What drives us to be (ir)responsible for our health during the COVID-19 pandemic? The role of personality, thinking styles, and conspiracy mentality.

The study aimed to investigate the role of personality, thinking styles, and conspiracy mentality in health-related behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., recommended health behaviors according to COVID-19 guidelines and engagement in pseudoscientific practices related to COVID-19. Basic personality space was defined by the HEXACO model complemented by Disintegration, which represents psychotic-like experiences and behaviors reconceptualized as a personality trait. Mediation analyses conducted on a convenient sample from the general population recruited via social media and by snowballing (N = 417) showed that engagement in pseudoscientific behaviors was predicted by high Disintegration. However, this relationship was entirely mediated by high experiential and low rational thinking styles. Adherence to health practices recommended by COVID-19 guidelines was predicted by high Honesty traits, while low Disintegration had both direct and indirect effects through conspiracy mentality.

Evidence on global medical travel.

The potential benefits of travelling across national borders to obtain medical treatment include improved care, decreased costs and reduced waiting times. However, medical travel involves additional risks, compared to obtaining treatment domestically. We review the publicly-available evidence on medical travel. We suggest that medical travel needs to be understood in terms of its potential risks and benefits so that it can be evaluated against alternatives by patients who are seeking care. We propose three domains -quality standards, informed decision-making, economic and legal protection - in which better evidence could support the development of medical travel policies.

Les avantages potentiels de la traversée de frontières nationales pour recevoir un traitement médical résident notamment dans une meilleure prise en charge, des coûts moindres et des temps d'attente réduits. Il est cependant plus risqué de voyager pour bénéficier de soins médicaux que de recevoir un traitement à l'intérieur du pays. Nous avons analysé les données scientifiques publiquement disponibles concernant le tourisme médical. Il nous apparaît essentiel de considérer le tourisme médical en fonction de ses risques et de ses avantages potentiels afin que les patients qui nécessitent des soins puissent le comparer aux autres solutions possibles. Nous estimons que l'amélioration de la qualité des données scientifiques dans trois domaines ­ normes de qualité, prise de décision éclairée et protection économique et juridique ­ favoriserait l'élaboration de politiques relatives au tourisme médical.

Los posibles beneficios de cruzar las fronteras nacionales para obtener tratamientos médicos incluyen una mejora de la atención, una disminución de los costes y una reducción de los tiempos de espera. Sin embargo, el turismo sanitario implica riesgos adicionales en comparación con obtener el tratamiento en el país. Se revisaron los datos públicos sobre el turismo sanitario. Nuestra sugerencia es que el turismo sanitario se entienda en términos de sus posibles riesgos y beneficios, de modo que aquellos pacientes que busquen atención médica puedan evaluarlos frente a otras alternativas. Proponemos tres ámbitos (normas de calidad, toma de decisiones informada y protección económica y legal) en los cuales unos datos más claros podrían apoyar el desarrollo de las políticas para el turismo sanitario.

Cognitive performance outcomes: considerations for drug development.

Ensuring that cognitive assessments are fit for purpose is critical in the evaluation of the clinical benefit of new therapeutic interventions. Although guidelines for Clinical Outcome Assessments (COA) are available, performance outcome (PerfO) assessments, and in particular those assessing cognition (Cog-PerfOs) are more complex and have additional requirements that need to be considered. I outline three areas where further discussion around validation methods for Cog-PerfOs and best practices is warranted: (1) content validity (2) ecological validity, and (3) construct validity in multinational contexts. I conclude with a discussion of several potential avenues for the improvement of validation of Cog-PerfOs used to evaluate the efficacy of medical products that target cognitive symptomatology. These include the involvement of cognitive psychologists in establishing content validity of Cog-PerfOs, evaluating the congruence of laypeople's and expert understanding of cognitive concepts, supplementing qualitative with quantitative evidence when establishing content validity, demonstrating ecological validity, and ensuring normative data are available in multinational contexts.

Visual search of illusory contours: The role of illusory contour clarity.

