A single tDCS session can enhance numerical competence.

While numerical skills are increasingly important in modern life, few interventions have been developed to support those with numeracy skills difficulties. Previous studies have demonstrated that applying transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) can improve numerical skills. However, tDCS interventions designed to induce lasting changes typically involve reapplying brain-stimulation over several days. Repeated tDCS application can increase the risks associated with the procedure, as well as restricts the transferability of the method to a wider population, particularly those who may experience mobility issues, such as stroke survivors with acalculia. The current study investigated whether a single session of tDCS (anodal to right parietal lobe and cathodal to left parietal lobe), followed by four self-practice sessions without tDCS, could result in enhancement of numerical skills. Nineteen healthy adults (n = 10 tDCS, n = 9 sham control) implicitly learnt the magnitude association of nine arbitrary symbols, previously used by Cohen Kadosh et al. (2010). Numerical proficiency was assessed using number-to-space task, while automaticity was assessed with numerical Stroop. Results revealed that single-session tDCS had a significant effect on participants' accuracy on the number-to-space tasks, but not on the numerical Stroop task's congruity effect, implying automaticity may require longer practice. We conclude that a single session of tDCS should be considered as an avenue for interventions.

The language network is not engaged in object categorization.

The relationship between language and thought is the subject of long-standing debate. One claim states that language facilitates categorization of objects based on a certain feature (e.g. color) through the use of category labels that reduce interference from other, irrelevant features. Therefore, language impairment is expected to affect categorization of items grouped by a single feature (low-dimensional categories, e.g. "Yellow Things") more than categorization of items that share many features (high-dimensional categories, e.g. "Animals"). To test this account, we conducted two behavioral studies with individuals with aphasia and an fMRI experiment with healthy adults. The aphasia studies showed that selective low-dimensional categorization impairment was present in some, but not all, individuals with severe anomia and was not characteristic of aphasia in general. fMRI results revealed little activity in language-responsive brain regions during both low- and high-dimensional categorization; instead, categorization recruited the domain-general multiple-demand network (involved in wide-ranging cognitive tasks). Combined, results demonstrate that the language system is not implicated in object categorization. Instead, selective low-dimensional categorization impairment might be caused by damage to brain regions responsible for cognitive control. Our work adds to the growing evidence of the dissociation between the language system and many cognitive tasks in adults.

A qualitative study into the experience of living with acalculia after stroke and other forms of acquired brain injury.

Acalculia, an acquired disability following a brain injury, involves difficulty processing numerical information and/or calculations. Acalculia is not routinely screened for, and as a result there is a lack of understanding about the nature and prevalence and the impact of the condition. This qualitative study was initiated by stroke survivors with a strong interest in acalculia. Sixteen stroke/brain injury survivors with acalculia and seven carers were interviewed using semi-structured online interviews. Participants ranged in age, gender, time post-onset, country of residence and numeracy level prior to brain injury. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Three main themes were identified: Awareness and Diagnosis; Emotional and Practical Impact (independence); Support, Coping Strategies and Self-training. Participants and carers repeatedly referred to the lack of awareness and treatment for acalculia and the impact acalculia has had on their lives and independence. Practical impacts included managing money, making appointments, using timetables, organizing social activities and employment, and managing medication. Our results highlight the urgent need to develop suitable assessments and interventions for acalculia and the scope for this to be Patient, Carer and Public involvement (PCPI)-led. The data also reveal useful strategies and suggestions regarding effective timing, targets and approaches for intervention.

Are Machine Learning Methods the Future for Smoking Cessation Apps?

Smoking cessation apps provide efficient, low-cost and accessible support to smokers who are trying to quit smoking. This article focuses on how up-to-date machine learning algorithms, combined with the improvement of mobile phone technology, can enhance our understanding of smoking behaviour and support the development of advanced smoking cessation apps. In particular, we focus on the pros and cons of existing approaches that have been used in the design of smoking cessation apps to date, highlighting the need to improve the performance of these apps by minimizing reliance on self-reporting of environmental conditions (e.g., location), craving status and/or smoking events as a method of data collection. Lastly, we propose that making use of more advanced machine learning methods while enabling the processing of information about the user's circumstances in real time is likely to result in dramatic improvement in our understanding of smoking behaviour, while also increasing the effectiveness and ease-of-use of smoking cessation apps, by enabling the provision of timely, targeted and personalised intervention.

Towards a Smart Smoking Cessation App: A 1D-CNN Model Predicting Smoking Events.

