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This paper considers the sociocultural implications of biological pest control that sit at the cusp of managing an invasive species for conservation or productivity (i.e. a 'natural enemy') and socially driven 'manipulating life' arguments. We consider the role of perceived humaneness or, more accurately, animal welfare as it relates to managing invasive species from a scientific and social perspective. In order to highlight and articulate particular nuances and standards across different pest control contexts, we use three case examples (feral cats, wild rabbits, and invasive cane toads) and explore where biological pest control and animal welfare interests intersect. The paper summarises key scientific welfare concerns and then extends the literature to also examine key social characteristics of each pest management scenario, including lay perceptions of animal welfare, the sociocultural context that pests exist within, and overarching psychological factors contributing to public sentiment, including perceived risks. The subsequent descriptive model presented is useful in articulating core sociocultural beliefs relative to each case and how these antecedent associations and attitudes about an animal influence subsequent beliefs about a pest management strategy and ultimately acceptance of the management approach. The model can inform invasive species management policies and highlight key sociocultural factors likely to influence public responses. The model also informs interdisciplinary science designed to develop acceptable and socially responsible biocontrol strategies that consider public perceptions of animal welfare and cultural appropriateness. • Explores where biological pest control and animal welfare interests intersect. • Three cases are explored: feral cats, wild rabbits, and invasive cane toads. • Implications for management examined from psychology, welfare and ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objectives When writing about the bidirectional etiological relationship between depression and epilepsy, neuropsychiatrists often cite Lewis (1934) [Lewis AJ. Melancholia: a historical review. Journal of Mental Science 1934; 80: 1–42] who cited Hippocrates — namely, "melancholics ordinarily become epileptics, and epileptics, melancholics". In this paper, the complicated reference for this citation from Lewis (1934) was critically reappraised. Methods The Greek–Latin edition of Hippocratic writings by Ermerins to which Lewis (1934) referred and most volumes of the standard Greek–English edition of the Hippocratic writings in The Loeb Classical Library were freely available as facsimile pdf documents in the Internet Archive (archive.org). Results Melancholia (i.e., "the black bile disease") is defined as a persistent mental state of fear and sadness ("Aphorisms", section 6, aphorism 23) which appears more consistent with a dysthymic disorder or depressive personality disorder than an acute (episodic) depressive disorder. Confusingly, the term melancholia also signifies a humoral etiology, namely a surplus of black bile, which causes several distinct diseases including epilepsy (aphorism vi/56). The quote addressing the conversion of melancholia into epilepsy and vice versa was taken from the writing "Epidemics" (book 6, section 8, paragraph 31). The famous treatise on epilepsy, "De Morbo Sacro", does not mention melancholia but instead, attributes epilepsy to two other humors: phlegm and (yellow) bile. This writing proposes an etiological relationship between (inherited) personality and epilepsy, wherein a phlegmatic temperament represents an epilepsy risk while a bilious (choleric) temperament offers protection against epilepsy. Significance With only a few clarifications, the neuropsychiatric quotation from Hippocrates and the reference to Lewis (1934) could generally be approved as appropriate. However, the proper framework of the quote seems to be personality and not mood. A more precise reference to a standard edition of "Epidemics" book 6 is also suggested. Highlights • A reciprocal etiological relationship between epilepsy and depression is assumed. • Lewis (1934) stated that Hippocrates assumed this link existed and is often cited. • Quotations from Hippocratic scripts referenced by Lewis (1934) were reappraised. • The Lewis' (1934) quotations appearing in neuropsychiatric papers seem appropriate. • The conceptual framework of the quote is rather personality and not mood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How moral decision-making occurs, matures over time and relates to behaviour is complex. To develop a full picture of moral decision-making, moral development and moral behaviour it is necessary to understand: (a) how real-time moral decisions are made (including relevant social and contextual factors), (b) what processes are required to develop to enable mature moral decisions, (c) how these processes develop over time, and (d) how moral decisions relate to behaviour. In this paper, psychological and social neuroscience theories of moral decision-making and development are briefly reviewed, as is the development of relevant component processes. Various component processes and factors are seen as required for moral decision-making and development, yet there is no comprehensive framework incorporating these components into one explanation of how real-time moral decisions are made and mature. In this paper, we integrated these components into a new framework based on social information processing (SIP) theory. Situational factors, and how both cognitive and affective processes guide moral decisions was incorporated into the Social Information Processing-Moral Decision-Making (SIP-MDM) framework, drawing upon theories and findings from developmental psychology and social neuroscience. How this framework goes beyond previous SIP models was outlined, followed by a discussion of how it can explain both real-time moral decisions and moral development. We concluded with how the SIP-MDM framework could be used to guide future research and theory development in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background An increasing number of studies have suggested adverse effects of air pollution on mental health. Given the potentially negative impacts of ozone exposure on the immune and nervous system driven from animal experiments, ozone might also affect mental health. However, no systematic synthesis of the relevant literature has been conducted yet. This paper reviews the studies that assessed the link between ozone exposure and mental health thus far. Methods We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA). PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE were systematically searched for epidemiological studies on ambient ozone exposure and mental or behavioral disorders according to the International Classification of Disease. The period was from January 1st, 1960 to December 14st, 2017. We evaluated the risk of bias by the Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) Approach and Navigation Guide for each included study. Results The keyword search yielded 567 results. 31 papers met the selection criteria and were included in the review. We found only inconclusive evidence that ozone affects autism spectrum disorders, impairment of cognitive functions and dementia, depression, and suicide. The large heterogeneity of study designs, outcome definitions and study quality in general prevented us from conducting meta-analyses. Conclusions Current evidence for an association between ambient ozone exposure and mental health outcomes is inconclusive and further high quality studies are needed to assess any potential links given the strong biologic plausibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring, understanding and predicting city user behaviour (hottest places, trajectories, flows, etc.) is one the major topics in the context of Smart City management. People flow surveillance provides valuable information about city conditions, useful not only for monitoring and controlling the environmental conditions, but also to optimize the deliverying of city services (security, clean, transport,..). In this context, it is mandatory to develop methods and tools for assessing people behaviour in the city. This paper presents a methodology to instrument the city via the placement of Wi-Fi Access Points, AP, and to use them as sensors to capture and understand city user behaviour with a significant precision rate (the understanding of city user behaviour is concretized with the computing of heat-maps, origin destination matrices and predicting user density). The first issue is the positioning of Wi-Fi AP in the city, thus a comparative analyses have been conducted with respect to the real data (i.e., cab traces) of the city of San Francisco. Several different positioning methodologies of APs have been proposed and compared, to minimize the cost of AP installation