Kanizsa-type illusory contours demonstrate an important function of the visual system-object inference from incomplete boundaries, which can be due to low luminance environments, camouflage, or occlusion. At a perceptual level, Kanizsa figures have been shown to have various degrees of clarity, depending on the features of the inducers. The aim of the present study is to evaluate whether contour clarity influences search efficiency of Kanizsa-type illusory contours. Experiment 1 will examine search for a Kanizsa-type illusory target among Kanizsa-type illusory distractors, by manipulating contour clarity using inducer size in three conditions, compared with search for a nonillusory perceptually grouped target among nonillusory perceptually grouped distractors with manipulated inducer size. Experiment 2 will address the effects of contour clarity on visual search by manipulating the number of arcs (i.e., line ends) comprising the inducers, in a visual search task of Kanizsa-type stimuli, compared with visual search for nonillusory grouped targets and distractors when the number of arcs are manipulated. To examine whether surface alterations had an impact on search in Experiment 1 due to changes in inducer size, Experiment 3 will examine search for Kanizsa stimuli formed from "smoothed" inducers, in comparison to search for Kanizsa stimuli used in Experiment 1. Together, these experiments will demonstrate whether contour clarity impacts visual search of illusory contours.

Development of dynamic attention: Time-based visual selection for objects in motion between 6-12 years of age.

By approximately 6 years of age, children can use time-based visual selection to ignore stationary stimuli, already in the visual field and prioritize the selection of newly arriving stimuli. This ability can be studied using preview search, a version of the visual search paradigm with an added temporal component, in which one set of distractors is presented (previewed) before a second set that contains the target item. Preview search is more efficient than if all items are presented simultaneously, suggesting that temporally "old" objects can be ignored (the preview benefit). In two experiments, we examined the developmental trajectory for time-based visual selection in a sample of 192 6-, 8-, and 12-year-old children (49% female, predominantly White), with adults as controls (75% female, predominantly White), in the United Kingdom. The results showed an absence of the ability to ignore previewed moving distractors in 6-year-olds and confirmed its presence from 8 years of age. However, full development of this ability, which includes maintaining inhibition of previewed items over extended periods, was only present from the age of 12. Individual differences in executive functions, namely inhibition, were associated with preview search efficiency in 6-year-olds and adults. Overall, the results suggest a developmental trajectory in the ability to ignore moving old objects that occurs in two stages and develops later than the ability to ignore previewed stationary objects. The results are discussed in terms of underlying inhibitory mechanisms, in addition to individual differences in the expression of this ability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Prevalence of questionable health behaviours in Serbia and their psychological roots: protocol for a nationally representative survey.

INTRODUCTION: We will launch a national survey in Serbia to document the prevalence of two types of questionable health behaviours: (1) intentional non-adherence to medical recommendations and (2) use of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine practices, as well as the relation between the two. We will also investigate their psychological roots, including (a) 'distal' predictors such as HEXACO personality traits (plus Disintegration) and thinking dispositions (rational/experiential thinking and cognitive reflexivity), and (b) 'proximal' predictors under the umbrella 'irrational mindset' (set of unfounded beliefs consisting of conspiratorial thinking, superstition, magical health beliefs as well as selected cognitive biases), which have more content-wise overlap with the health behaviours. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: In this cross-sectional study, a research agency will collect data from a nationally representative sample (n=1043; age 18-75 years; estimated start/end-June/November 2021) recruited online (approximately, 70% of the sample, aged 18-54; 11 years) and face-to-face (approximately, 30% of the sample, aged 55-75 years). Participants will complete a battery of tests assessing questionable health behaviours, basic personality traits, thinking dispositions, irrational mindset, sociopolitical beliefs, sociodemographic and health-related variables. Prevalence rates will be calculated using descriptive statistics. To explore the relation between (psychological) predictors and questionable health behaviours, we will use hierarchical regression and partial mediation models (path analysis or full SEM models). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical Committees of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (#935/1), Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation (#139/1) and Faculty of Media and Communications (#228) approved the protocol. Only participants who provide informed consent will participate in the study. A research report based on the study results will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and results will be made available to stakeholders through reports on the project website https://reasonforhealth.f.bg.ac.rs/en/ and disseminated via social media. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05808660.

Irrational beliefs differentially predict adherence to guidelines and pseudoscientific practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the coronavirus "infodemic," people are exposed to official recommendations but also to potentially dangerous pseudoscientific advice claimed to protect against COVID-19. We examined whether irrational beliefs predict adherence to COVID-19 guidelines as well as susceptibility to such misinformation. Irrational beliefs were indexed by belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, COVID-19 knowledge overestimation, type I error cognitive biases, and cognitive intuition. Participants (N = 407) reported (1) how often they followed guidelines (e.g., handwashing, physical distancing), (2) how often they engaged in pseudoscientific practices (e.g., consuming garlic, colloidal silver), and (3) their intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Conspiratorial beliefs predicted all three outcomes in line with our expectations. Cognitive intuition and knowledge overestimation predicted lesser adherence to guidelines, while cognitive biases predicted greater adherence, but also greater use of pseudoscientific practices. Our results suggest an important relation between irrational beliefs and health behaviors, with conspiracy theories being the most detrimental.

