Non-decision time: The Higgs Boson of decision.

Generative models of decision now permeate all subfields of psychology, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience. To successfully investigate decision mechanisms from behavior, it is necessary to assume the presence of delays prior and after the decision process itself. However, directly observing this "non-decision time (NDT)" from behavior long appeared beyond reach, the field mainly relying on models to estimate it. Here, we propose a biological definition of decision that includes perceptual discrimination and action selection, and in turn, explicitly equates NDT with the minimum sensorimotor delay, or "deadtime." We show how this delay is directly observable in behavioral data, without modeling assumptions, using the visual interference approach. We apply this approach to 11 novel and archival data sets from humans and monkeys gathered from multiple labs. We validate the method by showing that visual properties (brightness, color, size) consistently affect empirically measured visuomotor deadtime (VMDT), as predicted by neurophysiology. We then show that endogenous factors (strategic slowing, attention) do not affect VMDT. Therefore, VMDT consistently satisfies widespread selective influence assumptions, in contrast to NDT parameters from model fits. Last, contrasting empirically observed VMDT with NDT estimates from the EZ, drift diffusion, and linear ballistic accumulator models, we conclude that NDT parameters from these models are unlikely to consistently reflect visuomotor delays, neither at a group level nor for individual differences, in contrast to a widely held assumption. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Identifying reasons for non-acceptance of influenza vaccine in healthcare workers: an observational study using declination form data.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers are sometimes required to complete a declination form if they choose not to accept the influenza vaccine. We analysed the declination data with the goal of identifying barriers to vaccination uptake across seasons, staff groups, and pre- and post- arrival of COVID-19. METHODS: Reasons for declining the vaccine were gathered from N = 2230 declination forms, collected over four influenza seasons, 2017/2018, 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, from a single health board in the UK. Reasons were classified according to ten categories and the resulting distribution analysed across year and staff groups. A further analysis considered the two most prevalent categories in more detail. RESULTS: Fear of adverse reactions and Lack of perception of own risk were identified as primary reasons for not accepting the vaccine across time and across staff groups. However, there was no evidence that Lack of concern with influenza, or Doubts about vaccine efficacy was prevalent, contrary to previous findings. Overall, reasons fitted a pattern of underestimating risk associated with influenza and overestimating risk of minor adverse reactions. There were also differences across years, χ2(24) = 123, p < .001. In particular, there were relatively fewer Lack of perception of own risk responses post-COVID-19 arrival than before, χ2(8) = 28.93, p = .002. CONCLUSION: This study shows that data collected from declination forms yields sensible information concerning vaccine non-acceptance without the difficulties of retrospective or pre-emptive reasoning suffered by questionnaires. Our findings will aid messaging campaigns designed to encourage uptake of the influenza vaccine in healthcare workers. In particular, we argue for an approach focused on risk perception rather than correction of straightforward misconceptions.

Using interpretative phenomenological analysis to probe the lived experiences of persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD).

BACKGROUND: Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD) is a chronic neuro-vestibular condition characterised by subjective dizziness, non-spinning vertigo, and postural imbalance. Symptoms are typically induced by situations of visuo-vestibular conflict and intense visual-motion. OBJECTIVE: Little research has focused on the lived experiences of people with PPPD. Therefore, our objective was to present an in-depth exploration of patient experiences and sense-making, and the effect of PPPD on psycho-social functioning. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 6 people with PPPD, who were recruited from an Audiovestibular department in Wales. We present a case-by-case Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) for each participant and present common themes. RESULTS: Our analysis revealed a range of superordinate and subordinate themes, individualised to each participant, but broadly described under the following headings: dismissal and non-belief, identity loss, dissociative experiences, poor psychological well-being and processes of sense-making. CONCLUSION: The qualitative experiences documented in this study will help clinicians and researchers to better understand the lived experiences of PPPD, how PPPD patients make sense of their symptoms, and the psycho-social impacts of the condition.

Smart-speaker technology and intellectual disabilities: agency and wellbeing.

