Assessing partial errors via analog gaming keyboards in response conflict tasks: A proof-of-concept study with the concealed information test.

The response time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) is an established memory detection paradigm. Slower RTs to critical information (called 'probes') compared to control items (called 'irrelevants') reveal recognition. Different lines of research indicate that response conflict is a strong contributor to this RT difference. Previous studies used electromyography (EMG) to measure response conflict, but this requires special equipment and trained examiners. The aim of this study was to explore if response conflict can also be measured with an analog gaming keyboard that is sensitive to minimal finger movements. In a preregistered study, participants completed an autobiographical RT-CIT (n = 35) as well as a cued recognition task (modified Sternberg task; n = 33) for validation purposes. Partial errors, partial button presses of the incorrect response key, were more frequent in trials with response conflict than in trials without conflict. Partial errors were rare (CIT: 2.9%; Sternberg: 1.7% of conflict trials), suggesting analogue keyboards have lower sensitivity than EMG. This is the first evidence that analog keyboards can measure partial errors. Although likely less sensitive than EMG measures, potential benefits of analog keyboards include their accessibility, their compatibility with all tasks that use a standard keyboard, that no physical contact with the participant is needed, and ease of data collection (e.g., allowing for group testing).

Experiences from the international frontlines: An exploration of the perceptions of airport employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aviation industry is one of the sectors that has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. While the major body of literature has focused on passenger experience and behaviour, this study focuses on airport employees instead-their experiences, perceptions, and preferences following the emergence of COVID-19. More than 1000 participants from 4 major airports-Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Singapore Changi Airport, Taipei Taoyuan Airport, and Zurich Airport-representing over 10 different occupations, have provided a variety of sentiments about the airport as an employment ecosystem in the wake of COVID-19. Quantitatively and qualitatively surveying four different airports enabled a cross-border analysis of the results to identify interesting geographic contrasts, as well as global themes, among the responses. Regional differences regarding, the feeling of preparedness, confidence in measures, and optimism are presented. A significant difference in confidence in non-pharmaceutical measures between employees from Asian and European airports is shown. Wants and needs such as better physical/IT workplace infrastructure and more flexibility regarding job scope and hours are pointed out. The results of this research provide insights for future airport employee experience research by outlining areas to study in greater detail. Furthermore, practical implications for airport stakeholders and companies arising from the challenges experienced by the workforce are laid out to provide guidance to prepare for similar circumstances in the future and navigate the aftermath of and recovery from the pandemic.

Genetic interactions between specific chromosome copy number alterations dictate complex aneuploidy patterns.

Cells that contain an abnormal number of chromosomes are called aneuploid. High rates of aneuploidy in cancer are correlated with an increased frequency of chromosome missegregation, termed chromosomal instability (CIN). Both high levels of aneuploidy and CIN are associated with cancers that are resistant to treatment. Although aneuploidy and CIN are typically detrimental to cell growth, they can aid in adaptation to selective pressures. Here, we induced extremely high rates of chromosome missegregation in yeast to determine how cells adapt to CIN over time. We found that adaptation to CIN occurs initially through many different individual chromosomal aneuploidies. Interestingly, the adapted yeast strains acquire complex karyotypes with specific subsets of the beneficial aneuploid chromosomes. These complex aneuploidy patterns are governed by synthetic genetic interactions between individual chromosomal abnormalities, which we refer to as chromosome copy number interactions (CCNIs). Given enough time, distinct karyotypic patterns in separate yeast populations converge on a refined complex aneuploid state. Surprisingly, some chromosomal aneuploidies that provided an advantage early on in adaptation are eventually lost due to negative CCNIs with even more beneficial aneuploid chromosome combinations. Together, our results show how cells adapt by obtaining specific complex aneuploid karyotypes in the presence of CIN.

What Is Suspicious When Trying to be Inconspicuous? Criminal Intentions Inferred From Nonverbal Behavioral Cues.

The present study investigates whether nonverbal behavioral cues to hidden criminal intentions during the build-up phase of a criminal act can be measured. To this end, we created recordings of actors once in a search situation and once committing a mock crime (theft or bomb placing) in a public crowded area. For ecological validation, we used authentic CCTV footage of real crimes in Experiment I. In this experiment, the two behavioral clusters pattern of movement in space and nonverbal communication behavior were analyzed. The results showed a deviance in pattern of movement in space for offenders' compared with the nonoffenders' condition as well as a bystanders' baseline. There was no significant difference between nonverbal communication behavior in the offenders' and nonoffenders' conditions. Experiment 2 was conducted to examine the two behavior clusters use of object- and self-adaptors while controlling for interpersonal differences. The results showed an increased use of object- and decreased use of self-adaptors during the build-up phase of a mock crime compared with a control condition (search). Thus, nonverbal behavior of offenders seems to differ from nonverbal behavior of nonoffenders. However, this holds only under the conditions of a valid baseline and of judging not only a single, typical behavioral cue but a whole cluster of nonverbal behaviors, such as pattern of movement in space or use of object-adaptors in general.

Stress-induced cortisol secretion impairs detection performance in x-ray baggage screening for hidden weapons by screening novices.

Aviation security strongly depends on screeners' performance in the detection of threat objects in x-ray images of passenger bags. We examined for the first time the effects of stress and stress-induced cortisol increases on detection performance of hidden weapons in an x-ray baggage screening task. We randomly assigned 48 participants either to a stress or a nonstress group. The stress group was exposed to a standardized psychosocial stress test (TSST). Before and after stress/nonstress, participants had to detect threat objects in a computer-based object recognition test (X-ray ORT). We repeatedly measured salivary cortisol and X-ray ORT performance before and after stress/nonstress. Cortisol increases in reaction to psychosocial stress induction but not to nonstress independently impaired x-ray detection performance. Our results suggest that stress-induced cortisol increases at peak reactivity impair x-ray screening performance.

Configural information is processed differently in perception and recognition of faces.

Several previous studies have stressed the importance of processing configural information in face recognition. In this study the perception of configural information was investigated. Large overestimations were found when the eye-mouth distance and the inter-eye distance had to be estimated. Whereas configural processing is disrupted when inverted faces have to be recognized the perceptual overestimations persisted when faces were inverted. These results suggest that processing configural information is different in perceptual as opposed to recognition tasks.