Perceptual grouping constrains inhibition in time-based visual selection.

In time-based visual selection, task-irrelevant, old stimuli can be inhibited in order to allow the selective processing of new stimuli that appear at a later point in time (the preview benefit; Watson & Humphreys, 1997). The current study investigated if illusory and non-illusory perceptual groups influence the ability to inhibit old and prioritize new stimuli in time-based visual selection. Experiment 1 showed that with Kanizsa-type illusory stimuli, a preview benefit occurred only when displays contained a small number of items. Experiment 2 demonstrated that a set of Kanizsa-type illusory stimuli could be selectively searched amongst a set of non-illusory distractors with no additional preview benefit obtained by separating the two sets of stimuli in time. Experiment 3 showed that, similarly to Experiment 1, non-illusory perceptual groups also produced a preview benefit only for a small number of number of distractors. Experiment 4 demonstrated that local changes to perceptually grouped old items eliminated the preview benefit. The results indicate that the preview benefit is reduced in capacity when applied to complex stimuli that require perceptual grouping, regardless of whether the grouped elements elicit illusory contours. Further, inhibition is applied at the level of grouped objects, rather than to the individual elements making up those groups. The findings are discussed in terms of capacity limits in the inhibition of old distractor stimuli when they consist of perceptual groups, the attentional requirements of forming perceptual groups and the mechanisms and efficiency of time-based visual selection.

Impact of bottle size on in-home consumption of wine: feasibility and acceptability randomised cross-over study.

BACKGROUND: Reducing alcohol consumption across populations would prevent many non-communicable diseases. Large packages increase food and non-alcoholic drink consumption and large glasses increase wine consumption. Smaller bottles may reduce alcohol consumption but their impact is uncertain. This study aims to (i) explore the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a large-scale randomised study to assess the impact of bottle size on in-home wine consumption and (ii) estimate the effect size and variance of the intervention on consumption to inform the design of future studies. METHODS: Cross-over randomised study in which 16 households in Cambridge, England, consuming at least two 750-ml bottles of wine each week, received a pre-set volume of wine biweekly for 4 weeks, in 750-ml and 375-ml bottles, in random order. Consumption was assessed by recording the number of empty and partially full bottles at the end of each biweekly period. At the end of the study, household representatives were interviewed about their experiences of participating in the study. RESULTS: The study procedures proved feasible. Comparable to similar trials, 14% of identified eligible households (18/125) consented to participate in the study. Attrition between consent and study completion was 11% (2/18) and 0% between study periods and 13% of households (2/16) correctly identified the study aim. The study procedures were considered acceptable. After adjusting for guest and out-of-home consumption, the difference in consumption between the 750-ml (3385.2 ml; SD = 1698.5) and 375-ml bottles (3376.7 ml; SD = 1719.0) was 8.4 ml (SD = 1235.4; 95%CI - 596.9, 613.8). Results suggest a possible order effect, with households receiving the 375-ml bottles first consuming more wine out of the 750-ml bottles and vice versa. This might also reflect an increase in consumption with study duration. Households receiving the 375-ml bottles first (6315.9 ml; SD = 3293.5) also drank less wine overall than those receiving the 750-ml bottles first (7335.4 ml; SD = 3735.4). DISCUSSION: The findings support the feasibility and acceptability of running a large-scale randomised study to assess the impact of bottle size on in-home wine consumption. Due to the heterogeneous patterning of results, a future study will be powered using the variance observed in the current study to detect a meaningful reduction of 250 ml of wine when consumed from smaller compared with larger bottles. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework (OSF): rmk43; May 23, 2017.

Learning to ignore: The development of time-based visual attention in children.

