<table style="border:1px solid #adadad; background-color: #F3F1EC; color: #666666; padding:8px; -webkit-border-radius:4px; border-radius:4px; -moz-border-radius:4px; line-height:16px; margin-bottom:6px;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="font:13px Helvetica, sans-serif; border-radius:4px; -moz-border-radius:4px; -webkit-border-radius:4px; background-color:#fff; padding:8px; margin-bottom:6px; border:1px solid #adadad;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/personalization-algorithms-create-an-illusion-of-competence-study-finds/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Personalization algorithms create an illusion of competence, study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Dec 2nd 2025, 08:00</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#494949;text-align:justify;font-size:13px;">
<p><p>A new study published in the <em><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/amp0000191" target="_blank">Journal of Experimental Psychology: General</a></em> suggests that personalization algorithms used by online content platforms may actively hinder the learning process. The findings provide evidence that when algorithms tailor information to a user’s behavior, that user may develop a biased understanding of the subject while simultaneously feeling overconfident in their inaccurate knowledge</p>
<p>The study was conducted by Giwon Bahg from the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University, alongside Vladimir M. Sloutsky and Brandon M. Turner from the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University. Previous scientific inquiries into personalization have often focused on how these systems reinforce existing beliefs, such as political ideologies or social attitudes. This phenomenon is often referred to as a “filter bubble.”</p>
<p>The research team sought to determine if these algorithms affect basic cognitive processes when a person attempts to learn about an entirely new topic where they have no prior opinions. They investigated whether the mechanism of tailoring content to increase consumption might inadvertently limit exposure to the broader environment. </p>
<p>This restriction could prevent users from forming an accurate mental map of reality. The researchers aimed to simulate how an individual might try to learn about a new domain, such as foreign cinema or a scientific concept, through a curated feed.</p>
<p>To test their hypothesis, the researchers recruited 343 participants through an online platform. After excluding data from sessions that were incomplete or failed to meet specific quality standards, the final analysis included 200 participants. </p>
<p>The researchers designed a task involving completely fictional categories to ensure that prior knowledge did not influence the results. Participants were asked to learn how to categorize strange, crystal-like “aliens.”</p>
<p>These digital creatures possessed six distinct visual features that defined their category. The features included location on a line, the radius of a circle, brightness, orientation, curvature, and spatial frequency. The goal for the participants was to learn the structure of these alien categories by observing various examples.</p>
<p>The experiment consisted of a learning phase followed by a testing phase. During the learning phase, the specific features of the aliens were initially hidden behind gray boxes. Participants had to click on the boxes to reveal specific features, a process the researchers called information sampling. This setup allowed the team to track exactly what information the participants chose to look at and what they ignored.</p>
<p>The researchers divided the participants into different groups to test the specific effects of algorithmic personalization. One group served as a control and viewed a random assortment of items with all features available to inspect. Another group engaged in active learning, where they freely chose which categories to study without algorithmic interference.</p>
<p>The experimental groups interacted with a personalization algorithm modeled after the collaborative filtering systems used by video-sharing platforms like YouTube. This algorithm tracked which features a participant tended to click during the trials. </p>
<p>It then recommended subsequent items that made it easier to continue that specific pattern of clicking. Consequently, the system created a feedback loop that presented items similar to those the user had already engaged with.</p>
<p>This setup mimicked how online platforms prioritize content engagement over information diversity to maximize revenue. The algorithm was trained to predict which items would result in the most clicks from the user. It then populated the user’s feed with those high-engagement items.</p>
<p>The data analysis revealed significant differences in how the different groups gathered information. Participants in the personalized conditions sampled substantially fewer features than those in the control or active learning groups. </p>
<p>As the learning phase progressed, these participants narrowed their focus even further. The data suggests that they tended to ignore dimensions of the aliens that the algorithm did not prioritize.</p>
<p>The analysis of sampling diversity used a measure called Shannon entropy. This metric showed that the personalized environment effectively trained users to pay attention to a limited slice of the available information. The algorithm successfully constrained the diversity of the categories presented to the users.</p>
<p>Following the learning phase, the researchers administered a categorization task to measure what the participants had learned. They showed the participants new alien examples and asked them to sort them into the correct groups. </p>
<p>The researchers found that individuals who learned through the personalized algorithm made more errors than those in the control group. Their internal representation of the alien categories was distorted.</p>
<p>The algorithm had prevented them from seeing the full variety of the alien population. This led to inaccurate generalizations about how the different features related to one another. The participants effectively learned a skewed version of the reality presented in the experiment.</p>
<p>In addition to accuracy, the study measured the participants’ confidence in their decisions using a rating scale from zero to ten. The analysis showed that participants in the personalized groups frequently reported high confidence levels even when their answers were wrong. This effect was particularly distinct when they encountered items from categories they had rarely or never seen during the learning phase.</p>
<p>Instead of recognizing their lack of knowledge regarding these unfamiliar items, the participants incorrectly applied their limited experience. The results show that when a test item came from an unobserved category, the participants did not report low confidence. They felt sure that their biased knowledge applied to these novel situations.</p>
