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Purpose: Literature suggest that physical education and health (PEH) may contribute to the sustainable development (SD) agenda, yet little is known how PEH teachers relate SD to their teaching practices. This paper explores Swedish upper secondary PEH teachers' experiences and perceived competence regarding teaching SD as part of PEH. Method: An online questionnaire was used to examine SD competence. Data from 702 PEH teachers were analyzed descriptively and inferentially. Results: PEH teachers perceive higher competence regarding the social dimension of SD compared to the economic and environmental dimensions. Female teachers and those with more than 15 years teaching experiences reported the highest perceived competence. Seventy percent of the respondents perceived that they lacked competence to teach SD. Discussion/Conclusion: PEH teachers struggle to relate SD to PEH practice and call for support to increase their competence in terms of how to conceptualize and transform SD into PEH teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dementia-friendly communities (DFCs) are a policy-endorsed approach to community engagement in England that promotes social inclusion to enable people affected by dementia to live well. Research suggests that physical activity is beneficial in encouraging social connection and improving health. A mixed method sequential study design in England involving a national survey (n = 31) and semistructured interviews (n = 65) in three DFCs was carried out. The aim was to understand how DFCs enable people affected by dementia to participate in physical activities. An evaluation framework for DFCs was used to organize and interpret the data, and analysis was informed by the inclusive (social) citizen lens. Findings showed that DFCs offered a range of adapted dementia-inclusive and dementia-specific activities; however, people were not routinely offered information at time of diagnosis. Local authorities (councils) were key to enable access to information and infrastructure change to support sustainable inclusion within their local community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to assess the changes in the frequency of physical activity (PA) counseling and in the predictors of primary care PA promotion in Québec primary care physicians (PCPs) between 2010 and 2020. Methods: In 2010, we conducted a survey among Québec PCPs. Questions included: frequency of promoting PA to patients, perceived barriers, needs to improve PA promotion practice, frequency of PCPs' PA practice, and sociodemographic information. In 2020, we took over the 2010 questionnaire to document the evolution of the PA promotion practice. Results: The proportion of PCPs discussing PA with their patients significantly increased (P <.05) in 2020 for the following health conditions: depression, low back pain, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer; it declined (P <.05) for overweight patients, those with metabolic syndrome, and in primary prevention. Collaboration with PA professionals was the major need identified, and it increased in 2020. PCPs' own practice of PA was a predictor of PA promotion in 2010 (odds ratio = 6.679; P <.001) and in 2020 (odds ratio = 6.679; P <.001). In both 2010 and in 2020, older or more experienced PCPs were more likely to discuss PA with their patients without diagnosed diseases than younger ones or those with less experience. Conclusions: Over the last 10 years, there has been a significant increase in PCPs promoting PA in Québec; however, it has been mainly oriented toward secondary prevention. It is concerning that PA counseling in primary prevention has declined, notably among younger PCPs. The stronger claim for closer collaboration with kinesiologists suggests that PCPs are in favor of an interprofessional strategy, namely collaboration with PA specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines data from a survey conducted at a U.S. public research university, focusing on students' behaviors and attitudes toward the library, both physical and online. The analysis categorizes student users and nonusers based on demographics such as full-time enrollment, first-generation status, college, and grade point average (GPA). Results indicate that first-generation students were most likely to never use the online library. Low GPA respondents visited the physical library most frequently, whereas high GPA students were more inclined to use e-resources. The discussion section includes suggestions for improving services and resources to support student success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injection drug use is the primary driver of the human immunodeficiency virus HIV epidemic in Iran. We characterized people who inject drugs (PWID) living in Iran who had never received opioid agonist therapy (OAT) and examined barriers to OAT uptake. We recruited 2,684 PWID with a history of drug injection in the previous 12 months using a respondent-driven sampling approach from 11 geographically dispersed cities in Iran. The primary outcome was no lifetime uptake history of OAT medications. The lifetime prevalence of no history of OAT uptake among PWID was 31.3%, with significant heterogeneities across different cities. In the multivariable analysis, younger age, high school education or above, no prior incarceration history, and shorter length of injecting career was significantly and positively associated with no history of OAT uptake. Individual-level barriers, financial barriers, and system-level barriers were the main barriers to receiving OAT. PWID continue to face preventable barriers to accessing OAT, which calls for revisiting the OAT provision in Iran.