Nicotine consumption is considered a major health problem, where many of those who wish to quit smoking relapse. The problem is that overtime smoking as behaviour is changing into a habit, in which it is connected to internal (e.g., nicotine level, craving) and external (action, time, location) triggers. Smoking cessation apps have proved their efficiency to support smoking who wish to quit smoking. However, still, these applications suffer from several drawbacks, where they are highly relying on the user to initiate the intervention by submitting the factor the causes the urge to smoke. This research describes the creation of a combined Control Theory and deep learning model that can learn the smoker's daily routine and predict smoking events. The model's structure combines a Control Theory model of smoking with a 1D-CNN classifier to adapt to individual differences between smokers and predict smoking events based on motion and geolocation values collected using a mobile device. Data were collected from 5 participants in the UK, and analysed and tested on 3 different machine learning model (SVM, Decision tree, and 1D-CNN), 1D-CNN has proved it's efficiency over the three methods with average overall accuracy 86.6%. The average MSE of forecasting the nicotine level was (0.04) in the weekdays, and (0.03) in the weekends. The model has proved its ability to predict the smoking event accurately when the participant is well engaged with the app.

"I don't mind being ugly but I don't wanna have skin cancer": A qualitative study of attitudes to UV exposure and a facial morphing intervention in men 35 years and older.

Objectives: Skin cancer is a growing problem globally. Older men have been largely ignored in previous research, even though men may generally be prone to riskier exposure to the sun than women. Past research suggests that appearance-focused techniques such as facial morphing can increase motivations to use sun protection among women of all ages, and younger men.Design: was qualitative, consisting of individual interviews.Methods: were semi-structured interviews with 25 older men, to examine attitudes to UV exposure and reactions to a facial morphing intervention. Interviews were subjected to thematic analysis.Results: Three themes were constructed: masculine UV exposure; appearance that's accepted; personal responsibility. The men did not identify gaps in their sun protection behaviour and demonstrated a lack of concern about ageing and appearance. These attitudes translated into a lack of motivation for behaviour change due to ageing acceptance. However, motivation to change behaviour came from health concerns resulting from the intervention.Conclusions: The men experienced different motivations and barriers for sun protection use than women of similar ages. Facial morphing can be effective with older men but may need to be reframed to focus on health implications and personal choice.

Appearance-based interventions to reduce UV exposure: A systematic review.

PURPOSE: As a majority of skin cancer cases are behaviourally preventable, it is crucial to develop effective strategies to reduce UV exposure. Health-focused interventions have not proved to be sufficiently effective, and it has been suggested that people might be more susceptible to information about the negative effects of the sun on their appearance. METHOD: This systematic review of 30 separate papers, reporting 33 individual studies published between 2005 and 2017, assesses the overall effectiveness of appearance interventions on participants' UV exposure and sun protection behaviour. RESULTS: Appearance-based interventions have positive effects on sun exposure and sun protection, immediately after the intervention as well as up to 12 months afterwards. The meta-analysis found a medium effect size on sun protection intentions for interventions which combined UV photography and photoageing information: r+  = .424; k = 3, N = 319, CI = 0.279-0.568, p = .023. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides a current perspective on the effectiveness of appearance-based interventions to reduce UV exposure, and also highlights methodological issues. It recommends that practitioners administer a UV photo intervention in combination with photoageing information to reduce UV exposure. Furthermore, the review specifically recommends that future research focuses on the use of theoretical constructs to enhance photoageing information and is conducted with older participants and in countries where people have less opportunity for sun exposure. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Appearance-focused interventions may in some cases be more effective than health-focused interventions in reducing UV exposure, as the underlying motivations for tanning are associated with appearance concerns. Previous reviews and meta-analyses have indicated that appearance-focused interventions such as photoageing and UV photo are associated with positive effects in reducing UV exposure and/or increasing sun protection. Previous reviews identified methodological issues with research on this topic, which included limited a priori power calculations and a general lack of long-term follow-ups. What does this study add? This review concludes that photoageing information in combination with UV photo is associated with a medium positive effect size on sun protection intentions. Photoageing can be manipulated according to theoretical constructs (e.g., Theory of Alternative Behaviours), which may contribute to its effectiveness. Issues such as homogeneity of settings and participants and limited a priori power calculations in the included studies have been identified. This review specifically recommends that future research is conducted in locations with less overall sun exposure, and with a more diverse participant range (e.g., more males and older participants).

