Congruency Effect Research Articles

Mathematical anxiety is associated with reduced visuospatial working memory: the impact of emotional and spatial distracting information

AbstractThe attentional control theory posits that anxiety may shift attention towards threatening stimuli and/or affect general attentional control mechanisms. The spatial theory suggests that mathematical anxiety (MA) originates from weakness in spatial processing mechanisms such as visuospatial working memory. Accordingly, MA may negatively influence (1) attentional mechanisms in anxious states and/or (2) general attentional control or working memory mechanisms. The current study examined the associations between MA, attention mechanisms, and working memory. To this end, we validated a new set of math-related pictures and used a math-related modified version of a flanker task. Two groups of college students with low (N = 35) and high (N = 31) MA were asked to perform a central task and ignore math-related and neutral distracting pictures. After we controlled for general anxiety, participants with high MA exhibited a larger location congruency effect in the modified flanker task. Moreover, visuospatial short-term and working memory fully mediated the relationship between MA and performances. These results suggest that general visuospatial deficits constitute the main difficulty among individuals with MA. Taken together, the findings shed light on the unique difficulty of individuals with HMA ignoring distraction, and suggest that reduced visuospatial abilities are at the basis of this difficulty. These findings are discussed in the context of their theoretical and treatment-related potential implications.

The interactive effect of integral and incidental emotions on creative metaphor performance

Prior research on the relationship between emotion and creativity has mostly focused on the influence of incidental emotions on creative performance. The present study aimed to explore how incidental and integral emotions interact to influence the generation of creative metaphors from the perspective of the affect priming theory. In the study, we applied video clips to induce participants’ positive or negative incidental emotions while selecting metaphors that ask participants to describe personal emotional experiences with positive or negative valence to manipulate integral emotions. Participants generated several metaphors immediately after watching the video clips. The study found that participants who watched happy (sad) videos generated the most creative metaphors when expressing positive (negative) emotional experiences, which suggests that integral and incidental emotions interact to influence the generation of creative metaphors through the emotion congruency effect. The results are further discussed from the perspective of affect priming theory.

Construal level theory and online reviews: A search stage perspective

Drawing on Construal Level Theory, we propose that consumer search stage (i.e., screening or selecting), not psychological distance, interacts with review features to influence review helpfulness. Through an online experiment, we test the interaction effects between textual concreteness, review valence and consumer search on review helpfulness at close and far temporal distances. Our findings support a congruency effect between consumer search stage and textual concreteness, showing that positive, abstract reviews are more helpful in the screening stage, while negative, concrete reviews are more helpful in the selection stage. Conversely, temporal distance had a negligible effect. Our results suggest that consumer search stages may confound previous findings on psychological distance and review helpfulness and have practical implications regarding review relevance for consumers.

성인대학생의 학습전략이 학업성취도에 미치는 영향: 직무-전공 일치 여부에 따른 조절효과를 중심으로

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of learning strategies of university adult students on academic achievement and to verify the moderating effect of job-major match in the relationship. Methods In order to achieve the research purpose, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted on the data collected from 145 first-year students enrolled in the College of Adult Learners at H University, located in the Seoul metropolitan area. The data were based on learning strategy scales and academic achievement gathered from liberal arts courses that were offered and operated to support first-year students' adjustment to university life. Results The results were as follows: First, the five factors that constitute learning strategies, including cognitive strategy, learning motivation, academic anxiety, time management, and resource utilization, all showed statistically significant relationships with academic achievement. Second, the moderating effect of job-major congruence was statistically verified in the relationship between cognitive strategy, learning motivation, and time management among the five components of learning strategies and academic achievement. In the case of academic anxiety and resource utilization, the moderating effect of job-major congruence was found to be statistically insignificant. Conclusions This study examined the relationship between university adult students' learning strategies and academic achievement, and confirmed how the job-major match moderates the relationship. Through this, it was suggested that consideration of current job and major is necessary for learning support for university adult students.

Pupil size correlates with heart rate, skin conductance, pulse wave amplitude, and respiration responses during emotional conflict and valence processing.

