18 results on '"Rodríguez‐Ferreiro, Javier"'
Search Results
2. Proneness to false memory generation predicts pseudoscientific belief endorsement
- Author
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Martínez, Naroa, Barberia, Itxaso, and Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Believers in pseudoscience present lower evidential criteria
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Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier and Barberia, Itxaso
- Published
- 2021
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4. Authority Brings Responsibility: Feedback from Experts Promotes an Overweighting of Health-Related Pseudoscientific Beliefs.
- Author
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Garcia-Arch, Josue, Barberia, Itxaso, Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier, and Fuentemilla, Lluís
- Published
- 2022
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- View/download PDF
5. Causal illusion in the core of pseudoscientific beliefs: The role of information interpretation and search strategies.
- Author
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Torres, Marta N., Barberia, Itxaso, and Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier
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PSEUDOSCIENCE ,COGNITIVE development ,INFORMATION resources management - Abstract
The prevalence of pseudoscientific beliefs in our societies negatively influences relevant areas such as health or education. Causal illusions have been proposed as a possible cognitive basis for the development of such beliefs. The aim of our study was to further investigate the specific nature of the association between causal illusion and endorsement of pseudoscientific beliefs through an active contingency detection task. In this task, volunteers are given the opportunity to manipulate the presence or absence of a potential cause in order to explore its possible influence over the outcome. Responses provided are assumed to reflect both the participants' information interpretation strategies as well as their information search strategies. Following a previous study investigating the association between causal illusion and the presence of paranormal beliefs, we expected that the association between causal illusion and pseudoscientific beliefs would disappear when controlling for the information search strategy (i.e., the proportion of trials in which the participants decided to present the potential cause). Volunteers with higher pseudoscientific beliefs also developed stronger causal illusions in active contingency detection tasks. This association appeared irrespective of the participants with more pseudoscientific beliefs showing (Experiment 2) or not (Experiment 1) differential search strategies. Our results suggest that both information interpretation and search strategies could be significantly associated to the development of pseudoscientific (and paranormal) beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
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6. Too Worried to Judge: On the Role of Perceived Severity in Medical Decision-Making
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Colomé, Àngels, Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier, Tubau Sala, Elisabet, and Universitat de Barcelona
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Metges ,affect ,Physicians ,numerical format ,Psychology ,Presa de decisions (Estadística) ,medical decision ,severity perception ,Statistical decision ,numeracy ,probability judgment ,Original Research - Abstract
Ideally, decisions regarding one's health should be made after assessing the objective probabilities of relevant outcomes. Nevertheless, previous beliefs and emotional reactions also have a role in decision-making. Furthermore, the comprehension of probabilities is commonly affected by the presentation format, and by numeracy. This study aimed to assess the extent to which the influence of these factors might vary between different medical conditions. A sample of university students were presented with two health scenarios containing statistical information on the prevalence of breast cancer and hypertension either through icon arrays (N = 71) or natural frequencies (N = 72). They also received information regarding a preventive measure (mammogram/low-sodium diet) and the likelihood of a positive mammogram or a rich-sodium diet either when suffering or not suffering from the disease. Before seeing the data, participants rated the severity of the disease and the inconvenience of the preventive measure. After reading the health scenario, participants had to rate its difficulty, and how worrisome it was. They had also to rate the prior probability of suffering from this medical condition, and the posterior probability of it, provided a positive mammogram or a rich-sodium diet. Finally, they rated the extent to which they would recommend the preventive measures. All the rates used the same 1 (little)-8 (a great deal) scale. Participants' numeracy was also assessed. The scenarios differed significantly in perceived severity and worry, with the cancer scenario obtaining higher scores. Importantly, regression analyses showed that the recommendations in the two health scenarios depended on different variables. A model taking into consideration severity and worry rates best explained decisions in the cancer scenario; in contrast, in the hypertension scenario the model that best explained the recommendations comprised both the posterior probability estimate and the severity rate. Neither numeracy nor presentation format affected recommendation but both affected difficulty, worrying and probability rates. We conclude that previous perceptions of the severity of a health condition modulate the use of probabilistic information for decision-making. The roles of presentation format and numeracy in enabling patients to understand statistical information are also discussed. Introduction
