English Summaries (02/2023)
Sleep and memory
In this review we focus on the role of sleep in learning and memory, especially memory consolidation. The arousal state of humans and other mammals varies according to the circadian rhythm regulated by light. In humans, nightly sleep stages repeat in a cyclic manner so that non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep is more common first and REM sleep is more common towards the morning. Compared to awake state, sleep improves memory consolidation. During non-REM sleep, neuronal activation patterns formed during awake experience repeat in the brain. This process is thought to reflect the consolidation of information into long-term memory in distributed neural networks in the neocortex and sub-cortical structures like the thalamus and the hippocampus. The role of REM sleep in this systemic-level mechanism of memory consolidation is still unclear. REM sleep appears important for learning as its amount and proportion increases after learning and is reflected in the memory performance quantified after sleep. Sleep strengthens the consolidation of both procedural and declarative memory traces. It is also possible that one can learn about stimuli presented during sleep, and reminders of previous learning presented during sleep improve memory consolidation. The role of sleep in learning and memory is thus crucial and sleep can be utilized in improving learning.
Keywords: rapid eye movement sleep, slow wave sleep, learning, memory, electrophysiology
Gaming, work ability, and recovery: A nationally representative registered report
Pathological videogame play was recently included as an official mental disorder in the World Health Organization’s ICD-11 with the label ‘gaming disorder’ under the addictive behaviors category. As previous research on gaming disorder has focused mainly on children and adolescents, there is little knowledge about its prevalence or associations in working adult populations. In this registered report, we measured the prevalence of gaming disorder via a nationally representative survey of the Finnish working population (N = 3912, prevalence 0.4–7.5%) and tested three hypotheses regarding the associations between gaming, work ability, and work recovery. Gaming disorders were weakly associated with both lower work ability and recovery. High gaming amounts (30h/week and 40h/week) were also weakly associated with lower work ability, but not with lower work recovery. More research is needed especially for the development of more reliable survey measures and for better understanding the causal relations between gaming, work ability, and work recovery.
Keywords: addiction, gaming disorder, health, videogames, work ability, work recovery
Further psychometric examination of the Finnish Job Crafting Questionnaire
The factor structure of the Finnish Job Crafting Questionnaire has previously been examined only in a sample of managers. In this study, the factor structure of the measure was tested in confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance analyses in a heterogenous working sample. According to the main results, the theoretically expected three-factor solution fit the data moderately well. This is demonstrated by identical factor structure and factor loadings between groups of manual workers, lower-level employees and upper-level employees. The results of the present study indicate that the translation of the Finnish JCQ is of good quality. Its original theoretical structure fits satisfactorily with a large proportion of the Finnish workforce and may capture the pursued phenomena well enough among people of different occupational status. However, should some between-groups differences be studied with the measure in future, one should ensure strong measurement invariance in the sample.
Keywords: job crafting, confirmatory factor analysis, measurement invariance