<p>This indicates a disconnection between actual competence and perceived competence caused by the filtered learning environment. The participants were unaware that the algorithm had hidden significant portions of the information landscape from them. They assumed the limited sample they viewed was representative of the whole.</p>
<p>The authors note that the study utilized a highly controlled, artificial task to isolate the cognitive effects of the algorithms. Real-world interactions with personalization often involve complex semantic content and emotional preferences, which were not present in this experiment. The synthetic nature of the stimuli was a necessary design choice to rule out the influence of pre-existing beliefs.</p>
<p>Future research could investigate how these findings translate to more naturalistic settings, such as news consumption or educational tools. The researchers also suggest exploring how different types of user goals might mitigate the negative effects of personalization. For instance, an algorithm designed to maximize diversity rather than engagement might yield different cognitive outcomes.</p>
<p>The findings provide evidence that the structure of information delivery systems plays a significant role in shaping human cognition. By optimizing for engagement, current algorithms may inadvertently sacrifice the accuracy of user knowledge. This trade-off suggests that online platforms can shape not just what people see, but how they reason about the world.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/amp0000191" target="_blank">Algorithmic Personalization of Information Can Cause Inaccurate Generalization and Overconfidence</a>,” was authored by Giwon Bahg, Vladimir M. Sloutsky, and Brandon M. Turner.</p></p>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:13px; text-align: center; color: #666666; padding:4px; margin-bottom:2px;"></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="font:13px Helvetica, sans-serif; border-radius:4px; -moz-border-radius:4px; -webkit-border-radius:4px; background-color:#fff; padding:8px; margin-bottom:6px; border:1px solid #adadad;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/fantastical-content-not-editing-speed-depletes-childrens-cognitive-resources/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Fantastical content, not editing speed, depletes children’s cognitive resources</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Dec 2nd 2025, 06:00</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#494949;text-align:justify;font-size:13px;">
<p><p>A new analysis of existing research indicates that the speed of television programming does not inherently harm children’s thinking skills. The findings suggest that the fantastical content of a show, rather than its pacing, is more likely to result in temporary reductions in attention and executive function. This research was published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.70069" target="_blank">Journal of Experimental Child Psychology</a></em>.</p>
<p>Parents and educators frequently express concern regarding the impact of screen time on cognitive development. A primary worry centers on the intensity of modern children’s media. Many popular programs feature rapid scene changes and intense audio-visual stimulation.</p>
<p>The “overstimulation hypothesis” proposes that these features tax a child’s mental resources. The theory posits that the brain becomes exhausted by processing rapid changes, leaving fewer resources available for focus and impulse control immediately after viewing.</p>
<p>This line of inquiry gained significant traction following a widely publicized 2011 study. That experiment compared outcomes for children watching the fast-paced cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants against those watching the slower-paced Caillou. Children who watched the faster show performed worse on subsequent cognitive tasks. </p>
<p>However, the two shows differed in more than just speed. One was realistic, while the other featured surreal, fantastical elements. This confounding factor made it difficult to determine if the pacing or the content itself caused the performance deficit.</p>
<p>The authors of the new study sought to disentangle these variables. They aimed to determine if media pace and media fantasy have distinct effects on a child’s immediate cognitive abilities. </p>
<p>To do this, they utilized a statistical technique known as a meta-analysis. This method allows researchers to aggregate data from multiple independent studies to identify robust patterns that might be invisible in smaller samples.</p>
<p>“I first heard about this topic from my doctoral supervisor and co-author, Associate Professor Damian Scarf. This was an interest topic of his which, luckily for me, previous members of his research lab had passed up,” explained study author Ashley Hinten, a research fellow in the Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Auckland.</p>
<p>“Reading past studies, I was fascinated by how researchers had designed their studies and how varied the findings were. It is a topic that hooks people in – everyone has a perspective or anecdote to share, or shows from their childhood that they look back on fondly.”</p>
<p>The researchers conducted two separate meta-analyses. The first focused specifically on media pace. This analysis integrated data from 19 studies involving a total of 1,431 children. The participants ranged in age from 1.5 to 10 years old. </p>
<p>In these experiments, researchers typically compared the performance of a group that watched fast-paced video content against a group that watched slow-paced content. The definition of pace usually involved the rate of camera cuts or scene changes per minute.</p>
<p>The second analysis focused on the element of fantasy. This review included 16 studies with a total of 1,297 participants between the ages of 1.5 and 6 years. The study defined fantastical media as content featuring events that violate the laws of physics or reality. </p>
<p>Examples include animals that talk, objects that fly, or magical transformations. This type of content was compared against realistic media that depicts events possible in the real world.</p>
<p>The results regarding media pace provided evidence that speed alone may not be detrimental. The aggregated data revealed that media pace did not have a statistically significant effect on children’s overall cognitive performance. </p>
<p>There was no consistent pattern suggesting that watching fast-paced shows led to lower scores on attention or executive function tasks compared to slow-paced shows. This challenges the assumption that rapid editing is inherently overstimulating to the point of cognitive depletion.</p>