- Published
- 2018
7. The moral foundations of illusory correlation
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Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier, Barberia, Itxaso, and Universitat de Barcelona
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Questionnaires ,Adult ,Male ,Identitat (Psicologia) ,Emotions ,Social Sciences ,lcsh:Medicine ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Morals ,Política ,Judgment ,Young Adult ,Cognition ,Mathematical and Statistical Techniques ,Sociology ,Ètica ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Psychology ,Humans ,Attention ,Statistical Methods ,Identity (Psychology) ,lcsh:Science ,Ethics ,Behavior ,Survey Research ,Practical politics ,Politics ,lcsh:R ,Cognitive Psychology ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Social Discrimination ,Group Processes ,Collective Human Behavior ,Attitude ,Research Design ,Physical Sciences ,Cognitive Science ,Regression Analysis ,Female ,lcsh:Q ,Mathematics ,Statistics (Mathematics) ,Research Article ,Neuroscience - Abstract
Podeu consultar dades primàries associades a l'article a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/114909, Previous research has studied the relationship between political ideology and cognitive biases, such as the tendency of conservatives to form stronger illusory correlations between negative infrequent behaviors and minority groups. We further explored these findings by studying the relation between illusory correlation and moral values. According to the moral foundations theory, liberals and conservatives differ in the relevance they concede to different moral dimensions: Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity. Whereas liberals consistently endorse the Care and Fairness foundations more than the Loyalty, Authority and Purity foundations, conservatives tend to adhere to the five foundations alike. In the present study, a group of participants took part in a standard illusory correlation task in which they were presented with randomly ordered descriptions of either desirable or undesirable behaviors attributed to individuals belonging to numerically different majority and minority groups. Although the proportion of desirable and undesirable behaviors was the same in the two groups, participants attributed a higher frequency of undesirable behaviors to the minority group, thus showing the expected illusory correlation effect. Moreover, this effect was specifically associated to our participants' scores in the Loyalty subscale of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. These results emphasize the role of the Loyalty moral foundation in the formation of attitudes towards minorities among conservatives. Our study points out the moral system as a useful fine-grained framework to explore the complex interaction between basic cognitive processes and ideology.
- Published
- 2017
8. Semantic priming and schizotypal personality: reassessing the link between thought disorder and enhanced spreading of semantic activation.
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Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier, Aguilera, Mari, and Davies, Rob
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COGNITION disorders ,PERSONALITY questionnaires ,SYMPTOMS ,SCHIZOTYPAL personality disorder ,PERSONALITY - Abstract
The term schizotypy refers to a group of stable personality traits with attributes similar to symptoms of schizophrenia, usually classified in terms of positive, negative or cognitive disorganization symptoms. The observation of increased spreading of semantic activation in individuals with schizotypal traits has led to the hypothesis that thought disorder, one of the characteristics of cognitive disorganization, stems from semantic disturbances. Nevertheless, it is still not clear under which specific circumstances (i.e., automatic or controlled processing, direct or indirect semantic relation) schizotypy affects semantic priming or whether it does affect it at all. We conducted two semantic priming studies with volunteers varying in schizotypy, one with directly related prime-target pairs and another with indirectly related pairs. Our participants completed a lexical decision task with related and unrelated pairs presented at short (250 ms) and long (750 ms) stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Then, they responded to the brief versions of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences, both of which include measures of cognitive disorganization. Bayesian mixed-effects models indicated expected effects of SOA and semantic relatedness, as well as an interaction between relatedness and directness (greater priming effects for directly related pairs). Even though our analyses demonstrated good sensitivity, we observed no influence of cognitive disorganization over semantic priming. Our study provides no compelling evidence that schizotypal symptoms, specifically those associated with the cognitive disorganization dimension, are rooted in an increased spreading of semantic activation in priming tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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9. Positive Schizotypy Increases the Acceptance of Unpresented Materials in False Memory Tasks in Non-clinical Individuals.
