Robin Samuel

Semantic language dysfunction is a hallmark of early psychosis, yet the underlying brain structural correlates are largely unexplored. In particular, it is unclear whether core deficits arise from disruptions to semantic representation, which refers to the stored knowledge of word meanings, or to semantic control, which entails top-down mechanisms that guide the retrieval and selection of context-appropriate semantic information. By dissociating semantic representation-related from semantic control-related performance, we aimed to identify the preferential impairment in early psychosis and its structural correlates in the ventral and dorsal language streams. We investigated N = 120 individuals across the psychosis spectrum: N = 40 individuals with early psychosis, N = 40 individuals with high schizotypy, and N = 40 individuals with low schizotypy. Participants with high and low schizotypy constituted the non-clinical comparison group. All participants completed tasks designed to isolate semantic representation-related and semantic control-related processes. Given the importance of accurate delineation, this study employed meticulous manual fiber tractography of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data to ensure reliable evaluation of ventral and dorsal pathway microstructure. Compared to individuals with high and low schizotypy, individuals with early psychosis showed pronounced deficits in semantic control-related performance, while the semantic representation-related measure remained largely intact. Mean diffusivity in the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and left uncinate fasciculus was lower in the early psychosis group than in individuals with schizotypy. In the early psychosis group, fractional anisotropy in the left arcuate fasciculus was negatively correlated with semantic control-related performance, but no DTI measure was associated with the semantic representation-related measure. These results underscore semantic control-related performance as a core deficit in early psychosis and extend the conventional view that semantic processing is subserved primarily by ventral pathways. The arcuate fasciculus appears implicated in semantic control-related processes, indicating a more integrated interplay of dorsal and ventral streams in semantic language processing.

The rapid expansion of digital technologies has created both opportunities and risks for young people. Previous research shows that their digital engagement is often driven by educational or informational needs, social interaction, and entertainment. However, many practitioners and scholars warn of youth-specific risks. Moreover, pre-existing socioeconomic advantages shape not only access but also young people’s digital motivation, mastery, and patterns of engagement. Adopting an inclusive approach that encompasses a wide range of methodologies, we conduct a scoping review to explore the impact of digital engagement on young people's life outcomes, with a particular focus on the role of socioeconomic resources. We selected relevant studies from a systematic search of the Web of Science, PsycINFO, and the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences. We then categorized the empirical evidence based on its relevance to our topic and analyzed each study's results, determining whether it showed benefit or harm based on the observed direction of the effect. Findings from 57 empirical studies suggest that digital activities are not inherently harmful or beneficial but depend on the specific task in focus and the domain of life outcomes considered. While digital engagement tends to have a positive impact on academic outcomes, its effects on wellbeing are mixed. Socioeconomic resources generally give young people an additional advantage in using digital devices and activities for more positive life outcomes and in balancing online opportunities and risks. However, more research is needed to analyze the channels through which this advantage is realized.

This study aimed to deepen our understanding of parental academic involvement by examining the quality of parental involvement, its underlying emotional processes, and its impact on children and parents themselves from an organismic perspective. Using latent profile and latent transition analyses with a two-wave sample of 1,059 U.S. parents (52% mothers) of 6th–9th graders, five parental involvement profiles were identified based on four involvement dimensions (i.e., autonomy support, psychological control, provision of structure, and warmth): Need-Supportive (~ 8%), Autonomy-Supportive Warm (~ 10%), Low Involved (~ 20%), Controlling (~ 27%), and Mixed (~ 35%). The Controlling profile showed the highest stability (82%), while the Need-Supportive profile demonstrated the highest dynamics (53%). Parental integrative emotion regulation predicted the highest probability of membership in the Need-supportive profile, whereas parental emotional dysregulation was associated with the highest likelihood of belonging to the Controlling profile. Overall, time-invariant sociodemographic factors and parental health-related problems (e.g., feeling depressed, physical pain) had minimal effects on profile probabilities. Findings regarding outcomes suggest that the Need-supportive profile is the most adaptive, contributing to a sense of self-determination in parenting, whereas the Controlling profile is the most dysfunctional, linking to the highest levels of exhaustion and need frustration in parenting. However, no differences in offspring’s school performance were found to be associated with profile membership. The study has important implications for understanding parental involvement quality and suggests ways to support parents.

This article investigates how eco-anxiety relates to subjective well-being among young people in Luxembourg, and whether this relationship is modified by proximity to extreme weather events. Luxembourg, with one of the highest GDPs in the world, represents a noteworthy case of a nation that also consistently ranks among the happiest. Yet it experienced a severe flooding in the summer of 2021. Using data from a natural experiment, we find that eco-anxiety is positively associated with happiness, an affective dimension of well-being, but unrelated to life satisfaction, a cognitive dimension. This association remains unchanged after experiencing the flooding, even among individuals directly affected by it. Our study contributes to the growing body of research on the relationship between well-being and eco-anxiety by disentangling the affective and cognitive dimensions of well-being in the context of an extreme weather event, using a natural experiment design. Overall, our findings suggest that eco-anxiety may be partly shaped by social desirability, rather than by intrinsic motivational beliefs and psychological distress. This conclusion may contribute to explaining why young people in high-income countries remain less inclined to take action against climate change.

