Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung最新文献

{"title":"Beyond the moving hand: How gesture meaning shapes visual attention during observation and imitation.","authors":"Angelica Scuderi, Laurent Sparrow, Mariella Pazzaglia, Angela Bartolo","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02392-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02392-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Gestures can convey communicative and socially relevant information, but it remains unclear whether their spatial direction relative to the body modulates visual attention. Previous findings suggest that gestures directed towards the body (TB) may be particularly relevant for socio-cognitive processing. The present study investigated whether gesture direction and meaning modulate visual attention to the face and hand during gesture observation and imitation. Sixty video clips depicted intransitive gestures, pantomimes, and meaningless gestures directed either TB or away from the body (AB). Twenty-five healthy participants first observed and subsequently imitated the gestures while their eye movements were recorded. Average fixation duration within the face and hand areas of interest was analysed using linear mixed models. Fixation duration was longer during observation than imitation and was influenced by gesture type, with intransitive gestures eliciting longer fixations than pantomimes and meaningless gestures. Overall, the face attracted longer fixations than the hand, particularly during meaningful gestures. Although fixation durations were descriptively longer for TB than AB gestures, the effect of direction did not reach statistical significance. These findings suggest that visual attention during gesture processing is primarily shaped by gesture meaning and task demands, while the contribution of gesture direction to overt visual attention remains to be established.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149116809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The activation of lexico-syntactic features in semi-lexical nouns.","authors":"Jin Wang, Jurriaan Witteman, Niels O Schiller","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02381-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02381-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The distinction between the processing mechanisms of content and function words has a long tradition in psycholinguistic research. However, the type of words that challenge this dichotomy, namely semi-lexical words, has gathered less attention. In German, the first noun in pseudo-partitive constructions like die Scheibe Brot (\"the slice of bread\") is classified as semi-lexical. This study investigated the processing of lexico-syntactic features in semi-lexical nouns compared to regular nouns. Native German speakers participated in a picture-naming task using the picture-word interference paradigm. Grammatical gender congruency and noun category of distractor and target were manipulated. A significant gender congruency effect was observed for semi-lexical nouns, with shorter naming latencies in congruent than in incongruent conditions. These findings suggest that semi-lexical nouns retain a processing route of spreading activation to associated gender nodes like regular nouns. The activation of gender nodes in pseudo-partitives may derive from multiple routes.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149116806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Kinematic encoding of the speed-accuracy trade-off in approach/avoidance decisions when facing social threats.","authors":"Rocco Mennella, Julie Grèzes, Matteo Sequestro, Morgan Beaurenaut","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02390-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02390-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Perceiving social threats, especially expressions of anger, increases the speed of both action selection and execution. However, it remains unclear how individuals balance speed with achieving desirable outcomes, such as threat avoidance, under these conditions. To investigate this trade-off between decision speed and accuracy, we examined the kinematics of finger-reaching movements using a \"go-before-you-know\" paradigm. Participants chose between two empty outer chairs in a waiting room. Two central chairs were occupied by either two individuals with neutral expressions or one neutral individual and one threatening individual. The threatening individual expressed anger or fear at one of four intensity levels. The results showed that social threats generally invigorated action decision, as high-threat trials elicited faster movements, which correlated with more direct trajectories compared to neutral trials. However, when participants chose to avoid angry individuals, the most frequent response, movements followed more central trajectories, compared to when they approached angry individuals. These findings suggest that while social threats generally invigorate action selection and execution, it is possible that the accumulation of evidence for the decision can be temporarily prolonged to enhance the likelihood of a favorable outcome, such as threat avoidance. We discuss alternative interpretations and propose the integration of these results with recent models of action decisions under perceived urgency to advance the understanding of threat-related decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149076441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Selective encoding failure of self-face identity in subthreshold depression.","authors":"Mao Wen, Binyuan Su, Yufan Chen, Tianyi Gu, Pengmin Qin","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02385-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02385-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Subthreshold depression is associated with significant functional impairment and elevated risk of major depressive disorder. A negative self-concept may disrupt the implicit positive association evoked by one's own face, impairing incidental encoding of self-relevant information. Whether subthreshold depression involves a selective deficit in encoding self-face identity remains unclear. The attribute amnesia paradigm is well suited to address this question because it can dissociate attentional selection from working memory encoding. Using this paradigm, we examined the issue across two experiments. Experiment 1 employed nonsocial stimuli (animal drawings) and confirmed an intact attribute amnesia effect in subthreshold depression (n = 30) comparable to healthy controls (n = 30), ruling out a generalized encoding deficit. Experiment 2 replaced targets with faces (self or other) and revealed a selective enhancement of the attribute amnesia effect for self-face identity in subthreshold depression. Specifically, on the surprise trial, accuracy for self-face identity dropped to near-chance levels in the subthreshold depression group, whereas no such deficit emerged for other-faces or in controls. Encoding recovered rapidly