Resistance to anti-smoking messages related to the higher smoking stigma of Korean female smokers.

Introduction: The degree of perceived smoking stigma can differ, based on various factors such as gender; this may influence the effect of smoking cessation interventions, including denormalization. This study investigates the gender differences in smoking stigma recognized by Korean smokers and explores the effect of these differences on the success of smoking cessation messages that aim to initiate an identity crisis among smokers. It aims to contribute to effective smoking cessation intervention strategies for female smokers. Methods: The smoker-gender Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to measure gender-based smoking stigma; the test comprised photos of people smoking, with positive and negative descriptors. Participants were 120 smokers aged 19-35 years (60 males and 60 females). Participants' cognitive attitudes toward smoking and cessation intentions were assessed at baseline. To investigate the effect of social stigmatization on smokers, participants were asked to watch anti-smoking campaigns that stigmatized either smoking behavior or smokers' self-identity. Cognitive attitudes and cessations intention were used to show differences in gender and message conditions. Results: The IAT D-score showed that female smokers perceived other female smokers significantly more negatively than they did male smokers, suggesting a higher level of smoking stigma. Female smokers in the socially stigmatizing condition reduced their negativity toward smoking less than those who were not stigmatized. Moreover, cessation intentions did not improve when female smokers received identity-threatening messages, indicating that female smokers tended to resist stigmatizing messages. Discussions: These findings provide empirical evidence that the gender of Korean smokers is significantly related to differences in smoking stigma. The negative perception and resistance responses of female smokers shown in this study are consistent with the findings of previous studies on the stigma of substance use disorders and addiction. High smoking stigma can also be a risk factor in anti-smoking interventions, including health communication; therefore, these findings should be interpreted with caution.

Lesbian and Heterosexual Women's Implicit Responses to Gender Figures.

This study explored how heterosexual and lesbian women differ in their implicit sexual responses. Previous research indicates that heterosexual women have physiological and implicit responses to both genders, whereas lesbian women show stronger responses to their preferred gender. This study used two implicit measures: the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and the Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST), both of which were novel in this context. We recruited 33 heterosexual and 25 lesbian women. Both IRAP and FAST were successful in differentiating the two sexual orientations as a group. The results confirmed that heterosexual women exhibit positive responses to both genders, while lesbian women show stronger, category-specific responses to their preferred gender. These findings align with previous research and provide further insight into the nuanced differences in sexual orientation responses among women.

Impact of Holistic Application Scoring on Interview Offers.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to develop a holistic screening tool for surgical residency application processing to capture the diverse skills and attributes of the applicant, based on characteristics most commonly associated with success in our residency program. DESIGN: We developed an application-scoring rubric with 4 domains based on ACGME Holistic reviewing criteria: academic potential, experiences, personal attributes, and clinical competency. We scored academic potential based on a composite of Step 2 score, MSPE tier rank, surgery clerkship grade, college honors, publications, and presentations. An additional score accounted for personal adversity overcome or "distance travelled". This included previous homelessness, first-generation college student or immigrant status, noted socioeconomic hardship, disability overcome, or other stated personal experience of discrimination including underrepresented in medicine status. We sorted the list of top 200 candidates by adversity score, Step 2 score, academic potential score, and total overall score to compare the groups in terms of interview offers. SETTING: We are an academic surgical residency program housed within a private medical college in the Northeast region. PARTICIPANTS: All categorical applicants to our program were managed with our holistic screening approach. RESULTS: There were 29 students with the highest adversity score (AS) of 4 and 26 (90%) were selected to interview based on holistic overall score and reviewer comments. Fourteen students had an AS of 3, and 12 (86%) were selected to interview. Twenty-five students had an AS of 2, and 23 (92%) were selected to interview. If Step 2 score alone had been used to determine which applicants should be interviewed, only 11 students (38%) with an AS of 4 would have been interviewed. If the academic potential alone was used for screening, only 10 (35%) of students with an AS of 4 would have been interviewed. Taking all students with any adversity score into account (n = 70), when screened with only Step 2 scores, just 31(44%) would have been interviewed. When ranked by academic potential score, 35 (50%) would have been interviewed. When applying our holistic overall score alone, 56 (80%) would have been interviewed. CONCLUSIONS: Performing a holistic application review and ranking students not only by standardized exam scores, but also considering other history of academic achievement, personal attributes, experiences in leadership or service, and clinical competency can allow for mitigation of implicit bias. Allowance for an adversity score can help programs recognize students who have significantly longer "distance traveled" to make it through medical education and who have the potential to be fantastic residents.