<p>However, the analysis of media fantasy yielded different results. The researchers found a significant negative effect for fantastical content. Children who watched programs featuring impossible events tended to perform worse on attention and executive function tasks immediately afterward. </p>
<p>This deficit was observed when compared to children who watched realistic programs. The effect size suggested a moderate reduction in performance capabilities following the viewing session.</p>
<p>“Children performed similarly on cognitive tasks directly after viewing regardless of whether they watched slow- or fast-paced shows,” Hinten told PsyPost. “However, children who watched fantastical media (i.e., shows with more unrealistic or impossible content) scored lower on cognitive tasks post-viewing than children who watched comparatively realistic media (i.e., shows that reflect the real world). This effect is thought to be short-lasting so, for example, children might struggle to follow instructions straight away after watching.”</p>
<p>The researchers suggest a cognitive mechanism to explain this distinction. Fantastical events are novel and often defy a child’s existing understanding of how the world works. Processing this information requires the brain to work harder to make sense of the on-screen action. </p>
<p>This intense cognitive effort may deplete the mental resources that are otherwise used for executive functions. In contrast, children may be habituated to fast pacing through regular exposure to modern media. They may possess enough “media literacy” to understand rapid cuts without expending significant mental effort.</p>
<p>The researchers also examined whether specific variables influenced the strength of these effects. The researchers tested potential moderators such as the child’s age, gender, and the duration of the video exposure. They also looked at the origin of the media to see if familiarity played a role. </p>
<p>For the most part, these factors did not alter the main findings. The negative impact of fantasy appeared consistent regardless of whether the child was a boy or a girl. It also did not seem to matter if the child was a toddler or of primary school age.</p>
<p>One moderator that did show an influence was the specific type of cognition being measured. Within the pace analysis, the researchers found that attention and inhibitory control were more negatively affected than higher-order executive functions. </p>
<p>Higher-order functions include complex skills like planning and problem-solving. This suggests that while pace might not hurt overall cognition, it could have specific, localized effects on a child’s ability to filter out distractions.</p>
<p>The researchers noted significant heterogeneity in the data. This means that the results varied considerably from study to study. While the overall trend for fantasy was negative, some individual studies found no effect or even positive effects. </p>
<p>This variability indicates that other unmeasured factors are likely at play. The context in which a child watches a program could determine whether the experience is beneficial or draining.</p>
<p>“While we found a notable difference in performance between children shown fantastical versus realistic media, the difference was not especially large,” Hinten explained. “This might be driven by the fact that findings differed greatly between studies – some studies reported that watching fantasy led to lower cognitive performance, while others found watching fantasy led to higher cognitive performance instead.” </p>
<p>“Other researchers found no difference in performance between children shown fantastical versus realistic media. This hints at the complexity of this research area, and the number of factors at play.”</p>
<p>As with all research, there are caveats to consider. The meta-analysis relied on laboratory experiments where children watched videos for a brief period. This setting is artificial and does not reflect typical home viewing habits. </p>
<p>In a natural environment, children often choose their own content and watch for longer durations. They may also interact with siblings or parents during viewing. These social interactions can buffer against potential negative effects or help children process what they see.</p>
<p>“In the past, there has been a tendency to make strong conclusions, such as ‘SpongeBob SquarePants is bad’ or ‘Fantasy in children’s media is bad,'” Hinten noted. “We think it is important not to do this because the way the experiments have been conducted does not reflect children’s real-world watching behavior or context.”</p>
<p>“For example, in the experiments, children do not get to choose what they watch, how long they watch for, or who they watch with. More research is needed to understand whether media factors like pace and fantasy have different impacts in different contexts for different children.”</p>
<p>Future research could address these gaps by examining media effects in more naturalistic settings. The authors recommend investigating how repeated, long-term exposure to these media features influences development. They also suggest that future studies should separate the audio-visual features of screen media more rigorously. </p>
<p>“We are continuing to prepare research from my doctoral thesis for potential publication in research journals,” Hinten said. “One of the studies uses data from the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal study to look at the effect of repeated exposure to specific children’s media in toddlerhood on executive functioning in later childhood. My current role is in a different field, although I hope to return to media research in the future.”</p>
<p>“We are excited to present the first meta-analysis of this research,” she added. “The purpose of this research was not to reignite concerns around children’s screen media exposure. Instead, we wanted to better understand the effects of media pace and fantasy rates. I would hope these findings would encourage readers to take an active role in the media use of children in their lives, such as taking notice of what they are watching and talking to them about it.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.70069" target="_blank">Meta-Analytic Review of the Short-Term Effects of Media Exposure on Children’s Attention and Executive Functions</a>,” was authored by Ashley E. Hinten, Damian Scarf, and Kana Imuta.</p></p>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:13px; text-align: center; color: #666666; padding:4px; margin-bottom:2px;"></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="font:13px Helvetica, sans-serif; border-radius:4px; -moz-border-radius:4px; -webkit-border-radius:4px; background-color:#fff; padding:8px; margin-bottom:6px; border:1px solid #adadad;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/your-childs-mess-might-be-a-sign-of-sophisticated-algorithmic-thinking/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Your child’s mess might be a sign of sophisticated algorithmic thinking</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Dec 1st 2025, 16:00</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#494949;text-align:justify;font-size:13px;">
