1. |
- Andersson, Linus, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of Task Demands on Olfactory, Auditory, and Visual Event-Related Potentials Suggest Similar Top-Down Modulation Across Senses
- 2018
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Ingår i: Chemical Senses. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0379-864X .- 1464-3553. ; 43:2, s. 129-134
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A widely held view is that top-down modulation of sensory information relies on an amodal control network that acts through the thalamus to regulate incoming signals. Olfaction lacks a direct thalamic projection, which suggests that it may differ from other modalities in this regard. We investigated the late positive complex (LPC) amplitudes of event-related potentials (ERP) from 28 participants, elicited by intensity-matched olfactory, auditory and visual stimuli, during a condition of focused attention, a neutral condition, and a condition in which stimuli were to be actively ignored. Amplitudes were largest during the attend condition, lowest during the ignore condition, with the neutral condition in between. A Bayesian analysis resulted in strong evidence for similar effects of task across sensory modalities. We conclude that olfaction, despite its unique neural projections, does not differ from audition and vision in terms of task-dependent neural modulation of the LPC.
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- Andersson, Hanna, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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The negative footprint illusion is exacerbated by the numerosity of environment-friendly additions: unveiling the underpinning mechanisms
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Cognitive Psychology. - : Taylor & Francis. - 2044-5911 .- 2044-592X. ; 36:2, s. 295-307
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The addition of environmentally friendly items to conventional items sometimes leads people to believe that the carbon footprint of the entire set decreases rather than increases. This negative footprint illusion is supposedly underpinned by an averaging bias: people base environmental impact estimates not on the total impact of items but on their average. Here, we found that the illusion's magnitude increased with the addition of a greater number of "green" items when the number of conventional items remained constant (Studies 1 and 2), supporting the averaging-bias account. We challenged this account by testing what happens when the number of items in the conventional and "green" categories vary while holding the ratio between the two categories constant (Study 3). At odds with the averaging-bias account, the magnitude of the illusion increased as the category size increased, revealing a category-size bias, and raising questions about the interplay between these biases in the illusion.
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3. |
- Madison, Guy, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Sex differences in scientific productivity and impact are largely explained by the proportion of highly productive individuals : a whole-population study of researchers across six disciplines in Sweden
- 2024
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Ingår i: Studies in Higher Education. - : Routledge. - 0307-5079 .- 1470-174X. ; 49:1, s. 119-140
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sex differences in human performance have been documented across a wide array of human endeavours. Males tend to exhibit higher performance in intellectually demanding and competitive domains, and this difference tends to be more pronounced the higher the level of performance. Here, we analyse publishing performance for the whole population of associate and full professors in relatively sex-balanced disciplines, namely Education, Nursing and Caring Science, Psychology, Public Health, Sociology, and Social Work, comprising 426 women and 562 men. We find that sex differences in the number of publications, citations, and citations per publication were small across low and medium levels of productivity, but become more pronounced the higher the level of performance. In the top performing 10% the female proportion decreases from the average 43.2% to 26% (25 F, 71 M), which further decreases to 15% in the top 5%. The results are discussed with respect to the greater male variability hypothesis, sex differences in psychological traits, and environmental factors such as sex discrimination.
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4. |
- Claeson, Anna-Sara, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Symptoms from masked acrolein exposure suggest altered trigeminal reactivity in chemical intolerance
- 2017
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Ingår i: Neurotoxicology. - : Elsevier. - 0161-813X .- 1872-9711. ; 60, s. 92-98
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Chemical intolerance (CI) is a widespread occupational and public health problem characterized by symptoms that reportedly result from low-levels of chemical exposure. The mechanisms behind CI are unknown, however modifications of the chemical senses (rather than toxic processes) have been suggested as key components. The aim of this study was to investigate whether individuals with self-reported CI report more sensory irritation during masked acrolein exposure compared to controls without CI. Methods: Individuals with CI (n = 18) and controls without CI (n = 19) were exposed in an exposure chamber. Each participant took part in two exposure conditions – one with heptane (the masking compound), and one with heptane and acrolein at a dose below previously reported sensory irritation thresholds. The exposures lasted for 60 min. Symptoms and confidence ratings were measured continuously throughout the exposure as were measurements of electrodermal activity and self-reported tear-film break-up time. Participants were blind to exposure condition. Results: Individuals with CI, compared with controls reported greater sensory irritation in the eyes, nose and throat when exposed to acrolein masked with heptane. There was no difference during exposure to heptane. Conclusions: Masked exposure to acrolein at a concentration below the previously reported detection threshold is perceived as more irritating by individuals with CI compared with controls. The results indicate that there is altered trigeminal reactivity in those with CI compared to controls.