The Effects of the 2020 BLM Protests on Racial Bias in the United States.

The 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in response to the murder of George Floyd highlighted the lingering structural inequalities faced by Black people in the United States. In the present research, we investigated whether these protests led to reduced implicit and explicit racial bias among White U.S. Americans. Combining data from Project Implicit, Armed Conflict Location Event Data Project (ACLED), Google Trends, and the American Community survey, we observed rapid drops in implicit and explicit measures of racial bias after the onset of the protests. However, both types of racial bias slowly increased again over time as (attention to) BLM faded. We use directed acyclic graphs to show under which assumptions causal inferences are warranted. We discuss our results in light of situational models of bias, their implications for protest movements, and raise questions about when and how social norms play a role in large-scale attitude change.

Implicit sensorimotor learning in ballistic movement for transporting an object to a target.

To enhance and sustain movement accuracy, humans make corrections in subsequent trials based on previous errors. Trial-by-trial learning occurs unconsciously and has mostly been studied using reaching movements. Goal-directed projection movements, such as archery, have an inherent delay between releasing an object and observing an outcome (e.g. the arrival position of the object), and this delay may prevent trial-by-trial implicit learning. We aimed to investigate the learning in the projection movement and the impacts of the inherent delay. During the experiment, a joystick was flicked once to transport a cursor from the starting location to a target. To manipulate the length of the delay between the cursor release and outcome observation, the speed of the cursor movement was varied: a fast speed can lead to a short delay. We found trial-by-trial implicit learning under all speed conditions, and the error sensitivity was not significantly different across speed conditions. Furthermore, the error sensitivity depended on the target location, that is, the movement direction. The results indicate that trial-by-trial implicit learning occurred in goal-directed projection movement, despite the length of the inherent delay. Additionally, the degree of this learning was affected by the movement direction.

Quantifying the Transition from Unconscious to Conscious Detection of Temporal Patterns in Vigilance Tasks: A Unique Adaptation of Mackworth's Clock Test.

This study investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying vigilance and pattern recognition using a novel adaptation of Mackworth's Clock Test. We aimed to quantify the time it takes for temporal patterns detected unconsciously through implicit learning to surface in the conscious mind within a dynamic vigilance task environment. Forty-eight participants detected random and non-disclosed rhythmic anomalous clock hand movements in this setting. Our results indicate significant variability in detection accuracy, reaction times, and the ability to recognize the hidden pattern among participants. Notably, 23% of all participants and 56% of those who consciously reported the pattern exhibited statistically lower reaction times indicative of knowledge of the pattern 40 s before conscious identification. These findings provide valuable insights into the transition from unconscious to conscious detection, highlighting the complexity of sustained attention and pattern recognition. The study's implications extend to designing training programs and tasks for high-stakes professions requiring prolonged vigilance. Future research should further explore the cognitive and neural correlates of these processes and the impact of task complexity on performance.

Physical health mindsets and information avoidance.

