Bias Toward Research Articles

Exploratory Study: A Modification Training Method of Attentional Bias Toward Safety.

BackgroundThe high sensitivity of individuals toward safety information in production activities, that is, attentional bias toward safety (ABS), can positively predict safe behaviors. It has become a hot topic in current organizational safety behavior research. However, there is no literature on its modification method.MethodsBased on the modified dot-probe task, we designed a modification training method of ABS. The training method required subjects to respond to the location of detection points that presented after safety stimulus and neutral stimulus pictures. Subjects' attentional bias values of safety and neutral pictures were measured during the experiment. Twenty-one students were selected and divided into a control group and training group to gain comparable results.ResultsA novel training method was developed in this study to promote the efficacy of safety stimulus by activating ABS of the subjects. Moreover, repeated trainings and preacquired relative knowledge can enhance this effect.ConclusionThis study develops an experimental approach to evaluate the effectiveness of safety education and safety training, and also provides a new research idea for accident prevention.

Addressing Bias Toward Overweight Patients: a Training Program for First-Year Medical Students.

Physicians may have biases toward overweight patients which likely influences clinical judgments and can lead to disparities in patient care. An increasing number of adults are considered overweight/obese, so it is important to address these biases in training future physicians. Forty-five first-year medical students participated in art museum programs and physician presentations, or were part of the control group. Four validated measures Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale, Attitudes Toward Obese Persons Scale, Fat Phobia Scale, and the Harvard Implicit Association Test (IAT) and researcher-generated questions, measured levels of bias before and after study activities. All participants demonstrated decreased bias. ANCOVA analysis did not reveal significant differences between the experimental and control groups. However, prior to the study 75% of participants had "preference for thin individuals." Forty percent of those participating in study activities indicated a positive change by associating more positive traits with obese body shapes, compared to 29% of the control group. Study activities were rated positively. The art museum was an engaging/relaxing place for reflection on body types and biases. Physicians provided important instruction for normalization/de-stigmatization of patient care. Although there were no significant findings, the study has raised questions for continuing this work. What are most effective ways/times to address weight bias within the medical school curriculum? Could this work extend to other marginalized patient groups? The diversity in art and humanities creates a rich resource for discussing viewpoints and experiences. The small number of participants and the timing/lack of focus in museum sessions are noted as limitations.

Rural-Urban Differences in Physician Bias Toward Patients With Opioid Use Disorder.

Effective treatments for opioid use disorder exist, but rural areas of the United States have a shortage of services offering such treatments. Physician bias toward patients with opioid use disorder can also limit care access, but no studies have assessed whether physician bias is a more acute barrier in rural compared with urban communities. In total, 408 board-certified physicians in Ohio, a state with a high rate of opioid overdoses, completed an online survey examining perspectives on clinical care for patients who misuse opioids. Respondents with missing county-level data were excluded, leaving a total sample of 274. The authors used t tests to determine rural-urban differences in bias, key predictors of bias, and availability of opioid services. Multivariable regression modeling was used to estimate rural-urban differences in bias independent of key bias predictors. Physicians in rural areas (N=37) reported higher levels of bias toward patients with opioid use disorder than did their urban counterparts (N=237). This difference remained statistically significant even after accounting for known bias predictors and physician specialty. Physicians specializing in addiction medicine reported lower bias than did physicians not working in this specialty. Given existing disparities in harm reduction and addiction treatment services in rural areas, increased physician bias in counties lacking these services suggests that rural patients with opioid use disorder face numerous challenges to finding effective treatment. Bias reduction interventions should target health care professionals in rural communities where such efforts may have the most pronounced impact on improving health care access.

The Effect of Alexithymia on Attentional Bias Toward Emotional Stimuli in Depression: An Eye-Tracking Study.

