Frontiers in Psychology

The study of mindfulness proceeds from a number of perspectives. Two of the best-known academic conceptualizations of mindfulness are those identified with Kabat-Zinn and Langer. These conceptions, meditative and socio-cognitive, have been built from different foundations and have been argued to be quite distinct. However, Hart, Ivtzan and Hart 1 suggested that self-regulation of attention is a mediator between the two. To put this hypothesis to a test, a convenience sample of participants (n = 208) were asked to complete the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Langer Mindfulness Scale (LMS), and the Self-Regulation Scale (SRS), a measure of the self-regulation of attention. These three dispositional measures were shown to be correlated. Self-regulation passes a statistical test for partial mediation of the relationship between the two measures of mindfulness. This suggests that reliance on the capacity to regulate attention in pursuit of a goal is shared by these two approaches to mindfulness. However, there is no clear conceptual basis for mediation in either particular direction. Further, the correlation between the LMS and FFMQ is highest for those with the highest SRS scores; we discuss the implications for conceptual distinctions within mindfulness.

BackgroundAesthetic education is pivotal in shaping a comprehensive and harmonious humanity. However, the transition from semantic comprehension to aesthetic appreciation remains poorly understood. This study, informed by transactional theory, sought to elucidate the cognitive mechanisms of aesthetic reading by examining its neural dynamics through functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. MethodsParticipants were tasked with reading Tang poetry aesthetically, with fNIRS monitoring brain activity in frontal and temporal regions. ResultsCompared to an efferent reading task, the aesthetic reading task revealed a distinct three-stage neural dynamic pattern. Initially, aesthetic reading showed similar HbO activation in all regions, likely indicating the semantic processing phase. This was followed by a divergence, with a decrease in HbO over the left primary somatosensory cortex and the left superior, inferior, and middle temporal gyri, suggesting inhibition of semantic processing. Finally, a resurgence of activity in these areas was observed, along with an increase in HbO over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which could be associated with memory, imagination, and empathy. This reactivation correlated with participants self-reported aesthetic appreciation scores. ContributionThe findings reveal the temporal and spatial dynamics of brain activity during aesthetic reading, enhancing our comprehension of underlying cognitive processes.

To test the idea that poetic meter emerged as a cognitive schema to aid verbal memory, we have focused on classical Italian poetry and on its three basic components of meter: rhyme, accent and verse length. Meaningless poems were generated by introducing prosody-invariant non-words into passages from Dantes Divina Commedia and Ariostos Orlando Furioso, which were then further manipulated by selectively ablating rhymes, modifying accent patterns or altering the number of syllables. The resulting four versions of each non-poem were presented in a fully balanced design to cohorts of high school educated Italian native speakers, who were then asked to retrieve 3 target non-words. Surprisingly, we found that the integrity of Dantes meter has no significant effect on memory performance. With passages derived from Ariosto, instead, removing each component downgrades memory by an amount proportional to its contribution to perceived metric plausibility, with rhymes having the strongest effects, followed by accents and then by verse length. Counterintuitively, the fully metric versions required longer reaction times, implying that activating metric schemata involves a cognitive cost. Within schema theories, this finding provides evidence for high-level interactions between procedural and episodic memory.

Singing is an innate human behaviour present across cultures and the lifespan. Despite lacking direct biological advantages, its ubiquity suggests that it is intrinsically rewarding. This research aimed to investigate the underlying factors that explain variability in sensitivity to deriving reward and enjoyment from natural singing in the general population. In Study 1 (n = 606), an initial pool of items describing daily, non-professional singing behaviours were administered to an international adult sample. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a unidimensional structure of 20 items with acceptable model fit, organized into five facets representing distinct domains of singing-related rewards: 1) pleasure and emotional evocation, 2) social singing reward, 3) singing frequency, 4) mood regulation through singing, and 5) inattentional singing during routine tasks. In Study 2 (n = 430), confirmatory factor analysis in a new sample supported this structure. When both samples were combined (n = 1036), the unidimensional model defined by these five facets showed acceptable to excellent goodness-of-fit indices, supporting the conceptualization of singing reward as a multidimensional construct with differentiated facets. This led to the Barcelona-Aarhus Natural Singing Engagement Questionnaire (BANSEQ), which demonstrated excellent reliability ( = .94) and population-level stability. Study 3 (n = 1036) tested the convergent validity of BANSEQ with measures of music reward and engagement and identified sociodemographic and psychological correlates across the five facets of singing reward. Overall, these findings characterize the sources of individual differences in the hedonic experience of natural singing and propose BANSEQ as a robust psychometric tool for its assessment in the general population.

