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The current investigation was designed to examine the impact of underreporting response bias on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) and the utility of the Unlikely Virtues scale in detecting such responding. Study participants were randomly assigned to either the underreporting (n = 100) or standard instruction (n = 224) conditions. All participants first completed a series of extratest measures under standard instruction prior to the MPQ administration. The results showed that individuals in the underreporting condition scored significantly higher on MPQ scales that reflect positive emotionality and self-control and lower on scales that indicate negative emotionality compared to those in the standard instruction. Moreover, the psychometric validity of MPQ scale scores against extratest measures was substantially attenuated in the underreporting condition compared to the standard instruction condition. The Unlikely Virtues scale differentiated between the conditions at a large effect size magnitude (Hedges' g = 1.21) and showed promising classification accuracy though lower cut scores than those reported in the MPQ manual performed substantially better with respect to sensitivity. Future research needs to replicate these findings in more naturalistic settings with other research designs. Public Significance Statement: The present study evaluated the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire in detecting individuals who engage in overly defensive responding. The results showed that a scale designed to assess positive impression management and overly virtuous responding was very promising in this regard. This finding will have important implications for the use of the test in personnel screening and selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Trauma Symptom Inventory-Second Edition (TSI-2) is garnering research interest as a symptom validity test in the evaluation of trauma-related disorders. However, there has been limited empirical validation of its validity scales in clinical and forensic real-world settings. This study evaluated the ability of the TSI-2 Atypical Response (ATR) scale to discriminate response bias in cognitive performance and symptom reporting in a large sample of disability and compensation-seeking claimants. This retrospective chart review included 296 adults with a known history of trauma exposure or claimed trauma-related psychological injury who underwent neuropsychological and/or comprehensive psychological assessment in a private neuropsychology clinic. The discriminability of the ATR scale to classify credible versus non-credible cognitive profiles and symptom reporting were analyzed by AUC-ROCs. Overall, the ATR scale demonstrated poor discriminability of assessment validity based on the Word Memory Test, Victoria Symptom Validity Test, and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form. The ATR scale had fair discriminatory ability of only one of the over-reporting scales (F-r), with an ROC area of.73, p =.001. However, the test publisher's proposed ATR cut-offs of ≥8 for screening, research, and normal groups, and ≥15 in forensic and clinical settings revealed significant issues with sensitivity and specificity. These results suggest that the TSI-2 should be paired with other established performance validity and symptom validity tests in clinical assessments and not be used as the primary or sole indicator of assessment validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multidimensional forced-choice (MFC) format is an alternative to rating scales in which participants rank items according to how well the items describe them. Currently, little is known about how to detect careless responding in MFC data. The aim of this study was to adapt a number of indices used for rating scales to the MFC format and additionally develop several new indices that are unique to the MFC format. We applied these indices to a data set from an online survey (N = 1,169) that included a series of personality questionnaires in the MFC format. The correlations among the careless responding indices were somewhat lower than those published for rating scales. Results from a latent profile analysis suggested that the majority of the sample (about 76–84%) did not respond carelessly, although the ones who did were characterized by different levels of careless responding. In a simulation study, we simulated different careless responding patterns and varied the overall proportion of carelessness in the samples. With one exception, the indices worked as intended conceptually. Taken together, the results suggest that careless responding also plays an important role in the MFC format. Recommendations on how it can be addressed are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional false memory findings using the DRM paradigm have been marked by higher false alarms to negatively arousing compared to neutral critical lure items. Explanations for these findings have mainly focused on false memory-based accounts. However, here we address the question of whether a response bias for emotional stimuli can, at least in part, explain this phenomenon. Participants viewed both neutral and negative arousing DRM lists and completed a recognition test in speeded or self-paced conditions. Speeded test reduces the opportunity to adjust response bias. Analysis showed no significant difference in false recognition across critical lure types for the speeded condition, but false recognition was higher for negative compared to neutral critical lures in the self-paced condition. We argue that when retrieval does not allow for shifts in response criteria, false alarms to negative emotional critical lures appear more similar to neutral equivalents. The discussion explores memory-based and criterion-shift explanations for the enhanced emotional false memory finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a procedure for substantive dimensionality estimation in the presence of wording effects, the inconsistent response to regular and reversed self-report items. The procedure developed consists of subtracting an approximate estimate of the wording effects variance from the sample correlation matrix and then estimating the substantive dimensionality on the residual correlation matrix. This is achieved by estimating a random intercept factor with unit loadings for all the regular and unrecoded reversed items. The accuracy of the procedure was evaluated through an extensive simulation study that manipulated nine relevant variables and employed the exploratory graph analysis (EGA) and parallel analysis (PA) retention methods. The results indicated that combining the proposed procedure with EGA or PA achieved high accuracy in estimating the substantive latent dimensionality, but that EGA was superior. Additionally, the present findings shed light on the complex ways that wording effects impact the dimensionality estimates when the response bias in the data is ignored. A tutorial on substantive dimensionality estimation with the R package EGAnet is offered, as well as practical guidelines for applied researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social-emotional difficulties are common sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Children who have experienced inflicted TBI (iTBI) may be at increased risk for social-emotional problems due to the risk factors associated with both early neurologic injury and with child maltreatment. We characterized the associations among injury severity, caregiver type (i.e., biological parents, non-kinship, kinship), and child social-emotional functioning in 41 infants and young children who had sustained iTBI and were seen in a large, regional children's hospital. This study was a retrospective analysis, utilizing data collected from the medical record as part of routine clinical care. Social-emotional functioning was assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition. Children with more severe injuries were rated as having worse social-emotional functioning. Caregiver type was associated with child social-emotional scores, above and beyond injury and demographic predictors. Biological parents were more likely to report better social-emotional skills than non-kinship caregivers, with the pattern of results suggesting that rater bias plays a role in this difference. In order to ensure that children are accurately identified for supports, these relationships should be considered when interpreting caregiver report of social-emotional skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture influences responses to psychological measurements in ways unrelated to target constructs, thus biasing test scores and potentially