Matthew Garner

Sleep and social processes are bidirectionally interrelated. Circadian factors such as sleep duration, quality, and chronotype can influence social processing, including moral judgements and decision‐making. We investigated the associations of self‐reported sleep and circadian factors with measures of human moral and social judgements, including online vigilantism, aversion to causing and witnessing harm, and generosity. A total of 109 healthy adults (18–39 years) completed an observational online survey of self‐report measures of sleep and circadian factors (quality, chronotype, sleep regularity, social jetlag), as well as self‐report or behavioural measures related to moral concerns, such as willingness to engage in online vigilantism, aversion to causing and witnessing harm to others, and generosity (the Dictator Game). We found significant associations between increased online vigilantism and earlier chronotype, higher sleep regularity, and less social jetlag ( r > 0.20, all p < 0.05), and between aversion to causing and witnessing harm and sleep regularity ( r > 0.20, all p < 0.05), but not for dictator game generosity ( p > 0.06). Hierarchical regression analyses identified moderate effect sizes for sleep regularity and (to a lesser extent) social jetlag as significant contributors to vigilantism and aversion to causing and witnessing harm ( R ² > 0.21, all p < 0.05), after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, mental health conditions, and medication intake. A small, non‐significant effect size was identified for sleep quality and dictator game generosity ( R ² = 0.13, p = 0.06). The findings highlight the importance of considering sleep and circadian regularity in human moral judgements and decision‐making.

Objectives: To examine concurrent associations among cognitive-affective factors associated with psychological distress in young adults. Methods: Cross-sectional structural equation modelling was conducted in a community sample of 841 young adults aged 18 to 30 years. Psychological distress was specified as a latent factor indicated by depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), anxious symptoms (GAD-7), and perceived stress (PSS-10). Mindfulness facets (FFMQ), metacognition (MSAS-18), resilience (ER89), and creativity (RDCA) were entered into two models with alternative structural orderings. Model fit was evaluated using the CFI, TLI, RMSEA, SRMR, AIC, and BIC.Results: Model 1 showed acceptable-to-good fit (CFI = .98, TLI = .94, RMSEA = .07, SRMR = .03) and better comparative fit than Model 2 (CFI = .97, TLI = .90, RMSEA = .09, SRMR = .06). Model 1 statistically accounted for 53.9% of the variance in latent psychological distress. Acting with awareness (β = -.29), nonjudging (β = -.39), and nonreactivity (β = -.20) showed unique negative associations with distress, whereas observing showed a small positive association (β = .08). Resilience showed a direct negative association and negative indirect associations in configurations involving acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity. Metacognition showed negative indirect associations involving acting with awareness and nonreactivity. Creativity showed a bivalent pattern: a positive indirect association involving observing and a negative indirect association involving nonreactivity.Conclusions: Acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity showed the clearest unique associations with lower psychological distress in young adults. These findings identify candidate self-regulatory capacities for prospective testing in preventive and therapeutic intervention research.

Objective: Anxiety influences working memory performance, but the effects on clinical neuropsychological assessments of working memory are not well known. Methods: We examined the effect of anxiety, induced using the 7.5% carbon dioxide model of anxiety on standardized clinical neuropsychological tests of working memory and executive function in a single‐blind, placebo‐controlled, randomized, crossover within‐subjects design. Results: The CO ₂ ‐challenge reduced spatial working memory performance and verbal working memory performance accuracy when task demands were high. The CO ₂ ‐challenge increased effort and reduced processing efficiency across all verbal and spatial working memory tasks. Conclusions: The CO ₂ ‐challenge resulted in significant reductions in working memory performance and processing efficiency. These results encourage the routine assessment of anxiety when administering and interpreting neuropsychological measures of working memory function in clinical practice.

Experimental psychopathology (EPP) historically relied on extensive experimenter training, but this has dwindled in recent years. Insufficient training may lead to increased ‘experimenter noise’ and ‘protocol drift’, potentially hindering the fidelity and replicability of EPP research. This may ultimately impact translation of findings from the laboratory to the clinic, decelerating the development of novel psychological interventions. In an effort to address this, we made a first attempt to develop experimenter training guidance for EPP researchers, using the example of the trauma film paradigm (TFP). In a pragmatic review of articles on methodological guidance for laboratory-based EPP paradigms, we identified only seven articles, just one of which provided an explicit framework for experimenter training. Incorporating insights from the reviewed articles, together with approaches employed in adjacent clinical trials, we suggest a possible framework for experimenter training in EPP. The framework includes overarching principles of experimenter training, steps in a training process, an approach to evaluating training outcomes, and offers examples from the TFP. Further work is needed, and future directions include incentivizing, improving, disseminating and experimentally testing guidance for experimenter training in EPP. Critically, as we have seen in previous decades, this may even ultimately aid the turbulent translational pipeline of new techniques from the laboratory to evidence-based psychological therapies grounded in scientific principles.

Objectives: Mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) are promising evidence-based interventions to mitigate the mental health crisis amongst young adults in the UK. This meta-analysis investigates MBPs’ impact on mental health outcomes and facets of mindfulness to inform the design of precise, evidence-based interventions addressing young adults' needs. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted using PubMed and Web of Science. Random-effects meta-analytic models were used on the primary (anxiety, depression, stress, distress, positive affect, and negative affect) and secondary outcomes (mindfulness and its facets; observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging and nonreactivity). Mixed meta-regression models and subgroup analyses were used to explore study, sample, and intervention characteristics. Results: Across 120 eligible studies (N=5958 participants and N=6004 controls), MBPs significantly improved positive and negative affect with low heterogeneity (|gs| < 0.18) and high heterogeneity in other outcomes. Subgroup analyses identified that MBSR and MBSR-based programs improved anxiety and depression (gs = -0.26), mindfulness apps improved depression and stress (gs < -0.48), and mindfulness meditation practices improved anxiety, distress, and mindfulness (gs < 0.65). Hybrid, online and self-guided delivery were effective for anxiety, depression and mindfulness (gs < 0.57). Meta-regressions identified that hybrid and self-guided delivery were more effective than face-to-face in improving anxiety, observing, and nonreactivity (bs > 0.74).Conclusions: MBPs are useful tools to enhance mental health and facets of mindfulness in young adults. The significant residual heterogeneity necessitates further examination of potential sources of heterogeneity, specifically around the features of face-to-face MBPs and combined mindfulness programs (CMPs).