Performance evaluation of automated scoring for the descriptive similarity response task.

We examined whether a machine-learning-based automated scoring system can mimic the human similarity task performance. We trained a bidirectional encoder representations from transformer-model based on the semantic similarity test (SST), which presented participants with a word pair and asked them to write about how the two concepts were similar. In Experiment 1, based on the fivefold cross validation, we showed the model trained on the combination of the responses (N = 1600) and classification criteria (which is the rubric of the SST; N = 616) scored the correct labels with 83% accuracy. In Experiment 2, using the test data obtained from different participants in different timing from Experiment 1, we showed the models trained on the responses alone and the combination of responses and classification criteria scored the correct labels in 80% accuracy. In addition, human-model scoring showed inter-rater reliability of 0.63, which was almost the same as that of human-human scoring (0.67 to 0.72). These results suggest that the machine learning model can reach human-level performance in scoring the Japanese version of the SST.

Writing to your past-self can make you feel better.

Self-compassionate writing has been shown to be helpful for improving the mental state in some individuals. Here, we investigated how the writer's attitude toward his/her past, present and future and the focus of the writing, i.e., social experience in the past versus self-experience, modulate these effects. In Experiment 1, 150 undergraduates wrote a compassionate letter to their past-self and to their future-self and responded to the Japanese version of the Adolescent Time Inventory-Time Attitudes (ATI-TA) questionnaire. Writing to past-self decreased negative feelings more than writing to future-self. Further, participants who had negative feelings toward their past, present, and future, as assessed by the ATI-TA, were more likely to be emotionally affected by writing a letter to their past-self. In Experiment 2, 31 undergraduates wrote a letter focusing on what they had experienced together with someone, and another 31 undergraduates wrote focusing on what they had experienced alone. Focusing on a social experience was more helpful for recovering from negative feelings than focusing on a self-experience. In conclusion, writing a compassionate letter to one's past-self can improve mood, especially in individuals with a negative time attitude who focus their writing on a social connection.

Pancultural nostalgia in action: Prevalence, triggers, and psychological functions of nostalgia across cultures.

Nostalgia is a social, self-relevant, and bittersweet (although mostly positive) emotion that arises when reflecting on fond past memories and serves key psychological functions. The majority of evidence concerning the prevalence, triggers, and functions of nostalgia has been amassed in samples from a handful of largely Western cultures. If nostalgia is a fundamental psychological resource, it should perform similar functions across cultures, although its operational dynamics may be shaped by culture. This study (N = 2,606) examined dispositional nostalgia, self-reported triggers of nostalgia, and functions of experimentally induced nostalgia in young adults across 28 countries and a special administrative region of China (i.e., Hong Kong). Results indicated that nostalgia is frequently experienced across cultures, albeit better valued in more-developed countries (i.e., higher national wealth and life-expectancy). Nostalgia is triggered by psychological threats (especially in warmer countries), sensory stimuli (especially in more-developed countries), and social gatherings (especially in less-developed countries). The positive or negative affect prompted by experimentally induced nostalgia varied by country, but was mild overall. More importantly, recalling a nostalgic (vs. ordinary) memory increased social connectedness, self-continuity, and meaning in life across cultures. In less-developed countries, recalling an ordinary memory also conferred some of these functions, reducing the effect size of nostalgia. Finally, recalling a nostalgic (vs. ordinary) memory augmented state satisfaction with life in countries with lower quality of living (i.e., lower life-expectancy and life-satisfaction). Overall, findings confirm the relevance of nostalgia across a wide range of cultures and indicate cultural nuances in its functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Episodic memory and personal semantics as triggers of nostalgia: its relationships between abstraction of memory content and temporal distance.

Nostalgia, an autobiographically relevant positive emotion, is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past. Autobiographical memory, which is one of the cognitive bases of nostalgia, includes both abstract semantic and detailed episodic memories. Recent studies have defined and classified memories that are located between semantic and episodic memory as personal semantics. Although autobiographical memory and personal semantics range over a continuum, past nostalgia research has not focused on or controlled them. In two experiments, undergraduate students retrieved episodic memory and personal semantics and rated cognitive and affective items. The intensity of nostalgia differed according to the types of memory content and temporal distance of the memory from the present. These results revealed that not only unique events but also repeated events and autobiographical facts induced nostalgia; furthermore, repeated events from both the distant and recent past (primary and high school, respectively) consistently induced relatively greater nostalgia, but in some cases, they were not significantly different from other types of memory (i.e., unique events and autobiographical facts). These findings suggest that both episodic memory and personal semantics are involved in the occurrence of nostalgia.

