In response to the replication crisis in psychology, the scientific community has advocated open science practices to promote transparency and reproducibility. Although existing reviews indicate inconsistent and generally low adoption of open science in psychology, a current-day, detailed analysis is lacking. Recognising the significant impact of false memory research in legal contexts, we conducted a preregistered systematic review to assess the integration of open science practices within this field, analysing 388 publications from 2015 to 2023 (including 15 replications and 3 meta-analyses). Our findings indicated a significant yet varied adoption of open science practices. Most studies (86.86%) adhered to at least one measure, with publication accessibility being the most consistently adopted practice at 73.97%. While data sharing demonstrated the most substantial growth, reaching about 75% by 2023, preregistration and analysis script sharing lagged, with 20–25% adoption in 2023. This review highlights a promising trend towards enhanced research quality, transparency, and reproducibility in false memory research. However, the inconsistent implementation of open science practices may still challenge the verification, replication, and interpretation of research findings. Our study underscores the need for a comprehensive adoption of open science to improve research reliability and validity substantially, fostering trust and credibility in psychology.

Lexicon projects (LPs) are large-scale data resources in different languages that present behavioral results from visual word recognition tasks. Analyses using LP data in multiple languages provide evidence regarding cross-linguistic differences as well as similarities in visual word recognition. Here we present the first LP in a Semitic language—the Hebrew Lexicon Project (HeLP). HeLP assembled lexical decision (LD) responses to 10,000 Hebrew words and nonwords, and naming responses to a subset of 5000 Hebrew words. We used the large-scale HeLP data to estimate the impact of general predictors (lexicality, frequency, word length, orthographic neighborhood density), and Hebrew-specific predictors (Semitic structure, presence of clitics, phonological entropy) of visual word recognition performance. Our results revealed the typical effects of lexicality and frequency obtained in many languages, but more complex impact of word length and neighborhood density. Considering Hebrew-specific characteristics, HeLP data revealed better recognition of words with a Semitic structure than words that do not conform to it, and a drop in performance for words comprising clitics. These effects varied, however, across LD and naming tasks. Lastly, a significant inhibitory effect of phonological ambiguity was found in both naming and LD. The implications of these findings for understanding reading in a Semitic language are discussed.

Biological age (BA), reflecting aging-related health decline beyond chronological age, varies among individuals. While previous research explored associations of maternal pregnancy-related body size with offspring health outcomes, its implications for BA in young adults remain unclear. Utilizing longitudinal data of 1,148 mother-offspring pairs from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study, we analyzed associations of maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain (GWG) with offspring Klemera-Doubal method (KDM)-based BA at age 32, and potential familial life-course underlying mechanisms. Maternal pregnancy-related body size, adjusted for sociodemographic/lifestyle factors was associated with offspring BA (β_{maternal pre-pregnancy BMI}=0.183,95%CI:0.098,0.267;β_GWG=0.093,95%CI:0.021,0.165). Association of GWG with BA was largely direct (90%,95%CI,44%,100%), while association with maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was partially mediated through adolescent BMI (36%,95%CI=18%,75%), with both associations eliminated after adjustment for offspring adult BMI. Associations persisted after adjusting for offspring polygenic risk score for BMI (β_{maternal pre-pregnancy BMI}=0.128;95%CI=0.023,0.234; β_GWG=0.102;95%CI=0.006,0.198), and somewhat altered after adjustment for maternal cardiometabolic conditions (β_{maternal pre-pregnancy BMI}=0.144,95%CI=0.059, 0.230). Impact on GWG associations was negligible. Thus, perinatal obesogenic environment contributes to offspring BA beyond sociodemographic factors and maternal cardiometabolic history, yet intergenerational transmission of obesity seems to underlie these associations. Nonetheless, the period between adolescence and young adulthood could be targeted for weight-reducing interventions, ultimately promoting healthy aging.

In the field of intergroup conflict reconciliation, the relationship between psychological interventions and diverse political ideologies is often overlooked. The current work presents an innovative framework targeting individuals from different ideological backgrounds with effective interventions to promote social equality in real-world settings. In the first phase, we conducted an intervention tournament among 2,241 Jewish Israelis with varying political orientations. We found that conservatives showed the highest support for social equality after a corrective meta-perception intervention, centrists responded best to a social norms intervention, and liberals exhibited the strongest support after a malleability intervention. The second study involved a field experiment using A/B testing on social media to extend and replicate these findings. The results confirmed our hypotheses and demonstrated the potential of combining social psychology principles with contemporary marketing tools to enhance the effectiveness and real-world relevance of socio-psychological interventions.

The word-frequency distributions children hear during language learning are highly skewed (Zipfian). Previous studies suggest that such skewed environments confer a learnability advantage in tasks that require the learner to discover the units that have to be learned, as in word-segmentation or cross-situational learning. This facilitative effect has been attributed to contextual facilitation from high frequency items in learning lower frequency items, and to better learning under the increased predictability (lower entropy) of skewed distributions. Here, we ask whether Zipfian distributions facilitate learning beyond the discovery of units, as expected under the predictability account. We tested children's learning of novel word-referent mappings in a learning task where each mapping was presented in isolation during training, and did not need to be dicovered. We compared learning in a uniform environment to two skewed environments with different entropy levels. Children's learning was overall better in the two skewed environments, even for low frequency items. These results extend the facilitative effect of Zipfian distributions to additional learning tasks and show they can facilitate language learning beyond the discovery of units.