contributing to under- and over-diagnosis of mental health problems in populations for which measures have not yet been normed. We conducted a systematic review of publications addressing response style among Latinx population groups in North and South America. In a final corpus of 24 studies, Latinx/Latin American populations were generally found to exhibit higher levels of extreme response style (n = 17), acquiescent response style (n = 10), and socially desirable responding (n = 5). The few publications (n = 3) that investigated midpoint responding reported no differences. Seven publications (29%) attempted to adjust scores to mitigate response style bias, using both scale design and statistical techniques. Findings suggest that researchers and clinicians should directly assess culturally patterned response style as a construct, rather than inferring style indirectly using other measures. For clinicians, knowledge of response style represents another facet of case conceptualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrimination performance in perceptual choice tasks is known to reflect both sensory discriminability and nonsensory response bias. In the framework of signal detection theory, these aspects of discrimination performance are quantified through separate measures, sensitivity (d′) for sensory discriminability and decision criterion (c) for response bias. However, it is unknown how response bias (i.e., criterion) changes at the single‐trial level as a consequence of reinforcement history. We subjected rats to a two‐stimulus two‐response conditional discrimination task with auditory stimuli and induced response bias through unequal reinforcement probabilities for the two responses. We compared three signal‐detection‐theory‐based criterion learning models with respect to their ability to fit experimentally observed fluctuations of response bias on a trial‐by‐trial level. These models shift the criterion by a fixed step (1) after each reinforced response or (2) after each nonreinforced response or (3) after both. We find that all three models fail to capture essential aspects of the data. Prompted by the observation that steady‐state criterion values conformed well to a behavioral model of signal detection based on the generalized matching law, we constructed a trial‐based version of this model and find that it provides a superior account of response bias fluctuations under changing reinforcement contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We asked 463 participants from 21 countries whether they had feigned and/or concealed having a coronavirus infection during the pandemic period. 384 respondents (83%) reported having experienced a coronavirus infection. They were, on average, younger and reported more chronic health issues than participants who said they had never been infected. 65 (14%) admitted to having feigned the infection. Prevalence doubled (28%) when asked if they knew anyone who had feigned a coronavirus infection. Main motives for feigning were to stay at home and to obtain sick leave. As to having concealed a coronavirus infection, 56 (12%) responded affirmatively, but when asked about others, the prevalence reached 51% (n = 210). The most common reasons for concealment were to avoid letting others know and to not miss an event. Thus, both feigning and concealing infections can occur on a nontrivial scale, directly affecting prevalence rates in studies that rely on self-reported data collected from social platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our percept of the world is not solely determined by what we perceive and process at a given moment in time, but also depends on what we processed recently. In the present study, we investigate whether the perceived emotion of a spoken sentence is contingent upon the emotion of an auditory stimulus on the preceding trial (i.e., serial dependence). Thereto, participants were exposed to spoken sentences that varied in emotional affect by changing the prosody that ranged from 'happy' to 'fearful'. Participants were instructed to rate the emotion. We found a positive serial dependence for emotion processing whereby the perceived emotion was biased towards the emotion on the preceding trial. When we introduced 'no-go' trials (i.e., no rating was required), we found a negative serial dependence when participants knew in advance to withhold their response on a given trial (Experiment 2) and a positive serial dependence when participants received the information to withhold their response after the stimulus presentation (Experiment 3). We therefore established a robust serial dependence for emotion processing in speech and introduce a methodology to disentangle perceptual from post-perceptual processes. This approach can be applied to the vast majority of studies investigating sequential dependencies to separate positive from negative serial dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current investigation, we modified the high Go, low No-Go Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). Some researchers argue a commission error, an inappropriate response to a No-Go stimulus, in the SART is due to the participant being inattentive, or perceptually decoupled, during stimulus onset. Response delays in the SART reduce commission errors. A response delay may therefore enable a participant who is initially inattentive to recouple their attention in time to appropriately perceive the stimulus and withhold a response to a No-Go stimulus. However, shortening stimulus display duration in the SART should limit the possibility of the participant identifying the stimulus later, if they are initially not attending the stimulus. A response delay should not reduce commission errors if stimulus duration is kept to the minimum duration enabling stimulus recognition. In two experiments, we shortened stimulus onset to offset duration and added response delays of varying lengths. In both experiments, even when stimulus duration was shortened, response delays notably reduced commission errors if the delay was greater than 250 ms. In addition, using the Signal Detection Theory perspective in which errors of commission in the SART are due to a lenient response bias–trigger happiness, we predicted that response delays would result in a shift to a more conservative response bias in both experiments. These predictions were verified. The errors of commission in the SART may not be a measures of conscious awareness per se, but instead indicative of the level of participant trigger happiness—a lenient response bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have indicated that breathing shapes the underlying oscillatory brain activity critical for episodic memory, potentially impacting memory performance. However, the literature has presented conflicting results, with some studies suggesting that nasal inhalation enhances visual memory performance, while others have failed to observe any significant effects. Furthermore, the specific influence of breathing route (nasal vs. mouth) and the precise phase of the respiratory cycle during which stimuli are presented have remained elusive. To address this, we employed a visual recognition memory (VRM) and electroencephalography paradigm in which stimuli presentation was phase‐locked to either inhalation or exhalation onset, using a within‐subject design where participants performed the memory task while engaging in separate sessions of nose and mouth breathing. We show that neither breathing route nor breathing phase has a significant impact on VRM performance as measured by d‐prime, with the data supporting the null hypothesis. However, we did find an effect of breathing phase on response bias, with participants adopting a more conservative decision criterion during exhalation. Moreover, we found that breathing phase during memory encoding shaped the late parietal effect (LPE) amplitude, while the Frontal Negative Component (FN400) and LPE during recognition were less impacted. While our study demonstrates that breathing does not shape VRM performance, it shows that it influences brain activity, reinforcing the importance of further research to elucidate the extent of respiratory influence on perception, cognition, and behavior. We demonstrate that phase‐locked breathing through the nose and mouth does not shape episodic visual recognition memory performance but does impact underlying event‐related potentials and response bias criterion. These findings challenge the belief that breathing affects visual memory function and underscore the importance of methodological considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: National surveys reveal that sports fans exhibit greater support for athletes, sports teams and leagues endorsing social