- Author
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Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier, Aguilera, Mari, and Davies, Robert
- Subjects
FALSE memory syndrome ,SCHIZOTYPAL personality disorder ,COGNITION disorders ,PERSONALITY questionnaires ,TASKS ,DELUSIONS - Abstract
Enhanced spreading of semantic activation has been hypothesized to underlie some of the most significant symptoms of schizotypal personality, like thought disorder, odd speech, delusion, or magical thinking. We applied the Deese/Roediger-McDermott false memory task to the study of semantic activation in a group of 123 non-clinical individuals varying in the three dimensions of schizotypal personality: positive, negative and disorganized schizotypy. In the study phase, we presented them with lists composed of words semantically associated to unpresented critical words. Then, they responded to a recognition questionnaire including previously presented words and critical unpresented lures, as well as weakly related and unrelated unpresented lures. Participants rated their confidence in recognizing each word. They also filled in a standardized schizotypal personality questionnaire. Confirming the false memory effect, recognition ratings provided in response to critical words were higher than those produced for both weakly related and unrelated items. Crucially, scores in the positive dimension increased recognition percentages and confidence ratings for weakly related and unrelated lures. This study indicates that high levels of positive schizotypy might influence the tendency to accept false memories of unrelated unpresented material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2020
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10. Are we truly special and unique? A replication of Goldenberg et al. (2001).
- Author
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Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier, Barberia, Itxaso, González-Guerra, Jordi, and Vadillo, Miguel A.
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- 2019
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11. Oral morphosyntactic competence as a predictor of reading comprehension in children with specific language impairment
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Buil-Legaz, L., Aguilar Mediavilla, Eva M., and Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier
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Trastorns de la parla en els infants ,Reading comprehension ,Comprensió de la lectura ,Speech disorders in children ,behavioral disciplines and activities - Abstract
Background Children with a diagnosis of specific language impairment (SLI) present impaired oral comprehension. According to the simple view of reading, general amodal linguistic capacity accounts for both oral and reading comprehension. Considering this, we should expect SLI children to display a reading comprehension deficit. However, previous research regarding the association between reading disorders and SLI has yielded inconsistent results. Aims To study the influence of prior oral comprehension competence over reading comprehension during the first years of reading acquisition of bilingual Catalan-Spanish children with SLI (ages 7-8). Methods & Procedures We assessed groups of bilingual Catalan-Spanish SLI and matched control children at ages 7 and 8 with standardized reading comprehension tasks including grammatical structures, sentence and text comprehension. Early oral competence and prior non‐verbal intelligence were also measured and introduced into regression analyses with the participants' reading results in order to state the relation between the comprehension of oral and written material. Outcomes & Results Although we found no significant differences between the scores of our two participant groups in the reading tasks, data regarding their early oral competence, but not non‐verbal intelligence measures, significantly influence their reading outcome. Conclusions & Implications The results extend our knowledge regarding the course of literacy acquisition of children with SLI and provide evidence in support of the theories that assume common linguistic processes to be responsible for both oral and reading comprehension.
- Published
- 2016
12. Persistence of Causal Illusions After Extensive Training.
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Barberia, Itxaso, Vadillo, Miguel A., and Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier
- Subjects
PHYSICAL training & conditioning ,PHYSICAL fitness ,EXERCISE ,PHYSICAL education ,ILLUSION (Philosophy) - Abstract
We carried out an experiment using a conventional causal learning task but extending the number of learning trials participants were exposed to. Participants in the standard training group were exposed to 48 learning trials before being asked about the potential causal relationship under examination, whereas for participants in the long training group the length of training was extended to 288 trials. In both groups, the event acting as the potential cause had zero correlation with the occurrence of the outcome, but both the outcome density and the cause density were high, therefore providing a breeding ground for the emergence of a causal illusion. In contradiction to the predictions of associative models such the Rescorla-Wagner model, we found moderate evidence against the hypothesis that extending the learning phase alters the causal illusion. However, assessing causal impressions recurrently did weaken participants' causal illusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
