The relationship between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior in adolescents: the mediating role of future self-continuity and the moderating role of green self-efficacy.

BACKGROUND: Climate change is seriously affecting human survival and development, and the anxiety caused by it is becoming increasingly prominent. How to alleviate people's climate change anxiety, improve the ecological environment, and promote the formation of green lifestyles among people, especially young people, is an important topic that deserves to be explored. This study examined the relationship between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors and the underlying psychological mechanism in the adolescents. METHODS: This study explored the crucial role of future self-continuity (FSC) between climate change anxiety (CCA) and pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) in adolescents and examined the moderating role of green self-efficacy (GSE). In this study, a total of 1,851 middle and high school students from five schools were selected for questionnaire survey. RESULTS: The results showed that (1) in both middle and high school grades, there was a significant negative correlation between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors; future self-continuity was significantly positively correlated with pro-environmental behaviors; green self-efficacy was negatively correlated with climate change anxiety and positively correlated with pro-environmental behaviors; (2) climate change anxiety negatively predicted pro-environmental behaviors, and compared with middle school grades, high school grade adolescents' climate change anxiety was significantly predicted pro-environmental behaviors. Future self-continuity mediated the relationship between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors in both grades. (3) green self-efficacy moderated the second half of the pathway of the mediation model only in middle grades. Specifically in middle school, future self-continuity did not significantly predict pro-environmental behaviors at low green self-efficacy level, but positively predicted pro-environmental behaviors at high green self-efficacy level. In high school, future self-continuity did not significantly predict pro-environmental behaviors in either high or low green self-efficacy level. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that there is a moderated mediation model between adolescents' climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors, with different mediating and moderating effects among adolescents in various grades. This is of great significance in alleviating climate anxiety among adolescents and cultivating their pro-environmental behaviors.

Scarcity makes people short-sighted? Evidence from intertemporal decision-making.

With the acceleration of the pace of society, the problem of scarcity of time resources is becoming more prominent, which may lead to short-sighted behavior. This study aimed to examine the impact of time scarcity on intertemporal choice and its underlying mechanisms through three experiments. Study 1 aimed to investigate the causal relationship between time scarcity and intertemporal choice and the mediating role of anxiety between time scarcity and intertemporal choice. The results showed that participants with a stronger perception of time scarcity were more likely to choose smaller and sooner gains, and that the mediating role of anxiety was significant. In Study 2, the control of time was introduced to explore whether the sense of control could alleviate the negative emotion caused by time scarcity. The results showed that individuals with high levels of control had significantly less anxiety under higher time-scarcity conditions than those with low levels of control. In Study 3, we manipulated time scarcity and found that the sense of control moderated the mediating effect of anxiety in time scarcity and intertemporal choice. Overall, these findings suggest that the sense of control over time is associated with less anxiety from time scarcity, which in turn fosters preferences for delayed gains.

How Does the Parent-Adolescent Relationship Affect Adolescent Internet Addiction? Parents' Distinctive Influences.

Although previous research has demonstrated that parent-adolescent relationships have a significant effect on adolescent Internet Addiction (IA), the mechanisms underlying these associations and parental differences in these effects have received insufficient attention. We investigated the mediating role of Perceived Social Support and Dual System of Self-Control (DSSC) in the relationship between Father-Adolescent Relationships/Mother-Adolescent Relationships (FAR/MAR) and adolescent IA, as well as the differences in the effects of FAR and MAR. A cross-sectional survey of 732 Chinese adolescents was conducted using the Adolescent Pathological Internet Use Scale, Parent-Adolescent Relationship Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and Dual System of Self-Control Scale. Multiple linear regression analysis, Pearson correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were used. The results of structural modeling analysis showed that neither FAR nor MAR directly predicted adolescent IA. In contrast, FAR/MAR had an impact on adolescent IA mainly through the mediating effects of Perceived Social Support and Impulsive System. Furthermore, in the relationship between FAR/MAR and adolescent IA, the Impulsive System and Perceived Social Support both served as chain mediators, as did Perceived Social Support and the Reflective System. And more importantly, unlike FAR, MAR affects adolescent IA through the mediating effect of the Reflective System. Multiple linear regression showed that the regression coefficient of MAR on adolescent IA had stronger significance compared to FAR, MAR is deserving of more attention than FAR. These findings contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the association between FAR/MAR and adolescent IA and suggest that family relationship-focused training approaches are critical for suppressing adolescent IA. These interventions should be tailored to the unique circumstances of each family.

The Variability of Mental Timeline in Vertical Dimension.

People often use concrete spatial terms to represent abstract time. Previous studies have shown that mental timeline (MTL) is represented along a horizontal axis. Studies of the mental timeline have demonstrated that compared with English speakers, Mandarin speakers are more likely to think about time vertically (up-down) than horizontally (left-right/front-back). Prior studies have suggested that MTL in the up and down dimensions originated from temporal-spatial metaphors in language. However, there are still a large number of perceptual experiences in the up and down dimensions, such as visual and sensorimotor experience. Then does the visual experience in daily life affect the MTL in the vertical dimension? This study is aimed to investigate whether visual experience can promote or activate the opposite direction of MTL from implicit and explicit levels. The results showed that when the time information in the task was not prominent, the direction of vertical MTL cannot be affected by ascending or descending perceptual experience. While when the time information was prominent, whether the task was implicit or explicit, compared with the control group, watching the top-down scene significantly increased the top-down direction selection, while in the implicit task, watching the bottom-up scene made the top-down MTL disappear. To the best of our knowledge, our study provides the first evidence that the flexibility of space-time associations in vertical dimension extends beyond explicit and embraces even implicit levels. This study shows that the vertical MTL is activated in certain conditions and could be affected by the visual experience.

