Dutch Participants Research Articles

Salience is in the brain of the beholder: ERPs reflect acoustically salient variables

A recent paper by Boswijk, Loerts & Hilton (Boswijk et al., 2020) in this journal discusses how technological advances allow us to explore the cognitive processing of so-called salient linguistic features, and how this could provide us with quantifiable measures of ‘salience’. The paper concludes that, although promising, the used measure of pupil dilation seems to be limited as a measure for linguistic salience, and therefore refers future research to other measures, specifically Event Related Potentials (ERPs). In this paper we therefore replicate the Boswijk et al. study using the ERP measure with the hypothesis that linguistic salience evokes distinct ERP components. We use the same materials that were used in the Boswijk et al. (2020) paper to observe changes in Dutch participants' pupil sizes when listening to stimuli containing salient and non-salient variants of linguistic variables.Using Generalized Additive Mixed Modelling (GAMM), we find distinct responses for five of six stimuli categories. We consider our findings in light of the literature on linguistic salience and discuss how our findings relate to the Boswijk et al. (2020) study. We find that ERPs provide a more fine-grained measure of theoretically salient stimuli.

The association between child maltreatment and problematic alcohol use in adulthood in a large multi-ethnic cohort: the HELIUS study.

There is evidence that child maltreatment is associated with problematic alcohol use later in life. However, previous epidemiological studies that have examined the link between child maltreatment and adult problematic alcohol use have not considered ethnic differences. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between child maltreatment and adult problematic alcohol use among six ethnic groups in the Netherlands, in a large, urban sample. This study used baseline data from the Healthy Life in an Urban Setting (HELIUS) study: a large-scale, multi-ethnic prospective cohort study conducted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Child maltreatment, current problematic alcohol use and several potential confounders (e.g. parental alcohol use) were assessed in participants (N = 23 356) of Dutch, South-Asian Surinamese, African Surinamese, Ghanaian, Turkish and Moroccan origin. With logistic regression analyses, we examined effect modification by ethnicity on the association between child maltreatment and problematic alcohol use. Furthermore, we explored effect modification by ethnicity for specific types of child maltreatment, namely: physical, sexual and psychological abuse and emotional neglect. Effect modification by ethnicity was present. Stronger associations between child maltreatment and problematic alcohol use were found in all ethnic minority groups compared to the Dutch reference group. Particularly strong associations between all four types of child maltreatment and alcohol use problems were found for the Moroccan origin group. This study adds to a growing body of evidence that child maltreatment is associated with problematic alcohol use in adulthood. In addition, our findings indicate that ethnicity impacts this relationship. Although problematic alcohol use was more prevalent in the Dutch origin group, associations with child maltreatment were stronger in ethnic minority groups. Future studies on child maltreatment and alcohol use problems should also examine ethnic disparities and should further unravel how these disparities can be explained.

SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence and correlates of six ethnic groups living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands: a population-based cross-sectional study, June–October 2020

ObjectivesIt has been suggested that ethnic minorities have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19. We aimed to determine whether prevalence and correlates of past SARS-CoV-2 exposure varied between six ethnic...

