biondi
Navigating crowded urban environments can significantly deplete attentional resources over time, making individuals less attentive and more prone to distractions. While previous research suggests that natural settings can help replenish attentional resources depleted by urban life, little is known about whether similar benefits may arise from tranquil artistic settings, like museums and art exhibitions. Here, we drew on the Attention Restoration Theory to test the restorative effects of a museum visit compared to a walk in an urban environment, using a within-subject pre-post design and a combination of self-reported, behavioral, and physiological measures. Participants completed two computer tasks assessing working memory and attentional control and filled out questionnaires assessing perceived restoration, emotions and stress before and after either a museum visit or an urban walk. Physiological activity was monitored by measuring blink rate and pupil size via an eye-tracker. Results showed greater improvement in attentional control abilities following the museum visit. Additionally, self-reported measures indicated that the museum visit was perceived as being more restorative than the urban walk. Similar improvements were observed for working memory, stress and emotions after both a museum visit and an urban walk. These findings suggest that immersion in artistic environments, like museums, can enhance key attention abilities more effectively than an urban walk, enabling individuals to replenish attention resources and become less distractible afterwards. Our results are encouraging in promoting the beneficial effects of museum visits on attention restoration.
{"title":"Art Immersion: Evidence for attention restoration in museums","authors":"Nicola Vasta , Francesco N. Biondi","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103939","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103939","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Navigating crowded urban environments can significantly deplete attentional resources over time, making individuals less attentive and more prone to distractions. While previous research suggests that natural settings can help replenish attentional resources depleted by urban life, little is known about whether similar benefits may arise from tranquil artistic settings, like museums and art exhibitions. Here, we drew on the Attention Restoration Theory to test the restorative effects of a museum visit compared to a walk in an urban environment, using a within-subject pre-post design and a combination of self-reported, behavioral, and physiological measures. Participants completed two computer tasks assessing working memory and attentional control and filled out questionnaires assessing perceived restoration, emotions and stress before and after either a museum visit or an urban walk. Physiological activity was monitored by measuring blink rate and pupil size via an eye-tracker. Results showed greater improvement in attentional control abilities following the museum visit. Additionally, self-reported measures indicated that the museum visit was perceived as being more restorative than the urban walk. Similar improvements were observed for working memory, stress and emotions after both a museum visit and an urban walk. These findings suggest that immersion in artistic environments, like museums, can enhance key attention abilities more effectively than an urban walk, enabling individuals to replenish attention resources and become less distractible afterwards. Our results are encouraging in promoting the beneficial effects of museum visits on attention restoration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103939"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145318733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-10-29DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103947
Moo-Rung Loo, Shih-kuen Cheng
Dream lucidity, the ability to recognize and reflect on one’s dream state, has been linked to heightened memory monitoring. Although individuals with high trait lucidity often rate imagined and perceived events as similarly vivid, they nonetheless perform better in distinguishing memory sources. This study examined whether this advantage reflects greater subjective specificity, the retrieval of more distinct representational details, supported by recollection. Forty-one participants completed a source memory task involving object names that were either imagined or paired with images. During a later recognition test with EEG recording, participants judged each item’s prior occurrence and its source. Trait lucidity was assessed via a multi-day self-report inventory and lucid dream frequency. Participants with higher trait lucidity tended to show greater source memory accuracy, especially for externally perceived items. Event-related potential (ERP) and time–frequency analyses indicated stronger left parietal old/new effects for imagined items, and greater frontal gamma-band power for perceived items. Both effects were positively correlated with trait lucidity (p < 0.05) and source accuracy (p < 0.05). Theta-band activity also predicted source accuracy for both item types. These findings may suggest that high-lucidity individuals engage recollection and familiarity processes to enhance subjective specificity, leading to more precise discrimination between imagined and perceived experiences.
{"title":"The roles of recollection and familiarity in the positive association between dream lucidity and reality monitoring: Evidence from ERPs and EEG","authors":"Moo-Rung Loo, Shih-kuen Cheng","doi":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103947","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.concog.2025.103947","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dream lucidity, the ability to recognize and reflect on one’s dream state, has been linked to heightened memory monitoring. Although individuals with high trait lucidity often rate imagined and perceived events as similarly vivid, they nonetheless perform better in distinguishing memory sources. This study examined whether this advantage reflects greater subjective specificity, the retrieval of more distinct representational details, supported by recollection. Forty-one participants completed a source memory task involving object names that were either imagined or paired with images. During a later recognition test with EEG recording, participants judged each item’s prior occurrence and its source. Trait lucidity was assessed via a multi-day self-report inventory and lucid dream frequency. Participants with higher trait lucidity tended to show greater source memory accuracy, especially for externally perceived items. Event-related potential (ERP) and time–frequency analyses indicated stronger left parietal old/new effects for imagined items, and greater frontal gamma-band power for perceived items. Both effects were positively correlated with trait lucidity (p < 0.05) and source accuracy (p < 0.05). Theta-band activity also predicted source accuracy for both item types. These findings may suggest that high-lucidity individuals engage recollection and familiarity processes to enhance subjective specificity, leading to more precise discrimination between imagined and perceived experiences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51358,"journal":{"name":"Consciousness and Cognition","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103947"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145410440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号