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This is the first version of the Open Science monitor on awareness, attitudes and behaviours in relation to 10 open science practices. The monitor was conducted among academics at Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht (the Netherlands) in the summer of 2020 with the aim to gain insight in academics’ attitude and behaviours towards various open science practices, the opportunities these practices may provide for the scientific community and the barriers in implementing open science practices the researchers may experience. With this monitor the university hopes to gain insight into what can be done to facilitate and support open science among academics at Utrecht University.

Contains fulltext : 237397.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Despite the increasing availability of Open Science (OS) infrastructure and the rise in policies to change behaviour, OS practices are not yet the norm. While pioneering researchers are developing OS practices, the majority sticks to status quo. To transition to common practice, we must engage a critical proportion of the academic community. In this transition, OS Communities (OSCs) play a key role. OSCs are bottom-up learning groups of scholars that discuss OS within and across disciplines. They make OS knowledge more accessible and facilitate communication among scholars and policymakers. Over the past two years, eleven OSCs were founded at several Dutch university cities. In other countries, similar OSCs are starting up. In this article, we discuss the pivotal role OSCs play in the large-scale transition to OS. We emphasize that, despite the grassroot character of OSCs, support from universities is critical for OSCs to be viable, effective, and sustainable.

Open Science (OS) increases the quality, efficiency, and impact of science. This has been widely recognised by scholars, funders, and policy makers. However, despite the increasing availability of infrastructure supporting OS and the rise in policies and incentives to change behavior, OS practices are not yet the norm. While pioneering researchers are developing and embracing OS practices, the majority sticks to the status quo. To transition from pioneering to common practice, we need to engage a critical proportion of the academic community. In this transition, Open Science Communities (OSCs) play a key role. OSCs are bottom-up learning groups of scholars that discuss OS practices, within and across disciplines. They make OS knowledge and know-how more visible and accessible, and facilitate communication among scholars and policy makers. By the same token, community members shape the transition to OS such that it is most beneficial for researchers, science, and society. Over the past two years, eleven OSCs were founded at several Dutch university cities, with approximately 700 members in total (at the time of writing). In other countries, similar OSCs are starting up. In this paper, we discuss the pivotal role OSCs play in the large-scale transition to OS and provide practical information on how to start a local OSC. We emphasize that, despite the grassroot character of OSCs, support from universities is critical for OSCs to be viable, effective, and sustainable.

Contains fulltext : 208235.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), This study uses electrocorticography in humans to assess how alpha- and beta-band rhythms modulate excitability of the sensorimotor cortex during psychophysically-controlled movement imagery. Both rhythms displayed effector-specific modulations, tracked spectral markers of action potentials in the local neuronal population, and showed spatially systematic phase relationships (traveling waves). Yet, alpha- and beta-band rhythms differed in their anatomical and functional properties, were weakly correlated, and traveled along opposite directions across the sensorimotor cortex. Increased alpha-band power in the somatosensory cortex ipsilateral to the selected arm was associated with spatially-unspecific inhibition. Decreased beta-band power over contralateral motor cortex was associated with a focal shift from relative inhibition to excitation. These observations indicate the relevance of both inhibition and disinhibition mechanisms for precise spatiotemporal coordination of movement-related neuronal populations, and illustrate how those mechanisms are implemented through the substantially different neurophysiological properties of sensorimotor alpha- and beta-band rhythms.

To date, only one study by Strick and Volbeda (2018), titled ‘When the valence of unconditioned stimuli evolves over time: Evaluative conditioning with good-ending and bad-ending stories’, investigated stories in the context of evaluative conditioning to change brand attitudes. To find additional support for stories as unconditioned stimuli, we performed a partial replication of this study. As an extension, we also investigated the role of the need for affect as a mediator in this conditioning process. Our study had a within-subject design, in which MTurk workers (N = 66) participated in both our good- and bad-ending story conditions. In line with the original study and our hypothesis, our results suggest that the valence of the story ending determines the direction of the conditioning effect. Brands presented after good-ending stories have a stronger brand liking than brands presented after bad-ending stories. In practice, this would imply that advertisements should always end positively to induce a positive brand evaluation. Furthermore, as we hypothesized, our results indicate that the need for affect mediates this conditioning effect as people with a high need for affect rate brands more emotionally and strongly according to the story-ending valence than people with a low need for affect. Future research may distinguish other characteristics that mediate this effect Conditioning; Explicit Attitude; Need for Affect; Emotions

Reverse correlation is an influential psychophysical paradigm that uses a participant’s responses to randomly varying images to build a classification image (CI), which is commonly interpreted as a visualization of the participant’s mental representation. It is unclear, however, how to statistically quantify the amount of signal present in CIs, which limits the interpretability of these images. In this article, we propose a novel metric, infoVal, which assesses informational value relative to a resampled random distribution and can be interpreted like a z score. In the first part, we define the infoVal metric and show, through simulations, that it adheres to typical Type I error rates under various task conditions (internal validity). In the second part, we show that the metric correlates with markers of data quality in empirical reverse-correlation data, such as the subjective recognizability, objective discriminability, and test–retest reliability of the CIs (convergent validity). In the final part, we demonstrate how the infoVal metric can be used to compare the informational value of reverse-correlation datasets, by comparing data acquired online with data acquired in a controlled lab environment. We recommend a new standard of good practice in which researchers assess the infoVal scores of reverse-correlation data in order to ensure that they do not read signal in CIs where no signal is present. The infoVal metric is implemented in the open-source rcicr R package, to facilitate its adoption.