BACKGROUND:  Telemedicine expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, as key policy changes, financial support, and pandemic fears tipped the balance toward internet-based care. Despite this increased support and benefits to patients and clinicians, telemedicine uptake was variable across clinicians and practices. Little is known regarding physician and institutional characteristics underlying this variability. OBJECTIVE:  This study aimed to evaluate factors influencing telemedicine uptake among frontline physicians in the early pandemic response. METHODS:  We surveyed a national stratified sample of frontline clinicians drawn from the American Medical Association Physician Professional Data in June or July 2020. The survey inquired about the first month and most recent month (June 2020) of pandemic telemedicine use; sample data included clinician gender, specialty, census region, and years in practice. Local pandemic conditions were estimated from county-level data on COVID-19 rates at the time of survey response. Data were analyzed in a weighted logistic regression, controlling for county-specific pandemic data, and weighted to account for survey data stratification and nonresponse. RESULTS:  Over the first 3-4 months of the pandemic, the proportion of physicians reporting use of telemedicine in >30% of visits increased from 29.2% (70/239) to 35.7% (85/238). Relative to primary care, odds of substantial telemedicine use (>30%) both during the first month of the pandemic and in June 2020 were increased among infectious disease and critical care physicians and decreased among hospitalists and emergency medicine physicians. At least minimal prepandemic telemedicine use (odds ratio [OR] 11.41, 95% CI 1.34-97.04) and a high 2-week moving average of local COVID-19 cases (OR 10.16, 95% CI 2.07-49.97) were also associated with substantial telemedicine use in June 2020. There were no significant differences according to clinician gender, census region, or years in practice. CONCLUSIONS:  Prepandemic telemedicine use, high local COVID-19 case counts, and clinician specialty were associated with higher levels of substantial telemedicine use during the early pandemic response. These results suggest that telemedicine uptake in the face of the pandemic may have been heavily influenced by the level of perceived threat and the resources available for implementation. Such understanding has important implications for reducing burnout and preparation for future public health emergencies.

Introduction: Emergency medicine (EM) was recognized as a specialty in Israel in 1999. Fifty-nine of the 234 (25%) attending physicians working in emergency departments (ED) nationwide in 2002 were board-certified emergency physicians (EP). A 2012 study revealed that 123/270 (45%) of ED attendings were EPs, and that there were 71 EM residents. The EPs primarily worked midweek morning shifts, leaving the EDs mostly staffed by other specialties. Our objective in this study was to re-evaluate the EP workforce in Israeli EDs and their employment status and satisfaction 10 years after the last study, which was conducted in 2012.Methods: We performed a three-part, prospective cross-sectional study: 1) a survey, sent to all EDs in Israel, to assess the numbers, level of training, and specialties of physicians working in EDs; 2) an anonymous questionnaire, sent to EPs in Israel, to assess their demographics, training, employment, and work satisfaction; and 3) interviews of a convenience sample of EPs analyzed by a thematic approach.Results: There were 266 board-certified EPs, 141 (53%) of whom were employed in EDs full-time or part-time. Sixty-two non-EPs also worked in EDs. The EPs were present in the EDs primarily during weekday morning shifts. There were 273 EM residents nationwide. A total of 101 questionnaires were completed and revealed that EPs working part-time in the ED worked fewer hours, received higher salaries, and had more years of experience compared to EPs working full time or not working in the ED. Satisfaction correlated only with working part time. Meaningful work, diversity, and rewarding relationships with patients and colleagues were major positive reasons for working in the ED. Feeling undervalued, carrying a heavy caseload, and having complicated relationships with other hospital departments were reasons against working in the ED.Conclusion: Our study findings showed an increase in the number of trained and in-training EPs, and a decrease in the percentage of board-certified EPs who persevere in the EDs. Emergency medicine in Israel is at a crossroads: more physicians are choosing EM than a decade ago, but retention of board-certified EPs is a major concern, as it is worldwide. We recommend taking measures to maintain trained and experienced EPs working in the ED by allowing part-time ED positions, introducing dedicated academic time, and diversifying EP roles, functioning, and work routine.

This document describes the content, purpose, methods and uses of the UCSB Cheadle Center Bird survey data.

The Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Subspecialty survey aimed to identify key motivating factors associated with choosing geriatric psychiatry as a career, and to assess training satisfaction among geriatric psychiatry fellows/residents in Canada and the United States. American and Canadian geriatric psychiatry program directors were asked to distribute an online survey to their fellows. Descriptive statistics for quantitative items and Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to assess for differences by country of training. Thirty-one geriatric psychiatry fellows completed the survey. The most important motivating factors for pursuing a career in geriatric psychiatry were found to be working with patients and families, working in an interdisciplinary environment, and intellectual stimulation. Fellows overall training satisfaction was high, with American fellows more satisfied than Canadian residents (p = .047) on average, especially with regard to biomedical aspects of training (p = .01).

In the initial stage of their federally funded research project, the authors detail how they developed and validated a set of assessment tools aimed at measuring undergraduate students' academic engagement and their own definition of academic success. To ensure the tools were measuring what they were intended to, and that they were reliable, the authors enlisted content experts, including a librarian with academic engagement expertise, three educational psychologists with specialization in college students' engagement, self-regulation, and related fields, and two psychometricians with knowledge of psychological measurement. The authors also reflect on the lessons they learned from the process of developing and validating the assessment tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study on delinquent acts in three academic libraries in northern Ghana. A survey method was used for the study and a questionnaire was used to collect data. The study population consisted of staff in the Reader Service Sections of the three libraries. The study found that failure to observe library regulations, keeping overdue materials, eating in the library, littering, reserving seats unjustifiably, and hiding of books for the purpose of monopoly are examples of delinquent acts practiced by library users. According to the participants, the main reasons for delinquent acts are inadequate orientation to users, insufficient copies of books, and indiscipline among library users. The respondents further reported that these actions led to a reduction in library resources and low patronage. To curb deviant behaviors in libraries, the study recommends the adoption of pragmatic approaches including massive orientation for users, imbibing positive library culture that fosters respect, bolstering commitment and cooperation among library users and the staff, increasing library budgets as well as finding more creative ways of acquiring more copies of books, such as using Open Educational Resources (OERs), belonging to consortia and building and/or enhancing existing Institutional Repositories (IR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Effective primary care necessitates follow-up actions by the patient beyond the visit. Prior research suggests room for improvement in patient adherence. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to understand patients views on their primary care visits, the plans generated therein, and their self-reported adherence after 3 months. METHODS: As part of a large multisite cluster randomized pragmatic trial in 3 health care organizations, patients completed 2 surveys-the first within 7 days after the index primary care visit and another 3 months later. For this analysis of secondary outcomes, we combined the results across all study participants to understand patient adherence to care plans. We recorded patient characteristics and survey responses. Cross-tabulation and chi-square statistics were used to examine bivariate associations, adjusting for multiple comparisons when appropriate. We used multivariable logistic regression to assess how patients intention to follow, agreement, and understanding of their plans impacted their plan adherence, allowing for differences in individual characteristics. Qualitative content analysis was conducted to characterize the patients self-reported plans and reasons for adhering (or not) to the plan 3 months later. RESULTS: Of 2555 patients, most selected the top box option (9=definitely agree) that they felt they had a clear plan (n=2011, 78%), agreed with the plan (n=2049, 80%), and intended to follow the plan (n=2108, 83%) discussed with their provider at the primary care visit. The most common elements of the plans reported included reference to exercise (n=359, 14.1%), testing (laboratory, imaging, etc; n=328, 12.8%), diet (n=296, 11.6%), and initiation or adjustment of medications; (n=284, 11.1%). Patients who strongly agreed that they had a clear plan, agreed with the plan, and intended to follow the plan were all more likely to report plan completion 3 months later (P

This study demonstrates that changes in mindfulness predict subsequent changes in well-being in a data set including individuals who recently engaged in psychedelic use.

