@article{BertiVosselGamer2017, author = {Berti, Stefan and Vossel, Gerhard and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {The orienting response in healthy aging: Novelty P3 indicates no general decline but reduced efficacy for fast stimulation rates}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01780}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-173651}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Automatic orienting to unexpected changes in the environment is a pre-requisite for adaptive behavior. One prominent mechanism of automatic attentional control is the Orienting Response (OR). Despite the fundamental significance of the OR in everyday life, only little is known about how the OR is affected by healthy aging. We tested this question in two age groups (19-38 and 55-72 years) and measured skin-conductance responses (SCRs) and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to novels (i.e., short environmental sounds presented only once in the experiment; 10\% of the trials) compared to standard sounds (600 Hz sinusoidal tones with 200 ms duration; 90\% of the trials). Novel and standard stimuli were presented in four conditions differing in the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) with a mean ISI of either 10, 3, 1, or 0.5 s (blocked presentation). In both age groups, pronounced SCRs were elicited by novels in the 10 s ISI condition, suggesting the elicitation of stable ORs. These effects were accompanied by pronounced N1 and frontal P3 amplitudes in the ERP, suggesting that automatic novelty processing and orientation of attention are effective in both age groups. Furthermore, the SCR and ERP effects declined with decreasing ISI length. In addition, differences between the two groups were observable with the fastest presentation rates (i.e., 1 and 0.5 s ISI length). The most prominent difference was a shift of the peak of the frontal positivity from around 300 to 200 ms in the 19-38 years group while in the 55-72 years group the amplitude of the frontal P3 decreased linearly with decreasing ISI length. Taken together, this pattern of results does not suggest a general decline in processing efficacy with healthy aging. At least with very rare changes (here, the novels in the 10 s ISI condition) the OR is as effective in healthy older adults as in younger adults. With faster presentation rates, however, the efficacy of the OR decreases. This seems to result in a switch from novelty to deviant processing in younger adults, but less so in the group of older adults.}, language = {en} } @article{LischkeHerpertzBergeretal.2017, author = {Lischke, Alexander and Herpertz, Sabine C. and Berger, Christoph and Domes, Gregor and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Divergent effects of oxytocin on (para-)limbic reactivity to emotional and neutral scenes in females with and without borderline personality disorder}, series = {Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience}, volume = {12}, journal = {Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1093/scan/nsx107}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-173309}, pages = {1783-1792}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients' hypersensitivity for emotionally relevant stimuli has been suggested be due to abnormal activity and connectivity in (para-)limbic and prefrontal brain regions during stimulus processing. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to modulate activity and functional connectivity in these brain regions, thereby optimizing the processing of emotional and neutral stimuli. To investigate whether oxytocin would be capable of attenuating BPD patients' hypersensitivity for such stimuli, we recorded brain activity and gaze behavior during the processing of complex scenes in 51 females with and 48 without BPD after intranasal application of either oxytocin or placebo. We found divergent effects of oxytocin on BPD and healthy control (HC) participants' (para-)limbic reactivity to emotional and neutral scenes: Oxytocin decreased amygdala and insula reactivity in BPD participants but increased it in HC participants, indicating an oxytocin-induced normalization of amygdala and insula activity during scene processing. In addition, oxytocin normalized the abnormal coupling between amygdala activity and gaze behavior across all scenes in BPD participants. Overall, these findings suggest that oxytocin may be capable of attenuating BPD patients' hypersensitivity for complex scenes, irrespective of their valence.}, language = {en} } @article{ShibanDiemerMuelleretal.2017, author = {Shiban, Youssef and Diemer, Julia and M{\"u}ller, Jana and Br{\"u}tting-Schick, Johanna and Pauli, Paul and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas}, title = {Diaphragmatic breathing during virtual reality exposure therapy for aviophobia: functional coping strategy or avoidance behavior? A pilot study}, series = {BMC Psychiatry}, volume = {17}, journal = {BMC Psychiatry}, doi = {10.1186/s12888-016-1181-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-181007}, pages = {10}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Background: Although there is solid evidence for the efficacy of in vivo and virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy for a specific phobia, there is a significant debate over whether techniques promoting distraction or relaxation have impairing or enhancing effects on treatment outcome. In the present pilot study, we investigated the effect of diaphragmatic breathing (DB) as a relaxation technique during VR exposure treatment. Method: Twenty-nine patients with aviophobia were randomly assigned to VR exposure treatment either with or without diaphragmatic breathing (six cycles per minute). Subjective fear ratings, heart rate and skin conductance were assessed as indicators of fear during both the exposure and the test session one week later. Results: The group that experienced VR exposure combined with diaphragmatic breathing showed a higher tendency to effectively overcome the fear of flying. Psychophysiological measures of fear decreased and self-efficacy increased in both groups with no significant difference between the groups. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that diaphragmatic breathing during VR exposure does not interfere with the treatment outcome and may even enhance treatment effects of VR exposure therapy for aviophobic patients.