@article{BiehlEhlisMuelleretal.2013, author = {Biehl, Stefanie C. and Ehlis, Ann-Christine and M{\"u}ller, Laura D. and Niklaus, Andrea and Pauli, Paul and Herrmann, Martin J.}, title = {The impact of task relevance and degree of distraction on stimulus processing}, series = {BMC Neuroscience}, journal = {BMC Neuroscience}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2202-14-107}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97271}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Background The impact of task relevance on event-related potential amplitudes of early visual processing was previously demonstrated. Study designs, however, differ greatly, not allowing simultaneous investigation of how both degree of distraction and task relevance influence processing variations. In our study, we combined different features of previous tasks. We used a modified 1-back task in which task relevant and task irrelevant stimuli were alternately presented. The task irrelevant stimuli could be from the same or from a different category as the task relevant stimuli, thereby producing high and low distracting task irrelevant stimuli. In addition, the paradigm comprised a passive viewing condition. Thus, our paradigm enabled us to compare the processing of task relevant stimuli, task irrelevant stimuli with differing degrees of distraction, and passively viewed stimuli. EEG data from twenty participants was collected and mean P100 and N170 amplitudes were analyzed. Furthermore, a potential connection of stimulus processing and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was investigated. Results Our results show a modulation of peak N170 amplitudes by task relevance. N170 amplitudes to task relevant stimuli were significantly higher than to high distracting task irrelevant or passively viewed stimuli. In addition, amplitudes to low distracting task irrelevant stimuli were significantly higher than to high distracting stimuli. N170 amplitudes to passively viewed stimuli were not significantly different from either kind of task irrelevant stimuli. Participants with more symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity showed decreased N170 amplitudes across all task conditions. On a behavioral level, lower N170 enhancement efficiency was significantly correlated with false alarm responses. Conclusions Our results point to a processing enhancement of task relevant stimuli. Unlike P100 amplitudes, N170 amplitudes were strongly influenced by enhancement and enhancement efficiency seemed to have direct behavioral consequences. These findings have potential implications for models of clinical disorders affecting selective attention, especially ADHD.}, language = {en} } @article{DiemerAlpersPeperkornetal.2015, author = {Diemer, Julia and Alpers, Georg W. and Peperkorn, Henrik M. and Shiban, Youssef and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas}, title = {The impact of perception and presence on emotional reactions: a review of research in virtual reality}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {26}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00026}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-144200}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Virtual reality (VR) has made its way into mainstream psychological research in the last two decades. This technology, with its unique ability to simulate complex, real situations and contexts, offers researchers unprecedented opportunities to investigate human behavior in well controlled designs in the laboratory. One important application of VR is the investigation of pathological processes in mental disorders, especially anxiety disorders. Research on the processes underlying threat perception, fear, and exposure therapy has shed light on more general aspects of the relation between perception and emotion. Being by its nature virtual, i.e., simulation of reality, VR strongly relies on the adequate selection of specific perceptual cues to activate emotions. Emotional experiences in turn are related to presence, another important concept in VR, which describes the user's sense of being in a VR environment. This paper summarizes current research into perception of fear cues, emotion, and presence, aiming at the identification of the most relevant aspects of emotional experience in VR and their mutual relations. A special focus lies on a series of recent experiments designed to test the relative contribution of perception and conceptual information on fear in VR. This strand of research capitalizes on the dissociation between perception (bottom up input) and conceptual information (top-down input) that is possible in VR. Further, we review the factors that have so far been recognized to influence presence, with emotions (e.g., fear) being the most relevant in the context of clinical psychology. Recent research has highlighted the mutual influence of presence and fear in VR, but has also traced the limits of our current understanding of this relationship. In this paper, the crucial role of perception on eliciting emotional reactions is highlighted, and the role of arousal as a basic dimension of emotional experience is discussed. An interoceptive attribution model of presence is suggested as a first step toward an integrative framework for emotion research in VR. Gaps in the current literature and future directions are outlined.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Gralke2023, author = {Gralke, Verena Maria}, title = {The Impact of Media Literacy in Adolescence and Young Adulthood. - Correlative and Experimental Investigations on the Influence of Media Literacy on Cognitive and Political Variables, and on Knowledge Acquisition from Media -}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-34601}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-346018}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2023}, abstract = {This thesis consists of three studies investigating the influence media literacy has on political variables, cognitive variables, and learning. Adolescents from 13 years of age and young adults are included in the studies. This thesis is divided into three chapters. Study I and II are one comprehensive study, but will be presented separately for better readability. Chapter I provides the reader with background knowledge for the original studies presented in chapter II includes information about media use, different conceptualizations of media literacy and its development over the lifetime, as well as media literacy's impact on cognitive and political variables. Additionally, current literature on the comparison of the learning outcomes of different kinds of texts (written, auditory, and audiovisual) is presented, with a differentiation between text-based information and inferences. In chapter II, the original studies are placed in the current state of research and presented in detail. In chapter III, a critical discussion of the studies is conducted, and a general model of the influence media literacy has on the investigated cognitive and political factors is presented, followed by a conclusion of the research. The theoretical foundation of this thesis is three models of media literacy proposed by Groeben (2002, 2004), Hobbs (1997), and Potter (1998, 2016). These three models are similar in that they define media literacy as a multifactorial construct with skills that develop further in the course of life. Their ideas are integrated and developed further, leading to our own model of media literacy. It encompasses five scales: media sign literacy, distinction between reality and fiction, knowledge of media law, knowledge of media effects, and production skills. Thereupon, the assessment tool W{\"u}rzburg Media Literacy Test (WMK; W{\"u}rzburger Medienkompetenztest) is designed. There is evidence that media use and media literacy influence socio-political factors. Young adults name the internet as the main source of information on political topics (see Pasek et al., 2006), and knowledge demonstrably fosters political participation (Delli Carpini \& Keeter, 1996). However, the kind of participation activity regarded is important (Quintelier \& Vissers, 2008), as sometimes real-life participation is supplemented by online activities (Quan-Haase \& Wellman, 2002). Media literacy is the key to evaluating the quality of information from media. Whether or not a direct link between media literacy and political interest exists has, as far as I know, not yet been investigated. Several studies have shown that precursors and subcomponents of media literacy have the capacity to influence cognitive variables. For instance, children with higher media sign literacy possess better reading proficiency (Nieding et al., 2017) and are better at collecting information and drawing inferences from hypermedia and films (Diergarten et al., 2017) as compared to children with low literacy. These precursors and subcomponents are more efficient in processing medial sign systems, reducing cognitive load, and consequently, liberating cognitive capacity for other mental tasks (Sweller, 1988). Paino and Renzulli (2012) showed that highly computer-proficient adolescents exhibit better mathematics and reading abilities. Different types of media influence the learning process differently, and the learning process can be enhanced by combining these different types of media, if the material is prepared according to the research findings and Mayer's (2002) cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Similarly, a reduction in cognitive load takes place and more resources can be invested in the learning process itself (Mayer \& Moreno, 2003; Sweller, 1988). It is not easy to answer the question of whether one medium is superior for learning to another. Generally, adults learn best from written texts (e.g., Byrne \& Curtis, 2000), and audiovisual and auditory texts are comparable (e.g., Hayes et al., 1986); however, there is little research regarding the comparison of the latter two. Study I examined whether media literacy has a positive impact on interest in politics and the political self-concept. A sample of 101 13-to 20-year-olds was drawn. The control variables were intelligence, socio-economic status (SES), openness to experiences, perspective-taking, age, and sex. Additionally, an evaluation of the WMK was conducted, which indicated good construct validity and excellent overall reliability. Media literacy was positively associated with interest in politics, political self-concept, and perspective-taking but not with openness. In hierarchical regressions and path analysis, a direct influence of media literacy and openness on interest in politics could be found. Political self-concept was solely influenced by interest in politics. Although media literacy had no direct influence on political self-concept, it influenced its precursor interest in politics and was thus expected to have distal influence. The results of the first study confirm previous findings (e.g., Vecchione \& Caprara, 2009), where political self-concept is regarded as a precursor of political participation. In conclusion, the findings of study I suggested that by stimulating political interest, media literacy could, mediated through political self-concept, foster political participation. Study II (which was conducted on the same sample as study I) was concerned with the question of whether highly media-literate adolescent and young adult participants exhibit better academic skills (mathematics; reading) and academic achievement (grades) compared to less media-literate participants. Additionally, to obtain information about potential