once explicit memory expectations were introduced, indicating intact basic encoding capacity. These findings suggest that subthreshold depression is associated with a specific impairment in incidentally encoding self-face identity. This impairment likely stems from a negative self-concept that weakens self-face salience under incidental encoding conditions. By capturing this selective encoding failure, the present study reveals that the self-processing deficit in subthreshold depression can arise at the gating stage between attention and working memory consolidation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149031471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Studies reporting bodily feedback effects on motivation have poor evidentiary value: a critical review and z-curve analysis.","authors":"Shaheed Azaad","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02382-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02382-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The embodied view of cognition holds that cognitive and emotional processes are grounded in our bodily experiences and physical interactions with the world. In line with this view, embodied motivation studies have purported to show that enacting motivation-related postures, expressions, and actions can elicit or modulate their corresponding motivational states. While theory-building reviews on the topic have accepted these studies' conclusions at face value, a closer reading of key articles reveals several statistical issues that call their veracity into question. The present review shows that evidence for bodily feedback effects on motivation relies on: (1) studies using multiple measures of motivation, and dismissing results from those that do not support hypotheses, (2) analytical degrees of freedom inflating the false positive rate, and (3) reviews on the topic interpreting non-significant hypothesis tests as if they were significant. Supporting this analysis of the literature, a z-curve of 51 significant results reported across 18 articles indicated little evidentiary value, with an estimated replicability rate of just 0.21 (95% CI = [0.13, 0.25]). In sum, there is little credible evidence that bodily postures modulate motivational states.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13597610/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149026387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"No evidence for the impact of mind wandering on recognition associative task: an on-line preregistered study.","authors":"Philippe Blondé, Nicolas Ribeiro, Véronique Quaglino, Marco Sperduti","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02387-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02387-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous examinations of the relationship between mind wandering (MW) during post-encoding periods and subsequent memory consolidation has led to mixed results. This study aimed to investigate how different mental states during a retention interval impact associative and relational memory consolidation. One hundred ninety-seven participants performed an online task where they encoded object-face associations before completing either a low-demand (1-back) or high-demand (3-back) post-encoding task for 15 min. Thought probes assessed mental states (on-task focus, MW related to encoded material, MW involving mental time travel, and mind blanking) during the post-encoding task. Associative memory was tested twice, immediately after encoding and following the retention interval. In the delayed test relational memory was also assessed. The 1-back condition elicited more MW, particularly involving mental time travel, while the 3-back condition increased on-task focus. However, memory performance did not differ between conditions. Moreover, the frequencies of different mental states did not correlate with measures of memory retention. Despite successfully manipulating mental states through cognitive load, we found no evidence that MW or other mental states during brief retention intervals impact memory performances. A non-registered, additional condition where the post-encoding task was replaced by a simple perceptual task was added to control for any potential disruptive effect of working memory on memory consolidation. A pattern of results similar to the 1-back condition was found, with no effect of mind wandering on memory performance. These findings add to a growing body of mixed evidence regarding the link between mind wandering and memory consolidation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13597591/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149026420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tapping force variability influences temporal precision in paced finger tapping.","authors":"Leonardo Versaci, Rodrigo Laje","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02380-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02380-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ideas about the origins and role of motor variability have been revised in recent years after realizing that a strictly peripheral origin is not sufficient to explain many observed aspects of brain function. Among these, time processing is emerging as one of the least studied functions where motor variability might have a critical role. Time processing in the range of hundreds of milliseconds includes sensorimotor synchronization (SMS), where both sensory and motor timing processes play in parallel. Paced finger tapping, where a person taps in synchrony with a periodic sequence of brief stimuli as in keeping pace with music, is one of the most common tasks to study SMS. The main observable is the asynchrony, that is the time difference between every response and the corresponding stimulus along the sequence. Here we report that the variability of asynchronies in a paced finger-tapping experiment ([Formula: see text]) is correlated with the variability of the tapping force such that participants with smaller force variability have a better timing precision-but only in the absence of auditory feedback from the taps. We explain our observation by describing a potential mechanism based on empirical and theoretical results bridging the gap between timing variability and force variability. Our results suggest that tactile feedback in the presence of auditory feedback is mostly irrelevant in the perceptual determination of the occurrence time of the tap, and that the precision of a centrally organized rhythmic action depends on the reliability of sensory consequences generated by the action itself. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Motor variability, that is the natural variation of a repeated action, is a fundamental part of many brain functions. Among these, time processing is being recognized as critical for a wide range of behaviors. In particular, the cognitive processes underlying sensorimotor synchronization remain among the least understood. In this work we show that participants with smaller motor variability also have a better timing precision, but the correlation disappears in the presence of auditory feedback.