Processing Of New Information Research Articles

Public service users’ responses to performance information: Bayesian learning or motivated reasoning?

Abstract Although performance information is widely promoted to improve the accountability of public service provision, behavioral research has revealed that motivated reasoning leads recipients to update their beliefs inaccurately. However, the reasoning processes of service users have been largely neglected. We develop a theory of public service users’ motivated reasoning about performance information stemming from their identification with the organization providing their services. We address a significant challenge to studying motivated reasoning—that widely used existing research designs cannot rule out alternative cognitive explanations, especially Bayesian learning, such that existing findings could be driven by strong prior beliefs rather than biased processing of new information. We use a research design incorporating Bayesian learning as a benchmark to identify departures from accuracy motivated reasoning process. We assess the empirical implications of the theory using a preregistered information provision experiment among parents with children using public schools. To assess their identity-based motivated reasoning, we provide them with noisy, but true, performance information about their school. Overall, we find no evidence of directionally motivated reasoning. Instead, parents change their beliefs in response to performance feedback in a way that largely reflects conservative Bayesian learning. Performance reporting to service users is less vulnerable to motivational biases in this context than suggested by the general literature on motivated reasoning. Furthermore, exploratory findings show that performance information can correct erroneous beliefs among misinformed service users, suggesting that investment in reporting performance to service users is worthwhile to inform their beliefs and improve accountability.

Curiosity Satisfaction Increases Event-related Potentials Sensitive to Reward.

Successful learning depends on various factors such as depth of processing, motivation, or curiosity about information. A strong drive to learn something or the expectation of receiving a reward can be crucial to enhance learning. However, the influence of curiosity on the processing of new information and its similarity with reward processing is not well understood. This study examined whether states of curiosity influence specific ERPs associated with reward processing and whether these ERPs are related with later memory benefits. In an initial screening phase, participants indicated their curiosity and confidence in prior knowledge about answers to various trivia questions. In a subsequent study phase, we targeted different time windows related to reward processing during the presentation of trivia answers containing the reward positivity (RewP; 250-350 msec), the P3 (250-500 msec), and the late-positive-potential (LPP; 600-1000 msec). In a following surprise memory test, we found that participants recalled more high- than low-curiosity answers. The RewP, P3, and LPP showed greater positive mean amplitudes for high compared with low curiosity, reflecting increased reward processing. In addition, we found that the RewP and the P3 showed more positive mean amplitudes for later recalled compared with later forgotten answers, but curiosity did not modulate this encoding-related results. These findings support the view that the satisfaction of curiosity resembles reward processing, indicated by ERPs.

Fast learning without synaptic plasticity in spiking neural networks

Spiking neural networks are of high current interest, both from the perspective of modelling neural networks of the brain and for porting their fast learning capability and energy efficiency into neuromorphic hardware. But so far we have not been able to reproduce fast learning capabilities of the brain in spiking neural networks. Biological data suggest that a synergy of synaptic plasticity on a slow time scale with network dynamics on a faster time scale is responsible for fast learning capabilities of the brain. We show here that a suitable orchestration of this synergy between synaptic plasticity and network dynamics does in fact reproduce fast learning capabilities of generic recurrent networks of spiking neurons. This points to the important role of recurrent connections in spiking networks, since these are necessary for enabling salient network dynamics. We show more specifically that the proposed synergy enables synaptic weights to encode more general information such as priors and task structures, since moment-to-moment processing of new information can be delegated to the network dynamics.

The roots of polarization in the individual reward system.

Polarization raises concerns for democracy and society, which have expanded in the internet era where (mis)information has become ubiquitous, its transmission faster than ever, and the freedom and means of opinion expressions are expanding. The origin of polarization however remains unclear, with multiple social and emotional factors and individual reasoning biases likely to explain its current forms. In the present work, we adopt a principled approach and show that polarization tendencies can take root in biased reward processing of new information in favour of choice confirmatory evidence. Through agent-based simulations, we show that confirmation bias in individual learning is an independent mechanism and could be sufficient for creating polarization at group level independently of any additional assumptions about the opinions themselves, a priori beliefs about them, information transmission mechanisms or the structure of social relationship between individuals. This generative process can interact with polarization mechanisms described elsewhere, but constitutes an entrenched biological tendency that helps explain the extraordinary resilience of polarization against mitigating efforts such as dramatic informational change in the environment.