Feeling bad about progress does not lead people want to change their health behaviour.

OBJECTIVE: When do people decide to do something about problematic health behaviours? Theoretical models and pragmatic considerations suggest that people should take action when they feel bad about their progress - in other words, when they experience negative progress-related affect. However, the impact of progress-related affect on goal striving has rarely been investigated. DESIGN AND METHODS: Study 1 (N = 744) adopted a cross-sectional design and examined the extent to which measures of progress-related affect were correlated with intentions to take action. Study 2 (N = 409) investigated the impact of manipulating progress-related affect on intentions and behaviour in an experimental design. RESULTS: Study 1 found that, while engaging in health behaviours had the expected affective consequences (e.g. people felt bad when they were not eating healthily, exercising regularly or limiting their alcohol consumption), it was feeling good rather than bad about progress that was associated with stronger intentions. Study 2 replicated these findings. Participants induced to feel good about their eating behaviour had marginally stronger intentions to eat healthily than participants led to feel bad about their eating behaviour. CONCLUSION: The findings have implications for interventions designed to promote changes in health behaviour, as well as theoretical frameworks for understanding self-regulation.

'It's bit of an eye opener' - A qualitative study of women's attitudes towards tanning, sun protection and a facial morphing intervention.

OBJECTIVE: Skin cancer is to a large degree behaviourally preventable, meaning that evidence-based interventions have scope to make a difference. Previous research indicates that appearance-based interventions such as facial morphing may be more effective than health-based interventions, and that it can personalise the issue of skin cancer. METHOD: This study examined attitudes to UV exposure, as well as reactions to a facial morphing intervention, through interviews with 25 women aged 35 years and older. RESULTS: Thematic analysis revealed four themes; two regarding attitudes to UV exposure (confusion and contradiction, and change and continuity), and two relating to the facial morphing intervention (negative reactions to UV-exposed photo and positive outcomes of the intervention). Women experienced a number of barriers to adopting safer behaviour in the sun; their current attitudes to UV exposure had been shaped by available information sources throughout their ageing. They expressed negative evaluations of the UV photo, which fed directly into motivation to reduce UV exposure. CONCLUSIONS: These results can be interpreted along the lines of goal-directed behaviour. This type of intervention has the potential to reduce UV exposure among this participant group, something that needs to be further investigated with randomised control trials.

Which Factors Are Associated with Monitoring Goal Progress?

Three studies examined how people assess their progress on personal goals (e.g., whether they compare their progress to the past and/or to a desired target state), along with factors that might influence the nature of progress monitoring (e.g., whether the goal involves attaining a positive outcome or avoiding a negative outcome). Study 1 involved semi-structured interviews with 40 participants, in which we examined how participants monitored their progress and whether this was related to: (a) their level of self-efficacy, (b) whether the goal was prevention focused, and (c) whether goal progress was represented in quantifiable terms. Studies 2 (N = 492) and 3 (N = 481) were conducted online and additionally examined whether how participants monitored their progress differed as a function of the domain of the goal (i.e., whether it was related to physical development/health, finances, work/study, or social relationships). The findings suggest that participants: (i) were less likely to monitor their progress toward goals that were related to avoiding negative outcomes, (ii) were less likely to monitor their progress toward goals related to finances, work, or study with reference to the past, than progress toward other goals (e.g., those relating to physical development and health), (iii) found it easier to monitor their progress toward goals that they felt confident of attaining, but harder to monitor their progress toward goals related to work or study. Finally, the more participants thought about their goal in quantifiable terms, the more likely they were to monitor their progress, and the easier they found monitoring their progress to be. Taken together, these studies begin to describe the nature of progress monitoring and the factors that influence this important self-regulatory process.

Why Do People Act Like the Proverbial Ostrich? Investigating the Reasons That People Provide for Not Monitoring Their Goal Progress.

Two studies examined peoples' reasons for not monitoring their progress toward their personal goals-a phenomenon that has been termed "the ostrich problem" (Webb et al., 2013). Study 1 used factor analysis to organize the reasons that people gave for not monitoring their goal progress, resulting in 10 factors. The most strongly endorsed reasons were: (a) that information on goal progress would demand a change in beliefs, or (b) undesired action; (c) that progress was poor, and (d) that thinking about and/or working on the goal was associated with negative emotions. Study 2 adopted a prospective design and investigated whether the reasons identified in Study 1 predicted: (a) the likelihood that participants would decline an opportunity to monitor their goal progress, and (b) the frequency with which participants monitored their goal progress. We found evidence that some of the most strongly endorsed reasons from Study 1 also predicted the avoidance of monitoring in Study 2; however, the belief that information about goal progress was likely to be inaccurate and not useful, and perceived control over goal attainment also reliably predicted the avoidance of monitoring in Study 2. Taken together, the findings explain why people do not monitor their goal progress and point to potential avenues for intervention.

