Familiar Sequences Are Processed Faster Than Unfamiliar Sequences, Even When They Do Not Match the Count-List.

In order processing, consecutive sequences (e.g., 1-2-3) are generally processed faster than nonconsecutive sequences (e.g., 1-3-5) (also referred to as the reverse distance effect). A common explanation for this effect is that order processing operates via a memory-based associative mechanism whereby consecutive sequences are processed faster because they are more familiar and thus more easily retrieved from memory. Conflicting with this proposal, however, is the finding that this effect is often absent. A possible explanation for these absences is that familiarity may vary both within and across sequence types; therefore, not all consecutive sequences are necessarily more familiar than all nonconsecutive sequences. Accordingly, under this familiarity perspective, familiar sequences should always be processed faster than unfamiliar sequences, but consecutive sequences may not always be processed faster than nonconsecutive sequences. To test this hypothesis in an adult population, we used a comparative judgment approach to measure familiarity at the individual sequence level. Using this measure, we found that although not all participants showed a reverse distance effect, all participants displayed a familiarity effect. Notably, this familiarity effect appeared stronger than the reverse distance effect at both the group and individual level; thus, suggesting the reverse distance effect may be better conceptualized as a specific instance of a more general familiarity effect.

Age-related effects in magnitude and place-value processing.

While general cognitive skills decline during aging, numerical skills seem to be mainly preserved. Such skills are essential for an independent life up to old age, e.g., when dealing with money or time. Operating with numbers usually requires number magnitude and place-value processing. The question is whether these processes are negatively affected by aging due to the general cognitive decline or positively affected due to lifelong experience with numbers. Therefore, we investigated age-related changes in the distance and compatibility effects in single-digit, two-digit, and four-digit number comparison. On the one hand, older adults took longer for number processing and showed a smaller distance effect, indicating altered number magnitude representations. On the other hand, older adults were better in place-value processing as indicated by a smaller compatibility effect than in younger adults. We conclude that aging differentially affects basic numerical skills.

New grasslands promote pollination but not biological pest control in nearby arable fields in the short term.

Agricultural intensification is a major threat to farmland biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Semi-natural habitats are integral to the preservation of farmland biodiversity and ecosystem services, however, the extent in which they contribute to specific services is largely unclear. We studied predation rates of ground-dwelling predatory arthropods, and pollination success within old permanent grasslands, newly established grasslands and arable fields near and far from new grasslands. We evaluated whether grassland restoration can enhance pollination and biological control in crop fields. For this purpose, we established new grassland strips within cereal fields, which directly bordered existing permanent grasslands. We evaluated if the distance to these old and new grasslands affects the delivery of the two ecosystem services within crop fields. We found significantly higher seed numbers and seed weight in sentinel plants placed in old grasslands, new grasslands and nearby arable fields compared to distant arable fields. We also found significantly decreasing seed numbers and seed weight in sentinel plants placed in distant arable fields with increasing distance from old grasslands, while pollination success was not affected by distance in nearby arable fields. Contrary, we did not find any significant effects of new grasslands on biological control. Our study showed that 3 years after establishing grasslands arable fields benefited from the proximity of flower-rich new grasslands through increased pollination success though not regarding biological control. This indicates that, on a short term, establishing new grasslands can support beneficial arthropods in providing ecosystem services such as pollination. Predators, in contrast, might take longer to establish effective populations that denote higher predation rates. Our study provides a baseline for future long-term studies to better evaluate pollination and pest control patterns within arable fields. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11829-023-10034-5.

Regional specificity of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation effects on spatial-numerical associations: Comparison of four stimulation sites.

Neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an increasingly popular research tool to experimentally manipulate cortical areas and probe their causal involvements in behavior, but its replicability and regional specificity are not clear. This registered report investigated cathodal tDCS effects on spatial-numerical associations (i.e., the SNARC effect), the numerical distance effect (NDE), and inhibitory control (i.e., stop-signal reaction time; SSRT). Healthy adults (N = 160) were randomly assigned to one of five groups to receive sham tDCS or 1 mA cathodal tDCS to one of four stimulation sites (left/right prefrontal cortex [PFC], left/right posterior parietal cortex) with extracephalic return. We replicated that cathodal tDCS over the left PFC reduced the SNARC effect compared to sham tDCS and to tDCS over the left parietal cortex. However, neither NDE nor SSRT were modulated in the main analyses. Post hoc contrasts and exploratory analyses showed that cathodal tDCS over the right PFC had a time-dependent effect by delayed practice-related improvements in SSRT. Math anxiety moderated changes in the NDE in the groups receiving tDCS to the right parietal cortex. With few exceptions, the replicability and regional specificity of tDCS effects on behavior were weak and partially moderated by individual differences. Future research needs to characterize the parameter settings for effective neuromodulation.

Photoinduced Precise Synthesis of Diatomic Ir1 Pd1 -In2 O3 for CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol via Angstrom-Scale-Distance Dependent Synergistic Catalysis.

The atomically dispersed metal catalysts with full atomic utilization and well-defined site structure hold great promise for various catalytic reactions. However, the single metallic site limits the comprehensive reaction performance in most reactions. Here, we demonstrated a photo-induced neighbour-deposition strategy for the precise synthesis of diatomic Ir1 Pd1 on In2 O3 applied for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. The proximity synergism between diatomic sites enabled a striking promotion in both CO2 conversion (10.5 %) and methanol selectivity (97 %) with good stability of 100 h run. It resulted in record-breaking space-time yield to methanol (187.1 gMeOH gmetal -1  hour-1 ). The promotional effect mainly originated from stronger CO2 adsorption on Ir site with assistance of H-spillover from Pd site, thus leading to a lower energy barrier for *HCOO pathway. It was confirmed that this synergistic effect strongly depended on the dual-site distance in an angstrom scale, which was attributed to weaker *H spillover and less electron transfer from Pd to Ir site as the Pd-to-Ir distance increased. The average dual-site distance was evaluated by our firstly proposed photoelectric model. Thus, this study introduced a pioneering strategy to precisely synthesize homonuclear/heteronuclear diatomic catalysts for facilitating the desired reaction route via diatomic synergistic catalysis.

Understanding the Distance Effect of the Single-Atom Active Sites in Fenton-Like Reactions for Efficient Water Remediation.

Emerging single-atom catalysts (SACs) are promising in water remediation through Fenton-like reactions. Despite the notable enhancement of catalytic activity through increasing the density of single-atom active sites, the performance improvement is not solely attributed to the increase in the number of active sites. The variation of catalytic behaviors stemming from the increased atomic density is particularly elusive and deserves an in-depth study. Herein, single-atom Fe catalysts (FeSA-CN) with different distances (dsite) between the adjacent single-atom Fe sites are constructed by controlling Fe loading. With the decrease in dsite value, remarkably enhanced catalytic activity of FeSA-CN is realized via the electron transfer regime with peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. The decrease in dsite value promotes electronic communication and further alters the electronic structure in favor of PMS activation. Moreover, the two adjacent single-atom Fe sites collectively adsorb PMS and achieve single-site desorption of the PMS decomposition products, maintaining continuous PMS activation and contaminant removal. Moreover, the FeSA-CN/PMS system exhibits excellent anti-interference performance for various aquatic systems and good durability in continuous-flow experiments, indicating its great potential for water treatment applications. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the distance effect of single-atom active sites on water remediation by designing densely populated SACs.

Concepts of order: Why is ordinality processed slower and less accurately for non-consecutive sequences?

Both adults and children are slower at judging the ordinality of non-consecutive sequences (e.g., 1-3-5) than consecutive sequences (e.g., 1-2-3). It has been suggested that the processing of non-consecutive sequences is slower because it conflicts with the intuition that only count-list sequences are correctly ordered. An alternative explanation, however, may be that people simply find it difficult to switch between consecutive and non-consecutive concepts of order during order judgement tasks. Therefore, in adult participants, we tested whether presenting consecutive and non-consecutive sequences separately would eliminate this switching demand and thus improve performance. In contrast with this prediction, however, we observed similar patterns of response times independent of whether sequences were presented separately or together (Experiment 1). Furthermore, this pattern of results remained even when we doubled the number of trials and made participants explicitly aware when consecutive and non-consecutive sequences were presented separately (Experiment 2). Overall, these results suggest slower response times for non-consecutive sequences do not result from a cognitive demand of switching between consecutive and non-consecutive concepts of order, at least not in adults.