Pupil size is a non-invasive index for autonomic arousal mediated by the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. While pupil size and its derivative (velocity) are increasingly used as indicators of arousal, limited research has investigated the relationships between pupil size and other well-known autonomic responses. Here, we simultaneously recorded pupillometry, heart rate, skin conductance, pulse wave amplitude, and respiration signals during an emotional face-word Stroop task, in which task-evoked (phasic) pupil dilation correlates with LC-NE responsivity. We hypothesized that emotional conflict and valence would affect pupil and other autonomic responses, and trial-by-trial correlations between pupil and other autonomic responses would be observed during both tonic and phasic epochs. Larger pupil dilations, higher pupil size derivative, and lower heart rates were observed in the incongruent condition compared to the congruent condition. Additionally, following incongruent trials, the congruency effect was reduced, and arousal levels indexed by previous-trial pupil dilation were correlated with subsequent reaction times. Furthermore, linear mixed models revealed that larger pupil dilations correlated with higher heart rates, higher skin conductance responses, higher respiration amplitudes, and lower pulse wave amplitudes on a trial-by-trial basis. Similar effects were seen between positive and negative valence conditions. Moreover, tonic pupil size before stimulus presentation significantly correlated with all other tonic autonomic responses, whereas tonic pupil size derivative correlated with heart rates and skin conductance responses. These results demonstrate a trial-by-trial relationship between pupil dynamics and other autonomic responses, highlighting pupil size as an effective real-time index for autonomic arousal during emotional conflict and valence processing.

Where does the processing of size meet the processing of space?

Previous studies revealed an S-R compatibility effect between physical stimulus size and response location, with faster left (right) responses to small (large) stimuli, respectively, as compared to the reverse assignments. Here, we investigated the locus of interactions between the processing of size and spatial locations. In Experiment 1, we explored whether stimulus size and stimulus location interact at a perceptual level of processing when responses lack spatiality. The stimuli varied on three feature dimensions (color, size, location), and participants responded vocally to each feature in a separate task. Most importantly, we failed to observe a size-location congruency effect in the color-naming task where S-R compatibility effects were excluded. In Experiment 2, responses to color were spatial, that is, key-presses with the left and right hand. With these responses there was a congruency effect. In addition, we tested the interaction of the size-location compatibility effect with the Simon effect, which is known to originate at the stage of response selection. We observed an interaction between the two effects only with a subsample of participants with slower reaction times (RTs) and a larger size-location compatibility effect in a control condition. Together, the results suggest that the size-location compatibility effect arises at the response selection stage. An extended leaky, competing accumulator model with independent staggered impacts of stimulus size and stimulus location on response selection fits the data of Experiment 2 and specifies how the size-location compatibility effect and the Simon effect can arise during response selection.

Susceptibility to online misinformation: A systematic meta-analysis of demographic and psychological factors

Nearly five billion people use and receive news through social media and there is widespread concern about the negative consequences of misinformation on social media (e.g., election interference, vaccine hesitancy). Despite a burgeoning body of research on misinformation, it remains largely unclear who is susceptible to misinformation and why. To address this, we conducted a systematic individual participant data meta-analysis covering 256,337 unique choices made by 11,561 US-based participants across 31 experiments. Our meta-analysis reveals the impact of key demographic and psychological factors on online misinformation veracity judgments. We also disentangle the ability to discern between true and false news (discrimination ability) from response bias, that is, the tendency to label news as either true (true-news bias) or false (false-news bias). Across all studies, participants were well above-chance accurate for both true (68.51%) and false (67.24%) news headlines. We find that older age, higher analytical thinking skills, and identifying as a Democrat are associated with higher discrimination ability. Additionally, older age and higher analytical thinking skills are associated with a false-news bias (caution). In contrast, ideological congruency (alignment of participants' ideology with news), motivated reflection (higher analytical thinking skills being associated with a greater congruency effect), and self-reported familiarity with news are associated with a true-news bias (naïvety). We also find that experiments on MTurk show higher discrimination ability than those on Lucid. Displaying sources alongside news headlines is associated with improved discrimination ability, with Republicans benefiting more from source display. Our results provide critical insights that can help inform the design of targeted interventions.