Individual alerting efficiency modulates time perception.

Time perception plays a fundamental role in human perceptual and motor activities, and can be influenced by various factors, such as selective attention and arousal. However, little is known about the influence of individual alerting efficiency on perceived duration. In this study, we explored this question by running two experiments. The Attentional Networks Test was used to evaluate individual differences in alerting efficiency in each experiment. Temporal bisection (Experiment 1) and time generalization task (Experiment 2) were used to explore the participants' perception of duration. The results indicated that subjects in the high alerting efficiency group overestimated interval durations and estimated durations more accurately compared with subjects in the low alerting efficiency group. The two experiments showed that the sensitivity of time was not influenced by individual alerting efficiency. Based on previous studies and current findings, we infer that individual differences in alerting efficiency may influence time perception through modulating the latency of the attention-controlled switch and the speed of the peacemaker within the framework of the internal clock model.

Multiple concurrent temporal recalibrations driven by audiovisual stimuli with apparent physical differences.

Out-of-synchrony experiences can easily recalibrate one's subjective simultaneity point in the direction of the experienced asynchrony. Although temporal adjustment of multiple audiovisual stimuli has been recently demonstrated to be spatially specific, perceptual grouping processes that organize separate audiovisual stimuli into distinctive "objects" may play a more important role in forming the basis for subsequent multiple temporal recalibrations. We investigated whether apparent physical differences between audiovisual pairs that make them distinct from each other can independently drive multiple concurrent temporal recalibrations regardless of spatial overlap. Experiment 1 verified that reducing the physical difference between two audiovisual pairs diminishes the multiple temporal recalibrations by exposing observers to two utterances with opposing temporal relationships spoken by one single speaker rather than two distinct speakers at the same location. Experiment 2 found that increasing the physical difference between two stimuli pairs can promote multiple temporal recalibrations by complicating their non-temporal dimensions (e.g., disks composed of two rather than one attribute and tones generated by multiplying two frequencies); however, these recalibration aftereffects were subtle. Experiment 3 further revealed that making the two audiovisual pairs differ in temporal structures (one transient and one gradual) was sufficient to drive concurrent temporal recalibration. These results confirm that the more audiovisual pairs physically differ, especially in temporal profile, the more likely multiple temporal perception adjustments will be content-constrained regardless of spatial overlap. These results indicate that multiple temporal recalibrations are based secondarily on the outcome of perceptual grouping processes.

Working memory modulates the association between time and number representation.

Time and numbers are interconnected in mental representation. Here we investigated whether this interaction between time and number could be modulated by working memory (WM). In experiment 1 participants first memorized a digit and then judged which of the two digits presented in succession were presented for longer (or shorter), with either one or neither of them being the same as the WM digit. The results showed that, when one of two digits was the same as the WM content, the numerical magnitude effect on temporal performance was abolished, whereas the interference effect occurred only when both the two digits were not the same as the WM content. In order to further investigate whether this effect was due to stimuli repetition, we instructed participants in experiment 2 to merely attend to the original digit but not memorize it during a time judgment task. The results did not reveal the modulation of WM content on time-number link. The WM-based interference effect, however, might reflect decision bias rather than perception illusion. In experiment 3 we eliminated response biases by using equality judgments, and found that WM content had no impact on time-number link. Finally, we conducted experiment 4 (comparative duration judgment) and experiment 5 (equality duration judgment) by manipulating WM load, and demonstrated that the WM-based interference effect was relevant to the duration of the WM content solely in comparative judgment. We concluded that the mental association between time and number representation could be modulated by WM at decision level.

The recalibration patterns of perceptual synchrony and multisensory integration after exposure to asynchronous speech.

Perceptual synchrony and multisensory integration both vary as a function of stimulus onset asynchrony, but evidences from behavioral, patient, and lesion studies all support some dissociation between these two processes. Although it has been found that both perceptual synchrony and multisensory integration are recalibrated after exposure to asynchronous multisensory stimuli, no studies have directly compared these two recalibration patterns. We addressed this by using McGurk speech and requiring participants to perform simultaneity judgments and a syllable identification task in separate sessions. The results revealed that after exposure to asynchrony, both perceptual synchrony and McGurk fusion shifted toward the temporal lag. The recalibration aftereffects (i.e., the magnitude of shifts) of these two processes have no significant difference and correlation. In addition, McGurk fusion increased strongly at the direction of the temporal lag, which could not be fully explained by fusion shifts. Thus, the present research implies that recalibration patterns of explicit and implicit timing represented by perceptual synchrony and multisensory integration have both similarity and difference.

Audiovisual temporal recalibration: space-based versus context-based.

Recalibration of perceived simultaneity has been widely accepted to minimise delay between multisensory signals owing to different physical and neural conduct times. With concurrent exposure, temporal recalibration is either contextually or spatially based. Context-based recalibration was recently described in detail, but evidence for space-based recalibration is scarce. In addition, the competition between these two reference frames is unclear. Here, we examined participants who watched two distinct blob-and-tone couples that laterally alternated with one asynchronous and the other synchronous and then judged their perceived simultaneity and sequence when they swapped positions and varied in timing. For low-level stimuli with abundant auditory location cues space-based aftereffects were significantly more apparent (8.3%) than context-based aftereffects (4.2%), but without such auditory cues space-based aftereffects were less apparent (4.4%) and were numerically smaller than context-based aftereffects (6.0%). These results suggested that stimulus level and auditory location cues were both determinants of the recalibration frame. Through such joint judgments and the simple reaction time task, our results further revealed that criteria from perceived simultaneity to successiveness profoundly shifted without accompanying perceptual latency changes across adaptations, hence implying that criteria shifts, rather than perceptual latency changes, accounted for space-based and context-based temporal recalibration.