13. A short educational intervention diminishes causal illusions and specific paranormal beliefs in undergraduates.
- Author
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Barberia, Itxaso, Tubau, Elisabet, Matute, Helena, and Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier
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COGNITIVE bias ,PARAPSYCHOLOGY ,BELIEF & doubt ,CRITICAL thinking ,SOCIAL influence ,COLLEGE students - Abstract
Cognitive biases such as causal illusions have been related to paranormal and pseudoscientific beliefs and, thus, pose a real threat to the development of adequate critical thinking abilities. We aimed to reduce causal illusions in undergraduates by means of an educational intervention combining training-in-bias and training-in-rules techniques. First, participants directly experienced situations that tend to induce the Barnum effect and the confirmation bias. Thereafter, these effects were explained and examples of their influence over everyday life were provided. Compared to a control group, participants who received the intervention showed diminished causal illusions in a contingency learning task and a decrease in the precognition dimension of a paranormal belief scale. Overall, results suggest that evidence-based educational interventions like the one presented here could be used to significantly improve critical thinking skills in our students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
14. Variabilidad en los errores semánticos producidos por pacientes con daño cerebral
- Author
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González Nosti, María, Rodríguez Ferreiro, Javier, and Cuetos Vega, Fernando
- Published
- 2008
15. Do Children with SLI Use Verbs to Predict Arguments and Adjuncts: Evidence from Eye Movements During Listening.
- Author
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Andreu, Llorenç, Sanz-Torrent, Mònica, and Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier
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PSYCHOLINGUISTICS ,VERBS ,SEMANTICS research ,LANGUAGE disorders ,SENTENCES (Grammar) - Abstract
Different psycholinguistic theories have suggested the importance of verb semantics in rapidly anticipating upcoming information during real-time sentence comprehension. To date, no study has examined if children use verbs to predict arguments and adjuncts in sentence comprehension using children with specific language impairment (SLI). Twenty-five children with SLI (aged 5 years and 3 months to 8 years and 2 months), 25 age-matched controls (aged 5 years and 3 months to 8 years and 2 months), 25 MLU-w controls (aged 3 years and 3 months to 7 years and 1 month), and 31 adults took part in the study. The eye movements of participants were monitored while they heard 24 sentences, such as El hombre lee con atención un cuento en la cama (translation: The man carefully reads a storybook in bed), in the presence of four depicted objects, one of which was the target (storybook), another, the competitor (bed), and another two, distracters (wardrobe and grape). The proportion of looks revealed that, when the meaning of the verb was retrieved, the upcoming argument and adjunct referents were rapidly anticipated. However, the proportion of looks at the theme, source/goal and instrument referents were significantly higher than the looks at the locatives. This pattern was found in adults as well as children with and without language impairment. The present results suggest that, in terms of sentence comprehension, the ability to understand verb information is not severely impaired in children with SLI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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16. Argument Structure and the Representation of Abstract Semantics.
- Author
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Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier, Andreu, Llorenç, and Sanz-Torrent, Mònica
- Subjects
- *
SEMANTICS , *LINGUISTIC analysis , *CODING theory , *VERBS , *TRANSITIVITY (Grammar) , *NEUROSCIENCES - Abstract
According to the dual coding theory, differences in the ease of retrieval between concrete and abstract words are related to the exclusive dependence of abstract semantics on linguistic information. Argument structure can be considered a measure of the complexity of the linguistic contexts that accompany a verb. If the retrieval of abstract verbs relies more on the linguistic codes they are associated to, we could expect a larger effect of argument structure for the processing of abstract verbs. In this study, sets of length- and frequency-matched verbs including 40 intransitive verbs, 40 transitive verbs taking simple complements, and 40 transitive verbs taking sentential complements were presented in separate lexical and grammatical decision tasks. Half of the verbs were concrete and half were abstract. Similar results were obtained in the two tasks, with significant effects of imageability and transitivity. However, the interaction between these two variables was not significant. These results conflict with hypotheses assuming a stronger reliance of abstract semantics on linguistic codes. In contrast, our data are in line with theories that link the ease of retrieval with availability and robustness of semantic information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