Personality descriptions influence perceived cuteness of children and nurturing motivation toward them.

The current empirical evidence regarding the effects of personality on physical attractiveness is limited to adult faces. In two preregistered studies, we demonstrated that personality descriptions influenced perceived cuteness, warmth, competence of young children, and female adults' nurturing motivation toward them. Study 1 showed that participants rated children accompanied by positive personality descriptions as cuter, friendlier, and more intelligent than their initial ratings. Negative personality descriptions reduced perceived cuteness in children, which in turn reduced nurturing motivation. Study 2 showed that negative personality descriptions consistently reduced perceived cuteness and warmth ratings after manipulation, regardless of the initial level of perceived cuteness. After one week, cuteness and warmth ratings in the positive personality condition tended to return to their initial ratings. However, the effect of negative personality descriptions on cuteness ratings persisted for all children. Together, our findings suggest that female adults' perception of cuteness and nurturing motivation are induced not only by children's appearance but also their personality.

The number of topic-attributed features affects speakers' metaphor production.

This study examined whether or not the number of topic-attributed features affects the speakers' use of metaphor production rather than literal expressions. Across two experiments, participants were asked to produce an expression that best paraphrased a given sentence. The number of features attributed to each topic was manipulated: one feature ("Her sarcasm hurts people"), two features ("Her sarcasm hurts people and is sharp"), and three features ("Her sarcasm hurts people, is sharp, and is piercing to the heart"). Participants' responses were classified into nominal metaphor/simile, literal, other metaphor/simile, and others. In both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, participants' nominal metaphor responses (e.g., "Her sarcasm is a knife") increased with the number of topic-vehicles that shared significant features in a given sentence. These results suggest that the number of topic-attributed features affects participants' preference for the use of metaphorical expressions. We discussed the results based on the compactness hypothesis (Ortony, Educational Theory, 25: 45-53, 1975) of metaphor production.

Papers Please - Predictive Factors of National and International Attitudes Toward Immunity and Vaccination Passports: Online Representative Surveys.

BACKGROUND: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are introducing digital passports that allow citizens to return to normal activities if they were previously infected with (immunity passport) or vaccinated against (vaccination passport) SARS-CoV-2. To be effective, policy decision-makers must know whether these passports will be widely accepted by the public and under what conditions. This study focuses attention on immunity passports, as these may prove useful in countries both with and without an existing COVID-19 vaccination program; however, our general findings also extend to vaccination passports. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess attitudes toward the introduction of immunity passports in six countries, and determine what social, personal, and contextual factors predicted their support. METHODS: We collected 13,678 participants through online representative sampling across six countries-Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom-during April to May of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed attitudes and support for the introduction of immunity passports. RESULTS: Immunity passport support was moderate to low, being the highest in Germany (775/1507 participants, 51.43%) and the United Kingdom (759/1484, 51.15%); followed by Taiwan (2841/5989, 47.44%), Australia (963/2086, 46.16%), and Spain (693/1491, 46.48%); and was the lowest in Japan (241/1081, 22.94%). Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects modeling was used to assess predictive factors for immunity passport support across countries. International results showed neoliberal worldviews (odds ratio [OR] 1.17, 95% CI 1.13-1.22), personal concern (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.00-1.16), perceived virus severity (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.14), the fairness of immunity passports (OR 2.51, 95% CI 2.36-2.66), liking immunity passports (OR 2.77, 95% CI 2.61-2.94), and a willingness to become infected to gain an immunity passport (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.51-1.68) were all predictive factors of immunity passport support. By contrast, gender (woman; OR 0.9, 95% CI 0.82-0.98), immunity passport concern (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.57-0.65), and risk of harm to society (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.67-0.76) predicted a decrease in support for immunity passports. Minor differences in predictive factors were found between countries and results were modeled separately to provide national accounts of these data. CONCLUSIONS: Our research suggests that support for immunity passports is predicted by the personal benefits and societal risks they confer. These findings generalized across six countries and may also prove informative for the introduction of vaccination passports, helping policymakers to introduce effective COVID-19 passport policies in these six countries and around the world.

