Knowledge that Transforms

Reward- and punishment-associated (i.e., Pavlovian) cues can trigger specific responses that interfere with learning appropriate actions. Prior work has shown that reward impedes the learning of “no-go” responses, and punishment impedes the learning of “go” responses. This Pavlovian bias is theorized to arise at the motor level and may reflect a rigid coupling between reward and action activation and between punishment and action suppression. Contrary to this view, across two experiments testing adults (one preregistered, total N = 370), using behavioral analyses and computational modeling, we show that action framing strongly modulates Pavlovian bias. When go was framed as approach and no-go as avoidance, we replicated the typical asymmetry in learning. However, when go was framed as avoidance and no-go as approach, this Pavlovian bias disappeared in choice and was attenuated in response times. Pavlovian bias thus operates partly on a semantic level and is more flexible than often theorized.

= 42.1) of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. We conducted a codebook thematic analysis of written narratives collected within one month of the event. We developed four themes: contextual memory (sensory-perceptual features, time, and space), physical injury, heroism, and contemplating mortality. Survivors recalled vivid sensory impressions, detailed spatial awareness organized around escape, and temporal distortions, including both subjective slowing and sequence gaps. Accounts of graphic injury, prosocial action under fire, and direct confrontation with death further structured the narratives. Limitations include prompted rather than free recall, written self-report allowing revision, and a predominantly female sample. These findings add to the scant literature on mass-shooting survivors' memories.

Evaluating sources is an essential skill in our misinformation-riddled media environment. However, previous studies suggest that people tend not to engage with source information during reading, and very little research exists on how source credibility and readers’ beliefs interact on social media. We examined how source credibility and prior beliefs affect reading social-media posts. Finnish university students ( N = 83) first filled out a questionnaire measuring beliefs on eight controversial topics and then read 76 mock-up tweets on these topics while their eye movements were recorded. The sources of the tweets were pretested to be either credible or noncredible sources for the topic. Eye-movement results indicate that when credible sources say something belief-inconsistent, or if noncredible sources something belief-consistent, reading of the tweet is slower, and more attention is paid to the sources. Findings suggest that these “source-belief” inconsistencies disrupt reading and elicit deeper processing of source information.

False memory can arise from semantically or perceptually similar experiences, as demonstrated in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Although semantic and phonological DRM tasks yield parallel false-recognition patterns, researchers have argued that they reflect distinct memory processes, based in part on findings that semantic associates elicit more false “remember” (R) judgments, whereas phonological associates elicit more false “know” (K) judgments. We directly tested this claim using semantic and phonological DRM tasks with old-new recognition followed by RK ratings ( N = 227 English-speaking students from an Australian university). The R/K dissociation was replicated, yet both parametric and nonparametric analyses revealed a single underlying dimension. A signal-detection-theory model fitted the data nearly perfectly, where R judgments reflected a stricter response criterion than K. A state-trace analysis likewise showed a monotonic relation between old/new and R false alarms across tasks. These results challenge dual-process interpretations, instead suggesting that semantic materials simply produce higher rates of false recognition.

People in romantic relationships often report higher life satisfaction than single individuals. We propose that this life-satisfaction gap reflects, in part, alignment with the prevailing norm of being in a relationship. In a preregistered study with a large-scale data set ( N = 382,078 adults across 379 regions in Great Britain), we replicated prior findings: partnered (vs. single) individuals reported higher life satisfaction. Notably, this life-satisfaction gap varied by region, being larger in regions with higher relationship rates and smaller in regions with lower relationship rates. This effect persisted after we controlled for various confounds; it passed robustness checks and replicated at a smaller scale across 218 London neighborhoods. Together, our findings emphasize the importance of situating relationship experiences within their geographic contexts, offering new insights into where and why differences in life satisfaction between partnered and single individuals emerge.