The use of food swaps to encourage healthier online food choices: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundOnline grocery stores offer opportunities to encourage healthier food choices at the moment that consumers place a product of their choice in their basket. This study assessed the effect of a swap offer, Nutri-Score labeling, and a descriptive norm message on the nutrient profiling (NP) score of food choices in an online food basket. Additionally explored was whether these interventions made it more motivating and easier for consumers to select healthier foods and whether potential effects were moderated by consumer health interest.MethodsHypotheses were tested with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in a simulated online supermarket. Dutch participants (n = 550) chose their preferred product out of six product options for four different categories (breakfast cereals, crackers, pizza, and muesli bars). Participants were randomly allocated to one of eight groups based on the interventions in a 2 (Nutri-Score: present, not present) X 2 (swap offer: present, not present) X 2 (norm message: present, not present) between subject design. The primary outcome was the difference in combined NP score of product choices, for which a lower score represented a healthier product.ResultsSwap offer (B = − 9.58, 95% CI: [− 12.026; − 7.132], Ƞ2 = 0.098) and Nutri-Score labeling (B = − 3.28, 95% CI: [− 5.724; −.829], Ƞ2 = 0.013) significantly improved the combined NP score compared to the control condition (NP score M = 18.03, SD = 14.02), whereas a norm message did not have a significant effect (B = − 1.378, 95% CI [− 3.825; 1.070], Ƞ2 = 0.002). No evidence was found that interventions made it more motivating or easier for consumers to select healthier food, but situational motivation significantly influenced the healthiness score of food choices for both swap offer (b = − 3.40, p < .001) and Nutri-Score (b = − 3.25, p < .001). Consumer health interest only significantly moderated the influence of Nutri-Score on ease of identifying the healthy food option (b = .23, p = .04).ConclusionsSwap offer and Nutri-Score labeling were effective in enhancing healthy purchase behavior in the online store environment.Trial registrationThis study was retrospectively registered in the ISRCTN database on 02-09-2021 (ISRCTN80519674).

How sampling high‐ and low‐quality products affects enjoyment

AbstractConsumers can build expertise by sampling products that are differentiated vertically, in terms of quality, or horizontally, in terms of taste. While the effects of horizontal sampling are well understood, the effects of vertical sampling are understudied. Four experiments (total N = 1080; one preregistered; with US American, British, and Dutch participants) elucidate how vertical sampling (i.e., experiencing products of varying quality) affects enjoyment. We find that vertical sampling strengthens the association between product quality and enjoyment. Gaining experience can thus involve hedonic benefits (i.e., greater enjoyment of high‐quality products) but, perhaps more importantly, also hedonic costs (i.e., lower enjoyment of low‐quality products). Our studies provide evidence for a similarity‐testing account. Effects on enjoyment occur if consumers sampled products of similar (vs. dissimilar) quality as the target. Customer expertise may therefore need to be conceptualized in terms of whether consumers' sampling history covers many (vs. few) different product quality levels. Customer expertise depends less on the overall number of sampled products.

Body image and acceptance of cosmetic surgery in China and the Netherlands: A qualitative study on cultural differences and similarities

There is an established relationship between acceptance of cosmetic surgery and psychological factors, including body image. However, qualitative research among diverse cultural groups is needed to provide a more fine-grained understanding of the influences on women’s attitudes towards cosmetic surgery. In this study, 20 Chinese and 20 Dutch women aged 18-50 years (MChinese = 34.20; MDutch = 34.70) participated in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. We identified three themes that captured the factors that women perceived to foster favorable attitudes towards cosmetic surgery: (a) sociocultural pressures (e.g., normalization of cosmetic surgery, appearance-focused peers); (b) intrapersonal characteristics (e.g., beauty-ideal internalization, social comparison); and (c) benefits of beauty (e.g., attracting men, socioeconomic benefits). Conversely, two themes captured the factors perceived to reduce favorable attitudes towards cosmetic surgery: (a) intrapersonal characteristics (e.g., unconditional body acceptance, self-confidence); and (b) external considerations (e.g., health risks, financial costs). Overall, Chinese and Dutch participants shared many similarities in their opinions about what might affect cosmetic surgery consideration. The most striking cross-cultural differences concerned perceived socioeconomic benefits of beauty (mainly Chinese women) and women’s conceptualization of body appreciation. This study may enable a more comprehensive understanding about the factors influencing Chinese and Dutch women’s attitudes towards cosmetic surgery, and the nuances in these relationships across these cultures.

Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection

The process of news consumption has undergone great changes over the past decade: Information is now available in an ever-increasing amount from a plethora of sources. Recent work suggests that most people would favor algorithmic solutions over human editors. This stands in contrast to public and scholarly debate about the pitfalls of algorithmic news selection—i.e., the so-called “filter bubbles.” This study therefore investigates reasons and motivations which might lead people to prefer algorithmic gatekeepers over human ones. We expect that people have more algorithmic appreciation when consuming news to pass time, entertain oneself, or out of escapism than when using news to keep up-to-date with politics (H1). Secondly, we hypothesize the extent to which people are confident in their own cognitive abilities to moderate that relationship: When people are overconfident in their own capabilities to estimate the relevance of information, they are more likely to have higher levels of algorithmic appreciation, due to the third person effect (H2). For testing those two pre-registered hypotheses, we conducted an online survey with a sample of 268 US participants and replicated our study using a sample of 384 Dutch participants. The results show that the first hypothesis cannot be supported by our data. However, a positive interaction between overconfidence and algorithmic appreciation for the gratification of surveillance (i.e., gaining information about the world, society, and politics) was found in both samples. Thereby, our study contributes to our understanding of the underlying reasons people have for choosing different forms of gatekeeping when selecting news.

Perception of group membership from spontaneous and volitional laughter.

Laughter is a ubiquitous social signal. Recent work has highlighted distinctions between spontaneous and volitional laughter, which differ in terms of both production mechanisms and perceptual features. Here, we test listeners' ability to infer group identity from volitional and spontaneous laughter, as well as the perceived positivity of these laughs across cultures. Dutch (n = 273) and Japanese (n = 131) participants listened to decontextualized laughter clips and judged (i) whether the laughing person was from their cultural in-group or an out-group; and (ii) whether they thought the laughter was produced spontaneously or volitionally. They also rated the positivity of each laughter clip. Using frequentist and Bayesian analyses, we show that listeners were able to infer group membership from both spontaneous and volitional laughter, and that performance was equivalent for both types of laughter. Spontaneous laughter was rated as more positive than volitional laughter across the two cultures, and in-group laughs were perceived as more positive than out-group laughs by Dutch but not Japanese listeners. Our results demonstrate that both spontaneous and volitional laughter can be used by listeners to infer laughers’ cultural group identity.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.

Assortative (online) dating: Insights into partner choice from an experimental dating app

In Western nations, the simultaneous increases in interracial relationships and the use of dating apps such as Tinder have raised questions regarding the influence of dating apps on partner choice. This study examines whether principles of assortative mating – people's tendency to select partners similar to them – apply to dating apps, or whether the reduced cue environment used on these apps leads users to choose more heterogeneous partners. Young (age <28) Dutch participants (N = 522) used a mock dating app in which potential partners were either White or non-White, relatively low or high educated, and possessed an ethnically Dutch or non-Dutch name. Results pointed to educational assortativity for higher-educated participants and indicated that profile pictures, rather than names, influenced the choice of a White target for participants with a Dutch family background.

TAXATION OF HOLDING COMPANIES IN THE NETHERLANDS: A SOUTH AFRICAN OBSERVATION

The South African government has expressed an intention to market itself as a gateway to investment in Africa. This will be achieved inter alia by redesigning certain aspects of the tax laws in order to encourage investment into South Africa in the form of headquarter companies as a special kind of holding companies. The Netherlands has over time adjusted its tax regime to achieve the same goal, viz, to attract holding companies for investment into European countries and globally. Specifically, the Dutch participation exemption and the advance-tax ruling system have been hailed as the key tax instruments that are instrumental in attracting foreign residents to setup holding companies in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the intentional absence of various tax instruments such as controlled foreign-company provisions and exchange-control regulations further enhance the Netherlands’ suitability to host holding companies. In light of the South African government’s intentions to attract holding companies, it is important to study the Dutch system applicable to holding companies to see what attributes, if any, South Africa could also adopt.

