Sebastiaan Mathôt
Biographic Data
| ID | 1692724 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sebastiaan Mathôt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sebastiaan |
| FAMILY NAME | Mathôt |
| SIGNATURE | MATHÔT S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Groningen |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3379-8584 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 9 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
False Memory for Pictures and Their Names
In order to explore how language planning influences memory, we investigated how lexical, conceptual, and perceptual properties of items affected accurate and false memory to picture lures of various types (state, exemplar, and color lures). We varied whether the item name needed to be generated or could be read to elicit the generation effect– a memory benefit for generated items. We also varied lexical and conceptual properties of items, such a…
No Evidence for an Effect of Input Frequency on Mandarin-Speaking Children’s Learning of Recursive Possessive Structures
While input frequency effects are ubiquitous in child language acquisition, few, if any, studies have investigated whether such effects are observed for possession marking (e.g., the girl’s brother). This is surprising as possession is a core cognitive concept, and accordingly is grammatically encoded in the majority of the world’s languages. This study investigates the learning of recursive possessive structures by 50 Mandarin-speaking children …
Antisaccade Task Performance Predicts Long-term Weight Loss
Obesity is a pressing global concern, prompting the implementation of comprehensive lifestyle modifications to aid weight reduction and management. Despite the efficacy of various interventions in initiating weight loss and mitigating associated health conditions, relapse rates remain alarmingly high. Acknowledging the significance of psychological and behavioral factors in long-term weight management, this prospective study explores the predicti…
An Investigation of the Functional Properties of Relational Contextual Cues and Discriminative Stimuli
Contextual control is a key component of behavioral accounts of complex human behavior. Relational contextual cues afford such contextual control, and are routinely established and employed in experimental analyses of relational responding (i.e., responding to one stimulus based on its relationship with another stimulus). Surprisingly, the functional properties of relational contextual cues have not yet been subjected to systematic experimental a…
“Endless Mind-Numbing Slop”
There is widespread concern that digital technology use is damaging attention spans. However, this concern contrasts with empirical research on this issue, which report mixed findings on whether there is an impact. Thus, we aimed to detail the perceived impact of digital technology on attention. We conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of posts and comments from four subreddits (/r/nosurf, /r/dopaminedetoxing, /r/dumbphones, and /r/digitalminim…
Prediction Errors Improve Declarative Learning but Not the Salience of Individual Words
Recent studies using the variable choice paradigm for a word-association learning task suggest that reward prediction errors (RPEs) enhance one-shot declarative learning. However, these studies may confound true associative learning with an “RPE bias,” where RPE items become more salient or fluent and are therefore chosen during recognition. This study tested whether such a bias exists and whether RPEs genuinely strengthen word-pair learning. Acr…
Sexual Arousal in the Unconscious Mind
Sexual arousal is a multidimensional construct encompassing physiological, emotional, motivational, and cognitive components. The information-processing models of sexual response posit that sexual arousal can be unconsciously triggered by exposure to sexual stimuli. However, the empirical research supporting this claim is limited and largely based on the heterosexual population. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore the pre-attentional pr…
Effects of Expressive Writing About Previous Negative Test Experiences on Test Anxiety and Performance
Test anxiety significantly impedes academic performance, yet the role of expressive writing (EW) in mitigating this anxiety remains underexplored. This randomized controlled trial study hypothesized that EW about past negative test experiences would reduce state test anxiety and improve performance. We assigned 197 Chinese senior high school students to EW or control groups and they completed ten-minute daily writing exercises for three days befo…
How Fast Do Sexually Explicit Stimuli Reach Awareness? Evidence From a Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression Task
Human sexual response is a complex phenomenon lacking empirical evidence on its psychological underpinnings. Information-processing models of sexual response consider that the sexual response emerges before individuals’ awareness, as indexed by their reaction to sexual stimuli presented out of consciousness. Yet, that assumption lacks empirical support, and the presentation of findings has been biased toward positive results. Accordingly, the cur…
Attention modulates the effects of stimulus brightness and contrast on time perception
The perception of duration is influenced by various factors, including attention and the physical properties of stimuli. However, the interaction between these factors remains poorly understood. The present study investigated how covert visual attention, stimulus brightness, and contrast jointly influence time perception using a novel attentional temporal bisection task. Participants categorized the duration of a cued target stimulus as “short” o…
No evidence for association between pupil size and fluid intelligence among either children or adults
Recent studies have investigated resting-state, or baseline, pupil size as a general measure of cognitive abilities, based on the earlier finding that larger pupils might be predictive of higher general intelligence or working memory capacity. However, evidence for such relationships has been mixed, and all previous studies thus far have focused on adult samples. The present study adds to this debate by examining the correlation between fluid int…