Health mindsets refer to beliefs about the malleability (growth mindset) versus stability (fixed mindset) of physical health and have gained traction as a predictor of health beliefs and behaviors. Across two studies, we tested whether health mindsets were associated with avoiding personalized health risk information. In Study 2, we also tested whether conceptually-related constructs of internal and chance health locus of control, health self-efficacy, fatalism, and genetic determinism were associated with information avoidance. Health mindsets were manipulated in Study 1 (college students, n = 284; 79.58% female; Mage = 19.74) and measured in Study 2 (participants recruited through MTurk, n = 735; 42.04% female; Mage = 35.78). In both studies, participants viewed a prediabetes infographic and were informed they could learn their prediabetes risk by completing an online risk calculator. Behavioral obligation was also manipulated in both studies to test whether an additional behavioral requirement associated with learning one's risk would exacerbate any negative impact of health mindsets on avoidance rates. All participants then indicated their interest in learning their prediabetes risk (avoidance intentions) and decided whether to complete the online risk calculator (avoidance behavior). In Study 1, there was no impact of health mindsets, behavioral obligation, or their interaction on avoidance intentions or behavior. Study 2 similarly did not provide consistent evidence for an association of health mindsets, behavioral obligation, or their interaction with avoidance intentions or behavior. However, in Study 2, internal health locus of control was consistently associated with both intentions and behavior. Health information avoidance may be a barrier to prevention and early detection of disease. To encourage individuals to learn potentially important health information, public health interventions might seek to increase people's beliefs that their own actions play a role in their health outcomes. Interventions may also seek to increase people's knowledge about and skills regarding improving their health outcomes, which may influence health locus of control beliefs.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex plays an important role in implicit emotion regulation: A focality-optimized multichannel tDCS study in anxiety individuals.

The regulation of emotions is a crucial facet of well-being and social adaptability, with explicit strategies receiving primary attention in prior research. Recent studies, however, emphasize the role of implicit emotion regulation, particularly implicating the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in association with its implementation. This study delves into the nuanced role of the VMPFC through focality-optimized multichannel transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), shedding light on its causal involvement in implicit reappraisal. The primary goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of VMFPC-targeted tDCS and elucidate its role in individuals with high trait anxiety. Participants engaged in implicit and explicit emotion regulation tasks during multichannel tDCS targeting the VMPFC. The outcome measures encompassed negative emotion ratings, pupillary diameter, and saccade count, providing a comprehensive evaluation of emotion regulation efficiency. The intervention exhibited a notable impact, resulting in significant reductions in negative emotion ratings and pupillary reactions during implicit reappraisal, highlighting the indispensable role of the VMPFC in modulating emotional responses. Notably, these effects demonstrated sustained efficacy up to 1 day postintervention. This study underscores the potency of VMPFC-targeted multichannel tDCS in augmenting implicit emotion regulation. This not only contributes insights into the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation but also suggests innovative therapeutic avenues for anxiety disorders. The findings present a promising trajectory for future mood disorder interventions, bridging the gap between implicit emotion regulation and neural stimulation techniques.

In the Mind's Eye: Exploring the Relationship Between Visual Mental Imagery and Stereotyping.

ACADEMIC ABSTRACT: How do social stereotypes shape and reflect images formed in the mind's eye? Visual mental imagery has long been assumed crucial in creating, maintaining, and perpetuating stereotypes and prejudice. Surprisingly, research in social cognition has only recently begun to explore the causal role of mental images in these phenomena. In contrast, cognitive neuroscience research on visual mental imagery (VMI) has explored the pivotal role of imagery in various consequential cognitive and behavioral phenomena. However, cognitive neuroscience has largely neglected how stereotypes influence mental imagery. This article provides a historical overview of the development of these two fields in terms of mental imagery and discusses recent advances at their intersection. Opportunities for additional integration are highlighted, and suggestions for furthering the dual study of stereotyping and mental imagery are provided. PUBLIC ABSTRACT: How can social stereotypes impact and mirror visual imagination? It has long been assumed that visual mental imagery plays a central role in forming, maintaining, and strengthening stereotypes and prejudice. Yet, until recently, there has been limited exploration within social psychology and cognitive neuroscience on the explicit connection between visual mental images and social stereotypes. We describe the historical progression of these fields concerning visual imagery and explore recent advancements that unite stereotyping and mental imagery research. Furthermore, we propose avenues for future research to deepen our understanding of how individuals utilize mental images in stereotyping and how mental imagery can modify stereotypes.