justice initiatives compared to the general population, highlighting the potential of sports for positive social impact. This study investigates whether such responses are influenced by systematic biases. Design/methodology/approach: Replicating a Nielsen national survey, two experiments explore whether biases affect support for athletes' participation in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The study also examines partisan motivated reasoning as a factor driving sports fans' support for BLM. Findings: While avid fans display stronger endorsement of BLM compared to causal/non-sports fans, evidence suggests that systematic biases distort these responses. When sport identity becomes salient, reported support for the BLM movement becomes inflated. Research limitations/implications: Researchers often employ self-report surveys to gauge audience perceptions of athlete activism or cause-related initiatives, particularly when assessing their impact. This study's findings indicate that this context is susceptible to SDB. Originality/value: The study underscores the role of systematic biases in self-report surveys, particularly in socially desirable contexts. People tend to over-report "positive behavior," leading survey participants to respond more favorably to questions that are socially desirable. Therefore, interpreting survey results with caution becomes essential when the research context is deemed socially (un)desirable. It is crucial for researchers to apply appropriate measures to identify and mitigate systematic response biases. The authors recommend that researchers adopt both procedural and statistical remedies to detect and reduce social desirability biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Randomized response (RR) is a well-known interview technique designed to eliminate evasive response bias that arises from asking sensitive questions. The most frequently asked questions in RR are either whether respondents were "ever" carriers of the sensitive characteristic, or whether they were carriers in a recent period, for instance, "last year". The present paper proposes a design in which both questions are asked, and derives a multinomial model for the joint analysis of these two questions. Compared to the separate analyses with the binomial model, the model makes a useful distinction between last year and former carriers of the sensitive characteristic, it is more efficient in estimating the prevalence of last year carriers, and it has a degree of freedom that allows for a goodness-of-fit test. Furthermore, it is easily extended to a multinomial logistic regression model to investigate the effects of covariates on the prevalence estimates. These benefits are illustrated in two studies on the use of anabolic androgenic steroids in the Netherlands, one using Kuk and one using both the Kuk and forced response. A salient result of our analyses is that the multinomial model provided ample evidence of response biases in the forced response condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of data in surveys is affected by response burden and questionnaire length. With an increasing number of questions, respondents can become bored, tired, and annoyed and may take shortcuts to reduce the effort needed to complete the survey. In this article, direct evidence is presented on how the position of items within a web questionnaire influences respondents' focus of attention. In two experiments, part of an eye-tracking study and an online survey, respectively, a variety of indicators show that data quality is lower if the experimental question is positioned at the end rather than at the beginning of a questionnaire. Practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article was to systematically review the literature on self-report measures of response bias used by UK psychologists within forensic contexts over the period 2009–2019 and determine if the measures had adequate reliability and validity. The review involved a systematic search of published and unpublished literature. PRISMA was used to guide the search process. PICO was used to set inclusion/exclusion criteria. Published quality review models were applied to structure and score the quality review. Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria and were assessed for quality using CASP. Quality scores mostly fell in the "moderate risk of bias" range. The majority of included studies focused on measures of socially desirable responding and impression management compared to malingering/overreporting. The PDS/BIDR was found to be the most frequently used self-report measure across prison, probation, and secure mental health settings, in contrast to measures used in other parts of the world. The PDS/BIDR has adequate validity and reliability, but there is a lack of normative data reported for UK forensic samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining data quality on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) has always been a concern for researchers. These concerns have grown recently due to the bot crisis of 2018 and observations that past safeguards of data quality (e.g., approval ratings of 95%) no longer work. To address data quality concerns, CloudResearch, a third-party website that interfaces with MTurk, has assessed ~165,000 MTurkers and categorized them into those that provide high- (~100,000, Approved) and low- (~65,000, Blocked) quality data. Here, we examined the predictive validity of CloudResearch's vetting. In a pre-registered study, participants (N = 900) from the Approved and Blocked groups, along with a Standard MTurk sample (95% HIT acceptance ratio, 100+ completed HITs), completed an array of data-quality measures. Across several indices, Approved participants (i) identified the content of images more accurately, (ii) answered more reading comprehension questions correctly, (iii) responded to reversed coded items more consistently, (iv) passed a greater number of attention checks, (v) self-reported less cheating and actually left the survey window less often on easily Googleable questions, (vi) replicated classic psychology experimental effects more reliably, and (vii) answered AI-stumping questions more accurately than Blocked participants, who performed at chance on multiple outcomes. Data quality of the Standard sample was generally in between the Approved and Blocked groups. We discuss how MTurk's Approval Rating system is no longer an effective data-quality control, and we discuss the advantages afforded by using the Approved group for scientific studies on MTurk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling acquiescence bias typically involves the application of positive and negative keyed items. However, little is known about the effect of balancing positive and negative items on bias control. The aim of this study was to compare three Confirmatory Factor Analysis models (without control, MIMIC, and Random Intercept) to recover the factor structure of unbalanced and balanced instruments, using simulated and real data (from an instrument that assesses Personality). By controlling for acquiescence, the results indicated that the performance of balanced scales was better than that of unbalanced scales, as well as in the absence of control for response bias, when considering balanced and unbalanced scales. Thus, this research suggests the possibility of controlling acquiescence through balanced instruments associated with the use of statistical methods in modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the complexities surrounding cervical cancer prevention methods and hesitancy among conservative Muslim American women is crucial in addressing health disparities. This qualitative study aimed to delve into the religious, behavioral, and socio-cultural factors influencing Muslim women's decisions regarding cervical cancer screening (CC-S) and HPV vaccination (HPV-V) in Virginia, USA. Through interviews with 10 Muslim women residing in Virginia, qualitative data were collected as part of a mixed-method cross-sectional study conducted between August and September 2021. Findings revealed that participants had limited knowledge about cervical cancer, CC-S, and HPV-V, with notable themes emerging, such as cultural influences, misconceptions, language barriers, and challenges posed by the intricate US healthcare system. Future research should focus on exploring these barriers to mitigate the impact of cervical cancer within the Muslim population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social desirability bias (SDB) has been a major concern in educational and psychological assessments when measuring latent variables because it has the potential to introduce measurement error and bias in assessments. Person-fit indices can detect bias in the form of misfitted response vectors. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of 14 person-fit indices to identify SDB in simulated responses. The area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was computed to evaluate the predictive power of these statistics. The findings showed that the agreement statistic (A) outperformed all other person-fit indices, while the disagreement statistic (D) , dependability statistic (E) , and the number of Guttman errors (G) also demonstrated high AUCs to detect SDB. Recommendations for practitioners to use these fit indices are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prominent theoretical framework spanning philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience holds that selective attention penetrates early stages of perceptual processing to alter the subjective visual experience of behaviorally relevant stimuli. For example, searching for a red apple at the grocery store might make the relevant color appear brighter and more saturated compared with seeing the exact same red apple while searching for a yellow banana. In contrast, recent proposals argue that data supporting attention-related changes in appearance reflect decision- and motor-level response biases without concurrent changes in perceptual experience. Here, we tested these accounts by evaluating attentional modulations of EEG responses recorded from male and female human subjects while they compared the perceived contrast of attended and unattended visual stimuli rendered at different levels of physical contrast. We found that attention enhanced the amplitude of the P1 component, an early evoked potential measured over visual cortex. A linking model based on signal detection theory suggests that response gain modulations of the P1 component track attention-induced changes in perceived contrast as measured with behavior. In contrast, attentional cues induced changes in the baseline amplitude of posterior alpha band oscillations (;9-12 Hz), an effect that best accounts for cue-induced response biases, particularly when no stimuli are presented or when competing stimuli are similar and decisional uncertainty is high. The observation of dissociable neural markers that are linked to changes in subjective appearance and response bias supports a more unified theoretical account and demonstrates an approach to isolate subjective aspects of selective information processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People are better at recognizing own-race faces than other-race faces. This other-race effect in face recognition typically manifests in sensitivity (i.e., better discrimination). However, research also consistently finds that people respond more liberally (and thus produce more false alarm errors) when recognizing other-race faces, rather than own-race faces. In an old/new recognition paradigm, we examined whether providing White participants with base rate information could attenuate the differences that they demonstrate, both in terms of response bias and sensitivity, when attempting to recognize Black and White faces. During the test phase of an old/new recognition task, participants viewed own-race and other-race faces surrounded by a red or green border. Participants were informed that these borders indicated a 25 percent or 75 percent likelihood of the face having been presented earlier. Border cues were either valid (Experiment 1) or invalid (actual probability was 50%; Experiment 2). Across both experiments, participants shifted their response criterion in line with border cues but did so equally for own-race and other-race faces. This finding suggests that the liberal bias for other-race faces is likely to originate early during encoding and is unlikely to be moderated by manipulations that target later, decision-making processes operating during retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the measurement model (MM) of self-report scales is crucial to obtain valid measurements of individuals' latent psychological constructs. This entails evaluating the number of measured constructs and determining which construct is measured by which item. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is the most-used method to evaluate these psychometric properties, where the number of measured constructs (i.e., factors) is assessed, and, afterward, rotational freedom is resolved to interpret these factors. This study assessed the effects of an acquiescence response style (ARS) on EFA for unidimensional and multidimensional (un)balanced scales. Specifically, we evaluated (a) whether ARS is captured as an additional factor, (b) the effect of different rotation approaches on the content and ARS factors recovery, and (c) the effect of extracting the additional ARS factor on the recovery of factor loadings. ARS was often captured as an additional factor in balanced scales when it was strong. For these scales, ignoring extracting this additional ARS factor, or rotating to simple structure when extracting it, harmed the recovery of the original MM by introducing bias in loadings and cross-loadings. These issues were avoided by using informed rotation approaches (i.e., target rotation), where (part of) the rotation target is specified according to a priori expectations on the MM. Not extracting the additional ARS factor did not affect the loading recovery in unbalanced scales. Researchers should consider the potential presence of ARS when assessing the psychometric properties of balanced scales and use informed rotation approaches when suspecting that an additional factor is an ARS factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to establish a normative data set for the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS) and Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomology (SIMS) in a community adult sample of high functioning autistic (HFA) people. Assessments were administered anonymously online. Seventy surveys were completed, with respondents contributing from 16 countries. The majority of subscales and total scores for the PDS and SIMS fell above cut-off for self-report response bias, suggesting that completion of these measures by HFA individuals may lead to conclusions of intentional response distortion, even when this is not the case. Significant relationships were found between high scores and education level, as well as psychological distress. The findings of the study raise concerns about the use of these measures with HFA people, particularly in 'high stakes' situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work questions whether previously reported unconscious perceptual effects are genuinely unconscious, or due to weak conscious perception. Some philosophers and psychologists react by rejecting unconscious perception or by holding that it has been overestimated. I argue that the most significant attack on unconscious perception commits the criterion content fallacy: the fallacy of interpreting evidence that observers were conscious of something as evidence that they were conscious of task‐relevant features. This fallacy is prevalent in consciousness research: if unconscious perception exists, scientists could routinely underestimate it. I conclude with methodological recommendations for moving the debate forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent postconcussion symptoms (PPCS) are challenging to diagnose. An improved diagnostic process could consider typical and atypical postconcussion symptoms. This study examined the structure of a modified Rivermead Post-concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (mRPQ) with both symptom types. 298 adult volunteers were randomized into groups: honest responders, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) simulators (MS), and biased mTBI simulators (BMS). Both mTBI simulating groups were coached about mTBI and primed about the simulation context (compensation evaluation). The BMS group was also encouraged to bias (exaggerate) symptoms. The participants completed an online battery of tests, including the mRPQ. An exploratory factor analysis of the mRPQ (full sample) revealed a three-factor solution, including a separate dimension for atypical symptoms (all item loadings >0.45, ~4% of explained variance). The overall and group analyses of the standard RPQ items (typical symptoms) found a one- or two-factor solution, as did the analyses of atypical symptoms. Consistent with prior RPQ research, a unidimensional or bifactor structure was measurable from standard RPQ symptoms. Whilst this study did not find support for domain-level symptom scores for either typical or atypical symptoms, the findings support the use of an overall atypical symptoms score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the efficacy of CVLT-3 response bias (i.e., parametric and nonparametric response bias) indices in differentiating between a clinical sample with traumatic brain injury and a litigating sample with poor performance validity. Participants included 106 individuals, divided into two groups: clinical group with TBI (n = 56) and a litigating group who demonstrated inadequate performance validity (n = 50), as measured by failure on at least two performance validity tests. Archival CVLT-II data was rescored utilizing the CVLT-3 scoring and normative data. