Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of a Positive Affect Skills Intervention for Adults With Fibromyalgia.

Background and Objectives: To examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a positive affect skills intervention for middle-aged and older adults with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). Research Design and Methods: Ninety-five participants with FMS aged 50 and older (94% female) were randomized to 1 of 2 conditions: (a) Lessons in Affect Regulation to Keep Stress and Pain UndeR control (LARKSPUR; n = 49) or (b) emotion reporting/control (n = 46). LARKSPUR included 5 weeks of skill training that targeted 8 skills to help foster positive affect, including (a) noticing positive events, (b) savoring positive events, (c) identifying personal strengths, (d) behavioral activation to set and work toward attainable goals, (e) mindfulness, (f) positive reappraisal, (g) gratitude, and (h) acts of kindness. Outcome data were collected via online surveys at baseline, postintervention, and 1-month follow-up. Results: Completion rates (88%) and satisfaction ratings (10-point scale) were high (LARKSPUR: M = 9.14, standard deviation (SD) = 1.49; control: M = 8.59, SD = 1.97). Improvements were greater in LARKSPUR participants compared with control participants on measures of positive affect (Cohen's d = 0.19 [0.15, 0.24]), negative affect (Cohen's d = -0.07 [-0.11, -0.02]), and pain catastrophizing (Cohen's d = -0.14 [-0.23, -0.05]). Improvements in positive affect (Cohen's d = 0.17 [0.13, 0.22]) and negative affect (Cohen's d = -0.11 [-0.15, -0.06]) were maintained at 1-month follow-up. Dose-response analyses indicated that intervention engagement significantly predicted pre-to-post and post-to-follow-up reductions in pain catastrophizing. Discussion and Implications: The current preliminary findings add to existing literature and highlight the specific potential of internet-delivered positive affect skills programs for adults with FMS. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT04869345.

Partial recall: Implications for the discrete slot limit of working memory capacity.

The nature of working memory capacity (WMC) has been a highly contested topic among cognitive scientists. Some advocate for the discrete nature of this construct, fixed to a set number of independent slots, each capable of storing a single chunk of bound information. Others advocate for a continuous limit, guided by a pool of immediately available resources spent across the to-be-remembered items. To understand the nature of WMC, it was first essential to separate capacity from other factors, such as performance consistency, which may impact overall WM performance. Recent work by Schor et al., (2020, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 27[5], 1006-1013) has provided a method for separating these constructs within a single visual array task. The present study used this statistical model to extract partial information, defined as accurate recall of a correct color, but not location, at a rate greater than expected through guessing. The successful memory of this information would demonstrate that capacity does not rely on the existence of empty slots, which discrete slot model advocates argue, are necessary for successful storage and recall of items. The present study found that participants were able to successfully recall partial information at a rate significantly greater than chance, but not beyond the individual working memory capacity limit. These findings help provide additional support for the discrete resource slot model, while simultaneously casting doubt on its strong object slot model alternative.

Supervised latent Dirichlet allocation with covariates: A Bayesian structural and measurement model of text and covariates.

Text is a burgeoning data source for psychological researchers, but little methodological research has focused on adapting popular modeling approaches for text to the context of psychological research. One popular measurement model for text, topic modeling, uses a latent mixture model to represent topics underlying a body of documents. Recently, psychologists have studied relationships between these topics and other psychological measures by using estimates of the topics as regression predictors along with other manifest variables. While similar two-stage approaches involving estimated latent variables are known to yield biased estimates and incorrect standard errors, two-stage topic modeling approaches have received limited statistical study and, as we show, are subject to the same problems. To address these problems, we proposed a novel statistical model-supervised latent Dirichlet allocation with covariates (SLDAX)-that jointly incorporates a latent variable measurement model of text and a structural regression model to allow the latent topics and other manifest variables to serve as predictors of an outcome. Using a simulation study with data characteristics consistent with psychological text data, we found that SLDAX estimates were generally more accurate and more efficient. To illustrate the application of SLDAX and a two-stage approach, we provide an empirical clinical application to compare the application of both the two-stage and SLDAX approaches. Finally, we implemented the SLDAX model in an open-source R package to facilitate its use and further study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Modeling approaches for cross-sectional integrative data analysis: Evaluations and recommendations.