with the aim of producing the best origin destination matrices. In a second phase, the methodology was adopted to select suitable AP in the city of Florence (Italy), with the aim of observing city users behaviour. The obtained instrumented Firenze Wi-Fi network collected data for 6 months. The data has been analysed with data mining techniques to infer similarity patterns in AP area and related time series. The resulting model has been validated and used for predicting the number of AP accesses that is also related to number of city users. The research work described in this paper has been conducted in the scope of the EC funded Horizon 2020 project Resolute ( http://www.resolute-eu.org ), for early warning and city resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the evolution (past, present and future) of the 'psychology of programming' over the 50 year period of this anniversary issue. The International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) has been a key venue for much seminal work in this field, including its first foundations, and we review the changing research concerns seen in publications over these five decades. We relate this thematic evolution to research taking place over the same period within more specialist communities, especially the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG), the Empirical Studies of Programming series (ESP), and the ongoing community in Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC). Many other communities have interacted with psychology of programming, both influenced by research published within the specialist groups, and in turn influencing research priorities. We end with an overview of the core theories that have been developed over this period, as an introductory resource for new researchers, and also with the authors' own analysis of key priorities for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Migrant Suitcase is a metaphor to understand how social remittances are taken, brought back and transformed. Migrants bring with them different cultural norms, food and eating practices. In this paper I review the concept of social remittances in light of material culture, food and eating practices and examine the linkages between food, belonging, commensality and care and then provide empirical examples from the suitcases of Indian migrants. This paper is based on 30 in-depth interviews conducted among Indian migrants living in The Netherlands. The main themes from the data included food from home, cooking practices, food sharing and family relationships. Migrants' sense of belonging was intrinsically related to the food they brought from home and the memories it generates. The practices of cooking and sensorial experiences surrounding them demonstrate the place and home making processes. Commensality with co-ethnics led to a sense of community and stronger community bonds. Commensality with other non-Indian groups was perceived to be problematic. The exchanges of food, eating practices, and care create a sense of 'co-presence' in lives migrants and their transnational families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an independent replication of a study conducted by Gable and Harmon-Jones [Gable, P. A., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2008). Approach-Motivated Positive Affect Reduces Breadth of Attention. Psychological Science , 19 ( 5 ), 476–482]. In this influential paper, the authors demonstrated positive affect high in approach motivation to reduce the breadth of attention. The present replication study includes a direct replication of Experiment 2 from the original paper, comparing positive affect high in approach motivation with neutral affect, as well as a conceptual replication, using different affective and control stimuli and comparing positive affect high in approach motivation, positive affect low in approach motivation and neutral affect within one experiment. In both the direct and conceptual replication, we observed positive stimuli that were associated with high approach motivation to reduce attentional breadth in a Navon task when compared to control stimuli, thus replicating the effect reported by Gable and Harmon-Jones (2008) . These results increase confidence in the generalizability of the original findings across cultures, as well as across different stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Introduction: Previous studies of soil eating, or geophagia, among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa indicate the practice is widespread. Various explanations have been explored to explain the global phenomenon of soil eating, with the most compelling explanation focused on clay's ability to prevent or treat intestinal infection. The urban South African context for clay eating is not well understood. This paper explores clay consumption amongst pregnant migrants who are nationals of countries where clay consumption may be common.Methods: I conducted in-depth interviews with a purposively selected group of Somali, Congolese, and Zimbabwean women (n = 23). Interviews included questions broadly related to maternal and infant nutrition. In addition, I conducted nine focus group discussions (n = 48) with adult Somali, Congolese (DRC), and Zimbabwean men (N = 3) and women (N = 6), segregated by country of origin and gender. This paper focuses specifically on responses related to geophagia.Results: While Somali women did not report consuming clay or charcoal, Congolese and Zimbabwean participants self-reported commonly consuming clay during pregnancy, and at times also when not pregnant. Despite having heard public health messaging that discouraged the practice, participants largely did not describe this consumption in terms of health, but rather in terms of craving and habit. Participants described continued consumption of clay in South Africa, and the only reason for ceasing consumption was in cases of severe constipation.Discussion: The widespread consumption of clay soil by Congolese and Zimbabwean women during pregnancy may be a mechanism through which identity was reasserted and reproduced in a foreign country. Participants' emphasis on clay consumption seemed related to the absence or expense of other craved foods, and perhaps also to feelings of loss in Cape Town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The immune system mounts a response to an infection by activating T cells. T cell activation occurs when dendritic cells, which have already interacted with the pathogen, scan a T cell that is cognate for (responsive to) the pathogen. This often occurs inside lymph nodes. The time it takes for this scanning event to occur, indeed the probability that it will occur at all, depends on many factors, including the rate that T cells and dendritic cells enter and leave the lymph node as well as the geometry of the lymph node and of course other cellular and molecular parameters. In this paper, we develop a hybrid stochastic-deterministic mathematical model at the tissue scale of the lymph node and simulate dendritic cells and cognate T cells to investigate the most important physiological factors leading to a successful and timely immune response after a vaccination. We use an agent-based model to describe the small population of cognate naive T cells and a partial differential equation description for the concentration of mature dendritic cells. We estimate the model parameters based on the known literature and measurements previously taken in our lab. We perform a parameter sensitivity analysis to quantify the sensitivity of the model results to the parameters. The results show that increasing T cell inflow through high endothelial venules, restricting cellular egress via the efferent lymph and increasing the total dendritic cell count by improving vaccinations are the among the most important physiological factors leading to an improved immune response. We also find that increasing the physical size of lymph nodes improves the overall likelihood that an immune response will take place but has a fairly weak effect on the response rate. The nature of dendritic cell trafficking through the LN (either passive or active transport) seems to have little effect on the overall immune response except if a change in overall egress time is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This systematic review identified papers that described epilepsy misconceptions or stigma in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and research interventions focused on reducing these misconceptions. Materials and methods Publications in the English language from January 2000 to October 2017 that described original research conducted in SSA on misconceptions about epilepsy were utilized. Results Twenty-three publications were identified. Studies were from Nigeria (N = 4), Cameroon (N = 4), Uganda (N = 3), Zambia (N = 2), Ethiopia (N = 2), Tanzania (N = 2), Kenya (N = 2), Ghana, Zimbabwe, Benin, and Mali (N = 1 each). The