Background and AimsAvoidance of symptom-related situations is common in chronic gastrointestinal (GI) conditions, contributing to greater symptom severity, psychological distress, and reduced quality of life. However, no validated measure exists to comprehensively assess GI-specific avoidance. We developed and validated the GI-specific Avoidance Scale (GIAS), a self-report instrument measuring behavioral and cognitive avoidance specific to GI symptoms. MethodsFollowing literature review and multidisciplinary input, an initial pool of 58 items was generated and refined through expert and patient ratings, yielding 37 items. A sample of 102 adults (mean age 40.8 years) with medically diagnosed GI conditions completed the GIAS and validated measures of avoidance, psychological flexibility, illness shame, GI symptoms, distress, and quality of life. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine factor structure. Internal consistency, convergent validity, incremental validity, and mediation analyses were conducted. ResultsFactor analysis supported a 20-item, three-factor solution: General Avoidance, Food Avoidance, and Intimacy/Body Exposure Avoidance. Internal consistency was excellent for the total scale ( = .94) and good-to-excellent for subscales ( = .82-.94). GIAS scores correlated positively with illness shame, GI symptoms, and distress, and negatively with psychological flexibility, self-compassion, and quality of life. GIAS showed incremental validity over a general illness avoidance measure (IBAS) in predicting GI symptoms and anxiety. Moreover, mediation models suggested that GI-specific avoidance partially mediates bidirectional associations between GI symptoms and psychological distress. ConclusionsThe GIAS is a novel, psychometrically robust, and multidimensional self-report questionnaire of GI-specific avoidance. It holds potential for clinical assessment, treatment planning, and evaluation of intervention mechanisms in GI populations.

This study investigates the cognitive processing of verb-particle constructions (VPCs) using eye-tracking data analysis method to explore how English native speakers process different types of the sequence NP-verb-particle-NP during reading tasks. While previous research has focused on phrasal verbs, our study extends this examination to include patterns with prepositions, aiming to identify distinct cognitive engagement patterns and processing efficiencies associated with each. We employed the Provo Corpus to analyse eye movements while participants read sentences containing these constructions. we focused on metrics such as first fixation duration, gaze duration, go-past times, and total reading times. Our findings indicate similarities in the lexical verbs, and significant differences in particles, indicating how these two types of constructions are processed, with phrasal verbs sometimes processed more efficiently than the prepositional counterparts. This suggests that phrasal verbs might be more deeply entrenched in the linguistic repertoire of native speakers, possibly functioning as single lexical units. This research contributes to the understanding of complex structures processing and the cognitive mechanisms that support it, offering insights that could influence linguistic theory and language education.

Memory of emotional information often depends on the current mood and the dominant affective state. For example, studies show that people tend to recall emotional information of valence that is congruent with their affective traits. However, not much is known about whether this tendency is captured by metacognitive judgments of learning (JOLs). The aim of this study was to find out how people who score low or high on affectivity scales assess their memory of emotional material. We used a free-recall task with self-referential neutral, positive, and negative adjectives. The results show the affectivity congruence effect: the number of negative words recalled is related to affectivity; it increases with Negative Affectivity (NA) and decreases with Positive Affectivity (PA). Metacognitive assessment of future recall is also related to affectivity. Higher PA is related to higher JOLs for positive words and lower JOLs for negative words. Higher NA is related to higher JOLs for negative words and lower JOLs for positive words. The results suggest that metacognitive processes are sensitive to affective trait-specific memory bias.