End-to-End Implicit Object Pose Estimation.

To accurately estimate the 6D pose of objects, most methods employ a two-stage algorithm. While such two-stage algorithms achieve high accuracy, they are often slow. Additionally, many approaches utilize encoding-decoding to obtain the 6D pose, with many employing bilinear sampling for decoding. However, bilinear sampling tends to sacrifice the accuracy of precise features. In our research, we propose a novel solution that utilizes implicit representation as a bridge between discrete feature maps and continuous feature maps. We represent the feature map as a coordinate field, where each coordinate pair corresponds to a feature value. These feature values are then used to estimate feature maps of arbitrary scales, replacing upsampling for decoding. We apply the proposed implicit module to a bidirectional fusion feature pyramid network. Based on this implicit module, we propose three network branches: a class estimation branch, a bounding box estimation branch, and the final pose estimation branch. For this pose estimation branch, we propose a miniature dual-stream network, which estimates object surface features and complements the relationship between 2D and 3D. We represent the rotation component using the SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) representation method, resulting in a more accurate object pose. We achieved satisfactory experimental results on the widely used 6D pose estimation benchmark dataset Linemod. This innovative approach provides a more convenient solution for 6D object pose estimation.

The development of children's and adults' use of kinematic cues for visual anticipation and verbal prediction of action.

Expectations about how others' actions unfold in the future are crucial for our everyday social interactions. The current study examined the development of the use of kinematic cues for action anticipation and prediction in 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and adults in two experiments. Participants observed a hand repeatedly reaching for either a close or far object. The motor kinematics of the hand varied depending on whether the hand reached for the close or far object. We assessed whether participants would use kinematic cues to visually anticipate (Experiment 1; N=98) and verbally predict (Experiment 2; N=80) which object the hand was going to grasp. We found that only adults, but not 3- to 10-year-olds, based their visual anticipations on kinematic cues (Experiment 1). This speaks against claims that action anticipations are based on simulating others' motor processes and instead provides evidence that anticipations are based on perceptual mechanisms. Interestingly, 10-year-olds used kinematic cues to correctly verbally predict the target object, and 4-year-olds learned to do so over the trials (Experiment 2). Thus, kinematic cues are used earlier in life for explicit action predictions than for visual action anticipations. This adds to a recent debate on whether or not an implicit understanding of others' actions precedes their ability to verbally reason about the same actions.

Socioeconomic status moderates the relationship between self-esteem and attitudes towards conspicuous consumption: An electrophysiological study.

Research on the impact of self-esteem on conspicuous consumption has shown inconsistent results. This study addresses this variability by examining how socioeconomic status (SES) moderates the relationship between self-esteem and conspicuous consumption. We hypothesized that the relationship varies with SES, predicting a positive relationship at high SES levels and a negative relationship at low SES levels. Our findings confirm this hypothesis. Using a Go/NoGo association task (GNAT) combined with event-related potentials (ERP), we investigated the cognitive processing speeds for congruent and incongruent pairings. This method provided insights into the implicit attitudes towards conspicuous products and revealed the complex dynamics between self-esteem and SES in influencing consumer behavior tendencies. This research advances our understanding of the interactions between self-esteem and SES in conspicuous consumption from an implicit cognitive perspective. It also offers significant practical implications, guiding the development of consumer marketing strategies that can be tailored to different socioeconomic contexts.

Uncovering the roles of automatic attitudes and controlled processes in the regulation of physical activity behavior in children.