What is the psychological impact of self-weighing? A meta-analysis.

Many people self-weigh and many interventions addressing weight-related problems such as obesity promote self-weighing. However, while self-weighing has been associated with weight loss, there is mixed evidence regarding the psychological impact of this behaviour. The present review aimed to quantify the relationship between self-weighing and: (i) affect (e.g., anxiety, depression); (ii) psychological functioning (e.g., self-esteem); (iii) body-related attitudes and (iv) disordered eating. A computerized search of scientific databases in September 2014 and subsequent ancestry and citation searches identified 29 independent tests of the relationship between self-weighing on psychological outcomes. Meta-analysis was used to quantify the size of the association across the tests. Results indicated that there was no association between self-weighing and affect, body-related attitudes or disordered eating. There was, however, a small-sized negative association between self-weighing and psychological functioning. The age of participants, obesity status, the extent of weight loss, duration of self-weighing and study design (RCT versus correlational) were found to influence at least some of the psychological outcomes of self-weighing. The findings suggest that, for the most part, self-weighing is not associated with adverse psychological outcomes. However, in some cases the association between self-weighing and psychological outcomes may be more negative than in others.

Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence.

Control theory and other frameworks for understanding self-regulation suggest that monitoring goal progress is a crucial process that intervenes between setting and attaining a goal, and helps to ensure that goals are translated into action. However, the impact of progress monitoring interventions on rates of behavioral performance and goal attainment has yet to be quantified. A systematic literature search identified 138 studies (N = 19,951) that randomly allocated participants to an intervention designed to promote monitoring of goal progress versus a control condition. All studies reported the effects of the treatment on (a) the frequency of progress monitoring and (b) subsequent goal attainment. A random effects model revealed that, on average, interventions were successful at increasing the frequency of monitoring goal progress (d+ = 1.98, 95% CI [1.71, 2.24]) and promoted goal attainment (d+ = 0.40, 95% CI [0.32, 0.48]). Furthermore, changes in the frequency of progress monitoring mediated the effect of the interventions on goal attainment. Moderation tests revealed that progress monitoring had larger effects on goal attainment when the outcomes were reported or made public, and when the information was physically recorded. Taken together, the findings suggest that monitoring goal progress is an effective self-regulation strategy, and that interventions that increase the frequency of progress monitoring are likely to promote behavior change.

Navigating through digital folders uses the same brain structures as real world navigation.

Efficient storage and retrieval of digital data is the focus of much commercial and academic attention. With personal computers, there are two main ways to retrieve files: hierarchical navigation and query-based search. In navigation, users move down their virtual folder hierarchy until they reach the folder in which the target item is stored. When searching, users first generate a query specifying some property of the target file (e.g., a word it contains), and then select the relevant file when the search engine returns a set of results. Despite advances in search technology, users prefer retrieving files using virtual folder navigation, rather than the more flexible query-based search. Using fMRI we provide an explanation for this phenomenon by demonstrating that folder navigation results in activation of the posterior limbic (including the retrosplenial cortex) and parahippocampal regions similar to that previously observed during real-world navigation in both animals and humans. In contrast, search activates the left inferior frontal gyrus, commonly observed in linguistic processing. We suggest that the preference for navigation may be due to the triggering of automatic object finding routines and lower dependence on linguistic processing. We conclude with suggestions for future computer systems design.

What information do consumers consider, and how do they look for it, when shopping for groceries online?

Previous research investigating what information shoppers seek when purchasing groceries has used either lab-experiments or observed shoppers in supermarkets. The present research investigates this question in a relatively naturalistic online-grocery environment. Forty participants completed their weekly shopping online while their eye-movements were recorded. Ten of the participants were subsequently interviewed to gain insight into their information seeking behaviour. We found that, when looking for products, 95% of participants navigated through the 'virtual departments', 80% used the 'search' facility, and 68% browsed the special offer pages. Once on the product pages, participants tended to look at the pictures of products, rather than examine detailed product information. To explain these findings, we suggest that online grocery sites simulate familiar supermarket environments, which may explain why consumers prefer to browse categories of products rather than use search terms. We also suggest that additional strategies are needed if consumers are to be encouraged to view detailed product information.