Reducing Islamophobia through Conversation: A Randomized Control Trial

Islamophobia is a global problem that has reached epidemic proportions according to recent government reports and international research. In this preregistered, randomized control study, conducted in a field setting in Australia ( N = 227), we investigated whether Islamophobia—negative and hostile attitudes toward Islam and Muslim people—was reduced by a short door-to-door canvassing intervention. Our study involved participants who had expressed negative or ambivalent attitudes toward Muslim residents in a previous survey. These participants were randomly assigned to receive either no treatment or a 15-minute door-knocking conversation that encouraged empathy building through (1) active processing of new information and (2) perspective taking through personal reflections on past experiences of exclusion. Follow-up surveys suggest that, compared with a baseline survey completed before the intervention, prejudice was significantly reduced in the treatment group 6 and 12 weeks later.

Attitude Decay, Event Salience, and Emotional Reversal: Chinese Cyber-Nationalism after Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan

This paper examines the associations between timing, events, and nationalist sentiments among the mainland Chinese Weibo users toward Taiwan following the visit of Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the US House of Representatives on August 2, 2022. Utilizing a dataset of 4,353 Weibo comments and employing a combination of regression and interview analysis, our study has revealed several key findings: (1) Nationalist sentiments have diminished over time, and this can be attributed to an increasing immunity to Taiwan-related topics among netizens, habitual mood control, and the processing of new information. (2) Military action against Taiwanese separatists has the potential to intensify nationalist sentiments among the Chinese public, possibly due to its perceived efficacy in countering threats to the country’s sovereignty. (3) Military action’s positive association with nationalism tends to be amplified if this person is a male user. (4) Nationalist sentiments in response to political actions are more likely to diminish over time. (5) Nationalist sentiments in response to military actions tend to rise more slowly or diminish more quickly among those in the China’s Southeast (i.e., the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang). (6) The events after PLA’s military drills around Taiwan have a tendency to dampen nationalism whether people’s expectations for government action are fulfilled or not. This research supports the theories of inoculation, telic hedonism, and information utility in explaining the diminishing of nationalist sentiments among different groups. Furthermore, it validates and extends the EPPM in assessing how events interact with gender and regional factors to incite nationalist sentiments. Finally, this study highlights the potential for integrating reversal theory with Maslow’s theory of need to better understand reversals in nationalist sentiments.

Do emotions evoked by music modulate visuospatial working memory capacity? A physiological study

Previous studies have shown that emotions evoked through music can have transient effects on cognitive performance. Considering the importance of working memory (WM) in the processing of new information, in this study, we investigated the impact of positive and negative emotions evoked through music on visuospatial WM performance using a within-subjects design. Moreover, we concomitantly recorded the participants’ physiological responses during listening to musical stimuli. Seventy-eight participants were allocated to counterbalanced positive, negative, and neutral emotional inductions through music (EIM) followed by an adaptive visuospatial WM task. Results revealed that participants’ visuospatial WM performance was increased after positive EIM compared with negative and neutral EIMs transiently. We also observed increased skin conductance levels during positive EIM compared with baseline and a lower heart rate throughout positive EIM than the other conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that music evoking positive emotions can boost visuospatial WM performance. This is the first study to explore cognitive performance after EIM and physiological responses to musical stimuli simultaneously, which may have important practical implications since we engage in cognitively demanding activities after listening to music that could evoke happy or sad emotions.

Neuropsychological Approach in the Study of Linguistic Phenomena in the Context of the Study of the Conceptual Sphere of People’s Morality

The research focuses on the study of speech phenomena developed in the context of the conceptual sphere as an effective approach to the use of neuropsychology. Neuropsychology considers the acquisition of new knowledge on human perception and processing of new information as a separate mental process. This paper studies the formation of linguistic phenomena in the context of the cultural development of man, which in the course of evolutionary-historical process has created distinctive linguistic-ethnic linguistic images. The linguistic identity of man is created in the representation of man and is represented by a set of concepts, i.e. it is a conceptual sphere. The current state of the humanities has led to the relevance of ethno linguistic studies, which present the results of studies of the reflection in the national consciousness of extra linguistic phenomena that form the basis for a holistic worldview and function as concepts. The latter are cultural, mental and linguistic phenomena that are integral mental-linguistic constructs, but can be studied for each of the components, including language. Cognitive experience, which can be identified and analyzed in language phenomena, is a verbalized (fixed to a bilateral linguistic unit) reflection of sensual and rational experiences of an individual (group, society, ethnicity) of a number of events, impressions, often located in speech - in dialect, literary language, the carrier of which he is). General scientific and special linguistic methods will ensure the complexity of the study of verbalizers of the concepts of folk morality.