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic discriminability of the two response bias indices. Both parametric and nonparametric bias indices showed acceptable levels of diagnostic discrimination: AUC =.791 for parametric response bias and AUC =.753 for nonparametric response bias. Parametric response bias' discrimination was statistically superior to the nonparametric responses bias' discrimination. The CVLT-3 response bias score demonstrated good sensitivity and specificity when differentiating between individuals in a clinical sample with TBI and individuals in litigation who demonstrated inadequate performance validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Response distortions in the reporting of postconcussion symptoms can occur for many reasons. The Rivermead Post-concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) was recently modified to include an embedded symptom validity indicator to test for atypical symptoms. The present study used a simulation design to investigate the psychometric properties of the modified RPQ (mRPQ). 298 adult volunteers were randomised into three groups: honest responding (Controls, C) who reported actual, current symptoms; mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) simulators (MS) who role played being injured, and; biased mTBI simulators (BMS) who role played being injured and were asked to bias (exaggerate) their response. The MS and BMS participants received instructions to support the simulation. All participants completed the mRPQ and a modified Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (mNSI). A 2 × 3 mixed ANOVA with one within-group variable (Symptom type: Standard or Atypical) and one between-group variable (Instruction type: C, MS, BMS) found a significant two-way interaction (p <.05, ηp2 =.08). The BMS group had score elevations for both standard and atypical postconcussion symptoms; therefore, both symptom types should be considered when evaluating for biased responding. The mRPQ has promising psychometric properties and should be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative analyses frequently examine respondents' self-rated health (SRH), assuming that it is a valid and comparable measure of generic health. However, given SRH's vagueness, this assumption is questionable due to (1) manifold nonhealth influences, such as personal characteristics including optimism, interviewer effects on the rating, and cultural contexts, as well as (2) potential gender, age-or country-specific expectations for one's health or frames of reference. Conceptually, two major components of SRH can be distinguished: latent health and reporting behavior. While latent health exclusively refers to objective health status, reporting behavior collectively refers to non-health characteristics (NH) affecting SRH. The present paper is primarily concerned with the latter and aims to identify whether and how NH bias SRH, including possible differences by gender, age, and country of residence. The presented analyses are based on data from 16,183 participants in five countries drawn from the fifth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Latent health is controlled via a wide array of health indicators and the residuals are examined with a model covering NH from three different sources: the interviewer, the respondent, and the country of residence. To identify subgroup-specific response behaviors, all analyses are carried out separately by gender, three age groups (50-64, 65-79, and 80+ years), and country of residence. The analyses uncovered influences of - among others-the interviewer's SRH, the respondent's life satisfaction, and the country of residence on SRH, while other factors differed by subgroup. The amount of explained variance due to such reporting behavior (with a mean of seven percent) can be deemed meaningful, considering that controlling for latent health already explains around half of SRH's variance. The greatest source of non-health influences was respondent characteristics, with the interviewer and country having smaller effects. These results illustrate the importance of taking NH into account when using SRH measures. Future research on complementing SRH with factual questions in survey design is advisable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the role of emotion and working memory capacity (WMC) on false memory by measuring memory sensitivity independently of response bias. We used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm in which arousal levels were kept constant across positive, negative, and neutral word lists associated with unstudied critical lures. Participants' WMC was measured by the Operation Span Task. Although negative critical lures generated significantly more false recognition (i.e., false-alarm rates) compared to positive or neutral ones, Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis based on signal detection theory showed that this effect could be ascribed to shifts in bias rather than actual memory sensitivity. Data revealed that the DRM effect is a robust illusion influenced by neither emotion nor WMC in terms of memory sensitivity. However, negative words led to a prominent increase in liberal bias to say "old" for both critical and noncritical lures. Furthermore, reaction time (RT) data suggested that mentally activated but actually unstudied critical lures were monitored as old words and that participants were faster to accept negative critical lures than positive or neutral ones, suggesting that the DRM illusion was clearly reflected on the RT data as well. These results were discussed emphasizing the role of negative emotion on response bias in recognition memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, social science research has required recruiting many prospective participants. Many researchers have explicitly taken advantage of widespread public interest in COVID-19 to advertise their studies. Leveraging this interest, however, risks creating unrepresentative samples due to differential interest in the topic. In this study, we investigate the design of survey recruitment materials with respect to the views of resultant participants.Methods: Within a pan-Canadian survey (stratified random mail sampling, n = 1969), the design of recruitment invitations to prospective respondents was experimentally varied, with some prospective respondents receiving COVID-specific recruitment messages and others receiving more general recruitment messages (described as research about health and health policy). All respondents participated, however, in the same survey, allowing comparison of both demographic and attitudinal features between these groups.Results: Respondents recruited via COVID-19 specific postcards were more likely to agree that COVID-19 is serious and believe that they were likely to contract COVID-19 compared to non-COVID respondents (odds = 0.71, p = 0.04; odds = 0.74, p = 0.03 respectively; comparing health to COVID-19 framed respondents). COVID-19 specific respondents were more likely to disagree that the COVID-19 threat was exaggerated compared to the non-COVID survey respondents (odds = 1.44, p = 0.02).Conclusions: COVID-19 recruitment framing garnered a higher response rate, as well as a sample with greater concern about coronavirus risks and impacts than respondents who received more neutrally framed recruitment materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our prior research, average recognition memory response bias tended to be conservative when stimuli were paintings, whereas bias for common English words tended to be liberal or neutral. Efforts to understand the mechanism(s) underlying this materials-based bias effect (MBBE) have yielded new questions but no definitive answers. Here, we report a set of studies exploring the possibility that participants respond more conservatively to paintings because they expect the novel, visually rich paintings to evoke a strong, detailed memory experience at test, whereas the more familiar, visually similar words are not expected to produce this kind of vivid recollection as often. In three studies using variations of the remember/know procedure, we found that correctly