The neural basis of monitoring goal progress.

The neural basis of progress monitoring has received relatively little attention compared to other sub-processes that are involved in goal directed behavior such as motor control and response inhibition. Studies of error-monitoring have identified the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) as a structure that is sensitive to conflict detection, and triggers corrective action. However, monitoring goal progress involves monitoring correct as well as erroneous events over a period of time. In the present research, 20 healthy participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) while playing a game that involved monitoring progress toward either a numerical or a visuo-spatial target. The findings confirmed the role of the dACC in detecting situations in which the current state may conflict with the desired state, but also revealed activations in the frontal and parietal regions, pointing to the involvement of processes such as attention and working memory (WM) in monitoring progress over time. In addition, activation of the cuneus was associated with monitoring progress toward a specific target presented in the visual modality. This is the first time that activation in this region has been linked to higher-order processing of goal-relevant information, rather than low-level anticipation of visual stimuli. Taken together, these findings identify the neural substrates involved in monitoring progress over time, and how these extend beyond activations observed in conflict and error monitoring.

Differentiating core and co-opted mechanisms in calculation: the neuroimaging of calculation in aphasia.

The role of language in exact calculation is the subject of debate. Some behavioral and functional neuroimaging investigations of healthy participants suggest that calculation requires language resources. However, there are also reports of individuals with severe aphasic language impairment who retain calculation ability. One possibility in resolving these discordant findings is that the neural basis of calculation has undergone significant reorganization in aphasic calculators. Using fMRI, we examined brain activations associated with exact addition and subtraction in two patients with severe agrammatic aphasia and retained calculation ability. Behavior and brain activations during two-digit addition and subtraction were compared to those of a group of 11 healthy, age-matched controls. Behavioral results confirmed that both patients retained calculation ability. Imaging findings revealed individual differences in processing, but also a similar activation pattern across patients and controls in bilateral parietal cortices. Patients differed from controls in small areas of increased activation in peri-lesional regions, a shift from left fronto-temporal activation to the contralateral region, and increased activations in bilateral superior parietal regions. Our results suggest that bilateral parietal cortex represents the core of the calculation network and, while healthy controls may recruit language resources to support calculation, these mechanisms are not mandatory in adult cognition.

Language in calculation: a core mechanism?

Although there is evidence that exact calculation recruits left hemisphere perisylvian language systems, recent work has shown that exact calculation can be retained despite severe damage to these networks. In this study, we sought to identify a "core" network for calculation and hence to determine the extent to which left hemisphere language areas are part of this network. We examined performance on addition and subtraction problems in two modalities: one using conventional two-digit problems that can be easily encoded into language; the other using novel shape representations. With regard to numerical problems, our results revealed increased left fronto-temporal activity in addition, and increased parietal activity in subtraction, potentially reflecting retrieval of linguistically encoded information during addition. The shape problems elicited activations of occipital, parietal and dorsal temporal regions, reflecting visual reasoning processes. A core activation common to both calculation types involved the superior parietal lobule bilaterally, right temporal sub-gyral area, and left lateralized activations in inferior parietal (BA 40), frontal (BA 6/8/32) and occipital (BA 18) regions. The large bilateral parietal activation could be attributed to visuo-spatial processing in calculation. The inferior parietal region, and particularly the left angular gyrus, was part of the core calculation network. However, given its activation in both shape and number tasks, its role is unlikely to reflect linguistic processing per se. A possibility is that it serves to integrate right hemisphere visuo-spatial and left hemisphere linguistic and executive processing in calculation.

Communicating without a functioning language system: implications for the role of language in mentalizing.

A debated issue in the relationship between language and thought is how our linguistic abilities are involved in understanding the intentions of others ('mentalizing'). The results of both theoretical and empirical work have been used to argue that linguistic, and more specifically, grammatical, abilities are crucial in representing the mental states of others. Here we contribute to this debate by investigating how damage to the language system influences the generation and understanding of intentional communicative behaviors. Four patients with pervasive language difficulties (severe global or agrammatic aphasia) engaged in an experimentally controlled non-verbal communication paradigm, which required signaling and understanding a communicative message. Despite their profound language problems they were able to engage in recipient design as well as intention recognition, showing similar indicators of mentalizing as have been observed in the neurologically healthy population. Our results show that aspects of the ability to communicate remain present even when core capacities of the language system are dysfunctional.