studies included assessments of misconceptions among healthcare providers and medical students (N = 3), high school students (N = 2), teachers (N = 2), the general public (N = 10), people with epilepsy (N = 7), and traditional healers (N = 1). Only two studies had stigma-focused interventions. Majority of the studies reported limitations to socialization with people with epilepsy and various beliefs associated with epilepsy. Conclusions Epilepsy misconceptions, stigmatizing cultural beliefs, and perceptions were widely prevalent in SSA, and there are a few studies targeting epilepsy stigma. Existing stigma-reduction educational approaches may be impractical for general population implementation. Scalable approaches to reduce stigma are urgently needed within SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a minimalist framework for understanding the development of children's theory of mind (ToM). First, I provide a critical analysis of rich interpretations of ToM tasks tapping infants' understanding of perception, goals, intentions, and false beliefs. I argue that the current consensus that infants understand mental states is premature, and instead, that excellent statistical learning skills and attention to human faces and motion enable infants' very good performance, and reflect an implicit understanding of behavior. Children subsequently develop an explicit understanding of mental states through talk from parents and siblings, their developing language abilities, and their developing distinction between self and other. The paper also examines corollary theories such as the idea that there are subsystems of a theory of mind (ToM), that infants use rules on false belief tasks, that minimalist theory is post hoc, and that parallel onset of success on different ToM tasks indicates an underlying ToM. The paper concludes by considering previous arguments against minimalist interpretations of infant performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Billions of dollars are spent annually with the aim of enticing consumers to purchase food. Yet despite the prevalence of such advertising, little is known about how the actual sensation of this advertising media affects consumer behavior, including consequential choices regarding food. This paper explores the effect of acoustic pitch in food advertising, demonstrating in two studies, including a field study in a live retail environment, how the perception of pitch in advertising can impact food desirability and decisions regarding serving size. In study 1, a field study, pitch affects actual serving sizes and purchase behavior in a live, self-serve retail setting, with low pitch leading to larger serving sizes. Study 2 demonstrates how low pitch increases desire for a food product among hungry consumers, and that this effect is mediated by perceptions of size and how filling consumers believe the product will be. We discuss these results in the context of cross-modal correspondence and mental imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor disease awareness (‘anosognosia’) is often observed in patients with various disabilities caused by brain damage. The lack of disease awareness can be due to the disruption of specific cognitive mechanisms and the development of psychodynamic mechanisms of denial. The aim of this paper is to review how these phenomena were discovered and evolved over time and to consider the relationships between them and the right hemisphere dominance for emotions. It is not clear whether the term ‘anosognosia’ refers to a basic mechanism that can explain similar awareness defects in different behavioural domains or whether it must be viewed as a multifaceted phenomenon in which both the disruption of cognitive or sensorimotor mechanisms and the emergence of motivational factors can play different roles in various forms of disease unawareness and in different kinds of ‘anosognosic’ patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tingling is a bodily sensation experienced under a variety of conditions from everyday experiences to experimental and therapeutic situations. It can be induced by both peripheral or afferent (external stimulation, peripheral pathology) and higher cognitive (expectation) processes. The paper summarizes the current scientific knowledge on the neurophysiological and psychological concomitants of the tingling sensation. Four possible models are identified and presented: the afferent, the attention-disclosed, the attention-evoked, and the efferent model. Of these, only the attention-disclosed model, i.e., attention discloses the sensation by opening the gate for suppressed sensory information, appears to be able to explain every aspect of the tingling phenomenon. Terminological issues and the possible role of the tingling phenomenon in medically unexplained symptoms, nocebo and placebo reactions, and body-oriented therapeutic interventions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, children are not eating according to the Australian Dietary Guidelines despite the incorporation of numerous public health initiatives in the school setting. Literature regarding children's views about what influences their food choice is limited. Incorporating children in the creation of strategies to build healthy public policy aligns with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Ottawa Charter framework. In this qualitative study we used participatory action research to determine why children make the food choices they do. Five action cycles were used to collect data from school children and the school canteen. Two of the action cycles, which are the focus of this paper, used Discovery Days (where children worked in groups to design a canteen menu) to collect data from 100 students on each day across grades two to six. Each group recorded and presented the reasons they made the food choices for the menu. Each day was captured by video and audio recordings were transcribed then analysed using a Conventional Content Analysis to identify themes and then theoretical concepts. Emerging theoretical concepts describing children's decision-making criteria included pleasure, texture, social acceptability, versatility and eating context. Our study found children are reliable informants about factors that influence their food choice. Using theoretical concepts as reported by children could be the foundation required to build more effective programs to facilitate healthy decision-making, supportive environments and health policy in the school setting to create healthy food that is desirable to children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ransom, Fazelpour, and Mole (this journal - 2017) raise an important puzzle for the ‘prediction error minimization’ account of cognitive processing. That account depicts all cognitive processing as fundamentally in the business of minimizing prediction errors concerning the evolving flow of sensory information. One of the cornerstones of these highly ambitious, would-be unifying accounts is their depiction of attention as nothing other than the process of optimizing the precision (inverse variance) of critical prediction error signals. But that story, Ransom et al. suggest, cannot accommodate voluntary shifts of attention. In this paper, I show why this challenge to the grand unifying project fails. It fails because it locates the origins of voluntary attention in complexes of unanalyzed desire rather than in changing complexes of beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurological Music Therapy uses live music to improve the sensorimotor regulation of children with severe autism. However, they often lack musical training and their impairments limit their interactions with musical instruments. In this paper, we present our co-design work that led to the BendableSound prototype: an elastic multisensory surface encouraging users to practice coordination movements when touching a fabric to play sounds. We present the results of a formative study conducted with 18 teachers showing BendableSound was perceived as “usable” and “attractive”. Then, we present a deployment study with 24 children with severe autism showing BendableSound is “easy to use” and may potentially have therapeutic benefits regarding attention and motor development. We propose a set of design insights that could guide the design of natural user interfaces, particularly elastic multisensory surfaces. We close with a discussion and directions for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate how speaker familiarity influences the engagement times and performance of blind children and young adults when playing audio games made with different synthetic voices. We also show how speaker familiarity influences speaker and synthetic speech recognition. For the first experiment we develop synthetic voices of school children, their teachers and of speakers that are unfamiliar to them and use each of these voices to create variants of two audio