The neural correlates of interference effects of numerical Stroop task: An ALE meta-analysis and connectometry.

Numerical skills are part of cognitive and formal education development, and low performance in math has been associated with adverse features such as low income and unemployment. The studies of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation in numerical Stroop interference had been accomplished to evidence neural correlates of numerical, automatic, and controlled processes. The aim of this research was to summarize the results of the neural correlates of a number-size congruity task through meta-analysis of fMRI, behavioral evidence, and connectometry. Our study includes 15 fMRI papers (total number of subjects n=155-302, the total number of foci=81-233). Meta-analyses used an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) logarithm. For connectometry, it was used the diffusion tensor image. We found that, for the attentional control numerical Stroop effect, the activated areas were the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate gyrus, and the intraparietal sulcus. Consistent activation over both paradigms was found in five clusters, two in the frontal and three in the parietal lobe. The matrix of connectivity showed connections between insula and inferior parietal right with 587 fibers, cingulate gyrus, and inferior parietal right with 843 fibers. Both paradigms activate parietal areas but differ in the activation of regions correlated to attentional control. The results of these meta-analyses summarized results from fMRI studies that may contribute to current theories. The results of connectometry could be interpreted regarding the fibers connection between the clusters right inferior parietal with insula and cingulate gyrus that suggests the integration of information.

Biogeographic patterns in populations of marine Pseudoalteromonas atlantica isolates.

Intra-specific genomic diversity is well documented in microbes. The question, however, remains whether natural selection or neutral evolution is the major contributor to this diversity. We undertook this study to estimate genomic diversity in Pseudoalteromonas atlantica populations and whether the diversity, if present, could be attributed to environmental factors or distance effects. We isolated and sequenced twenty-three strains of P. atlantica from three geographically distant deep marine basins and performed comparative genomic analyses to study the genomic diversity of populations among these basins. Average nucleotide identity followed a strictly geographical pattern. In two out of three locations, the strains within the location exhibited >99.5% identity, whereas, among locations, the strains showed <98.11% identity. Phylogenetic and pan-genome analysis also reflected the biogeographical separation of the strains. Strains from the same location shared many accessory genes and clustered closely on the phylogenetic tree. Phenotypic diversity between populations was studied in ten out of twenty-three strains testing carbon and nitrogen source utilization and osmotolerance. A genetic basis for phenotypic diversity could be established in most cases but was apparently not influenced by local environmental conditions. Our study suggests that neutral evolution may have a substantial role in the biodiversity of P. atlantica.

Crows flexibly apply statistical inferences based on previous experience.

Statistical inference, the ability to use limited information to draw conclusions about the likelihood of an event, is critical for decision-making during uncertainty. The ability to make statistical inferences was thought to be a uniquely human skill requiring verbal instruction and mathematical reasoning.1 However, basic inferences have been demonstrated in both preliterate and pre-numerate individuals,2,3,4,5,6,7 as well as non-human primates.8 More recently, the ability to make statistical inferences has been extended to members outside of the primate lineage in birds.9,10 True statistical inference requires subjects use relative rather than absolute frequency of previously experienced events. Here, we show that crows can relate memorized reward probabilities to infer reward-maximizing decisions. Two crows were trained to associate multiple reward probabilities ranging from 10% to 90% to arbitrary stimuli. When later faced with the choice between various stimulus combinations, crows retrieved the reward probabilities associated with individual stimuli from memory and used them to gain maximum reward. The crows showed behavioral distance and size effects when judging reward values, indicating that the crows represented probabilities as abstract magnitudes. When controlling for absolute reward frequency, crows still made reward-maximizing choices, which is the signature of true statistical inference. Our study provides compelling evidence of decision-making by relative reward frequency in a statistical inference task.

Evaluation of the Performance and Tolerance of the Combination of an HA-based Filler with Tri-Hyal Technology and a Skin Biorevitalizer on Skin Aging Parameters.