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149026463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pairwise Go/No-Go magnitude comparison with spatially arranged Arabic digits and Turkish number words.","authors":"Şimal Yenigüllü, Ezgi Gür, Merve Bulut, Hakan Çetinkaya, Seda Dural","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02386-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02386-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pairwise magnitude comparison requires participants to evaluate the relative magnitude of two simultaneously presented numerical stimuli, and performance is commonly indexed by the numerical distance effect. Whether this processing is affected by spatial-numerical congruency between relative numerical magnitude and relative stimulus position-specifically, an advantage for the conventional small-left/large-right arrangement-remains less clear, especially when left-right response selection is minimized. The present study examined numerical distance effects and spatial-numerical congruency in a pairwise go/no-go magnitude-comparison task. Across two experiments, participants viewed two numerical stimuli, one on the left and one on the right. They made a single central response only when the task-relevant number appeared in the instructed spatial position. Experiment 1 used Arabic digits, whereas Experiment 2 used Turkish number words. In both experiments, participants completed either a small-number or a large-number task. Robust numerical distance effects were observed in both experiments and task versions, indicating reliable access to relative numerical magnitude. In contrast, evidence for spatial-numerical congruency was limited and task-dependent. The conventional small-left/large-right arrangement did not produce a general response-time advantage, and any congruency-related patterns were limited to the small-number task. These findings suggest that pairwise go/no-go comparison reliably engages relative-magnitude processing without necessarily producing stable or general spatial-numerical congruency. The results support a distinction between access to relative magnitude and the behavioral expression of spatial-numerical congruency under specific task configurations.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149008948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating the effects of magnitude-space based numerical working memory loads on the SNARC effect under different number judgment tasks.","authors":"Ilgım Hepdarcan, Seda Can","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02384-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02384-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect refers to the phenomenon where smaller numbers are associated with faster left-side responses and larger numbers with faster right-side responses. Previous working memory (WM) research on the SNARC effect has examined cognitive load using visuo-spatial and phonological tasks, highlighting the effect's flexibility. This study investigated the effects of mental number line (MNL) compatibility (small-left/large-right vs. small-right/large-left) and magnitude-space-based cognitive loads (space, magnitude, and magnitude-space) on number judgments. Participants completed a numerical 1-back task involving three types of WM loads presented in either MNL compatible or incompatible formats. Responses to targets were made based on whether a number matched the spatial position (space load), magnitude category (magnitude load), or both (magnitude-space load) of the preceding number. After each 1-back evaluation, participants performed either a single parity judgment (odd/even) or magnitude comparison (smaller/larger than 5). The results showed that MNL compatible conditions produced a regular SNARC effect, while incompatible conditions led to a reverse SNARC. The effect was more pronounced under the space load than under the magnitude load. In parity judgment, compatible loads produced a regular SNARC effect, whereas incompatible loads showed no reverse SNARC. In contrast, the magnitude comparison task revealed a more pronounced reverse SNARC under incompatible loads. These results challenge the SNARC effect as purely automatic, emphasizing the coactivation of long-term numerical representations and WM in shaping spatial-numerical associations. Furthermore, the findings highlight the effect's sensitivity to task-specific demands, demonstrating that spatial-numerical associations can dynamically adapt to varying cognitive strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148991294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beware bisection: the direction of time-numerosity interactions depends on objective reference.","authors":"Tutku Öztel, Candice T Stanfield-Wiswell, Martin Wiener","doi":"10.1007/s00426-026-02383-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00426-026-02383-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In time perception studies, one of the most commonly employed tasks across humans and animals is temporal bisection. In this task, subjects must classify intervals presented into \"short\" and \"long\" duration categories. Crucially, this classification can be done either in reference to explicitly learned \"anchors\", or in a \"reference-free\" mode in which no anchors are provided and the subject must use an implicit standard - the so-called \"partition variant\". Previous work has demonstrated identical performance and modeling between the anchored and partition variants leading to the conclusion that both variants use a common mechanism. Here we report on a series of findings that critically challenge this assumption in which we, quite accidentally, found that the partition variant produces opposite results on a common task - the time-numerosity interaction, in which more numerous dot arrays are associated with longer perceived durations. Instead, we find that the partition variant induces the opposite pattern, where larger numerosities are associated with a shorter reported duration. We suggest this change in direction is the result of the comparison being made, as we tested other tasks (discrimination, reproduction, anchor variant) and found the oft-reported finding of larger numerosities inducing longer reported durations. We further provide a model in which numerosity induces a lengthening of the criterion itself, which can explain the bidirectionality of the effect. We conclude that the partition variant of temporal bisection, while similar to the anchor variant, may provide substantially different results and caution researchers on drawing conclusions based on this task alone and without additional tasks for verification.</p>","PeriodicalId":48184,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung","volume":"90 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13582355/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148983912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}