Physician marriage is a valuable indicator of how vocational factors (e.g. work hours, stressors) impact satisfaction in relationships and physician wellness overall. Previous studies suggest that gender and specialty influence marriage satisfaction for physicians, though these often come from limited, local, cohorts. A cross-sectional survey was designed and distributed to publicly available email addresses representing academic and private practice physician organizations across the United States, receiving 321 responses (253 complete). Responses included data on demographics, medical specialty, age at marriage, stage of training at marriage, number of children, and factors leading to marital satisfaction/distress. A multivariable ordinal logistic regression was conducted to find associations between survey variables and marriage satisfaction. Survey results indicated that 86.5% of physicians have been married (average age at first marriage was 27.8 years old), and the rate of first marriages ending is at least 14.7%. Men had significantly more children than women. Physicians married at least once averaged 1.98 children. Other specialty physicians had significantly more children on average than psychiatrists. Marrying before medical school predicted practicing in private practice settings. Job stress, work hours, children, and sex were most frequently sources of marital distress, while strong communication, finances, and children were most frequently sources of marital stability. Sex differences were also found in distressing and stabilizing marital factors: Female physicians were more likely to cite their spouses work hours and job stress as sources of marital distress. Finally, surgery specialty and Judaism were associated with higher marriage satisfaction, whereas possession of an M.D. degree was associated with lower marriage satisfaction. This study elucidated new perspectives on physician marriage and families based on specialty, practice setting, and stage of training at marriage. Future studies may focus on factors mediating specialty and sexs impact on having children and marriage satisfaction. To our knowledge, this study is the first physician marriage survey which integrates multiple factors in the analysis of physician marriages.

Purpose: Utilizing teacher socialization in physical education theory, the aim of this study was to develop a survey to measure physical education teachers' socialization experiences and comprehensive school physical activity program involvement. Method: Instrument development included a review of existing comprehensive school physical activity program and socialization instruments, Delphi method to evaluate face and content validity through expert feedback, and a pilot test to examine the instrument's psychometric properties. Results: Upon completion of expert feedback, three items were removed, four items were revised, and open-ended questions were added to each survey construct. The pilot test yielded 28 completed surveys (40% response rate). Bayesian exploratory factor analytic procedures showed that items had statistically significant loadings and were quality measures of the corresponding constructs. Survey subscales had acceptable and high internal consistency coefficients. Discussion/Conclusion: Results suggest that this instrument is a trustworthy tool for continued research examining physical education teachers' socialization and comprehensive school physical activity program involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive science research has far-reaching implications, but many graduate students are trained solely for tenure-track faculty positions. Academic training develops a wide range of skills in behavioral research, literature reviewing, data analysis, scientific publishing, grant writing, teaching, and student mentorship. These skills have direct application in many other careers, but training within academia typically neglects to address how these skills translate to other work environments and career paths. As growth in the number of doctoral trainees continues to outpace permanent academic positions (Kolata, 2016; Larson et al., 2013; Lederman, 2016), more doctoral recipients have been seeking employment beyond faculty positions and academia (National Science Board, 2018). Those who are interested in exploring alternative career paths may not know where to turn for guidance. Our goal in this professional development workshop is to offer such guidance and an opportunity to network with scholars in similar situations.

This study investigates how people assign blame to autonomous vehicles (AVs) when involved in an accident. Our experiment (N = 2647) revealed that people placed more blame on AVs than on human drivers when accident details were unspecified. To examine whether people assess major classes of blame-relevant information differently for AVs and humans, we developed a causal model and introduced a novel concept of prevention effort, which emerged as a crucial factor for blame judgement alongside intentionality. Finally, we addressed the “many hands” problem by exploring how people assign blame to entities associated with AVs and human drivers, such as the car company or an accident victim. Our findings showed that people assigned high blame to these entities in scenarios involving AVs, but not with human drivers. This necessitates adapting a model of blame for AVs to include other agents and thus allow for blame allocation “outside” of autonomous vehicles.

When adults estimate meaningful numbers their distribution of first-digits is strongly biased towards Benford's Law. Insight into why this bias emerges could be gained by examining when it emerges in children. Three hypotheses were formulated: the Representation Hypothesis predicted this distribution can be found in all grades; the Integration Hypothesis predicted a leap in Benford bias from Grade 3 to 4 due to increased mathematical knowledge; and the Distribution Hypothesis proposed a gradual increase across grades due to implicit learning. 151 children in Grades 2 to 4 were asked to estimate numbers based on images and questions. Results showed a strong Benford bias in all three grades but a significant leap from Grade 2 to 3. This was evidence for both the Representation and Integration Hypotheses. Therefore, Benford bias may develop in children due to how they represent numbers, or develop complex mathematical processes, or perhaps some combination of these.

The present research evaluates a coherence-based network approach to moral judgement. Under this view, judgement is an outcome of achieving coherence between a network of causally interacting beliefs. Consistent with this, despite similar initial views, participants re-evaluated their beliefs and attitudes in support of their judgement, driving polarisation between individuals reporting competing judgements. Different properties of the dynamic network structure determined metacognitive properties of judgement such as confidence and perceived task difficulty. Whilst the judgement formation process involves revising beliefs and values to achieve a coherent arrangement, the nature of the judgement reached depends on the aggregate weight of these beliefs once the revision process is completed.