Background: Biorevitalization solutions contain numerous nutritive compounds to improve skin quality. Dermal fillers like HA (hyaluronic acid), depending on rheological characteristics, are used to fill large static defaults with a sustained long-term efficacy. Treatments with either dermal filler or biorevitalization solutions alone are not enough to bring a global facial aging approach. Objective: To demonstrate the anti-aging performance and safety of a new protocol, BIONUTRILIFT, which combined an HA-based filler with Tri-Hyal technology and a skin biorevitalizer, to target the skin quality and wrinkles correction at the same time. Materials and Methods: Eligible subjects were enrolled based on a score of 2, 3, 4, or 5 on Bazin cheek folds wrinkle scale. Safety outcomes measured were immediate and local tolerability. Performance outcomes measured included: proportion of subjects in whom the severity of cheeks folds, nasolabial folds, marionette lines, upper lip wrinkles and skin radiance remained at least one point below the baseline measurement (Bazin scale) Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale scores by subjects and investigators. Results: In performance analyses with the combined protocol, skin radiance and cheek folds wrinkle correction sustained during the four-month study and decrease by 61% and 55%, respectively. 96% and 77% of subjects respectively showed at least a one-point decrease in the mean skin radiance score and Bazin score compared with baseline. Interestingly, the BIONUTRILIFT protocol showed the distance effect of vector A (cheek injection) and vector B (mandibular injection) on perioral zone and remained significant even 120 days after injections. Adverse events (AEs) were consistent with the expected AEsthat occurred after dermal injections. No serious AEswere recorded. Conclusion: BIONUTRILIFT may satisfy the subjects' demand by obtaining in the same session a simple, personalized, noninvasive, atraumatic, and reproductible technique.

Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study.

In the basic verbal task from Piaget, when a relation of the form if A > B and B > C is given, a logical inference A > C is expected. This process is called transitive inference (TI). The adapted version for animals involves the presentation of a simultaneous discrimination between stimuli pairs. In this way, when A+B-, B+C-, C+D-, D+E- is trained, a B>D preference is expected, assuming that if A>B>C>D>E, then B>D. This effect has been widely reported using several procedures and different species. In the current experiment TI was evaluated employing probabilistic reinforcement. Thus, for the positive stimuli a .7 probability was administered and for the negative stimuli a .3 probability was administered. Under this arrangement the relation A>B>C>D>E is still allowed, but TI becomes more difficult. Five pigeons (Columba Livia) were exposed to the mentioned arrangement. Only one pigeon reached the criterion in C+D- discrimination, whereas the remaining did not. Only the one who successfully solved C+D- was capable of learning TI, whereas the others were not. Additionally, it was found that correct response ratios did not predict BD performance. Consequently, probabilistic reinforcement disrupted TI, but some positional ordering was retained in the test. The results suggest that TI might be affected by associative strength but also by the positional ordering of the stimuli. The discussion addresses the two main accounts of TI: the associative account and the ordinal representation account.

Direct Oxygen-Oxygen Cleavage through Optimizing Interatomic Distances in Dual Single-atom Electrocatalysts for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on transition single-atom catalysts (SACs) is sustainable in energy-conversion devices. However, the atomically controllable fabrication of single-atom sites and the sluggish kinetics of ORR have remained challenging. Here, we accelerate the kinetics of acid ORR through a direct O-O cleavage pathway through using a bi-functional ligand-assisted strategy to pre-control the distance of hetero-metal atoms. Concretely, the as-synthesized Fe-Zn diatomic pairs on carbon substrates exhibited an outstanding ORR performance with the ultrahigh half-wave potential of 0.86 V vs. RHE in acid electrolyte. Experimental evidence and density functional theory calculations confirmed that the Fe-Zn diatomic pairs with a specific distance range of around 3 Å, which is the key to their ultrahigh activity, average the interaction between hetero-diatomic active sites and oxygen molecules. This work offers new insight into atomically controllable SACs synthesis and addresses the limitations of the ORR dissociative mechanism.

Different impacts of long-term abacus training on symbolic and non-symbolic numerical magnitude processing in children.