The gender congruency effect in sentence context depends on gender transparency and L2 proficiency: A self-paced reading study with Polish–German bilinguals

Aims and objectives: The gender congruency effect, and so the facilitated retrieval of grammatical gender for translation equivalents of the same gender, has been documented in the recognition of isolated words in L2. Our study investigates whether this effect extends to word recognition in sentence context and whether it is modulated by gender transparency and L2 proficiency. Design/methodology/approach: Sixty late unbalanced Polish–German bilinguals completed a self-paced reading task with noun phrases manipulated for lexical gender congruency with L1 (congruent, incongruent) and noun-internal gender transparency in L2 (transparent, non-transparent). L2 proficiency was assessed through the Dialang test. Data and analysis: Reading times on the noun were analysed by means of linear mixed-effects modelling. Findings/conclusion: Results showed a gender congruency effect that was limited to transparent nouns and which was greater at lower L2 proficiency levels. Originality: The study is the first to investigate the gender congruency effect in the recognition of nouns embedded in grammatical sentences. Significance/implications: The study shows that the presence of a contextualising sentence does not eliminate the cross-language effects of grammatical gender. Furthermore, it provides first evidence that individual noun-internal gender cues modulate the gender congruency effect. The findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between gender transparency at the micro-level and the degree of activation of gender values.

The Nexus of Influencers and Purchase Intention: Does Consumer Brand Co-Creation Behavior Matter?

The advancement of social media has led to the rise of influencers who are powerful in shaping consumer purchasing behavior. While influencer attributes play a role in shaping consumer behavior, little attention has been paid to the interplay of the attributes of social presence, influencer congruence with the endorsed brand, and purchasing intention. Thus, the current study investigates the effect of social presence and influencer congruence on purchase intention through consumer brand co-creation behavior. A survey approach was used to collect data from consumers who actively interact with at least one social media influencer in Tanzania. Using a sample size of 422, PLS-SEM was applied to test the hypotheses. The results showed that social presence and congruence affected consumer brand co-creation behavior, which subsequently affected purchase intention. Unlike influencer congruence, the social presence of the influencer did not directly affect purchase intention. Furthermore, the study holds that stimulating consumer brand co-creation behavior catalyzes the effects of social presence and influencer congruence on purchase intention. Therefore, in designing an influencer marketing campaign, selecting an influencer with social presence and congruence attribute is pivotal for the effectiveness of the influencer marketing strategy. Marketers should be relational rather than transaction-focused when designing and implementing the influencer marketing strategy.

The (in)congruence effects of organizational green compensation and employee green conscientiousness on pro-environmental behavior: evidence from China.

In past decades, the Chinese government has enacted a series of ecological policies to encourage organizations, the pivotal institutional agents implementing national policies, and employees, the crucial micro-actors engaging in ecological construction, to bring about employee pro-environmental behavior (EPEB) which is the foundation to realize nation's ecological strategies. Yet, the effectiveness of a widely adopted organizational-level green management practice "organizational green compensation" (OGC) and a typical individual-level green personality trait "employee green conscientiousness" (EGC) have been explored alone, ignoring the prevalence of various OGC-EGC combinations and failing to clarify the potential influences of OGC-EGC (in)congruence on EPEB. Our research endeavors to address this limitation by resolving the following two problems: What are the (in)congruence effects of OGC and EGC on EPEB in the Chinese context? And what is the underlying mechanism? Study 1 surveyed EGC, OGC, and EPEB among 778 subordinate-supervisor dyads and sought to test two single effects and three sets of comparisons between and within the congruence and incongruence effects using the methodology of polynomial regression and response surface analysis. Study 2 measured EGC, OGC, employee environmental commitment (EEC), and EPEB among 713 subordinate-supervisor dyads and attempted to verify the mediating role of EEC employing the block variable approach. Study 1 found that OGC and EGC independently, positively promote EPEB (ß = 0.39, p < 0.001; ß = 0.24, p < 0.001), the OGC-EGC congruence relates to higher EPEB compared to the OGC-EGC incongruence (p11 = 3.77, 95% CI = [0.71, 23.04]; p10 = - 0.65, 95% CI = [- 25.80, 0.42]; [α3 -α4 +α5] = - 0.24, 95% CI = [- 0.41, - 0.07]), the EPEB level is higher when the OGC-EGC congruence is at a high rather than low level ([α1 +α2] = 0.51, 95% CI = [0.39, 0.62]), and the EPEB level under the high-low combination is lower than that under the low-high combination ([α1-α2] = - 0.20, 95% CI = [- 0.38, - 0.02]). Study 2 further confirmed that EEC plays a mediating role during the OGC-EGC-EPEB relationships (the indirect effect = 0.14, 95% CI = [0.08, 0.20]). This research substantiates the value of OGC-EGC (in)congruence to fully understand EPEB variations such that, EPEB will be boosted (hampered) when OGC is (in)congruent with EGC; a higher congruence between OGC and EGC leads to higher EPEB, the high-low combination of OGC and EGC results in lower EPEB compared to the low-high combination, and EEC plays a mediating role in the above relationships, offering the Chinese evidence and providing theoretical and practical implications for the optimization of the OGC-EGC combinations to strengthen EPEB.