Parlez-vous francais?Effects of structure-based versus dynamic-usage-based approaches on oral proficiency

We investigated the effectiveness of two different teaching methods based on two different theoretical views of how languages are learned in oral proficiency after three years of L2 French instruction. The first method is commonly used in the Netherlands and is in line with structure-based (SB) principles, viewing language as a set of grammar rules that need to be explained to achieve accuracy, usually in the L1. The second method aligns with dynamic-usage-based (DUB) principles in that language is viewed as a set of conventionalized routines that are learned through frequent exposure and the L2 is spoken exclusively in class. In a large study (Rousse-Malpat et al., 2019), the DUB method proved more effective, but the effects of method and L2 exposure could not be separated as the amount of L2 exposure is a crucial difference between the methods. However, one SB teacher spoke French almost exclusively, comparable to what happens in a DUB classroom. In this study, we compared this SB group with a DUB group matching in scholastic aptitude. The free oral L2 French production of 41 Dutch participants was measured in terms of holistic and analytical scores. The DUB method was more effective in terms of general proficiency, fluency, grammatical complexity, accuracy of the present tense, and overall L2 use. Our findings suggest that a teaching method in line with DUB principles is more beneficial in achieving overall oral proficiency and explicit grammar is not needed to achieve accuracy.

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of a Nepali version of the Dutch Participation and Activity Inventory for Children and Youth (PAI - CY) with visual impairment

BackgroundVisual impairment is an important cause of disability in children. There is a lack of information on rehabilitation needs and low vision support services for children with visual impairment in Nepal. This is a pilot study designed to translate, culturally adapt and pre-test the Dutch version of the Participation and Activity Inventory for Children and Youth (PAI-CY) with visual impairment aged 7–17 years to develop a Nepali version.Questionnaires (PAI-CY versions for 7–12 and 13–17 years) were translated using standardized methods and were culturally adapted by a panel of experts. They were pretested to evaluate comprehensibility and relevance among six children with visual impairment and blindness. Finally, participants completed a questionnaire evaluation form.ResultsThe translation and cultural adaptation process resulted in the adaptation of nine items to make them suitable for Nepali culture. Most children had comprehensibility problems with some specific items because of vocabulary, sentence structure and the composition of items. Most of the children were satisfied with the questionnaires.ConclusionThe study resulted in the development of a Nepali version of the PAI-CY. We worked with a small group of content experts and a small but representative sample of children which allowed us to use rigorous translation procedures to address language and cultural differences. A population based study has been planned to investigate the psychometric properties of these questionnaires.

Evidence For Selective Adaptation and Recalibration in the Perception of Lexical Stress.

Individuals vary in how they produce speech. This variability affects both the segments (vowels and consonants) and the suprasegmental properties of their speech (prosody). Previous literature has demonstrated that listeners can adapt to variability in how different talkers pronounce the segments of speech. This study shows that listeners can also adapt to variability in how talkers produce lexical stress. Experiment 1 demonstrates a selective adaptation effect in lexical stress perception: repeatedly hearing Dutch trochaic words biased perception of a subsequent lexical stress continuum towards more iamb responses. Experiment 2 demonstrates a recalibration effect in lexical stress perception: when ambiguous suprasegmental cues to lexical stress were disambiguated by lexical orthographic context as signaling a trochaic word in an exposure phase, Dutch participants categorized a subsequent test continuum as more trochee-like. Moreover, the selective adaptation and recalibration effects generalized to novel words, not encountered during exposure. Together, the experiments demonstrate that listeners also flexibly adapt to variability in the suprasegmental properties of speech, thus expanding our understanding of the utility of listener adaptation in speech perception. Moreover, the combined outcomes speak for an architecture of spoken word recognition involving abstract prosodic representations at a prelexical level of analysis.

Measuring Implicit Approach-Avoidance Tendencies towards Food Using a Mobile Phone outside the Lab.