games: a memory game and a labyrinth game. Results show that pupils have significantly longer engagement times and better performance when playing games that use synthetic voices built with their own voices. These findings can be used to improve the design of audio games and lecture books for blind and visually impaired children and young adults. In the second experiment we show that blind children and young adults are better in recognizing synthetic voices than their visually impaired companions. We also show that the average familiarity with a speaker and the similarity between a speaker’s synthetic and natural voice are correlated to the speaker’s synthetic voice recognition rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A body of research suggests compromise of autobiographical memory in Korsakoff’s syndrome (KS). The present paper extends this literature by investigating the subjective experience of autobiographical recall in the syndrome. Patients with KS and controls were asked to retrieve autobiographical memories. After memory retrieval, participants were asked to rate phenomenological characteristics of their memories (i.e., reliving, back in time, remembering, realness, visual imagery, auditory imagery, language, emotion, rehearsal, importance, spatial recall and temporal recall). Analysis showed lower “Mean Phenomenological Experience” in the Korsakoff patients than in controls. However, the Korsakoff patients attributed relatively high emotional value and importance to their memories. Although our findings suggest compromised phenomenological reliving of autobiographical memory in patients with KS, affective characteristics such as emotion and importance are likely to play a main role in the subjective experience of the past in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the debate about cognitive phenomenology. It elaborates, defends, and improves on our earlier proposal for resolving that debate, according to which the test for irreducible phenomenology is the presence of explanatory gaps. After showing how proposals like ours have been misunderstood or misused by others, we deploy our operationalization to argue that the correct way to align the debate over cognitive phenomenology is not between sensory and (alleged) cognitive phenomenology, but rather between non-conceptual and (alleged) conceptual or propositional phenomenology. In doing so we defend three varieties of non-sensory (amodal) 1 Note that the term “amodal” admits of two quite different uses in cognitive science. One (the one we intend) refers to processes or representations that are neither sensory-specific nor multi-sensory (or “multi-modal”) in nature. We assume throughout that concepts are amodal in this sense. The other use is the one that figures in the phrase “amodal completion” in vision science. This refers to the construction by low-level visual processes of an imaginary boundary of a partially-occluded object. The contrasting sort of completion – “modal completion” – refers to the construction of an imaginary boundary of the presumed occluding object. Both are exemplified in the famous Kanizsa triangles. Moreover, both are modality-specific (specific to the visual system) in our intended sense of “modal”. 1 non-conceptual phenomenology: valence, a sense of approximate number, and a sense of elapsed time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people living in residential out-of-home care (henceforth OoHC) are at increased risk of becoming overweight or obese. Currently, recognition of the everyday mechanisms that might be contributing to excess weight for children and young people in this setting is limited. The aim of this study was to better understand the barriers and complexities involved in the provision of a 'healthy' food environment in residential OoHC. Heightening awareness of these factors and how they might compromise a young person's physical health, will inform the development, refinement and evaluation of more sensitive and tailored weight-related interventions for this population. The paper presents a nuanced picture of the complexity of everyday food routines in residential care, and illustrates the ways in which food is 'done' in care; how food can be both symbolic of care but also used to exercise control; the way in which food can be used to create a 'family-like' environment; and the impact of traumatic experiences in childhood on subsequent behaviours and overall functioning in relation to food. It is argued that a health agenda designed for a mainstream population ignores the very complex relationship that children in residential OoHC may have with food. It is recommended that future intervention approaches account for personal food biographies, trauma and children's social backgrounds and how these are implicated in everyday practices and interactions around food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/objective: Grazing has been associated with poor weight loss or weight regain in obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery, but research remains scarce and complicated by the use of different non-validated measures. The aim of this paper is to describe the validation of the Rep(eat)-Q, a self-report measure developed to assess grazing, and investigates its relationship with BMI and psychopathology.Subjects/methods: 1223 university students and community participants (non-clinical; Study A) and 154 pre-bariatric and 84 post-bariatric patients (Study B) completed a set of self-report measures, including the Rep(eat)-Q (worded in Portuguese), to assess disordered eating, depression, anxiety, stress and impulsivity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses tested the factor structure; internal consistency construct, convergent and divergent validity were also tested.Results: The Rep(eat)-Q scales showed good internal consistency (α ≥ 0.849) and temporal stability (rsp = 0.824, p < 0.000). Factor analyses generated two subscales: compulsive grazing and repetitive eating. Significant correlations (p < 0.05) were found between the Rep(eat)-Q and BMI in the non-clinical population and weight loss and weight regain in the bariatric sample. Generally, the correlations with psychological distress were weak (rsp < 0.4). Strong and significant (rsp≥0.4; p's < 0.05) correlations were found between compulsive grazing and eating disorder psychopathology. Repetitive eating subscale was inversely correlated with cognitive restraint (rsp -0.321, p < 0.05) and directly correlated with uncontrolled eating and emotional eating (rsp = 0.754; rsp = 0.691; p < 0.05).Discussion/conclusion: The Rep(eat)-Q is a valid measure to assess grazing in non-clinical and in bariatric surgery populations. Grazing can be conceptualized on the spectrum of disordered eating behavior, and appears associated with loss of control over eating. Considering the link between grazing and weight outcomes, the Rep(eat)-Q represents a necessary strategy for the systematic screening of grazing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide (WHO, 2016). In many developed countries the incidence of cervical cancer has been significantly reduced by the introduction of organised screening programmes however, in the UK, a fall in screening coverage is becoming a cause for concern. Much research attention has been afforded to younger women but age stratified mortality and incidence data suggest that older women's screening attendance is also worthy of study. This paper provides a review of current evidence concerning the psycho-social influences that older women experience when deciding whether to attend cervical screening. Few studies have focussed on older women and there are significant methodological issues with those that have included them in their samples. Findings from these studies indicate several barriers which may deter older women from screening, such as embarrassment and logistical issues. Drivers to screening include reassurance and a sense of obligation. Physical, social and emotional changes that occur as women age may also have an impact on attendance. This review concludes that there is a clear need for better understanding of the perceptions of older women specifically with regard to cervical cancer and screening. Future research should inform the design of targeted interventions and provision of information to enable informed decision-making regarding cervical screening among older women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that conscientiousness facets incrementally predict performance above and beyond trait conscientiousness. In the present paper we investigate whether this finding also holds at the daily level. We conducted a ten-day experience sampling study assessing state conscientiousness in the morning and task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the afternoon. Using multilevel bi-factor modeling we show that general state conscientiousness positively predicts both task performance and