Acta Psychologica最新文献

Background: Motor imagery (MI) can be an effective strategy for learning and enhancing movement or as an alternative training modality when physical practice is compromised. Individual differences in MI ability are widely documented but the role of experience in different activities in influencing MI is not well understood. The present study examined how experience in activities associated with the use of MI influences implicit and explicit MI.

Methods: Participants completed a hand laterality judgement task (N = 84) and a MI questionnaire (MIQ-3; N = 59) online. These implicit and explicit measures of MI were analysed in relation to frequent experience in individual sports/exercise, team sports, dance, and playing a musical instrument.

Results: The majority of participants reported using both visual and kinesthetic MI within their activities. Across activities, frequent experience was associated with more accurate hand laterality judgement, as well as increased biomechanical constraint effects, particularly for hands viewed from the palm. In relation to the different activity types, significant effects were found for individual and team sports and music, but not dance. Participants' level of training was associated with ratings of explicit MI (MIQ-3).

Conclusion: Experience in activities that utilise MI influences implicit MI, while formal training may have a stronger influence on explicit MI. Activity-specific effects on MI may reflect differences in kinesthetic and visual experience of the different hand surfaces.

Using Latent Profile Analysis, this study explored the connections between different marginalization profiles and perceptions of decent work among rural primary school teachers in China. Analyzing data from 443 teachers across seven rural primary schools in Fujian Province, we discerned three unique marginalization profiles: Robust Adapters (n = 182, 41 %), Challenge Facers (n = 210, 47 %), and Conditioned Survivors (n = 51, 12 %). These profiles were examined for their links to decent work dimensions. Findings indicated that the Robust Adapters significantly outperformed both the Challenge Facers and Conditioned Survivors across all five dimensions of decent work. In contrast, there were no significant differences between the performances of the Challenge Facers and Conditioned Survivors in these dimensions, which indicated that more marginalization was not inevitably linked to less decent work. The study concluded by discussing the implications of these findings and the directions of future research.

Background: Although schoolteachers in Oman are legally mandated to report all child abuse cases, they often show reluctance to do so. This hesitancy can deprive abuse victims of necessary help, potentially leaving them to endure long-term consequences. Oman's efforts to combat child abuse and neglect align with international best practices. However, these measures might be ineffective without considering their applicability to a collective society like Oman.

Aim: This study examined the predictors of schoolteachers' intention to report child abuse and neglect in Oman, considering their demographic and professional characteristics, attitudes toward reporting, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted across 280 cycle one-basic education public schools in Oman. The Intention to Report Child Abuse Tool (IRCAT) was used to measure intention to report, perceived behavioral control, attitudes toward reporting, and subjective norms. A total of 653 schoolteachers were recruited using a convenience sampling technique.

Results: The mean total score for the intention to report subscale was 24.24 out of 36 (SD = 7.44), indicating an acceptable level. A stepwise regression analysis yielded one significant model (F (1, 651) = 112.23, p = 0.001), which included perceived behavioral control, with an adjusted R² of 0.146.

Conclusion: This study's findings highlight influential variables that can guide future interventions. These results provide stakeholders with directions for designing culturally sensitive interventions to enhance the reporting of suspected child abuse cases in Oman.

This study investigates how teacher support, classroom enjoyment, and motivation influence online learning engagement (OLE) among university students studying Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL). It also examines the mediating roles of classroom enjoyment and motivation between teacher support and OLE. A structured survey was administered to students from Hefei University of Technology, Shanghai International Studies University, and Southwest University of Science and Technology, measuring teacher support, motivation, classroom enjoyment, and OLE in online Russian classes. Using PLS-SEM analysis, the model explained 83.7 % of the variance in OLE. Results showed that while teacher support did not have a direct effect on OLE, it indirectly boosted engagement through classroom enjoyment and motivation. All hypotheses were supported, underscoring the importance of these mediators in enhancing OLE. The study concludes with theoretical and practical recommendations to improve online engagement for university RFL students.

This study examines the impact of construal levels on preferences for risky choices in decision-making scenarios, focusing on how situational framing moderates these effects. We explored the role of construal level as a key moderator of the influence of risky-choice framing. Our findings show significant differences in preferences for risky options between gain- and loss-framing, especially in high-level construal contexts. This finding suggests that abstract thinking enhances framing effects, highlighting important implications for understanding decision-making processes and developing interventions to reduce bias. Conversely, this preference difference diminishes significantly under low-level construal, where focus on specific details, such as probability, is emphasized. The research reveals that framing influences attention allocation toward outcomes and processes in high-level construal but has a lesser effect in low-level construal. These results indicate that construal levels are crucial for shaping perception and framing effects. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications and recommendations for future research.