Emphasis on peripheral vision is accompanied by pupil dilation
People are best able to detect stimuli in peripheral vision when their pupils are large, and best able to discriminate stimuli in central vision when their pupils are small. However, it is unclear whether our visual system makes use of this by dilating the pupils when attention is directed towards peripheral vision. Therefore, throughout three experiments ( N = 100), we tested whether pupil size adapts to the “breadth” of attention. We found that…
Temptation shapes dishonesty and can alter working memory
This study shows that participants tend to remember an ambiguous, directional cue as biased towards stimuli associated with a high reward that can be attained dishonestly. Participants saw eight digits presented in a circular arrangement. On some trials, they were asked to report the digit (“Target Digit”) indicated by a jittery cue that was slightly biased in the direction of another digit (“Second Cued Digit”), which was either higher or lower …
Conducting Linguistic Experiments Online With OpenSesame and OSWeb
In this Methods Showcase Article, we outline a workflow for running behavioral experiments online, with a focus on experiments that rely on presentation of complex stimuli and measurement of reaction times, which includes many psycholinguistic experiments. The workflow that we describe here relies on three tools: OpenSesame/OSWeb (open source) provides a user-friendly graphical interface for developing experiments; JATOS (open source) is server s…
Coordination effort in joint action is reflected in pupil size
Humans often perform visual tasks together, and when doing so, they tend to devise division of labor strategies to share the load. Implementing such strategies, however, is effortful as co-actors need to coordinate their actions. We tested if pupil size - a physiological correlate of mental effort - can detect such a coordination effort in a multiple object tracking task (MOT). Participants performed the MOT task jointly with a computer partner a…
Pupillometry
Pupils respond to three distinct kinds of stimuli: they constrict in response to brightness (the pupil light response), constrict in response to near fixation (the pupil near response), and dilate in response to increases in arousal and mental effort, either triggered by an external stimulus or spontaneously. In this review, I describe these three pupil responses, how they are related to high-level cognition, and the neural pathways that control …
OpenSesame
In the present article, we introduce OpenSesame, a graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. OpenSesame is free, open-source, and cross-platform. It features a comprehensive and intuitive graphical user interface and supports Python scripting for complex tasks. Additional functionality, such as support for eyetrackers, input devices, and video playback, is available through plug-ins. OpenSesame can be used in combination with existing…
Conducting Linguistic Experiments Online With OpenSesame and OSWeb
In this Methods Showcase Article, we outline a workflow for running behavioral experiments online, with a focus on experiments that rely on presentation of complex stimuli and measurement of reaction times, which includes many psycholinguistic experiments. The workflow that we describe here relies on three tools: OpenSesame/OSWeb (open source) provides a user-friendly graphical interface for developing experiments; JATOS (open source) is server s…
OpenSesame
In the present article, we introduce OpenSesame, a graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. OpenSesame is free, open-source, and cross-platform. It features a comprehensive and intuitive graphical user interface and supports Python scripting for complex tasks. Additional functionality, such as support for eyetrackers, input devices, and video playback, is available through plug-ins. OpenSesame can be used in combination with existing…
Pupillometry
Pupils respond to three distinct kinds of stimuli: they constrict in response to brightness (the pupil light response), constrict in response to near fixation (the pupil near response), and dilate in response to increases in arousal and mental effort, either triggered by an external stimulus or spontaneously. In this review, I describe these three pupil responses, how they are related to high-level cognition, and the neural pathways that control …
Coordination effort in joint action is reflected in pupil size
Humans often perform visual tasks together, and when doing so, they tend to devise division of labor strategies to share the load. Implementing such strategies, however, is effortful as co-actors need to coordinate their actions. We tested if pupil size - a physiological correlate of mental effort - can detect such a coordination effort in a multiple object tracking task (MOT). Participants performed the MOT task jointly with a computer partner a…
Conducting Linguistic Experiments Online With OpenSesame and OSWeb
In this Methods Showcase Article, we outline a workflow for running behavioral experiments online, with a focus on experiments that rely on presentation of complex stimuli and measurement of reaction times, which includes many psycholinguistic experiments. The workflow that we describe here relies on three tools: OpenSesame/OSWeb (open source) provides a user-friendly graphical interface for developing experiments; JATOS (open source) is server s…
Emphasis on peripheral vision is accompanied by pupil dilation
People are best able to detect stimuli in peripheral vision when their pupils are large, and best able to discriminate stimuli in central vision when their pupils are small. However, it is unclear whether our visual system makes use of this by dilating the pupils when attention is directed towards peripheral vision. Therefore, throughout three experiments ( N = 100), we tested whether pupil size adapts to the “breadth” of attention. We found that…
Temptation shapes dishonesty and can alter working memory
This study shows that participants tend to remember an ambiguous, directional cue as biased towards stimuli associated with a high reward that can be attained dishonestly. Participants saw eight digits presented in a circular arrangement. On some trials, they were asked to report the digit (“Target Digit”) indicated by a jittery cue that was slightly biased in the direction of another digit (“Second Cued Digit”), which was either higher or lower …