}, language = {en} } @article{SchneiderNiklas2017, author = {Schneider, Wolfgang and Niklas, Frank}, title = {Intelligence and verbal short-term memory/working memory: their interrelationships from childhood to young adulthood and their impact on academic achievement}, series = {Journal of Intelligence}, volume = {5}, journal = {Journal of Intelligence}, number = {2}, issn = {2079-3200}, doi = {10.3390/jintelligence5020026}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-198004}, pages = {26}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Although recent developmental studies exploring the predictive power of intelligence and working memory (WM) for educational achievement in children have provided evidence for the importance of both variables, findings concerning the relative impact of IQ and WM on achievement have been inconsistent. Whereas IQ has been identified as the major predictor variable in a few studies, results from several other developmental investigations suggest that WM may be the stronger predictor of academic achievement. In the present study, data from the Munich Longitudinal Study on the Genesis of Individual Competencies (LOGIC) were used to explore this issue further. The secondary data analysis included data from about 200 participants whose IQ and WM was first assessed at the age of six and repeatedly measured until the ages of 18 and 23. Measures of reading, spelling, and math were also repeatedly assessed for this age range. Both regression analyses based on observed variables and latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM) were carried out to explore whether the predictive power of IQ and WM would differ as a function of time point of measurement (i.e., early vs. late assessment). As a main result of various regression analyses, IQ and WM turned out to be reliable predictors of academic achievement, both in early and later developmental stages, when previous domain knowledge was not included as additional predictor. The latter variable accounted for most of the variance in more comprehensive regression models, reducing the impact of both IQ and WM considerably. Findings from SEM analyses basically confirmed this outcome, indicating IQ impacts on educational achievement in the early phase, and illustrating the strong additional impact of previous domain knowledge on achievement at later stages of development.}, language = {en} } @article{FoersterPfisterReussetal.2017, author = {Foerster, Anna and Pfister, Roland and Reuss, Heiko and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Commentary: Feeling the Conflict: The Crucial Role of Conflict Experience in Adaptation}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1405}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01405}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190032}, year = {2017}, abstract = {A commentary on: Feeling the Conflict: The Crucial Role of Conflict Experience in Adaptationby Desender, K., Van Opstal, F., and Van den Bussche, E. (2014). Psychol. Sci. 25, 675-683. doi:10.1177/0956797613511468 Conflict adaptation in masked priming has recently been proposed to rely not on successful conflictresolution but rather on conflict experience (Desender et al., 2014). We re-assessed this proposal ina direct replication and also tested a potential confound due toconflict strength. The data supported this alternative view, but also failed to replicate basic conflict adaptation effects of the original studydespite considerable power.}, language = {en} } @article{ZuernStrack2017, author = {Z{\"u}rn, Michael and Strack, Fritz}, title = {When More Is Better - Consumption Priming Decreases Responders' Rejections in the Ultimatum Game}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {2226}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02226}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-189989}, year = {2017}, abstract = {During the past decades, economic theories of rational choice have been exposed to outcomes that were severe challenges to their claim of universal validity. For example, traditional theories cannot account for refusals to cooperate if cooperation would result in higher payoffs. A prominent illustration are responders' rejections of positive but unequal payoffs in the Ultimatum Game. To accommodate this anomaly in a rational framework one needs to assume both a preference for higher payoffs and a preference for equal payoffs. The current set of studies shows that the relative weight of these preference components depends on external conditions and that consumption priming may decrease responders' rejections of unequal payoffs. Specifically, we demonstrate that increasing the accessibility of consumption-related information accentuates the preference for higher payoffs. Furthermore, consumption priming increased responders' reaction times for unequal payoffs which suggests an increased conflict between both preference components. While these results may also be integrated into existing social preference models, we try to identify some basic psychological processes underlying economic decision making. Going beyond the Ultimatum Game, we propose that a distinction between comparative and deductive evaluations may provide a more general framework to account for various anomalies in behavioral economics.}, language = {en} } @article{PfisterSchwarzWirthetal.2017, author = {Pfister, Roland and Schwarz, Katharina A. and Wirth, Robert and Lindner, Isabel}, title = {My Command, My Act: Observation Inflation in Face-To-Face Interactions}, series = {Advances in Cognitive Psychology}, volume = {13}, journal = {Advances in Cognitive Psychology}, number = {2}, doi = {10.5709/acp-0216-8}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170739}, pages = {166-176}, year = {2017}, abstract = {When observing another agent performing simple actions, these actions are systematically remembered as one's own after a brief period of time. Such observation inflation has been documented as a robust phenomenon in studies in which participants passively observed videotaped actions. Whether observation inflation also holds for direct, face-to-face interactions is an open question that we addressed in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants commanded the experimenter to carry out certain actions, and they indeed reported false memories of self-performance in a later memory test. The effect size of this inflation effect was similar to passive observation as confirmed by Experiment 2. These findings suggest that observation inflation might affect action memory in a broad range of real-world interactions.