Examining the Relationship Between Preference for Solitude and Subjective Well-Being Among Japanese Older Adults.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Focusing on the fact that older adults with positive emotions tend to spend time alone, this study aimed to examine the relationship between preference for solitude and subjective well-being among older adults. In Study 1, we developed a revised version of the Preference for Solitude Scale with a 3-factor structure, unlike the single-factor structure of the original scale. In Study 2, we examined the relationship between preference for solitude and subjective well-being using the revised scale. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted an Internet survey with 210 older adults in Study 1 to develop a revised Japanese scale. In Study 2, to address the possible research method bias in Study 1, we conducted a mail survey with 276 older adults. We examined the replicability of Study 1, confirming metric invariance through multigroup analysis and hypothesis model through path analysis. RESULTS: The results of the path analysis indicated that "Productivity during solitude" (Factor 3) was positively related with positive affect and life satisfaction, and "Enjoyment of solitude" (Factor 2) was negatively related with negative affect. However, the results of the mediation analysis suggested that preference for solitude was also related to loneliness, and the indirect effect of preference for solitude on well-being was negative. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: "Enjoyment of solitude" and "Productivity during solitude" were related to maintaining subjective well-being among older adults, although the effects were marginal. The impact of preference for solitude was mixed in enhancing and decreasing subjective well-being.

Role of Affect and Risk-Benefit Perception on Reckless Betting: Prior Wins and Losses Both Lead to Risky Bets.

People who have experienced many gambling wins tend to make larger bets even when they are unlikely to win (reckless betting) than those who have experienced many losses. This study examined psychological factors underlying reckless betting when gambling from the perspectives of affect and risk-benefit perception. University students (N = 63) participated in an experiment using the Acey-Deucey Task, in which the number of wins and losses during the 1st session was experimentally manipulated such that there were either 24, 12, or 6 wins out of 30 trials. Positive-negative affect and perceived risk-benefit during the task were assessed by self-report. Betting recklessness during the 2nd session was calculated using winning probability and bet size data in each trial. The results indicated that experiencing few prior wins, that is, many prior losses decreased positive affect and perceived benefits of betting and increased negative affect and perceived risks of betting. Path analysis results suggested that gambler's positive and negative affect altered perceived benefits of betting, which influenced reckless betting. Although participants that experienced more prior wins made more reckless bets similar to previous studies, there were no statistical differences between the three groups. Time-series analysis revealed that participants who experienced many prior losses made increasingly reckless bets at the end of the gambling task. We have discussed other potential variables that might have influenced recklessness, and the time-series analysis' implications on reckless betting and loss-chasing.

Attenuating Pain With the Past: Nostalgia Reduces Physical Pain.

Previous work has found that nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, is associated with psychological, emotional, and social benefits. Recent research has demonstrated that nostalgic reflection also can improve individuals' physical health (i.e., exercise) and reduce temperature-related pain. Building on this, two experiments examined how nostalgia can reduce people's pain perceptions (i.e., reduced severity and increased tolerance). Specifically, Study 1 showed that inducing nostalgia through a writing task decreased perceived pain severity (i.e., intensity) among self-reported chronic pain sufferers. Study 2, in turn, demonstrated that Japanese individuals experienced increased pain tolerance (i.e., the maximum level of pain a person can tolerate) for a pressure algometer task following thoughts of nostalgia (vs. a control prime). This work provides evidence that nostalgic reflection may serve as a psychological resource to reduce the perceived severity of physical pain.

Empathetic listening boosts nostalgia levels and positive emotions in autobiographical narrators.

Nostalgic memories serve to increase human resilience. Here, we hypothesized that emotional impressions on a narrator's nostalgic memory change depending on the level of empathy in the listener's response. This independent-measures study was conducted in 120 healthy Japanese undergraduates (66 women, 54 men, M age 20.3 ± 1.9 years). Nostalgia was induced using a medley of Japanese pop songs from the years 2006-2010. Thirty minutes later each participant was randomly allocated to be interviewed by an experimenter who applied one of three listening conditions: empathy, non-empathy, or non-response. Output measures were participant's talking time, nostalgia ratings, and positive and negative emotion ratings. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance followed by a multiple comparisons test. Empathy group participants had a significantly longer talking time than non-empathy or non-response participants, higher nostalgia scores than non-response participants, and higher positive emotion scores than non-empathy and non-response participants, but lower negative emotion scores than non-reponse participants. Participants were then divided into a less nostalgia-prone and a more nostalgia-prone group using the Southampton Nostalgia Rating Scale and the data were reanalyzed for each experimental condition. The results showed that a person more prone to nostalgia felt more nostalgic and more positive toward their autobiographical memory than those who are less nostalgia-prone. The present findings have implications for human interaction in everyday life and in therapeutic settings.