Interactive teaching methods as a means of successful student learning activity

Interactive teaching methods are the alternative of educational activity in modern changes of socio-economic life of the country during a global pandemic. There is a gradual departure from traditional teaching methods, associated with the rapid development of various technologies that can be used in the educational process. The aim of the article is to study the efficiency of using interactive teaching methods of schoolchildren at the lessons of geography in 6-7 classes. Main material. Interactive methods are aimed at developing skills of independent processing of new information, abilities and skills that help in adapting to complex, fleeting and unexpected situations. Today, there are many diverse accessible sources of knowledge, which provide new opportunities for learning. Thus, these teaching methods allow us to work out conditions for successful learning, assimilation of information, positive emotions, motivation for educational activities, formation of group, team- work skills, directions of schoolchildren’s activities. It is established that mastering of geography knowledge by students is more effective during the solution to problem searching situations. Thus, such approaches to learning can be the basis of interactive technologies that make learning accessible, successful and interesting. The student community acquires the most valuable skills: the ability to overcome difficulties, analyze them and look for ways to further implementation. The analysis of the pedagogical experiment allowed us to establish the advantages and disadvantages of using different interactive teaching methods. The advantages include active learning activities of students, encouraging them to understand and use information, developing creative opportunities, further practical activities, the disadvantages - the technical feasibility of implementing these methods into the educational process, low computer and information literacy of the participants. Conclusions. Interactive teaching methods are aimed at the formation of a high level of knowledge, self-study and selforganization of educational activities. The most convenient and used are multimedia teaching methods, the use of project technologies, debate, peer review and discussion.

Consideration of clip thinking in aspect of functional asymmetry of the brain

Consideration of clip thinking in aspect of functional asymmetry of the brain. The article provides a justification for the relevance of the study of clip thinking in the aspect of functional asymmetry of the brain. Today there are significant changes in the cognitive style of perception and processing of new information by modern youth due to the active usage of various gadgets. Such changes significantly affect the peculiarities of working with educational information in applicants for secondary special and higher education. The authors give a decisive role in these changes to the factor of functional asymmetry of the brain, which depends on the features of cognitive activity in this aspect. The article analyzes modern research on this issue, in particular, the content and relationship of the concepts of "functional asymmetry of the brain" and "clip thinking". There is presented empirical study, as a result of which it was found that the activity of the right frontal part of the brain dominates in the perception of information with the majority of respondents. Also, it was found that the so-called "clip thinking" is inherent in less than half of the subjects. Basing on the experimental study, there have been determined correlations between this type of thinking and the corresponding cognitive style, and the activity of the right frontal part of the brain.

Atenção e memória de enfermeiros intensivistas: repercussões na segurança do paciente

The aim was to measure the scores of the cognitive functions of attention and memory of intensive care nurses and to discuss their repercussions on patient safety. Quasi-experimental study using neuropsychological pre and post-tests in 10 intensive care nurses before and after their day shift. We found a reduction in the working memory score after duty (median 26.50 / mean 26.40), before (median 27.00 / mean 28.00), representing a 6% decrease. Considering 10% significance, the unilateral test of working memory was significant (p = 0.06), indicating a decrease in the score after shift in all participants. In the split attention tests (TEADI) after duty (median 167.00 / average 154.40), before (median 106.00 / average 110.40), an increase of 40% on average; alternate attention (TEALT), before duty (median 115.50 / average 109.00), after (median 124.00 / average 119.30), an increase of 9% on average. At 10% significance, bilateral tests were significant (TEADI p = 0.002; TEALT p = 0.009), indicating a difference in the scores before and after the shift. We observed an increase in the nurses' attention scores at the end of the shift, justified by facing problem situations along the journey, raising their attention levels. On the other hand, there was a decrease in the working memory score, associated with the multiple tasks performed and constant processing of new information during the shift, imposing high demands on memory.

Climate crisis and flying: social media analysis traces the rise of “flightshame”

Even before the global halt to extensive mobility due to the coronavirus crisis, there has been growing resistance amongst some groups to flying. Reflecting increasing concern about the imminent climate emergency, the phenomenon of feeling ashamed of flying and expressing related emotions through communication has resulted in the neologism “flygskam”. Drawing on 14,212 Twitter posts that contained “flygskam” and a further 1037 using the English “flightshame”, this research examined the spatial-temporal spread of these words from Sweden starting in 2016 to the rest of the world indicating a global phenomenon. The findings indicate that national context continues to be important in understanding the nexus of individual and social sensemaking and processing of new information. They also demonstrate, however, that global networks (facilitated through social media) might challenge the needs of physical mobility as requirements to connect, exchange views, and create identity through peer group membership. Further analysis of the content revealed key perspectives and topics, providing insight into the relatively homogeneous discussions amongst a network community. Only 6% of posts rejected the notion, whilst the majority indicated support and advanced suggestions for more sustainable alternatives. It might be too early to say whether language behaviour expressed in online communication translates into real behaviour, but the current pandemic may well provide further impetus to no-fly movements by way of a strategic alliance between different peer groups.