Alexithymia—reflecting deficits in cognitive emotion processing—is highly prevalent in individuals with depressive disorders. Subsequently, mixed evidence for attentional bias is found in these individuals. Alexithymia may be a potential influencing factor for attentional bias in depression. In the current study, 83 currently depressed (CD) and 76 never-depressed (ND) controls completed an eye-tracker task consisting of valenced (non)-social pictures. Alexithymia scores were also included as a moderator as both a continuous and categorical measure (so high vs. low alexithymia). No group difference or moderating effect of alexithymia was found on attentional bias. Thus, alexithymic symptoms, included both dimensionally and categorically, may not influence biased attentional processing in depression compared to ND individuals. Thus, it is important to explore other potential explaining factors for the equivocal results found on biased attentional processing of emotional information in depression.

A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues-An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task.

Attentional bias (AB) has been suggested to contribute to the persistence of substance use behavior. However, the empirical evidence for its proposed role in addiction is inconsistent. This might be due to the inability of commonly used measures to differentiate between attentional engagement and attentional disengagement. Attesting to the importance of differentiating between both components of AB, a recent study using the odd-one-out task (OOOT) showed that substance use was differentially related to engagement and disengagement bias. However, the AB measures derived from the OOOT showed insufficient reliability to be used as a solid measure of individual differences. Therefore, the current study aimed to improve the reliability of the AB measures derived from the OOOT by using more distinct contrast stimuli, adding practice trials, increasing the number of trials, and by having participants perform the task in an alcohol-relevant context. We contrasted the original OOOT with the adapted OOOT (i.e., OOOT-adapt) and assessed AB in low- and high-drinking individuals. Participants were 245 undergraduate students who typically tend to drink either low or high amounts of alcohol. In one condition, AB was measured with the original OOOT in a typical laboratory context, whereas in the other condition, AB was measured with the OOOT-adapt in a bar (i.e., alcohol-relevant) context. The OOOT-adapt showed superior internal consistency, especially for the high-drinking group. Further, specifically the OOOT-adapt differentiated between low- and high-drinking participants showing that high drinkers engaged faster with alcohol cues than did low drinkers. Thus, the OOOT-adapt was found to be a promising candidate to reliably index AB in the context of alcohol use. The OOOT-adapt further showed superior criterion validity as it could differentiate between low- and high-drinking individuals, thereby adding to the evidence that AB might be involved in substance use behavior.

Addressing Patient Bias Toward Health Care Workers.

Addressing Patient Bias Toward Health Care Workers.

Attentional Bias Toward Reproduction-Related Stimuli and Fertility Concerns Among Breast Cancer Survivors

The current study examined whether an attentional bias exists for reproduction-related visual cues among breast cancer survivors and its relationship with fertility concerns and emotional distress. Breast cancer survivors (n = 38) aged 18–40 were compared to 37 healthy women recruited from the general population. Attentional bias was investigated using a visual dot-probe task and response times (RT) were measured. Participants also completed several questionnaires, including the Reproductive Concerns After Cancer Scale (RCACS) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Biased cognitive processing toward reproduction-related stimuli was observed for all young women. However, attentional bias was a significant predictor of concerns about partner disclosure of fertility status, with higher bias scores associated with higher levels of concern only for breast cancer survivors. The desire to have a (or another) biological child was also a significant predictor of higher concerns related with fertility potential for all young women. Higher vigilance regarding reproduction-related cues seems to lead to higher concerns among women with breast cancer history whose fertility is threatened. This result may have important research and clinical implications. Interventions focused on goal-oriented attention self-regulation and problem-solving can help to manage fertility concerns and distress in the course of the disease.

