Examining Attentional Biases Elicited by Sexual Stimuli Using MouseView.js: An Online Paradigm to Mimic Eye Movements.

Attention is a key mechanism underlying many aspects of sexuality, with eye-tracking studies revealing that attention is both sustained by sexual stimuli and corresponds with sexual interest. Despite its utility, eye-tracking experiments typically require specialized equipment and are conducted in a laboratory setting. The overarching objective of this research was to assess the utility of a novel online method, MouseView.js, for assessing attentional processing of sexual stimuli outside of a laboratory context. MouseView.js is an open-source, web-based application where the display is blurred to mimic peripheral vision and an aperture is directed using a mouse cursor to fixate on regions of interest within the display. Using a discovery (Study 1, n = 239) and replication (Study 2, n = 483) design, we examined attentional biases to sexual stimuli among two diverse samples with respect to gender/sex and sexual orientation. Results revealed strong attentional biases toward processing sexual stimuli relative to nonsexual stimuli, as well as dwell times that correlated with self-report sexuality measures. Results mirror those observed for laboratory-based eye-tracking research, but using a freely available instrument that mirrors gaze tracking. MouseView.js offers important advantages to traditional eye-tracking methods, including the ability to recruit larger and more diverse samples, and minimizes volunteer biases.

Direct and indirect links between children's socio-economic status and education: pathways via mental health, attitude, and cognition.

A child's socio-economic environment can profoundly affect their development. While existing literature focusses on simplified metrics and pair-wise relations between few variables, we aimed to capture complex interrelationships between several relevant domains using a broad assessment of 519 children aged 7-9 years. Our analyses comprised three multivariate techniques that complimented each other, and worked at different levels of granularity. First, an exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis followed by varimax rotation) revealed that our sample varied along continuous dimensions of cognition, attitude and mental health (from parallel analysis); with potentially emerging dimensions speed and socio-economic status (passed Kaiser's criterion). Second, k-means cluster analysis showed that children did not group into discrete phenotypes. Third, a network analysis on the basis of bootstrapped partial correlations (confirmed by both cross-validated LASSO and multiple comparisons correction of binarised connection probabilities) uncovered how our developmental measures interconnected: educational outcomes (reading and maths fluency) were directly related to cognition (short-term memory, number sense, processing speed, inhibition). By contrast, mental health (anxiety and depression symptoms) and attitudes (conscientiousness, grit, growth mindset) showed indirect relationships with educational outcomes via cognition. Finally, socio-economic factors (neighbourhood deprivation, family affluence) related directly to educational outcomes, cognition, mental health, and even grit. In sum, cognition is a central cog through which mental health and attitude relate to educational outcomes. However, through direct relations with all components of developmental outcomes, socio-economic status acts as a great 'unequaliser'. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02232-2.

A novel probe of attentional bias for threat in specific phobia: Application of the "MouseView.js" approach.

Although attentional bias for threat has been implicated in anxiety disorders, traditional attentional bias measures have been criticized for lack of reliability and validity, and eye tracking technologies can be cost-prohibitive. MouseView.js was recently developed to mimic eye tracking online by using the computer cursor as a proxy for gaze, and although it is equally reliable, MouseView.js' utility for capturing attentional bias for threat in anxiety-related disorders remains unclear. To fill this knowledge gap, snake phobic and non-phobic participants (N = 62) completed a behavioral avoidance task (BAT) and the MouseView.js task which consisted of 10-second exposures to blurred, side-by-side images of either pleasant-neutral or threat-neutral pairings and were instructed to freely move the mouse to reveal the images. Results demonstrated that snake phobic participants had significantly shorter average mouse dwell time on threat images than non-phobic individuals and showed a significant reduction in average dwell time on threat images following the first presentation of the threat-neutral pairing. Additionally, dwell time on threat images significantly mediated the group differences in steps completed on the BAT. Results highlight the utility of MouseView.js in capturing avoidant patterns of attentional bias for threat that may also partially drive avoidance in snake phobia. Implications for capturing attentional bias for threat in anxiety disorders more broadly are discussed.