Bayesian or biased? Analytic thinking and political belief updating

A surprising finding from U.S. opinion surveys is that political disagreements tend to be greatest among the most cognitively sophisticated opposing partisans. Recent experiments suggest a hypothesis that could explain this pattern: cognitive sophistication magnifies politically biased processing of new information. However, the designs of these experiments tend to contain several limitations that complicate their support for this hypothesis. In particular, they tend to (i) focus on people's worldviews and political identities, at the expense of their other, more specific prior beliefs, (ii) lack direct comparison with a politically unbiased benchmark, and (iii) focus on people's judgments of new information, rather than on their posterior beliefs following exposure to the information. We report two studies designed to address these limitations. In our design, U.S. subjects received noisy but informative signals about the truth or falsity of partisan political questions, and we measured their prior and posterior beliefs, and cognitive sophistication, operationalized as analytic thinking inferred via performance on the Cognitive Reflection Test. We compared subjects' posterior beliefs to an unbiased Bayesian benchmark. We found little evidence that analytic thinking magnified politically biased deviations from the benchmark. In contrast, we found consistent evidence that greater analytic thinking was associated with posterior beliefs closer to the benchmark. Together, these results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that cognitive sophistication magnifies politically biased processing. We discuss differences between our design and prior work that can inform future tests of this hypothesis.

Neuromorphic Processing of Pressure Signal Using Integrated Sensor-Synaptic Device Capable of Selective and Reversible Short- and Long-Term Plasticity Operation.

To mimic the tactile sensing properties of the human skin, signals from tactile sensors need to be processed in an efficient manner. The integration of the tactile sensor with a neuromorphic device can potentially address this issue, as the neuromorphic device has both signal processing and memory capability through which parallel and efficient processing of information is possible. In this article, an intelligent haptic perception device (IHPD) is presented that combines pressure sensing with an organic electrochemical transistor-based synaptic device into a simple device architecture. More importantly, the IHPD is capable of rapid and reversible switching between short-term plasticity (STP) and long-term plasticity (LTP) operation through which accelerated learning, processing of new information, and distinctive operation of STP and LTP are possible. Various types of pressure information such as magnitude, rate, and duration were processed utilizing STP by which error-tolerant perception was demonstrated. Meanwhile, memorization and learning of pressure through a stepwise change in a conductive state was demonstrated using LTP. These demonstrations present unique approaches to process and learn tactile information, which can potentially be utilized in various electronic skin applications in the future.

An uninformed electorate: identity-motivated elaboration, partisan cues, and learning

ABSTRACTA deliberative democracy is reliant on an informed electorate discussing issues and presenting persuasive arguments. Individuals acquire information from exposure to political messages. Partisan cues, however, undermine learning outcomes. The current study experimentally examines the social cognitive processes that underlie this learning process. Integrating the social identity theory, elaboration likelihood model, and the theory of motivated reasoning to construct the theoretical concept of identity-motivated elaboration, the results indicate that partisan social identities motivate biased processing of new information, which subsequently influences the valence of elaboration. Positively and negatively valenced elaboration are situated as mediating variables in the structural model, which predicts learning from a persuasive political message. The current study extends the partisan social identity hypothesis to the elaborative and learning outcomes of political messages.

Party Animals? Extreme Partisan Polarization and Dehumanization

The affective, identity based, and often negative nature of partisan polarization in the United States has been a subject of much scholarly attention. Applying insights from recent work in social psychology, we employ three novel large-N, broadly representative online surveys, fielded over the course of 4 years, across two presidential administrations, to examine the extent to which this brand of polarization features a willingness to apply dehumanizing metaphors to out-partisans. We begin by looking at two different measures of dehumanization (one subtle and one more direct). This uncovers striking, consistent observational evidence that many partisans dehumanize members of the opposing party. We examine the relationship between dehumanization and other key partisan intensity measures, finding that it is most closely related to extreme affective polarization. We also show that dehumanization “predicts” partisan motivated reasoning and is correlated with respondent worldview. Finally, we present a survey experiment offering causal leverage to examine openness to dehumanization in the processing of new information about misdeeds by in- and out-partisans. Participants were exposed to identical information about a melee at a gathering, with the partisanship of those involved randomly assigned. We find pronounced willingness by both Democrats and Republicans to dehumanize members of the out-party. These findings shed considerable light on the nature and depth of modern partisan polarization.