Although carbon taxes are an effective way for countries to meet the emissions targets set out in the Paris Agreement, these policies remain unpopular. Here we present a survey experiment conducted in China, Germany, India, and the UK, based on over 13,000 evaluations of policy designs. We examined four factors influencing public support: effectiveness in reducing emissions, impact on household costs, use of tax revenues, and international coordination. Communicating environmental effectiveness increased support, while making costs explicit reduced it. Preferences for revenue use varied: some respondents favoured direct payments, while others preferred investments in welfare. Contrary to expectations, only German respondents showed increased support when other countries also adopted similar measures. These findings highlight the importance of national context in shaping public attitudes. Carefully designed and clearly communicated carbon tax policies can improve public acceptability and enhance the political feasibility of effective climate action.

This study investigates researcher variability in computational reproduction, an activity for which it is least expected. Eighty-five independent teams attempted numerical replication of results from an original study of policy preferences and immigration. Reproduction teams were randomly grouped into a ‘transparent group’ receiving original study and code or ‘opaque group’ receiving only a method and results description and no code. The transparent group mostly verified original results (95.7% same sign and p -value cutoff), while the opaque group had less success (89.3%). Second-decimal place exact numerical reproductions were less common (76.9 and 48.1%). Qualitative investigation of the workflows revealed many causes of error, including mistakes and procedural variations. When curating mistakes, we still find that only the transparent group was reliably successful. Our findings imply a need for transparency, but also more. Institutional checks and less subjective difficulty for researchers ‘doing reproduction’ would help, implying a need for better training. We also urge increased awareness of complexity in the research process and in ‘push button’ replications.

An increasing number of countries are considering implementing domestic carbon taxes to achieve the carbon-reduction targets set in the Paris Agreement. However, introducing such taxes presents significant challenges for policymakers worldwide. Despite their effectiveness, carbon taxes remain the least popular policy instrument. Furthermore, few studies focus on public support for carbon taxation in low- and middle-income countries, a crucial area of research given the global significance of their emissions. Therefore, we conducted a pre-registered full factorial survey experiment involving more than 13,000 evaluations of policy designs in China, Germany, India, and the UK to address the most prevalent barriers to the popularity of carbon taxes, as discussed in academic research, policy analysis, and public discourse: perceived effectiveness, average household costs, the types of revenue recycling schemes implemented, and the extent of international cooperation. Our findings revealed striking differences in how the countries responded to carbon tax policies. The key findings included the following: cost transparency unexpectedly reduced support, whereas communicating the effectiveness of the policy increased it; preferences for revenue recycling schemes varied significantly across the four countries, highlighting the need for tailored approaches; and, surprisingly, international cooperation increased support only in Germany, challenging assumptions about global climate policy. These findings have profound implications for policymakers, suggesting that an effective carbon tax design must be carefully calibrated in the national context. This study provides a roadmap for designing carbon tax policies that are environmentally effective and politically viable for diverse global economies.

In the face of climate change, the principles of distributive social justice have become paramount in addressing the implications of resource allocation and the unequal impacts of environmental degradation. Our study explores the relationship between distributive social justice and environmental attitudes among young people in the context of climate change. Using a natural experimental design, we examine how the 2021 European Floods influenced social justice and environmental attitudes. Our results indicate significant shifts in attitudes, particularly regarding social justice, following the flooding. We found a strong and robust relationship between social justice and environmental attitudes. A causal mediation analysis revealed that floods affected environmental attitudes indirectly through social justice attitudes beyond direct effects. Our results emphasise the importance of integrating the principles of justice in addressing climate change and suggest that young people’s perspectives on social justice play a crucial role in shaping environmental policies and responses to climate crises.

School life is an important determinant of adolescents’ subjective well-being. While there is now an extensive literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents’ well-being, adolescents’ school experience during the pandemic and how it relates to different dimensions of their subjective well-being has received little attention. This study addresses this gap by examining the relationship between young people’s school experience and their cognitive and affective subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in Luxembourg. We rely on a unique two-wave panel dataset that contains granular information about young people’s lives shortly after the onset of the pandemic in July 2020 and one year later in July 2021. Our study extends the current scientific knowledge on the COVID-19 pandemic by highlighting that while school experience has a weak relationship with affective subjective well-being (i.e., happiness), it is strongly associated with cognitive subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction), particularly one year after the pandemic outbreak for those with more negative feelings about school. Our study also reveals that our results on cognitive well-being are stratified by social status.