Editorial introductions

Current Opinion in Endocrinology and Diabetes was launched in 1994, with Obesity added to the title in 2007. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The fields of endocrinology and diabetes are divided into 12 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Journal's Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Wendy KuohungWendy KuohungWendy Kuohung is the Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at Boston Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Boston University School of Medicine, USA. Dr Kuohung received her medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine, USA. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University Medical Center, USA and fellowship training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Brigham and Women's Hospital, USA. Dr Kuohung is a Reproductive Scientist Development Program scholar and has received several NIH research grants since 2003. She received the BUSM Resident Award for Excellence in Teaching in Ob/Gyn in 2001 and the Harvard Medical School Teaching Award in Reproductive Endocrinology in 2003. She has published numerous peer-reviewed publications and chapters. Her research interests lie in infections of the placenta and reproductive tract, and she has clinical expertise in advanced minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, female infertility, and fertility preservation. In addition to Boston University Medical Center, her practice sites include Boston IVF in Waltham, MA, USA. Katherine L. RotkerKatherine L. RotkerKatherine L. Rotker is a board-certified urologist and assistant professor of Urology at the University of Massachusetts medical school, USA. She completed both her residency training and fellowship at Brown University, USA, and specializes in male infertility, andrology and men's health. She has published in the areas of hypogonadism and fertility preservation. She also has a special interest in gender bias and has published extensively in this area including “Addressing Patient Gender Bias Toward Trainees in the Field of Andrology”, “What's Gender Got to Do With It: Difference in the Proportion of Traditionally Female Cases Performed by General Urologists of Each Gender” and “Gender Disparities in Industry Payments to Urologists.”

Assessing Attentional Bias Toward Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Cues in Young Adults with Histories of Engaging in Self-Harm

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a prevalent behavior among young people maintained by complex transdiagnostic processes. This study sought to investigate whether NSSI attentional bias—the preferential allocation of attentional resources to environmental NSSI cues—is one such transdiagnostic process experienced by young adults with histories of NSSI. Participants were 39 young adults who completed a dot probe task designed to measure attentional bias to NSSI cues and negatively-valenced cues. Participants also provided NSSI urge and affect ratings during the task. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to determine if participants exhibited a significant attentional bias to NSSI cues and negatively-valenced cues compared to neutral cues, and to test whether NSSI urge ratings following the dot probe task increased from baseline levels. Participants exhibited a significant attentional bias to NSSI cues presented for 200 ms and a significant attentional bias to negative cues presented for 200 ms. The urge to engage in NSSI was elicited by NSSI cues, but not by negative cues. These findings indicate exposure to NSSI cues elicits both attentional bias and NSSI urge, a unique process that differs from a mere generalized attentional bias to negative affective stimuli known to be exhibited by individuals with other forms of psychopathology, such as anxiety or depressive disorders. These results provide preliminary evidence for possible avenues of intervention as it relates to the role of exposure to NSSI cues in the maintenance of NSSI, including managing cue-elicited urge and tolerating changes in affective states.

Individual Variation in Pain Sensitivity and Implicit Negative Bias Toward Pain.

Although previous studies have shown the linkage between pain sensitivity and pain-related cognitions, this study investigated whether individual variation in pain sensitivity is related to implicit negative bias toward pain. Two groups of participants with low (LPS) or high (HPS) pain sensitivity (LPS group: n = 33; HPS group: n = 31) were recruited based on their scores on pain sensitivity questionnaires. This categorization was later confirmed via pain ratings to electrical stimulations. Implicit negative bias toward pain was assessed using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) involving target (pain and nonpain) and attribute (negative and neutral-affect) concept words. Behavioral and event-related potential responses for congruent and incongruent pairings during the IAT were compared between the LPS and HPS groups. Relative to the LPS group, participants in the HPS group exhibited greater D-score (Cohen's d = 0.364, p = .004). Event-related potential results showed that, although P3 amplitudes to congruent and incongruent pairings differed significantly for the HPS group (Cohen's d = 0.757, p < .001), this difference was not observed for the LPS group (Cohen's d = 0.089, p = .29). Mediation analysis further revealed that the IAT effect on P3 responses accounted for 17.58% of the association between pain sensitivity and D-score (confidence interval = [0.009-0.051]). Individual variation in pain sensitivity relates to implicit negative bias. This linkage is partially accounted for by the electrophysiological response that has been related to cognitive process of stimulus evaluation and categorization. Pain treatment might benefit from techniques designed to alter implicit bias.

Addressing Patient Bias Toward Health Care Workers: Recommendations for Medical Centers.

