Individual differences in information demand have a low dimensional structure predicted by some curiosity traits.

To understand human learning and progress, it is crucial to understand curiosity. But how consistent is curiosity's conception and assessment across scientific research disciplines? We present the results of a large collaborative project assessing the correspondence between curiosity measures in personality psychology and cognitive science. A total of 820 participants completed 15 personality trait measures and 9 cognitive tasks that tested multiple aspects of information demand.

Manipulating the reliability of target-color information modulates value-driven attentional capture.

Previously rewarded stimuli slow response times (RTs) during visual search, despite being physically non-salient and no longer task-relevant or rewarding. Such value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) has been measured in a training-test paradigm. In the training phase, the search target is rendered in one of two colors (one predicting high reward and the other low reward).

Cumulative lifetime stressor exposure assessed by the STRAIN predicts economic ambiguity aversion.

Uncertainty is inherent in most decisions humans make. Economists distinguish between two types of decision-making under non-certain conditions: those involving risk (i.e.

Perceptual Fading of a Stabilized Cortical Image: Replication in the Undergraduate Classroom.

Prolonged exposure to a stimulus causes desensitization of cortical neurons and results in perceptual changes. One example of this phenomenon is contrast adaptation, in which perceived differences between light and dark regions of a stimulus decrease. Blakemore, Muncey, and Ridley reported evidence for the "perceptual fading of a stabilized cortical image" in a 1971 paper.

Higher cost of finance exacerbates a climate investment trap in developing economies.

Finance is vital for the green energy transition, but access to low cost finance is uneven as the cost of capital differs substantially between regions. This study shows how modelled decarbonisation pathways for developing economies are disproportionately impacted by different weighted average cost of capital (WACC) assumptions. For example, representing regionally-specific WACC values indicates 35% lower green electricity production in Africa for a cost-optimal 2 °C pathway than when regional considerations are ignored.

Sudden onsets reflexively drive spatial attention, but those that predict reward do more.

The sudden appearance of an unexpected object elicits the automatic allocation of spatial attention. Even without eye movements, effortless, but transient, improvements in perception occur at the onset location. Much is known about the consequences of such exogenously elicited shifts of covert attention, but most research has used stimuli that carry very little, if any, additional information.

Investigating the role of exogenous cueing on selection history formation.

An abundance of recent empirical data suggest that repeatedly allocating visual attention to task-relevant and/or reward-predicting features in the visual world engenders an attentional bias for these frequently attended stimuli, even when they become task irrelevant and no longer predict reward. In short, attentional selection in the past hinders voluntary control of attention in the present. But do such enduring attentional biases rely on a history of voluntary, goal-directed attentional selection, or can they be generated through involuntary, effortless attentional allocation? An abrupt visual onset triggers such a reflexive allocation of covert spatial attention to its location in the visual field, automatically modulating numerous aspects of visual perception.

Assessing the role of accuracy-based feedback in value-driven attentional capture.

Despite being physically nonsalient and task-irrelevant, objects rendered in a color that once signaled monetary reward reflexively capture attention during visual search, a phenomenon known as value-driven attentional capture (VDAC). However, it remains a subject of empirical controversy whether learned reward associations are necessary to driving subsequent attentional capture: VDAC-like effects have been observed when accuracy-based feedback alone was used during the VDAC training phase, resulting in attentional capture by objects that were never associated with monetary reward; perplexingly, the presence of these VDAC-like effects in the literature conflicts with those of a number of control studies in which no such capture has been observed, leaving the issue currently unresolved. In this Registered Report, we present new empirical evidence of attentional capture by unrewarded former targets following limited accuracy-based training.

A method of extracting speed-dependent vector correlations from 2 + 1 REMPI ion images.

We present analytical expressions for extracting Dixon's bipolar moments in the semi-classical limit from experimental anisotropy parameters of sliced or reconstructed non-sliced images. The current method focuses on images generated by 2 + 1 REMPI (Resonance Enhanced Multi-photon Ionization) and is a necessary extension of our previously published 1 + 1 REMPI equations. Two approaches for applying the new equations, direct inversion and forward convolution, are presented.

Unravelling the mechanisms of vibrational relaxation in solution.

We present a systematic study of the mode-specific vibrational relaxation of NO in six weakly-interacting solvents (perfluorohexane, perfluoromethylcyclohexane, perfluorodecalin, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, and d-chloroform), chosen to elucidate the dominant energy transfer mechanisms in the solution phase. Broadband transient vibrational absorption spectroscopy has allowed us to extract quantum state-resolved relaxation dynamics of the two distinct NO fragments produced from the 340 nm photolysis of NO → NO(X) + NO(A) and their separate paths to thermal equilibrium. Distinct relaxation pathways are observed for the NO bending and stretching modes, even at energies as high as 7000 cm above the potential minimum.

Neuroanatomy accounts for age-related changes in risk preferences.

Many decisions involve uncertainty, or 'risk', regarding potential outcomes, and substantial empirical evidence has demonstrated that human aging is associated with diminished tolerance for risky rewards. Grey matter volume in a region of right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC) is predictive of preferences for risky rewards in young adults, with less grey matter volume indicating decreased tolerance for risk. That grey matter loss in parietal regions is a part of healthy aging suggests that diminished rPPC grey matter volume may have a role in modulating risk preferences in older adults.

Translational, rotational and vibrational relaxation dynamics of a solute molecule in a non-interacting solvent.

