Acta Psychologica最新文献

The growing dependence on mobile phones for communication has raised concerns regarding the neurological impact of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields, especially in audio and video calls. This research investigates the impact of WhatsApp audio and video calls on cognitive load and mental fatigue using non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) signals. EEG signals were recorded from 28 healthy participants during baseline, 3-minute, and 4-minute call sessions, with participants equally distributed between audio and video call groups. The signals were preprocessed using bandpass filtering, continuous wavelet transform, and independent component analysis to isolate theta and alpha frequency bands. Cognitive load was assessed using the theta-alpha ratio (TAR), and mental fatigue was measured using Mahalanobis distance-based analysis of theta and alpha rhythms. The findings reveal that video calls impose significantly more cognitive load (e.g., TAR mean: 0.78 (SD: 0.36) for 3-minute video call and mean: 0.76 (SD: 0.37) for 3-minute audio call, p<0.05) and mental fatigue (e.g., 42.11 microvolts for 4-minute video call and 38.84 microvolts for 4-minute audio call) than audio calls, and both effects become stronger for prolonged durations. Machine learning (ML) classification also demonstrated high separability, with receiver operating characteristic analysis exhibiting area under the curve values above 0.90 for distinguishing call conditions. These results demonstrate that video communication places higher cognitive and fatigue demands as compared to audio communication. By integrating EEG indices, self-report measures, and ML classification, this study exhibits convergent evidence for the cognitive impact of mobile phone calls and illustrates the necessity to consider communication modality when assessing workload and fatigue in real-world contexts.

This study examines how parasocial interaction with social media influencers triggers authentic cognitive and affective processing in the absence of direct experience. Drawing on attachment theory, mental-imagery research, and flow theory, we propose and empirically test a dual-pathway model of anticipatory motivation in the context of prospective nature-based experiences. Deep involvement with influencer-generated content about natural environments was hypothesised to elicit (a) vicarious flow states characterized by focused attentional absorption, temporal dissociation, and intrinsic enjoyment, and (b) favorable cognitive-affective mental representations of a target natural setting. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on data from 293 participants, results confirmed that influencer involvement exerts a significant direct effect on behavioral intention and strong indirect effects via flow experience (partial mediation) and cognitive-affective destination image (partial mediation). Notably, destination image significantly enhanced flow experience, demonstrating that mental imagery acts as an affective priming mechanism for immersive processing. These findings provide the first empirical evidence that mediated symbolic stimuli can induce genuine pre-experiential emotional attachment and immersive cognitive absorption, thereby extending attachment and flow theories to purely digital, anticipatory contexts. The results highlight the interplay of affective bonding, mental simulation, and attentional immersion as core psychological mechanisms underlying anticipatory motivation.

This study examined the interpretation of p-values and confidence intervals (CIs) among Saudi linguists and social scientists. Using both performance-based tasks and self-reports with statistical concepts, the study revealed widespread conceptual misunderstandings regarding the meaning of p-value and the proper interpretation of CIs. Among the most challenging p-value statements were those reflecting inverse probability fallacies, with 70 % of participants incorrectly interpreting p-values as proof of hypothesis truth or as probabilities of hypothesis accuracy. CIs were even more problematic, with 78 % of participants endorsing a Bayesian misinterpretation that assigned a 95 % probability to the parameter falling within a single observed interval. The findings highlight the prevalence of persistent statistical misconceptions among academics, despite formal training and research experience. These results highlight the need for statistical education that emphasizes interpretation and conceptual clarity over calculation. It also shows the existing dissociation between statistical practice and statistical understanding in these fields. Consequently, improving statistical literacy in this population is essential for enhancing research quality, peer review, and evidence-based scholarly communication.

Insufficient Effort Responding (IER) undermines survey validity but its detection remains methodologically challenging due to its multidimensional nature. Traditional univariate IER detecting methods often overlook interactions among response behaviors. We integrated seven complementary indicators-response time, maximum longstring, response entropy, mahalanobis distance, psychometric synonym-antonym and even-odd consistency-and used latent profile analysis to classify 126 online respondents. Four profiles emerged: (1) Attentive/Engaged, reflecting conscientious participation; (2) Impulsive/Erratic, characterized by random and inconsistent answers; (3) Repetitive/Monotonic, marked by mechanical repetition; and (4) Distracted/Disengaged, exhibiting extremely prolonged response times. We then compared the four groups on executive-function tasks (Numerical Stroop, Tower of London, Card Sorting Task). Exploratory analyses revealed distinct patterns: the Repetitive/Monotonic group showed lower performance on tasks requiring cognitive flexibility and attentional control, suggesting their IER might be associated with cognitive limitations. In contrast, both Distracted/Disengaged and Impulsive/Erratic groups showed adequate or even superior cognitive performance despite exhibiting IER, suggesting motivational disengagement rather than cognitive deficits. These findings suggest IER arises from dual mechanisms-cognitive constraints versus motivational factors-and underscore the importance of multidimensional approaches in IER detection. Understanding these distinct pathways may inform differentiated intervention strategies to enhance survey design and data quality.