The numerous executive orders directed at transgender youth in the weeks following the 2025 U.S. presidential inauguration were likely a signal to these youth—and their parents—that the federal government no longer supported them. Using a longitudinal design spanning 3 years prior to the inauguration (2022–2024) and 2 months surrounding the inauguration, we tested whether the mental health and well-being of U.S.-based transgender youth and their parents declined relative to that of cisgender youth and their parents in a sample that, on the whole, did not support the new administration ( N = 160 youth, aged 12–17 years; N = 167 parents). Across preregistered analyses, we observed significant declines in the mental health and well-being of parents of transgender youth compared to parents of cisgender youth; we observed fewer differences over time between transgender versus cisgender youth themselves. Our findings identify an immediate potential cost of the current political environment for supportive parents of transgender youth.

Empowering people to navigate online information competently is essential to complement systemic content moderation and platform regulation. A nationally representative randomized controlled study among adults in Germany ( N = 2,666) compared two media-literacy interventions: a source-focused lateral-reading strategy to help participants distinguish trustworthy from untrustworthy news outlets, and a claim-focused search strategy to help them assess the credibility of specific claims. Both interventions showed small improvements in discernment, but not all effects were statistically distinguishable from zero. At a 2-week follow-up, discernment improved in all groups, and differences between the intervention and control groups were no longer statistically distinguishable. We found no evidence of backfire effects. An exploratory analysis of discernment pretreatment indicated the lowest performance for supporters of populist radical-right parties. Behavioral measures suggested increases in information search in both intervention groups. On average, lateral reading reduced trust in untrustworthy sources, and online search increased trust in trustworthy sources.

-specular reflections from the surface of the eye that vary with the position of light sources in the environment. This study tested whether eye glint influences face perception, particularly in how observers perceive the gaze direction of a person they are viewing. Adult participants viewed computer-rendered face images that varied in eye direction, head rotation, and illumination. The presence of eye glint had little influence on the accuracy or precision of perceived gaze direction when faces were viewed under simplified conditions. However, biases in perceived gaze direction caused by changes in head orientation or illumination direction were reduced when eye glint was present relative to when it was absent. This suggests that eye glint can help an observer to maintain constancy in gaze perception despite variability in the appearance of the eye region that occurs across viewing conditions.

Investigations into people’s ability to use multiple working memory representations to concurrently search for targets have led to mixed findings. Although the discourse has predominantly centered around capacity limits in multitarget search, we here propose that people can switch between sequential and concurrent search. In Experiment 1 ( n = 16 adults), manual responses and oculomotor behavior revealed that participants could search sequentially, and concurrently for at least two targets, when instructed. In Experiments 2a ( n = 16 adults) and 2b ( n = 16 adults), participants were free to choose how they searched. Trial-level modeling showed that participants primarily used sequential and concurrent search as specific modes and flexibly adjusted between either mode depending on template set size, template availability, stimulus properties, and individual preference. Our findings stress the dynamic and adaptive nature of visual search. Moreover, understanding that different search modes can be flexibly picked as “tools from the toolbox” may reconcile inconsistencies in prior findings.

Realizing a sustainable future requires the active participation of today's young generations. How can we foster adolescents' proenvironmental engagement? In a preregistered, cross-national, longitudinal field experiment, we tested a novel approach to promoting adolescent behavior change: motive alignment. We hypothesized that presenting proenvironmental behavior as aligned with adolescents' developmentally salient motives (in this case, autonomy and peer status) would enhance their engagement. In Study 1 (the Netherlands), a motive-alignment (versus control) intervention implemented in secondary schools increased adolescents' proenvironmental food choices on the day of the intervention. Although this effect faded after 4 weeks, participants in the intervention condition continued to donate more to an environmental organization at follow-up. In Study 2 (China), we replicated these findings. Motive alignment thus offers a promising approach to strengthen interventions promoting adolescents' proenvironmental behavior; it presents scalable and affordable opportunities to foster youth behavior change.