recognized paintings were more often reported as "remembered" than were recognized words. There were also parallel materials-based differences in the reported bases for "new" responses. But we did not observe the expected relationships between response bias and these subjective reports. We discuss the implications of these results for accounts of the MBBE, and the more general issue of the role of stimulus materials in recognition memory response bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous lines of research suggest that communicative dyadic actions elicit preferential processing and more accurate detection compared to similar but individual actions. However, it is unclear whether the presence of the second agent provides additional cues that allow for more accurate discriminability between communicative and individual intentions or whether it lowers the threshold for perceiving third-party encounters as interactive. We performed a series of studies comparing the recognition of communicative actions from single and dyadic displays in healthy individuals. A decreased response threshold for communicative actions was observed for dyadic vs. single-agent animations across all three studies, providing evidence for the dyadic communicative bias. Furthermore, consistent with the facilitated recognition hypothesis, congruent response to a communicative gesture increased the ability to accurately interpret the actions. In line with dual-process theory, we propose that both mechanisms may be perceived as complementary rather than competitive and affect different stages of stimuli processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body dissatisfaction is pervasive among young women in Western countries. Among the many forces that contribute to body dissatisfaction, the overrepresentation of thin bodies in visual media has received notable attention. In this study, we proposed that prevalence-induced concept change may be one of the cognitive mechanisms that explain how beauty standards shift. We conducted a preregistered online experiment with young women (N = 419) and found that when the prevalence of thin bodies in the environment increased, the concept of being overweight expanded to include bodies that would otherwise be judged as "normal." Exploratory analyses revealed significant individual differences in sensitivity to this effect, in terms of women's judgments about other bodies as well as their own. These results suggest that women's judgments about other women's bodies are biased by an overrepresentation of thinness and lend initial support to policies designed to increase size-inclusive representation in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Alzheimer's disease is most often studied in terms of memory impairments, olfactory dysfunction begins in the early stages. We tested olfactory learning, sensitivity, and response bias using signal detection methods in 12-month-old male and female 5xFAD mice and their wildtype controls in the operant olfactometer. Odor detection was not reduced in the 5xFAD mice, but learning was, which was worse in female 5xFAD mice than in males. Female mice were more conservative in their response strategy. Signal detection analysis allows us to discriminate between cognitive and sensory deficits of male and female mouse models of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals experiencing auditory hallucinations (AH) tend to perceive voices when exposed to random noise. However, the factors driving this tendency remain unclear. The present study examined the interaction of a top-down (expectations) and bottom-up (type of noise) process to better understand the mechanisms that underlie AH. Fifty-two healthy individuals (29 with high proneness and 23 with low proneness to AH) completed a signal detection task, in which they listened to pre-recorded sentences. The last word was either masked by noise or only noise was presented without the word. Two types of noise existed (speech-related versus speech-unrelated frequencies) and words were characterised by either high or low levels of semantic expectation. Participants with high proneness to AH showed a more liberal decision bias (i.e., they were more likely to report having heard a word) and poorer discrimination ability as compared to participants with low proneness to AH – but only when the word was masked by speech-related noises and the level of expectation was high. Further, the more liberal decision bias correlated negatively with the tendency to experience AH. This novel paradigm demonstrated an interaction between top-down (level of expectation) and bottom-up (type of noise) processes, supporting current theoretical models of AH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring corruption has become a global industry. An important and commonly used data source are several large-scale multi-country projects that survey citizens directly about their perceptions and experiences of corruption. Such indicators are regularly used by political scientists to test theories on political attitudes and behavior. However, we still know little about the quality of many of these measures. This paper deploys a large survey with two embedded experiments to investigate two potential sources of bias in indicators based on citizens' perceptions and experiences of corruption, stemming from political bias and sensitivity bias. First, I draw upon research on economic perceptions and argue that respondents are likely to respond in a political manner when asked how they perceive the level of corruption in their country. I test this argument by experimentally priming respondents' political affiliations before asking for their perception of corruption. Second, I argue that standard questions probing peoples' corruption experiences are likely to be subject to sensitivity bias. I test this second argument by constructing a list experiment. Overall, the results show strong and predictable sources of response bias that also vary significantly between important subgroups. I discuss implications for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently released Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3 (MMPI-3) includes a revised set of Validity Scales on which there is currently limited validity and clinical utility evidence for the detection of overreporting. The present study evaluated the MMPI-3 Validity Scales in the identification of such response bias. An analogue simulation design was used in which participants in an overreporting condition (163 undergraduate students) were instructed to feign mental health symptoms when responding to the MMPI-3 in the context of a compensation-seeking claim. Two comparison groups (657 undergraduate students and 223 community mental health patients) were instructed to respond to the MMPI-3 under standard instructions. The results indicated that those in the overreporting group generally had higher scores on MMPI-3 substantive scales than did genuine responding patients and students. In addition, results indicated that the criterion validity of the substantive scale scores was compromised in the context of overreporting. All MMPI-3 Validity Scales, particularly Fp (g = 1.29), F (g = 1.05), and RBS (g = 1.11), differentiated the overreporting group from patients with genuine psychopathology. Classification accuracies associated with the overreporting Validity Scale scores were evaluated and generally supported their utility in correctly classifying overreporters and patients. Overall, the findings generally support the validity and clinical utility of the MMPI-3 Validity Scales in the detection of overreporting. Public Significance Statement: The MMPI-3 is a new version of a frequently used psychology test. The current research validated scales used to detect when individuals overreport mental health problems in psychological evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public attitude surveys provide invaluable data for assessing perceptions, values, and attitudes across societies and over time. Ideally, respondents feel secure to disclose accurate information (avoiding reporting bias and item non-response) in the context of a face-to-face interview. Yet, survey research seldom accounts for peer effects caused by bystanders. The existing research focuses primarily on the effects of parents and spouses on self-reporting illicit activities or marriage-related issues. Using survey data from the Afrobarometer, this paper finds that bystanders, especially non-familial ones, substantially affect responses to an array of questions (some sensitive and some not), which are typically consistent with a socially desirable response. In parallel, both family and non-family bystanders also increase the rate of 'don't know' responses