Frontiers in psychology
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Effects of Repetition Suppression on Sound Induced Flash Illusion With Aging.
The sound-induced flash illusion (SiFI) is a classical auditory-dominated multisensory integration phenomenon in which the observer misperceives the number of visual flashes due to the simultaneous presentation of a different number of auditory beeps. Although the SiFI has been documented to correlate with perceptual sensitivity, to date there is no consensus as to how it corresponds to sensitivity with aging. The present study was based on the SiFI paradigm (Shams et al., 2000), adding repeated auditory stimuli prior to the appearance of audiovisual stimuli to investigate the effects of repetition suppression (RS) on the SiFI with aging. ⋯ The illusion effect in old adults was weaker than in young adults. Specifically, RS only affected fission illusions in the old adults but both fission and fusion illusions in young adults. Thus, the present study indicated that the decreased perceptual sensitivity based on auditory RS could weaken the SiFI effect in multisensory integration and that old adults are more susceptible to RS, showing that old adults perceived the SiFI effect weakly under auditory RS.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Modulators of the Personal and Professional Threat Perception of Olympic Athletes in the Actual COVID-19 Crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic is now a major global health issue, affecting world population and high-performance athlete too. The aim of the present research was to analyze the effect of psychological profile, academic schedule, and gender in the perception of personal and professional threat of Olympic and Paralympic athletes facing the 2021 Tokyo Olympiad in the actual COVID-19 crisis. ⋯ Neuroticism and psychological inflexibility presented the greatest negative feelings for female athletes (+32.59, p < 0.000, r = 0.13) and the perception that quarantine would negatively affect their sports performance. Finally professional athletes showed lower values in personality tests (Agreeableness factor) about COVID-19 crisis than non-professionals (-40.62, p < 0.012, r = 0.88).
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Psychological Symptoms During the Two Stages of Lockdown in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak: An Investigation in a Sample of Citizens in Northern Spain.
Spain has been in a state of emergency since 14th March due to the COVID-19 crisis. This state of emergency means that the population must comply with strict rules such as lockdown (confinement to their homes except for essential trips) and social distancing. The aim of this study was to examine the psychological state of the general population in a sample recruited in Northern Spain. ⋯ In relation to gender, data indicate that men have higher levels of depression than women, and similar levels of anxiety and stress. Greater symptomatology has also been found among the younger population and in people with chronic diseases. We discuss the need to continue carrying out these types of studies to prevent and treat psychological problems that could emerge amidst this pandemic.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Validation of Two Short Personality Inventories Using Self-Descriptions in Natural Language and Quantitative Semantics Test Theory.
If individual differences are relevant and prominent features of personality, then they are expected to be encoded in natural language, thus manifesting themselves in single words. Recently, the quantification of text data using advanced natural language processing techniques offers innovative opportunities to map people's own words and narratives to their responses to self-reports. Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of self-descriptions in natural language and what we tentatively call Quantitative Semantic Test Theory (QuSTT) to validate two short inventories that measure character traits. ⋯ Despite being short, both inventories capture individuals' identity as expected. Nevertheless, our method also points out some shortcomings and overlaps between traits measured with these inventories. We suggest that self-descriptive words can be quantified to validate measures of psychological constructs (e.g., prevalence in self-descriptions or QuSTT) and that this method may complement traditional methods for testing the validity of psychological measures.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Ageism and Behavior Change During a Health Pandemic: A Preregistered Study.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a suspected surge of ageism in America and has imposed critical health and safety behavior modifications for people of all ages (Ayalon et al., 2020; Lichtenstein, 2020). Given that older adults are a high-risk group, maintaining their safety has been paramount in implementing preventive measures (i.e., more handwashing, social distancing); however, making such behavior modifications might be contingent on how one views older adults (i.e., ageist stereotypes). Therefore, the goal of the current pre-registered study was to explore if hostile and benevolent ageism relate to pandemic-related fear and behavior change. ⋯ Higher hostile ageism predicted lower pandemic-related behavior modification. Those high in benevolent ageism reported lower behavior change, but also reported higher pandemic-related fear; however, when pandemic-related fear was considered a mediator between the two, the directionality between benevolent ageism and behavior change switched, indicating a suppression effect. These findings highlight that ageist attitudes do predict responses to the pandemic and that hostile and benevolent ageism are distinct facets that have unique implications during a health pandemic.