No evidence for association between pupil size and fluid intelligence among either children or adults
Recent studies have investigated resting-state, or baseline, pupil size as a general measure of cognitive abilities, based on the earlier finding that larger pupils might be predictive of higher general intelligence or working memory capacity. However, evidence for such relationships has been mixed, and all previous studies thus far have focused on adult samples. The present study adds to this debate by examining the correlation between fluid int…
False Memory for Pictures and Their Names
In order to explore how language planning influences memory, we investigated how lexical, conceptual, and perceptual properties of items affected accurate and false memory to picture lures of various types (state, exemplar, and color lures). We varied whether the item name needed to be generated or could be read to elicit the generation effect– a memory benefit for generated items. We also varied lexical and conceptual properties of items, such a…
No Evidence for an Effect of Input Frequency on Mandarin-Speaking Children’s Learning of Recursive Possessive Structures
While input frequency effects are ubiquitous in child language acquisition, few, if any, studies have investigated whether such effects are observed for possession marking (e.g., the girl’s brother). This is surprising as possession is a core cognitive concept, and accordingly is grammatically encoded in the majority of the world’s languages. This study investigates the learning of recursive possessive structures by 50 Mandarin-speaking children …
Antisaccade Task Performance Predicts Long-term Weight Loss
Obesity is a pressing global concern, prompting the implementation of comprehensive lifestyle modifications to aid weight reduction and management. Despite the efficacy of various interventions in initiating weight loss and mitigating associated health conditions, relapse rates remain alarmingly high. Acknowledging the significance of psychological and behavioral factors in long-term weight management, this prospective study explores the predicti…
An Investigation of the Functional Properties of Relational Contextual Cues and Discriminative Stimuli
Contextual control is a key component of behavioral accounts of complex human behavior. Relational contextual cues afford such contextual control, and are routinely established and employed in experimental analyses of relational responding (i.e., responding to one stimulus based on its relationship with another stimulus). Surprisingly, the functional properties of relational contextual cues have not yet been subjected to systematic experimental a…
“Endless Mind-Numbing Slop”
There is widespread concern that digital technology use is damaging attention spans. However, this concern contrasts with empirical research on this issue, which report mixed findings on whether there is an impact. Thus, we aimed to detail the perceived impact of digital technology on attention. We conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of posts and comments from four subreddits (/r/nosurf, /r/dopaminedetoxing, /r/dumbphones, and /r/digitalminim…
Prediction Errors Improve Declarative Learning but Not the Salience of Individual Words
Recent studies using the variable choice paradigm for a word-association learning task suggest that reward prediction errors (RPEs) enhance one-shot declarative learning. However, these studies may confound true associative learning with an “RPE bias,” where RPE items become more salient or fluent and are therefore chosen during recognition. This study tested whether such a bias exists and whether RPEs genuinely strengthen word-pair learning. Acr…
Sexual Arousal in the Unconscious Mind
Sexual arousal is a multidimensional construct encompassing physiological, emotional, motivational, and cognitive components. The information-processing models of sexual response posit that sexual arousal can be unconsciously triggered by exposure to sexual stimuli. However, the empirical research supporting this claim is limited and largely based on the heterosexual population. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore the pre-attentional pr…
Effects of Expressive Writing About Previous Negative Test Experiences on Test Anxiety and Performance
Test anxiety significantly impedes academic performance, yet the role of expressive writing (EW) in mitigating this anxiety remains underexplored. This randomized controlled trial study hypothesized that EW about past negative test experiences would reduce state test anxiety and improve performance. We assigned 197 Chinese senior high school students to EW or control groups and they completed ten-minute daily writing exercises for three days befo…
How Fast Do Sexually Explicit Stimuli Reach Awareness? Evidence From a Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression Task
Human sexual response is a complex phenomenon lacking empirical evidence on its psychological underpinnings. Information-processing models of sexual response consider that the sexual response emerges before individuals’ awareness, as indexed by their reaction to sexual stimuli presented out of consciousness. Yet, that assumption lacks empirical support, and the presentation of findings has been biased toward positive results. Accordingly, the cur…
Attention modulates the effects of stimulus brightness and contrast on time perception
The perception of duration is influenced by various factors, including attention and the physical properties of stimuli. However, the interaction between these factors remains poorly understood. The present study investigated how covert visual attention, stimulus brightness, and contrast jointly influence time perception using a novel attentional temporal bisection task. Participants categorized the duration of a cued target stimulus as “short” o…
Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies (10 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Visual perception and processing mechanisms (5 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Pupil (4 works) · Pupil size (4 works) · Human–computer interaction (3 works) · Cued speech (2 works) · Graphical user interface (2 works)