relative to private interviews. These findings provide further support for designing new approaches to secure private interviews and implementing alternative techniques in face-to-face survey methods to limit bias and capture 'true' opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in fields for which self-reported behaviors can be compared with factual data reveals that misreporting is pervasive and often extreme. The degree of misreporting is correlated with the level of social desirability, i.e., the need to respond in a culturally appropriate manner. People who are influenced by social desirability tend to over-report culturally desired behaviors and under-report undesired behaviors. This paper reviews socially desirable responding in sexual behavior research. Given the very private nature of the sexual activity, sex researchers generally lack a gold standard by which to compare self-reported sexual behaviors and have relied on the anonymity of participants as the methodology to assure honest answers on sexual behavior surveys. However, indirect evidence indicates that under-reporting (e.g., of a number of sexual partners, receptive anal intercourse, condom use) is common. Among the general population, several studies have now reported that even with anonymous responding, there are significant correlations between a variety of self-reported sexual behaviors (e.g., use of condoms, sexual fantasies, exposure to pornography, penis size) and social desirability, with evidence that extreme under- or over-reporting is as common as is found in other fields. When asking highly sensitive questions, sex researchers should always include a measure of social desirability and take that into account when analyzing their results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test the hypothesis that people who habitually trust others respond more affirmatively to questions (i.e. acquiescence). Six studies explore whether people's habitual tendency to trust others translates into a general acquiescent response bias. By re‐analysing large‐scale cross‐country data, Study 1 shows that participants' level of habitual trust predicts agreement across multiple and diverse concepts. Studies 2a and 2b show that habitual trust predicts acquiescent responding in classic psychological questionnaires. Habitual trust likewise predicts behavioural acquiescence, such as an agreement to assign monetary awards to others (Study 3) and staying with the suggested default option in a real choice paradigm (Study 4). Furthermore, the relation between habitual trust and acquiescent responding holds across different communication contexts (Study 5). These results imply that habitual trust predicts how individuals respond to questionnaire items that are used across a variety of research domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When old/new recognition memory is tested with equal numbers of studied and nonstudied items and no rewards or instructions that favour one response over the other, there is no obvious reason for response bias. In line with this, Canadian undergraduates have shown, on average, a neutral response bias when we tested them on recognition of common English words. By contrast, most subjects we have tested on recognition of richly detailed images have shown a conservative bias: they more often erred by missing a studied image than by judging a nonstudied image as studied. Here, in an effort to better understand these materials-based bias effects (MBBEs), we examined changes in hit and false alarm (FA) rates (and in sensitivity and bias) from the first to fourth quartile of a recognition memory test in eight experiments in which undergraduates studied words and/or images of paintings. Response bias for images tended to increase across quartiles, whereas bias for words showed no consistent pattern across quartiles. This pattern could be described as an increase in the MBBE over the course of the test, but the underlying patterns for hits and FAs are not easily reconciled with this interpretation. Hit rates decreased over the course of the test for both materials types, with that decline tending to be steeper for images than words. For words, FA rates tended to increase across quartiles, whereas for paintings FA rates did not increase across quartiles. We discuss implications of these findings for theoretical accounts of the MBBE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-report psychopathy scales are increasingly used in research and practice despite criticisms that they may be susceptible to response distortion and bias. We assessed the utility of including the Virtuous Responding (VR) and Deviant Responding (DR) validity scales from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) for identifying underreporting and overreporting, respectively, on both the full and short-form versions of the Self-Report Psychopathy scale (SRP 4 and SRP-SF) in a pre/post experimental design. Using a sample of 384 male community members and a clinical comparison group of 99 males from a forensic outpatient program, we demonstrated that SRP scores were more susceptible to overreporting than underreporting, and that overreporting significantly and negatively affected convergent validity. Finally, baseline psychopathy scores were unrelated to successful response distortion (i.e., changing scores in correct direction while remaining undetected by the validity scales). It is recommended that assessments using self-report psychopathy scales consider including validity indices to detect response distortion. In doing so, it will be important to consider that general impression management may be conceptually distinct from specific forms of response distortion, such as the intentional amplification or minimization of psychopathic traits. Public Significance Statement: People can manipulate their responses on self-report scales meant to measure psychopathic traits, which may negatively affect conclusions that are made based on those responses. Self-report psychopathy scales should consider including ways of identifying people who may be intentionally responding dishonestly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When items are presented sequentially, the evaluation of the current item is biased by both the previous item's value (perceptual bias) and the previous response given (response bias). While these biases have been identified in judgements of facial attractiveness, it is unclear as to whether they produce assimilation and/or contrast effects. Here, two tasks were employed to measure each bias in isolation. By presenting a preceding face without collecting a response, perceptual biases could be investigated, while response biases were considered by requesting a preceding response without presenting a face. Our results demonstrated a perceptual bias in which attractiveness ratings given to the current face shifted away from the baseline attractiveness value of the previous face, while we found no evidence of a response bias due to the previously selected value. These findings highlight the utility in considering sequential biases separately when trying to determine the nature of these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistency tendency is characterized by the propensity for participants responding to subsequent items in a survey consistent with their responses to previous items. This method effect might contaminate the results of sport psychology surveys using cross-sectional design. We present a randomized controlled crossover study examining the effect of consistency tendency on the motivational pathway (i.e., autonomy support → autonomous motivation → intention) of self-determination theory in the context of sport injury prevention. Athletes from Sweden (N = 341) responded to the survey printed in either low interitem distance (IID; consistency tendency likely) or high IID (consistency tendency suppressed) on two separate occasions, with a one-week interim period. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups, and they received the survey of different IID at each occasion. Bayesian structural equation modeling showed that low IID condition had stronger parameter estimates than high IID condition, but the differences were not statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sloan letters are one of the most commonly used optotypes in clinical practice. Sloan letters have different relative legibility which could be due to three factors: perceivability, response bias, and similarity. Similarities between Sloan letters are known to be the major source of errors in threshold determination. However, little is known about the effect of response biases on the resolution thresholds. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of response bias and similarity on resolution thresholds of Sloan letters in central and paracentral vision. Eight subjects with normal ocular health participated in this study. Using the method of constant stimuli, we measured resolution thresholds for the Sloan letters set at 0° (central) and ± 3° eccentricity along the vertical meridian of the visual field. We calculated thresholds from data pooled across the 10 Sloan letters (pooled threshold). For further analysis we also calculated thresholds for each of the 10 Sloan letters (individual threshold). Response biases and letter similarities were determined using Luce's choice model. Results showed statistically significant differences between the mean individual thresholds of Sloan letters at the central and the upper visual field, but not at the lower visual field. For equally-sized letters at pooled threshold, unlike letter similarity, response biases showed statistically significant correlations to the differences in individual thresholds at the central, upper and lower visual field locations. For equally legible letters at individual thresholds, response biases and similarities showed no significant correlations to the differences in individual thresholds at the central, the upper and the lower visual field locations. These results suggest that, for equally-sized letters at pooled threshold, the response biases may lead to an underestimation of the pooled threshold, i.e. an overestimation of visual acuity measurements when using Sloan letters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The aim of the present work was to develop and validate a recognition task to be used with the Spanish version of the 16 items Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT). Method A total of 96 (67.7% women) cognitively healthy, functionally independent community-dwelling participants aged 55 years or older underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. A recognition task for the FCSRT was developed that included the original 16 items, 16 semantically related items, and eight unrelated foils. Indices of discriminability (d') and response bias (C), as well as 95% confidence intervals for chance-level responding were calculated. Results On average, our sample was 65.71 years old (SD  = 6.68, range: 55–87), had 11.39 years of formal education (SD  = 3.37, range: 3–19), and a Mini-Mental State Examination score = 28.42 (SD  = 1.49, range: 25–30). Recognition scores did not differ statistically between sexes, nor did they correlate with demographics. Participants scored at ceiling levels (mean number of Hits = 15.52, SD  = 0.906, mean number of False Alarms = 0.27, SD  = 0.589). All the participants scored above chance levels. Conclusions Normative data from a novel recognition task for the Spanish version of the FCSRT are provided for use in clinical and research settings. Including a recognition task in the assessment of memory functioning might help uncover the pattern of memory impairments in older adults, and can help improve the memory profile of people with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. Future research is warranted to validate and expand the recognition task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Paranoia is known to be associated with insecure attachment, with negative self‐esteem as a mediator, but this pathway is insufficient to explain the paranoid individual's beliefs about malevolent others. Mistrust is a likely additional factor as it is a core feature of paranoid thinking also associated with insecure attachment styles. In this study, we tested whether mistrust – operationalized as judgements about the trustworthiness of unfamiliar faces – constitutes a second pathway from insecure attachment to paranoia. Design: The design of the study was cross‐sectional. Methods: A nationally representative British sample of 1,508 participants aged 18–86, 50.8% female, recruited through the survey company Qualtrics, completed measurements of attachment style, negative self‐esteem, and paranoid beliefs. Usable data were obtained from 1,121 participants. Participants were asked to make trustworthiness judgements about computer‐generated faces, and their outcomes were analysed by conducting signal detection analysis, which provided measures of bias (the tendency to assume untrustworthiness in conditions of uncertainty) and sensitivity (accuracy in distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy faces). Results: Results using structural equation modelling revealed a good model fit (RMSEA =.071, 95% CI: 0.067–0.075, SRMR =.045, CFI =.93, TLI =.92). We observed indirect effects through bias towards mistrust both for the relationship between attachment anxiety and avoidance (β =.003, 95% CI: 0.001–0.005,p <.001) and attachment anxiety and paranoia (β =.003, 95% CI 0.002–0.006, p <.001). We observed an indirect effect through negative self‐esteem only for the relationship between attachment anxiety and paranoia (β =.064, 95% CI: 0.053–0.077, p <.001). Trust judgements and negative self‐esteem were not associated with each other. Conclusions: We find that a bias towards mistrust is associated with greater paranoia. We also find indirect effects through bias towards mistrust between attachment styles and paranoia. Finally, we reaffirm the strong indirect effect through negative self‐esteem between attachment anxiety and paranoia. Limitations of the study are discussed. Practitioner points: When working with individuals suffering from paranoia, clinicians should consider not only explicit, deliberative cognitive processes of the kind addressed in cognitive behaviour therapy (e.g. cognitive restructuring) but also the way in which their patients make perceptual judgements (e.g., their immediate reactions on encountering new people) and consider interventions targeted at these judgements, for example, bias modification training.Assessment and clinical interventions for people should consider the role of trust judgements and the way in which they combine with low self‐esteem to provoke paranoid beliefs.Psychological interventions targeting paranoid beliefs should focus on both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interoception is essential for the maintenance of physical and mental health. Paradigms assessing cardioceptive accuracy do not separate sensitivity from bias or are very demanding. We present the piloting (study 1; N = 60) and psychometric evaluation and validation (study 2; N = 84) of a novel task for the assessment of cardiac interoceptive perception following the principles of signal detection theory. By disentangling sensitivity and response bias, we demonstrate that the previously used interoceptive accuracy score of the heartbeat mental tracking task represents an amalgam of sensitivity and response bias. The new task demonstrated adequate test–retest reliabilities for sensitivity (d′) and response bias (c). Sensitivity was inversely related (β = −.36) to somatic symptom distress after statistically controlling for response bias. The novel cardiovascular signal detection task is easy to implement, feasible, and promising in terms of unraveling the role of (cardiac) interoceptive perception in psychopathology. Public Significance Statement: The ability to perceive one's own bodily signals appears crucial for our emotional and physical well-being. Changes in this ability are assumed to contribute to mental disorders and chronic somatic symptoms (e.g., chronic pain). In two studies, we present a novel task for an improved assessment of body perception as a starting point for a better understanding of mental disorders and their effective treatment in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans exhibit substantial biases in their decision making even in simple two-choice tasks, but the origin of these biases remains unclear. I hypothesized that one source of bias could be individual differences in sensory encoding. Specifically, if one stimulus category gives rise to an internal-evidence distribution with higher variability, then responses should optimally be biased against that stimulus category. Therefore, response bias may reflect a previously unappreciated subject-to-subject difference in the variance of the internal-evidence distributions. I tested this possibility by analyzing data from three different two-choice tasks (n s = 443, 443, and 498). For all three tasks, response bias moved in the direction of the optimal criterion determined by each subject's idiosyncratic internal-evidence variability. These results demonstrate that seemingly random variations in response bias can be driven by individual differences in sensory encoding and are thus partly explained by normative strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]