Abacus-based mental calculation (AMC) has been shown to be effective in promoting math ability in children. Given that AMC relies on a visuospatial strategy to perform rapid and precise arithmetic, previous studies mostly focused on the promotion of AMC training on arithmetic ability and mathematical visual-spatial ability, as well as its transfer of advanced cognitive ability. However, little attention has been given to its impact on basic numerical comparison ability. Here, we aim to examine whether and how long-term AMC training impacts symbolic and non-symbolic numerical comparisons. The distance effect (DE) was utilized as a marker, indicating that the comparison between two numbers becomes faster as their numerical distance enlarges. In the current study, forty-one children matched for age and sex were recruited at primary school entry and randomly assigned to the AMC group and the control group. After three years of training, the event-related potential (ERP) recording technique was used to explore the temporal dynamics of number comparison, of which tasks were given in symbolic (Arabic number) or non-symbolic (dot array) format. In the symbolic task, the children in the AMC group showed a smaller DE than those in the control group. Two ERP components, N1 and P2p, located in parietal areas (PO7, PO8) were selected as neural markers of numerical processing. Both groups showed DE in the P2p component in both tasks, but only the children in the AMC group showed DE in the N1 component in the non-symbolic task. In addition, the DE size calculated from reaction times and ERP amplitudes was correlated with higher cognitive capacities, such as coding ability. Taken together, the present results provide evidence that long-term AMC training may be beneficial for numerical processing in children, which may be associated with neurocognitive indices of parietal brain regions.

Host phylogeny and ecological associations best explain Wolbachia host shifts in scale insects.

Wolbachia are among the most prevalent and widespread endosymbiotic bacteria on Earth. Wolbachia's success in infecting an enormous number of arthropod species is attributed to two features: the range of phenotypes they induce in their hosts, and their ability to switch between host species. Whilst much progress has been made in elucidating their induced phenotypes, our understanding of Wolbachia host-shifting is still very limited: we lack answers to even fundamental questions concerning Wolbachia's routes of transfer and the importance of factors influencing host shifts. Here, we investigate the diversity and host-shift patterns of Wolbachia in scale insects, a group of arthropods with intimate associations with other insects that make them well suited to studying host shifts. Using Illumina multitarget amplicon sequencing of Wolbachia-infected scale insects and their direct associates we determined the identity of all Wolbachia strains. We then fitted a generalized additive mixed model to our data to estimate the influence of host phylogeny and the geographical distribution on Wolbachia strain sharing among scale insect species. The model predicts no significant contribution of host geography but strong effects of host phylogeny, with high rates of Wolbachia sharing among closely related species and a sudden drop-off in sharing with increasing phylogenetic distance. We also detected the same Wolbachia strain in scale insects and several intimately associated species (ants, wasps and flies). This indicates putative host shifts and potential routes of transfers via these associates and highlights the importance of ecological connectivity in Wolbachia host-shifting.

Self-generated cognitive fluency: consequences on evaluative judgments.

ABSTRACTPeople can support abstract reasoning by using mental models with spatial simulations. Such models are employed when people represent elements in terms of ordered dimensions (e.g. who is oldest, Tom, Dick, or Harry). We test and find that the process of forming and using such mental models can influence the liking of its elements (e.g. Tom, Dick, or Harry). The presumed internal structure of such models (linear-transitive array of elements), generates variations in processing ease (fluency) when using the model in working memory (see the Symbolic Distance Effect, SDE). Specifically, processing of pairs where elements have larger distances along the order should be easier compared to pairs with smaller distances. Elements from easier pairs should be liked more than elements from difficult pairs (fluency being hedonically positive). Experiment 1 shows that unfamiliar ideographs are liked more when at wider distances and therefore easier to process. Experiment 2 replicates this effect with non-words. Experiment 3 rules out a non-spatial explanation of the effect while Experiments 4 offers a high-powered replication. Experiment 5 shows that the spatial effect spontaneously emerges after learning, even without a task that explicitly focuses on fluency. Experiment 6 employed a shorter array, but yielded no significant results.

Influences of cognitive control on number processing: New evidence from switching between two numerical tasks.

