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Keywords: Psychology and cognitive sciences, Social sciences, Decision-making and risk analysis, Research ethics, Design and analysis methods in psychology, including psychometrics, Methods and approaches for teaching, Systems for analyzing spatial and temporal data, Behavioral neuroscience focused on reward and motivation, Judgment and decision-making, Psychology, Cognitive sciences
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Early cortical processing of coherent vs. non-coherent motion stimuli in younger and older adults: An event-related potential (ERP) study investigating visually induced vection The neurophysiological basis of vection (i.e., the illusion of self-motion) is not well understood. Preliminary evidence suggests that neural predictors of vection can be identified through event-related potentials (ERPs), and that these markers correlate with vection intensity. The current study examined age-related differences in neurocortical activity during the early stages of sensory processing of vection-inducing stimuli. Twenty-two younger (age range: 20-35 years) and 25 older adults (age range: 65-83) observed optokinetic stimuli in two blocks, a short (∼3s) presentation block and a long (35s) presentation block. In both types of blocks, the optokinetic stimuli varied in motion coherence (coherent vs. non-coherent motion). During the short presentation block, EEG was used to measure neural activity in the form of ERPs time-locked to the onset of visual motion, whereas subjective ratings of vection onset, duration and intensity were collected during the long presentation block. Vection was significantly stronger following coherent vs. non-coherent motion, for both age groups. ERP analyses revealed differences between coherent and non-coherent motion at parietal-occipital electrodes around 100-150 ms (P1) and 150-230 ms (P2), with greater area under the curve (AUC) during non-coherent vs. coherent motion. Neither vection ratings nor ERPs showed significant age differences for coherent visual motion; however, age differences in ERPs were observed during the processing of non-coherent visual motion. These findings indicate that the subjective experience of vection and the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying visual processing preceding vection remain relatively stable with age. However, they also reveal age-related differences in the processing of non-coherent motion. Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2025-04-01 Brandy Murovec, Stefan Berti, S Ahmad Yahya,
Spaniol, J. , Behrang Keshavarz
Brief social presence improves delayed memory for online lecture content During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of videoconferencing platforms became ubiquitous in postsecondary education around the world, making it crucial to understand how to maximize the efficacy of synchronous online classes. Given that social information can act as a motivation and improve memory, the current study tested the hypothesis that brief social presence during an online class would act as a social reward that would increase delayed memory for lecture information. Undergraduate students attended a mock synchronous class during which they viewed a pre-recorded science lecture, and social presence was manipulated by having participants turn on their cameras before and after the lecture (high social presence) or having cameras remain off during the entire class (low social presence). After 24 hours, participants completed a surprise memory test for the lecture material and a subjective experience survey about the class. As predicted, participants in the high social presence condition demonstrated higher recognition memory for the lecture content and gave higher ratings of enjoyment and feeling part of a group compared to participants in the low social presence condition. These findings suggest that enhancing social presence in virtual environments may be leveraged to boost academic performance in university students. Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2025-01-29 Lindsay A Santacroce, Rachel Appiah, Margot D Sullivan,
Spaniol, J. The role of image realism and expectation in illusory self-motion (vection) perception in younger and older adults Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2024-10-30 Negative Affect Following Dating Application Use is Predicted by Social Anxiety Symptoms and Match Rate Social rejection is a common and unavoidable experience for users of dating apps. Research suggests that socially anxious individuals may be particularly likely to use dating apps to establish intimate relationships, given their preference for online (vs. face-to-face) communication. However, social anxiety (SA) symptoms are associated with heightened negative affect and decreased prosocial behavior following social rejection, suggesting that exposure to dating app rejection has deleterious consequences in this population. This study examined whether SA symptoms and social rejection (vs. acceptance) feedback interact to predict participants' negative and positive affect and social engagement with dating app matches. Participants (N = 128) evaluated for SA symptoms were randomly assigned to receive high or low match rate feedback on a simulated dating application task. SA symptoms were negatively associated with positive affect following high match rate feedback and positively associated with negative affect following low match rate feedback. SA symptoms were negatively associated with self-reported likelihood of contact initiation with matches. Results suggest that high socially anxious individuals are more susceptible to negative repercussions of social rejection on dating applications. Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2024-10-29 Ariella P Lenton‐Brym, Candice M Monson,
Spaniol, J. , Gillian Shoychet, Karina Pizarro Hernández, Ariella P Lenton‐Brym