Despite substantial research efforts to increase engagement in physical activity (PA), children are not sufficiently active. Dual-process theories suggest that PA behavior regulation occurs through both controlled (i.e., reflective, conscious) and automatic (i.e., non-reflective, less conscious) processes. Automatic processes depend on affective valuations and attitudes towards PA and have been shown to predict PA behavior. However, their role in PA behavior regulation in children remains unclear. Therefore, the current study investigated the unique association of automatic attitudes towards PA on self-reported seven-day PA recall, after accounting for the effects of known controlled precursors of PA (i.e., explicit attitudes, PA self-efficacy, and PA intentions). In a cross-sectional design, 69 children (age = 10.8 ± 0.6 years) completed the Single-Category Implicit Association Task (SC-IAT) and self-reported measures of PA and controlled precursors of PA. In a hierarchical regression analysis, controlled processes accounted for 28.3 % of the variance in PA behavior. Although the bivariate association between automatic attitudes and PA was not significant, the association between them became significant but negative in the fully adjusted model (b = -1.70; p = 0.025). The fully adjusted model accounted for 35.0 % of the variance in PA. In summary, the findings indicated that both controlled and automatic processes predicted PA in children, although the association with automatic attitudes was not in the expected direction in the adjusted model. Future studies are warranted to further understand the role of automatic processes in the regulation of PA behavior in children.

Associations of Implicit and Explicit Sexual Double Standard Endorsement and Sexual Assertiveness with Sexual and Interactional Competence in Emerging Adults.

In this study, among emerging adults, we investigated the interrelationships of explicit and implicit measures of sexual assertiveness (SA) and sexual double standard endorsement (SDS) on the one hand, and different aspects of sexual and interactional competence (SAIC) on the other hand, using Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM) of cross-sectional data. Participants were 159 sexually active, heterosexual individuals in the Netherlands between 18 and 25 years. No exclusion criteria were used. The Sexual Competence and Interaction Competence in Youth and lifetime number of sexual partners were used to measure SAIC. Explicit SA was measured using the Hurlbert Index of Sexual Assertiveness, while Explicit SDS was assessed using the Scale for the Assessment of Sexual Standards in Youth. Two implicit association tests were performed to measure implicit SA and SDS. Participants accessed these computerized reaction time tasks via a secure online data collection platform. Results showed a strong association between the latent factors of sexual attitudes and SAIC. Greater SA and lower SDS were associated with a greater competence level. No gender effects were found.

Debiasing the Conversion Rate Prediction Model in the Presence of Delayed Implicit Feedback.

The recommender system (RS) has been widely adopted in many applications, including online advertisements. Predicting the conversion rate (CVR) can help in evaluating the effects of advertisements on users and capturing users' features, playing an important role in RS. In real-world scenarios, implicit rather than explicit feedback data are more abundant. Thus, directly training the RS with collected data may lead to suboptimal performance due to selection bias inherited from the nature of implicit feedback. Methods such as reweighting have been proposed to tackle selection bias; however, these methods omit delayed feedback, which often occurs due to limited observation times. We propose a novel likelihood approach combining the assumed parametric model for delayed feedback and the reweighting method to address selection bias. Specifically, the proposed methods minimize the likelihood-based loss using the multi-task learning method. The proposed methods are evaluated on the real-world Coat and Yahoo datasets. The proposed methods improve the AUC by 5.7% on Coat and 3.7% on Yahoo compared with the best baseline models. The proposed methods successfully debias the CVR prediction model in the presence of delayed implicit feedback.

Racial Differences in Cardiothoracic Surgery Letters of Recommendation.