Impact of value-consciousness and brand-self value congruity on sustainable luxury brands and commodities

ABSTRACT Drawing on Self-Congruity and Equity Theories, this research examines the distinct impacts of communicating uniform sustainability initiatives for luxury brands versus commodity brands. This paper introduces a conceptual model that highlights the moderated mediation effect of brand-self value congruity and the three-way moderating effect of value-consciousness on the adverse impact of sustainability on luxury versus commodity brands. The findings from two experimental studies demonstrate that communicating sustainability initiatives has distinct effects on different brands. Specifically, sustainability initiatives enhance the evaluations of commodity brands but diminish the evaluations of luxury brands. The negative impact of sustainability on luxury brands is mediated by brand-self congruity. Moreover, value-consciousness moderates the relationship between sustainability and luxury brands, such that low value-conscious consumers tend to value sustainable luxury brands less than their non-sustainable counterparts, unlike high value-conscious consumers. These findings offer valuable managerial and practical insights for brand managers and communication strategists considering adopting sustainability communication strategies.

Advertisements: The Congruity Effect with the Communion-Self and Pursuit-Self

Advertisements: The Congruity Effect with the Communion-Self and Pursuit-Self

Beyond the Positivity Bias: The Processing and Integration of Self-Relevant Feedback Is Driven by Its Alignment With Pre-Existing Self-Views.

Our self-concept is constantly faced with self-relevant information. Prevailing research suggests that information's valence plays a central role in shaping our self-views. However, the need for stability within the self-concept structure and the inherent alignment of positive feedback with the pre-existing self-views of healthy individuals might mask valence and congruence effects. In this study (N = 30, undergraduates), we orthogonalized feedback valence and self-congruence effects to examine the behavioral and electrophysiological signatures of self-relevant feedback processing and self-concept updating. We found that participants had a preference for integrating self-congruent and dismissing self-incongruent feedback, regardless of its valence. Consistently, electroencephalography results revealed that feedback congruence, but not feedback valence, is rapidly detected during early processing stages. Our findings diverge from the accepted notion that self-concept updating is based on the selective incorporation of positive information. These findings offer novel insights into self-concept dynamics, with implications for the understanding of psychopathological conditions.

The psychology of pandemic policy support: unraveling the complex interplay of personal values and value congruence across 20 European countries

ObjectivesWe explored the roles of personal values and value congruence—the alignment between individual and national values—in predicting public support for pandemic restrictions across 20 European countries. Study designCross-sectional study. MethodsWe analyzed multinational European survey data (N = 34,356) using Schwartz's values theory and person-environment fit theory. Multilevel polynomial regression was employed to assess the linear and curvilinear effects of personal values on policy support. Multilevel Euclidean similarity analysis and response surface analysis were conducted to evaluate the impact of value congruence and delineate nuanced congruence patterns. ResultsFindings revealed that extreme levels of security, conformity, stimulation, hedonism, and achievement values were associated with decreased policy support. Value congruence with security, conformity, and benevolence increased support, while congruence with stimulation, hedonism, and achievement reduced it. High congruence between personal and national social focus values significantly boosted policy support. Extreme mismatches in self-direction values amplified support. Societal power exceeding personal power also increased support. Matched levels of hedonism motivated greater support, while stimulation and achievement value (in)congruence showed little impact. ConclusionsWe highlight the differential effects of personal values and value congruence on public attitudes toward pandemic restrictions. The findings underscore the importance of considering the interplay between individual and societal values when designing and implementing effective pandemic response strategies.