Emotional aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election: a study of hindsight bias in younger and older adults Hindsight bias – also known as the knew-it-all-along effect – is a ubiquitous judgment error affecting decision makers. Hindsight bias has been shown to vary across age groups and as a function of contextual factors, such as the decision maker's emotional state. Despite theoretical reasons why emotions might have a stronger impact on hindsight bias in older than in younger adults, age differences in hindsight bias for emotional events remain relatively underexplored. We examined emotion and hindsight bias in younger and older adults (N = 272) against the backdrop of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Participants predicted electoral college votes for the two presidential candidates before the election and were asked to remember their predictions approximately three weeks later, after the election results had been finalised. Republicans, for whom the electoral outcome was negatively tinged, exhibited greater hindsight bias for President Biden's result compared with Democrats, for whom the electoral outcome was positive. The asymmetry in hindsight bias between Republicans and Democrats was similar for younger and older participants. This study suggests that negative emotions may exacerbate hindsight bias, and that adult age differences in hindsight bias observed in laboratory settings may not translate to real-world contexts. Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2024-10-28 Moderators of curiosity and information seeking in younger and older adults. The present study examined age differences in the influence of informational value cues on curiosity and information seeking. In two experiments, younger and older adults (total Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2024-09-19 A pandemic-related affect gap in risky decisions for self and others The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed large portions of the global populations to increased daily stressors. Research on risky choice in medical contexts suggests that affect-rich choice options promote less-advantageous decision strategies compared with affect-poor options, causing an "affect gap" in decision making. The current experiments (total Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2024-09-17 Aalim Makani, Sadia Chowdhury, David B Flora,
Spaniol, J. Exploring top-down influences on illusory self-motion perception (vection) in younger and older adults Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2024-09-15 Individual factors and vection in younger and older adults: How sex, field dependence, personality, and visual attention do (or do not) affect illusory self-motion An important aspect to an immersive experience in Virtual Reality is vection, defined as the illusion of self-motion. Much of the literature to date has explored strategies to maximize vection through manipulations of the visual stimulus (e.g., increasing speed) or the experimental context (e.g., framing of the study instructions). However, the role of individual differences (e.g., age, biological sex) in vection susceptibility has received little attention. The objective of the current study was to investigate the influence of individual-difference factors on vection perception in younger and older adults. Forty-six younger adults ( Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2024-07-01 Effects of acute stress on intertemporal choice and altruism in younger and older adults Recent studies of aging and decision making suggests that altruism increases with age. It is unclear, however, whether this pattern holds when choices are made under stress, as is often the case in real-world scenarios. The current study used an intertemporal choice task in which younger and older adults received a financial endowment before making a series of consequential intertemporal decisions involving gains, losses and charitable donations. Preceding the choice task, participants were exposed to a laboratory stressor. Physiological stress reactivity was a predictor of altruistic decision making in younger adults, such that individuals with higher stress reactivity made more generous choices. Older adults showed higher altruism than younger adults overall, with altruism unrelated to stress reactivity in older adults. These findings are consistent with an age-related change in the mechanisms underlying altruistic behavior.
Toronto Metropolitan UniversityPublication 2024-04-10 Erika Sparrow, Bonnie A Armstrong, Alexandra Fiocco,
Spaniol, J. Consequences of curiosity for recognition memory in younger and older adults Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2023-12-14 Exploring neurophysiological correlates of visually induced motion sickness using electroencephalography (EEG) Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2023-08-31 Polina Andrievskaia, Stefan Berti,
Spaniol, J. , Behrang Keshavarz
Age-Related Differences in Decision-Making: Evidence Accumulation is More Gradual in Older Age Older adults tend to exhibit longer response times than younger adults in choice tasks across cognitive domains, such as perception, attention, and memory. The diffusion model has emerged as a standard model for analyzing age differences in choice behavior. Applications of the diffusion model to choice data from younger and older adults indicate that age-related slowing is driven by a more cautious response style and slower non-decisional processes, rather than by age differences in the rate of information accumulation. The Lévy flight model, a new evidence accumulation model that extends the diffusion model, was recently developed to account for differences in response times for correct and error responses. In the Lévy flight model, larger jumps in evidence accumulation can be accommodated compared to the diffusion model. It is currently unknown whether younger and older adults differ with respect to the jumpiness of evidence accumulation. In the current study, younger and older adults ( Toronto Metropolitan University Publication 2023-07-29 Eva Marie Wieschen, Aalim Makani, Stefan T Radev, Andreas Voß,
Spaniol, J.
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