<p><p>I’m in a coffee shop when a young child dumps out his mother’s bag in search of fruit snacks. The contents spill onto the table, bench and floor. It’s a chaotic – but functional – solution to the problem.</p>
<p>Children have a penchant for unconventional thinking that, at first glance, can look disordered. This kind of apparently chaotic behavior served as the inspiration for developmental psychologist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Piaget">Jean Piaget</a>’s best-known theory: that children construct their knowledge through experience and must pass through <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/2672709">four sequential stages</a>, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/X7rU9Wvm94M">first two of which</a> lack the ability to use structured logic.</p>
<p>Piaget remains the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2015.07.004">GOAT of developmental psychology</a>. He fundamentally and forever changed the world’s view of children by showing that kids do not enter the world with the same conceptual building blocks as adults, but must construct them through experience. No one before or since has amassed such a <a href="https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Jean+Piaget%22">catalog of quirky child behaviors</a> that researchers even today can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00359.x">replicate within individual children</a>.</p>
<p>While Piaget was certainly correct in observing that children engage in a host of unusual behaviors, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bXEkpesAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my</a> <a href="https://www.kiddlab.com/">lab</a> recently uncovered evidence that upends some long-standing assumptions about the limits of children’s logical capabilities that originated with his work. Our new paper in the journal Nature Human Behaviour describes how young children are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02302-6">capable of finding systematic solutions</a> to complex problems without any instruction.</p>
<figure><figcaption><span class="caption">Jean Piaget describes how children of different ages tackle a sorting task, with varying success.</span></figcaption></figure>
<h2>Putting things in order</h2>
<p>Throughout the 1960s, Piaget observed that young children rely on <a href="https://archive.org/details/psychologyofchil00jean">clunky trial-and-error methods</a> rather than systematic strategies when attempting to order objects according to some continuous quantitative dimension, like length. For instance, a 4-year-old child asked to organize sticks from shortest to longest <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb4TPj1pxzQ">will move them around randomly</a> and usually not achieve the desired final order.</p>
<p>Psychologists have interpreted young children’s inefficient behavior in this kind of ordering task – what we call a seriation task – as an indicator that kids can’t use systematic strategies in problem-solving <a href="https://archive.org/details/psychologyofchil00jean">until at least age 7</a>.</p>
<p>Somewhat counterintuitively, my colleagues and I found that increasing the difficulty and cognitive demands of the seriation task actually prompted young children to discover and use algorithmic solutions to solve it.</p>
<p>Piaget’s classic study asked children to put some visible items like wooden sticks in order by height. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=e3BT7I0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Huiwen Alex Yang</a>, a psychology Ph.D. candidate who works on computational models of learning in my lab, cranked up the difficulty for our version of the task. With advice from our collaborator <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vOHeGXcAAAAJ&hl=en">Bill Thompson</a>, Yang designed a computer game that required children to use feedback clues to infer the height order of items hidden behind a wall, .</p>
<p>The game asked children to order bunnylike creatures from shortest to tallest by clicking on their sneakers to swap their places. The creatures only changed places if they were in the wrong order; otherwise they stayed put. Because they could only see the bunnies’ shoes and not their heights, children had to rely on logical inference rather than direct observation to solve the task. Yang tested 123 children between the ages of 4 and 10.</p>
<figure><figcaption><span class="caption">Researcher Huiwen Alex Yang tests 8-year-old Miro on the bunny sorting task. The bunnies are hidden behind a wall with only their sneakers visible. Miro’s selections exemplify use of selection sort, a classic efficient sorting algorithm from computer science. <em>Kidd Lab at UC Berkeley.</em></span></figcaption></figure>
<h2>Figuring out a strategy</h2>
<p>We found that children independently discovered and applied at least two well-known sorting algorithms. These strategies – called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_sort">selection sort</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_shaker_sort">shaker sort</a> – are typically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn0915">studied in computer science</a>.</p>
<p>More than half the children we tested demonstrated evidence of structured algorithmic thinking, and at ages as young as 4 years old. While older kids were more likely to use algorithmic strategies, our finding contrasts with Piaget’s belief that children were incapable of this kind of systematic strategizing before 7 years of age. He thought kids needed to reach what he called the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/concrete-operational-stage">concrete operational</a> stage of development first.</p>
<p>Our results suggest that children are actually capable of spontaneous logical strategy discovery much earlier when circumstances require it. In our task, a trial-and-error strategy could not work because the objects to be ordered were not directly observable; children could not rely on perceptual feedback.</p>
<p>Explaining our results requires a more nuanced interpretation of Piaget’s original data. While children may still favor apparently less logical solutions to problems during the first two Piagetian stages, it’s not because they are incapable of doing otherwise if the situation requires it.</p>
<h2>A systematic approach to life</h2>
<p>Algorithmic thinking is crucial not only in high-level math classes, but also in everyday life. Imagine that you need to bake two dozen cookies, but your go-to recipe yields only one. You could go through all the steps of making the recipe twice, washing the bowl in between, but you’d never do that because you know that would be inefficient. Instead, you’d double the ingredients and perform each step only once. Algorithmic thinking allows you to identify a systematic way of approaching the need for twice as many cookies that improves the efficiency of your baking.</p>