}, language = {en} } @article{RoeslerEndGamer2017, author = {R{\"o}sler, Lara and End, Albert and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Orienting towards social features in naturalistic scenes is reflexive}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {12}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {7}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0182037}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170586}, pages = {e0182037}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Saliency-based models of visual attention postulate that, when a scene is freely viewed, attention is predominantly allocated to those elements that stand out in terms of their physical properties. However, eye-tracking studies have shown that saliency models fail to predict gaze behavior accurately when social information is included in an image. Notably, gaze pattern analyses revealed that depictions of human beings are heavily prioritized independent of their low-level physical saliency. What remains unknown, however, is whether the prioritization of such social features is a reflexive or a voluntary process. To investigate the early stages of social attention in more detail, participants viewed photographs of naturalistic scenes with and without social features (i.e., human heads or bodies) for 200 ms while their eye movements were being recorded. We observed significantly more first eye movements to regions containing social features than would be expected from a chance level distribution of saccades. Additionally, a generalized linear mixed model analysis revealed that the social content of a region better predicted first saccade direction than its saliency suggesting that social features partially override the impact of low-level physical saliency on gaze patterns. Given the brief image presentation time that precluded visual exploration, our results provide compelling evidence for a reflexive component in social attention. Moreover, the present study emphasizes the importance of considering social influences for a more coherent understanding of human attentional selection.}, language = {en} } @article{FlechsenharGamer2017, author = {Flechsenhar, Aleya Felicia and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Top-down influence on gaze patterns in the presence of social features}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {12}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {8}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0183799}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170468}, pages = {e0183799}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Visual saliency maps reflecting locations that stand out from the background in terms of their low-level physical features have proven to be very useful for empirical research on attentional exploration and reliably predict gaze behavior. In the present study we tested these predictions for socially relevant stimuli occurring in naturalistic scenes using eye tracking. We hypothesized that social features (i.e. human faces or bodies) would be processed preferentially over non-social features (i.e. objects, animals) regardless of their low-level saliency. To challenge this notion, we included three tasks that deliberately addressed non-social attributes. In agreement with our hypothesis, social information, especially heads, was preferentially attended compared to highly salient image regions across all tasks. Social information was never required to solve a task but was regarded nevertheless. More so, after completing the task requirements, viewing behavior reverted back to that of free-viewing with heavy prioritization of social features. Additionally, initial eye movements reflecting potentially automatic shifts of attention, were predominantly directed towards heads irrespective of top-down task demands. On these grounds, we suggest that social stimuli may provide exclusive access to the priority map, enabling social attention to override reflexive and controlled attentional processes. Furthermore, our results challenge the generalizability of saliency-based attention models.}, language = {en} } @article{SchubertKoernerLindauetal.2017, author = {Schubert, Lisa and K{\"o}rner, Anita and Lindau, Berit and Strack, Fritz and Topolinski, Sascha}, title = {Open-Minded Midwifes, Literate Butchers, and Greedy Hooligans - The Independent Contributions of Stereotype Valence and Consistency on Evaluative Judgments}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1723}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01723}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170222}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Do people evaluate an open-minded midwife less positively than a caring midwife? Both open-minded and caring are generally seen as positive attributes. However, consistency varies—the attribute caring is consistent with the midwife stereotype while open-minded is not. In general, both stimulus valence and consistency can influence evaluations. Six experiments investigated the respective influence of valence and consistency on evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. In an impression formation paradigm, valence and consistency of stereotypic information about target persons were manipulated orthogonally and spontaneous evaluations of these target persons were measured. Valence reliably influenced evaluations. However, for strongly valenced stereotypes, no effect of consistency was observed. Parameters possibly preventing the occurrence of consistency effects were ruled out, specifically, valence of inconsistent attributes, processing priority of category information, and impression formation instructions. However, consistency had subtle effects on evaluative judgments if the information about a target person was not strongly valenced and experimental conditions were optimal. Concluding, in principle, both stereotype valence and consistency can play a role in evaluative judgments of stereotypic target persons. However, the more subtle influence of consistency does not seem to substantially influence evaluations of stereotyped target persons. Implications for fluency research and stereotype disconfirmation are discussed.}, language = {en} }