PURPOSE: Mainstream intelligent personal assistants (IPAs, e.g., Amazon Echo and Google Home) offer an unprecedented opportunity to enhance agency and wellbeing among vulnerable groups across health and social care. However, unintended consequences and barriers to use are possible. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods semi-randomized controlled trial among individuals with intellectual disability (ID), providing IPAs to an intervention group (N = 22), but not a control group (N = 22). Semi-structured interviews on device use and daily life were conducted with individuals with ID. Observation surveys were also collected from support staff. Key themes were identified using thematic analysis. We also collected quantitative agency and wellbeing data. A separate group of 40 individuals who had already received IPAs were additionally assessed, as well as their support staff. RESULTS: Four themes were identified: (1) social value, (2) entertainment, (3) perceived agency, (4) challenges, perseverance, training/support needs. Opinions regarding IPAs were overwhelmingly positive. Most individuals qualitatively reported improved sense of agency and IPAs enabled many individuals to access features associated with wellbeing, but there was no significant change in the quantitative measure. Some individuals experienced challenges related to pronouncing and remembering IPA phrases; however, perseverance was common. CONCLUSIONS: This study increases our understanding of the ways smart speakers can be used to enhance life quality among individuals with ID, and the nature of barriers faced. In conclusion, IPAs are cost-effective complementary support for vulnerable populations, but additional training is required to realize all potential benefits.Implications for rehabilitationIndividuals with intellectual disability (ID) in supported living are able to use mainstream smart-speakers to access features associated with supporting wellbeing and social communication.They also reported that smart speakers made them feel better able to do things for themselves.A number of individuals with ID and their support staff identified a need for training and support to get the most out of smart speakers in future.

COVID-19 myth-busting: an experimental study.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 misinformation is a danger to public health. A range of formats are used by health campaigns to correct beliefs but data on their effectiveness is limited. We aimed to identify A) whether three commonly used myth-busting formats are effective for correcting COVID-19 myths, immediately and after a delay, and B) which is the most effective. METHODS: We tested whether three common correction formats could reduce beliefs in COVID-19 myths: (i) question-answer, ii) fact-only, (ii) fact-myth. n = 2215 participants (n = 1291 after attrition), UK representative of age and gender, were randomly assigned to one of the three formats. n = 11 myths were acquired from fact-checker websites and piloted to ensure believability. Participants rated myth belief at baseline, were shown correction images (the intervention), and then rated myth beliefs immediately post-intervention and after a delay of at least 6 days. A partial replication, n = 2084 UK representative, was also completed with immediate myth rating only. Analysis used mixed models with participants and myths as random effects. RESULTS: Myth agreement ratings were significantly lower than baseline for all correction formats, both immediately and after the delay; all ß's > 0.30, p's < .001. Thus, all formats were effective at lowering beliefs in COVID-19 misinformation. Correction formats only differed where baseline myth agreement was high, with question-answer and fact-myth more effective than fact-only immediately; ß = 0.040, p = .022 (replication set: ß = 0.053, p = .0075) and ß = - 0.051, p = .0059 (replication set: ß = - 0.061, p < .001), respectively. After the delay however, question-answer was more effective than fact-myth, ß = 0.040, p =. 031. CONCLUSION: Our results imply that COVID-19 myths can be effectively corrected using materials and formats typical of health campaigns. Campaign designers can use our results to choose between correction formats. When myth belief was high, question-answer format was more effective than a fact-only format immediately post-intervention, and after delay, more effective than fact-myth format.

Visual stress responses to static images are associated with symptoms of Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD).

BACKGROUND: Images that deviate from natural scene statistics in terms of spatial frequency and orientation content can produce visual stress (also known as visual discomfort), especially for migraine sufferers. These images appear to over-activate the visual cortex. OBJECTIVE: To connect the literature on visual discomfort with a common chronic condition presenting in neuro-otology clinics known as persistent postural perceptual dizziness (PPPD). Patients experience dizziness when walking through highly cluttered environments or when watching moving stimuli. This is thought to arise from maladaptive interaction between vestibular and visual signals for balance. METHODS: We measured visual discomfort to stationary images in patients with PPPD (N = 30) and symptoms of PPPD in a large general population cohort (N = 1858) using the Visual Vertigo Analogue Scale (VVAS) and the Situational Characteristics Questionnaire (SCQ). RESULTS: We found that patients with PPPD, and individuals in the general population with more PPPD symptoms, report heightened visual discomfort to stationary images that deviate from natural spectra (patient comparison, F (1, 1865) = 29, p < 0.001; general population correlations, VVAS, rs (1387) = 0.46, p < 0.001; SCQ, rs (1387) = 0.39, p < 0.001). These findings were not explained by co-morbid migraine. Indeed, PPPD symptoms showed a significantly stronger relationship with visual discomfort than did migraine (VVAS, zH = 8.81, p < 0.001; SCQ, zH = 6.29, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We speculate that atypical visual processing -perhaps due to a visual cortex more prone to over-activation -may predispose individuals to PPPD, possibly helping to explain why some patients with vestibular conditions develop PPPD and some do not.