<p>Algorithmic thinking is an important capacity that’s useful to children as they learn to move and operate in the world – and we now know they have access to these abilities far earlier than psychologists had believed.</p>
<p>That children can engage with algorithmic thinking before formal instruction has important implications for STEM – science, technology, engineering and math –education. Caregivers and educators now need to reconsider when and how they give children the opportunity to tackle more abstract problems and concepts. Knowing that children’s minds are ready for structured problems as early as preschool means we can nurture these abilities earlier in support of stronger math and computational skills.</p>
<p>And have some patience next time you encounter children interacting with the world in ways that are perhaps not super convenient. As you pick up your belongings from a café floor, remember that it’s all part of how children construct their knowledge. Those seemingly chaotic kids are on their way to more obviously logical behavior soon.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/266438/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-can-be-systematic-problem-solvers-at-younger-ages-than-psychologists-had-thought-new-research-266438">original article</a>.</em></p>
<p> </p></p>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:13px; text-align: center; color: #666666; padding:4px; margin-bottom:2px;"></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="font:13px Helvetica, sans-serif; border-radius:4px; -moz-border-radius:4px; -webkit-border-radius:4px; background-color:#fff; padding:8px; margin-bottom:6px; border:1px solid #adadad;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/young-people-underestimate-their-exposure-to-misinformation-new-research-shows/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Young people underestimate their exposure to misinformation, new research shows</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Dec 1st 2025, 14:00</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#494949;text-align:justify;font-size:13px;">
<p><p>Misinformation is found in every element of our online lives. It ranges from fake products available to buy, fake lifestyle posts on social media accounts and fake news about health and politics.</p>
<p>Misinformation has an impact not only on our beliefs but also our behaviour: for example, it has affected how people <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379418303019">vote in elections</a> and whether people <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9043199/">intend to have vaccinations</a>.</p>
<p>And since anyone can create and share online content, without the kind of verification processes or fact checking typical of more traditional media, misinformation has proliferated.</p>
<p>This is particularly important as young people increasingly turn to social media for all kinds of information, using it as a source of news and as a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/social-media-new-google/">search engine</a>. But despite their frequent use of social media, teenagers struggle to evaluate the accuracy of the content they consume.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/attitudes-to-news/one-in-three-internet-users-fail-to-question-misinformation">2022 report</a> from media watchdog Ofcom found that only 11% of 11 to 17 year olds could reliably recognise the signs that indicated a post was genuine.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chso.12962?af=R">research has explored</a> what teenagers understand about misinformation online. I held focus groups with 37 11- to 14-year-olds, asking them their views on misinformation.</p>
<p>I found that the young people in the study tended to – wrongly – believe that misinformation was only about world events and scams. Because of this, they believed that they personally did not see a lot of misinformation.</p>
<p>“[My Instagram] isn’t really like ‘this is happening in the world’ or whatever, it’s just kind of like life,” one said. This may make them vulnerable to misinformation as they are only alert for it in these domains.</p>
<p>There was also wide variation in how confident they felt about spotting misinformation. Some were confident in their skills. “I’m not daft enough to believe it,” as one put it.</p>
<p>Others admitted to being easily fooled. This was an interesting finding, as <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/attitudes-to-news/one-in-three-internet-users-fail-to-question-misinformation">previous research</a> has indicated that most people have a high level of confidence in their personal ability to spot misinformation.</p>
<p>Most did not fact-check information by cross-referencing what they read with other news sources. They relied instead on their intuition – “You just see it, you know” – or looked at what others said in comment sections to spot misinformation. But neither of these strategies is likely to be particularly reliable.</p>
<p>Relying on gut instinct typically means using cognitive shortcuts such as “I trust her, so I can trust her post” or “the website looks professional, so it is trustworthy”. This makes it easy for people to create believable false information.</p>
<p>And a <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/attitudes-to-news/one-in-three-internet-users-fail-to-question-misinformation">study by Ofcom</a> found that only 22% of adults were able to identify signs of a genuine post. This means that relying on other people to help us tell true from false is not likely to be effective.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the teens in this study saw older adults, particularly grandparents, as especially vulnerable to believing false information. On the other hand, they viewed their parents as more skilled at spotting misinformation than they themselves were. “[Parents] see it as fake news, so they don’t believe it and they don’t need to worry about it,” one said.</p>
<p>This was unexpected. We might assume that young people, who are often considered digital natives, would see themselves as more adept than their parents at spotting misinformation.</p>
<h2>Taking responsibility</h2>
<p>We discussed whose role it was to challenge misinformation online. The teens were reluctant to challenge it themselves. They thought it would not make a difference if they did, or they feared being victimised online or even offline.</p>
<p>Instead, they believed that governments should stop the spread of misinformation “as they know about what wars are happening”. But older participants thought that if the government took a leading role in stopping the spread of misinformation “there would be protests”, as it would be seen as censorship.</p>