development during adolescence, a group of 50 13-year-olds was compared with a group of 51 19-year-olds in terms of their media literacy. The control variables were intelligence, SES, sex, and age. The results showed that a significant development of media literacy took place during adolescence (∆M = .17), agreeing with Potter's (1998, 2013) development theory of media literacy. Media literacy was significantly correlated with reading skills and school grades. Regarding adults, media literacy was also significantly correlated with mathematical skills; the association was greater than that with reading skills. However, no connection with mathematical skills was found for adolescents. To control for the influence of age and intelligence, which were both associated with media literacy, hierarchical regressions and path analyses were conducted. The results revealed that media literacy had a greater impact on grades and academic abilities than intelligence. These results are in line with those obtained by Paino and Renzulli (2012). Study III investigated whether media literacy helps young adults to better learn from three kinds of media, a written, an auditory, and an audio-visual text, and which medium achieves the best learning results. Three groups of 91 young adults were compared (written, auditory, and audio-visual text) in terms of their learning outcomes. These outcomes were conceptualized as directly stated information in the text (assessed by text-based questions) and inferential learning (inference questions). A computer-based short version of the WMK was applied to assess media literacy, which should be optimized in the future. The control variables were intelligence, verbal ability, media usage, prior knowledge, and SES. In hierarchical regression, media literacy turned out to be a significant predictor of text inferences, even when other relevant variables, such as intelligence, were controlled for. Inferences foster the building of the situation model, which is believed by many authors to be true comprehension of a text (Zwaan \& Radvansky, 1998). The outcomes of study III support Ohler's (1994) assumption that media literacy fosters the creation of a more elaborated situational model. Text-based questions were only influenced by prior knowledge. As assumed by Potter (1998, 2016), the media literacy of young adults in the Western world suffices to extract relevant facts from educational learning material. Both subjects were best in the written text condition for text-based and inference question results. Audiovisual and auditory texts showed no significant differences. The written text condition did not excel in the auditory text condition for inferences. The results accord with those obtained by, for instance, Byrne and Curtis (2000). Taken together, these studies show that media literacy can influence several cognitive and political variables. It stimulates political interest, reading comprehension, school grades, and mathematical abilities in young adults, as well as drawing inferences from different kinds of texts. Additionally, media literacy develops further during adolescence.}, subject = {Media Literacy}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Madeira2022, author = {Madeira, Octavia}, title = {The Human-Experimental Virtual Elevated Plus-Maze as an Anxiety Model}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-28147}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-281478}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Anxiety research is one of the major psychological research domains and looks back on decades of research activity. Traditionally, novel theories and approaches are tested utilizing animal models. One way to study inherent anxiety in rodents is the elevated plus-maze (EPM). The EPM is a plus-shaped platform with two closed, i.e., walled, arms and two open unwalled arms. If given the opportunity to freely explore the apparatus, rodents instinctively avoid the open arms to protect themselves from predators. Hence, they spent less time on open and more time on closed arms, which is behaviorally associated with general anxiety. In the course of the pharmacological validation, it was found that this exploratory pattern can be reversed by anxiolytic substances, e.g., benzodiazepines, or potentiated by anxiogenics. One of the significant advantages of the EPM is that no prior training session is required in contrast to conditioning studies, thus allowing to observe natural behavior. Therefore, together with the economic and uncomplicated setup, the EPM has become a standard preclinical rodent anxiety test over the decades. In order to validate these rodent anxiety tests, there have recently been attempts to retranslate them to humans. A paramount of cross-species validation is not only the simple transferability of these animal tests but also the observation of anxiety behaviors that are evolutionarily conserved across species. Accordingly, it could be possible to conclude various factors associated with the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders in humans. So far, convincing translations of the EPM to humans are still lacking. For that reason, the primary aim of this dissertation is to retranslate the EPM throughout three studies and to evaluate cross-species validity critically. Secondly, the undertaken studies are set out to observe ambulatory activity equivalent to rodent EPM behavior, i.e., open arm avoidance. Thirdly, the undertaken studies aimed to assess the extent to which trait anxiety influences human exploratory activity on the platform to associate it with the assumption that rodent EPM-behavior is a reflection of general anxiety. Finally, virtual reality (VR) was the method of choice to maintain the economic advantage and adjust the EPM size to humans. Study 1 (N = 30) was set up to directly transfer the rodent EPM regarding test design and experimental procedure using a Computer Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). The results revealed that humans unlike rodents display a general open arms approach during free exploration. However, open arm avoidance was associated with high trait anxiety and acrophobia (fear of height), which was initially assessed as a control variable due to the virtual platform height. Regression analyses and subjective anxiety ratings hinted at a more significant influence of acrophobia on open arm avoidance. In addition, it was assumed that the open arms approach might have resulted from claustrophobic tendencies experienced in the closed arms due to the high walls. Study 2 (N = 61) sought to differentiate the influence of trait anxiety and acrophobia and adapt the virtual EPM to humans. Therefore, parts of the platform held a semi-transparent grid-floor texture, and the wall height on the closed arms was reduced to standard handrail level. Moreover, participants were priorly screened to exclude clinically significant levels of acrophobia, claustrophobia, and agoraphobia. The data on general exploratory activity showed no arm preference. Regression analyses confirmed that acrophobia is related to open arm avoidance, corroborating the finding of Study 1. Surprisingly, for trait anxiety, the result of Study 1 could not be replicated. Instead, for trait anxiety, no significant effect was found indicating that predominantly fear of heights shapes human EPM behavior even on a subclinical stage. In Study 3 (N = 57), the EPM was embedded into a city setting to 1) create a more natural human environment and 2) eliminate height. Furthermore, a head-mounted display was utilized for VR presentation, and arousal ratings were introduced. Participants were screened for high and low levels of trait anxiety and agoraphobia, and claustrophobia. Replicating the findings of Study 2, no difference in open and closed arm activity was observed, and no effect was found in relationship with trait anxiety. The data on anxiety ratings and claustrophobia suggest a positive correlation indicating that in this city EPM, claustrophobic tendencies might play a role in closed arm avoidance. In summary, this thesis added valuable insights into the retranslation of a well-established standard anxiety test used in rodents. However, it also majorly challenges current findings on the cross-species validity of the EPM. Various explanatory models for the results are critically discussed and associated with clinical implications concerning future research.}, subject = {Virtuelle Realit{\"a}t}, language = {en} } @incollection{KruegerLehmacherWall1981, author = {Kr{\"u}ger, Hans-Peter and Lehmacher, Walter and Wall, K. - D.}, title = {The Fourfold Table up to N=80}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-87053}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {1981}, abstract = {No abstract available.}, subject = {Psychologie}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Erlbeck2015, author = {Erlbeck, Helena}, title = {The event-related potentials Mismatch Negativity, P300, and N400: Effects of attentional modulation and application in patients with disorders of consciousness}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121041}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The present work comprises four studies dealing with the investigation of the auditory event-related potentials (ERP) Mismatch Negativity (MMN), P300, and N400 under different attentional instructions, and with their application in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) to assess residual cognitive functioning. In guided interviews (study 1), practitioners working with DOC patients stated their general interest in and an objective need for the complementation of current diagnostic procedures by reliable and valid ERP-based methods. Subsequently, in study 2, simple oddball and semantic paradigms were applied to 19 behaviorally non-responsive DOC patients revealing the presence of at least one ERP in eight patients investigated. In the third and fourth study, specific attentional effects on ERPs were investigated in healthy participants to define optimal instructions and stimulus parameters. In study 3, MMN and N400 amplitudes were assessed in 18 participants, and in study 4, MMN and P300 amplitudes were assessed in 32 participants. Both studies included an ignore task (attention on simultaneous visual stimuli), a passive task, and a focused task and revealed distinct attentional effects on P300 and N400 with largest amplitudes in the focused task, smaller ones in the passive task and no ERP in the ignore task. An MMN was elicited in all tasks, but still, amplitudes differed as a function of task. In addition, study 4 included oddball paradigms comprising several deviants in different dimensions. Higher amplitudes were found in this multifeature paradigm compared to traditional oddball paradigms and larger amplitudes were elicited by deviants highly different from standards. It is concluded that ERPs represent a promising tool to complement clinical assessment of DOC patients. Application of ERP paradigms should include focused instructions, especially when using semantic material. Furthermore, multifeature paradigms have been proven especially useful eliciting large amplitudes and allowing for the investigation of several dimensions of deviants at the same time.