Strategy and processing speed eclipse individual differences in control ability in conflict tasks.

Response control or inhibition is one of the cornerstones of modern cognitive psychology, featuring prominently in theories of executive functioning and impulsive behavior. However, repeated failures to observe correlations between commonly applied tasks have led some theorists to question whether common response conflict processes even exist. A challenge to answering this question is that behavior is multifaceted, with both conflict and nonconflict processes (e.g., strategy, processing speed) contributing to individual differences. Here, we use a cognitive model to dissociate these processes; the diffusion model for conflict tasks (Ulrich et al., 2015). In a meta-analysis of fits to seven empirical datasets containing combinations of the flanker, Simon, color-word Stroop, and spatial Stroop tasks, we observed weak (r < .05) zero-order correlations between tasks in parameters reflecting conflict processing, seemingly challenging a general control construct. However, our meta-analysis showed consistent positive correlations in parameters representing processing speed and strategy. We then use model simulations to evaluate whether correlations in behavioral costs are diagnostic of the presence or absence of common mechanisms of conflict processing. We use the model to impose known correlations for conflict mechanisms across tasks, and we compare the simulated behavior to simulations when there is no conflict correlation across tasks. We find that correlations in strategy and processing speed can produce behavioral correlations equal to, or larger than, those produced by correlated conflict mechanisms. We conclude that correlations between conflict tasks are only weakly informative about common conflict mechanisms if researchers do not control for strategy and processing speed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Subjective sensory sensitivity and its relationship with anxiety in people with probable migraine.

OBJECTIVE: To better characterize differences in interictal sensory experience in adults with migraine and more comprehensively describe the relevance of anxiety to these experiences. BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that sensitivity to sensory input may not be limited to migraine attacks but continues between them. However, there is a need to better understand whether this is the case across senses, and to clearly distinguish sensory experience from measured sensory threshold, which are not straightforwardly related. Previous literature also indicates a co-occurrence between sensory sensitivity, migraine, and anxiety, but this relationship remains to be fully elucidated. METHODS: The present cross-sectional study used online questionnaires to investigate how self-reported sensory experiences relate to migraine in a large community sample including 117 individuals with probable migraine and 827 without. Mediation analyses were also used to determine whether any relationship between migraine and sensory sensitivity was mediated by anxiety. RESULTS: Significant increases in subjective reports of sensory sensitivity (d = 0.80) and sensory avoidance (d = 0.71) were found in participants with migraine. Anxiety symptoms partially mediated the relationship between subjective sensory sensitivity and migraine. Finally, visual, movement, and auditory subscales were found to provide unique explanatory variance in analyses predicting the incidence of migraine (area under the curve = 0.73, 0.69, 0.62 respectively). CONCLUSION: Subjective sensory sensitivities are present between attacks and across senses in individuals with migraine. Anxiety symptoms are relevant to this relationship; however, sensory sensitivities appear to exist independent of this affective influence. The implications of interictal sensitivities for the daily lives of those with migraine should, therefore, be considered in clinical management wherever appropriate.

Smart speaker devices can improve speech intelligibility in adults with intellectual disability.

