Publications
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Aug 2024 • Journal Article • Cognition
Infant-directed speech becomes less redundant as infants grow: implications for language learning
AbstractDo speakers use less redundant language with more proficient interlocutors? Both the communicative efficiency framework and the language development literature predict that speech directed to younger infants should be more redundant than speech directed to older infants. Here, we test this by quantifying redundancy in infant-directed speech using entropy rate – an
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17 Jun 2024 • Preprint • Research Square
Ricci Curvature and the Stream of Thought
AbstractThis paper investigates the dynamics of semantic associations by exploring the interplay between continuity and direction, in a geometric semantic space. While acknowledging the role of continuity in guiding associations, our work introduces the notion of Direction as a crucial factor influencing transitions. Conceptually, we define the stream of associations as movement
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14 Jun 2024 • Journal Article • Cognition and Emotion
The affective gap: a call for a comprehensive examination of the discrete emotions underlying affective polarization
AbstractBakker and Lelkes (Citation2024) point at a critical gap in research on affective polarisation: the limited understanding of its affective components, mainly due to the reliance on a unidimensional operationalisation of affect in affective polarisation. They advocate for a broader approach to study affect, integrating explicit and implicit measures, and call on emotion
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10 Jun 2024 • Journal Article • Communications Psychology
Social and nonsocial synchrony are interrelated and romantically attractive
AbstractThe mechanisms of romantic bonding in humans are largely unknown. Recent research suggests that physiological synchrony between partners is associated with bonding. This study combines an experimental approach with a naturalistic dating setup to test whether the individual differences in social and nonsocial synchrony are interdependent, and linked to romantic attractiveness
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4 Jun 2024 • Journal Article • Journal of Conflict Resolution
The Warm War: The Effect of Ukrainian President's Communal Personality Traits on Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior towards the Ukrainians
AbstractThe war between Russia and Ukraine is not only over territory or security but also over public opinion. Research has shown that national leaders can leverage their personality – in a general, positive sense – to arouse, in people living beyond their countries’ borders, emotions of empathy or pro-social reactions towards their countries’ citizens. We focus on the
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3 Jun 2024 • Journal Article • Emotion Review
Emotion Regulation Versus Mood Regulation
AbstractEmotions and moods have been distinguished in the literature. If they are distinct, we may expect emotion regulation and mood regulation to be distinct too. We show that although emotion regulation and mood regulation are considered theoretically distinct, they are often confounded empirically. We review characteristics proposed to distinguish emotions from moods by
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Jun 2024 • Journal Article • JMIR Mental Health
Considering the Role of Human Empathy in AI-Driven Therapy
AbstractRecent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) language models have elevated the vision of using conversational AI support for mental health, with a growing body of literature indicating varying degrees of efficacy. In this paper, we ask when, in therapy, it will be easier to replace humans and, conversely, in what instances, human connection will still be more
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Jun 2024 • Journal Article • Developmental Psychology
Gender and cultural differences in the development of reciprocity in young children
AbstractA foundational mechanism underlying human cooperation is reciprocity. In the context of repeated interactions with others, it is not always clear the degree to which in-kind responses reflect responsiveness to partners’ prior behaviors (“reactive” responses), an interest unrelated to the partner (“nonreactive” responses), or any combination of the two. To disentangle
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21 May 2024 • Journal Article • PNAS
Zoom out: An intervention on the virtual learning environment improves minority students' grades in two field experiments in Israel
AbstractClosing the achievement gap for minority students in higher education requires addressing the lack of belonging these students experience. This paper introduces a psychological intervention that strategically targets key elements within the learning environment to foster the success of minority students. The intervention sought to enhance Palestinian minority student’s
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May 2024 • Journal Article • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Hand movement trajectories illustrate the mechanism underlying Kurt Lewin's distinction between approach–approach and avoidance–avoidance motivational …
AbstractClassic motivational conflicts theory (Lewin, 1931) distinguishes between approach–approach, and avoidance–avoidance conflicts. Previous research has focused solely on testing the theory’s prediction that avoidance–avoidance conflicts are more difficult to resolve than approach–approach ones, using outcome measures (decision time and self-reports). The theory, however
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