It is humankinds unique wisdom to compose a limited number of words together through specific rules to convey endless information. Researchers have found that this composition process also plays a vital role in the comprehension of compounds. The specific manifestation is relation priming; that is, the previously used relation will promote subsequent word processing using the same relation. This priming phenomenon is bound to morpheme repetition (modifier or head). This study combines a self-paced priming paradigm with electrophysiological technology to explore whether relation priming will occur without sharing morphemes and its time course. We found that relation priming can occur independently of morpheme-repetition, which shows an independent representation of relation information. And it has been activated at a very early stage (about 200ms). As the word processing progresses, this activation gradually strengthens, indicating that the relations role is slowly increasing in the process of compound word recognition. It may first be used as a kind of context information to help determine the constituent morphemes meaning. After the meaning access of the constituent morphemes, they begin to play a role in the semantic composition process. This study uses electrophysiological technology to precisely describe the representation of relation and its time course for the first time. Which gives us a deeper understanding of the relation priming process, and at the same time, shed light on the meaning construction process of compounds.

It is currently unclear which honey attributes are most important for consumers and, more importantly, from an economic perspective, for which of them consumers are willing to pay for. The aim of this study was to examine the role of sensory attributes in consumers willingness to pay for honey. The study was performed in two steps. First, we ran a behavioural experiment in which 25 participants were asked to blindly taste and evaluate 21 sensory attributes of 7 different flower honey samples. Based on the obtained data, we conducted a factor analysis and aggregated all sensory attributes into 6 factors, which were used in the second part of the study during a neuromarketing experiment. The neuromarketing experiment involved another 25 respondents who also blindly tasted honey, evaluated its 6 sensory characteristics (corresponding to the 6 above-mentioned factors), as well as their willingness to pay, the perceived quality and taste of the samples. While the respondents were evaluating honey samples, their brain activity was recorded using an electroencephalograph (EEG). Based on the obtained data, the willingness to pay was modeled using a linear regression, which has demonstrated that consumers willingness to pay for honey is significantly influenced by the taste of honey, the perceived quality indicated by various sensory characteristics, the male gender, and the brain activity in the frontal areas.

Despite extensive research on nudging techniques aimed at promoting green consumption, the influence of natural sounds on encouraging environmentally friendly behavior remains relatively understudied. It is valuable to examine how sounds matter in green marketing, as more and more firms are using background sounds in video advertisements. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response model, we propose that natural sound increase early attentional congruency associated with green products, thereby promoting customers purchase of green products. To test on our theory, we conducted an experiment using an event-related potentials (ERP) method and employed a hierarchical drift-diffusion model (HDDM). The results show that compared with unnatural sounds, natural sounds not only increased the purchase rates for green products but also enhanced decision-making efficiency (drift rate) in favor of purchasing green products. Additionally, consumers also exhibited a reduced frontal early P2 wave (150-230ms) in response to green products under natural sounds, indicating that natural sounds increased the early attentional congruency associated with green products. More importantly, the early attentional congruency provides an explanation for how natural sounds nudge the efficiency of purchasing decisions for green products. This study thus contributes to the discovery of a new psychological path that helps deepen our understanding of how natural sounds can nudge green consumption. It also provides actionable implications for green consumption market managers.

A vast body of evidence has shown that concrete nouns are processed faster and more accurately than abstract nouns in a variety of cognitive tasks. This phenomenon is widely known as the concreteness effect and explanations for its occurrence seem to reflect differences in processing and organization between both type of concepts. While there is considerable evidence to support this concrete effect, the nature of these differences is still controversial. In developing this explanation, we have proposed a relatively different approach from a false memory perspective using the DRM paradigm. Three different experiments were created to address the importance of association in creating concrete and abstract false memories. Results showed that false recognition rates differed significantly between concrete and abstract critical words when they were associated strongly with their respective lists, which led to a higher proportion of abstract false alarms both in behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. The principal outcomes were discussed in terms of theories of associative activation and qualitatively different representation.