<p>They also felt that platforms should take responsibility to stop the spread of misinformation to protect their reputation, so that people don’t panic about fake news.</p>
<p>In light of these findings, my colleagues and I have created a project that works with young people to <a href="https://www.projectreal.co.uk/">create resources</a> to help them develop their skills in spotting misinformation and staying safe online. We work closely with young people to understand what their concerns are, and how they want to learn about these topics.</p>
<p>We also partner with organisations such as Police Scotland and Education Scotland to ensure our materials are grounded in real-world challenges and informed by the needs of teachers and other adult professionals as well as young people.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/260445/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/teenagers-arent-good-at-spotting-misinformation-online-research-suggests-why-260445">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:13px; text-align: center; color: #666666; padding:4px; margin-bottom:2px;"></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="font:13px Helvetica, sans-serif; border-radius:4px; -moz-border-radius:4px; -webkit-border-radius:4px; background-color:#fff; padding:8px; margin-bottom:6px; border:1px solid #adadad;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/family-life-lowers-mens-testosterone-without-causing-medical-deficiency/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Family life lowers men’s testosterone without causing medical deficiency</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Dec 1st 2025, 12:00</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#494949;text-align:justify;font-size:13px;">
<p><p>New research analyzing a large, representative slice of the American population suggests that family life is linked to distinct hormonal profiles in men. The study found that men living with a partner and school-aged children tend to have lower testosterone levels than single men or partnered men without children.</p>
<p>These findings indicate that hormonal adjustments to fatherhood likely continue well past the infant years, though these changes do not appear to increase the risk of medically concerning hormone deficiencies. The results were published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107658" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Psychoneuroendocrinology</a></em>.</p>
<p>Biological anthropologists have studied the relationship between male hormones and behavior for decades. A leading theory in this field proposes that men have limited bio-energetic resources. They must allocate these resources between the effort required to find a mate and the effort required to raise offspring.</p>
<p>High levels of testosterone are generally associated with mating effort and competition with other males. Conversely, lower levels of this hormone are thought to facilitate nurturing behaviors and long-term bonding.</p>
<p>This theoretical framework suggests that when a man enters a committed relationship or becomes a father, his biology shifts to support these new roles. Past research has provided evidence for this idea. Studies have observed testosterone declines in men as they transition into marriage and again when they become fathers to newborns. However, the majority of this research has focused on the very early stages of parenthood.</p>
<p>Researchers often concentrate on the transition to fatherhood during the first year of a child’s life. This leaves a gap in understanding how male biology functions as children grow up. Parenting an adolescent requires a different set of skills and behaviors than caring for an infant. It is not well understood if the hormonal suppression seen in new fathers persists as the demands of parenting change over time.</p>
<p>Lee T. Gettler and Sarah Hoegler Dennis from the University of Notre Dame conducted the study to address these unanswered questions. They sought to determine if the lower testosterone levels associated with fatherhood continue when men live with older children. They also investigated a critical health question. They wanted to know if these naturally occurring dips in testosterone place men at risk for a medical condition known as androgen deficiency.</p>
<p>The researchers utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This is a major program run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It collects detailed health and nutritional information from a sample of people intended to represent the U.S. population. The study analyzed data from three different waves of the survey collected between 2011 and 2016.</p>
<p>The final sample included 4,903 men between the ages of 20 and 60. This large sample size allowed the researchers to make robust statistical comparisons. The team categorized the men based on their relationship status and their living arrangements with children. They distinguished between men living with younger children aged five and under and those living with older children aged six to seventeen.</p>
<p>To measure testosterone, the survey used serum samples analyzed via liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. This method is considered the gold standard for hormone measurement due to its high precision. The researchers adjusted their statistical models to account for the time of day the blood was drawn. Testosterone levels naturally fluctuate throughout the day, typically peaking in the morning.</p>
<p>The analysis also controlled for a variety of other factors that can influence hormone levels. These included age, body fat percentage as measured by waist circumference, sleep habits, and physical activity levels. By accounting for these variables, the researchers could isolate the specific associations between family structure and testosterone.</p>
<p>The findings revealed clear patterns linking partnering and parenting to hormonal variations. The first major observation was that partnered men generally had lower testosterone than single men who did not live with children. This difference was statistically significant and aligns with previous research on marriage and partnership.</p>
<p>A more novel finding emerged when the researchers looked at the age of the children in the home. Partnered men living with school-aged children or adolescents had significantly lower testosterone levels than partnered men who did not live with children. This suggests that the biological regulation of testosterone does not stop after the toddler years.</p>
<p>The effect was most pronounced in fathers of older children. Partnered men living with two or more children between the ages of six and seventeen showed the lowest relative levels. This specific group had lower testosterone than both single men and partnered men with no children in the household.</p>