BACKGROUND: Successful communication is vital to quality of life. One group commonly facing speech and communication difficulties is individuals with intellectual disability (ID). A novel route to encourage clear speech is offered by mainstream smart speakers (e.g., Amazon Alexa and Google Home). Smart speakers offer four factors important for learning: reward immediacy, spaced practice, autonomy/intrinsic motivation and reduced social barriers. Yet the potential of smart speakers to improve speech intelligibility has not been explored before. AIMS: To determine whether providing individuals with intellectual disabilities with smart speaker devices improved ratings of speech intelligibility for (1) phrases related to device use and (2) unrelated words via a semi-randomized controlled trial. METHODS & PROCEDURES: In a semi-randomized controlled trial, an intervention group of adults with ID (N = 21) received smart speakers, while a control group (N = 22) did not. Before and after about 12 weeks, participants were recorded saying smart speaker-related phrases and unrelated words. Naïve participants then rated the intelligibility of the speech recordings. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The group that received smart speakers made significantly larger intelligibility gains than the control group. Although the effect size was modest, this difference was found for both smart speaker-related phrases and unrelated words. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: While the mechanism of action remains to be determined, the presence of smart speakers in the home had a demonstrable impact on ratings of speech intelligibility, and could provide cost-effective inclusive support for speech and communication improvement, improving the quality of life of vulnerable populations. What this paper adds What is already known on the subject Speech intelligibility is a key obstacle for social relationships and quality of life across several vulnerable populations (children with speech difficulties, older adults with dementia, individuals with ID). Anecdotal reports suggest mainstream smart speakers (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Google Home), could improve speech intelligibility. What this paper adds to existing knowledge We used a semi-randomized controlled trial to show that using a smart speaker for about 12 weeks could improve ratings of speech intelligibility in adults with ID for both smart speaker-related phrases and unrelated words. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? These initial findings suggest that smart speaker technology could be a novel, and inclusive, route to improving speech intelligibility in vulnerable populations.

Disclosure of study funding and author conflicts of interest in press releases and the news: a retrospective content analysis with two cohorts.

OBJECTIVES: To examine how often study funding and author conflicts of interest are stated in science and health press releases and in corresponding news; and whether disclosure in press releases is associated with disclosure in news. Second, to specifically examine disclosure rates in industry-funded studies. DESIGN: Retrospective content analysis with two cohorts. SETTING: Press releases about health, psychology or neuroscience research from research universities and journals from 2011 (n=996) and 2015 (n=254) and their associated news stories (n=1250 and 578). PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Mention of study funding and author conflicts of interest. RESULTS: In our 2011 cohort, funding was reported in 94% (934/996) of journal articles, 29% (284/996) of press releases and 9% (112/1250) of news. The corresponding figures for 2015 were: 84% (214/254), 52% (131/254) and 10% (58/578). A similar pattern was seen for the industry funding subset. If the press release reported study funding, news was more likely to: 22% if in the press release versus 7% if not in the press release (2011), relative risk (RR) 3.1 (95% CI 2.1 to 4.3); for 2015, corresponding figures were 16% versus 2%, RR 6.8 (95% CI 2.2 to 17). In journal articles, 27% and 22% reported a conflict of interest, while less than 2% of press releases or news ever mentioned these. CONCLUSIONS: Press releases and associated news did not frequently state funding sources or conflicts of interest. Funding information in press releases was associated with such information in news. Given converging evidence that news draws on press release content, including statements of funding and conflicts of interest in press releases may lead to increased reporting in news.

Self-reported impulsivity does not predict response caution.

The broad construct of impulsivity is one that spans both personality and cognitive ability. Despite a common overarching construct, previous research has found no relationship between self-report measures of impulsivity and people's ability to inhibit pre-potent responses. Here, we use evidence accumulation models of choice reaction time tasks to extract a measure of "response caution" (boundary separation) and examine whether this correlates with self-reported impulsivity as measured by the UPPS-P questionnaire. Response caution reflects whether an individual makes decisions based on more (favouring accuracy) or less (favouring speed) evidence. We reasoned that this strategic dimension of behaviour is conceptually closer to the tendencies that self-report impulsivity measures probe than what is traditional measured by inhibition tasks. In a meta-analysis of five datasets (total N = 296), encompassing 19 correlations per subscale, we observe no evidence that response caution correlates with self-reported impulsivity. Average correlations between response caution and UPPS-P subscales ranged from rho = -0.02 to -0.04. While the construct of response caution has demonstrated value in understanding individual differences in cognition, brain functioning and aging; the factors underlying what has been called "impulsive information processing" appear to be distinct from the concept of impulsivity derived from self-report.

Causal overstatements reduced in press releases following academic study of health news.

Background: Exaggerations in health news were previously found to strongly associate with similar exaggerations in press releases. Moreover such exaggerations did not appear to attract more news. Here we assess whether press release practice changed after these reported findings; simply drawing attention to the issue may be insufficient for practical change, given the challenges of media environments. Methods: We assessed whether rates of causal over-statement in press releases based on correlational data were lower following a widely publicised paper on the topic, compared to an equivalent baseline period in the preceding year. Results: We found that over-statements in press releases were 28% (95% confidence interval = 16% to 45%) in 2014 and 13% (95% confidence interval = 6% to 25%) in 2015. A corresponding numerical reduction in exaggerations in news was not significant. The association between over-statements in news and press releases remained strong. Conclusions: Press release over-statements were less frequent following publication of Sumner et al. (2014). However, this is correlational evidence and the reduction may be due to other factors or natural fluctuations.