This pre-post-test study investigated 1) pre-post changes in psychosocial domains with a single virtual salsa class; 2) effect sizes relative to an in-person class, and 3) individual factors, including personality, perceived performance, and enjoyment. An experimental group (n=33) of novice dancers 18-30 years old, participated in a single virtual salsa class. Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PAS, NAS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Inclusion in Community and Self-Scale (ICS) were administered before and after class. Participants completed the Big Five Inventory-10 (BFI-10) before, and rated their performance and enjoyment (ordinal scale 1-5) after class. Effect sizes were calculated, and pre-post changes were analyzed with Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Relationships between pre-post changes and individual factors were analyzed with Spearmans rank correlations. PAS, NAS, PSS, and ICS significantly improved and effect sizes were larger than those for an in-person salsa class except for ICS. Change in NAS was negatively correlated with neuroticism. These results suggest that a virtual salsa class may improve mood, stress, and social connection similar to in-person classes and change in mood may be influenced by personality traits such as neuroticism. Understanding the psychosocial effects of virtual dance and the influence of individual factors will facilitate implementation of dance as an accessible rehabilitation intervention to improve psychosocial well-being.

Withdrawal StatementThe authors have withdrawn their manuscript owing to reviewer feedback. A revised version of this work will be uploaded with significant changes. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as a reference for the project. If you have any questions, please contact the corresponding author.

Previous studies have demonstrated different patterns of results regarding cognitive benefits of bilingualism, ranging from bilingual advantage to no effect of bilingualism. This study examined the potential effect of bilingualism on cognitive resilience and performance. We recruited 21 Persian monolinguals and 19 Persian-English bilinguals. Color-Word Stroop task was used concurrently with verbal production tasks in order to produce three levels of task difficulty, i.e., doing the Stroop task while being silent (level 1), alphabet reciting (level 2), and counting odd numbers (level 3). We investigated the pattern of changes in Stroop task performance when faced with different difficulty levels Bilinguals showed less change in their performance in the Stroop task when faced with high cognitive load (high task difficulty level). However, monolinguals showed a significant decrease in their performance when the cognitive load increased. Our data support the "Bilingual Advantage" view. However, this advantage is highlighted in cognitively demanding tasks.

Happy and sad mood promote global and local visual processing, respectively. However, it is unclear whether mood also affects the processing level in haptic perception. Here, we used classical music to induce happy and sad mood in blindfolded participants before they scanned 3D-printed configurations with their fingers. Additionally, we included a neutral group who did not listen to any music. Global shapes were triangles, circles, or squares (33mm) composed of smaller local relief shapes (3 mm): either triangles, circles, or squares. Participants explored a probe stimulus with identical local and global shapes, and two comparison stimuli, matching the probe in local, or global shape. They reported which comparison stimulus appeared more similar to the probe. In the sad group, participants chose the locally matching comparison more frequently than in the happy and neutral groups, revealing that sad mood promotes local processing also in touch. Overall, participants chose the globally matching comparison more often, suggesting that global processing is more prominent in touch than previously assumed.

In the present study, we introduce an image database created with a simple digital line-drawing tool to represent the expected and unexpected action-place relationships. This database consists of 70 drawings. We validated the dataset with 207 participants. They evaluated the actions, places, and the probability of an action taking place in the respective location. The comprehensibility of each drawing was evaluated using three measures: H-statistics (entropy), which is a measure of the uncertainty of the definition; the definition similarity percentages which is a measure of the naming agreement that is consistent among participants; and the mean probability of the depicted action taking place in the depicted location. Each drawing includes different agents and environments, providing researchers with the opportunity to use this dataset in various fields of cognitive neuroscience, including visual recognition, memory, predictive coding, and novelty detection.

The question of whether repeated studies bring more variability or less to our brain is a critical problem before scientist continue their further study about memory. In the past ten years, a series of neural pattern representation studies have found that under the condition of spaced learning, the neural pattern similarity(NPS) between two encoding stages increases, and the researchers claimed that these results support the idea that repeated studies bring more similarity along with repetition in our brain, which is conflicted with the encoding variability theory(Feng et al., 2019; Y. Lu et al., 2015; Xue et al., 2010, 2011a). However, we doubt this viewpoint because we think the difference between encoding processing cannot be used to represent the difference between memory states. In current experiments, we used a new experimental paradigm with a longer lag and elaboration learning task to test the encoding variability theory. By comparing the difference between neural pattern dissimilarity(NPDS1)(spaced learning - one-time learning) and NPDS2(massed learning - one-time learning) in the final test (retrieval) stage, we get the result that the NPDS1 was significantly greater than NPDS2 in the parietal lobe of 400ms and the right frontal lobe of 600ms, which is more fitting to the encoding variability mechanism. However, we believe that there is no contradiction between these two experimental evidences. On the contrary, we think they reflect different aspects of the process of spaced learning. We propose that the deficient processing in encoding stage exactly lead to less encoding variability in our memory. More importantly, this result gives us reason to double the paper published ten years ago in Science, which claimed repetition brings greater neural pattern similarity.

