Distinct Whole-Body Movements in Response to Alcohol and Sexual Content in Alcohol Use Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Spontaneous motor responses of approach and avoidance toward stimuli are important in characterizing psychopathological conditions, including alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, divergent results have been reported, possibly due to confounded parameters (e.g., using a symbolic vs. a sensorimotor task, implementation of approach-avoidance as a measure vs. a manipulation). METHODS: We studied whole-body/posturometric changes by using a sensorimotor measure relying on embodied cognition principles to assess forward (approach) and backward (avoidance) spontaneous leaning movements. Over a 12-second period, 51 male patients with AUD and 29 male control participants were instructed to stand still in response to both alcohol and sexual visual content. Patients with AUD were then divided into "abstainers" and "relapsers," depending on their continuous abstinence at 2 weeks postdischarge (obtained via a telephone follow-up interview). The effects of the group, the stimulus type, the experimental period, and their interactions on the posturometric changes were tested using mixed Analyses of variance (ANOVAs), with a significance threshold set at 0.05. RESULTS: Contrary to our expectations, patients and controls did not show significant difference in their forward/backward micromovements while passively viewing alcohol or sexual content (p > 0.1). However, in line with our hypothesis, patients who relapsed several weeks following discharge from the rehabilitation program were significantly more reactive and more likely to lean back during the first seconds of viewing alcohol cues (p = 0.002). Further, "relapsers" were more likely to lean forward during exposure to sexual content than participants who remained abstinent (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Among individuals with AUD, there are distinct pattern of spontaneous movements that differentiate "abstainers" and "relapsers," findings that can be understood in light of existing data and theories on action tendencies.

Comment on "Quantifying the informational value of classification images": A miscomputation of the infoVal metric.

Brinkman et al. (2019) recently introduced an innovative metric-infoVal-to assess the informational value of classification images (CIs) relative to a random distribution. Although this measure constitutes a valuable tool to distinguish random from nonrandom CIs, we identified two noteworthy discrepancies between the mathematical formalization of the infoVal metric and the authors' computation. Specifically, the computation was based on the one norm instead of the Euclidean norm, and the k constant was omitted in the denominator of the ratio that produces infoVal. Accordingly, the simulations and experimental results reported by Brinkman et al. do not build on the correct infoVal computation but on a biased index. Importantly, this discrepancy in the computation affects the statistical power and Type I and error rate of the metric. Here we clarify the nature of the discrepancies in the computation and run Brinkman et al.'s Simulation 1 anew with the correct values, to illustrate their consequences. Overall, we found that relying on the miscomputed infoVal metric can lead to misguided conclusions, and we urge researchers to use the correct values.

Erratum to: Comment on "Quantifying the informational value of classification images": Miscomputation of infoVal metric was a minor issue and is now corrected.

One of the two miscomputations identified in the infoVal metric, namely the omission of the k constant, turns out not to be a miscomputation, since the constant was already taken into account by default in the mad() function from R (see https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/stats/versions/3.6.2/topics/mad ).

When my actions shape your looks: Experience-based properties of approach/avoidance bias the visual representation of others.

The literature on the approach/avoidance training (AAT) effect has focused on its evaluative consequences (with approached stimuli evaluated as more positive than avoided ones). Building on a grounded cognition framework, we investigated AAT effects on the visual representation of stimuli (here, neutral faces). We formulated specific predictions regarding the facial features that should be the most biased and the conditions under which the effect should be the strongest. We tested these predictions in five preregistered experiments using a reverse correlation paradigm. In Experiments 1-2, the facial representations resulting from an AAT looked more "approachable" and "avoidable," respectively. Specifically, we observed more bias on facial traits related to approach/avoidance (e.g., trustworthiness) than on traits less relevant for these actions (e.g., cleverness). Experiment 2 additionally tested the unique contribution of both approach and avoidance as compared to control actions. Experiments 3A-4 showed that this effect depends on experiencing the AAT (compared to the mere instructions of approach/avoidance) and on the sensory aspects of approach/avoidance that are mimicked in the AAT. Finally, Experiment 5 supported the idea that the AAT effect still emerges in the absence of explicit instructions of approach/avoidance (i.e., by only leaving the sensory aspects of approach/avoidance). The present research enriches the literature by revealing AAT effects that extend beyond mere evaluative consequences to the visual representation of the target stimuli. Our results also inform existing theoretical views on AAT effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The online-VAAST: A short and online tool to measure spontaneous approach and avoidance tendencies.

Among the great variety of approach/avoidance tasks, the Visual Approach/Avoidance by the Self Task (VAAST, Rougier et al., 2018) appears to be a promising tool. Previous work showed that the VAAST leads to large and replicable compatibility effects (e.g., faster response time to approach positive stimuli and avoid negative stimuli than the reverse). In the present contribution, we provide an online and easy-to-use version of the VAAST (namely, the online-VAAST). Across four experiments, we show that the online-VAAST produces effects that are of similar magnitude to those of the lab version of this task. Specifically, we obtained compatibility effects when using positive/negative words (Experiment 1), positive/negative images (Experiment 2), French/North-African first names (Experiment 3), and European American/African American first names (Experiment 4). Moreover, these effects emerged with culturally different populations (i.e., Americans in Experiments 1, 2, and 4, French in Experiment 3). Overall, the online-VAAST could be of great interest for all researchers interested in measuring approach/avoidance tendencies: Its specificities allow reaching large samples both offline and online with no accessibility constraints regarding programming abilities or program copyright.