Adults can ignore old and prioritize newly arriving visual stimuli, enabling optimal goal-directed search (visual marking; Watson & Humphreys, 1997). However, the ability to use time of appearance to enhance visual search is currently absent in work on attentional development in children. Experiment 1 examined children's (6-, 8-, and 12-year-olds) and adults' ability to ignore old and prioritize new stimuli and the relationship of this ability to executive functions. Experiment 2 examined whether the components involved in ignoring old items (encoding and maintenance) change across age, by presenting old stimuli for relatively short (500 ms), medium (1,000 ms) or long (1,500 ms) durations. On average, all age groups could ignore old items presented for 1,000 ms to some degree, however 25% of 6-year-olds were not able to prioritize new items effectively. No relationship was observed between the development of this ability and measures of executive function. On average, all age groups could ignore old items presented for short durations, however, 6-year-olds had difficulty ignoring stimuli presented for long durations. The findings suggest that the ability to ignore old items in order to prioritize search through new information is relatively weak in 6-year-olds, especially when ignoring items over longer durations. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the encoding and maintenance components involved in prioritizing new items might follow distinct developmental trajectories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Does self-control modify the impact of interventions to change alcohol, tobacco, and food consumption? A systematic review.

Low self-control is associated with increased consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy food. This systematic review aimed to assess whether individual differences in self-control modify the effectiveness of interventions to reduce consumption of these products, and hence their potential to reduce consumption amongst those whose consumption is generally greater. Searches of six databases were supplemented with snowball searches and forward citation tracking. Narrative synthesis summarised findings by: consumption behaviour (alcohol, tobacco, food); psychological processes targeted by the intervention (reflective, non-reflective, or both); and study design (experiment, cohort, or cross-sectional). Of 54 eligible studies, 22 reported no evidence of modification, 18 reported interventions to be less effective in those with low self-control, and 14 reported interventions to be more effective in those with low self-control. This pattern did not differ from chance. Whilst self-control often influenced intervention outcomes, there was no consistent pattern of effects, even when stratifying studies by consumption behaviour, intervention type, or study design. There was a notable absence of evidence regarding interventions that restructure physical or economic environments. In summary, a heterogeneous, low-quality evidence base suggests an inconsistent moderating effect of low self-control on the effectiveness of interventions to change consumption behaviours.

Wine glass size and wine sales: a replication study in two bars.

OBJECTIVE: Wine glass size may influence perceived volume and subsequently purchasing and consumption. Using a larger glass to serve the same portions of wine was found to increase wine sales by 9.4% (95% CI 1.9, 17.5) in a recent study conducted in one bar. The current study aimed to replicate this previous work in two other bars using a wider range of glass sizes. To match the previous study, a repeated multiple treatment reversal design, during which wine was served in glasses of the same design but different sizes, was used. The study was conducted in two bars in Cambridge, England, using glass sizes of 300, 370, 510 ml (Bar 1) and 300 and 510 ml (Bar 2). Customers purchased their choice of a 750 ml bottle, or standard UK measures of 125, 175 or 250 ml of wine, each of which was served with the same glass. RESULTS: Bar 1: Daily wine volume (ml) purchased was 10.5% (95% CI 1.0, 20.9) higher when sold in 510 ml compared to 370 ml glasses; but sales were not significantly different with 300 ml vs. 370 ml glasses (6.5%, 95% CI −5.2, 19.6) [corrected]. Bar 2 Findings were inconclusive as to whether daily wine purchased differed when using 510 ml versus 300 ml glasses (-1.1%, 95% CI -12.6, 11.9). These results provide a partial replication of previous work showing that introducing larger glasses (without manipulating portion size) increases purchasing. Understanding the mechanisms by which wine glass size influences consumption may elucidate when the effect can be expected and when not. Trial registration This study is a replication study, based on the procedure set out in the trial registration for the study that it attempts to replicate (ISRCTN registry: ISRCTN12018175).

Inhibition in time-based visual selection: Strategic or by default?

The visual marking mechanism (Watson & Humphreys, 1997) allows new objects to be prioritized by applying top-down inhibition to a set of previewed distractors, increasing the efficiency of future visual search. However, if this inhibition results in little or no search facilitation, do people continue to apply it or do they strategically withhold it? Here we present 6 experiments in which we examined how participants control this inhibitory mechanism. Experiments 1 to 3 showed that in difficult search contexts, participants did not modulate the extent to which they applied inhibition based on the proportion of trials in which inhibition would have been useful. This was the case, even when explicitly cued before each trial as to the utility of applying inhibition (Experiment 4). In contrast, when search was conducted in predominantly easy search contexts, there was some evidence that inhibition was applied strategically (Experiments 5 and 6); however, the extent of this control was relatively modest. The findings are discussed in terms of the mechanisms of top-down attentional control and implications for failures of attention in real-world contexts.