Learning to understand emotions and their display in early childhood (Monika Abels)

Understanding what others feel is an important social skill, as it helps children navigate their social world. There are cultural differences in emotional display rules and emotion socialization. Children thus learn which emotions should be expressed or hidden and how, as well as in which types of situations. This project adds to this literature by exploring either cultural differences in emotion socialization and emotion understanding or by exploring children’s emotion in Northern Norway. [click here for details]

Seasonality and children's nature connection (Monika Abels)

There are many benefits of spending time outside and being connected to nature for physical and mental health. In the Nordics in particular, spending time in nature is part of people’s life and is included in preschool curricula, among others. However, although there are stark differences between the seasons in Northern Norway and seasonal differences in children’s behaviors and activity levels have been reported, we do not know whether there are also seasonal differences in children’s nature connection. [click here for details]

How does regular gaming influence our tendency to let our mind wander during a cognitive task? (Gábor Csifcsák)

Our tendency to engage in mind wandering during cognitive tasks is heavily influenced by motivation, which in turn is shaped by task-related factors such as its rewarding nature, the level of control over feedback, or the context in which it is presented. This project will investigate 1) how each of these factors influences mind wandering tendency while performing a value-based decision-making task, and 2) if mind wandering in regular gamers vs. non-gamers is differentially sensitive to such task manipulations, due to gamers’ regular exposure to similar settings. [click here for details]

Triaden «smerter, søvnproblemer og nedstemthet»: En komorbiditetsanalyse i den voksne befolkningen i Tromsøundersøkelsen (Oddgeir Friborg)

Personer med langvarige ikke-maligne smertelidelser har en høy samtidig forekomst av insomni og depresjon. Denne utbredte samsykeligheten mellom smerter-insomni-depresjon omtales som en symptomtriade og er foreslått som et mulig syndrom (PIDS: Pain-Insomnia-Depression Syndrome). For å få en bedre forståelse av variasjonen i komorbiditetsuttrykk, vil prosjektet avdekke distinkte subgrupper (latente profiler) av personer som deler felles symptommønstre. Når antallet latente grupper er bestemt, er målet å karakterisere hva disse PIDS-mønstrene innebærer, samt å koble dem mot registerbaserte populasjonsdata på helsetjeneste- og syndromrelatert medikamentbruk. [click here for details]

The Tromsø Intervention Study on Preterms (TISP): Executive behavior in adolescents born preterm (< 2000 g) (Marianne Berg Halvorsen)

This Forskerlinje project examines the long-term effects of early intervention in families with preterm infants. It evaluates whether the Mother-Infant Transaction Program-Modified (MITP-M), provided before and after hospital discharge, impacts how preterm children exhibit executive function (EF) behaviors in daily life at 12 and 15 years of age. The study builds on the Tromsø Intervention Study on Preterms (TISP), a population-based randomized controlled trial (RCT). TISP is notable for its extended follow-up period and consistently low dropout rates. [click here for details]

Eyebrow Raising as a Nonverbal Communicative Signal: Effects on Subjective Time and Pupil Dilation (Mikołaj Hernik)

In typical development, eye-contact and other gaze-related behaviors provide crucial cues for communication. Their processing is automatic and has profound effects on our attention: eye-contact shortens our subjective time estimates and makes our pupils increase rapidly in size. We will rely on these two effects to investigate the processing of another common, yet understudied, nonverbal communicative signal: eyebrow raise. The project focuses on healthy adults, but has relevance for e.g. autism and schizophrenia, where processing of gaze cues is impaired. [click here for details]

Investigating Pretend Play to Study Young Children’s Assumptions About Agents and Actions (Mikołaj Hernik)

Pretend play offers a unique window into children’s thinking. Contrary to the popular belief that “imagination has no limits”, even young children tend to follow implicit rules during pretend play, which reveal their deep assumptions about the world. In this project, we will engage children in pretend play to investigate their underlying assumptions about animal bodies and behavior. More broadly, this basic research advances our understanding of the benefits of guided play as a tool for pedagogical and clinical interventions, as well as for fostering knowledge of nature. [click here for details]

Breaking Barriers: Why Men Avoid (or Choose) Caring Professions (Sarah Martiny)

Despite increasing gender equality in most Western countries, gender-segregated labor markets persist (Hegewisch et al., 2010). Men are overrepresented in STEM fields and leadership roles, while women dominate caring professions (HEED: health care, early education, and domestic work; Croft et al., 2015). This segregation is problematic not only due to the predicted global shortage of 18 million healthcare workers by 2030 (WHO, 2016) but also because it reinforces gender inequality, for example due to the lower wages in HEED compared to STEM (Hegewisch et al., 2010). For this reason, the present research project investigates psychological factors behind men’s underrepresentation in caring professions and how men in caring professions are perceived by others (e.g., stereotypes and prejudice). [click here for details]

First-aid course effectiveness from an action-control and memory perspective (Torsten Martiny-Huenger)

Victims of medical emergencies (e.g., traffic accidents, cardiac arrest) require quick responses from non-medical people (laypeople) who are present during the emergency. First-aid courses are typically offered to laypeople to impart the necessary knowledge about what to do in such situations. However, executing these actions in the emergency situation requires the respective psychomotor skills (e.g., the actions to perform chest compressions, operating a defibrillator). The goal of the project is to link the context of first-aid courses and emergency responses to current psychological research on action control and memory. [click here for details]

Being with the body: the impact of meditation on interoceptive attention (Sam Verschooren / Matthias Mittner)

Have you ever stilled your mind to notice the interoceptive signals coming from inside your body, such as your heartbeat? This skill is central to meditation and other mind-body practices. While there is ample research demonstrating beneficial effects of meditation, the cognitive mechanisms behind it are unclear. In the proposed project, we will use an interoception-based task that measures participants’ capacity to switch their attention to interoceptive signals and compare this attentional flexibility for meditators versus non-meditators. [click here for details]

Causes and consequences of choosing “P-math” or “T-math”: Investigating high school students’ attitudes, values, and self-perceptions in relation to their academic and career choices (Gabriella Óturai)

Recruiting skilled students to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields and reducing the gender imbalance in the labor market are important societal challenges. Existing research shows that young people’s choices to study and work in STEM are impacted by their attitudes towards mathematics and other emotional, motivational, and social factors. This Forskerlinje project is part of a large-scale longitudinal study that will investigate high school students’ attitudes towards mathematics, study and career choices, and social background in Norway. [click here for details]

Too job insecure to date? Investigating the role of job insecurity and associated resource loss for dating success in single employees (Dana Unger)

At a time of economic, technological, and ‘conventional’ wars, many employees experience job insecurity – that is the perceived risk of losing one’s job (see Sinclair et al., 2024). We know that job insecurity creeps into the private home domain and negatively affects interaction with the romantic partner and children (Mauno et al., 2017). But what about those employees who are not yet in a romantic relationship but would like to establish one? Does job insecurity make it harder for single employees to unlock the many advantages of a romantic relationship when they would need it the most? [click here for details]