Publications by authors named "Geert"

In multistable dot lattices, the orientation we perceive is attracted toward the orientation we perceived in the immediately preceding stimulus and repelled from the orientation for which most evidence was present previously (Van Geert, Moors, Haaf, & Wagemans, 2022). Theoretically-inspired models have been proposed to explain the co-occurrence of attractive and repulsive context effects in multistable dot lattice tasks, but these models artificially induced an influence of the previous trial on the current one without detailing the process underlying such an influence (Gepshtein & Kubovy, 2005; Schwiedrzik et al., 2014).

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How do we perceptually and cognitively organize incoming stimulation? A century ago, Gestalt psychologists posited the law of Prägnanz: psychological organization will always be as 'good' as possible given the prevailing conditions. To make the Prägnanz law a useful statement, it needs to be specified further (a) what a 'good' psychological organization entails, (b) how the Prägnanz tendency can be realized, and (c) which conditions need to be taken into account. Although the Gestalt school did provide answers to these questions, modern-day mentions of Prägnanz or good Gestalt often lack these clarifications.

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In the past decade, various recommendations have been published to enhance the methodological rigor and publication standards in psychological science. However, adhering to these recommendations may have limited impact on the reproducibility of causal effects as long as psychological phenomena continue to be viewed as decomposable into separate and additive statistical structures of causal relationships. In this article, we show that (a) psychological phenomena are patterns emerging from nondecomposable and nonisolable complex processes that obey idiosyncratic nonlinear dynamics, (b) these processual features jeopardize the chances of standard reproducibility of statistical results, and (c) these features call on researchers to reconsider what can and should be reproduced, that is, the psychological processes per se, and the signatures of their complexity and dynamics.

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Gestalt psychologists posited that we always organize our visual input in the best way possible under the given conditions. Both weakening or removing unnecessary details (i.e.

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Article Synopsis
  • Earlier studies found that people perceive differences within the same category as smaller than differences across categories, even if the actual differences are the same.
  • This article suggests that reference points (or examples to compare against) help explain this "category boundary effect" and how people perform in categorization and discrimination tasks.
  • The results showed that the perceived differences in stimuli depend more on their distance from these reference points rather than just on whether they belong to the same or different categories, emphasizing the importance of examining detailed data patterns instead of relying on averages.
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  • A study examines people's preferences for stimuli based on order and complexity, but past research often overlooked their combined effects and lacked proper tools for experimentation.
  • The Order & Complexity Toolbox for Aesthetics (OCTA) is introduced as a free Python tool that allows researchers to easily create varying displays for order and complexity in visual stimuli.
  • OCTA not only aids in research related to aesthetics but also has potential applications in digital art and experiments across various fields using visual stimuli.
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In order for electroencephalography (EEG) with sensory stimuli measures to be used in research and neurological clinical practice, demonstration of reliability is needed. However, this is rarely examined. Here we studied the test-retest reliability of the EEG latency and amplitude of evoked potentials and spectra as well as identifying the sources during pin-prick stimulation.

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How we perceptually organize a visual stimulus depends not only on the stimulus itself, but also on the temporal and spatial context in which the stimulus is presented and on the individual processing the stimulus and context. Earlier research found both attractive and repulsive context effects in perception: tendencies to organize visual input similarly to preceding context stimuli (i.e.

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In this article, I answer the questions from Witherington and Boom's introduction to this special issue in the form of an imaginary interview, led by David Boom, equally imaginary editor of , an obscure but interesting journal that appears in imaginary physical print only, and which, as a consequence, has so far left no traces on the Internet….

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Long-term learning trajectories evolve through microdevelopmental sequences (i.e., short-term processes of change during learning tasks) and depend on variability during and across learning tasks.

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We used a validated agent-based model-Socio-Emotional CONcern DynamicS (SECONDS)-to model real-time playful interaction between a child diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and its parent. SECONDS provides a real-time (second-by-second) virtual environment that could be used for clinical trials and testing process-oriented explanations of ASD symptomatology. We conducted numerical experiments with SECONDS (1) for internal model validation comparing two parental behavioral strategies for stimulating social development in ASD (play-centered vs.

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Under the premise that language learning is bidirectional in nature, this study aimed to investigate syntactic coordination within teacher-student interactions by using cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA). Seven teachers' and a group of their students' interactions were repeatedly measured in the course of an intervention in early science education. Results showed changes in the proportion of recurrent points; in case of simple sentences teachers and students became less coordinated over time, whereas in case of complex sentences teachers and students showed increasing coordination.

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Using an extended definition of sexuality, this mixed-methods study builds on existing research into adolescents' emergent sexual development by longitudinally examining adolescents' sexual behavior trajectories (i.e., from less to more intimate sexual behavior).

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From the literature, we know that young children engage in inquiry as an organized activity aimed either at confirming or refuting the relevance of certain ideas. The current study provides a characterization of changes in inquiry using a multiple case study of four 5-year old children. Three computer-based tasks were presented to the children as multivariable problem solving situations concerning moving objects.

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We tested the prediction, derived from the hubris hypothesis, that bragging might serve as a verbal provocation and thus enhance aggression. Experiments 1 and 2 were vignette studies where participants could express hypothetical aggression; Experiment 3 was an actual decision task where participants could make aggressive and/or prosocial choices. Observers disliked an explicit braggart (who claimed to be "better than others") or a competence braggart as compared with an implicit braggart (who claimed to be "good") or a warmth braggart, respectively.

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Based on in-depth interviews, Hardy et al. focused on the role of psychosocial factors in the development of elite and super-elite athletes. They reveal interesting differences and commonalities in the frequencies at which certain aspects related to life events, personality, contextual factors, etc.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explored how young children coordinate with each other during problem-solving tasks, using a method called Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQA).
  • It involved seven pairs of 5-year-olds over six sessions with increasingly difficult tasks, focusing on two interaction states: Distributed Dyadic Interaction (DDI) where both children contribute equally, and Unequal Dyadic Interaction (UDI) where only one child contributes.
  • Findings showed that DDI occurred more often than UDI, with both interaction types becoming more complex over time, and a moderate correlation was noted between overall coordination and the children's task performance.
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In order for out-of-school science activities that take place during school hours but outside the school context to be successful, instructors must have sufficient pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to guarantee high-quality teaching and learning. We argue that PCK is a quality of the instructor-pupil system that is constructed in real-time interaction. When PCK is evident in real-time interaction, we define it as Expressed Pedagogical Content Knowledge (EPCK).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examines the development of Theory-of-Mind (ToM) in 324 typically developing children aged 3 to 11 using a measurement tool called ToM Storybooks, highlighting how ToM understanding progresses over time.
  • Results revealed a general trend in ToM scores that plateaued around age 10, with notable fluctuations at ages 56 months (a plateau) and 72-78 months (a dip), indicating moments where children's understanding temporarily regressed.
  • Girls exhibited an earlier and more pronounced growth in ToM understanding compared to boys, prompting discussions on these findings from various theoretical perspectives, specifically focusing on a dynamic systems approach.
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Self-report personality questionnaires, traditionally offered in a graded-scale format, are widely used in high-stakes contexts such as job selection. However, job applicants may intentionally distort their answers when filling in these questionnaires, undermining the validity of the test results. Forced-choice questionnaires are allegedly more resistant to intentional distortion compared to graded-scale questionnaires, but they generate ipsative data.

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