Movement Strategy Moderates the Effect of Spatially Congruent Cues on the Stability of Rhythmic Bimanual Finger Movements.

Spatially congruent cues increase the speed of bimanual reach decisions compared with abstract symbolic cues, particularly for asymmetric reaches. Asymmetric rhythmic bimanual movements are less stable than symmetric rhythmic movements, but it is not well understood if spatially congruent cues similarly increase the stability of asymmetric rhythmic bimanual movements. To address this question, in Experiment 1, participants performed symmetric and asymmetric bimanual rhythmic finger tapping movements at different movement frequencies in time with flickering spatially congruent and abstract symbolic stimuli. As expected, symmetric movements were more stable. Spatially congruent cues similarly increased the stability of symmetric and asymmetric movements compared with abstract symbolic cues. The benefits of spatial congruence and movement symmetry were restricted to high movement frequencies (>2 Hz). To better understand if the emergence of these effects at high movement frequencies was driven by a change in movement strategy, in Experiment 2, video of the hands was concurrently recorded during task performance. Markerless motion tracking software revealed that participants switched from discontinuous to continuous movement strategies with increasing movement frequency. Because discontinuous and continuous movements are thought to be controlled by distinct neurocognitive systems, this might explain why the beneficial effects of spatial congruence and response symmetry emerged only at high movement frequencies. Overall, results from the current study indicate that the perceptual quality of the stimulus use to cue movement frequency can have powerful effects on the stability of rhythmic bimanual movements, but that these effects may depend on whether discontinuous or continuous movement strategies are selected.

ALDH1A3 Contributes to Radiation-Induced Inhibition of Self-Renewal and Promotes Proliferative Activity of p53-Deficient Glioblastoma Stem Cells at the Onset of Differentiation.

ALDH1A3 is a marker for mesenchymal glioblastomas characterized by a greater degree of aggressiveness compared to other major subtypes. ADH1A3 has been implicated in the regulation of stemness and radioresistance mediated by glioblastoma stem cells. Mechanisms by which ALDH1A3 promotes malignant progression of glioblastoma remain elusive posing a challenge for rationalization of ALDH1A3 targeting in glioblastoma, and it is also unclear how ALDH1A3 regulates glioblastoma cells stemness. Usage of different models with diverse genetic backgrounds and often unknown degree of stemness is one possible reason for discrepant views on the role of ALDH1A3 in glioblastoma stem cells. This study clarifies ALDH1A3 impacts on glioblastoma stem cells by modelling ALDH1A3 expression in an otherwise invariable genetic background with consideration of the impacts of inherent plasticity and proliferative changes associated with transitions between cell states. Our main finding is that ALDH1A3 exerts cell-state dependent impact on proliferation of glioblastoma stem cells. We provide evidence that ALDH1A3 augments radiation-induced inhibition of self-renewal and promotes the proliferation of differentiated GSC progenies. Congruent effects ALDH1A3 and radiation on self-renewal and proliferation provides a framework for promoting glioblastoma growth under radiation treatment.

Differential modulations of theta and beta oscillations by audiovisual congruency in letter-speech sound integration.

The integration of visual letters and speech sounds is a crucial part of learning to read. Previous studies investigating this integration have revealed a modulation by audiovisual (AV) congruency, commonly known as the congruency effect. To investigate the cortical oscillations of the congruency effects across different oscillatory frequency bands, we conducted a Japanese priming task in which a visual letter was followed by a speech sound. We analyzed the power and phase properties of oscillatory activities in the theta and beta bands between congruent and incongruent letter-speech sound (L-SS) pairs. Our results revealed stronger theta-band (5-7Hz) power in the congruent condition and cross-modal phase resetting within the auditory cortex, accompanied by enhanced inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) in the auditory-related areas in response to the congruent condition. The observed congruency effect of theta-band power may reflect increased neural activities in the left auditory region during L-SS integration. Additionally, theta ITPC findings suggest that visual letters amplify neuronal responses to the following corresponding auditory stimulus, which may reflect the differential cross-modal influences in the primary auditory cortex. In contrast, decreased beta-band (20-35 Hz) oscillatory power was observed in the right centroparietal regions for the congruent condition. The reduced beta power seems to be unrelated to the processing of AV integration, but may be interpreted as the brain response to predicting auditory sounds during language processing. Our data provide valuable insights by indicating that oscillations in different frequency bands contribute to the disparate aspects of L-SS integration.