}, subject = {Bewusstseinsst{\"o}rung}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Rueter2004, author = {R{\"u}ter, Katja}, title = {The efficiency of routine standards in social comparison}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-9448}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2004}, abstract = {One primary source for self-knowledge is social comparison. Often objective criteria for self-evaluations are not available or useful and therefore comparisons with other people play a crucial role in self-evaluations. But the question is whether social comparisons could indeed provide information about the self without consuming too much cognitive resources or time. Therefore, in this research I wanted to look at practice effects in social comparison and the particular significance of routine standards. Whereas traditional research on standard selection mostly focused on goal-oriented and strategic standard selection processes, this research sets out to integrate social cognitive knowledge, ideas, and methods. Researchers from many different fields agree that people's behavior and thinking is not fully determined by rational choices or normative considerations. Quite the contrary, factors like knowledge accessibility, habits, procedural practice, stereotyping, categorization, and many more cognitive processes play an important role. The same may be true in social comparison and standard selection. In my research I demonstrate that efficiency concerns play an important role in social comparison. Since people may not be able to engage in a strategic standard selection whenever they engage in social comparison processes, there has to be a more efficient alternative. Using routine standards would be such an alternative. The efficiency advantage of routine standards may thereby be founded not only in the abandonment of a strategic but arduous standard selection process, but also in a higher efficiency of the comparison process itself. I therefore set out to show how the use of routine standards facilitates the social comparison processes. This was done in three steps. First, I replicated and improved our former research (Mussweiler \& R{\"u}ter, 2003, JPSP) indicating that people really do use their best friends as routine standards to evaluate themselves. Second, I demonstrated that it is more efficient to compare with a routine standard than with another standard. In Studies 2 and 3 I therefore show that comparisons between the self and a routine standard (either a natural routine standard like the best friend or a experimentally induced routine standard based on practice) are faster and more efficient than comparisons with other standards. Finally, I looked at the underlying mechanism of the efficiency advantage of routine standards. The results of Studies 4 and 5 point out, that both general as well as specific practice effects occur with repeated comparisons. Whereas a specific practice effect implies the repeated processing of the same content (i.e., knowledge about the routine standard), general practice effects indicate that the pure process (i.e., comparing the self with a routine standard) becomes more efficient regardless whether new content (i.e., comparison relevant knowledge) has to be processed. Taken together, the efficiency advantage of routine standards during self-evaluation is based not only on the lack of necessity for an arduous standard selection, but is additionally supported by the facilitation of the comparison process itself. The efficiency of routine standards may provide an explanation as to why people base self-evaluations on comparisons with these standards and dispense with strategic considerations to select the most suitable standard.}, language = {en} } @article{SchneiderKoerkelWeinert1987, author = {Schneider, Wolfgang and K{\"o}rkel, Joachim and Weinert, Franz E.}, title = {The effects of intelligence, self-concept, and attributional style on metamemory and memory behaviour}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-62050}, year = {1987}, abstract = {No abstract available}, subject = {Psychologie}, language = {en} } @article{SeitzLenhartRuebsam2020, author = {Seitz, Maximilian and Lenhart, Jan and R{\"u}bsam, Nina}, title = {The effects of gendered information in stories on preschool children's development of gender stereotypes}, series = {British Journal of Developmental Psychology}, volume = {38}, journal = {British Journal of Developmental Psychology}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1111/bjdp.12323}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-214622}, pages = {363 -- 390}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Social-cognitive theory posits that children learn gender stereotypes through gendered information. The present study examined whether children learn new gender stereotypes from stories when unknown words are linked to a gendered protagonist or context information. In Experiment 1, 40 3- to 6-year-old preschoolers were read stories with either a gendered protagonist embedded within a non-gendered context, or a non-gendered protagonist embedded within a gendered context. In Experiment 2, the same sample of children were read stories with the protagonist and the context displaying congruent or incongruent gender information. Each story featured an unknown activity linked with the stereotypical content. Both experiments indicate that the children rated the activity according to both the gender of the context and of the protagonist; however, the effect of the latter was stronger. In addition, children showed higher interest in the unknown activity if the protagonist's gender matched their own sex. Thus, gender information in stories influences how children perceive unknown words.}, language = {en} } @article{FischerPlessowKiesel2013, author = {Fischer, Rico and Plessow, Franziska and Kiesel, Andrea}, title = {The effects of alerting signals in masked priming}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {4}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {448}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00448}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122581}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Alerting signals often serve to reduce temporal uncertainty by predicting the time of stimulus onset. The resulting response time benefits have often been explained by facilitated translation of stimulus codes into response codes on the basis of established stimulus-response (S-R) links. In paradigms of masked S-R priming alerting signals also modulate response activation processes triggered by subliminally presented prime stimuli. In the present study we tested whether facilitation of visuo-motor translation processes due to alerting signals critically depends on established S-R links. Alerting signals resulted in significantly enhanced masked priming effects for masked prime stimuli that included and that did not include established S-R links fi.e., target vs. novel primes). Yet, the alerting-priming interaction was more pronounced for target than for novel primes. These results suggest that effects of alerting signals on masked priming are especially evident when S-R links between prime and target exist. At the same time, an alerting-priming interaction also for novel primes suggests that alerting signals also facilitate stimulus-response translation processes when masked prime stimuli provide action-trigger conditions in terms of programmed S-R links.}, language = {en} } @article{StegmannReichertsAndreattaetal.2019, author = {Stegmann, Yannik and Reicherts, Philipp and Andreatta, Marta and Pauli, Paul and Wieser, Matthias J.}, title = {The effect of trait anxiety on attentional mechanisms in combined context and cue conditioning and extinction learning}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {9}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-019-45239-3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239394}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Sensory processing and attention allocation are shaped by threat, but the role of trait-anxiety in sensory processing as a function of threat predictability remains incompletely understood. Therefore, we measured steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) as an index of sensory processing of predictable and unpredictable threat cues in 29 low (LA) and 29 high (HA) trait-anxious participants during a modified NPU-paradigm followed by an extinction phase. Three different contextual cues indicated safety (N), predictable (P) or unpredictable threat (U), while foreground cues signalled shocks in the P-condition only. All participants allocated increased attentional resources to the central P-threat cue, replicating previous findings. Importantly, LA individuals exhibited larger ssVEP amplitudes to contextual threat (U and P) than to contextual safety cues, while HA individuals did not differentiate among contextual cues in general. Further, HA exhibited higher aversive ratings of all contexts compared to LA. These results suggest that high trait-anxious individuals might be worse at discriminating contextual threat stimuli and accordingly overestimate the probability and aversiveness of unpredictable threat. These findings support the notion of aberrant sensory processing of unpredictable threat in anxiety disorders, as this processing pattern is already evident in individuals at risk of these disorders.}, language = {en} } @article{StegmannAndreattaWieser2023, author = {Stegmann, Yannik and Andreatta, Marta and Wieser, Matthias J.}, title = {The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat}, series = {Psychophysiology}, volume = {60}, journal = {Psychophysiology}, number = {4}, doi = {10.1111/psyp.14208}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-312465}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Fear and anxiety are crucial for adaptive responding in life-threatening situations. Whereas fear is a phasic response to an acute threat accompanied by selective attention, anxiety is characterized by a sustained feeling of apprehension and hypervigilance during situations of potential threat. In the current literature, fear and anxiety are usually considered mutually exclusive, with partially separated neural underpinnings. However, there is accumulating evidence that challenges this distinction between fear and anxiety, and simultaneous activation of fear and anxiety networks has been reported. Therefore, the current study experimentally tested potential interactions between fear and anxiety. Fifty-two healthy participants completed a differential fear conditioning paradigm followed by a test phase in which the conditioned stimuli were presented in front of threatening or neutral contextual images. To capture defense system activation, we recorded subjective (threat, US-expectancy), physiological (skin conductance, heart rate) and visuocortical (steady-state visual evoked potentials) responses to the conditioned stimuli as a function of contextual threat. Results demonstrated successful fear conditioning in all measures. In addition, threat and US-expectancy ratings, cardiac deceleration, and visuocortical activity were enhanced for fear cues presented in threatening compared with neutral contexts. These results are in line with an additive or interactive rather than an exclusive model of fear and anxiety, indicating facilitated defensive behavior to imminent danger in situations of potential threat.