17. Too Worried to Judge: On the Role of Perceived Severity in Medical Decision-Making.
- Author
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Colomé À, Rodríguez-Ferreiro J, and Tubau E
- Abstract
Ideally, decisions regarding one's health should be made after assessing the objective probabilities of relevant outcomes. Nevertheless, previous beliefs and emotional reactions also have a role in decision-making. Furthermore, the comprehension of probabilities is commonly affected by the presentation format, and by numeracy. This study aimed to assess the extent to which the influence of these factors might vary between different medical conditions. A sample of university students were presented with two health scenarios containing statistical information on the prevalence of breast cancer and hypertension either through icon arrays ( N = 71) or natural frequencies ( N = 72). They also received information regarding a preventive measure (mammogram/low-sodium diet) and the likelihood of a positive mammogram or a rich-sodium diet either when suffering or not suffering from the disease. Before seeing the data, participants rated the severity of the disease and the inconvenience of the preventive measure. After reading the health scenario, participants had to rate its difficulty, and how worrisome it was. They had also to rate the prior probability of suffering from this medical condition, and the posterior probability of it, provided a positive mammogram or a rich-sodium diet. Finally, they rated the extent to which they would recommend the preventive measures. All the rates used the same 1 (little)-8 (a great deal) scale. Participants' numeracy was also assessed. The scenarios differed significantly in perceived severity and worry, with the cancer scenario obtaining higher scores. Importantly, regression analyses showed that the recommendations in the two health scenarios depended on different variables. A model taking into consideration severity and worry rates best explained decisions in the cancer scenario; in contrast, in the hypertension scenario the model that best explained the recommendations comprised both the posterior probability estimate and the severity rate. Neither numeracy nor presentation format affected recommendation but both affected difficulty, worrying and probability rates. We conclude that previous perceptions of the severity of a health condition modulate the use of probabilistic information for decision-making. The roles of presentation format and numeracy in enabling patients to understand statistical information are also discussed.
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
18. Neural correlates of abstract verb processing.
- Author
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Rodríguez-Ferreiro J, Gennari SP, Davies R, and Cuetos F
- Subjects
- Adult, Brain blood supply, Emotions physiology, Female, Functional Laterality physiology, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted methods, Magnetic Resonance Imaging methods, Male, Oxygen blood, Photic Stimulation methods, Reaction Time physiology, Young Adult, Brain physiology, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex physiology, Semantics, Vocabulary
- Abstract
The present study investigated the neural correlates of the processing of abstract (low imageability) verbs. An extensive body of literature has investigated concrete versus abstract nouns but little is known about how abstract verbs are processed. Spanish abstract verbs including emotion verbs (e.g., amar, "to love"; molestar, "to annoy") were compared to concrete verbs (e.g., llevar, "to carry"; arrastrar, "to drag"). Results indicated that abstract verbs elicited stronger activity in regions previously associated with semantic retrieval such as inferior frontal, anterior temporal, and posterior temporal regions, and that concrete and abstract activation networks (compared to that of pseudoverbs) were partially distinct, with concrete verbs eliciting more posterior activity in these regions. In contrast to previous studies investigating nouns, verbs strongly engage both left and right inferior frontal gyri, suggesting, as previously found, that right prefrontal cortex aids difficult semantic retrieval. Together with previous evidence demonstrating nonverbal conceptual roles for the active regions as well as experiential content for abstract word meanings, our results suggest that abstract verbs impose greater demands on semantic retrieval or property integration, and are less consistent with the view that abstract words recruit left-lateralized regions because they activate verbal codes or context, as claimed by proponents of the dual-code theory. Moreover, our results are consistent with distributed accounts of semantic memory because distributed networks may coexist with varying retrieval demands.
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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