Integrative data analysis (IDA) jointly models participant-level data from multiple studies. In psychology, IDA has been conducted using different fixed-effects and multilevel modeling (MLM) approaches. However, evaluations regarding the performance of these models in an IDA context are limited. The goal of this article is to evaluate three fixed-effects models (aggregated vs. disaggregated vs. study-specific coefficients regressions) and two MLMs (fixed-slope vs. random-slopes MLM) for cross-sectional IDA. Using a simulation study with study sample sizes and numbers of studies consistent with applied IDA (e.g., two to 35 studies), we evaluated estimation bias and type I error rates for participant-level and study-level effects and variance components for these models; for the MLMs, we evaluated different estimation methods (i.e., constrained vs. unconstrained variance estimation and five degrees of freedom methods). Disaggregated and study-specific coefficients regressions and both MLMs yielded fixed effects estimates with ignorable bias, but only the random-slopes MLM fully modeled between-study heterogeneity and, consequently, provided well-controlled type I error rates for testing both fixed effects. Overall, we found that MLMs could be feasible under IDA conditions with three to six studies and well-chosen estimation methods. A real-data IDA example is used to illustrate and compare the application of the five models. We hope our results will help researchers choose appropriate modeling methods when conducting IDA. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Visual Perception of Photographs of Rotated 3D Objects in Goldfish (Carassius auratus).

This study examined goldfishes' ability to recognize photographs of rotated 3D objects. Six goldfish were presented with color photographs of a plastic model turtle and frog at 0° in a two-alternative forced-choice task. Fish were tested with stimuli at 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° rotated in the picture plane and two depth planes. All six fish performed significantly above chance at all orientations in the three rotation planes tested. There was no significant difference in performance as a function of aspect angle, which supported viewpoint independence. However, fish were significantly faster at 180° than at +/-90°, so there is also evidence for viewpoint-dependent representations. These fish subjects performed worse overall in the current study with 2D color photographs (M = 88.0%) than they did in our previous study with 3D versions of the same turtle and frog stimuli (M = 92.6%), although they performed significantly better than goldfish in our two past studies presented with black and white 2D stimuli (M = 67.6% and 69.0%). The fish may have relied on color as a salient cue. This study was a first attempt at examining picture-object recognition in fish. More work is needed to determine the conditions under which fish succeed at object constancy tasks, as well as whether they are capable of perceiving photographs as representations of real-world objects.

How humans discriminate acoustically among bottlenose dolphin signature whistles with and without masking by boat noise.

Anthropogenic noise in the world's oceans is known to impede many species' ability to perceive acoustic signals, but little research has addressed how this noise affects the perception of bioacoustic signals used for communication in marine mammals. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) use signature whistles containing identification information. Past studies have used human participants to gain insight into dolphin perception, but most previous research investigated echolocation. In Experiment 1, human participants were tested on their ability to discriminate among signature whistles from three dolphins. Participants' performance was nearly errorless. In Experiment 2, participants identified signature whistles masked by five different samples of boat noise utilizing different signal-to-noise ratios. Lower signal-to-noise ratio and proximity in frequency between the whistle and noise both significantly decreased performance. Like dolphins, human participants primarily identified whistles using frequency contour. Participants reported greater use of amplitude in noise-present vs noise-absent trials, but otherwise did not vary cue usage. These findings can be used to generate hypotheses about dolphins' performance and auditory cue use for future research. This study may provide insight into how specific characteristics of boat noise affect dolphin whistle perception and may have implications for conservation and regulations.

Visual perception in a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): Successful recognition of 2-D objects rotated in the picture and depth planes.