We examine the heterogeneity of text-based behavioral interventions in a series of 5 preregistered studies across one in-person and 10 online panels, with over 11000 respondents in total. We observe large heterogeneity across settings and paradigms. Model the heterogeneity we introduce a framework that measures typically omitted moderators: Fluid Intelligence, Attentiveness, Crystallized Intelligence, and Experience. Variation in these factors are associated with different effect sizes and explain variations across samples. Moderators are associated with effect sizes through two paths, with the intensity of the manipulation and with the effect of the manipulation directly. Our results motivate observing these moderators and provide a theoretical and empirical framework for understanding and predicting varying effect sizes in the social sciences.

Following the increasing use of graphs to communicate statistical information in social media and news platforms, the occurrence of poorly designed misleading graphs has also risen. Thus, previous research has identified common misleading visual features of such graphs. Our study extends this research by empirically comparing the deceptive impact of 14 distinct misleading graph types on viewers' understanding of the depicted data. We investigated the deceptive nature of these misleading graph types to identify those with the biggest potential to mislead viewers. Our findings indicate that misleading graphs significantly decreased viewers' accuracy in interpreting data. While certain misleading graphs (e.g., graphs with inverted y-axis or manipulated time intervals) significantly impeded viewers' accurate graph comprehension, other graphs (e.g., graphs using pictorial bars or graphs with compressed y-axis) had little misleading impact. By identifying misleading graphs that strongly affect viewers' understanding about depicted data, we suggest that these misleading graphs should be the focus of educational interventions.

of human language. We focus on the debate between gesture-first and vocalization-first theories. While some evidence supports the idea that gestures played a primary role in early communication, others argue that vocalizations are equally expressive. We think that methodological differences and biases in the choice of concepts may contribute to the challenge of comparing these modalities directly. For example, to what extent does selecting a certain concept from a semantic category matter to reproduce an effect? This and similar questions are explored in a data-driven way. First, we provide ratings on imagined expressibility of 207 concepts from an online experiment showing that people tend to rate gesture modality as better in expressing meaning compared to vocal modality. Second, we use the Bayesian posterior predictive distribution of these ratings to simulate new experiments where we vary the number of participants, number of concepts, and semantic categories to investigate how robust is the difference between gesture and vocal modality. Our results show that gesture modality is reliably different (i.e., affords higher expressibility) than vocal modality. However, the difference between the two is limited in terms of effect size (medium sizes by common standards) so one may question whether this difference is meaningful for bigger claims about early language evolution. This study further provides valuable information for further research on how to select stimuli and how to set up one's design in a balanced way.

Some German adjective-compound-noun constructions (‘severe storm.warning') exhibit a bracketing paradox where an adjective semantically modifies the first noun N1 instead of the grammatically required last noun N2 thus violating compositionality. We present two experiments that examined the interpretation of nominal compounds and bracketing paradoxes. Experiment 1 showed that the semantic match of N1 and the adjective has a significant impact on the acceptability of Adj-N1N2 constructions. Experiment 2 probed the participants' adjective attachment choices as well as the relationship between and attachment and acceptability: While N2 attachments were most common, many constructions received mixed and some consistently bracketing paradox interpretations. High ratings for Adj-N2 were predictive of N2 attachment, but high Adj-N1 ratings led to bracketing paradox interpretations. These results are partially against grammatical expectations and suggest competition between the nouns for modification, likely due to semantic and/or pragmatic factors.

Compositionality is considered a key hallmark of humanlanguage. However, most research focuses on item-level compositionality, e.g.,to what extent the meanings of phrases are composed of the meanings of theirsub-parts, rather than on language-level compositionality, which is the degreeto which possible combinations are utilized in practice during language use.Here, we propose a novel way to quantify the degree of language-levelcompositionality and apply it in the case of English adjective-nouncombinations. Using corpus analyses, large language models, and humanacceptability ratings, we find that (1) English only sparsely utilizes thecompositional potential of adjective–noun combinations; and (2) LLMs struggle topredict human acceptability judgments of rare combinations. Taken together, ourfindings shed new light on the role of compositionality in language andhighlight a challenging area for further improving LLMs.