The Developmental Trajectory of Self-Esteem Across the Life Span in Japan: Age Differences in Scores on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale From Adolescence to Old Age.

We examined age differences in global self-esteem in Japan from adolescents aged 16 to the elderly aged 88. Previous research has shown that levels of self-liking (one component of self-esteem) are high for elementary school students, low among middle and high school students, but then continues to become higher among adults by the 60s. However, it did not measure both aspects of self-esteem (self-competence and self-liking) or examine the elderly over the age of 70. To fully understand the developmental trajectory of self-esteem in Japan, we analyzed six independent cross-sectional surveys. These surveys administered the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, which measured both self-competence and self-liking, on a large and diverse sample (N = 6,113) that included the elderly in the 70s and 80s. Results indicated that, consistent with previous research, for both self-competence and self-liking, the average level of self-esteem was low in adolescence, but continued to become higher from adulthood to old age. However, a drop of self-esteem was not found over the age of 50, which was inconsistent with prior research in European American cultures. Our research demonstrated that the developmental trajectory of self-esteem may differ across cultures.

Decision-Making Based on Social Conventional Rules by Elderly People.

Information used by older adults engaging in a social decision making task of judging a protagonist as a good or a bad person was investigated. Older (n = 100, 50 women, mean age = 63.6 years) and younger (n = 100, 50 women, mean age = 25.7 years) adults participated in a web-based survey. In Experiment 1, we assessed participants' rapid decision-making processes when making good or bad judgments after reading consecutive sentences without reviewing previously read sentences. The percentages of good judgments were analyzed. In Experiment 2, two protagonists engaging in a deliberate decision-making process were presented, and participants were asked to judge better and worse protagonists. The percentages of behavior-based judgments were analyzed. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that older adults judged protagonists as "good" more often than younger adults. Especially, older adults judged protagonists with good behavior as being "good." In Experiment 2, older adults made behavior-based judgments more than younger people. Additionally, older and younger adults used information on personalities of protagonists for making judgments in situations with bad outcomes, or incongruent. Moreover, multiple regression analysis suggested that people with more general trust engaged more, whereas people with more caution engaged less in making behavior-based judgments.

Are pension types associated with happiness in Japanese older people?: JAGES cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Although many previous studies have examined the determinants of happiness in older adults, few have investigated the association between pension types and happiness. When compared to other conventional socioeconomic indicators, pension types may be more indicative of long-term socioeconomic status as they can reflect a person's job history over their life course. This study examined the association between pension types and happiness in Japanese older people. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study were used to analyze the association between pension types and happiness. The study population comprised 120152 participants from 2013. We calculated the prevalence ratios of happiness for the different pension types using Poisson regression models that controlled for age, sex, marital status, equivalent income, wealth, education level, working status, occupation, depression, and social support. RESULTS: After controlling for socioeconomic indicators, the prevalence ratios (95% confidence intervals) of happiness for no pension benefits, low pension benefits, and moderate pension benefits relative to high pension benefits were 0.77 (0.73-0.81), 0.95 (0.94-0.97), and 0.98 (0.97-0.99), respectively. However, the inclusion of depression as a covariate weakened the association between pension types and happiness. CONCLUSIONS: While pension types were associated with happiness after adjusting for other proxy measures of socioeconomic status, the association diminished following adjustment for depression. Pension types may provide rich information on socioeconomic status and depression throughout the course of life. In addition to conventional socioeconomic indicators, pension types should also be considered when assessing the determinants of happiness in older adults.

Risk Perception and Risk Talk: The Case of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Radiation Risk.

Individuals' perceptions and their interpersonal communication about a risk event, or risk talk, can play a significant role in the formation of societal responses to the risk event. As they formulate their risk opinions and speak to others, risk information can circulate through their social networks and contribute to the construction of their risk information environment. In the present study, Japanese citizens' risk perception and risk talk were examined in the context of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear radiation risk. We hypothesized and found that the risk information environment and risk literacy (i.e., competencies to understand and use risk information) interact to influence their risk perception and risk talk. In particular, risk literacy tends to stabilize people's risk perceptions and their risk communications. Nevertheless, there were some subtle differences between risk perception and communication, suggesting the importance of further examination of interpersonal risk communication and its role in the societal responses to risk events.