Technological advances render the distinction between artificial (e.g., computer-generated faces) and real stimuli increasingly difficult, yet the factors driving our beliefs regarding the nature of ambiguous stimuli remain largely unknown. In this study, 150 participants rated 109 pictures of faces on 4 characteristics (attractiveness, beauty, trustworthiness, familiarity). The stimuli were then presented again with the new information that some of them were AI-generated, and participants had to rate each image according to whether they believed them to be real or fake. Despite all images being pictures of real faces from the same database, most participants did indeed rate a large portion of them as 'fake' (often with high confidence), with strong intra- and inter-individual variability. Our results suggest a gender-dependent role of attractiveness on reality judgements, with faces rated as more attractive being classified as more real. We also report links between reality beliefs tendencies and dispositional traits such as narcissism and paranoid ideation.

Terror Management Theory (TMT) holds that mortal threats bolster people's desire to support their worldviews, which may contribute to increased outgroup bias. In 2020, two events likely increased mortality salience and death anxiety: COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that followed George Floyd's murder. We used Project Implicit data to investigate their impact on implicit anti-Black bias, controlling for demographic variables. Study 1 (N = 82,639) found a decrease in anti-Black bias from April 1-May 20, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, indicating that increased mortality salience amid the pandemic failed to increase anti-Black bias. Study 2 (N = 96,957) examined anti-Black bias and death anxiety across two seven-week periods prior to (April 1-May 20, 2020) and during the BLM protests (May 27-July 15, 2020). Death anxiety increased during the protests, while anti-Black bias decreased. Conservatives showed no link between death anxiety and anti-Black bias, yet showed a decrease in bias once the protests began. Liberals showed the TMT-predicted relation between death anxiety and increased bias, however this relation weakened during the protests. Notably, these attitude changes in the context of a mass social movement differ from predominant conservative shift and worldview defense patterns in prior work on attitude change amid social crisis. Collectively, our results failed to link mortality salience with outgroup bias but suggest a role for other factors including social movements, intergroup empathy, and social solidarity in reducing bias.

This empirical study investigates the relationship between mindfulness and online engagement among Bangladeshi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners during the Covid-19 pandemic. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative data from the Langer Mindfulness Scale (LMS) and the Online Student Engagement Scale (OSES) with qualitative data from open-ended responses. A total of 215 university students participated in the study, providing insights into their mindfulness levels and engagement in online learning. Quantitative analyses, including descriptive and regression analyses, revealed no significant correlation between mindfulness and online engagement. Reliability analysis indicated that while the OSES demonstrated acceptable internal consistency for this population, the LMS showed poor reliability across subscales, raising concerns about its validity for Bangladeshi EFL students. Qualitative data were analysed using descriptive phenomenology, which highlighted a shift in students' locus of control during online learning, often manifesting as feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Participants reported that mindfulness practices did not adequately mitigate pandemic-related stress or support their engagement. The findings suggest that mindfulness alone may not be effective in enhancing student engagement in online EFL contexts within non-Western settings. The study calls for policymakers to prioritise the development of resilient online learning infrastructures, improve internet accessibility, and incorporate culturally sensitive approaches to student well-being in digital education environments.

This randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the effects of educational and psychological interventions on the health outcomes of patients suffering from chronic diseases. We recruited 372 patients and randomly assigned them to one of two intervention arms during the trial, which lasted for a year. Both groups participated in a 12-month intervention program, where the intervention group received health education and supportive psychological therapy utilizing virtual reality (VR) technology, while the control group received conventional health education guidance. Statistical analysis showed that compared to the control group, the intervention group demonstrated significant improvements (p < 0.05) in depression assessment scores, compliance scores, and Barthel functional scoring. However, the two groups had no significant difference in the incidence of complications and health knowledge mastery. Additionally, the intervention group had fewer hospitalization days than the control group, with statistically significant differences. The research results prove that targeted intervention effectively improves medication adherence, patient awareness, and reduces patient hospitalization days, which is particularly important for managing chronic diseases.

The Decision component of the Activation-Decision-Construction-Action theory (ADCAT) proposes that if people perceive the benefits of lying higher than the truth, they are more likely to lie. To expand on the existing ADCAT research, the current study investigated the cost-benefit appraisals of 115 children ages 7-to-14 when concealing information about school bullying. Further, the current study examined the impact of the type of bullying (verbal vs. physical), type of exposure to bullying (victim vs. bystander-witness), and familiarity of the person to whom they could disclose (familiar adult vs. unfamiliar adult) when evaluating ADCAT. The results indicate that the expected value of lie-telling and motivation to lie were only significantly related to decisions to lie when the child is the victim of physical bullying and being questioned by a familiar person. Whereas the expected value of truth-telling was only significantly related to decisions to lie when the child is the victim of verbal bullying and being questioned by an unfamiliar person. Discriminant function analysis models were also statistically significant for these two vignettes, meaning that ADCAT-dependent measures could be used to accurately classify the truth and lie tellers for these two vignettes. Furthermore, developmental factors such as age, gender and Theory-of-Mind skills of the ADCAT-dependent measures within each scenario were examined. This study provides further understanding of the complexities in cases of school bullying, particularly as it relates to social-cognitive factors that encourage or discourage children and adolescents from disclosing these events.