Over the last thirty years, substantial evidence has accumulated in support of the hypothesis that dysregulation of inflammatory processes plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of depression. This review traces the evolution of research supporting this link, discussing key findings from several major investigative fronts: Alterations in inflammatory markers associated with depression; Mood changes following the exogenous administration of inflammatory challenges; The anti-inflammatory properties of traditional antidepressants and the promising antidepressant effects of anti-inflammatory drugs. Additionally, it explores how inflammatory processes interact with specific brain regions and neurochemical systems to drive depressive pathology. A thorough analysis of the 100 most-cited experimental studies on the topic ensures a comprehensive, transparent and unbiased collection of references. This methodological approach offers a panoramic view of the inflammation-depression nexus, shedding light on the complexity of its mechanisms and their connections to psychiatric categorizations, symptoms, demographics, and life events. Synthesizing insights from this extensive research, the review presents an integrative model of the biological foundations of inflammation-associated depression. It posits that we have reached a critical juncture where the translation of this knowledge into personalized immunomodulatory treatments for depression is not just possible, but imperative.

Construal Level Theory (CLT) is a well-established, comprehensive framework that provides an account of the relationship between construal level and psychological distance, and the effects they have on cognitive processing and a wide range of phenomena. In this article we present a conceptualization of mindfulness based on the theoretical foundations of CLT. In light of mindfulness definitions and current research, it is difficult to determine whether mindfulness entails low psychological distance and concrete, non-conceptual representations of experience, or high psychological distance and abstract representations. We argue that mindfulness uniquely combines both. The two-dimensional model we present posits that mindfulness is characterized by a simultaneous decreased psychological distance from external sensory experiences and increased psychological distance from internal mental experiences. We highlight the uniqueness of this quality of mindfulness, and demonstrate how the formulation presented here not only aligns well with but also integrates research on mindfulness as a state of consciousness as well as a personality disposition. We further argue that this combination underlies the beneficial effects of mindfulness and delineate how it enables individuals to leverage the advantages and mitigate the drawbacks associated with both high and low levels of construal and psychological distance. The proposed two-dimensional model resolves contradictions in the literature, aiming to deepen our understanding of mindfulness, its benefits, and core mechanisms.

The present research utilized the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study to explore the motives driving individuals to adhere to recommended health standards. One month into the first lockdown and eight months before the availability of vaccinations, a large sample of 1,263 individuals completed measures of empathic concern and personal distress in response to a person who contracted the virus. In addition, we measured their COVID-related behaviors, relating to benefitting another person (i.e., donation), the self (i.e., physical hygiene), or both self and other (i.e., physical distancing). Consistent with the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis (Batson et al., 2015), we found that individuals who experience higher empathic concern, maintain greater physical distance and physical hygiene and act more generously. We further found that individuals who experienced high personal distress were less likely to act generously, albeit more likely to maintain personal hygiene and physical distance. These findings suggest that compliance with health recommendations can be encouraged by eliciting empathic concern or personal distress. Yet, compliance per se is not prosocial behavior. Any intervention aiming to increase prosocial motivation should focus on enhancing empathic concern while minimizing personal distress.

Adequate pain treatment is critical for patients’ physical and mental health. It is therefore essential that healthcare providers extend the appropriate treatment to each and every patient in pain. Here we build on findings showing that due to psychological stereotypes, females’ pain tends to be judged as less intense than males’ pain. We investigate whether medical decision makers give less pain treatment to female than to male patients. To answer this question, we analyze medical datasets on patients arriving with pain complaints at emergency departments in two countries (N = 21,851). In both countries, we find that physicians are 15-20% less likely to prescribe pain-relief medications to females than to males. This sex disparity remains significant even after adjusting for patients’ reported pain score, and for numerous patient, physician and emergency department variables. The disparity is observed among both male and female physicians. It is also reflected in additional pain management measures: nurses are about 10% less likely to record pain scores for female than for male patients, and female patients wait about 30 minutes longer for discharge from the emergency department. A controlled experiment supports the suggested mechanism, demonstrating via a clinical vignette that nurses (N=109) judge females’ pain as less intense than that of males. The findings provide converging evidence for a bias against female patients in real-life pain management decisions. We discuss the troubling societal and medical implications of this bias, and call for policy interventions to ensure equal pain treatment.

A fundamental question in the social sciences is how collectives of individuals form intelligent judgments. This article tests the hypothesis that genetically-diverse groups make better collective judgments than genetically more homogenous groups. Two studies were conducted (a total of N = 602 participants) in which sets of twins (both monozygotic and dizygotic) were required to perform the task of making numerical judgments. The accuracy of the judgments made by pairs of participants—who were either co-twins (i.e., genetically-related) or were not related—was then compared. The results indicate that the judgments made by unrelated pairs were more accurate than those of the genetically-related twins. Critically, however, this superior performance was found only among monozygotic twins, evidencing the role of genetic relatedness in collective judgment. This research provides the first empirical demonstration of the benefit of genetic diversity for collective judgments, shedding light on the origins of the ‘wisdom of crowds’ phenomenon.