Depression is one of the most common mental health issues, affecting both individuals and society as a whole. This paper is focused on methods that could possibly contribute to improving self-image, which in turn would lower depressive symptoms. The first part of the study is focused on creating an illustration of participant’s self-image, using the technique reverse correlation, and on whether people can recognize themselves in the classification images (CI) that were generated after the reverse correlation task. The second part of the study investigates the usability of this image as a tool for therapy. We consider whether the CI intervention can be used as an independent treatment, and in particular its effectiveness in combination with an intervention based on the existing COMET therapy. 98 participants were recruited for the first part of our study. Our hypothesis that people would be able to recognize themselves on the first trial above chance level was supported by a chi-square test for goodness of fit, with an effect size of w = .702. The hypotheses of the second part, which entailed that using a classification image and/or COMET therapy would reduce depressive symptoms, was not supported by the results. An explorative analysis was done to investigate differences between healthy participants and those with depressive symptoms. There was a significant main effect for time and for depressive symptoms. There was also a significant interaction effect for time and depressive symptoms and for time and experimental group. Further t-tests did not reveal anything to explain the significance.

Contains fulltext : 196478.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), A relatively new analysis technique, known as neural decoding or multivariate pattern analysis, has become increasingly popular for cognitive neuroimaging studies over recent years. These techniques promise to uncover the representational contents of neural signals, as well as the underlying code and the dynamic profile thereof. A field in which these techniques have led to novel insights in particular is that of visual working memory (VWM). In the present study we subjected human volunteers to a combined VWM/imagery task while recording their neural signals using MEG. We applied multivariate decoding analyses to uncover the temporal profile underlying the neural representations of the memorized item. Analysis of gaze position however revealed that our results were contaminated by systematic eye movements, suggesting that the MEG decoding results from our originally planned analyses were confounded. In addition to the eye movement analyses, we also present the original analyses to highlight how these might have readily led to invalid conclusions. Finally, we demonstrate a potential remedy, whereby we train the decoders on a functional localizer that was specifically designed to target bottom-up sensory signals and as such avoids eye movements. We conclude by arguing for more awareness of the potentially pervasive and ubiquitous effects of eye movement-related confounds.Significance Statement Neural decoding is an important and relatively novel technique that has opened up new avenues for cognitive neuroscience research. However, with its promises also come potential caveats. In this study we show that neural decoding may be susceptible to confounds induced by small task- and stimulus-specific eye movements in the context of a visual working memory task. Such eye movements during working memory tasks have been reported before, and may in fact be a common phenomenon. Given the widespread use of neural decoding and the potentially contaminating effects of eye movements

In recent years, social psychologists have adopted the psychophysical method of reverse correlation. Reverse correlation is a data-driven method in which judgments of randomly varying stimuli are used to reconstruct participants' internal representation subtending those judgments. Here, we review the method and its findings within the context of social psychology, discussing its promises, achievements, and validity. Our review suggests that, even in these early stages, the technique has proven to be an invaluable tool in the investigation of social perception, such as perception of race, gender, personality traits, and internal states such as emotions. Integrating the way the technique has been used in social psychology, we suggest that reverse correlation primarily enables researchers to do two things: visualise what visual features are diagnostic for particular social judgments and reveal top down biases on social perception. Given these functions, we argue that reverse correlation can be best understood as visualising priors for social perception within a predictive coding framework.

Het doel van deze studie was om de effectiviteit en toepasbaarheid van het meten van zelfbeeld door middel van de Reverse Correlation techniek te onderzoeken. Participanten werden onderworpen aan de nieuwe, data gedreven techniek die gebruikt wordt om interne representaties te verbeelden en er werd gemeten in hoeverre zelfwaardering in de resultaten terug te zien zou zijn. Daarnaast werd in een exploratief deel van deze studie aandacht gericht op het terugkoppelen van de testresultaten.

