CONTRAVERSE- Contradictory yet Fluent: Exploring the Boundaries of the Illusion of Falseness
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2024.13423.PEX (€59 915,86) | Magda Saraiva
Repeated exposure to information increases perceived truth via processing fluency—a phenomenon known as the Illusion of Truth (IOT). Conversely, contradicting previously encountered information can make it seem falser than completely new information – the Illusion of Falseness (IOF). While fluency’s role in the IOT is well-documented, its influence on the IOF remains unclear. This project explores the mechanisms underlying these truth assessments through integrated experiments that manipulate font readability, native versus non-native language, and visual versus auditory modalities. By testing these specific variables and their consistency across the exposure and judgment phases, we aim to explore the IOF boundaries and understand the potential risks of using contradictions to correct misinformation.
ScentBonding- Scent Bonding: Examining Emotional Olfactory Cues of Human Interaction
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2024.16838.PEX (€59 929,06) | Nuno Gomes
Establishing and maintaining social relationships is fundamental to human well-being. While emotional facial expressions are known to guide social approach and feelings of acceptance, the role of olfactory emotional cues remains largely unexplored. The Scent Bonding project examines whether human body odours sampled during happiness, anger, and neutral states modulate social approach and feelings of acceptance.
The project will develop and validate emotion-specific body odour sampling protocols and combine these olfactory cues with emotional facial expressions in controlled experimental paradigms. Participants will complete approach-avoidance and semantic misattribution tasks while exposed to congruent and incongruent facial and olfactory signals. By testing whether happiness-related odours promote approach and inclusion, and anger-related odours promote avoidance and rejection, the Scent Bonding project will clarify how chemosensory communication contributes to social relations, with implications for well-being, particularly in populations affected by olfactory impairments.
RELAPSE-PREDICT- Neural Markers of Reward Dysregulation in Alcoholism Relapse Prediction
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2024.13959.PEX (€60,000) | Jorge Martins
This project aims to identify neurobiological and cognitive-behavioral markers of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and evaluate their utility for predicting relapse after treatment. The project applies a multi-method clinical and translational approach that combines neural, cognitive-behavioral, and physiological measures with a prospective follow-up clinical design. By identifying biobehavioral markers of relapse vulnerability and risk of treatment failure, this project aims to inform more specific targets for prevention and intervention.
ADDICT-RESPONSE- Getting Away from Your Addiction: On the Role of Attentional Disengagement
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2023.17370.ICDT (€250,000) | Jorge Martins
The goal of this project is to investigate attentional biases and their impact on substance abuse. The project focuses on validating a novel experimental paradigm to measure attention disengagement from substance-related stimuli, in which participants must move attention away, as quickly as possible, from a centrally presented picture that may or may not be related to their substance use. This proposal aims to validate this approach as proof of concept with individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and then investigate several behavioral and neural indicators of attention disengagement as clinical prognostic indicators of relapse risk and treatment failure among treatment-seeking AUD patients.
MAP2PROTECT – Mapping contagion: Exploring spatial memory for (non-)contamination sources
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2024.16483.PEX (€59 997,96) | Natália Fernandes
Evolutionary pressures have favored memory for the locations of fitness-relevant stimuli (e.g., dangerous animals). However, whether this extends to potentially contaminated items remains unexplored. MAP2PROTECT tests whether spatial memory is more accurate for objects that were previously associated with a source of (non)contamination, addressing a fundamental gap in our understanding of BIS functioning, a system designed to reduce contact with pathogens before infection occurs.
MAP2PROTECT will combine traditional experimental paradigms with immersive virtual reality to balance experimental control with ecological validity. Participants will navigate dynamic virtual scenarios while we track eye movements and pupillary responses, enabling us to examine how attention is allocated and physiological arousal is modulated by perceived health threats.
SexAnthRobotics – Sexual objectification and violence tendencies in the context of embodied human-like sex technologies
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2023.16470.ICDT (€236. 822,40) | Joana Carvalho
The project’s overall goal is to make a key contribution to the existing body of evidence on anthropomorphized sex tech, investigating in depth its connections to sexual objectification and violence tendencies. The project seeks to introduce a novel overarching framework that connects the above tendencies to real-world societal impacts, particularly on distorted perceptions of women and children. This project approaches sexual objectification as a significant public health problem for women and children. SexAnthRobotics integrates insights from diverse disciplines, including experimental psychology, gender studies, sexual violence studies, and robot design ethics. Importantly, aligning with the crucial objectives of promoting gender equality and striving for a society free from sexual violence, this project further aims to identify effective strategies for preventing sexual objectification and violence in the context of sex tech and broader society https://sexanthrobotics.hintlab.cc/index.php/project/.
ALCORN – Exploring Action-Specific Effects with Perceptual Spatial Displacements: Does the ‘Pong Effect’ modulates Representational Momentum?
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2024.16483.PEX (€49 175,73) | Nuno Teixeira
The ‘Pong Effect’ refers to the observation that target balls in a simplified version of the computer game Pong appear to move faster when the paddle observers control is shortened, possibly because intersecting the ball becomes more difficult. The effect has been taken as a robust example of ‘action-specific effects’: the idea that action capabilities, intentions, or action difficulty can shape perceptual experience, with important implications for theories of perception. At the same time, whether such effects reflect genuine perceptual changes or instead arise from response biases and task demands remains hotly debated. The ALCORN project contributes to this discussion by moving beyond overt speed judgements and using an implicit measure of perceived motion, leveraging on a well-studied psychophysical phenomenon – Representational Momentum (where the perceived offset of a moving target is displaced forward, in the direction of motion, and increasingly so for faster targets).
