Using evoked response potentials, we investigated the implicit detection of incongruity during target-source matching in pictorial metaphors of Chinese advertising. Participants saw an image of a product (the target in a visual metaphorical relationship), and then made a same-different judgment in response to a second image (the source in a visual metaphorical relationship) which was (in)congruous to the first image in terms of shape and/or function. We collected behavioral (button- press reaction time and accuracy), and neural (N270, delta and theta band activity) measures. The time-frequency analysis showed faster processing of incongruous visual information. Moreover, shape and conceptual incongruity were associated with increased N270 amplitude as well as delta (1-3 Hz) and theta (4-8 Hz) band power. Noticeably, compared with conceptual incongruity, shape incongruity evoked a larger N270 amplitude and stronger delta and theta band oscillation. In addition, the average topographical analysis revealed a frontal and central distribution of the power activity. The analysis of attitudes towards the advertising metaphor pictures also proved the supportive role played by incongruity. In conclusion, incongruity facilitates target-source matching in pictorial metaphors of Chinese advertising. The findings obtained from the study are important to metaphor designs of advertising pictures.

The aim of this study was to investigate the moderating role of individual (gender, age, education), and occupational (employment duration, workplace position, the duration of negative behaviour, and the number of perpetrators) characteristics of victims and perpetrators of negative workplace behaviours in the relationship between workplace bullying and mental health. On the basis of the study on a sample of 904 employees, it was possible to determine the moderating factors. Protective factors contributing to the maintenance of mental health despite experiencing negative workplace behaviours were (a) male sex, (b) a relatively young age, (c) shorter length of job seniority, and (d) postsecondary education or lower. However, it was adverse for the mental health if negative behaviours were exhibited by a superior and when an employee was convinced that there were several perpetrators.

In stimulus-response compatibility tasks, performance is better when the handle of an object is oriented on the same side of the response than when the handle is oriented on the opposite side. Two major alternative accounts, the motor affordance and spatial accounts, have been proposed to explain this handle-hand compatibility effect. In two experiments, we tested between these two accounts by administering a go/no-go task to right-handed participants. Handled objects presented on a touchscreen were used as stimuli. Half of the participants had to reach-to-touch the stimuli by using their dominant hand, the other half by using their nondominant hand. Liftoff times (LTs), movement times (MTs) and spatial coordinates of the movement endpoints were recorded. Results from the LTs and MTs analyses showed no evidence of handle-hand compatibility effects. In contrast, the analyses of the spatial coordinates revealed that participants' touches were shifted more laterally towards the handle when the handles were oriented on the same side of the responding hand (Experiments 1 and 2). Furthermore, the right-hand touches landed higher (towards the handle) than the left-hand touches, especially when the vertical object dimension was particularly salient (Experiment 1). Overall, these results are in line with the activation of hand motor programs to reach and grasp the object as predicted by the motor account, at least for the right/dominant hand.

The aim of the current study was to transfer the method of using isolated kinematics information combined with the examination of perceptual-cognitive processes to gymnastics judging and thereby investigating the informational underpinnings of skilled perception and judgment. More specifically, a combination of process-tracing methods that include both the gaze pattern (via eye tracking) and the performance judgment (via ratings on a six-point Likert scale) of participants with different gymnastics expertise (visual experts, n = 14, motor experts, n = 17, novices, n = 18) was employed for gymnastics performances of a floor routine (round off, back handspring, back layout somersault), which were shown as videos in original or in stick-figure format. Gaze pattern was analyzed for the whole floor routine as well as for the particular temporal-spatial windows of the three motor skills. Differences between visual experts, motor experts, and novices could be found concerning the judgment score, ηp 2 = .242, and the judgment accuracy, ηp 2 = .196, but not the gaze pattern. The significant interaction effects between skill and format for the gaze pattern show the importance of the last skill in the judgment processes. Further research should investigate the influence of judgment instruction on the gaze pattern as well as the importance of the last skill for the judgment score