}, language = {en} } @article{KopfDreslerReichertsetal.2013, author = {Kopf, Juliane and Dresler, Thomas and Reicherts, Philipp and Herrmann, Martin J. and Reif, Andreas}, title = {The Effect of Emotional Content on Brain Activation and the Late Positive Potential in a Word n-back Task}, series = {PLoS ONE}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0075598}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-96687}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Introduction There is mounting evidence for the influence of emotional content on working memory performance. This is particularly important in light of the emotion processing that needs to take place when emotional content interferes with executive functions. In this study, we used emotional words of different valence but with similar arousal levels in an n-back task. Methods We examined the effects on activation in the prefrontal cortex by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and on the late positive potential (LPP). FNIRS and LPP data were examined in 30 healthy subjects. Results Behavioral results show an influence of valence on the error rate depending on the difficulty of the task: more errors were made when the valence was negative and the task difficult. Brain activation was dependent both on the difficulty of the task and on the valence: negative valence of a word diminished the increase in activation, whereas positive valence did not influence the increase in activation, while difficulty levels increased. The LPP also differentiated between the different valences, and in addition was influenced by the task difficulty, the more difficult the task, the less differentiation could be observed. Conclusions Summarized, this study shows the influence of valence on a verbal working memory task. When a word contained a negative valence, the emotional content seemed to take precedence in contrast to words containing a positive valence. Working memory and emotion processing sites seemed to overlap and compete for resources even when words are carriers of the emotional content.}, language = {en} } @article{WieserMoscovitch2015, author = {Wieser, Matthias J. and Moscovitch, David A.}, title = {The effect of affective context on visuocortical processing of neutral faces in social anxiety - An ERP study}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01824}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125148}, pages = {1824}, year = {2015}, abstract = {It has been demonstrated that verbal context information alters the neural processing of ambiguous faces such as faces with no apparent facial expression. In social anxiety, neutral faces may be implicitly threatening for socially anxious individuals due to their ambiguous nature, but even more so if these neutral faces are put in self-referential negative contexts. Therefore, we measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in response to neutral faces which were preceded by affective verbal information (negative, neutral, positive). Participants with low social anxiety (LSA; n = 23) and high social anxiety (HSA; n = 21) were asked to watch and rate valence and arousal of the respective faces while continuous EEG was recorded. ERP analysis revealed that HSA showed elevated P100 amplitudes in response to faces, but reduced structural encoding of faces as indexed by reduced N170 amplitudes. In general, affective context led to an enhanced early posterior negativity (EPN) for negative compared to neutral facial expressions. Moreover, HSA compared to LSA showed enhanced late positive potentials (LPP) to negatively contextualized faces, whereas in LSA this effect was found for faces in positive contexts. Also, HSA rated faces in negative contexts as more negative compared to LSA. These results point at enhanced vigilance for neutral faces regardless of context in HSA, while structural encoding seems to be diminished (avoidance). Interestingly, later components of sustained processing (LPP) indicate that LSA show enhanced visuocortical processing for faces in positive contexts (happy bias), whereas this seems to be the case for negatively contextualized faces in HSA (threat bias). Finally, our results add further new evidence that top-down information in interaction with individual anxiety levels can influence early-stage aspects of visual perception.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Zuern2015, author = {Z{\"u}rn, Michael}, title = {The Dual Nature of Utility - Categorical and Comparative Evaluations in Economic Decisions}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-120141}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Utility is perhaps the most central concept in modern economic theorizing. However, the behaviorist reduction to Revealed Preference not only removed the psychological content of utility but experimental investigations also exposed numerous anomalies in this theory. This program of research focused on the psychological processes by which utility judgments are generated. For this purpose, the standard assumption of a homogeneous concept is substituted by the Utilitarian Duality Hypothesis. In particular, judgments concerning categorical utility (uCat) infer an object's category based on its attributes which may subsequently allow the transfer of evaluative information like feelings or attitudes. In contrast, comparative utility (uCom) depends on the distance to a reference value on a specific dimension of comparison. Importantly, dimensions of comparison are manifold and context dependent. In a series of experiments, we show that the resulting Dual Utility Model is able to explain several known anomalies in a parsimonious fashion. Moreover, we identify central factors determining the relative weight assigned to both utility components. Finally, we discuss the implications of the Utilitarian Duality for both, the experimental practice in economics as well as the consequences for economic theorizing. In sum, we propose that the Dual Utility Model can serve as an integrative framework for both the rational model and its anomalies.}, subject = {Nutzen}, language = {en} } @article{HaufNiedingSeger2020, author = {Hauf, Juliane E. K. and Nieding, Gerhild and Seger, Benedikt T.}, title = {The development of dynamic perceptual simulations during sentence comprehension}, series = {Cognitive Processing}, volume = {21}, journal = {Cognitive Processing}, number = {2}, doi = {10.1007/s10339-020-00959-7}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-283665}, pages = {197-208}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Based on an embodied account of language comprehension, this study investigated the dynamic characteristics of children and adults' perceptual simulations during sentence comprehension, using a novel paradigm to assess the perceptual simulation of objects moving up and down a vertical axis. The participants comprised adults (N = 40) and 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children (N = 116). After listening in experimental trials to sentences implying that objects moved upward or downward, the participants were shown pictures and had to decide as quickly as possible whether the objects depicted had been mentioned in the sentences. The target pictures moved either up or down and then stopped in the middle of the screen. All age groups' reaction times were found to be shorter when the objects moved in the directions that the sentences implied. Age exerted no developmental effect on reaction times. The findings suggest that dynamic perceptual simulations are fundamental to language comprehension in text recipients aged 6 and older.}, language = {en} } @article{JinAllisonKaufmannetal.2012, author = {Jin, Jing and Allison, Brendan Z. and Kaufmann, Tobias and K{\"u}bler, Andrea and Zhang, Yu and Wang, Xingyu and Cichocki, Andrzej}, title = {The Changing Face of P300 BCIs: A Comparison of Stimulus Changes in a P300 BCI Involving Faces, Emotion, and Movement}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0049688}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-134173}, pages = {e49688}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Background: One of the most common types of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) is called a P300 BCI, since it relies on the P300 and other event-related potentials (ERPs). In the canonical P300 BCI approach, items on a monitor flash briefly to elicit the necessary ERPs. Very recent work has shown that this approach may yield lower performance than alternate paradigms in which the items do not flash but instead change in other ways, such as moving, changing colour or changing to characters overlaid with faces. Methodology/Principal Findings: The present study sought to extend this research direction by parametrically comparing different ways to change items in a P300 BCI. Healthy subjects used a P300 BCI across six different conditions. Three conditions were similar to our prior work, providing the first direct comparison of characters flashing, moving, and changing to faces. Three new conditions also explored facial motion and emotional expression. The six conditions were compared across objective measures such as classification accuracy and bit rate as well as subjective measures such as perceived difficulty. In line with recent studies, our results indicated that the character flash condition resulted in the lowest accuracy and bit rate. All four face conditions (mean accuracy >91\%) yielded significantly better performance than the flash condition (mean accuracy = 75\%). Conclusions/Significance: Objective results reaffirmed that the face paradigm is superior to the canonical flash approach that has dominated P300 BCIs for over 20 years. The subjective reports indicated that the conditions that yielded better performance were not considered especially burdensome. Therefore, although further work is needed to identify which face paradigm is best, it is clear that the canonical flash approach should be replaced with a face paradigm when aiming at increasing bit rate. However, the face paradigm has to be further explored with practical applications particularly with locked-in patients.}, language = {en} } @article{BorkowskiSchneiderPressley1989, author = {Borkowski, John G. and Schneider, Wolfgang and Pressley, Michael}, title = {The challenges of teaching good information processing to learning disabled students}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-62117}, year = {1989}, abstract = {A MODEL of good information processing is sketched, describing how metacognitive knowledge influences strategy selection and use. Three factors pose particular problems for learning disabled students as they attempt to acquire metacognitive knowledge and to use study strategies productively: neurological impairments; deficiencies in general world knowledge; and negative beliefs, attitudes, and styles that limit self-efficacy. Creating an educational atmosphere that explicitly builds conceptual (domain-specific) knowledge and teaches positive beliefs about learning potential is essential in promoting metacognitively-oriented instruction.