<p>The pattern for men with younger children was somewhat different. Partnered men living with infants or toddlers did not show a significant additional drop in testosterone compared to partnered men without children. In this specific dataset, the lower levels in men with young families appeared to be driven primarily by the state of being partnered.</p>
<p>The study then addressed the medical implications of these findings. There is a medical consensus that clinically low testosterone can be harmful. Levels below 300 nanograms per deciliter are often classified as hypogonadism. This condition is linked to increased risks for cardiovascular disease, metabolic issues, and other health problems.</p>
<p>The researchers hypothesized that the lower testosterone seen in fathers is an adaptive biological trait rather than a pathology. If this hypothesis is correct, the levels should not drop low enough to be considered clinically deficient. The data supported this prediction.</p>
<p>The analysis showed that neither being partnered nor living with children increased a man’s likelihood of having clinically low testosterone. While the average levels were lower for fathers, they remained within a range considered healthy for physiological functioning. This distinction is significant for men’s health. It suggests that the body can downregulate testosterone to support family life without crossing the threshold into a disease state.</p>
<p>The study also examined whether age influenced these patterns. Men’s testosterone naturally declines as they get older. It was possible that the differences between single and partnered men would disappear in older age groups. However, the researchers found that age did not significantly alter the associations. The link between family roles and testosterone appeared consistent across the age range of 20 to 60.</p>
<p>These results expand the current understanding of human paternal biology. They suggest that fathers may experience a sustained or renewed biological adjustment as their children reach school age and adolescence. The authors propose that this could be related to the changing role of the father. As children age, fathers often take on roles that involve teaching, coaching, and guiding social development.</p>
<p>There are limitations to the study that frame how the results should be interpreted. The survey did not explicitly ask men if they were the biological fathers of the children in their homes. The researchers used residence with children as a proxy for fatherhood. It is possible that some participants were stepfathers, adoptive fathers, or other male relatives.</p>
<p>Another limitation is the nature of the blood testing. The study relied on a single blood sample from each participant. A clinical diagnosis of low testosterone typically requires two separate measurements taken in the morning. While the single sample is sufficient for population-level research, it is less precise than clinical diagnostic protocols.</p>
<p>The study is also cross-sectional, meaning it looked at different men at a single point in time. It did not follow the same men as they aged and their families grew. This design makes it impossible to say for certain that family life caused the testosterone differences. It remains theoretically possible that men with lower testosterone are simply more likely to marry and stay with their families.</p>
<p>Future research is needed to explore the mechanisms behind the findings regarding older children. The authors suggest that future studies should look at specific parenting behaviors. It would be informative to see if direct interaction with adolescents, such as helping with homework or emotional support, correlates with hormonal changes. This could help clarify why fathers of older children show this distinct biological profile.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107658" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. men’s testosterone (T), partnering, and residence with children: Evidence from a nationally-representative cohort (NHANES) and relevance to clinically low T</a>,” was authored by Lee T. Gettler and Sarah Hoegler Dennis.</p></p>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:13px; text-align: center; color: #666666; padding:4px; margin-bottom:2px;"></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="font:13px Helvetica, sans-serif; border-radius:4px; -moz-border-radius:4px; -webkit-border-radius:4px; background-color:#fff; padding:8px; margin-bottom:6px; border:1px solid #adadad;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/the-racing-mind-of-insomnia-may-stem-from-flattened-circadian-rhythms/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">The racing mind of insomnia may stem from flattened circadian rhythms</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Dec 1st 2025, 10:00</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#494949;text-align:justify;font-size:13px;">
<p><p>New research suggests that chronic insomnia may stem from a disruption in the body’s internal clock that prevents the brain from shifting into a restful state at night. The study, published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2025.106881" target="_blank">Sleep Medicine</a></em>, indicates that individuals with sleep difficulties experience a delay and flattening of the natural daily rhythm of mental activity. This biological misalignment keeps the mind in an alert, problem-solving mode when it should be disengaging.</p>
<p>The transition from wakefulness to sleep usually involves a specific, gradual shift in mental processing. This phenomenon is known as cognitive-affective disengagement. It typically involves a movement away from focused, goal-oriented thoughts toward fragmented, visual, and dream-like imagery. </p>
<p>For people with insomnia, this transition often fails to occur smoothly. They frequently report a “racing mind” filled with intrusive, verbal, or repetitive thoughts. Researchers from the University of South Australia, Washington State University, and Flinders University investigated the physiological origins of this mental overactivity.</p>
<p>Previous theories suggested this mental alertness might be a learned response to the bedroom environment or a stable personality trait. The research team sought to determine if the issue actually arises from the circadian system. This biological clock regulates cycles of alertness, body temperature, and hormone release. </p>
<p>Kurt Lushington and Jillian Dorrian led the investigation to see if the rhythm of thought itself is out of sync in poor sleepers. They hypothesized that the inability to “switch off” might be due to a dampened or delayed circadian signal.</p>