MouseView.js: Reliable and valid attention tracking in web-based experiments using a cursor-directed aperture.

Psychological research is increasingly moving online, where web-based studies allow for data collection at scale. Behavioural researchers are well supported by existing tools for participant recruitment, and for building and running experiments with decent timing. However, not all techniques are portable to the Internet: While eye tracking works in tightly controlled lab conditions, webcam-based eye tracking suffers from high attrition and poorer quality due to basic limitations like webcam availability, poor image quality, and reflections on glasses and the cornea. Here we present MouseView.js, an alternative to eye tracking that can be employed in web-based research. Inspired by the visual system, MouseView.js blurs the display to mimic peripheral vision, but allows participants to move a sharp aperture that is roughly the size of the fovea. Like eye gaze, the aperture can be directed to fixate on stimuli of interest. We validated MouseView.js in an online replication (N = 165) of an established free viewing task (N = 83 existing eye-tracking datasets), and in an in-lab direct comparison with eye tracking in the same participants (N = 50). Mouseview.js proved as reliable as gaze, and produced the same pattern of dwell time results. In addition, dwell time differences from MouseView.js and from eye tracking correlated highly, and related to self-report measures in similar ways. The tool is open-source, implemented in JavaScript, and usable as a standalone library, or within Gorilla, jsPsych, and PsychoJS. In sum, MouseView.js is a freely available instrument for attention-tracking that is both reliable and valid, and that can replace eye tracking in certain web-based psychological experiments.

Subjective SES is Associated with Children's Neurophysiological Response to Auditory Oddballs.

Language and reading acquisitions are strongly associated with a child's socioeconomic status (SES). There are a number of potential explanations for this relationship. We explore one potential explanation-a child's SES is associated with how children discriminate word-like sounds (i.e., phonological processing), a foundational skill for reading acquisition. Magnetoencephalography data from a sample of 71 children (aged 6 years and 11 months-12 years and 3 months), during a passive auditory oddball task containing word and nonword deviants, were used to test "where" (which sensors) and "when" (at what time) any association may occur. We also investigated associations between cognition, education, and this neurophysiological response. We report differences in the neural processing of word and nonword deviant tones at an early N200 component (likely representing early sensory processing) and a later P300 component (likely representing attentional and/or semantic processing). More interestingly we found "parental subjective" SES (the parents rating of their own relative affluence) was convincingly associated with later responses, but there were no significant associations with equivalized income. This suggests that the SES as rated by their parents is associated with underlying phonological detection skills. Furthermore, this correlation likely occurs at a later time point in information processing, associated with semantic and attentional processes. In contrast, household income is not significantly associated with these skills. One possibility is that the subjective assessment of SES is more impactful on neural mechanisms of phonological processing than the less complex and more objective measure of household income.

Collecting big data with small screens: Group tests of children's cognition with touchscreen tablets are reliable and valid.

Collecting experimental cognitive data with young children usually requires undertaking one-on-one assessments, which can be both expensive and time-consuming. In addition, there is increasing acknowledgement of the importance of collecting larger samples for improving statistical power Button et al. (Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14(5), 365-376, 2013), and reproducing exploratory findings Open Science Collaboration (Science, 349(6251), aac4716-aac4716 2015). One way both of these goals can be achieved more easily, even with a small team of researchers, is to utilize group testing. In this paper, we evaluate the results from a novel tablet application developed for the Resilience in Education and Development (RED) Study. The RED-app includes 12 cognitive tasks designed for groups of children aged 7 to 13 to independently complete during a 1-h school lesson. The quality of the data collected was high despite the lack of one-on-one engagement with participants. Most outcomes from the tablet showed moderate or high reliability, estimated using internal consistency metrics. Tablet-measured cognitive abilities also explained more than 50% of variance in teacher-rated academic achievement. Overall, the results suggest that tablet-based, group cognitive assessments of children are an efficient, reliable, and valid method of collecting the large datasets that modern psychology requires. We have open-sourced the scripts and materials used to make the application, so that they can be adapted and used by others.