The value of augmented reality: exploring hedonic and utilitarian augmented reality experiences

PurposeThe current study explores two distinct augmented reality (AR) experiences (hedonic and utilitarian) to determine the drivers of satisfaction and word-of-mouth (WOM). Specifically, this research investigates how different AR characteristics (person–virtual environment (VE) interaction, novelty) impact reality congruence and immersion, which ultimately lead to satisfaction and WOM.Design/methodology/approachWe tested the proposed model using a US consumer sample (N = 401) by applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to reveal differences across the AR experiences regarding the mediating effects of immersion and reality congruence. Furthermore, we administered PLS-SEM multigroup analysis to identify differences for hedonic and utilitarian AR experiences.FindingsThis study provides important insights into the use of AR to create value-driven consumer experiences and outcome behaviors. Interacting with the virtual environment (VE) enhances immersion for hedonic AR experiences while it leads to higher levels of reality congruence for utilitarian AR experiences. While established relationships such as novelty to immersion continue to be significant, new constructs such as person–VE interaction and reality congruence immerge as stronger influences.Originality/valueTo date, most studies have implemented apps such as IKEA Place and have considered value as one comprehensive construct. However, limited research has examined differences in hedonic and utilitarian AR experiences. The current findings enhance the understanding of utilizing value-driven consumer experiences within the AR context to achieve desirable outcome behaviors.

Crossmodal correspondence of elevation/pitch and size/pitch is driven by real-world features.

Crossmodal correspondences are consistent associations between sensory features from different modalities, with some theories suggesting they may either reflect environmental correlations or stem from innate neural structures. This study investigates this question by examining whether retinotopic or representational features of stimuli induce crossmodal congruency effects. Participants completed an auditory pitch discrimination task paired with visual stimuli varying in their sensory (retinotopic) or representational (scene integrated) nature, for both the elevation/pitch and size/pitch correspondences. Results show that only representational visual stimuli produced crossmodal congruency effects on pitch discrimination. These results support an environmental statistics hypothesis, suggesting crossmodal correspondences rely on real-world features rather than on sensory representations.

A comment on the Revised Diffusion Model for Conflict tasks (RDMC).

In conflict tasks, such as the Simon, Eriksen flanker, or Stroop task, a relevant and an irrelevant feature indicate the same or different responses in congruent and incongruent trials, respectively. The congruency effect refers to faster and less error-prone responses in congruent relative to incongruent trials. Distributional analyses reveal that the congruency effect in the Simon task becomes smaller with increasing RTs, reflected by a negative-going delta function. In contrast, for other tasks, the delta function is typically positive-going, meaning that congruency effects become larger with increasing RTs. The Diffusion Model for Conflict tasks (DMC; Ulrich et al., Cognitive Psychology, 78, 148-174, 2015) accounts for this by explicitly modeling the information accumulated from the relevant and the irrelevant features and attributes negatively- versus positively-sloped delta functions to different peak times of a pulse-like activation resulting from the task-irrelevant feature. Because the underlying function implies negative drift rates, Lee and Sewell (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 31(5), 1-31, 2024) recently questioned this assumption and suggested their Revised Diffusion Model for Conflict tasks (RDMC). We address three issues regarding RDMC compared to DMC: (1) The pulse-like function is not as implausible as Lee and Sewell suggest. (2) RDMC itself comes with a questionable assumption that different parameters are required for congruent and incongruent trials. (3) Moreover, we present data from a new parameter recovery study, suggesting that RDMC lacks acceptable recovery of several parameters (in particular compared to DMC). In this light, we discuss RDMC as not (yet) a revised version of DMC.