Is it tautological to call an action “wrongful discrimination?” Some philosophers and political theorists answer this question in the affirmative and claim that the term “discrimination” is intrinsically evaluative. Others agree that “discrimination” usually conveys the action's moral wrongness but claim that the term can be used in a purely descriptive way. In this paper, we present two corpus studies and two experiments designed to test whether the folk concept of discrimination is evaluative. We demonstrate that the term has undergone a historical development and is nowadays no longer used purely descriptively. Further, we show that this evaluation cannot be cancelled without yielding a contradiction. We conclude that the descriptive use of “discriminatory” is a thing of the past.

Intelligent systems that record, analyze, and respond to events have become major parts of our lives. They are available as Decision Support (DS) for many tasks and can enhance the information on which decision-makers can base their decisions. Decision makers need to evaluate the available information, and they also have to decide whether to seek information from additional information sources. The information is often costly, and its costs and benefits must be weighted. Also, integrating information from multiple sources can complicate the decision task. Here, we study the combined decision process that chooses information sources and integrates them, if chosen, in a classification decision.In an online experiment with 75 engineering students, we manipulated the redundancy level of information received from DS with already existing information. Participants' task in two between-subjects conditions was to classify binary events with the option to access up to two DS systems. In one of the conditions, the two DSs provided non-redundant information, and in the second condition, one of them provided fully redundant information, and the other provided non-redundant information. We found that the decision to access information was not affected by whether some information was redundant (strongly correlated with already available information). Participants used the information to improve classification performance, and the improvement was significantly higher when they used non-redundant information. However, the benefits gained were smaller than predicted from a normative model. Moreover, the use of information from multiple non-correlated sources can increase mental workload, as was evident in our results, possibly because of conflicting information from different sources.

What makes an explanation seem insightful? Prior work shows that even circular explanations can seem insightful when they include information from a lower level of explanation (reductive information). Here, we suggest that this impression of insight is not an illusion. Rather, circular explanations with reductive information are pragmatically instructive: they suggest at which level of description the phenomenon should be explained. In Study 1, even single-sentence circular explanations appeared insightful when infused with reductive information. In Study 2, rating circular explanations with reductive information as insightful correlated with rating them as helpful both with searching for explanatory information and with narrowing down which mechanisms an explanation should address. Study 2 also provides preliminary evidence that these ratings were not driven by prior knowledge of these circular explanations' explicit propositional content.

The steady increase in time spent on smartphone applications and particularly on social networks, raises questions about the environmental and societal sustainability of such a phenomenon. Utility and enjoyment have a key role in such practices, but other factors such as passing time may also contribute. From May to November 2023, 5,028 people took part in a web survey aiming at producing durations prospectively using mobile applications like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reading. The protocol introduces variables known to have an effect on time perception. On average, the produced durations were underestimated. This result is in line with the notion that tracking information and tracking time compete for the brain's limited attentional resources and, hence, that attention plays a critical role in time estimation. Significant differences emerged between the applications tested. TikTok and Reading tasks appear the most underestimate but with opposite dynamics as the level of satisfaction and familiarity are lower for the first compared to the former. Among the variables studied to explain the difficulties in evaluating time spent, the importance of familiarity with the activity is undoubtedly something worth exploring in the context of the race between new algorithms and cognitive adaptability.

Peak shifting is a key method to enhance the resilience of water supply infrastructure. Due to limitations related to the costs of smart meters, experimentally investigating the impact of a time-of-use tariff on inducing peak shifting in water usage has been challenging. Having introduced smart meters across 1,890 households, this study investigated behavioral responses to reduced water prices during off-peak hours (i.e., by increasing the relative cost of peak times). This was achieved by implementing a pricing scheme offering a 60% discount from 23:00 to 05:59 hours and a 20% discount from 10:00 to 16:59 hours. The results revealed significant changes in water usage behavior near the boundary between off-peak and peak times, suggesting a shift in water usage behavior towards the off-peak period. Moreover, a time-series analysis demonstrated the peak shifting induced by off-peak price reductions. Furthermore, this study examines cognitive processing and its impact on altering water usage behaviors on an hourly basis. These findings suggest that reducing prices during off-peak periods can effectively induce peak shifting across a broad range of times.