BEPROSOCIAL – BECOMING PROSOCIAL AMIDST SOCIAL MEDIA: NEURAL MARKERS OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN EARLY ADULTHOOD AND THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA CONSUMPTION
BIAL Foundation
Programme for Grants for Scientific Research (€57.000,00) | Inês Mares
BeProSocial explores the influence of social media on the development of prosocial behaviour during early adulthood. Utilizing robust methodologies and integrating behavioural and neural evidence, this project aims to validate empirical measures and explore the nuanced interplay between social media and prosocial behaviour. Additionally, it will investigate the potential role of social reward as a driving factor for both social media engagement and prosocial behaviour.
ACT2PARENTEEENS – PARENTING ANXIOUS TEENS: AN ACT APPROACH TO WHAT WORKS
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2023.14396.PEX (€49.992,03) | Paula Vagos
The ACT2ParenTeens research project intends to address two sequential goals. The first is to investigate the association between parental acts and how adolescent cope with anxiety using a mixed-method design and considering the perspective of both parents and adolescents under an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy framework. The second goal is to develop and explore the usability and helpfulness of an web-based intervention that includes separate profiles for parents and for adolescents, to help them cope with anxiety by strengthening psychological flexibility processes.
SUSPENSION OF BELIEF/DISBELIEF: MEASUREMENT AND DEFINITION THROUGH A NOMOLOGICAL NETWORK
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2023.14866.PEX (€49.959,23) | Teresa Garcia-Marques
As individuals, we rely on our ability to suspend our beliefs and disbeliefs in order to enjoy literature, films, video games, magic, and fairy tales. In this project, we assert that our minds are equipped with a cognitive mechanism that allows us to suspend disbelief, enabling us to experience alternatives to reality. The Suspension of Belief/Disbelief project opens the door to the study of this human ability, focusing on its relationship with other cognitive abilities and its role in contexts where we encounter lies and false information.
BEJUST – BREAKING BARRIERS TO ENHANCE CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERACTIONS AND SAFEGUARDS FOR ASD IN PORTUGAL
“la Caixa” Foundation
LCF/PR/SR24/00183 (€114.917,99) | Telma Sousa Almeida
BEJUST aims to investigate the systemic challenges faced by autistic individuals within Portugal’s Criminal Justice System (CJS), seeking to inform the development of improved legal procedures and safeguards. Using a mixed-methods approach, the project gathers insights from police officers, legal professionals, and the autism community.
The findings will offer evidence-based recommendations, promoting inclusivity and justice for autistic individuals. By fostering a more equitable and empathetic CJS, this research aspires to position Portugal as a leader in neurodiversity inclusivity within justice systems worldwide
STRENGTHENING AFFECTIVE BONDS: VIDEO-FEEDBACK INTERVENTION TO PROMOTE POSITIVE PARENTING AND SENSITIVE DISCIPLINE
Gulbenkian Growing Minds – Axis II , co-founded by
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, nº 325160 (€ 167.476,00) | Manuela Veríssimo
This project aims to adapt the VIPP-SD program to Portugal. Based on Attachment Theory and Social Learning Theory, VIPP-SD uses videotaped interactions and feedback to increase parental sensitivity and promote effective, non-coercive disciplinary strategies. This approach strengthens parental skills and creates a sensitive and responsive care environment, favoring the security of the parent-child bond and better socio-emotional results, with less propensity for long-term behavior problems.
KINDME – GROWING UP KIND: NEURAL MARKERS OF PROSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
“la Caixa” Foundation
LCF/PR/SR24/00474 (€114.976,63) | Inês Mares
KINDMe will characterise the development of prosocial behaviour during adolescence and early adulthood and help identify the potential role that social media has in shaping this important behavioural outcome. This project will use state-of-the-art neuroscience methods and analysis, in tandem with well-established behavioural paradigms to fully characterize developmental trajectories of prosocial behaviour between 13 and 25 years of age. KINDMe will help reveal the underpinnings of prosocial behaviour, reward sensitivity, and their association social media use, making it the first project to use such neural measures to tackle this complex set of inter-related processes.
Potential findings will help to identify critical periods of prosocial development to target with educational and parental intervention. KINDMe will clarify the contribution of social media use on prosocial behavior, providing the foundation for evidence-based guidelines for parents, educators, and policy makers.
PRIORITY – PREVENTION TO REDUCE INCIDENCE OF SEXUAL ABUSE BY REACHING INDIVIDUALS CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR RISK TO YOUNG PEOPLE
Horizon 2020 Program
ISFP-AG-101038787 (€22.347,11/€1.542 156,87) | Joana Carvalho
The PRIORITY project aims to promote prevention to help combat child sexual abuse. PRIORITY attempts to reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse by providing anonymous online treatment services to adults (i.e., men and women) who are concerned about their sexual urges involving children. The main aim of PRIORITY is to provide low-barrier intervention to those actively experiencing such urges. Therefore, as part of this project, we are also examining barriers to prevention and intervention programs for those with sexual interest in children within the European Union.
MISBEHAVIOR – MAKING SENSE OF ANIMAL MISBEHAVIOR: FUNCTIONAL AND MECHANISTIC ACCOUNTS
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT
nº 2022.04861.PTDC (€293.064,45) | Armando Machado
Our research aims to understand the processes involved in seemingly irrational, maladaptive behavior in animals. Empirically, we examine the laboratory conditions in which hungry starlings overvalue information at the cost of food, or mistake recency for causality. Theoretically, we propose new models of the learning processes and predict when they may engender misbehavior.
WJCR 