‘Genre’ is een breed begrip in de filmwetenschap en kan op veel manieren gedefinieerd en onderzocht worden. Er bestaat dan vaak ook geen consensus over welke films bij welk genre horen. Dit is ook te zien bij de film THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015) van Quentin Tarantino. Verschillende recensenten zijn het niet eens of de film een western of een detective is. Deze onenigheid is de basis voor mijn onderzoek. Naar aanleiding van een literatuuronderzoek op het gebied van genretheorie kan ik stellen dat de scheidslijnen tussen verschillende genres niet altijd duidelijk zijn. Genres zijn niet alleen gebaseerd op herhaling, maar ook op variatie. De meeste films bevatten meerdere genres of elementen ervan en vormen zo hybride genrefilms. Met dit literatuuronderzoek en een formalistische en structuralistische analyse naar genreconventies in THE HATEFUL EIGHT geef ik antwoord op de vraag: “Hoe worden genreconventies van detectives en westerns ingezet in THE HATEFUL EIGHT om een hybride genrefilm te construeren?” De analyse wordt gevormd door de bevindingen van Rick Altman over semantiek en syntaxis, beide elementen worden onderzocht in relatie tot de twee genres. Ook worden theorieën ingezet van verschillende auteurs die zich focussen op de individuele genres western en detective. Uit het onderzoek zal blijken dat er veel semantische elementen van de western in de film te zien zijn en dat er een variatie plaatsvindt op het gebied van de syntaxis. De film bevat namelijk naast syntactische elementen van de western, ook syntactische elementen van de detective. Hierdoor vormt THE HATEFUL EIGHT een hybride genrefilm.

RU Radboud Universiteit, 10 juni 2016, Promotores : Toni, I., Dijkerman, H.C. Co-promotores : Lange, F.P. de, Stolk, A., Contains fulltext : 157004.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)

Contains fulltext : 135378.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), Rhythmic neural activity within the alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (15-25 Hz) frequency bands is modulated during actual and imagined movements. Changes in these rhythms provide a mechanism to select relevant neuronal populations, although the relative contributions of these rhythms remain unclear. Here we use MEG to investigate changes in oscillatory power while healthy human participants imagined grasping a cylinder oriented at different angles. This paradigm allowed us to study the neural signals involved in the simulation of a movement in the absence of signals related to motor execution and sensory reafference. Movement selection demands were manipulated by exploiting the fact that some object orientations evoke consistent grasping movements, whereas others are compatible with both overhand and underhand grasping. By modulating task demands, we show a functional dissociation of the alpha- and beta-band rhythms. As movement selection demands increased, alpha-band oscillatory power increased in the sensorimotor cortex ipsilateral to the arm used for imagery, whereas beta-band power concurrently decreased in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex. The same pattern emerged when motor imagery trials were compared with a control condition, providing converging evidence for the functional dissociation of the two rhythms. These observations call for a re-evaluation of the role of sensorimotor rhythms. We propose that neural oscillations in the alpha-band mediate the allocation of computational resources by disengaging task-irrelevant cortical regions. In contrast, the reduction of neural oscillations in the beta-band is directly related to the disinhibition of neuronal populations involved in the computations of movement parameters.

Management summary Er is veel enthousiasme voor de ontwikkeling van honoursonderwijs Honoursonderwijs is snel in omvang toegenomen in het WO en (recent) ook in het HBO. De innoverende kwaliteiten brengen veel enthousiasme teweeg bij de betrokkenen studenten, docenten en onderwijsleiding. Honours is ‘anders, niet meer van hetzelfde’ Honours is anders door meer diepgang, interactiviteit, samenwerkend leren, uitdaging, ontdekkend leren, reflectie, eigen initiatief en interesse, zelfstandigheid en soms competitie. Het contact student-docent is essentieel gezien voor het inspirerende karakter. Studeren met zeer gemotiveerde medestudenten is een belangrijke stimulans. De honoursdocent functioneert ook als voorbeeld voor wetenschap en collegialiteit. Honoursonderwijs is vooral ánder onderwijs met accent op een hogere complexiteit van de stof. Modellen voor honoursprogramma’s Het drie window model biedt een referentiekader waarbij de beschreven vier cases van (universitair) honoursonderwijs illustraties vormen. Deze programma’s kunnen een modelfunctie hebben. De overzichten, uitspraken op basis van ervaring en voorbeelden van ‘good practice’ kunnen nuttig zijn bij het opzetten van nieuwe programma’s. Afstemming (matching) student-opleiding bij de toelating én tijdens het programma Matching van student en honoursprogramma gebeurt bij de selectie en tijdens het programma. Evaluaties en persoonlijke feedback spelen een duidelijke rol om een geschikt honoursprogramma te ontwikkelen en studieactiviteiten af te stemmen op de beoogde talentontwikkeling. Diversiteit aan honoursprogramma’s Er is een zeer grote diversiteit aan honoursprogramma’s. Niet één honoursprogramma is volledig vergelijkbaar met een ander. Er zijn verschillende manieren om deze programma’s inhoud en vorm te geven. Ze veranderen ook regelmatig inhoudelijk en organisatorisch, er is sprake van een dynamische ontwikkeling. Ook kwaliteitsbewaking van dit onderwijs moet daarom maatwerk zijn. Succes in honours zichtba