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5. |
- Rosa, Eduardo
(författare)
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Pilots’ decision-making, emotions and cognitive performance in simulated environments
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to investigate pilots’ performances in distinct simulation environments as related to the phenomena of cognition, emotion and fatigue. By doing so, it provides psychological material to broaden the understanding and possibility to development of pilots’ non-technical skills category related to the operational context. The thesis examines these phenomena in two environmental settings, comprised of low- and high-fidelity context environments. Using a low-fidelity simulation (Study I), it investigates dynamic decision-making of commercial pilots. Next, using a high-fidelity environment (Studies II, III and IV), it investigates fatigue, cognition, emotion and its physiological associations in long-duration flight missions in a military context. Study I indicates that low-fidelity simulations can be beneficial for the understanding of the cognitive processes involved in dynamic decision-making of commercial pilots. The use of such simulations can aid pilots in recognizing useful information in an ill-defined problem, which is essential for a successful decision process. The development of pilots’ decision-making can be complemented by the use of low-fidelity simulations. This may contribute to dynamic decisions in the flight environment. Studies II, III and IV indicate that high-fidelity environments are required when evaluating the context in which assessment of individual psychological aspects demands high representational level to the natural environment. Long-duration single-piloted aircraft missions should consider that pilots might have decreased sustained attention, decrease in positive emotions and increase in negative emotions after approximately 7 hours into the mission. However, performance of more complex cognitive tasks may not be degraded in an 11-hours flight mission. Associations between heart rate variability and emotional ratings may indicate levels of physiological arousal. This may contribute to the assessment of overall psychological states of pilots in such context. This comprehensive assessment of pilots’ psychology in this environment may aid in pilots’ preparation and in the planning of long-duration missions. Taken together, the conclusions of this thesis indicate that a proper use of low- and high-fidelity simulations encourages pilots’ awareness on the necessity in adapting to changing circumstances. This promotes resilience, a fundamental constituent of safety.
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8. |
- Sörqvist, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Disruption of writing processes by the semanticity of background speech
- 2012
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0036-5564 .- 1467-9450. ; 53:2, s. 97-102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous studies have noted that writing processes are impaired by task-irrelevant background sound. However, what makes sound distracting to writing processes has remained unaddressed. The experiment reported here investigated whether the semanticity of irrelevant speech contributes to disruption of writing processes beyond the acoustic properties of the sound. The participants wrote stories against a background of normal speech, spectrally-rotated speech (i. e., a meaningless sound with marked acoustic resemblance to speech) or silence. Normal speech impaired quantitative (e. g., number of characters produced) and qualitative/ semantic (e. g., uncorrected typing errors, proposition generation) aspects of the written material, in comparison with the other two sound conditions, and it increased the duration of pauses between words. No difference was found between the silent and the rotated-speech condition. These results suggest that writing is susceptible to disruption from the semanticity of speech but not especially susceptible to disruption from the acoustic properties of speech.
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9. |
- Sörqvist, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Glorification of eco-labeled objects : An effect of intrinsic or social desirability?
- 2015
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmentally friendly consumables and products are often perceived as superior to their conventional counterparts. The reason for this, at least in part, is that people tend to glorify eco-labeled objects. For example, people prefer the taste of coffee called “eco-friendly” in comparison with another cup of coffee called “conventional”, even when the two cups of coffee are actually identical and merely named differently. What is the underlying mechanism of this eco-label effect? Do people report superior evaluations of eco-labeled products for intrinsic reasons or because they think this attitude is approved by others (a social desirability mechanism)? In two experiments, the participants’ concerns with social desirability were manipulated by telling them that their taste judgments of consumables were monitored by others. The eco-label effect was just as strong in the high social desirability concerns condition as in a control condition (Experiments 1 and 2). However, the eco-label effect was stronger in magnitude for participants who were told that consumers are morally responsible for the environmental consequences of their consumer behavior (Experiment 2). Taken together, the eco-label effect appears to be caused by intrinsic desirability processes, not by social desirability processes.
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10. |
- Dantoft, Thomas M., et al.
(författare)
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Gene expression profiling in persons with multiple chemical sensitivity before and after a controlled n-butanol exposure session
- 2017
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ. - 2044-6055. ; 7:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To investigate the pathophysiological pathways leading to symptoms elicitation in multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) by comparing gene expression in MCS participants and healthy controls before and after a chemical exposure optimised to cause symptoms among MCS participants.The first hypothesis was that unexposed and symptom-free MCS participants have similar gene expression patterns to controls and a second hypothesis that MCS participants can be separated from controls based on differential gene expression upon a controlled n-butanol exposure.DESIGN: Participants were exposed to 3.7 ppm n-butanol while seated in a windowed exposure chamber for 60 min. A total of 26 genes involved in biochemical pathways found in the literature have been proposed to play a role in the pathogenesis of MCS and other functional somatic syndromes were selected. Expression levels were compared between MCS and controls before, within 15 min after being exposed to and 4 hours after the exposure.SETTINGS: Participants suffering from MCS and healthy controls were recruited through advertisement at public places and in a local newspaper.PARTICIPANTS: 36 participants who considered themselves sensitive were prescreened for eligibility. 18 sensitive persons fulfilling the criteria for MCS were enrolled together with 18 healthy controls.OUTCOME MEASURES: 17 genes showed sufficient transcriptional level for analysis. Group comparisons were conducted for each gene at the 3 times points and for the computed area under the curve (AUC) expression levels.RESULTS: MCS participants and controls displayed similar gene expression levels both at baseline and after the exposure and the computed AUC values were likewise comparable between the 2 groups. The intragroup variation in expression levels among MCS participants was noticeably greater than the controls.CONCLUSIONS: MCS participants and controls have similar gene expression levels at baseline and it was not possible to separate MCS participants from controls based on gene expression measured after the exposure.
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