Mnemonic strategy training increases neocortical activation in healthy older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment

Learning and memory deficits characterize the diagnosis of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), which is widely viewed as a clinical precursor to Alzheimer's type dementia. There is a growing interest in non-pharmacologic interventions, such as mnemonic strategies, for improving learning and memory in patients with aMCI as well as for maintaining functioning in healthy older adults. Using an ecologically relevant object-location association paradigm, we conducted a randomized, controlled, single-blind study in which healthy older adults and patients with aMCI were randomized to either mnemonic strategy training or a control group that was matched for stimulus exposure. We previously reported that mnemonic strategy training resulted in significantly greater learning and memory improvements compared to the matched exposure condition, in both aMCI patients and healthy controls. The current study examined changes in neocortical activation during encoding in a subset of participants who underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning both before and after training. To minimize potential confounds in between-group comparisons, we employed non-linear cortex based alignment and included only correctly encoded stimuli in our analyses. When re-encoding stimuli learned during training (i.e., trained stimuli), we found a general enhancement of activation in right prefrontal and parietal regions, possibly reflecting practice-related improvement in coordinate spatial processing in all but the aMCI exposure group. Left hemisphere activation was typically only evident in the mnemonic strategy trained participants, regardless of diagnostic status, with the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex appearing especially important for strategy use. While encoding relatively novel stimuli, both mnemonic strategy groups (aMCI patients and healthy controls) demonstrated increased activation in a subset of regions showing change for the trained stimuli, indicating a mnemonic strategy-induced change in the processing of new information. These findings could not be explained by repeated exposure since there was little to no activation overlap in the respective exposure control groups. The current results reinforce the potential benefits of cognitive interventions in these growing populations and indicate that neuroplastic change in key rostral and lateral prefrontal regions mediate this behavioral change.

Reactivation of Previous Experiences in a Working Memory Task

Recent experiences influence the processing of new information even when those experiences are irrelevant to the current task. Does this reflect the indirect effects of a passively maintained representation of the previous experience, or is this representation reactivated when a new event occurs? To answer this question, we attempted to decode the orientation of the stimulus on the previous trial from the electroencephalogram on the current trial in a working memory task. Behavioral data confirmed that the previous-trial stimulus orientation influenced the reported orientation on the current trial, even though the previous-trial orientation was now task irrelevant. In two independent experiments, we found that the previous-trial orientation could be decoded from the current-trial electroencephalogram, indicating that the current-trial stimulus reactivated or boosted the representation of the previous-trial orientation. These results suggest that the effects of recent experiences on behavior are driven, in part, by a reactivation of those experiences and not solely by the indirect effects of passive memory traces.

Active University Teaching and Engaged Student Learning: A Mixed Methods Approach

The purpose of this research was to examine how learning space design and implementation of an active learning pedagogy based on the 5E Instructional Model influence university faculty’s teaching practices and students’ engagement. Faculty Fellows were recruited from a public, medium-sized university in the United States to teach courses, typically taught in a traditional classroom setting, in a new Active Learning Center (ALC) classroom. The classroom was funded by a Steelcase® Education Active Learning Center Grant that provided innovative and dynamic classroom furnishings and technology that allowed mobility and flexibility for both instructors and students. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected concurrently in this study. The quantitative analysis results indicated that the ALC learning experience significantly improved students’ class participation and cognitive attentiveness, but had no effect on improving their meaningful processing of new information. The qualitative analysis results, while providing new insights into the quantitative findings, revealed the faculty fellows’ changes and weaknesses in teaching practices and the mechanism of the ALC in supporting active learning. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Popular Science Discourse Development in the Cyberspace

Popular science sphere of communication is acquiring new features of virtuality, globality, mosaic structure and social orientation, which are essential in fulfilling its functions in modern society. Based on the examination of 92 podcasts, the study deals with podcasting research identifying typical characteristics of the podcast and factors contributing to the spread of podcasting in the popular scientific hypermedia communication. The survey showed that increasing popularity of the podcast in the popular scientific sphere is explained by several factors. First, informing the user becomes more accessible, quicker and easier. Secondly, the listener takes part in interpersonal communication not with a virtual author, but with a real person, gets the opportunity to make his own conclusions based on sounding speech, which is more expressive, emotional, and has a strong impact on the addressee. Thirdly, most podcasts are interviews and discussions, which facilitates the perception and processing of new information making it more structured by means of questions, paraphrasing, exemplification, clarifications, etc. Analysis of the Nature publication podcast helped single out structural features that allow a podcast to function in a hypermedia environment as an independent multimodal node. The conclusions about the emergence of new virtual environment for intercultural interaction and cooperation were made.