}, subject = {Psychologie}, language = {en} } @unpublished{HaendelSchoelvinck2019, author = {H{\"a}ndel, Barbara and Sch{\"o}lvinck, Marieke}, title = {The brain during free movement - what can we learn from the animal model}, series = {Brain Research}, journal = {Brain Research}, edition = {accepted manuscript}, doi = {10.1016/j.brainres.2017.09.003}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-251406}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Animals, just like humans, can freely move. They do so for various important reasons, such as finding food and escaping predators. Observing these behaviors can inform us about the underlying cognitive processes. In addition, while humans can convey complicated information easily through speaking, animals need to move their bodies to communicate. This has prompted many creative solutions by animal neuroscientists to enable studying the brain during movement. In this review, we first summarize how animal researchers record from the brain while an animal is moving, by describing the most common neural recording techniques in animals and how they were adapted to record during movement. We further discuss the challenge of controlling or monitoring sensory input during free movement. However, not only is free movement a necessity to reflect the outcome of certain internal cognitive processes in animals, it is also a fascinating field of research since certain crucial behavioral patterns can only be observed and studied during free movement. Therefore, in a second part of the review, we focus on some key findings in animal research that specifically address the interaction between free movement and brain activity. First, focusing on walking as a fundamental form of free movement, we discuss how important such intentional movements are for understanding processes as diverse as spatial navigation, active sensing, and complex motor planning. Second, we propose the idea of regarding free movement as the expression of a behavioral state. This view can help to understand the general influence of movement on brain function. Together, the technological advancements towards recording from the brain during movement, and the scientific questions asked about the brain engaged in movement, make animal research highly valuable to research into the human "moving brain".}, language = {en} } @article{MuenchowMengelkampBannert2017, author = {M{\"u}nchow, Hannes and Mengelkamp, Christoph and Bannert, Maria}, title = {The better you feel the better you learn: do warm colours and rounded shapes enhance learning outcome in multimedia learning?}, series = {Education Research International}, volume = {2017}, journal = {Education Research International}, doi = {10.1155/2017/2148139}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-158566}, pages = {2148139}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The aim of the present study was to examine whether fostering positive activating affect during multimedia learning enhances learning outcome. University students were randomly assigned to either a multimedia learning environment designed to induce positive activating affect through the use of "warm" colours and rounded shapes () or an affectively neutral environment that used achromatic colours and sharp edges (). Participants learned about the topic of functional neuroanatomy for 20 minutes and had to answer several questions for comprehension and transfer afterwards. Affective states as well as achievement goal orientations were investigated before and after the learning phase using questionnaires. The results show that participants in the affectively positive environment were superior in comprehension as well as transfer when initial affect was strong. Preexperimental positive affect was therefore a predictor of comprehension and a moderator for transfer. Goal orientations did not influence these effects. The findings support the idea that positive affect, induced through the design of the particular multimedia learning environment, can facilitate performance if initial affective states are taken into account.}, language = {en} } @article{BellingerWehrmannRohdeetal.2023, author = {Bellinger, Daniel and Wehrmann, Kristin and Rohde, Anna and Schuppert, Maria and St{\"o}rk, Stefan and Flohr-Jost, Michael and Gall, Dominik and Pauli, Paul and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Herrmann, Martin J. and Erhardt-Lehmann, Angelika}, title = {The application of virtual reality exposure versus relaxation training in music performance anxiety: a randomized controlled study}, series = {BMC Psychiatry}, volume = {23}, journal = {BMC Psychiatry}, doi = {10.1186/s12888-023-05040-z}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-357833}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Background Performance anxiety is the most frequently reported anxiety disorder among professional musicians. Typical symptoms are - on a physical level - the consequences of an increase in sympathetic tone with cardiac stress, such as acceleration of heartbeat, increase in blood pressure, increased respiratory rate and tremor up to nausea or flush reactions. These symptoms can cause emotional distress, a reduced musical and artistical performance up to an impaired functioning. While anxiety disorders are preferably treated using cognitive-behavioral therapy with exposure, this approach is rather difficult for treating music performance anxiety since the presence of a public or professional jury is required and not easily available. The use of virtual reality (VR) could therefore display an alternative. So far, no therapy studies on music performance anxiety applying virtual reality exposure therapy have investigated the therapy outcome including cardiovascular changes as outcome parameters. Methods This mono-center, prospective, randomized and controlled clinical trial has a pre-post design with a follow-up period of 6 months. 46 professional and semi-professional musicians will be recruited and allocated randomly to an VR exposure group or a control group receiving progressive muscle relaxation training. Both groups will be treated over 4 single sessions. Music performance anxiety will be diagnosed based on a clinical interview using ICD-10 and DSM-5 criteria for specific phobia or social anxiety. A behavioral assessment test is conducted three times (pre, post, follow-up) in VR through an audition in a concert hall. Primary outcomes are the changes in music performance anxiety measured by the German B{\"u}hnenangstfragebogen and the cardiovascular reactivity reflected by heart rate variability (HRV). Secondary outcomes are changes in blood pressure, stress parameters such as cortisol in the blood and saliva, neuropeptides, and DNA-methylation. Discussion The trial investigates the effect of VR exposure in musicians with performance anxiety compared to a relaxation technique on anxiety symptoms and corresponding cardiovascular parameters. We expect a reduction of anxiety but also a consecutive improvement of HRV with cardiovascular protective effects. Trial registration This study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov. (ClinicalTrials.gov Number: NCT05735860)}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Genheimer2020, author = {Genheimer, Hannah}, title = {The acquisition of anxiety and the impact of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on extinction learning in virtual contexts}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-20639}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-206390}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {This thesis aims for a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying anxiety as well as trauma- and stressor-related disorders and the development of new therapeutic approaches. I was first interested in the associative learning mechanisms involved in the etiology of anxiety disorders. Second, I explored the therapeutic effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) as a promising new method to accelerate and stabilize extinction learning in humans. For these purposes, I applied differential anxiety conditioning protocols realized by the implementation of virtual reality (VR). Here, a formerly neutral virtual context (anxiety context, CTX+) is presented whereby the participants unpredictably receive mildly aversive electric stimuli (unconditioned stimulus, US). Another virtual context (safety context, CTX-) is never associated with the US. Moreover, extinction of conditioned anxiety can be modeled by presenting the same contexts without US delivery. When unannounced USs were administered after extinction, i.e. reinstatement, the strength of the "returned" conditioned anxiety can provide information on the stability of the extinction memory. In Study 1, I disentangled the role of elemental and conjunctive context representations in the acquisition of conditioned anxiety. Sequential screenshots of two virtual offices were presented like a flip-book so that I elicited the impression of walking through the contexts. Some pictures of CTX+ were paired with an US (threat elements), but not some other screenshots of the same context (non-threat elements), nor the screenshots depicting CTX- (safety elements). Higher contingency ratings for threat compared to non-threat elements revealed elemental representation. Electro-cortical responses showed larger P100 and early posterior negativity amplitudes elicited by screenshots depicting CTX+ compared to CTX- and suggested conjunctive representation. These results support the dual context representation in anxiety acquisition in healthy individuals. Study 2 addressed the effects of tVNS on the stabilization of extinction learning by using a context conditioning paradigm. Potentiated startle responses as well as higher aversive ratings in CTX+ compared to CTX- indicate successful anxiety conditioning. Complete extinction was found in startle responses and valence ratings as no differentiation between CTX+ and CTX- suggested. TVNS did not affect extinction or reinstatement of anxiety which may be related to the inappropriate transferability of successful stimulation parameters from epilepsy patients to healthy participants during anxiety extinction. Therefore, in Study 3 I wanted to replicate the modulatory effects of tVNS on heart rate and pain perception by the previously used parameters. However, no effects of tVNS were observed on subjective pain ratings, on pain tolerance, or on heart rate. This led to the conclusion that the modification of stimulation parameters is necessary for a successful acceleration of anxiety extinction in humans. In Study 4, I prolonged the tVNS and, considering previous tVNS studies, I applied a cue conditioning paradigm in VR. Therefore, during acquisition a cue (CS+) presented in CTX+ predicted the US, but not another cue (CS-). Both cues were presented in a second context (CTX-) and never paired with the US. Afterward, participants received either tVNS or sham stimulation and underwent extinction learning. I found context-dependent cue conditioning only in valence ratings, which was indicated by lower valence for CS+ compared to CS- in CTX+, but no differential ratings in CTX-. Successful extinction was indicated by equal responses to CS+ and CS-. Interestingly, I found reinstatement of conditioned fear in a context-dependent manner, meaning startle response was potentiated for CS+ compared to CS- only in the anxiety context. Importantly, even the prolonged tVNS had no effect, neither on extinction nor on reinstatement of context-dependent cue conditioning. However, I found first evidence for accelerated physiological contextual extinction due to less differentiation between startles in CTX+ compared to CTX- in the tVNS than in the sham stimulated group. In sum, this thesis first confirms the dual representation of a context in an elemental and a conjunctive manner. Second, though anxiety conditioning and context-dependent cue conditioning paradigms worked well, the translation of tVNS accelerated extinction from rats to humans needs to be further developed, especially the stimulation parameters. Nevertheless, tVNS remains a very promising approach of memory enhancement, which can be particularly auspicious in clinical settings.