Implicit (‘unconscious’) approach–avoidance tendencies towards stimuli can be measured using the Approach Avoidance Task (AAT). We recently expanded a toolbox for analyzing the raw data of a novel, mobile version of the AAT (mAAT), that asks participants to move their phone towards their face (pull) or away (push) in response to images presented on the phone. We here tested the mAAT reaction time and the mAAT distance in a study with 71 Dutch participants that were recruited online and performed an experiment without coming to the laboratory. The participants used both the mAAT and (explicit) rating scales to respond to photographic images of food. As hypothesized, the rated wanting, rated valence and mAAT reaction time indicated a preference for palatable over unpalatable food, and for Dutch over Asian food. Additionally, as expected, arousal was rated higher for unpalatable than for palatable food, and higher for Dutch than for Asian food. The mAAT distance indicated that the unpalatable food images were moved across larger distances, regardless of the movement direction (pull or push), compared to the palatable food images; and the Dutch food images were moved across larger distances than the Asian food images. We conclude that the mAAT can be used to implicitly probe approach–avoidance motivation for complex images in the food domain. The new measure of mAAT distance may be used as an implicit measure of arousal. The ratings and the mAAT measures do not reflect the exact same information and may complement each other. Implicit measures, such as mAAT variables, are particularly valuable when response biases that can occur when using explicit ratings are expected.

The role of corrective feedback and lexical guidance in perceptual learning of a novel L2 accent in dialogue

AbstractPerceptual learning of novel accents is a critical skill for second-language speech perception, but little is known about the mechanisms that facilitate perceptual learning in communicative contexts. To study perceptual learning in an interactive dialogue setting while maintaining experimental control of the phonetic input, we employed an innovative experimental method incorporating prerecorded speech into a naturalistic conversation. Using both computer-based and face-to-face dialogue settings, we investigated the effect of two types of learning mechanisms in interaction: explicit corrective feedback and implicit lexical guidance. Dutch participants played an information-gap game featuring minimal pairs with an accented English speaker whose /ε/ pronunciations were shifted to /ɪ/. Evidence for the vowel shift came either from corrective feedback about participants’ perceptual mistakes or from onscreen lexical information that constrained their interpretation of the interlocutor’s words. Corrective feedback explicitly contrasting the minimal pairs was more effective than generic feedback. Additionally, both receiving lexical guidance and exhibiting more uptake for the vowel shift improved listeners’ subsequent online processing of accented words. Comparable learning effects were found in both the computer-based and face-to-face interactions, showing that our results can be generalized to a more naturalistic learning context than traditional computer-based perception training programs.

No Self Without Salience: Affective and Self-relevance Ratings of 552 Emotionally Valenced and Neutral Dutch Words

It is unknown how self-relevance is dependent on emotional salience. Emotional salience encompasses an individual's degree of attraction or aversion to emotionally-valenced information. The current study investigated the interconnection between self and salience through the evaluation of emotional valence and self-relevance. 56 native Dutch participants completed a questionnaire assessing valence, intensity, and self-relevance of 552 Dutch nouns and verbs. One-way repeated-measures ANCOVA investigated the relationship between valence and self, age and gender. Repeated-measures ANCOVA also tested the relationship between valence and self with intensity ratings and effects of gender and age. Results showed a significant main effect of valence for self-relevant words. Intensity analyses showed a main effect of valence but not of self-relevance. There were no significant effects of gender and age. The most important finding presents that self-relevance is dependent on valence. These findings concerning the relationship between self and salience opens avenues to study an individual's self-definition.