OBJECTIVE: Cardiothoracic surgery lacks racial diversity. Attracting the best candidates requires valuing diversity and advancing a recruitment process that minimizes racial bias. Implicit bias in recommendation letters has been identified as an influential mechanism for lack of diversity in cardiothoracic surgery. We aim to investigate how applicant race impacts language used in cardiothoracic surgery fellowship recommendation letters. METHODS: We examined applications to an accredited cardiothoracic surgery fellowship program between 2017 and 2021. Recommendation letter authors were categorized as cardiothoracic and non-cardiothoracic surgeons. Applicant self-reported race was dichotomized as White and non-White. Applicant characteristics were described using standard descriptive statistics and compared between applicant race. Recommendation letters were examined with linguistic analysis software and higher-level analysis to assess language associations between applicant race and author specialty. RESULTS: 597 recommendation letters were analyzed from 158 individual applications. Cardiothoracic surgeons composed 334 (55.9%) recommendation letters. 95 (60.1%) applicants were categorized as White. White applicants were described as more driven (p=0.03), while letters for non-White applicants were more authentic (p=0.02) and highlighted past experiences (p=0.05). Cardiothoracic surgeons wrote longer letters (p=0.04) with standout adjectives (p=0.03) more frequently for White applicants, and emphasized perceptiveness (p=0.02) more often when writing for non-White applicants. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that authors' recommendation letters are influenced by applicant race. Letters written for White candidates are significantly longer and more descriptive of drive and outstanding characteristics than letters written for non-White candidates, particularly when written by cardiothoracic surgeons. Addressing this bias is crucial for recruiting the best candidates for cardiothoracic surgery.

Implicit learning in children and adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorders: Exploring the effects of individual differences.

Implicit learning plays an important role in the acquisition of various skills that are often deficient in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study examines the implicit learning ability of children and adolescents with ASD, by comparing it to that of a typical group of peers, using the Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL) task. In addition, this study investigates whether the above ability is associated with individual characteristics, namely intelligence quotient (IQ), ASD symptoms severity, and individual perception style (global/holistic or local/focused). The sample consisted of 20 individuals with mild to relatively severe ASD symptoms and 20 age- and gender-matched typically developing (TD) individuals. The unconscious (implicit) nature of learning was assessed via a subjective measure, the "no-loss gambling" method, which allows an unbiased evaluation of the confidence accompanying each judgement. The results provided evidence of implicit learning, which was preserved in the ASD group, although reduced relative to the typical group. Multiple linear regressions with interaction terms between group and participants' scores on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), and performance on a Navon-type task examined whether the possible relationships between each of the above scores and AGL and implicit learning differ in the two groups. Implicit learning was not significantly associated with IQ, ASD symptoms severity, or individual perception style (except for perception style in terms of reaction times [RTs] for the TD group). These results confirm and extend earlier findings supporting the resilience of implicit learning to individual differences.

"I could 100% see myself getting hurt if I did it wrong": a qualitative exploration of exercise perceptions in people with chronic low back pain.

PURPOSE: Traditionally, a specific "core" exercise focus has been favoured for chronic low back pain (CLBP) which contrasts holistic exercise approaches. This study aims to explore the perceptions of exercise in people with CLBP and whether exercise itself can convey implicit messages regarding its use in CLBP management in the absence of a clinical narrative. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants were asked about their CLBP history, views of exercise for CLBP, and current exercise behaviours through online semi-structured interviews. Then, participants watched the interviewer perform the deadlift, Jefferson curl, and bird dog and were asked if they thought each individual exercise was beneficial for CLBP, and why. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis through a critical realism and social constructivism lens. RESULTS: All participants (n = 16) viewed all exercises as beneficial for health and pain relief, but perceived efficacy varied. "Core" exercises were deemed crucial for CLBP relief, while spinal flexion and external load were often perceived as potentially injurious. Distrust towards healthcare practitioners also influenced exercise perceptions. CONCLUSION: People with CLBP perceive different exercises to either relieve pain or improve health. Healthcare practitioners can influence these perceptions, highlighting the need for consideration of exercise perceptions in clinical contexts.

Exercise itself can convey implicit messages to people with chronic low back pain irrespective of an accompanying clinical narrative.'Core' exercises are perceived as beneficial whereas exercises involving spinal flexion or loading may be perceived as dangerous.Exercise for reducing pain is perceived as distinctly different from gym related exercises or other exercises for improving health.Healthcare practitioners must consider their client's exercise perceptions when using exercise as an intervention for chronic low back pain.