}, subject = {Angst}, language = {en} } @article{GressmannJanczyk2016, author = {Gressmann, Marcel and Janczyk, Markus}, title = {The (Un)Clear Effects of Invalid Retro-Cues}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {7}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {244}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00244}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-165296}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Studies with the retro-cue paradigm have shown that validly cueing objects in visual working memory long after encoding can still benefit performance on subsequent change detection tasks. With regard to the effects of invalid cues, the literature is less clear. Some studies reported costs, others did not. We here revisit two recent studies that made interesting suggestions concerning invalid retro-cues: One study suggested that costs only occur for larger set sizes, and another study suggested that inclusion of invalid retro-cues diminishes the retro-cue benefit. New data from one experiment and a reanalysis of published data are provided to address these conclusions. The new data clearly show costs (and benefits) that were independent of set size, and the reanalysis suggests no influence of the inclusion of invalid retro-cues on the retro-cue benefit. Thus, previous interpretations may be taken with some caution at present.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{TuerkPereira2010, author = {T{\"u}rk Pereira, Philippe}, title = {Testing the sour-grapes effect - how food deprivation and reward expectancy change implicit and explicit food-liking and food-wanting}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-50591}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2010}, abstract = {The aim of the present thesis was to explore how food deprivation and reward expectancy versus frustrative nonreward change implicit and explicit food-liking and food-wanting. As a result, Experiment 1-3 were successful in revealing that liking- and wanting-related associations toward food stimuli dissociate as a function of food deprivation, given that participants were not rewarded with real food during the experiment. More specifically, whereas food-deprived participants showed more wanting-related associations toward food stimuli than satiated participants, the liking-related associations did not differ across both conditions of hunger. Overall, this effect could be replicated in 3 experiments using different manipulations of nonreward versus reward expectancy. However, neither food deprivation nor nonreward were found to influence participants' self-reported mood and frustration. Moreover, participants of Experiment 2 anticipating food consumption showed the same liking- and wanting-related responses due to food deprivation than participants in the nonreward condition. But providing participants with individual control over food consumption abolished the dissociation of liking- and wanting-related associations. In this condition, however, participants' liking- and wanting-related associations were not moderated by need state, maybe due to the (partial) consumption of snack food before the implicit attitude assessment. This, in turn, may have reduced participants' disposition to respond with more liking- and wanting-related associations when being hungry. Finally, Experiment 4 revealed that the presentation of need-relevant vs. need-irrelevant stimuli prompted different liking-related associations depending on the time participants had fasted before the experiment. Specifically, it could be demonstrated that whereas moderately-hungry compared to satiated participants responded with more positive associations toward need-relevant stimuli, 15 hours food-deprived participants responded with more negative associations compared to moderately-hungry and satiated participants. Respectively, a significant curvilinear function of need state was obtained. In addition, participants were found to immediately respond more negatively to need-irrelevant stimuli as soon as they became moderately hungry, evidencing devaluation effects (see Brendl, Markman, \& Messner, 2003) to also occur on an implicit level of responding. Contrary to the implicit liking- and wanting-related evaluations, self-reported explicit food-liking and food-wanting did not dissociate as a function of food deprivation and nonreward, revealing that participants' explicit self-reports of food-liking and food-wanting did not mirror their implicit responses. As the most important result, it could be demonstrated that explicit food-liking and food-wanting varied positively as a function of need state. The results were discussed on the background of different theoretical assumptions on the malleability of implicit and explicit need-relevant attitudes (e.g. motivational theories, frustrative nonreward).}, subject = {Hunger}, language = {en} } @article{HommersLewandEhrmann2012, author = {Hommers, Wilfried and Lewand, Martin and Ehrmann, Dominic}, title = {Testing the moral algebra of two Kohlbergian informers}, series = {Ps{\´i}cologica}, volume = {33}, journal = {Ps{\´i}cologica}, number = {3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-133917}, pages = {515-532}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This paper seeks to unify two major theories of moral judgment: Kohlberg's stage theory and Anderson's moral information integration theory. Subjects were told about thoughts of actors in Kohlberg's classic altruistic Heinz dilemma and in a new egoistical dilemma. These actors's thoughts represented Kohlberg's stages I (Personal Risk) and IV (Societal Risk) and had three levels, High, Medium, and Low. They were presented singly and in a 3 x 3 integration design. Subjects judged how many months of prison the actor deserved. The data supported the averaging model of moral integration theory, whereas Kohlberg's theory has no way to handle the integration problem. Following this, subjects ranked statements related to Kohlberg's first four stages in a procedure similar to that of Rest (1975). Higher score went with larger effect of Societal Risk as predicted by Kohlberg's theory. But contrary to Kohlberg's theory, no age trends were found. Also strongly contrary to Kohlberg's theory, effects of Personal Risk (Stage I) and Societal Risk (Stage IV) correlated positively.}, language = {en} } @article{MuthWirthKunde2021, author = {Muth, Felicitas V. and Wirth, Robert and Kunde, Winfried}, title = {Temporal binding past the Libet clock: testing design factors for an auditory timer}, series = {Behavior Research Methods}, volume = {53}, journal = {Behavior Research Methods}, number = {3}, doi = {10.3758/s13428-020-01474-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-234922}, pages = {1322-1341}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Voluntary actions and causally linked sensory stimuli are perceived to be shifted towards each other in time. This so-called temporal binding is commonly assessed in paradigms using the Libet Clock. In such experiments, participants have to estimate the timing of actions performed or ensuing sensory stimuli (usually tones) by means of a rotating clock hand presented on a screen. The aforementioned task setup is however ill-suited for many conceivable setups, especially when they involve visual effects. To address this shortcoming, the line of research presented here establishes an alternative measure for temporal binding by using a sequence of timed sounds. This method uses an auditory timer, a sequence of letters presented during task execution, which serve as anchors for temporal judgments. In four experiments, we manipulated four design factors of this auditory timer, namely interval length, interval filling, sequence predictability, and sequence length, to determine the most effective and economic method for measuring temporal binding with an auditory timer.}, language = {en} } @article{KlaffehnSellmannKirschetal.2021, author = {Klaffehn, Annika L. and Sellmann, Florian B. and Kirsch, Wladimir and Kunde, Wilfried and Pfister, Roland}, title = {Temporal binding as multisensory integration: Manipulating perceptual certainty of actions and their effects}, series = {Attention, Perception \& Psychophysics}, volume = {83}, journal = {Attention, Perception \& Psychophysics}, number = {8}, issn = {1943-393X}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-021-02314-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-273195}, pages = {3135-3145}, year = {2021}, abstract = {It has been proposed that statistical integration of multisensory cues may be a suitable framework to explain temporal binding, that is, the finding that causally related events such as an action and its effect are perceived to be shifted towards each other in time. A multisensory approach to temporal binding construes actions and effects as individual sensory signals, which are each perceived with a specific temporal precision. When they are integrated into one multimodal event, like an action-effect chain, the extent to which they affect this event's perception depends on their relative reliability. We test whether this assumption holds true in a temporal binding task by manipulating certainty of actions and effects. Two experiments suggest that a relatively uncertain sensory signal in such action-effect sequences is shifted more towards its counterpart than a relatively certain one. This was especially pronounced for temporal binding of the action towards its effect but could also be shown for effect binding. Other conceptual approaches to temporal binding cannot easily explain these results, and the study therefore adds to the growing body of evidence endorsing a multisensory approach to temporal binding.}, language = {en} } @article{MockeWellerFringsetal.2020, author = {Mocke, Viola and Weller, Lisa and Frings, Christian and Rothermund, Klaus and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Task relevance determines binding of effect features in action planning}, series = {Attention, Perception, \& Psychophysics}, volume = {82}, journal = {Attention, Perception, \& Psychophysics}, issn = {1943-3921}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-020-02123-x}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-231906}, pages = {3811-3831}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Action planning can be construed as the temporary binding of features of perceptual action effects. While previous research demonstrated binding for task-relevant, body-related effect features, the role of task-irrelevant or environment-related effect features in action planning is less clear. Here, we studied whether task-relevance or body-relatedness determines feature binding in action planning. Participants planned an action A, but before executing it initiated an intermediate action B. Each action relied on a body-related effect feature (index vs. middle finger movement) and an environment-related effect feature (cursor movement towards vs. away from a reference object). In Experiments 1 and 2, both effects were task-relevant. Performance in action B suffered from partial feature overlap with action A compared to full feature repetition or alternation, which is in line with binding of both features while planning action A. Importantly, this cost disappeared when all features were available but only body-related features were task-relevant (Experiment 3). When only the environment-related effect of action A was known in advance, action B benefitted when it aimed at the same (vs. a different) environment-related effect (Experiment 4). Consequently, the present results support the idea that task relevance determines whether binding of body-related and environment-related effect features takes place while the pre-activation of environment-related features without binding them primes feature-overlapping actions.