Some patients engage in behavior or use language that demeans clinicians on the basis of their social identity traits, such as race, ethnicity, sex, disability, gender presentation, and sexual orientation, and some patients even request reassignment of involved clinicians. Despite the importance and prevalence of this problem, many medical centers lack an organizational approach for addressing patient conduct. Policy development can be daunting because organizations may encounter various barriers, including reluctance of staff to have difficult conversations about race or other identity traits; uncertainty about what constitutes an appropriate response to the spectrum of demeaning behaviors and who should make this determination; what, if any, support should be offered to targeted clinicians; whether these incidents should be reported and to whom; and whether the medical center's response should differ depending on whether nurses, trainees, or other clinicians are involved. These determinations have important implications for patients' informed consent rights, clinicians' employment rights, and medical centers' obligations to protect patients' health while adhering to workplace antidiscrimination laws and institutional commitments to diversity, equality, and inclusion. This article addresses these considerations and offers guidance to organizations on devising effective policies that meet the needs of medical centers, patients, and health care workers across services and roles, including physicians, nurses, and trainees.

Foreignness or Processing Fluency? On Understanding the Negative Bias Toward Foreign‐Accented Speakers

AbstractThe extent to which negative bias toward foreign‐accented speakers originates from social categorization (in‐group/out‐group categorization) and/or from processing fluency (ease in processing information) is not clear. Some have argued that accent first induces a social identity effect and that processing fluency later modifies the impact of this effect. Using event‐related potentials (ERPs), this registered report tested this hypothesis, looking at the effect of social categorization and processing fluency on sentence processing. Truth evaluation and the ERP data (N400) did not show significant differences across native and foreign speakers. Debriefing scores on social variables (e.g., status) were lower for foreign speakers, and an exploratory analysis revealed a larger P200 (related to acoustic features) for the native than for the foreign speakers. Hence, foreign speakers were not necessarily perceived as less credible, but accent negatively affected the evaluation of speakers on social variables.

Media bias Toward LDP in Japan: An Application of Sentiment Analysis

Media bias Toward LDP in Japan: An Application of Sentiment Analysis

Attentional Bias Toward Cupping Therapy Marks: An Eye-Tracking Study.

ObjectiveDespite the many medical benefits, cupping therapy can be difficult for some patients due to unpleasant marks on the skin. As patients are afraid of the potential painful sensation from cupping therapy, the skin reactions might produce vigilance for treatment as pain-related information. We investigated whether individuals show negative emotions and attentional bias toward pain-related residual marks from cupping therapy on the body using an eye-tracking method.MethodsFifty pain-free volunteers were presented with four different kinds of visual stimulation, such as the back or face region and with or without cupping marks on the skin. A cupping and a control image were presented on one screen with one image on the left side of the screen and the other on the right (locations of the images were counterbalanced across participants). The eye movements of the participants were measured while they viewed the pictures. They completed the Empathy Quotient questionnaire before the experiment and evaluated the unpleasantness level to each image during the task.ResultsImages of the back and face with cupping marks were rated significantly more unpleasant and showed a significant attentional bias (significantly longer percentage fixation time) than the control images (attentional bias score: Back + cupping: 48.1 ± 2.8%; Back: −0.7 ± 3.4%; Face + cupping: 34.5 ± 2.5%; Face: −2.2 ± 2.9%). Individuals with greater empathy exhibited significantly higher unpleasantness (r = 0.323, p < 0.05) and less attentional bias (r = −0.279, p < 0.05) to the images with cupping marks.ConclusionThe skin reactions caused by cupping therapy evoked negative emotional responses as well as attentional bias to the reaction sites. Our findings suggest that the emotional and attentional responses to cupping therapy might reflect potential reluctance to this therapy.

Foxp1 Regulates Neural Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Bias Toward Deep Layer Cortical Fates

The laminar architecture of the mammalian neocortex depends on the orderly generation of distinct neuronal subtypes by apical radial glia (aRG) during embryogenesis. Here, we identify critical roles for the autism risk gene Foxp1 in maintaining aRG identity and gating the temporal competency for deep-layer neurogenesis. Early in development, aRG express high levels ofFoxp1 mRNA and protein, which promote self-renewingcell divisions and deep-layer neuron production. Foxp1 levels subsequently decline during the transitionto superficial-layer neurogenesis. Sustained Foxp1 expression impedes this transition, preserving a population of cells with aRG identity throughout development and extending the early neurogenic period into postnatal life. FOXP1 expression is further associated with the initial formation and expansion of basal RG (bRG) during human corticogenesis and can promote the formation of cells exhibiting characteristics of bRG when misexpressed in the mouse cortex. Together, these findings reveal broad functions for Foxp1 in cortical neurogenesis.