Visually-induced dizziness is associated with sensitivity and avoidance across all senses.

BACKGROUND: Persistent postural perceptual dizziness (PPPD) is a common chronic condition presenting in neurology and neuro-otology clinics. Symptoms lie on a spectrum in the general population. The cause is unknown and thought to involve interactions between visual and vestibular systems, but symptoms also correlate with anxiety and migraine. OBJECTIVE: To test whether PDDD symptoms are associated with reported differences in other senses (touch, hearing, smell and taste); to investigate possible mediation via anxiety or migraine; to discover the proportion of variance accountable to these non-vestibular factors. METHODS: We measured self-report multisensory sensitivity, anxiety, visual difficulties, visual discomfort and migraine in patients with PPPD (N = 29) and a large general population cohort (N > 1100). We used structural equation modelling to examine relationships between the factors using a step-wise approach. RESULTS: We found increased self-reported over-sensitivity in sensory domains beyond vision and balance in both patients with PPPD and non-clinical participants with more PPPD symptoms. SEM analysis revealed that anxiety partly, but not wholly, mediated this relationship. Adding visual difficulties and visual discomfort to the model allowed it to explain 50% of PPPD symptom variance. Most of the path coefficients and mediation effects in our model were unchanged between participants with and without migraine. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the idea that PPPD is a complex neurological condition that includes broad perceptual factors, and may suggest that some brains are predisposed to generalised cross-modal sensory-overload. This may give rise to vulnerability to severe PPPD should a vestibular insult occur.

Persistent postural perceptual dizziness is on a spectrum in the general population.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the idea that symptoms of persistent postural perceptual dizziness (PPPD) are more common than previously assumed and lie on a spectrum in the general population, thus challenging current theories that PPPD is only a consequence of a vestibular insult. METHODS: We collected 2 common clinical questionnaires of PPPD (Visual Vertigo Analogue Scale [VVAS] and Situational Characteristics Questionnaire [SCQ]) in 4 cohorts: community research volunteers (n = 1941 for VVAS, n = 1,474 for SCQ); paid online participants (n = 190 for VVAS, n = 125 for SCQ); students (n = 204, VVAS only); and patients diagnosed with PPPD (n = 25). RESULTS: We found that around 9%, 4%, and 11%, respectively, of the 3 nonclinical cohorts scored above the 25th percentile patient score on 1 PPPD measure (VVAS) and 49% and 54% scored above the 25th percentile patient score on the other measure (SCQ). Scores correlated negatively with age (counter to expectation). As expected, scores correlated with migraine in 2 populations, but this only explained a small part of the variance, suggesting that migraine is not the major factor underlying the spectrum of PPPD symptoms in the general population. CONCLUSION: We found high levels of PPPD symptoms in nonclinical populations, suggesting that PPPD is a spectrum that preexists in the population, rather than only being a consequence of vestibular insult. Atypical visuo-vestibular processing predisposes some individuals to visually induced dizziness, which is then exacerbated should vestibular insult (or more generalized insult) occur.

Cognitive control and automatic interference in mind and brain: A unified model of saccadic inhibition and countermanding.

Countermanding behavior has long been seen as a cornerstone of executive control-the human ability to selectively inhibit undesirable responses and change plans. However, scattered evidence implies that stopping behavior is entangled with simpler automatic stimulus-response mechanisms. Here we operationalize this idea by merging the latest conceptualization of saccadic countermanding with a neural network model of visuo-oculomotor behavior that integrates bottom-up and top-down drives. This model accounts for all fundamental qualitative and quantitative features of saccadic countermanding, including neuronal activity. Importantly, it does so by using the same architecture and parameters as basic visually guided behavior and automatic stimulus-driven interference. Using simulations and new data, we compare the temporal dynamics of saccade countermanding with that of saccadic inhibition (SI), a hallmark effect thought to reflect automatic competition within saccade planning areas. We demonstrate how SI accounts for a large proportion of the saccade countermanding process when using visual signals. We conclude that top-down inhibition acts later, piggy-backing on the quicker automatic inhibition. This conceptualization fully accounts for the known effects of signal features and response modalities traditionally used across the countermanding literature. Moreover, it casts different light on the concept of top-down inhibition, its timing and neural underpinning, as well as the interpretation of stop-signal reaction time (RT), the main behavioral measure in the countermanding literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The validity and consistency of continuous joystick response in perceptual decision-making.