Spectroscopically observing the translational and rotational motion of solute molecules in liquid solutions is typically impeded by their interactions with the solvent, which conceal spectral detail through linewidth broadening. Here we show that unique insights into solute dynamics can be made with perfluorinated solvents, which interact weakly with solutes and provide a simplified liquid environment that helps to bridge the gap in our understanding of gas- and liquid-phase dynamics. Specifically, we show that in such solvents, the translational and rotational cooling of an energetic CN radical can be observed directly using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy.

Recombination, Solvation and Reaction of CN Radicals Following Ultraviolet Photolysis of ICN in Organic Solvents.

The fates of CN radicals produced by ultraviolet (UV) photolysis of ICN in various organic solvents have been examined by transient electronic and vibrational absorption spectroscopy (TEAS and TVAS). Near-UV and visible bands in the TEAS measurement enable direct observation of the CN radicals and their complexes with the solvent molecules. Complementary TVAS measurements probe the products of CN-radical reactions.

Reaction Dynamics of CN Radicals in Acetonitrile Solutions.

The bimolecular reactions that follow 267 nm ultraviolet photolysis of ICN in acetonitrile solution have been studied using transient absorption spectroscopy on the picosecond time scale. Time-resolved electronic absorption spectroscopy (TEAS) in the ultraviolet and visible spectral regions observes rapid production and loss (with a decay time constant of 0.6 ± 0.

Ultraviolet Absorption Induces Hydrogen-Atom Transfer in G⋅C Watson-Crick DNA Base Pairs in Solution.

Ultrafast deactivation pathways bestow photostability on nucleobases and hence preserve the structural integrity of DNA following absorption of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. One controversial recovery mechanism proposed to account for this photostability involves electron-driven proton transfer (EDPT) in Watson-Crick base pairs. The first direct observation is reported of the EDPT process after UV excitation of individual guanine-cytosine (G⋅C) Watson-Crick base pairs by ultrafast time-resolved UV/visible and mid-infrared spectroscopy.

Tracking a Paternò-Büchi reaction in real time using transient electronic and vibrational spectroscopies.

A detailed mechanistic investigation of the early stages of the Paternò-Büchi reaction following 267 nm excitation of benzaldehyde in cyclohexene has been completed using ultrafast, broadband transient UV-visible and IR absorption spectroscopies. Absorption due to electronically excited triplet state benzaldehyde decays on a 80 ps time scale via reaction with cyclohexene. The growth and subsequent decay of the biradical intermediate produced following C-O bond formation is followed by transient vibrational spectroscopy.

On the participation of photoinduced N-H bond fission in aqueous adenine at 266 and 220 nm: a combined ultrafast transient electronic and vibrational absorption spectroscopy study.

A combination of ultrafast transient electronic absorption spectroscopy (TEAS) and transient vibrational absorption spectroscopy (TVAS) is used to investigate whether photoinduced N–H bond fission, mediated by a dissociative 1πσ(*) state, is active in aqueous adenine (Ade) at 266 and 220 nm. In order to isolate UV/visible and IR spectral signatures of the adeninyl radical (Ade[-H]), formed as a result of N–H bond fission, TEAS and TVAS are performed on Ade in D2O under basic conditions (pD = 12.5), which forms Ade[-H](-) anions via deprotonation at the N7 or N9 sites of Ade's 7H and 9H tautomers.

Transient UV pump-IR probe investigation of heterocyclic ring-opening dynamics in the solution phase: the role played by nσ* states in the photoinduced reactions of thiophenone and furanone.

The heterocyclic ring-opening dynamics of thiophenone and furanone dissolved in CH3CN have been probed by ultrafast transient infrared spectroscopy. Following irradiation at 267 nm (thiophenone) or 225 nm (furanone), prompt (τ < 1 ps) ring-opening is confirmed by the appearance of a characteristic antisymmetric ketene stretching feature around 2150 cm(-1). The ring-opened product molecules are formed highly vibrationally excited, and cool subsequently on a ∼6.

Interactions between voluntary and involuntary attention modulate the quality and temporal dynamics of visual processing.

Successfully navigating a dynamic environment requires the efficient distribution of finite neural resources. Voluntary (endogenous) covert spatial attention selectively allocates those processing resources to goal-relevant locations in the visual scene in the absence of eye movements. However, the allocation of spatial attention is not always voluntary; abrupt onsets in the visual periphery automatically enhance processing of nearby stimuli (exogenous attention).

KOALA: a program for the processing and decomposition of transient spectra.

Extracting meaningful kinetic traces from time-resolved absorption spectra is a non-trivial task, particularly for solution phase spectra where solvent interactions can substantially broaden and shift the transition frequencies. Typically, each spectrum is composed of signal from a number of molecular species (e.g.

Exogenous spatial attention: evidence for intact functioning in adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Deficits or atypicalities in attention have been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet no consensus on the nature of these deficits has emerged. We conducted three experiments that paired a peripheral precue with a covert discrimination task, using protocols for which the effects of covert exogenous spatial attention on early vision have been well established in typically developing populations. Experiment 1 assessed changes in contrast sensitivity, using orientation discrimination of a contrast-defined grating; Experiment 2 evaluated the reduction of crowding in the visual periphery, using discrimination of a letter-like figure with flanking stimuli at variable distances; and Experiment 3 assessed improvements in visual search, using discrimination of the same letter-like figure with a variable number of distractor elements.

Experimental and theoretical investigation of correlated fine structure branching ratios arising from state-selected predissociation of BrO (A2Π3/2).

We present results for the v'-dependent predissociation dynamics of the BrO (A(2)Π3/2) state using velocity map ion imaging. Correlated fine structure branching ratios, Br((2)P(J)) + O((3)P(J)), have been measured for v' = 5-16 states. The experimental branching ratios are non-statistical and strongly dependent on the initial vibronic state.