Experimental psychology is witnessing an increase in research on individual differences, which requires the development of new tasks that can reliably assess variations among participants. To do this, cognitive researchers need statistical methods that many researchers have not learned during their training. The lack of expertise can pose challenges not only in designing good, new tasks but also in evaluating tasks developed by others. To bridge the gap, this article provides an overview of test psychology applied to performance tasks, covering fundamental concepts such as standardization, reliability, norming and validity. It provides practical guidelines for developing and evaluating experimental tasks, as well as for combining tasks to better understand individual differences. To further address common misconceptions, the article lists 11 prevailing myths. The purpose of this guide is to provide experimental psychologists with the knowledge and tools needed to conduct rigorous and insightful studies of individual differences.

As the author begins her second term as editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance (and third term as editor of an APA journal), she wants to reflect on the editorial team\'s successes, on how the work they publish is changing, and looks forward to new ways for the Journal stakeholders to meet their common goals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychological researchers often identify with psychological disciplines, such as social or clinical psychology. The current study analyzed Google Scholar profiles from 6,532 international scientists who attracted more than 100 citations in 2019 and self-identified with at least one of 10 common psychological disciplines (psychoanalysis; clinical psychology; (cognitive) neuroscience; developmental psychology; educational psychology; experimental psychology; biological psychology/psychophysiology; mathematical psychology/psychometrics; social psychology; personality psychology). Results indicated that almost half of all psychologists self-identified with either social psychology or cognitive neuroscience. There were 487 topics that were endorsed at least five times, ranging from highly discipline-specific topics to more integrative ones, such as emotion and personality. We also factor-analyzed frequencies of topical endorsement across disciplines and found two factors, which we interpreted as reflecting correlational and experimental research traditions (with social psychology being the largest discipline within the former tradition and cognitive neuroscience being the largest discipline within the latter tradition). Differences in productivity and impact were also found, with researchers identifying with psychometrics being the most productive and researchers identifying with personality psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and multidisciplinary psychology as the most impactful in terms of citation increases per additional output. Recommendations for promoting cross-fertilization across psychological disciplines are formulated.

BACKGROUND: Differences in affective processing have previously been shown in functional neurological disorder (FND); however, the mechanistic relevance is uncertain. We tested the hypotheses that highly arousing affective stimulation would result in elevated subjective functional neurological symptoms (FNS), and this would be associated with elevated autonomic reactivity. The possible influence of cognitive detachment was also explored.
METHODS: Individuals diagnosed with FND (motor symptoms/seizures; n=14) and healthy controls (n=14) viewed Positive, Negative and Neutral images in blocks, while passively observing the stimuli (\'Watch\') or detaching themselves (\'Distance\'). The FND group rated their primary FNS, and all participants rated subjective physical (arousal, pain, fatigue) and psychological states (positive/negative affect, dissociation), immediately after each block. Skin conductance (SC) and heart rate (HR) were monitored continuously.
RESULTS: FNS ratings were higher after Negative compared with Positive and Neutral blocks in the FND group (p=0.002, ηp 2=0.386); however, this effect was diminished in the Distance condition relative to the Watch condition (p=0.018, ηp 2=0.267). SC and/or HR correlated with FNS ratings in the Negative-Watch and Neutral-Distance conditions (r values=0.527-0.672, p values=0.006-0.035). The groups did not differ in subjective affect or perceived arousal (p values=0.541-0.919, ηp 2=<0.001-0.015).
CONCLUSIONS: Emotionally significant events may exert an influence on FNS which is related to autonomic activation rather than altered subjective affect or perceived arousal. This influence may be modulated by cognitive detachment. Further work is needed to determine the relevance and neural bases of these processes in specific FND phenotypes.

BACKGROUND: Rapid antigen testing (RAT) results are visually read as whether colored line is present or absent. The subjective interpretation potentially misses detecting weak lines due to lower analyte concentration in samples tested, requiring training. Although routine test experience has improved the result readout skills, it consumes time and resources. Therefore, we created a computer-based feedback training method using open-source experimental psychology software, wherein participants accumulate RAT result readout experience by repeatedly responding positive/negative to randomly presented pictures showing RAT results; then, they receive feedback on their answers as correct or incorrect and are asked to stare at the pictures again with the knowledge of correct answer. This study aimed to examine the training effects in improving the skills, using coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) RAT.
METHODS: Twenty-two medical technologists were randomly divided into two groups: the feedback-training and test-experience groups. Using several pictures showing positive and negative results of COVID-19 RAT, after examination of their initial result readout skills, feedback-training group received the feedback training, whereas test-experience group performed an equal number of tests without feedback to accumulate test experience, and their skills were examined again. The ratio of \"positive\" answers to the pictures showing positive results (i.e., hit rate) was statistically analyzed.
RESULTS: The feedback-training group showed a significantly higher hit rate after their training, whereas the test-experience group did not. The feedback training effects were manifested in weak line detection.
CONCLUSIONS: This computer-based feedback training method can be an effective tool for improving RAT result readout skills.