Understanding the relationship between psychological states and financial decision-making is crucial for a comprehensive view of investor behavior. This study examines how mood, depression, and trading performance influence forecast bias in stock market predictions. Drawing on fixed-effects regression models applied to panel data collected over three waves spanning nine months, the findings reveal that mood fluctuations and depressive symptoms systematically affect investors' return expectations. Specifically, the results show that investors experiencing a negative mood exhibit less optimistic bias in their forecasts of market returns over both the short term and the long term. Depressive symptoms, however, increase positive forecast bias for the long-term period, possibly reflecting compensatory optimism or altered risk perception during depressive episodes. Additionally, investors with stronger trading performance tend to express more optimistic forecasts, indicating a self-reinforcing bias linked to prior success. These results underscore the impact of emotional and cognitive factors, such as framing effects, overconfidence, and self-serving biases, on financial decision-making.

The present study examined the relationship between physiological regulation (indexed by resting RSA and RSA reactivity) and children's prosocial behaviors as well as the potential moderating role of parental responses to children's negative emotions. A total of 108 children (ages 7-13 years; M = 10.00, SD = 1.37; 61 males) completed the Trier Social Stress Task-Child version (TSST-C), during which Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) was measured, along with self-report measures of prosocial tendencies and perceptions of parental emotion responses. The results revealed no significant linear or quadratic associations between resting RSA or RSA reactivity and prosocial behavior. However, nonparental responses significantly moderated the linear relationship between RSA reactivity during the math component of the TSST-C and prosocial behavior. Specifically, children who exhibited RSA withdrawal to the math task showed higher levels of prosocial behavior than those with blunted RSA or RSA augmentation, when they perceived low levels of nonparental support (e.g., dismissiveness or punitive reactions). However, under supportive conditions characterized by expressive encouragement, problem-focused, or emotion-focused responses, a similar pattern did not emerge. Furthermore, no moderating effects were found for the quadratic relationship between RSA reactivity and prosocial behavior. These findings tentatively suggest a combined influence of children's physiological stress responses and family emotion socialization on prosocial development, potentially reflecting context-dependent processes.

Impulsive buying is a prevalent consumer behavior associated with hedonic consumption needs, particularly in live-streaming e-commerce environments. This study applied the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework to develop a model examining how five key characteristics of live-streaming content, including opinion leadership, professionalism, entertainment, interactivity, and promotional intensity, can serve as external stimuli influencing impulse buying behavior. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping, the analysis of data from 263 respondents revealed that all five content characteristics were positively correlated with consumers' impulse buying intentions. Furthermore, pleasure and arousal partially mediate the relationship between content characteristics and impulse buying, confirming the effectiveness of emotional transmission. This study extended the traditional two-dimensional shopping model by integrating emotional factors in the live-streaming context. Practical implications suggested strategies for streamers to enhance professionalism, increase interactive entertainment, and utilize time-limited promotions to trigger emotional responses that could promote impulsive purchases.

This study investigates how professional interpreters externalise coherence-building processes during consecutive interpreting (CI) through the spatial organisation of their notes. Twelve English-Chinese professional interpreters performed a long CI task, and their handwritten notes were analysed using Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) to examine whether note layout corresponds to the rhetorical structure of the source text. The analysis focused on how interpreters grouped information into note blocks and how these blocks were spatially arranged to signal relations between discourse units. Interpreters most frequently mapped individual elementary discourse units (EDUs) to single blocks, but they also merged EDUs in ways that aligned with higher-level rhetorical spans, while selectively omitting satellites more often than nuclei. Layout cues such as shifts and indentation were used systematically, with indentation occurring disproportionately with subordinate relations, and parallel alignment appearing mainly with coordinate relations. Supplementary linguistic and symbolic markers (e.g., arrows, added connectives) were employed when coherence relations were non-local, implicit, or not readily captured through layout alone. Despite differences in training backgrounds, interpreters showed notable convergence in these coherence-related layout strategies. Overall, the findings indicate that note layout provides a visible trace of discourse-level processing during CI and suggest concrete layout practices that could be incorporated into training to support effective coherence building.

Death anxiety is a common psychological concern among individuals with serious health conditions, including cardiovascular diseases. Reliable assessment of this construct requires culturally adapted and validated instruments. This cross-sectional psychometric study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Death Anxiety Scale among cardiac outpatients. A total of 272 participants completed the Persian version of the scale. Psychometric evaluation included face and content validity, item analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and assessments of convergent and discriminant validity. The items demonstrated adequate variability and approximately normal distribution, with item-total correlations mostly above 0.50. A minimal floor effect (3 %) and no ceiling effect were observed. CFA supported a three-factor structure, Ambiguity, Exposure, and Agony, with acceptable to good fit indices (CFI = 0.922, RMSEA = 0.063). Factor loadings ranged from 0.446 to 0.868, and composite reliability values exceeded 0.70 for all factors. Both convergent and discriminant validity were confirmed. Internal consistency was satisfactory, with Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.752 to 0.888 and McDonald's omega from 0.766 to 0.890. Overall, the Persian version of the Death Anxiety Scale demonstrated sound validity and reliability, supporting its use for the assessment of death anxiety and the development of psychological interventions in cardiac populations.