}, language = {en} } @article{ErlbeckKueblerKotchoubeyetal.2014, author = {Erlbeck, Helena and K{\"u}bler, Andrea and Kotchoubey, Boris and Veser, Sandra}, title = {Task instructions modulate the attentional mode affecting the auditory MMN and the semantic N400}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, number = {654}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2014.00654}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115553}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been proven to be a useful tool to complement clinical assessment and to detect residual cognitive functions in patients with disorders of consciousness. These ERPs are of ten recorded using passive or unspecific instructions. Patient data obtained this way are then compared to data from healthy participants, which are usually recorded using active instructions. The present study investigates the effect of attentive modulations and particularly the effect of activevs. passive instruction on the ERP components mismatch negativity (MMN) and N400. A sample of 18 healthy participants listened to three auditory paradigms: anoddball, aword priming, and a sentence paradigm. Each paradigm was presented three times with different instructions: ignoring auditory stimuli, passive listening, and focused attention on the auditory stimuli. After each task, the participants indicated their subjective effort. The N400 decreased from the focused task to the passive task, and was extinct in the ignore task. The MMN exhibited higher amplitudes in the focused and passive task compared to the ignore task. The data indicate an effect of attention on the supratemporal component of the MMN. Subjective effort was equally high in the passive and focused tasks but reduced in the ignore task. We conclude that passive listening during EEG recording is stressful and attenuates ERPs, which renders the interpretation of the results obtained in such conditions difficult.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Forster2023, author = {Forster, Andr{\´e}}, title = {Targeting Temporally Stable Vulnerability Factors in the Prediction of Long-Term Courses of Depression: Diagnostic Considerations and Therapeutic Protocols Based on Transcranial Ultrasonic Neuromodulation of Endophenotypes}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-27906}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-279065}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Depressive disorders represent one of the main sources for the loss of healthy years of life. One of the reasons for this circumstance is the recurrent course of these disorders, which can be interrupted by current therapeutic approaches, especially in the shortterm, but seem to be maintained at least in part in the long-term. Subsequently, on one hand, this thesis deals with methodological measurement issues in the longitudinal prediction of depressive courses. On the other hand, it addresses two currently discussed neuroscience-based treatment approaches, which are investigated experimentally in a basic-psychological manner and reviewed in the light of their potential to translate results to the application in patient care. These two approaches each address potential mechanisms that may negatively impact long-term disease trajectories: First, stable endophenotypes for vulnerability factors that could regain control over the organism and reactivate maladaptive experiences, or behaviors with increasing temporal distance from therapeutic methods are focused on. In the studies presented, these were influenced by a recently rediscovered method of neuromodulation (transcranial low-intensity focused ultrasound) which is discussed in light of its unique capability to address even deepest, subcortical regions at a high spatial resolution. Lastly, as a second approach, an experimental design for the use of reconsolidation interference is presented, which could provide a first insight into the applicability of corresponding protocols in the field of depressive disorders and thus contribute to the modification, instead of inhibition, of already mentioned endophenotypes. In sum, methodological considerations for monitoring and predicting long-term courses of depression are deducted before two approaches are discussed that could potentially exert positive influences on the recurrent nature of depressive symptoms on their own, in combination with each other, or as augmentation for existing therapeutic procedures.}, subject = {Depression}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Fleischmann2023, author = {Fleischmann, Lorena}, title = {Talent Development in Academic Domains: A Follow-Up of Former Junior Students at Julius-Maximilians-Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-30281}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-302814}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The field of giftedness and gifted education has long been characterized by internal fragmentation and inconsistent definitions of core concepts (e.g., Ambrose et al., 2010; Coleman, 2006; McBee et al., 2012). It was only in recent years that increased efforts have been made to organize available research findings and thereby bring back greater uniformity to the field of giftedness and gifted education. For example, Preckel et al.'s (2020) Talent Development in Achievement Domains (TAD) framework integrates theoretical perspectives and empirical knowledge from different parts of the field. It is general in concept and can be applied to a wide range of achievement domains. By specifically focusing on measurable psychological constructs as well as their relevance at different stages of the talent development process, Preckel et al.'s (2020) TAD framework is well suited as a starting point for generating more domain-specific talent development models. The present thesis represents one of the first attempts to empirically test the validity of Preckel et al.'s (2020) TAD framework in academic domains using longitudinal data. The longitudinal data came from a sample of former junior students at Julius-Maximilians-Universit{\"a}t (JMU) W{\"u}rzburg who showed high academic achievement potential. There were two related research issues: Research Issue 1 first aimed to document in detail how the educational trajectories of former junior students unfold in the years following their Abitur. To this end, a follow-up was conducted among 208 young adults who had participated in the junior study program at JMU W{\"u}rzburg between the winter semester of 2004/2005 and the summer semester of 2011. The design of the follow-up questionnaire was based on a series of research questions that had emerged from the relevant literature on junior study programs in Germany. The follow-up ran from October 2019 to February 2020. The data were analyzed descriptively and documented as a detailed report. The results of Research Issue 1 revealed that the former junior students continued to be academically (and later professionally) successful long after their school years. For example, at the time of the follow-up, almost all former junior students had earned a bachelor's and a master's degree, most often with notable academic successes (e.g., scholarships, awards/prizes). In addition, more than half of those who responded had begun or already completed a doctoral degree, also recording special academic accomplishments (e.g., scientific publications, scholarships). A significant proportion of the former junior students had already entered the workforce at the time of their response. A look at their current professional situation revealed an above-average expression of success indicators (e.g., income, professional status). The clear majority of the former junior students reported that, even in retrospect, they would choose to take part in the junior study program at JMU W{\"u}rzburg again. Research Issue 2 aimed to determine the extent to which the structure of Preckel et al.'s (2020) TAD framework could be empirically validated in academic domains. The educational trajectories of 84 former junior students at JMU W{\"u}rzburg who had chosen a subject from the same subject field in their regular studies as in their junior studies served as the data basis. The educational trajectories were compiled from the former junior students' follow-up data and from their data on the selection process for the junior study program at JMU W{\"u}rzburg. Combining the structural assumptions of Preckel et al.'s (2020) TAD framework with relevant insights from individual academic disciplines made it possible to derive hypotheses regarding potential predictors and indicators of the talent development stages aptitude, competence, and expertise in academic domains. Structural equation models were used for data analysis. The results of Research Issue 2 suggested that the talent development stages aptitude, competence, and expertise, while being predictive of each other in their chronological order, could be satisfactorily modeled using framework-compliant indicators in academic domains. In comparison, the talent development stage transformational achievement could not (yet) be modeled based on the longitudinal data. Among the hypothesized predictors, former junior students' investigative interests and their metacognitive abilities reliably determined the talent development stages competence and expertise, whereas the remaining predictors did not make significant contributions. Taken together, the results of the present thesis suggest that the validity of Preckel et al.'s (2020) TAD framework can only be partially confirmed in academic domains. Unlike the postulated indicators, the predictors in Preckel et al.'s (2020) TAD framework do not seem to be easily generalizable to academic domains but to be highly specific with regard to the talent domain under consideration. Therefore, a natural progression of the present thesis would be to examine the structure of Preckel et al.'s (2020) TAD framework at the subordinate level of subject fields or even at the level of individual academic disciplines, for example.}, subject = {Hochbegabung}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schmidt2014, author = {Schmidt, Barbara}, title = {Taking your chances: risk behavior and its relation to arousal, framing and motivation}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-107149}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Human risk behavior is the subject of growing research in the field of psychology as well as economics. One central topic is the influence of psychological variables on risk behavior. Studies contained in this work investigated the impact of arousal, framing and motivation on risk behavior. Arousal can on the one hand be a temporarily stable trait and on the other hand a situation-dependent variable. We showed that low trait arousal, measured via resting heart rate, predicted risky behavior. After physical exercise, state arousal was heightened in the experiment. Participants tended to act less risky after physical exercise. Taken together, the results suggest an inverse relation of arousal and risk behavior. Most studies investigating risk behavior employ a payment method that we call pay-one method: although the gambles that are used consist of many trials, only one trial is paid out. We investigated the effect of the payment method on risk behavior by employing both the pay-one and a pay-all method, which pays out all trials, in a within-subjects design. We found that participants acted about 10\% less risky in the pay-one condition compared to the pay-all condition. This result suggests that risk-aversion is over-estimated in common risk paradigms that use the pay-one method. When we worked on a hard task before, we like to engage in a more likable task afterwards. That observation led to the general classification of tasks in want-to and have-to tasks. Our body system strives towards a balance between those two task types in the sense of a homeostasis. We assessed event-related potentials (ERPs) in a risk game that we treated as a want-to task. When participants worked on a difficult have-to task before, amplitudes of the ERP-components in the risk game were raised compared to a condition where participants worked on an easy task before. We conclude that the motivation shift towards a want-to task after a have-to task can be assessed via ERP amplitudes. In conclusion, it was shown that arousal, framing and motivation are important psychological variables that influence risk behavior. The specific mechanisms of these influences have been investigated and discussed.