Evaluating Single-Surgeon Bias Toward Recommending Corrective Procedures for Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy Based on Demographic Factors and Comorbidities in a 484-Patient Cohort.

Study Design:Retrospective case series.Objectives:An increasing focus has been placed on removing implicit (unconscious) bias from the surgical selection process. In spine surgery, there is the potential for implicit bias to affect the decision to either operate on a patient or not, given lack of definitive surgical indications for many elective procedures. The objective of this study was to analyze the surgical decision making of a single spine surgeon in an effort to understand surgical decision-making trends based on certain demographic factors.Methods:This was a retrospective study of 484 patients who had undergone a corrective procedure for cervical myelopathy by an orthopedic spine surgeon at our institution. The preoperative modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association score served as the metric of severity of disease for cervical myelopathy. The factors that have been associated with implicit bias that were evaluated were smoking status, narcotic use status, gender, body mass index, and age.Results:Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that even after controlling for comorbidities and confounders, the only variable which predicted likelihood to operate on a patient of a milder symptomology was age (odds ratio [OR] = −0.138; (confidence interval [CI] = −0.034 to −0.006). The other factors (smoking status, narcotic use status, gender, and body mass index) were not associated with surgical decision making.Conclusions:Our study demonstrates absence of association between commonly studied areas of implicit bias and the decision to operate on a patient with milder symptomology at initial presentation of cervical spondylotic myelopathy.

여성 메스암페타민 중독자의 약물 단서에 대한 주의편향

여성 메스암페타민 중독자의 약물 단서에 대한 주의편향

Patient Bias Toward Clinicians Comes in Many Forms

Just as combating healthcare disparities based on patients' racial backgrounds deserve attention, so does patient bias toward clinicians in an

Bias Toward Drug-Related Stimuli Is Affected by Loading Working Memory in Abstinent Ex-Methamphetamine Users.

Background: There is a trade-off between drug-related impulsive process and cognitive reflective process among ex-drug abusers. The present study aimed to investigate the impulsive effects of methamphetamine-related stimuli on working memory (WM) performance by manipulating WM load in abstinent ex-methamphetamine users.Methods: Thirty abstinent ex-methamphetamine users and 30 nonaddict matched control participants were recruited in this study. We used a modified Sternberg task in which participants were instructed to memorize three different sets of methamphetamine-related and non–drug-related words (three, five, or seven words) while performing a secondary attention-demanding task as an interference.Results: Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that reaction times of abstinent ex-methamphetamine users increased during low WM load (three words) compared to the control group (p = 0.01). No significant differences were observed during high WM loads (five or seven words) (both p’s > 0.1). Besides, reaction times of the experimental group during trials with high interference (three, five, or seven words) were not significantly different compared to the control group (p > 0.2).Conclusion: These findings imply that increasing WM load may provide an efficient buffer against attentional capture by salient stimuli (i.e., methamphetamine-related words). This buffer might modify the effect of interference bias. Besides, presenting methamphetamine-related stimuli might facilitate the encoding phase due to bias toward task-relevant stimuli. This finding has an important implication, suggesting that performing concurrent demanding tasks may reduce the power of salient stimuli and thus improve the efficiency of emotional regulation strategies.

Reducing Implicit Bias Toward Non-Native Speakers of English Via Perspective Taking

Using an independent groups design, an experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that a perspective taking exercise would reduce implicit bias against individuals who speak English as a second language. The dependent variable was a brief implicit association test, designed to detect bias against people who are Hispanic. Compared with a no-perspective taking control group, a perspective taking group showed no significant bias on the measure. Implications about how a perspective taking exercise might be applied more broadly are discussed.