Realistic precision and accuracy of online experiment platforms, web browsers, and devices.

Due to increasing ease of use and ability to quickly collect large samples, online behavioural research is currently booming. With this popularity, it is important that researchers are aware of who online participants are, and what devices and software they use to access experiments. While it is somewhat obvious that these factors can impact data quality, the magnitude of the problem remains unclear. To understand how these characteristics impact experiment presentation and data quality, we performed a battery of automated tests on a number of realistic set-ups. We investigated how different web-building platforms (Gorilla v.20190828, jsPsych v6.0.5, Lab.js v19.1.0, and psychoJS/PsychoPy3 v3.1.5), browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari), and operating systems (macOS and Windows 10) impact display time across 30 different frame durations for each software combination. We then employed a robot actuator in realistic set-ups to measure response recording across the aforementioned platforms, and between different keyboard types (desktop and integrated laptop). Finally, we analysed data from over 200,000 participants on their demographics, technology, and software to provide context to our findings. We found that modern web platforms provide reasonable accuracy and precision for display duration and manual response time, and that no single platform stands out as the best in all features and conditions. In addition, our online participant analysis shows what equipment they are likely to use.

Longitudinal increases in childhood depression symptoms during the COVID-19 lockdown.

OBJECTIVE: There has been widespread concern that so-called lockdown measures, including social distancing and school closures, could negatively impact children's mental health. However, there has been little direct evidence of any association due to the paucity of longitudinal studies reporting mental health before and during the lockdown. This present study provides the first longitudinal examination of changes in childhood mental health, a key component of an urgently needed evidence base that can inform policy and practice surrounding the continuing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Mental health assessments on 168 children (aged 7.6-11.6 years) were taken before and during the UK lockdown (April-June 2020). Assessments included self-reports, caregiver reports, and teacher reports. Mean mental health scores before and during the UK lockdown were compared using mixed linear models. RESULTS: A significant increase in depression symptoms during the UK lockdown was observed, as measured by the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) short form. CIs suggest a medium-to-large effect size. There were no significant changes in the RCADS anxiety subscale and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire emotional problems subscale. CONCLUSIONS: During the UK lockdown, children's depression symptoms have increased substantially, relative to before lockdown. The scale of this effect has direct relevance for the continuation of different elements of lockdown policy, such as complete or partial school closures. This early evidence for the direct impact of lockdown must now be combined with larger scale epidemiological studies that establish which children are most at risk and tracks their future recovery.

Gorilla in our midst: An online behavioral experiment builder.

Behavioral researchers are increasingly conducting their studies online, to gain access to large and diverse samples that would be difficult to get in a laboratory environment. However, there are technical access barriers to building experiments online, and web browsers can present problems for consistent timing-an important issue with reaction-time-sensitive measures. For example, to ensure accuracy and test-retest reliability in presentation and response recording, experimenters need a working knowledge of programming languages such as JavaScript. We review some of the previous and current tools for online behavioral research, as well as how well they address the issues of usability and timing. We then present the Gorilla Experiment Builder (gorilla.sc), a fully tooled experiment authoring and deployment platform, designed to resolve many timing issues and make reliable online experimentation open and accessible to a wider range of technical abilities. To demonstrate the platform's aptitude for accessible, reliable, and scalable research, we administered a task with a range of participant groups (primary school children and adults), settings (without supervision, at home, and under supervision, in both schools and public engagement events), equipment (participant's own computer, computer supplied by the researcher), and connection types (personal internet connection, mobile phone 3G/4G). We used a simplified flanker task taken from the attentional network task (Rueda, Posner, & Rothbart, 2004). We replicated the "conflict network" effect in all these populations, demonstrating the platform's capability to run reaction-time-sensitive experiments. Unresolved limitations of running experiments online are then discussed, along with potential solutions and some future features of the platform.