The impact of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on anterior cingulate cortex activity in a cognitive control task.

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) offers a non-invasive method to enhance noradrenergic neurotransmission in the human brain, thereby increasing cognitive control. Here, we investigate if changes in cognitive control induced by tVNS are mediated through locus coeruleus-induced modifications of neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. Young healthy participants engaged in a simple cognitive control task focusing on response inhibition and a more complex task that involved both response inhibition and working memory, inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner.

Unexpected Twists: Electrophysiological Correlates of Encoding and Retrieval of Events Eliciting Prediction Error.

According to the predictive processing framework, our brain constantly generates predictions based on past experiences and compares these predictions with incoming sensory information. When an event contradicts these predictions, it results in a prediction error (PE), which has been shown to enhance subsequent memory. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the influence of PEs on subsequent memory remain unclear.

Causal effects of sedentary breaks on affective and cognitive parameters in daily life: a within-person encouragement design.

Understanding the complex relationship between sedentary breaks, affective well-being and cognition in daily life is critical as modern lifestyles are increasingly characterized by sedentary behavior. Consequently, the World Health Organization, with its slogan "every move counts", emphasizes a central public health goal: reducing daily time spent in sedentary behavior. Previous studies have provided evidence that short sedentary breaks are feasible to integrate into daily life and can improve affective and cognitive parameters.

Realizing the potential of mobile interventions for education.

Mobile devices are ubiquitous, but their potential for adaptive educational interventions remains largely untapped. We identify three key promises of mobile interventions for educational research and practice: 1) intervening when it is most beneficial (i.e.

Associations between youth's daily social media use and well-being are mediated by upward comparisons.

Studies examining the associations between social media use and subjective well-being have revealed inconsistent results and mainly refer to the between-person level. We conducted a 14-day diary study among 200 youths ages 10 to 14 to examine within- and between-person associations of social media use (Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube), subjective well-being (positive/negative self-worth, positive/negative affect), and upward social comparisons (general impression of others being better off). Multilevel structural equation models showed that social media use was linked to lower positive and higher negative self-worth on a daily basis, and that upward social comparisons were linked to diminished subjective well-being on all dimensions.

Predicting Learning: Understanding the Role of Executive Functions in Children's Belief Revision Using Bayesian Models.

Recent studies suggest that learners who are asked to predict the outcome of an event learn more than learners who are asked to evaluate it retrospectively or not at all. One possible explanation for this "prediction boost" is that it helps learners engage metacognitive reasoning skills that may not be spontaneously leveraged, especially for individuals with still-developing executive functions. In this paper, we combined multiple analytic approaches to investigate the potential role of executive functions in elementary school-aged children's science learning.

The Ambiguous Cue Task: Measurement reliability of an experimental paradigm for the assessment of interpretation bias and associations with mental health.

Interpretation biases in the processing of ambiguous affective information are assumed to play an important role in the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders. Reports of low reliability for experimental measures of cognitive biases have called into question previous findings on the association of these measures with markers of mental health and demonstrated the need to systematically evaluate measurement reliability for measures of cognitive biases. We evaluated reliability and correlations with self-report measures of mental health for interpretation bias scores derived from the Ambiguous Cue Task (ACT), an experimental paradigm for the assessment of approach-avoidance behavior towards ambiguous affective stimuli.

Smartphone-based study reminders can be a double-edged sword.

Reminders are a popular feature in smartphone apps designed to promote desirable behaviors that are best performed regularly. But can they also promote students' regular studying? In the present study with 85 lower secondary school students aged 10-12, we combined a smartphone-based between- and within-person experimental manipulation with logfile data of a vocabulary learning app. Students were scheduled to receive reminders on 16 days during the 36-day intervention period.

Separation and Analysis of Connected, Micrometer-Sized, High-Frequency Damage on Glass Plates due to Laser-Accelerated Material Fragments in Vacuum.

In this paper, we present a new processing method, called MOSES-Impacts, for the detection of micrometer-sized damage on glass plate surfaces. It extends existing methods by a separation of damaged areas, called impacts, to support state-of-the-art recycling systems in optimizing their parameters. These recycling systems are used to repair process-related damages on glass plate surfaces, caused by accelerated material fragments, which arise during a laser-matter interaction in a vacuum.

Validation of the Self-Report Version of the German Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal Behavior Scale (SWAN-DE-SB).

Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience impairing levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity, while individuals without ADHD experience these symptoms to a lesser extent. Yet, ADHD self-report scales so far hardly captured continuous distributions across the general population. In addition, they focused on weaknesses and ignored strengths.

Do reflection prompts promote children's conflict monitoring and revision of misconceptions?

We tested whether reflection prompts enhance conflict monitoring and facilitate the revision of misconceptions. German children (N = 97, M = 7.20, 56% female) were assigned to a prediction or a prediction with reflection condition that included reflection prompts.