Perception of others\' actions is crucial for survival, interaction, and communication. Despite decades of cognitive neuroscience research dedicated to understanding the perception of actions, we are still far away from developing a neurally inspired computer vision system that approaches human action perception. A major challenge is that actions in the real world consist of temporally unfolding events in space that happen \"here and now\" and are actable. In contrast, visual perception and cognitive neuroscience research to date have largely studied action perception through 2D displays (e.g., images or videos) that lack the presence of actors in space and time, hence these displays are limited in affording actability. Despite the growing body of knowledge in the field, these challenges must be overcome for a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of the perception of others\' actions in the real world. The aim of this study is to introduce a novel setup to conduct naturalistic laboratory experiments with live actors in scenarios that approximate real-world settings. The core element of the setup used in this study is a transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen through which participants can watch the live actions of a physically present actor while the timing of their presentation is precisely controlled. In this work, this setup was tested in a behavioral experiment. We believe that the setup will help researchers reveal fundamental and previously inaccessible cognitive and neural mechanisms of action perception and will be a foundation for future studies investigating social perception and cognition in naturalistic settings.

The German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) is now recognized worldwide as the founding figure of academic psychology. He founded the first Institute for Experimental Psychology in Leipzig in 1879 and gained recognition during his lifetime. The scientist\'s last home in the small village of Großbothen in East Germany, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Berlin, was left to decay after German reunification in 1989/1990. Wundt\'s other homes in Leipzig were destroyed during World War II. During the GDR period, when the house was owned by the public sector, an inscription in honor of Wundt was added. It then stood empty for many years and fell into disrepair. In June 2016, an association was founded at Schloss Altranstädt near Leipzig with the aim of acquiring the rights to use the Wilhelm Wundt House. Thanks to their efforts, the house has now been entrusted to a conservationist as of 2018. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Frederic Bartlett championed the importance of individual strategy differences when remembering details of events. I will describe how long-running theoretical debates in the area of working memory may be resolved by considering differences across participants in the strategies that they use when performing cognitive tasks, and through adversarial collaboration between rival laboratories. In common with the established view within experimental cognitive psychology, I assume that adults have a range of cognitive functions, evolved for everyday life. However, I will present evidence showing that these functions can be engaged selectively for laboratory tasks, and that how they are deployed may differ between and within individuals for the same task. Reliance on aggregate data, while treating inter- and intra-participant variability in data patterns as statistical noise, may lead to misleading conclusions about theoretical principles of cognition, and of working memory in particular. Moreover, different theoretical perspectives may be focused on different levels of explanation and different theoretical goals rather than being mutually incompatible. Yet researchers from contrasting theoretical frameworks pursue science as a competition, rarely do researchers from competing labs work in collaboration, and debates self-perpetuate. These approaches to research can stall debate resolution and generate ever-increasing scientific diversity rather than scientific progress. The article concludes by describing a recent extended adversarial collaboration (the WoMAAC project) focused on theoretical contrasts in working memory, and illustrates how this approach to conducting research may help resolve scientific debate and facilitate scientific advance.

This article provides a detailed analysis of the intellectual research project of Wilhelm Mann, one of the pioneers of experimental and educational psychology in Chile. Mann\'s work has been the object of so little analysis that his intellectual influences and networks are not clearly known. We analyzed 338 intratext citations from 22 works by Wilhelm Mann published during the period 1904-1915. As a result, we obtained a mapping of his cooperation networks and used a quantitative approach to study the authors who most influenced his career, among whom were William Stern, Herbert Spencer, Wilhelm Wundt, Alfred Binet, and Ernst Meumann. Mann was closely connected to the international and contemporary advances and discussions of his time, despite the lack of infrastructure and difficulties in communication. Mann was the first psychologist to develop a long-term project in Chile that aimed to measure the individualities of Chilean students and their intellectual development.

In this editorial, the new journal editor introduces herself and then describes her goals for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).