It has been proposed that dualistic conceptions on the mind and the body can affect the practice of health professionals. Religious beliefs have already been described as affecting mind-body dualistic thinking. Another factor that may play a role is knowledge of evolutionary theory, but this relationship has not been explored. In this work, data on knowledge of evolutionary theory and supernatural and dualistic beliefs of 287 Argentinian students of psychology and medicine majors. were collected through a cross-sectional online survey. Information was analyzed to determine whether an association exists between knowledge of evolutionary theory, supernatural beliefs and dualism. We found significant statistical associations between supernatural beliefs and dualism (positive) and between both and knowledge of evolutionary theory (negative). Also, some heterogeneity was found within dualistic questions between theoretical ones and a hypothetical case. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that knowledge of evolutionary theory could challenge mind-body dualistic conceptions.

This research delves into the complex connection between traditional music in Uruguay, specifically candombe, and its cognitive advantages. Relying on real-life studies, we explore the impact of involvement with candombe music on diverse cognitive abilities such as cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, and social cognition. Our results show that playing music, especially drumming, activates certain brain pathways related to cognitive function and emotional regulation. The sense of community and distinct rhythmic patterns found in candombe not only boost individual cognitive skills but also foster social bonding, ultimately leading to better mental well-being and strength. This study highlights how cultural heritage influences cognitive functions, showing that candombe is crucial for mental well-being in addition to being a significant cultural symbol. In summary, our research supports incorporating traditional Uruguayan music in educational and therapeutic environments, offering a new framework for cognitive and emotional growth. This research focuses on how Uruguays diverse musical traditions can be used to enhance cognitive abilities and mental health, offering possibilities for application in different cultural settings globally.

BackgroundChronic gastroduodenal symptoms present significant challenges for young people, often negatively impacting their quality of life and mental health. However, there is currently a lack of validated tools to assess mental health in young people with chronic gastroduodenal symptoms. This research outlines the development and validation of the Alimetry(R) Gut-Brain Wellbeing Survey-Youth Version (AGBW-Y), a novel tool for assessing mental health in young people with chronic gastroduodenal symptoms aged 12-17 years. MethodsAn iterative multi-phase approach was employed. In Phase 1, feedback was gathered from 19 paediatric clinicians in the gastroenterology field and 33 young people over multiple rounds to adapt the adult version of the AGBW Survey to be age-appropriate for young people aged 12-17 years. In Phase 2, rigorous psychometric testing of the adapted scale was conducted in a sample of 128 patients aged 12-17 years with chronic gastroduodenal symptoms, using an anonymous online survey. ResultsBased on the feedback from Phase 1, an interdisciplinary team of experts improved the surveys language and usability for young people, including the removal of reverse-coded items. These adjustments enhanced the scales clarity, acceptability, and face and content validity. The final AGBW-Y comprises a patient preface, an opt-out option, 10 closed-ended questions, and an optional open-ended question. It assesses general mental health, alongside subscales of depression, stress, and anxiety. Phase 2 demonstrated excellent psychometric properties of the scale, including high internal consistency (= .91 for the total scale; = .75-.85 for subscales) and strong convergent, divergent, and concurrent validity with large effect sizes. ConclusionsThe AGBW-Y is a brief, reliable, and valid tool to assess mental health in young people with chronic gastroduodenal symptoms. This novel scale was developed through a rigorous co-design process with clinicians and young people, ensuring it is contextually relevant and clinically impactful. The AGBW-Y complements existing physiological assessments, enabling more accurate mental health evaluations which can be used to guide psychological referrals, support multidisciplinary care, and evaluate treatment outcomes.