Aquatic species such as bottlenose dolphins can move in 3 dimensions and frequently view objects from different orientations. This study examined their ability to identify 2-D objects visually despite changes in orientation across 2 rotation planes. A dolphin performed a matching-to-sample task in which a sample was presented at a different orientation from its match in a 3-alternative choice array. Samples were presented at 6 aspect angles in the picture plane (0°, ±45°, ±135°, 180°) and 6 aspect angles in the depth plane (0°, -45°, ±90°, +135°, 180°). Alternatives were always presented at 0°. Performance was significantly better than chance for all aspect angles in both rotation plane tests. There was a significant linear decline in accuracy as the sample object was rotated from 0° toward 180° in the picture plane. Performance with familiar objects (M = 97.1%) exceeded performance with novel objects (M = 76.9%). In the depth plane rotation test, there was a significant quadratic trend in accuracy as the sample object was rotated from 0° toward 180°, in which performance was significantly lower at ±90° than at all other orientations. Performance in the picture plane where all object features were available irrespective of orientation was significantly better than performance in the depth plane where the availability of visible features were dependent upon orientation (M = 81.2% vs. M = 63.0%). The dolphin's performance in this study shows evidence of both viewpoint-independent and viewpoint-dependent processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) discriminate between 2D objects varying in shape and color.

We investigated the ability of North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) to visually discriminate between 2D objects. The otters learned to discriminate between stimuli using multiple visual features and then were tested with stimuli in which one of the features was eliminated (color or shape). Two adult otters were trained in a two-alternative forced choice task to discriminate between a red circle and a blue triangle. Test sessions included probe trials containing novel shapes, colors, or shape-color combinations. Both otters successfully learned to discriminate between stimuli varying in multiple features. One of the otters was able to successfully discriminate between novel test stimuli when either color or shape were eliminated as salient features. This study was the first to explore the ability of L. canadensis to use different visual features to recognize objects and provides some preliminary evidence for color vision in this species. This research adds to the sparse literature on perceptual and cognitive capabilities in otters and can be used to support future conservation efforts for this species.

Visual perception of planar-rotated 2D objects in goldfish (Carassius auratus).

This study examined the ability of goldfish to visually identify 2D objects rotated in the picture plane. This ability would be adaptive for fish since they move in three dimensions and frequently view objects from different orientations. Goldfish performed a two-alternative forced choice task in which they were trained to discriminate between two objects at 0°, then tested with novel aspect angles (+/- 45°, +/- 90°, +/- 135°, 180°). Stimuli consisted of an arrow and half circle (Experiment 1) and line drawings of a turtle and frog (Experiments 2 and 3). In the first two experiments, the S+ and S- were presented at the same aspect angle. Performance in these experiments exceeded chance on four of seven novel aspect angles. Overall accuracy was not significantly different with complex stimuli (animal drawings) vs. simple stimuli (geometric shapes). In Experiment 3, when fish were tested with the S+ at varying aspect angles and the S- always presented at 0°, the fish failed to discriminate among the stimuli at all but one aspect angle. These goldfish viewing planar-rotated 2D objects did not display viewpoint-invariant performance, nor did they show a systematic decrement in performance as a function of aspect angle.

The prevalence and prevention of crosstalk: a multi-institutional study.

It is a common problem in psychology subject pools for past study participants to inform future participants of key experimental details (also known as crosstalk). Previous research (Edlund, Sagarin, Skowronski, Johnson, & Kutter, 2009) demonstrated that a combined classroom and laboratory treatment could significantly reduce crosstalk. The present investigation tested a laboratory-only treatment for the prevention of crosstalk at five universities, along with institutional-level moderators of crosstalk. Results indicated the presence of crosstalk at all universities and that the laboratory-based treatment was effective in reducing crosstalk. Importantly, crosstalk rates were higher (but successfully neutralized) in research pools with higher research credit requirements. Therefore, this research provides valuable guidance regarding crosstalk prevalence and its minimization by researchers.