}, subject = {Risikoverhalten}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Holz2015, author = {Holz, Elisa Mira}, title = {Systematic evaluation of non-invasive brain-computer interfaces as assistive devices for persons with severe motor impairment based on a user-centred approach - in controlled settings and independent use}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-126334}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are devices that translate signals from the brain into control commands for applications. Within the last twenty years, BCI applications have been developed for communication, environmental control, entertainment, and substitution of motor functions. Since BCIs provide muscle independent communication and control of the environment by circumventing motor pathways, they are considered as assistive technologies for persons with neurological and neurodegenerative diseases leading to motor paralysis, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy and stroke (K{\"u}bler, Kotchoubey, Kaiser, Wolpaw, \& Birbaumer, 2001). Although most researcher mention persons with severe motor impairment as target group for their BCI systems, most studies include healthy participants and studies including potential BCI end-users are sparse. Thus, there is a substantial lack of studies that investigate whether results obtained in healthy participants can be transferred to patients with neurodegenerative diseases. This clearly shows that BCI research faces a translational gap between intense BCI research and bringing BCI applications to end-users outside the lab (K{\"u}bler, Mattia, Rupp, \& Tangermann, 2013). Translational studies are needed that investigate whether BCIs can be successfully used by severely disabled end-users and whether those end-users would accept BCIs as assistive devices. Another obvious discrepancy exists between a plethora of short-term studies and a sparse number of long-term studies. BCI research thus also faces a reliability gap (K{\"u}bler, Mattia, et al., 2013). Most studies present only one BCI session, however the few studies that include several testing sessions indicate high inter- and intra-individual variance in the end-users' performance due to non-stationarity of signals. Long-term studies, however, are needed to demonstrate whether a BCI can be reliably used as assistive device over a longer period of time in the daily-life of a person. Therefore there is also a great need for reliability studies. The purpose of the present thesis was to address these research gaps and to bring BCIs closer to end-users in need, especially into their daily-lives, following a user-centred design (UCD). The UCD was suggested as theoretical framework for bringing BCIs to end-users by K{\"u}bler and colleagues (K{\"u}bler et al., 2014; Zickler et al., 2011). This approach aims at the close and iterative interaction between BCI developers and end-users with the final goal to develop BCI systems that are accepted as assistive devices by end-users. The UCD focuses on usability, that is, how well a BCI technology matches the purpose and meets the needs and requirements of the targeted end-users and was standardized with the ISO 9241-210. Within the UCD framework, usability of a device can be defined with regard to its effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. These aspects were operationalized by K{\"u}bler and colleagues to evaluate BCI-controlled applications. As suggested by Vaughan and colleagues, the number of BCI sessions, the total usage duration and the impact of the BCI on the life of the person can be considered as indicators of usefulness of the BCI in long-term daily-life use (Vaughan, Sellers, \& Wolpaw, 2012). These definitions and metrics for usability and usefulness were applied for evaluating BCI applications as assistive devices in controlled settings and independent use. Three different BCI applications were tested and evaluated by in total N=10 end-users: In study 1 a motor-imagery (MI) based BCI for gaming was tested by four end-users with severe motor impairment. In study 2, a hybrid P300 event-related (ERP) based BCI for communication was tested by four severely motor restricted end-users with severe motor impairment. Study 1 and 2 are short-term studies conducted in a controlled-setting. In study 3 a P300-ERP BCI for creative expression was installed for long-term independent use at the homes of two end-users in the locked-in state. Both end-users are artists who had gradually lost the ability to paint after being diagnosed with ALS. Results reveal that BCI controlled devices are accepted as assistive devices. Main obstacles for daily-life use were the not very aesthetic design of the EEG-cap and electrodes (cap is eye-catching and looks medical), low comfort (cables disturb, immobility, electrodes press against head if lying on a head cushion), complicated and time-consuming adjustment, low efficiency and low effectiveness, and not very high reliability (many influencing factors). While effectiveness and efficiency in the MI based BCI were lower compared to applications using the P300-ERP as input channel, the MI controlled gaming application was nevertheless better accepted by the end-users and end-users would rather like to use it compared to the communication applications. Thus, malfunctioning and errors, low speed, and the EEG cap are rather tolerated in gaming applications, compared to communication devices. Since communication is essential for daily-life, it has to be fast and reliable. BCIs for communication, at the current state of the art, are not considered competitive with other assistive devices, if other devices, such as eye-gaze, are still an option. However BCIs might be an option when controlling an application for entertainment in daily-life, if communication is still available. Results demonstrate that BCI is adopted in daily-life if it matches the end-users needs and requirements. Brain Painting serves as best representative, as it matches the artists' need for creative expression. Caveats such as uncomfortable cap, dependence on others for set-up, and experienced low control are tolerated and do not prevent BCI use on a daily basis. Also end-users in real need of means for communication, such as persons in the locked-in state with unreliable eye-movement or no means for independent communication, do accept obstacles of the BCI, as it is the last or only solution to communicate or control devices. Thus, these aspects are "no real obstacles" but rather "challenges" that do not prevent end-users to use the BCI in their daily-lives. For instance, one end-user, who uses a BCI in her daily-life, stated: "I don't care about aesthetic design of EEG cap and electrodes nor amplifier". Thus, the question is not which system is superior to the other, but which system is best for an individual user with specific symptoms, needs, requirements, existing assistive solutions, support by caregivers/family etc.; it is thereby a question of indication. These factors seem to be better "predictors" for adoption of a BCI in daily-life, than common usability criterions such as effectiveness or efficiency. The face valid measures of daily-life demonstrate that BCI-controlled applications can be used in daily-life for more than 3 years, with high satisfaction for the end-users, without experts being present and despite a decrease in the amplitude of the P300 signal. Brain Painting re-enabled both artists to be creatively active in their home environment and thus improved their feelings of happiness, usefulness, self-esteem, well-being, and consequently quality of life and supports social inclusion. This thesis suggests that BCIs are valuable tools for people in the locked-in state.}, subject = {Gehirn-Computer-Schnittstelle}, language = {en} } @article{LiesnerKunde2020, author = {Liesner, Marvin and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Suppression of mutually incompatible proprioceptive and visual action effects in tool use}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {15}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0242327}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-231250}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Movements of a tool typically diverge from the movements of the hand manipulating that tool, such as when operating a pivotal lever where tool and hand move in opposite directions. Previous studies suggest that humans are often unaware of the position or movements of their effective body part (mostly the hand) in such situations. It has been suggested that this might be due to a "haptic neglect" of bodily sensations to decrease the interference of representations of body and tool movements. However, in principle this interference could also be decreased by neglecting sensations regarding the tool and focusing instead on body movements. While in most tool use situations the tool-related action effects are task-relevant and thus suppression of body-related rather than tool-related sensations is more beneficial for successful goal achievement, we manipulated this task-relevance in a controlled experiment. The results showed that visual, tool-related effect representations can be suppressed just as proprioceptive, body-related ones in situations where effect representations interfere, given that task-relevance of body-related effects is increased relative to tool-related ones.}, language = {en} } @article{Hommers1983, author = {Hommers, Wilfried}, title = {Subtraktive Hyperkonkavit{\"a}t in der funktionalen Beziehung von zuk{\"u}nftigem Wert und Zeitspanne bis zu seiner Auszahlung: Ein gruppenstatistischer Nachgesang als differentialpsychologischer Auftakt}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-43989}, year = {1983}, abstract = {Ziel der Untersuchung war die Pr{\"u}fung der humanpsychologischen Validit{\"a}t von quantitativen neobehavioristischen Theorie~ {\"u}ber den Zusammenhang von 'Verten und Zeitspannen bis zu ihren Auszahlungen. Der sofort erforderliche Geldbetrag f{\"u}r den Verzicht auf eine zuk{\"u}nftige Geldauszahlung und der erforderliche zuk{\"u}nftige Geldbetrag f{\"u}r den Verzicht auf einen gegenw{\"a}rtig verf{\"u}gbaren Gcldbetrag war unter Variation der Geldbetr{\"a}ge und der Zeitspannen einzusch{\"a}tzen. Als Ergebnis wurde varianzanalytisch unter Ber{\"u}cksichtigung der Utilit{\"a}t des Geldes eine subtraktive Beziehung zwischcn zuk{\"u}nftigem Geldbetrag und der Zeitspanne bis zu seiner Auszahlung bestimmt. In diese subtraktive Beziehung gingen die Geldbetr{\"a}ge und die Zeitspannen als Potenzfunktionen ein. Durch die Potenzfunktion der Zeit verl{\"a}uft daher die Kurve des gegenw{\"a}rtigen Wertes einer zuk{\"u}nftigen Auszahlung konkaver als die e-Funktion, so daß damit Vornahme{\"a}nderungen oder impulsive Reaktionen erkl{\"a}rt wer