OCB. Moreover, self-discipline and deliberation showed incremental predictive validity above and beyond overall state conscientiousness in the prediction of daily task performance, whereas none of the state conscientiousness facets uniquely predicted daily OCB levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term convenience food is subject to diversification, lack of clarity and moral ambiguity. In this paper we address these issues and critically discuss convenience food by using empirical findings from a Danish study that deals with practitioners' uses of meal box schemes. The methodological design consists of thirteen individual interviews, four focus groups and some observations of cooking practices. We combine the empirical findings with a particular definition of convenience food by Brunner et al. (2010) and selected practice theoretical concepts. This particular combination enables us to categorize meal box schemes as a new form of convenience food called convenient food. In addition, results suggest that meal box schemes reduce leftovers from dinner. Meal boxes also influence dinner related activities such as planning ahead in time and grocery shopping, which require less physical and mental effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Food choices are influenced by an individual's attitude towards foods. Food neophobia may be associated with less variety of diets, inadequate nutrient intake and high product failure rate for new food products entering the market. To quantify the extent of these challenges, instruments to measure the food neophobia in different target groups are needed. Several such instruments with significantly different measurement outcomes and procedures have been developed. This review provides an overview and discusses strengths and weaknesses of these instruments.Objective: We evaluate strengths and weaknesses of previously developed instruments to measure neophobia and willingness to try unfamiliar foods.Design: Literature was searched through the databases Web of Science and Google Scholar. We identified 255 studies concerning neophobia and willingness to try unfamiliar foods. Of these, 13 studies encompassing 13 instruments to measure neophobia and willingness to try unfamiliar foods were included in the review. Results are summarized and evaluated with a narrative approach.Results: In the 13 instruments to assess neophobia and willingness to try unfamiliar foods, 113 to 16.644 subjects aged 2-65 years were involved, scales with 3-7 response categories were used and behavioral validation tests were included in 6 studies.Conclusions: Several instruments to measure neophobia and willingness to try unfamiliar foods exist. We recommend selecting one or more among the 13 instruments reviewed in this paper to assess relevant aspects of neophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides insight into differences and similarities in the mindset and motivation of four dietary groups (young self-declared vegetarians, low, medium and high meat-eaters) to support the development of strategies for a general transition to a less meat-based diet. The paper highlights the value of the identity concept for our understanding of both vegetarians and meat eaters. The analysis involves a comparison of the four dietary groups focusing on the strength and the profile of their food-related motivation and their reasons for and against frequent meat eating. To check for the generalizability of the results, the analyses were performed in two samples of adults (aged 18-35) in the Netherlands (native Dutch, n = 357, and second generation Chinese Dutch, n = 350). In both samples, the vegetarians had the same level of food-related motivation as the other groups, but a different motivational profile and distinctive, taste- and animal-welfare related reasons to justify their abstinence from eating meat. The low and medium meat-eaters often considered health a reason to eat meat as well as to moderate meat eating, plus they liked to vary their meals. In these aspects they were different from both the vegetarians and the high meat-eaters. The findings are relevant for (non) governmental organizations that aim to influence dietary choices, as well as for businesses that operate in the market of meat substitutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to review field studies of human male hormones and reproductive behavior. We first discuss life history theory and related conceptual considerations. As illustrations, distinctive features of human male life histories such as coalitional aggression, long-term partnering and paternal care are noted, along with their relevance to overall reproductive effort and developmental plasticity. We address broad questions about what constitutes a human male field study of hormones and behavior, including the kinds of hormone and behavioral measures employed in existing studies. Turning to several sections of empirical review, we present and discuss evidence for links between prenatal and juvenile androgens and sexual attraction and aggression. This includes the proposal that adrenal androgens—DHEA and androstenedione—may play functional roles during juvenility as part of a life-stage specific system. We next review studies of adult male testosterone responses to competition, with these studies emphasizing men's involvement in individual and team sports. These studies show that men's testosterone responses differ with respect to variables such as playing home/away, winning/losing, and motivation. Field studies of human male hormones and sexual behavior also focus on testosterone, showing some evidence of patterned changes in men's testosterone to sexual activity. Moreover, life stage-specific changes in male androgens may structure age-related differences in sexual behavior, including decreases in sexual behavior with senescence. We overview the considerable body of research on male testosterone, partnerships and paternal care, noting the variation in social context and refinements in research design. A few field studies provide insight into relationships between partnering and paternal behavior and prolactin, oxytocin, and vasopressin. In the third section of the review, we discuss patterns, limitations and directions for future research. This includes discussion of conceptual and methodological issues future research might consider as well as opportunities for contributions in under-researched male life stages (juvenility, senescence) and hormones (e.g., vasopressin). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying visual attention plays an important role in understanding human behavior and optimizing relevant multimedia applications. In this paper, we propose a visual attention identification method based on random walks. In the proposed method, fixations recorded by the eye tracker are partitioned into clusters where each cluster presents a particular area of interest (AOI). In each cluster, we estimate the transition probabilities of the fixations based on their point-to-point adjacency in their spatial positions. We obtain the initial coefficients for the fixations according to their density. We utilizing random walks to iteratively update the coefficients until their convergency. Finally, the center of the AOI is calculated according to the convergent coefficients of the fixations. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method which combines the fixations’ spatial and temporal relations, highlights the fixations of higher densities and eliminates the errors inside the cluster. It is more robust and accurate than traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By departing from social norms regarding food behaviors, vegetarians acquire membership in a distinct social group and can develop a salient vegetarian identity. However, vegetarian identities are diverse, multidimensional, and unique to each individual. Much research has identified fundamental psychological aspects of vegetarianism, and an identity framework that unifies these findings into common constructs and conceptually defines variables is needed. Integrating psychological theories of identity with research on food choices and vegetarianism, this paper proposes a conceptual model for studying vegetarianism: The Unified Model of Vegetarian Identity (UMVI). The UMVI encompasses ten dimensions-organized into three levels (contextual, internalized, and externalized)-that capture the role of vegetarianism in an individual's self-concept. Contextual dimensions situate vegetarianism within contexts; internalized dimensions outline self-evaluations; and externalized dimensions describe enactments of identity through behavior. Together, these dimensions form a coherent vegetarian identity, characterizing one's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding being vegetarian. By unifying dimensions that capture psychological constructs universally, the UMVI can prevent discrepancies in operationalization, capture