A computer joystick is an efficient and cost-effective response device for recording continuous movements in psychological experiments. Movement trajectories and other measures from continuous responses have expanded the insights gained from discrete responses (e.g., button presses) by providing unique information about how cognitive processes unfold over time. However, few studies have evaluated the validity of joystick responses with reference to conventional key presses, and how response modality can affect cognitive processes. Here we systematically compared human participants' behavioral performance of perceptual decision-making when they responded with either joystick movements or key presses in a four-alternative motion discrimination task. We found evidence that the response modality did not affect raw behavioral measures, including decision accuracy and mean response time, at the group level. Furthermore, to compare the underlying decision processes between the two response modalities, we fitted a drift-diffusion model of decision-making to individual participants' behavioral data. Bayesian analyses of the model parameters showed no evidence that switching from key presses to continuous joystick movements modulated the decision-making process. These results supported continuous joystick actions as a valid apparatus for continuous movements, although we highlight the need for caution when conducting experiments with continuous movement responses.

Inability to improve performance with control shows limited access to inner states.

Any repeatedly performed action is characterized by endogenous variability, affecting both speed and accuracy-for a large part presumably caused by fluctuations in underlying brain and body states. The current research questions concerned (a) whether such states are accessible to us and (b) whether we can act upon this information to reduce variability. For example, when playing a game of darts, there is an implicit assumption that people can wait to throw until they are in the right perceptual-attentional state. If this is true, taking away the ability to self-pace the game should worsen performance. We first tested precisely this assumption asking participants to play darts in a self-paced and a fixed-paced condition. There was no benefit of self-pacing, showing that participants were unable to use such control to improve their performance and reduce their variability. Next, we replicated these findings in 2 computer-based tasks, in which participants performed a rapid action-selection and a visual detection task in 1 self-paced and 3 forced-paced conditions. Over 4 different empirical tests, we show that the self-paced condition did not lead to improved performance or reduced variability, nor to reduced temporal dependencies in the reaction time (RT) series. Overall, it seems that, if people have any access to their fluctuating performance-relevant inner states, this access is limited and not relevant for upcoming performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The association between exaggeration in health-related science news and academic press releases: a replication study.

Background: Exaggerations in health news were previously found to strongly associate with similar exaggerations in press releases. Moreover, such press release exaggerations did not appear to attract more news. Methods: Here we tested the replicability of these findings in a new cohort of news and press releases based on research in UK universities in 2014 and 2015. Press releases and news were compared to their associated peer-reviewed articles to define exaggeration in advice, causal claims and human inference from non-human studies. Results: We found that the association between news and press releases did not replicate for advice exaggeration, while this association did replicate for causal claims and human inference from non-human studies. There was no evidence for higher news uptake for exaggerated press releases, consistent with previous results. Base exaggeration rates were lower for human inference from non-human studies, possibly reflecting the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research in the UK. Conclusions: Overall, the picture remains that the strength of news statements is normally associated with the strength of press release statements, and without evidence that exaggerated statements get significantly more news.

Slow and steady? Strategic adjustments in response caution are moderately reliable and correlate across tasks.

Speed-accuracy trade-offs are often considered a confound in speeded choice tasks, but individual differences in strategy have been linked to personality and brain structure. We ask whether strategic adjustments in response caution are reliable, and whether they correlate across tasks and with impulsivity traits. In Study 1, participants performed Eriksen flanker and Stroop tasks in two sessions four weeks apart. We manipulated response caution by emphasising speed or accuracy. We fit the diffusion model for conflict tasks and correlated the change in boundary (accuracy - speed) across session and task. We observed moderate test-retest reliability, and medium to large correlations across tasks. We replicated this between-task correlation in Study 2 using flanker and perceptual decision tasks. We found no consistent correlations with impulsivity. Though moderate reliability poses a challenge for researchers interested in stable traits, consistent correlation between tasks indicates there are meaningful individual differences in the speed-accuracy trade-off.