<p>The team recruited thirty-two older adults for the experiment. Half of the group had been diagnosed with sleep maintenance insomnia, meaning they struggle to stay asleep. The other sixteen participants were healthy sleepers with no history of sleep disorders. To isolate the internal biological clock, the researchers utilized a constant routine protocol. This is a rigorous experimental method designed to eliminate external factors that influence the body.</p>
<p>Participants remained awake in bed for twenty-four consecutive hours under dim lighting conditions. They were kept in a semi-reclined position and were not allowed to sleep. Technical staff monitored them continuously to ensure they stayed awake. </p>
<p>The participants received small snacks and water at regular intervals to maintain steady metabolism. This environment removed external time cues, changes in posture, and the specific pressure to fall asleep. By stripping away these masking effects, the researchers could observe the raw output of the brain’s circadian pacemaker.</p>
<p>Every hour throughout the twenty-four-hour period, the participants completed a cognitive-affective disengagement checklist. This survey assessed the tone and quality of their current mental state. They rated whether their thoughts were visual images or internal dialogue. They identified if their thinking was repetitive or sequential. They also evaluated the “reality orientation” of their mind, determining if thoughts felt real or dream-like.</p>
<p>In addition to the quality of thought, the participants rated their metacognitive activity. This refers to the awareness and control one has over one’s own mind. They reported on their level of volitional control and their awareness of the external laboratory environment. </p>
<p>The researchers then analyzed these hourly data points to map the circadian rhythm of each variable. They looked for the amplitude, which is the difference between the peak and the trough of the rhythm. They also calculated the acrophase, which marks the time of peak activity.</p>
<p>The data revealed that both groups experienced daily rhythms in their mental activity. In healthy sleepers, thoughts naturally became more dream-like and less focused during the biological night. The group with insomnia displayed a significantly different pattern. Their rhythm was much flatter for several key measures. This means there was less variation between their daytime and nighttime mental states.</p>
<p>A distinct difference appeared in the structure of their thinking. Good sleepers tended to drift into repetitive or circular thoughts as night approached. By comparison, those with insomnia maintained sequential thinking. </p>
<p>This linear style of thought is often associated with logic and active problem-solving. The study data showed this active thinking style persisted well into the nighttime hours. The brain maintained a daytime operational mode despite the lateness of the hour.</p>
<p>The timing of peak mental alertness also differed between the groups. The participants with insomnia experienced a significant delay in their circadian cycle. Their peak alert cognitive state occurred approximately six and a half hours later than the control group. </p>
<p>This delay suggests their internal clock signals the brain to remain active when it should be winding down. Professor Lushington notes the impact of this delay. “Their thought patterns stayed more daytime-like in the night-time hours when the brain should be quietening.”</p>
<p>The researchers also measured the participants’ sense of control over their minds. Good sleepers reported a significant drop in their ability to direct their thoughts at night. This loss of volitional control is a normal, necessary part of entering a sleep state. The insomnia group reported a smaller reduction in this control. They felt more in charge of their mental processes during the biological night.</p>
<p>These results align with the hyperarousal model of insomnia. This model posits that the disorder involves a failure to inhibit the prefrontal cortex. This brain region is responsible for executive functions and goal-directed behavior. The findings suggest that in insomnia, the circadian signal to downregulate this brain activity is weak or mistimed. The boundary between the alert wake state and the quiescent sleep state becomes blurred.</p>
<p>The authors acknowledge several limitations to the experimental design. The sample size was relatively small and consisted only of older adults. Sleep patterns change with age, so these results may not apply universally to younger populations. </p>
<p>The requirement to stay awake might have altered the emotional distress usually felt when trying to sleep. Without the frustration of tossing and turning, the full psychological experience of insomnia may not have been captured.</p>
<p>Additionally, the study focused on sleep maintenance insomnia rather than sleep onset insomnia. The specific cognitive patterns might differ for those who struggle to fall asleep initially. </p>
<p>The constant routine protocol is highly controlled, which is a strength, but it is also artificial. It removes the behavioral cues associated with bedtime at home. It is possible that conditioned responses to the bedroom environment also play a role in the disorder.</p>
<p>Despite these caveats, the study provides evidence that insomnia is not merely a psychological issue. It appears to have a distinct chronobiological component. This insight opens up new avenues for potential treatments. Current therapies often focus on behavioral changes or medication. These findings suggest that targeting the body clock could be effective.</p>
<p>Interventions might include timed light exposure to reset the internal clock and increase the amplitude of the rhythm. Bright light in the morning and strict darkness at night could help sharpen the signal to the brain. </p>
<p>Professor Dorrian suggests another approach. “Practising mindfulness may also help quieten the mind at night.” Future studies could explore combining chronobiological therapies with cognitive techniques to reduce sequential thinking.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2025.106881" target="_blank">Cognitive-affective disengagement: 24h rhythm in insomniacs versus healthy good sleepers</a>,” was authored by Kurt Lushington, Jillian Dorrian, Hans P.A. Van Dongen, and Leon Lack.</p></p>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:13px; text-align: center; color: #666666; padding:4px; margin-bottom:2px;"></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
<p><strong>This information is taken from free public RSS feeds published by each organization for the purpose of public distribution. Readers are linked back to the article content on each organization's website. This email is an unaffiliated unofficial redistribution of this freely provided content from the publishers. </strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><s><small><a href="#" style="color:#ffffff;"><a href='https://blogtrottr.com/unsubscribe/565/DY9DKf'>unsubscribe from this feed</a></a></small></s></p>