Decision making processes based on social conventional rules in early adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorders.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by problems with reciprocal social interaction, repetitive behaviours/narrow interests, and impairments in the social cognition and emotional processing necessary for intention-based moral judgements. The aim of this study was to examine the information used by early adolescents with and without ASD when they judge story protagonists as good or bad. We predicted that adolescents with ASD would use protagonists' behaviour, while typically developing (TD) adolescents would use protagonists' characteristics when making the judgements. In Experiment 1, we measured sentence by sentence reading times and percentages for good or bad judgements. In Experiment 2, two story protagonists were presented and the participants determined which protagonist was better or worse. Experiment 1 results showed that the adolescents with ASD used protagonist behaviours and outcomes, whereas the TD adolescents used protagonist characteristics, behaviours, and outcomes. In Experiment 2, TD adolescents used characteristics information when making "bad" judgements. Taken together, in situations in which participants cannot go back and assess (Experiment 1), and in comparable situations in which all information is available (Experiment 2), adolescents with ASD do not rely on information about individual characteristics when making moral judgements.

[Effects of situational and individual variables on critical thinking expression].

The present study examined when people decide to choose an expression that is based on critical thinking, and how situational and individual variables affect such a decision process. Given a conversation scenario including overgeneralization with two friends, participants decided whether to follow the conversation by a critical-thinking expression or not. The authors controlled purpose and topic as situational variables, and measured critical-thinking ability, critical-thinking disposition, and self-monitoring as individual variables. We conducted an experiment in which the situational variables were counterbalanced in a within-subject design with 60 university students. The results of logistic regression analysis showed differences within individuals in the decision process whether to choose a critical-thinking expression, and that some situational factors and some subscales of the individual measurements were related to the differences.

[Motivational influences of task difficulty information on task effort].

Two studies were conducted to investigate the motivational influences of information about task difficulty on task effort. In both studies, an anagram task was used as the experimental task and task motivation was measured with rating scales. In experiment 1, 60 participants were presented anagrams labeled as "easy" or "difficult", both of which were actually impossible to solve. Results revealed that participants low in intrinsic motivation put in more effort on anagrams labeled "easy" than "difficult". In experiment 2, 60 participants were assigned to two groups (30 each) and task outcomes were manipulated (positive and negative). Results revealed that participants with positive outcomes could maintain task motivation and put in more effort on the challenging anagrams than those with negative outcomes. These results suggest that information about task difficulty can promote regulation of task effort and task motivation for sustained studying, especially for computer-based learning.

Enhancement of visual attention precedes the emergence of novel metaphor interpretations.

Emergence of creative ideas often involves sudden linking of unrelated ideas. Here we demonstrate that the production of insights about novel metaphor was preceded by prolonged visual inspection of metaphorical sentences. The participants made free spoken responses in a task requiring the generation of semantic interpretations about visually presented sentences, where gaze locations were continuously monitored. We found that creative interpretations were primarily generated from novel metaphorical expressions, rather than from conventional expressions. Moreover, presented words within novel metaphors were visually inspected for longer periods specifically before creative interpretations were produced. Interestingly, prolonged gazes occurred several seconds (∼8 s) prior to the generation of creative interpretations, particularly, in the case of the topic word within the metaphor. These results demonstrate latent cognitive process meditating the emergence of insights, and suggest that the prior visual inspection prompted the semantic representation of the metaphorical sentences, which eventually facilitates creative ideas.

[The effects of charity advertising on donations and donors' explicit and implicit evaluations of recipients].

Advertisements for charity generally employ one of two advertising strategies. The first appeals to the efficacy of support, while the second appeals to the necessity of support. Two experiments investigated the effect of each type of charity advertising on donations and on donors' explicit and implicit evaluations of the recipients. The results indicated that although participants' explicit evaluations of charity recipients were not changed by efficacy-based advertising, they were negatively influenced by necessity-based advertising. Furthermore, Experiment 1 detected moderating effects of empathic concern. The explicit evaluations of participants in the necessity-based advertising group were negatively correlated with their empathic concern. Implicit evaluations were consistently negative in both groups. Both advertising strategies were more effective at securing donations than the control group, which did not use any strategies. These findings suggest practical implications for charity advertising.