The current study tested the likely effect of sensory involvement on the FN400 and late positive complex (LPC) responses to semantic and pragmatic comprehension of English sentences. Fifteen English language learners took part in the event-related potential (ERP) experiment and determined the acceptability of 432 sentences under congruent, semantically incongruent, and pragmatically incongruent conditions. Prior to the ERP recording, the subjects received different sensory instructions for six vocabulary items about which they had no previous knowledge. No sensory instruction was given for three extra words, and these served as the control group. The behavioral data corroborated that integration of more senses in instruction improved learners’ pragmatic comprehension. The ERP data revealed that full sensory involvement (involvement) reduced the FN400 amplitude, facilitating real world knowledge retrieval and pragmatic comprehension. The LPC responses to semantic comprehension showed that learners reanalyzed the sentences instructed through limited sensory involvement (exvolvement) more deeply.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of physical exercise tapping high-level cognitive functions on both cognitive function and fitness in older adults. In total, 96 healthy older adults took part in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to four groups: a cognitive training group (CG), physical exercise group (PG), simultaneous cognitive training and physical exercise group (C+PG), and the healthy control group (HG; received physical exercise materials but did not participate in a cognitive or exercise programme). The outcomes were the changes in the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), timed up-and-go (TUG) test, and the computerized modified Stroop task, which included two conditions, a naming condition (nonexecutive) and an executive condition. The results showed that the dynamic balance, cardiorespiratory endurance, and physical activity levels of the PG and C+PG were significantly better than those of the HG after the 12-week intervention. The times of the TUG test in these two groups were also significantly faster than those in the HG. Additionally, the C+PG exhibited better dual-task function than the PG. Over 12 weeks, the CG, PG, and C+PG demonstrated improved performance of executive function, but only the C+PG showed a general facilitative effect on nonexecutive control. Physical exercise tapping high-level cognitive functions and cognitive training can thus improve executive function more quickly than physical exercise alone. Moreover, physical exercise tapping high-level cognitive functions showed better fitness improvement than cognitive training alone, especially in dynamic balance.

This study investigates the links between memory and emotion and, more specifically, how emotions can impact the integration mechanism. The authors' hypotheses were based on a dynamic conception of memory (Versace et al., 2014; Macri et al., 2018), and stated that an emotion coming from the stimulus (within-item emotion) should enhance the integration of the stimulus features, and that an emotion coming from the context (contextual emotion) should improve integration of the item and its context. In two experiments, the participants performed an associative memory task in which they undertook three kinds of recall: item (memory for a target item), location (spatial position of a target item), and association recall (association of a target item and its location). In the first experiment, the emotion was introduced by the target stimuli (neutral or negative words), while in the second experiment, contextual emotion was introduced by means of an odorant dispenser (negative or neutral odorant) placed under the participant’s chin and only neutral words were used. In both experiments, target items were words objects or animals that were either typically associated to a sound or not typically associated to a sound). The results confirm that emotions act in different ways on the integration mechanism depending on how they are introduced to the participant: within-item emotion enhances item recall itself by strengthening the link between its components, while contextual emotion favors the integration of the item with its location.

Previous studies on intentional and incidental face memory have investigated the effects of emotional facial expression on facial recognition itself. However, it is still uncertain whether facial expression influences later recognition of other emotional stimuli, such as emotional scenes. To address this issue, participants during the encoding phase were presented with emotional scenes together with facial expressions. The emotion of the scenes was either congruent or incongruent with that of the facial expression. In order to increase the attention towards faces/facial expressions, the task was related to faces rather than scenes, for example, the participants were asked either to memorize the facial identities (intentional face learning, Experiment 1) or to identify the gender of the faces (incidental face learning, Experiment 2). Subsequently, the participants were asked to perform an unexpected old/new recognition task regarding the scene pictures. In general, the results showed that recognition of threat-related scenes was enhanced by a preceding emotionally incongruent facial expression irrespective of intentional or incidental face learning. The findings indicate that facial expression influences recognition of contextual threat-related scenes.