A growing body of research suggests that basic numerical abilities such as number magnitude and number parity processing are influenced by cognitive control. So far, however, evidence for number processing being influenced by cognitive control came primarily from observed adaptations to stimulus set characteristics (e.g., ratio or order of specific stimulus types) and switches between a numerical and non-numerical task. Complementing this previous research, the present study employed a task switching paradigm exclusively involving numerical tasks (i.e., magnitude comparisons and parity judgements) to examine how cognitive control processes influence number processing. Participants were presented with a single-digit number and had to either judge its parity or compare its magnitude with a standard of 5, depending on a preceding cue. Based on previous results, we expected the numerical distance effect and the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect to be modulated in switch trials requiring the exertion of cognitive control. Partly in line with our expectations, the numerical distance effect was reduced in switch trials. However, no modulation of the SNARC effect was observed. The results pattern suggests that number processing is influenced by cognitive control, depending on task requirements and the type of numerical information (i.e., numerical magnitude vs spatial association of numbers) that is processed. To reconcile the present and previous results, we propose an information prioritisation account, suggesting that cognitive control primarily influences the processing of the information type that requires the most explicit processing.

Stimulus frequency alone can account for the size effect in number comparison.

In a number comparison task, the size effect (i.e, smaller values are easier to compare than larger values) is usually attributed to a psychophysics-based representation. However, alternative models assume that the size effect is a frequency effect: Smaller numbers are easier to process because they are observed more frequently. Previous studies have demonstrated that the frequency of the digits fundamentally influences the comparison size effect: In new number symbols, the frequency entirely determines the size effect. In contrast, in Arabic notation, the size effect aggregates the frequency in the actual session and the previous regular size effect. Here, we investigate whether the previously acquired regular size effect can depend on the frequency of the stimuli as well or on a psychophysics-based representation that is not yet active in new symbols. Participants in the study compared numbers that were denoted with new symbols, with the frequency of the symbols being changed throughout the session. We found that the frequency of the stimuli in both halves of the session was aggregated in the size effect. In addition, no psychophysics-based size effect was found throughout the session. These results confirm that the size effect can be created and shaped purely by the frequency of the symbols, while a psychophysics-based representation is not necessary to account for these size effect-related phenomena.

A distal external focus of attention facilitates compensatory coordination of body parts.

Many studies have shown that focusing on an intended movement effect that is farther away from the body (distal external focus) results in performance benefits relative to focusing on an effect that is closer to the body (proximal external focus) or focusing on the body itself (internal focus) (see, Chua, Jimenez-Diaz, Lewthwaite, Kim & Wulf, 2021). Furthermore, the advantages of a distal external focus seem to be particularly pronounced in skilled performers (Singh & Wulf, 2020). The present study examined whether such benefits of more distal attentional focus may be associated with enhanced functional variability. Volleyball players (n = 20) performed 60 overhand volleyball serves to a target. Using a within-participants design, the effects of a distal external focus (bullseye), proximal external focus (ball) and an internal focus (hand) were compared. The distal focus condition resulted in significantly higher accuracy scores than did the proximal and internal focus conditions. In addition, uncontrolled manifold analysis showed that functional variability (as measured by the index of synergy) was greatest in the distal focus condition. These findings suggest that a distal external focus on the task goal may enhance movement outcomes by optimising compensatory coordination of body parts.

Unravelling the 2e- ORR Activity Induced by Distance Effect on Main-Group Metal InN4 Surface Based on First Principles.

The p-electron-dominated main-group metals (Sb, Se, In, etc.) have recently been reported to possess excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity by means of heteroatom doping into graphene. However, on these main group metal surfaces, other approaches especially the distance effect to modulate catalytic activity are rarely involved. In this work, the origin of excellent 2e- ORR catalytic activity of graphene-supported InN4 moiety by tuning the distance between metallic In atoms is thoroughly investigated by employing the first-principles calculations. Our DFT calculations show that the 2e- ORR catalytic activity strongly depends on the crystal orbital Hamilton population (COHP) between In and O atoms. This work is useful for the rational design of main group metal single atom electrocatalysts.