Brain breaks are often used during lessons to replenish childrens' attention, but children may respond differently to the variety of brain breaks they are offered. Therefore, two studies were conducted to identify both teachers' current use of brain breaks (Study 1) as well as the types of brain breaks children prefer (Study 2). Study 1 consisted of a survey of K-2 teachers (N = 796) across the United States regarding the implementation and types of brain breaks commonly used in their classrooms. The three most common break types reported by teachers were physical activity breaks, videos, and dancing. Study 2 consisted of a forced choice task in which elementary- and middle-school students were asked to pick between two instantiations of six different break types: cognitive engagement breaks, mindfulness exercises, physical activity breaks, nature videos, coloring, and mind wandering. For each break type, children were asked to pick the instantiation they preferred as well as the one they believed would help them focus. Children were then asked to rank the six breaks they selected from most to least preferred and most to least beneficial for focusing. Data collection is ongoing (N = 53). Preliminary results revealed children were more likely to rank cognitive engagement breaks as their most preferred break type. Analyses within break type revealed that students preferred mazes over pattern blocks as a cognitive engagement break, color jump over calisthenics for physical activity breaks, videos of forest scenery over cows grazing for a nature video break, mandala coloring over abstract coloring as a coloring break, and viewing a poster of a starry sky over an abstract poster as a mind wandering break.

Practitioners of mentalism can perform apparently impossible feats, but when performing for an audience these feats are attributed to pseudoscientific explanations such as advanced psychological skills. Research that has investigated the psychological foundations of mentalism has found a strong tendency for people to believe these explanations. In three experiments, we investigated the strength of this belief by comparing apparently impossible effects relating to mental phenomena with physical phenomena. We observed that mental magic tricks are readily explained in terms of advanced psychological skills, whereas physical tricks are not. This was true: i) even when alternative feasible explanations are explicitly presented; ii) when they are presented as mentalism effects but the effects themselves are classical card tricks; iii) regardless of the context in which the effects are observed (a research laboratory vs. a theater). We interpreted the tendency to appeal to this pseudo-explanation (and the changes in narratives employed by mentalists across the decades) in terms of the community of knowledge framework.

In this paper, we confront two prevailing views of rationality—reason- and coherence-based theories—with empirical facts. While the experimental resolution of the debate between both theories is challenging, we examine two cases in which these theories make distinct predictions regarding whether an agent is deemed rational or not. By directly pitting reason-based against coherence-based theories, our findings indicate that reasons play a more influential role in shaping people's attributions of rationality than coherence.

A field study examined how strongly the three categories of epistemically unwarranted beliefs: pseudoscience, conspiracist, and paranormal beliefs, can be predicted by cognitive ability in young participants from several European countries. Each type of beliefs was significantly and strongly correlated with the remaining two types of beliefs, but only weakly related with cognitive ability, suggesting a minor role of reasoning and problem solving processes for forming and holding unwarranted beliefs. However, a role of cognitive ability for rejecting unwarranted beliefs was stronger in males than in females.

Though it is well-understood that beliefs about future emotions (affective forecasting) influence decision-making, less is known about where these forecasts come from. Here, we investigate how intuitive theories of cognition (cognitive forecasting) influence affective forecasts and, consequently, risk preferences. We found that forecasts of cognitive states—expectations, attention, and information-seeking—are linked to affective forecasts and risk preferences (Study 1). There was great diversity in people's intuitive theories of cognition: One subgroup associated attention and information-seeking with positive emotions for optimists but negative emotions for pessimists, and therefore predicted greater risk-seeking in optimists but not pessimists; the other large subgroup consistently perceived forecasted attention and information-seeking as affectively negative (Studies 2a-b). These results connect behavioral economics and cognitive science by exploring how metacognitive intuitions influence our preferences.

In Experiment 1, we conducted a survey in which we asked a sample of N = 762 participants explicitly about their preferences regarding reimbursement and experimental duration of web-based experiments. Participants significantly prefer donations and raffles over other forms of reimbursement in 5-minute experiments. When experiments take 30 minutes or longer, participants significantly prefer direct payment. This finding applies to 15-minute experiments, too, if only data of PayPal account holders is analyzed (75.23% of our sample). In Experiment 2, we implicitly measured the preferences of N = 189 participants by letting them choose between experiments with different durations and forms of reimbursements. As in Experiment 1, direct payment was the preferred reimbursement in longer studies. The most popular choice of duration and reimbursement was to receive direct payment for an experiment of 60 minutes, which was selected by 57% of all participants.