Sorry we're open, come in we're closed: different profiles in the perceived applicability of open science practices to completed research projects.

Open science is an increasingly important topic for research, politics and funding agencies. However, the discourse on open science is heavily influenced by certain research fields and paradigms, leading to the risk of generalizing what counts as openness to other research fields, regardless of its applicability. In our paper, we provide evidence that researchers perceive different profiles in the potential to apply open science practices to their projects, making a one-size-fits-all approach unsuitable.

Anxiety and coping strategies among dyslexics in Ethiopia.

Individuals with dyslexia have been shown to have an increased risk for developing internalizing problems. Various studies have revealed the powerful role that culture plays in determining the type of anxiety and coping strategies adopted by various groups of individuals. However, compared to the vast number of studies conducted in individualistic cultures, knowledge on collectivistic cultures with respect to this issue is still limited.

Teachers' proactive behaviour: Interactions with job characteristics and professional competence in a longitudinal study.

Background: In times of accelerating changes, teachers who proactively engage in activities towards school improvement and innovation are increasingly needed. Still, studies on factors that affect teachers' proactive behaviour are rare.

Aims: Integrating previous research on proactive behaviour within the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) Model, this paper investigates how job characteristics (time pressure, bureaucratic structures, participative climate, personal initiative of the team) and aspects of teachers' professional competence (self-efficacy, self-regulation skills and knowledge) contribute to and interact with their proactive behaviour.

Student and Teacher Culture and Composition and the Development of Gender Role Attitudes among Young Adolescents.

Research has shown that gender role attitudes develop during adolescence; however, the relevant predictors remain a matter of debate. In adolescence, the school environment gains in importance. Thus, the present study investigates how students' and especially teachers' culture and composition predict the development of gender role attitudes in young adolescents.

State-level working memory and dysregulated eating in children and adolescents: An exploratory ecological momentary assessment study.

Background: Children with loss of control (LOC) eating and overweight/obesity have relative deficiencies in trait-level working memory (WM), which may limit adaptive responding to intra- and extra-personal cues related to eating. Understanding of how WM performance relates to eating behavior in real-time is currently limited.

Methods: We studied 32 youth (ages 10-17 years) with LOC eating and overweight/obesity (LOC-OW; n = 9), overweight/obesity only (OW; n = 16), and non-overweight status (NW; n = 7).

Microtemporal Dynamics of Dietary Intake, Physical Activity, and Impulsivity in Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study Within Nutritional Psychiatry.

Background: Increasing attention is being paid to lifestyle factors, such as nutrition and physical activity (PA), as potential complementary treatment options in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Previous research indicates that sugar and saturated fat intake may be linked to increased impulsivity, a core symptom of ADHD, whereas protein intake and PA may be related to reduced impulsivity. However, most studies rely on cross-sectional data that lack microtemporal resolution and ecological validity, wherefore questions of microtemporal dynamics (eg, is the consumption of foods high in sugar associated with increased impulsivity within minutes or hours?) remain largely unanswered.

Daily automated feedback enhances self-regulated learning: a longitudinal randomized field experiment.

The goal of the present study was to investigate the effects of automatically generated, adaptive feedback on daily self-regulated learning (SRL) in an experimental field study. University students reported their application of SRL strategies in the morning and in the evening over the course of 36 days using electronic learning diaries. Students were randomly assigned to the experimental group with feedback (LDF,  = 98) or the control group without feedback (LD,  = 96).

Affectionate touch and diurnal oxytocin levels: An ecological momentary assessment study.

Background: Affectionate touch, which is vital for mental and physical health, was restricted during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study investigated the association between momentary affectionate touch and subjective well-being, as well as salivary oxytocin and cortisol in everyday life during the pandemic.

Methods: In the first step, we measured anxiety and depression symptoms, loneliness and attitudes toward social touch in a large cross-sectional online survey (N = 1050).

Associations of SLC6A4 methylation with salivary cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase, and subjective stress in everyday life.

Dysregulations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and sympatho-adrenal medullary (SAM) axis are associated with mental and somatic illness. However, there is lack of knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects. Epigenetic states in the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) were shown to be associated with stress in various forms.

Changes in the Speed-Ability Relation Through Different Treatments of Rapid Guessing.

As researchers in the social sciences, we are often interested in studying not directly observable constructs through assessments and questionnaires. But even in a well-designed and well-implemented study, rapid-guessing behavior may occur. Under rapid-guessing behavior, a task is skimmed shortly but not read and engaged with in-depth.

Fluid Intelligence Is (Much) More than Working Memory Capacity: An Experimental Analysis.

Empirical evidence suggests a great positive association between measures of fluid intelligence and working memory capacity, which implied to some researchers that fluid intelligence is little more than working memory. Because this conclusion is mostly based on correlation analysis, a causal relationship between fluid intelligence and working memory has not yet been established. The aim of the present study was therefore to provide an experimental analysis of this relationship.