the inherent diversity of vegetarian identities, and enable future research to generate greater insight into how people understand themselves and their food choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial neglect is a characterized by a failure to attend or make movements towards left-sided stimuli. Common paper-and-pencil tasks to diagnose spatial neglect are sensitive to perseverative errors, including additional marks over already cancelled targets and "scribbling" out a target. Here, we examine whether functionally distinct perseverative behaviors are related to spatial neglect. Line cancellation tasks of 45 healthy controls and 220 right-hemisphere stroke survivors were examined for recurrent marks (RM) and continuous marks (CM) perseverations. We found that RM perseveration correlated with neglect severity, while CM perseveration did not. Examination of lesion profiles for the two groups indicated distinct anatomical correlates, with RM lesions overlapping regions implicated in spatial neglect including the rolandic operculum, superior temporal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluative domains such as work and school present daily threats to self-integrity that can undermine performance. Self-affirmation theory asserts that, when threatened, people can perform small but meaningful acts to reaffirm their sense of competency. For instance, brief self-affirmation writing interventions have been shown in numerous studies to boost the academic achievement of those contending with negative stereotypes in school because of their race, gender, or generational status. The current paper tested the protective effects of self-affirmation for students who have the subjective sense that they do not belong in college. Such a feeling is not as visible as race or gender but, as a pervasive part of the students' inner world, might still be as debilitating to the students' academic performance. Among a predominantly White sample of college undergraduates, students who felt a low sense of belonging declined in grade point average (GPA) over three semesters. In contrast, students who reported low belonging, but affirmed their core values in a lab-administered self-affirmation writing activity, gained in GPA over time, with the effect of affirmation sufficiently strong to yield a main effect among the sample as a whole. The affirmation intervention mitigated—and even reversed—the decline in GPA among students with a low sense of belonging in college, providing support for self-affirmation theory's contention that affirmations of personal integrity can lessen psychological threat regardless of its source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely assumed that responses on the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) represent long-term (trait) attitudes to eating behaviour. However, the questionnaire requires agreement with a number of food related statements, and it is possible that some are easier to agree with when assessed hungry than sated. To test this potential state-dependency, participants completed a 100 mm visual analogue scale rating of their current hunger at the time they completed the TFEQ. Data were collected from two cohorts: Cohort 1 (507 women and 119 men) completed both measures on paper, while the hunger rating was computerised in Cohort 2 (179 women). Regression analysis revealed significant effects of rated hunger on scores on the hunger (TFEQ-H) and disinhibition (TFEQ-D) but not restraint (TFEQ-R) subscales, with higher TFEQ-H and TFEQ-D scores when participants were more hungry. In addition, 61 women and two men from Cohort 1 completed the measures on two separate occasions. Here, scores on TFEQ-H were higher on days when these participants were hungrier, but no differences in TFEQ-D or TFEQ-R were found. Overall these data suggest TFEQ-H could be interpreted as an indirect measure of current hunger, that scores on TFEQ-D are partly moderated by hunger but TFEQ-R is a more trait-like measure of restraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dissociation between the processing of verbs and nouns has been debated in light of the Embodied Cognition Theory (EC). The objective of this paper is to verify how action and verb processing deficits of PD patients are modulated by different tasks with different cognitive demands. Action and object lexical-semantic processing was evaluated in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) and cognitively healthy controls through three different tasks (verbal fluency, naming and semantic association). Compared to controls, PD patients presented worse performance in naming actions and in the two semantic association tasks (action/object). Action verbal fluency performance was significantly associated with PD severity whereas object semantic association deficits and noun verbal fluency scores were associated to lower scores in measures of global cognitive functioning. Our data suggest that semantic deficits are related to the type of cognitive processing and this is in the line with more flexible EC accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been substantial growth in neuroimaging studies investigating neural correlates of symbolic (e.g. Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (e.g. dot arrays) number processing. At present it remains contested whether number is represented abstractly, or if number representations in the brain are format-dependent. In order to quantitatively evaluate the available neuroimaging evidence, we used activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to conduct quantitative meta-analyses of the results reported in 57 neuroimaging papers. Consistent with the existence of an abstract representation of number in the brain, conjunction analyses revealed overlapping activation for symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers in frontal and parietal lobes. Consistent with the notion of format-dependent activation, contrast analyses demonstrated anatomically distinct fronto-parietal activation for symbolic and non-symbolic processing. Therefore, symbolic and non-symbolic numbers are subserved by format-dependent and abstract neural systems. Moreover, the present results suggest that regions across the parietal cortex, not just the intraparietal sulcus, are engaged in both symbolic and non-symbolic number processing, challenging the notion that the intraparietal sulcus is the key region for number processing. Additionally, our analyses indicate that regions in the frontal cortex subserve magnitude representations rather than non-numerical cognitive processes associated with number tasks, thereby highlighting the importance of considering both frontal and parietal regions as important for number processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, there were 916,000 Poles living in the UK, making them the largest group of non-UK nationals at 16.5 percent of the population. Though increasingly research has focused on the consequences of this migration for both migrants themselves and the receiving country, little research has looked at food habits. This paper will explore the role of food in the Polish migrant adjustment journey. A qualitative approach was adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with nine Polish migrants. In this study, Polish migrants described the move to a new culture as a time of stress and loneliness. Due to a lack of money, they were forced to eat local food, which exacerbated their unease, as they found it to be tasteless and unhealthy. As soon as their financial situation improved, they reverted to a Polish diet, relying on ingredients brought from home, from London, or more recently, purchased from local Polish shops. This gave them comfort, and all participants acknowledged the vital role of food in their adjustment to life in a new culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two lines of previous research have found that revenge can make people feel worse, contrary to conventional wisdom about the hedonic benefits (i.e. “sweetness”) of revenge (Carlsmith, Wilson, & Gilbert, 2008; Lambert, Peak, Eadeh, & Schott, 2014). However, such findings appear inconsistent with general principles arising from the justice literature, which implies that people should feel satisfaction when they perceive that transgressors have been punished for their misdeeds. In this paper, we use a variety of different measures of affect (mood, linguistic analyses, direct ratings of emotional reactions) to show that revenge is capable of producing both negative (“bitter”) and favorable (“sweet”) reactions. In particular, we find support for a bittersweet model of revenge, in that such acts concurrently elicit genuinely positive appraisals, over and above the elicitation of negative affect. We consider the implications of our research for a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of revenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to better study