Identity development across the transition from secondary to tertiary education: A 9-wave longitudinal study

IntroductionThe transition from secondary to tertiary education could be considered as an opportunity for psychological growth and might play a meaningful role in educational identity development during adolescence. In the present study, we aimed to examine how adolescents differ in their educational identity development across the normative transition from secondary to tertiary education in the Netherlands, and if differences between classes could be described at the socio-demographic, academic, individual, and relational level. MethodThe present study conducted parallel process piecewise Latent Class Growth Analyses in a sample of 685 Dutch participants (47.0% girls, Mage = 17.29 years old at the time of transition). Longitudinal data from adolescent (bi)annual surveys were centered around the final year of secondary school, with 4 years before the final year and 4 years after. ResultsHeterogeneity in the development of identity commitment and reconsideration across the transition was best classified by a 4-class solution. These four classes were labelled Increasing Self-Certainty, Stable Self-Certainty, Post-Transition Uncertainty, and Enduring Uncertainty. Adolescents’ patterns of identity development were meaningfully associated with sociodemographic, academic, individual, and relational characteristics. ConclusionThe present study discusses the merits of taking a person-centered approach, which indicated adaptive development for the majority of adolescents but also captured distinct patterns of struggles in educational identity development across the transition for a sizable minority.

Perception and Evaluation of 23 Positive Emotions in Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

Positive emotions are linked to numerous benefits, but not everyone appreciates the same kinds of positive emotional experiences. We examine how distinct positive emotions are perceived and whether individuals’ perceptions are linked to how societies evaluate those emotions. Participants from Hong Kong and Netherlands rated 23 positive emotions based on their individual perceptions (positivity, arousal, and socially engaging) and societal evaluations (appropriate, valued, and approved of). We found that (1) there were cultural differences in judgments about all six aspects of positive emotions; (2) positivity, arousal, and social engagement predicted emotions being positively regarded at the societal level in both cultures; and (3) that positivity mattered more for the Dutch participants, although arousal and social engagement mattered more in Hong Kong for societal evaluations. These findings provide a granular map of the perception and evaluation of distinct positive emotions in two cultures and highlight the role of cultures in the understanding how positive emotions are perceived and evaluated.

When cultures clash: Links between perceived cultural distance in values and attitudes towards migrants

Migration elicits mixed reactions from the host‐society. Negative responses towards migrants seem to emerge when migrants are perceived as culturally different. We investigated when and why perceived cultural distance (PCD) is associated with negative migrant attitudes by focussing on differences in cultural values. We expected that PCD in social values (focus on relationships and society) should be more strongly associated with attitudes towards migrants than personal values (individual needs and gains) and should be mediated by symbolic threat. In two quasi‐experimental studies (N = 200, N = 668) with Dutch participants (host‐society), we simultaneously tested effects of respondents’ perception of Dutch values, their perceptions of migrant values (of Moroccan, Syrian, Polish ethnic origin), and PCD between Dutch‐migrant value on attitudes. For all migrant groups, PCD in social values was associated with more negative attitudes, less tolerance, and less policy support regarding migrants; this was mediated by symbolic threat. These links were weaker for personal values.

Does the neighbourhood food environment contribute to ethnic differences in diet quality? Results from the HELIUS study in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The aim of the current study was to establish whether the neighbourhood food environment, characterised by the healthiness of food outlets, the diversity of food outlets and fast-food outlet density within a 500 m or 1000 m street network buffer around the home address, contributed to ethnic differences in diet quality. Cross-sectional cohort study. Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Data on adult participants of Dutch, South-Asian Surinamese, African Surinamese, Turkish and Moroccan descent (n total 4728) in the HELIUS study were analysed. The neighbourhood food environment of ethnic minority groups living in Amsterdam is less supportive of a healthy diet and of less diversity than that of participants of Dutch origin. For example, participants of Turkish, Moroccan and South-Asian Surinamese descent reside in a neighbourhood with a significantly higher fast-food outlet density (≤1000 m) than participants of Dutch descent. However, we found no evidence that neighbourhood food environment characteristics directly contributed to ethnic differences in diet quality. Although ethnic minority groups lived in less healthy food environments than participants of ethnic Dutch origin, this did not contribute to ethnic differences in diet quality. Future research should investigate other direct or indirect consequences of residing in less supportive food environments and gain a better understanding of how different ethnic groups make use of their neighbourhood food environment.