team behavior and performance, much attention has focused on obtaining team members' mental models for the purposes of analysis and prediction. This paper describes a knowledge capture approach and a supporting graphical tool that together allow for direct acquisition of team mental models in the form of conceptual graphs. We performed acquisition experiments on over one hundred teams where team members used the tool to specify their team process. In addition to acquiring team members' models, non-team observers created “expert” models of the team process for comparison. We obtained good results on accepted measures of recall and precision compared to the “expert” models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many examples of Indigenous success in the current Australian context. However, little is known about how to identify, measure, and emulate these successes more broadly. Partly, this can be attributed to an array of theoretical and methodological limitations that have plagued Indigenous Australian research. The latter include a lack of concerted research being founded upon the voices and agency of Indigenous children, youth, and communities and a lack of large-scale quantitative research. Hence, Indigenous Australian research has often failed to yield a translational evidence-base resulting in meaningful policy and impacts of salience to Indigenous Australians. Simultaneously, positive psychology, with its emphasis on explicating how individuals can thrive and get the most out of life, has become an increasingly important part of contemporary scientific psychology. Rather than replacing conventional psychology, positive psychology adds to it, broadening the study of human experience. Many tenants of positive psychology are aligned with Indigenous conceptualizations of human experience, especially those emphasizing the wholeness and interrelatedness of human experiences. In addition, positive psychology focuses on strengths, and Indigenous leaders, organizations, and community members' prefer approaches, whereby Indigenous strengths are identified so that they can be emulated more broadly. In this paper, we describe our implementation of a reciprocal research partnership model of Indigenous thriving , utilizing a research framework founded upon both positive psychology principles and holistic Indigenous Australian worldviews. This model prioritizes the voices and agency of Indigenous people and proposes that research be conducted in partnership as opposed to research being imposed on Indigenous communities, and it focuses on Indigenous Australian strengths as opposed to deficit approaches. After acknowledging the disadvantages that Indigenous Australians face, we describe this strengths-based approach and how its utilization of Indigenous research methodologies in combination with Western approaches can contribute to a new approach to translational research of salience to Indigenous Australians. We then review extant theory and research that supports elements of the proposed model. We further suggest its potential for practical innovation in Australia and how, if successful, this new approach may also find application in other Indigenous populations and, more broadly, for disenfranchised groups around the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mother-child mealtime interactions during preschool years is an important but overlooked factor when evaluating the influence of parent-child relationships on child eating and weight. This paper describes the validation of the Mutually Responsive Orientation (MRO) coding system adapted for assessing parent-child interactions during food preparation and consumption situations. Home-based mealtimes of 94 mothers and their children (3.03 ± 0.75 years) were filmed at two time points, 12-months apart. Filmed dimensions of mutual mother-child responsiveness, shared positive affect, maternal control relating to food and child compliance were assessed. Objective BMI and maternal reports of parenting, feeding, child eating, diet and child temperament were also collected. Correlations, repeated measures ANOVAs and regressions were performed to examine the validity of MRO variables and their stability across both time points. Validation analysis showed the MRO coding system performed as expected: dyads with higher MRO scores expressed lower control/power assertion, lower child non-compliance, and greater committed compliance. The measure demonstrated sensitivity to specific contexts: maternal responsiveness, mother and child positive affect were higher during food consumption compared to food preparation. Coded dimensions were stable across time points, with the exception of decreases in maternal responsiveness in food consumption and child non-compliance in food preparation. MRO and maternal dimensions were correlated with maternally reported parenting and feeding measures. Maternal responsiveness (inversely) and child responsiveness (positively) were concurrently associated with child fussy eating, and child refusal was prospectively and inversely associated with child fussy eating. Findings suggest the adapted MRO coding system is a useful measure for examining observed parent-child mealtime interactions potentially implicated in preschoolers' eating and weight development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An evolutionary psychological perspective suggests that emotions can be understood as coordinating mechanisms whose job is to regulate various psychological and physiological programs in the service of solving an adaptive problem. This paper suggests that it may also be fruitful to approach hunger from this coordinating mechanism perspective. To this end, I put forward an evolutionary task analysis of hunger, generating novel a priori hypotheses about the coordinating effects of hunger on psychological processes such as perception, attention, categorization, and memory. This approach appears empirically fruitful in that it yields a bounty of testable new hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between intentions and action in weight control is weaker than previously thought, so recent research has called for further investigation of ways to improve weight control that bypass conscious intentions. Priming has been shown to have effects on individual behavior in a variety of contexts by influencing subconscious cognition. This paper investigates the effects of semantic priming using healthy body image, goal-oriented words on food consumption. The moderating role of both restrained eating and gender is investigated. 161 participants were involved in an experiment using a novel version of a scrambled sentence priming game. The outcome measure was the number of kilocalories consumed, examined using a between subjects ANCOVA with priming, gender, restrained eating index, self-reported BMI, and two interaction terms (primingxgender, and primingxrestrained eating index). There was no main effect of priming but there was an interaction of priming with gender. Females consumed significantly fewer kilocalories after being exposed to priming words related to a healthy body image (i.e. "slim", "fit,") compared to females receiving the neutral prime, with a medium effect size (d = 0.58). The body image prime did not significantly affect food intake for males, nor did it have a differential effect on restrained eaters. This study shows that priming can be an effective method for influencing females to reduce food intake, regardless of whether they are restrained or unrestrained eaters. Future studies could investigate whether different priming words related to a male's healthy body image goal (i.e. "buff," "muscles," etc.) would similarly reduce food intake for males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer trust in food system actors is foundational for ensuring consumer confidence in food safety. As food labelling is a direct communication between consumers and food system actors, it may influence consumer perceptions of actor trustworthiness. This study explores the judgements formed about the trustworthiness of the food system and its actors through labelling, and the expectations these judgements are based on. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with 24 Australian consumers were conducted. Theoretical sampling focussed on shopping location, dietary requirements, rurality, gender, age and educational background. The methodological approach used (adaptive theory) enabled emerging data to be examined through the lens of a set of guiding theoretical concepts, and theory reconsidered in light of emerging data. Food labelling acted as a surrogate for personal interaction with industry and government for participants. Judgements about the trustworthiness of these actors and the broader food system were formed through interaction with food labelling and were based on expectations of both competence and goodwill. Interaction with labelling primarily reduced trust in actors within the food system, undermining trust in the system as a whole. Labelling has a role as an access point to the food system. Access points are points of vulnerability for systems, where trust can be developed, reinforced or broken down. For the participants in this study, in general labelling demonstrates food system actors lack goodwill and violate their fiduciary responsibility. This paper provides crucial insights for industry and policy actors to use this access point to build, rather than undermine, trust in food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work discusses how psychological mindsets-orientations that affect how consumers encode, interpret, and respond to information- can help, as well as hurt, portion control. To this end, the current article first provides an overview of the general idea of psychological mindsets. Subsequently, evidence from three distinct areas of mindset research is reviewed: power and powerlessness; fixed and growth; promotion and prevention. For each literature, the relevant mindsets are discussed, and their implications for consumer behavior generally and portion control specifically are illuminated. The paper also provides a discussion of gaps in mindset research with consideration given to how to bridge the theoretical development on mindsets to practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Commensality is a remarkable human act, and tends to be more present among families. Nevertheless, it is possible that eating at the table is being taking for granted when one refers to family meals. Thus, this paper aims to analyze working mothers' discourses about family meals eaten at the table, on the couch and in the bed/bedroom.Methods: The participants were thirty mothers working in public universities of the Brazilian region called Baixada Santista. A qualitative study was conducted, using semi-structured interviews. In the transcripts the words "table", "couch", "bed", "bedroom" were located and the excerpts containing them were extracted and analyzed according to a classical and exploratory content analysis.Results: The table is a significant component of meals that unite the family. While for some the meal at the table is an enjoyable moment, it is a stiff moment for others. Indeed, manners and the notion of hierarchy appeared only for the table. Regarding the couch, it seems that the family chose to eat there, because it is a more casual and relaxed setting. Eating in the bed was related to precarity, intimacy and casualness. In the three settings, watching television was a common practice, replacing or being added to talking.Conclusions: Commensality is such an important practice that appears in different settings and even in precarity contexts. The table emerged as the maximal cornerstone of commensality. However, when it was not present, new arrangements were made. Especially the couch seems to be a new commensal space, less formal and rigid, but able to allow some collective conviviality. Eating in the bed was a less common practice. Finally, the significant role that television assumed in meals is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the inductive biases that allow humans to learn in complex environments has been an important goal of cognitive science. Yet, while we have discovered much about human biases in specific learning domains, much of this research has focused on simple tasks that lack the complexity of the real world. In contrast, video games involving agents and objects embedded in richly structured systems provide an experimentally tractable proxy for real-world complexity. Recent work has suggested that key aspects of human learning in domains like video games can be captured by model-based reinforcement learning (RL) with object-oriented relational models—what we term theory-based RL. Restricting the model class in this way provides an inductive bias that dramatically increases learning efficiency, but in this paper we show that humans employ a stronger set of biases in addition to syntactic constraints on the structure of theories. In particular, we catalog a set of semantic biases that constrain the content of theories. Building these semantic biases into a theory-based RL system produces more human-like learning in video game environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Studies of the public perception of specific food qualities often report conflicting findings, and it is well known that actual market behaviour frequently deviates from the perceptions of food quality expressed in interviews or surveys. Rather than treating these kinds of disparity as the result of data being self-contradictory, this paper, which builds on sociological theories and an empirical study, suggests that the concept of context can contribute to a better understanding of the threatened paradoxes. First, the paper introduces and discusses context as a theoretical and methodological approach in studies of public perceptions of food quality. Second, a case study of the importance of different contexts for Danish public perceptions of meat quality is reported. The study involved a series of focus-group interviews with Danes. Its results demonstrate that public concerns about meat quality vary, depending on whether they relate to meat in an everyday context or production context. It is concluded that the deployment of context as a methodological and interpretive frame improves our understanding of disparities in the reporting of public perceptions of food qualities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Navigation designs in virtual environments often draw on research findings on human navigation behaviors in the real world, in particular the landmark–route–survey spatial knowledge model. Geographers and cognitive psychologists have argued that this model is insufficient to capture the complexity of spatial cognition related to navigation. They have suggested that new theories are needed to understand the integration of various kinds of spatial knowledge and their relationship with spatial activities, such as route planning, route choosing and so on. In virtual environments, users can scale up and down the virtual space to obtain different spatial knowledge and interaction domains. Such flexibility offers an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the relationship between spatial knowledge and spatial action. This paper reports a study on how scaling in virtual environments can improve the integration of spatial knowledge and spatial action. This paper first proposes a multiscale progressive model that couples spatial knowledge and movement across scale in navigation in virtual environments. Then, the paper introduces the design of multiscale environments to support the coupling. Results of an experimental study show the benefits of the coupled spatial knowledge and movement for navigation involving subtasks at different scale levels. In addition to helping better understand the relationship between spatial knowledge and spatial action, this research also gives some insight into designs to support navigation in virtual environments as well as designs to support cross-scale spatial knowledge access in the real world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Knowledge engineering projects deal with a wide range of domains within organizational and academic contexts. A number of elicitation techniques are used to acquire knowledge from experts. Most of these techniques originated within psychology but have been developed by knowledge engineers to become more structured, efficient and systematic. Until now, nobody has tried to re-apply these modified techniques back into psychology. This paper describes work that addresses this matter. It focuses on the psychological knowledge possessed by all people that enables them to deal with everyday problems and make life decisions. We refer to this as ‘personal knowledge’. To take a knowledge engineering approach to personal knowledge, we investigated the use of knowledge elicitation techniques to capture personal knowledge. We describe an empirical study involving ten participants and 80 knowledge acquisition sessions that assessed eight elicitation techniques in this context. The results revealed that each of the techniques showed promise at efficiently capturing and structuring aspects of an individual''s personal knowledge. A content analysis of the acquired knowledge led to the construction of a meta-model (a primitive ontology) of personal knowledge and to the design for a new methodology for psychological research. From the perspective of psychology, the paper shows that knowledge engineering methods can be of value to psychologists. From the perspective of knowledge engineering and the wider computer science community, the paper shows that empirical methods used by psychologists can benefit the development and evaluation of ontologies and elicitation techniques. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]